Do you have a macro lens in your camera bag? If you don’t, is it because you don’t shoot macro photography? If you do, are you limiting the use of the lens? There are several lenses out there that some photographers use only for a specific reason, and a macro lens is one of them which many photographers limits to macro photography. What if I told you the lens has many more uses than just extreme up-close photos which they are known for.
Even when shooting at f/16, not every part of the photo will be in focus. Depending on where you focus is at, there will still be some fall off. What if you wanted to get your entire photo in focus? You can merge multiple exposures where the focus point has been changed to get one photo showing everything in focus. Landscape Photographer Mark Denney shows us how easy it is to merge multiple exposures into one image using Lightroom and Photoshop together. If you do not use Lightroom, you can still achieve the same results only using Photoshop, so don't worry.
In product photography, you always want to capture the product in the best and appealing way. Sometimes you want to take that product and give it a sense of motion or life. If you happen to be shooting with liquids for your products like a martini glass or maybe even for the drink itself, one powerful way to add motion and life to the image is with a splash.
Lately, I have been attending more events to cover as a photographer, especially anime and comic conventions. My approach to most of my convention coverage is walking around the event and trying to take as many photos as possible of the cosplayers there, kind of a run and gun approach. Sometimes the cosplayers are on a tight time frame so I don’t want to take too much of their time, or there is just a lot of things going on and I want to try to capture as much as possible. Some of the cosplayers outfits are just amazing, so it's best to slow it down and take the time to give the cosplay and their outfit justice with the photo. So where do you start?
In the quest to achieve smooth panning shots for cinematographers everywhere, there are several different methods and tools to use. Usually, if you want to do a targeted curved panning shot around your subject, you would have to set up a track and dolly system. With the advancement in drones, you can now use those for outdoor shots, but what if you wanted something that didn’t require as much space and work indoors?
It’s always good to know several different editing techniques to add visual effects to your project, as you will never know when you'll need them. Adding visual effects to your videos can make your amateurish video look more professional, just as long as you don’t go overboard with them. One effect you may have seen before is the glitch effect, in which you purposely cause your frames to mess up to give the look of a technical issue in the film.
Living in Houston, it’s usually very hot and humid here. One of the downfalls is coming from inside a building or the car with AC on cold and then proceeding to go outside to shoot when it's hot outside. Whether it's moving from a cold to warm environment or vice versa, the drastic change in the temperature could cause your camera lenses to fog up. What can you do?
Transitions can be very useful in your video to move between scenes instead of just having the end and inserting the new one. There are several different transitions to use, some are very creative and some involve some great skills behind the computer. There’s a few transitions that can be done all in camera and can help you change them up.
One of the critical things for your camera is to keep the sensor clean. Dust floats around almost everywhere; Once it gets inside your camera it can cause major problems and will cause more work for you in postproduction trying to remove the spots in your photos.
Photographing kids can sometimes be difficult, and even some adults can present challenges during a photoshoot. Shooting animals can present similar challenges along with whole new ones you may not have thought of before. Whether or not the animal is professionally trained to be in front of the camera, you need to be prepared.
As a photographer, you should come to expect Mother Nature isn’t always on your side. Maybe you found the perfect location for a shoot, and when it’s finally set up, the sky isn’t exactly how you want it. Maybe you are just traveling around and taking photos of the beautiful landscape, but the sky leaves more to be desired. What about real estate photography, need to shoot the property at a specific date and time but they want a rich and blue sky with some clouds but there are no clouds in sight.
Adobe Lightroom can be a powerful tool in your photography workflow. There are a lot of features that are included, but as a new user or even someone who has been using it for a while, there might be some useful tricks within Lightroom of which you are still unaware. How many of these are new to you?
Looking to add some color to your shadows? There are a few different methods to achieve this, but what if you could do it all in-camera? Well, you can. Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens covers four different ways to add some color into your shadows with gels.
While shopping the market for a drone, there are many things to consider. Is durability one of them? Well, it should be, but it's not usually taken into account while shopping. Depending on your reasoning for adding a drone to your inventory of gear, you probably are focused on image and video quality combined with flight time.
There’s a lot of things to consider while filming to get smooth footage for your project. There are several tools to help out as well, but are ND filters in your arsenal? They usually don’t come to mind when you are thinking about how to get smooth footage but they can help when the scene is too bright.
We have heard stories of drones being shot down from the sky before, but have you heard of them being attacked midflight? That’s exactly what happened when Colin Smith from P hotoshop Cafe decided to fly a new DJI Spark for a review.
There are several ways to create more interesting photos, one way is to use off-camera lighting to help separate your subject from the environment or even making them the main focus of the shot. Carsten Schertzer shares 10 flash techniques he uses in his wedding and engagement photos to make them more interesting. These technique do not have to stop there, some of them can be used in other portrait sessions or even shooting products.
