http://www.cryativa.com.br/daniel

http://www.purpleboxagency.com/

Purple Box Agency est une agence web née en 2011 et basée à La Seyne-sur-Mer spécialisée dans la création de site internet.

http://www.chiragjsolanki.com/

Chirag Solanki – Freeelance Web Designer, Graphic Designer from India. Providing website design, logo design, newsletter design, Ecommerce Website Designer, CMS integration such as Joomla, Zencart, WordPress, Template Design Services.

http://www.newelementdesigns.com/

new element designs Winston-Salem, NC – The best web design in the triad – Multimedia, Database, Print

http://www.clear-web-solutions.com/

ClearWebSolutions – top quality web design and development.

http://www.pushhere.com/

http://mutantlabs.com/

We specialise in iPhone applications, Games, Flash development and Website Design. Online Games in Plymouth, South-West.

Adding a flash or two to your gear bag presents countless opportunities to further enhance your photographs. So, today we present the complete guide to the different functions your flash (as well as some real-world applications!)

Equipment

There are many companies that manufacture flashes for cameras. Some can be mounted onto the camera’s hot shoe, while others are the big studio lights. For the purpose of this tutorial we’ll stick to the hot shoe flashes as they are most compatible with the many flash control and exposure functions on today’s cameras.

All you’ll need to follow along is a Digital SLR and a hot shoe flash by your camera’s manufacturer. Canon has their Speedlite EX series and Nikon has their Speedlight SB series. The flash should also be one that can act as a controller (Master) for other flashes.

Canon Speedlites that can Master:

• 580EX (discontinued)
• 580EX II

Nikon Speedlites that can Master:

• SB-800
• SB-700
• SB-900

Both manufacturers, Canon and Nikon, have a wide selection of flash units for many applications. However, only their top-shelf flashes can be Master units. Their lower-end models such as the Canon 430EX II and the Nikon SB-600 can only be remote slaves during wireless/remote flash photography.

There are some DSLRs that are able to utilize the camera’s built-in pop-up flash to control other remote flashes such as the Nikon D700 and the Canon EOS 7D. This can be beneficial if you already own a hot shoe flash because you can now move it off-camera and still control it. Check your camera’s specs to see if your model can utilize the built-in pop-up flash in “Master” or “Commander” mode.

How Exposure is Controlled

The camera gives the photographer three ways to control the light:

• Shutter Speed
• Aperture Setting (f-stop)
• ISO Setting

Adding flash to a photograph gives the photographer a fourth handle of control on the situation by being able to add his/her own light. Otherwise, a photographer is limited to what the ambient lighting situation can provide. Sure, one can use spot lights, reflectors, scrims, etc. but that is not what is going on here.

We’ll be taking a look at the functions available when one purchases a hot shoe flash such as a Canon Speedlite 580EX II or Nikon Speedlight SB-900. We’re not going to cover all the bases, that’s why you have a manual, but only the most common functions.

TTL Flash Control

TTL means “Through the Lens” and is an included light-metering feature on almost every single digital camera out there. Canon has its E-TTL and Nikon has its i-TTL. What camera companies have done is move the handheld light meter inside the camera so it measures a scene’s luminosity, color, etc. through the lens of the camera.

The camera then makes a judgement and notifies the photographer if a scene is too light or dark for a particular shutter-aperture-ISO combination. In automatic modes the camera makes the adjustments for the photographer. In Manual mode (“M”) the photographer makes the adjustments.

A scene’s lighting information is passed to the TTL-enabled flash unit and will fire a certain amount of light. This amount can be automatically or manually determined. Even in automatic modes, you can still adjust the flash output to a particular ratio that is dependent upon the TTL metering system’s analysis. This proportionate flash setting is Flash Exposure Compensation.

Flash Exposure Compensation

The controls for adjusting a flash’s output utilizing TTL metering are almost identical to adjusting the camera’s exposure compensation, also called Exposure Value (EV). You can not only adjust the built-in flash’s output but also that of the TTL-enabled flash unit.

This allows the photographer to control the flash anywhere within the typical 5-stop range displayed. The flash output can be set above, below, or equal to the camera’s EV.

Flash Exposure Compensation using TTL metering is an excellent, quick, and fairly accurate way to balance the flash-ambient exposure in a variety of ways, achieving the desired look. For example, a flash can be set to -2/3 stop to fill in shadows without affecting the highlights or midtones.

