Digital Camera Gear Blog

How To: Taking Better Holiday Light Photos

DigitalAlan — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:55:40 +0000

I got a call the other day from my friend Dan asking how to take some better photos of his house that he has decorated for the Holidays. Well, Unfortunately he has an older camera that doesn't have much in the way of any manual control. But I worked with him - I stated the obvious (Tripod, Use the Night Mode etc. etc..) Well I have to admit for the camera and the first time trying to shoot these photos himself I have to say he did a FANTASTIC job. Below is one of the photos that he had sent to me showing what he ended up with.

Some additional links to taking better Holiday Photos are: 5 Minute Video Called Take Great Holiday Lights Photos & New York School of Photography and Holiday Light Photography

Technorati Tags: Holiday, Light, Christmas, Home, Homes, House, Tree, Twinkle, Bulb, bulbs, Christmas+Lights, Photography, Night, Nighttime, Time, Exposure, Long, Timed,

Tutorial: Photo Retouching - The Digital Way with A Wacom tablet

DigitalAlan — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:21:56 +0000

Today topic I will show you a few pages that can help turn your regular drab standard photos into a photo that says more then just WOW!

The first lesson will show you how to use your new Wacom Tablet (Or Your Trusty Mouse in case you have not bought a Tablet just yet - But as They State and I whole Heartily Agree using a Wacom Tablet can speed up and take your Photo Retouching up a notch and as Emeril Would Say "BAM" plus it makes it much easier ) The tutorial is at EyesOnTutorials.com and it is Called Photo Retouching Photo Effects.

Before and After Photo Retouching

The next tutorial is a video I found on MetaCafe that demonstrated how to use a wacom tablet to perform some basic Dodge and Burn Techniques to again enhance your photos and turn them into a masterpiece to print and hang on your wall to proudly display for all to see. As the Author/Teacher in this Video States "We'll use the pressure sensitivity of the Wacom Pen Tablet to create a dodge and burn effect with a lot of control and flexibility"

Using a Wacom Table to Dodge and Burn

Now if you are interested in purchasing a nice Wacom Tablet be sure to check them out on Amazon: Wacom Tablets on Amazon

Technorati Tags: wacom, tablet, Photoshop, Wacom+Tablet, Wacom, Intous, Graphire, Bamboo, Photo+Retouch, Photo+Retouching, Retouch, Retouching

Tutorial: Depth of Field

DigitalAlan — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:32:24 +0000

Today I would like to touch on a subject that can be used to help your photographs tell a story and get the people to view and "Focus" on what you want them to see. All photos will use depth of field to so extent - either it being no depth of field (Used in Landscape Photography) to minimal depth of field (Used in portrait photography)

First what is Depth Of Field (DOF) - Depth of field is where one plane is in focus and the focus gradually falls off in front and behind what is is focus. (See Examples Below)

Depth of field is controlled by the F-Stop of F-Number: The Higher the F-stop such as f/32 the larger the plane of focus. The Smaller f/1.4 the narrower the plane of focus will be.

Examples of Depth of Field

Small Depth of field Examples (Using Smaller f-stops)

As you can see from the above two examples not everything is in focus - but this is good as it will give the eye something to focus on - What ever is in focus becomes the center of attention and the rest will give just add to the scene giving the photo context.

I suggest playing around with your cameras settings and if available on your camera use the aperture adjustment as this will give you the depth of field you want to use and let the camera adjust the shutter speed to what you need for the photo.

Remember it is usually safe to say the lower the number the faster the shutter speed will be as you are allowing in more light on the lower f-stops. This is particually useful when taking a portrait under low light situations and don't have a tripod to use. Have you ever taken a photo at a birthday party using just the candles and the face is in focus but the cake is out of focus. This is Depth of Field at work.

Now I would like to share a video I found on YouTube talking about Depth of field.

Sit back and enjoy the tutorial.

Technorati Tags: DIY, Photography, depth+of+Field, DOF, Aperture, Fstop, F+Stop, Focusing, Digital+Camera+Guide, Technique, Blurry

Tripod Alternative: The Gorillapod

DigitalAlan — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:11:03 +0000

The Photography Gadget of the day is the Gorillapod by JOBY - This has to be one of the best things to just buy and keep in your photo bag. How many times have you wished you could be in the photo and didn't have your tripod with you. Well, This Gorillapod allows you to attach your camera and then set it up like a tripod or wrap it's legs around a pole, tree, bench leg, the places are endless where you can use it. The Gorllapod is compact, bendable, portable, grippable and kinda cool.

The GorillaPod comes in three varieties: Compact, SLR, SLR+Zoom - The biggest differences are the ammound of weight that each can handle.

Compact or Original can hold a compact camera up to 9.75 ozs - Perfect of all the wonderful portable Digital cameras out there.

The SLR Version can handle a little larger load: up to 1.75 lbs - This will be for most of the regular slr camera and larger digital cameras

and The SLR Pro can handle the largest of the loads: up to 6.6 lbs - This will handle even different tripod heads as well and will handle the SLR with zoom lens.

I found that Amazon has some good choices of this product.