There are several tools out on the market for filmmakers to help improve your video with smoother motion throughout the film. One popular choice is the camera slider. There’s no doubt you have seen a smooth camera motion from the result of a camera slider before. If this is your first time using one, camera slider marker Rhino has released a video with five tips just for you to help you get started.
How many times have you seen a video or photo where a subject or even the artist themselves appear in it multiple times and wondered how they did that? Having a background in graphic design, I always guessed you just merge the footage or photos together and mask sections out to reveal the subject in each area. Well, it is as simple as it sounds but if you are not sure how to get started or how to do that, Peter McKinnon shows how he cloned himself in both photo and video using Photoshop and Premiere, respectively.
While preparing for a shoot, whether it’s for film or photo, there usually is a few miscellaneous tools you don’t think of until you needed them. Sometimes they are really basic tools, when you realize you don't have them with you, you end up being disappointed that you didn’t think of it before.
If you shoot or looking to shoot video, one question that you might be trying to think a solution for is how to get smoother video footage. I am not sure how many people would be interested in watching a video that you are trying to produce if it is entirely too shaky especially if that doesn't fit the mood of the video. Some scenes like a chase sequence may work better with shaky footage, but some scenes will work better with a smoother shot.
While editing video, there are several effects you can add to the project to exaggerate, dramatize, or put focus on a specific portion. One popular method to do this is to slow down the footage. Many of the new cameras that are coming out today are able to shoot in higher FPS (frames per second), allowing this technique to be achieved effectively in camera. It might confuse some that shooting more frames per second equals slow motion video, but it's right. When you play the higher FPS clip at an average playable frame rate of 24 FPS, the time line for that clip is extended resulting in slow motion.
We all know someone that has an older photo taken in black and white and many of us have seen those request to transform those photos into color. Converting old black and white photos to color may have just gotten easier with a new app.
With the availability of cameras in mobile phones and the ever-growing presence on social media, a lot more people are taking photos of all sorts of theses. The quality of the cameras have improved over the years, so much so that there has been some professional photoshoots done completely using the camera on their phones.
I previously wrote about Benjamin Von Wong's latest project with Sarah Jane in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Benjamin’s portion was just half of the project set up by Karen Alsop. She invited Benjamin to join in on some friendly competition. While her approach and style was different, there was still some amazing images created out of this cooperative project.
Photography is more than just taking a pretty picture. For many, it’s about capturing a moment. This couldn’t be more true for Benjamin Von Wong with his latest project.
Since the birth of digital cameras, there has been less need to print your photos. Many of the newer photographers have never printed or even sent their photos to be printed at a lab. Why should you if your audience is all online?
Shooting suspended objects in your images can be done a few different ways, from the use of Photoshop to the simple and effective use of wire or fishing line. My first instinct would be to grab clear fishing line. Not having done any work with fishing line in suspending objects, I would not even have thought about getting brown or even a greenish tint line to use in the set, as Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens packs in his fishing line kit box for various projects and scenes. In this video, he shares all his tips on this approach, including how he decides to use a certain color based on the background.
While working on putting together great video work, you will come across breaks in scenes where they need to come back together. In most cases, a transition effect is used to merge the scenes together instead of having one stop completely and the next one begin. A great transition can improve your video, but they can also be used incorrectly and ruin your film.
With digital media, the quest for more is always on the horizon. From constantly shooting photos and videos with the resolution increasing as well, the amount of space required to store all of our work is growing at an alarming rate… well at least in my case.
Peter McKinnon is back with another video, this time to show how to create a fantasy composite in Adobe Photoshop. A composite image is an image made up of various photos which are placed and blended together to make one image. When it comes to fantasy, it’s just that... fantasy. When you have an idea that you want to bring to life, you have to use the tool in your trade to bring it to life, as you can't just snap a photo and be done with it.
Environmental portraits are great for capturing people with the scene around them. If you want to show more of the environment you should try doing panoramic portraits. While traveling in New York shooting panoramic landscapes, Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens had a thought to add people in the photo so he gave it a try. Since then, Morgan has taken more panoramic portraits so he decided to share his tips on how he sets up and shoots panoramic portraits.
Have you thought about trying your hand at product photography? Most of us see it in some form or fashion everyday. Some people might not give it much thought when they look at the products in the photo. A great photo will help tell the story of the product, so where would you start if you wanted to try it yourself?
Have you been booked or plan on shooting a large group for their company team photo? Not sure what you need to do or even how to start? Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens is back with another video with some of his tips on how he shoots his corporate group portrait photos.
With Finland celebrating 100 years of independence, photographer Suvi Sievila wanted to do a special project to represent her country and its dramatic landscapes, as well as the season of winter by using the beauty of ice for her concept.