The flash can also be used to over-power the ambient or balance 50-50 with it. So, you can set your flash to a consistent output that adjusts to the scene.

In the above example, I used the ambient as my fill and my strobes as the main. I did it this way to eliminate as much of that nasty flourescent green tint as I could while still maintaining a warmth to an otherwise sterile-feeling room. So, I over-powered the ambient for the sake of removing color-cast and providing a more interesting scene.

Flash Exposure Bracketing

Flash Exposure Bracketing (FEB) works the same way that Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) works with the camera. In this mode the user can select the different flash outputs in 1/3, 1/2, or full stops. Use this mode to get different shots with flash. The usual number of different flash outputs is three. So, the first exposure can be set at 0, the second at +1, and the third exposure set to -1 1/3.

There are many other combinations that can be employed which will give different looks because of the varying flash. This is useful when doing quick n’ dirty LCD evaluations of how much flash looks right.

Flash Exposure Lock

Flash Exposure Lock (FEL) is a useful way to quickly force your flash to consistently output a particular EV of flash. This is particularly useful if the TTL-controlled flash is being inconsistent, or in high-contrast, backlit, or other scenes which confuse the camera’s metering system.

FEL is also useful when the TTL flash output keeps varying despite the fact the scene has not really changed. For example, if a person is wearing a white shirt, the camera’s metering may believe the scene got brighter even though it did not. Then, in that same scene a person with a dark-colored shirt steps in. Again, the flash TTL ends up over-exposing. Utilizing FEL locks in the flash’s EV regardless of the TTL readings.

Manual Flash

Manual flash is the most tedious, but like the Manual mode on the camera, it offers the most control and precision. Top-of-the-line flash units offer 1/3-stop increments ranging from 1/128 power to 1/1 and zoom control from 14mm to 105mm (Canon) or 200mm (Nikon SB-900). The benefit of Manual flash is consistent flash output. Once set, the flash will output the same power and beam exposure after exposure.

• Typical power settings are, from highest to lowest, are (full stops): 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, and 1/128.

Manual flash enables the photographer to have a constant factor during a shoot, even when the ambient lighting changes. It also allows the photographer to use the shutter speed to dial up or down the ambient light, treating them as two separate light sources. Even though the photographer may adjust his shutter speed by 2 or 3 stops, the flash will pop the same amount of light with the same spread shot-to-shot.

This photo was accomplished with Manual flash because the darkness of the room, combined with the light emanating from the opthalmaloscope, was making my TTL readings jump all over the place. TTL-controlled flash would have eventually gotten it right, but probably only after a bunch of misses. Remember, TTL-flash adjusts itself relative to your metered exposure.

Additionally, Manual flash operates outside the typical 5-stop range available in TTL systems. Sometimes, +2 or even +3 stops of flash is not enough to over-power the sun. This is true when using small flashes. Big studio flash — not so much.

In the photo below, I used two 580EX II’s to over-power the unobstructed afternoon sun. The sun was so bright that even though I was using two flashes and +3 stops their output with 105mm zooms, it was not enough. In those situations TTL settings may not be enough. I put them into Manual mode and set them to 1/1 power — the maximum. Mission accomplished.

Flash Head Zoom

Flash head zoom is the amount of spread the beam of light has, and it corresponds to the field of view a lens would have a certain focal length. In TTL mode, the flash’s zoom changes to match as closely as possible the zoom of the lens so that the flash covers that field of view (FOV) as much as possible.

What also changes is the “throw” or distance which the light reaches. Also changing the zoom setting on the flash varies the intensity of the light too.

The reasoning behind the zoom features on a camera’s flash is the same as the one used on flashlights that allow the user to control the spread of the beam (i.e. Maglite). Zoomed out, the light is spread over a wide area and is not so intense. Zoomed in, the photons are packed tightly together and the intensity goes up.

• Typical zoom settings are: 14mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 85mm, 105mm, and 200mm.

Controlling the spill of light is another useful control the photographer has when lighting photographs with flash. For example, one can place a flash somewhat close to the subject and zoom the flash to snoot the light which lights only a portion.

Another example is zooming in the flash tightly to allow the light to reach farther, even across a basketball court. Zooming out, say to 14mm, is a great way to provide (fairly) even lighting for groups.

High-Speed Sync/Focal Plane Flash

High-Speed Sync/Focal Plane Flash is a useful mode when the photographer needs to use a shutter speed beyond the maximum flash-sync speed on the camera, usually 1/250sec. Setting the flash to this mode allows the photographer to use any shutter speed desired, even 1/8000sec. This is useful if the photographer wishes to use fill-flash in Aperture Priority (Av) mode.

