Browsing all posts in Photography.

How the Heck Did They Do That?

I’d like to have a little bit of fun today. I’m going to post several photos that I found while wandering through Flickr’s Creative Commons. Each photo’s composition and/or effect is cool, and different, and not immediately obvious how it was achieved. Take a look at each photo, and perhaps formulate a guess on how [...]

Correcting White Balance

Getting the correct white balance in a photo can be tricky. The white balance settings on cameras (auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten light, fluorescent light, etc.) can get you most of the way toward where you need to be, but sometimes the setting of the photo itself makes it tricky to correctly capture the white [...]

Photographing Infants – A Cry For Help

I have to shoot a baby. Okay, that came out wrong. I don’t have to shoot shoot a baby, I have been asked to photograph my friend’s newborn. This request comes in two phases. Phase One will take place in the actual hospital, in the actual birthing room, moments after the baby is born. Phase [...]

Long Exposure – A “Rule of Thumb” Challenge!

I’ve got a back-issue of Popular Photography Magazine sitting here in front of me (February 2009, specifically), which I was idly flipping through while talking on the phone with my husband. The cover title, “Create Magic in 5 Seconds,” caught my eye. I read the article, and decided it would be a fun challenge to [...]

My Dream Photo Studio

When it comes to photography equipment, I’ve had a nasty case of “Want Disease” for just about my entire life. Waaaaaay back in the day, before digital photography, I wanted my own darkroom. An enlarger, developing trays, chemical sinks, black bags, the whole nine yards. I envisioned myself cast in the red glow of the [...]

Add a Signature to your Digital Photos

For finished pieces, I like to add my signature to the final version of a photograph. I have learned an easy and handy way to turn my signature into a brush (in Photoshop CS3, also common to other versions) so that adding it to an image is as easy as a single click. First you [...]

Gems – Black and White

I wanted to share some great black and white photographs that I’ve come across during this week’s perusal of Flickr’s “Creative Commons”. Most of these are from amateur and hobbyist photographers who have a great eye for composition and a natural talent. I’d like to acknowledge these photographers for their creativity. For more incredible black [...]

Five Photography Websites I Rely On

I find myself going back to the same handful of photography-oriented websites on a daily basis. I thought it would be great to share them with you all, and perhaps get some good tips from readers on the photography websites that you rely upon. In no particular order: B&H Photo. This is my go-to source, [...]

Photo vs. Image

Many traditional photographers consider a “photograph” as a picture that has not been retouched or altered in any way, that remains completely unedited in the original version that came straight out of the camera. Whereas an “image” is any type of photograph or picture that has been digitally altered in any way, whether that alteration [...]

Four Ways to Save Your Photos

If you’re like me, you have an innate sense of paranoia when it comes to your digital photo files. A permanent, irreversible hard drive crash and melt-down is up at the top of my List of Things to Fear, along with a house fire or similar event in which my precious memories (and livelihood) are [...]