Technorati Tags: gorillapod, tripod, digitalcamera, Digital+Camera, SLR, fuzzy, out+of+focus, Group

DigitalDarkroom: Black and White Conversion

DigitalAlan — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:37:17 +0000

Now that you have your digital camera you want to start playing around shooting some black and white photos. Well, I have one suggestion today - Don't shoot in Black and White. Still shoot in color and then use the computer to convert to Black and White afterwards. There are several way to do this. If you are using Photoshop I recommend using the channels and individually selecting the color levels to get the best Black and white image that you can.

If you are interested in performing this check out Galvin Photography and his technique. It give a basic run down on how to use the channels to convert from color to black and white.

Some additional resources to help you learn about Color to Black and White Conversion are listed here:

Adobe PDF Guide to Black and White Conversion.

DesignByFire has some Wonderful Examples and Great Method to Accomplish this.

Keep Shooting and Share your work.

Technorati Tags: Photo,, Black,, White,, BW,, Conversion,, Photoshop,, Technique,, DIY,, Hack

DIY: Skin Tone Lessons

DigitalAlan — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:07:03 +0000

Today on Digital Camera Gear - We are trying something different - I found a few really good video tutorials on how to take a better portrait making sure the Skin Tones are better. These videos will show you how to adjust your camera and how to manipulate the skin tones in your various software. But in case you are a book learner and like to have some visual reading feel free to check out the additional links after the videos from some various sources across the internet.

DIY - How to adjust Skin Tones Part 1/4

DIY - How to adjust Skin Tones Part 2/4

DIY - How to adjust Skin Tones Part 3/4

DIY - How to adjust Skin Tones Part 4/4

Additional Resources:

Using Photoshop Hue/Saturation To adjust Skin Tone - Nikon-Euro.com

Skin Tone Color Corrections - RetouchPro Forums

Help on How to Adjust Skin Tones Via - SmugMug Help Files

Technorati Tags: Color, Skin, Tones, DIY, Help, Digital, Camera, Gear, Hack, Video, Photoshop, Elements, PSP, PS, Paint, Shop, Pro

Photo Technique: Mirror Mirror - Reflections

DigitalAlan — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:17:08 +0000

Mirror Mirror on the wall - or the puddle on the street or water surface of the pond, or the lake.

Use reflections to increase the impact the image has from the rays of light hitting the water or the color of the trees and flower reflecting in the pond makes the image go from good photo to great photo.

These type of photos will capture a whole different view from the norm.

What you are looking to do to capture a Reflective Image is to move your focus and angle to get the reflection to be the center of attention and focus. These photos will require you to be patient (Letting the wind and breeze die down) You will often have to move the lens pointing it downwards more and possibly adjusting the exposure to adjust the overall brightness and contrast of this image but as you will see below the results are worth the time and effort. Just as a note you may need to have a Polarizer Filter for your camera to help capture the effect even better.

But if you would like to be even more creative with Reflections - Only take a photo of the reflection itself and what the reflection sees.

Below is a sample thumbnail of one of these photos:

This photo is from a collection of photos of this type
By Vlado Marinkovic

His gallery has some wonderful photos taken of just reflections.

Some additional resources of reflection photography can be found at the follow resources.

Surfaces & Streaming by Steven Jusczyk
- Both two really interesting galleries.
Plus Reflection Art - By And Patrick HANEZ

Marcia Smilak - Wrote up an interesting piece called Reflections of the mind about Reflections with some powerful photography.

And Located on Flickr - Here is an inverted Reflection of a boat by JerseyImage

Also located on Flickr - is a Hint of Color by HB19

Now that you have a few good examples - Go out and create your reflection photos - If you take any let us know and post a link to them in the comments section.

Have fun and Stay warm…..

Technorati Tags: Reflections, mirror, photo, photography, digital+photography, lake, pond, puddle, ice, images

Photo Technique: For the Oddity of it

DigitalAlan — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:14:07 +0000

I have to assume that if you are reading this blog you have taken at lease one or two photos with your camera - Let me guess. Most of them have been taken at eye level.

Today's Technique is to try and take a few photos at a different angle then you normally would. Try taking the image from above the scene or below the scene or from any odd vantage point. You can even try getting closer or further from the subject to make a difference.

The main point I am trying to make is that you want to move away from the typical point of view and find a new way to take that photo.

Flicker Search of Some Photos Tagged as Odd Angles

Technorati Tags: Photo, Hack, Technique, odd, Angle, angles, Digital, Camera, Gear, Hint, Tip, Hints, Tips, DIY, Hacks, Darkroom, Help, Flickr, Search

Photos and Technique: Photograph of Lightbulb Burning out

DigitalAlan — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:32:56 +0000

Today's Photo is a photograph of a light bulb burning out. It was taken in a completely dark room with the camera ready to take the photo and then the light bulb switch was thrown. The bulb then burn out and this photo was created. I have to say this really is a great photo and I loved learning a new techinique for the day. Any one else have something like this please let us know and leave a comment.

Digital Alan

Technorati Tags: Photo, Technique, time, lapse, bulb, setting, light, , bulb, burning, out, how, to, guide

Photo Technique: Closer

DigitalAlan — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:43:55 +0000

Todays Technique is more of a “Secret Tip” as most people taking a photo tries to put too much into the frame instead of filling the frame with the subject. It is far better to take a few steps closer if you can or use your Optical Zoom to “Tighten Up” on the main subject. You really want to close in on the subjects face. People viewing the photo will get lost in the image and not know what to look at. So if you put more of the subject you want to show or take a photo of into the frame the better you “Tell your Story”.

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