What happens in this mode is the flash pulses at a high frequency during the exposure rather than just a single pop. The flash pulses to ensure even coverage across the image. The trade-off to this mode is that the flash sacrifices power, so the flash must be placed closer, sometimes much closer, to the subject.

Action can be frozen in midday sun and shadows filled-in, provided the flash is close enough. Remember, the higher the shutter speed, the closer the flash needs to be. To maintain the same distance, increase the EV and/or zoom in the flash head.

This one was 1/800sec @ f4. I first dropped the ambient to where I wanted it, then set my TTL flash to bring the leaves back in without blowing-out all the detail in the snow. I use as low an ISO as possible so I don’t tax my flash as much when trying to over-power the ambient.

Second-Curtain Sync

By default, the flash is set to fire when the first curtain of the shutter opens. In Second Curtain Sync mode, the flash won’t fire until the second curtain starts to move. This is useful when the photographer wants to produce light trails in conjunction with flash and a slow shutter speed.

This means that the ambient has a chance to do its thing, and just before the exposure ends, the flash fires. This can help light trails make sense as the they will “follow” the subject rather than precede it due to the delayed firing of the flash.

(Multi) Stroboscopic Flash

Not too many photographers use this feature, but is useful and can produce really cool effects and can even help analyze motion. Stroboscopic flash is when the flash fires at a particular power level and frequency during an exposure. The frequency, in hertz (Hz), is determined by the power setting of the flash. The higher the power, the lower the frequency.

Ideally, a slow shutter speed of at least 2 seconds and a totally dark room make the effect work very well. Also, because of the slow shutter speed, a tripod is needed. Once the exposure starts, the flash will fire at a certain frequency.

The formula for this is:

Number of Flashes ÷ Firing Frequency = Shutter Speed

Stroboscopic can show, in a single frame, how something moves in a stretch of time.

Wireless Remote Flash

Getting the flash off-camera is where flash photography gets seriously interesting. And many hot shoe flash units can do so wirelessly. With no cables needed to connect a flash to the camera, they can be placed almost anywhere. Wireless functionality not only gives the photographer a huge amount of flexibility, but also keeps the set clear of tripping hazards caused by cables and cords.

There have been various ways to use flash wirelessly, but more modern flashes and camera systems operate in a much more advanced method with loads of sophisticated functions — all controlled by a single unit or camera. This controlling unit is called the “Master” (Canon) or “Commander” (Nikon). For now, only the top-end flashes have this functionality. The lower-end models can only act as normal on-camera flashes or “slaves”.

Slave units can be triggered a variety of ways: optically, infrared, or radio signals. And some more advanced units, including big studio flashes, support all three, including a fourth method: tethered.

To control other flashes one needs a flash unit that can be set in “Master” or “Commander” mode and other flashes that are compatible to the signals emitted by the master. The remote flashes need to be set “Slave”. Depending on the brand, remote flashes can be triggered in various ways. For example Vivitar 285HV flashes can be optically triggered or triggered with radio signals via a PocketWizard or some other radio transmitting device.

Wireless flash systems used by both Canon and Nikon can control many remote flashes, usually 4 flashes per group with a 3 group maximum in TTL mode. That number can go up if the remotes are in Manual mode.

Photographer Joe McNally is famous for using complex lighting and even an insane number of small flashes to achieve stunning effects. He has been able to use something in the neighbourhood of 50 small flashes, to light airplanes and large groups.

Wireless flashes gets light off-camera and off-axis, expanding the creative options available to the photographer because now he/she can put the light almost anywhere. Limitations to wireless flash depend upon how the system communicates.

Optical and infrared depend on line-of-sight in order to receive signals from the Master unit, especially outdoors where signals cannot be bounced off surfaces like walls.

Distance is also a factor with optical/infrared wireless flash systems because the signal will be too weak past about 60 feet. On the other hand, radio triggers like PocketWizards don’t need line-of-sight and can be placed at great distances, like the opposite end of a football field. The trade-off with radio triggers is the higher price for the increased capabilities.

There are more economical solutions to both the optical and radio trigger systems. For example, one can buy a Vivitar 285HV and a Wein optical slave receiver for around 0. An additional Canon 430EX II or Nikon SB-600 would cost 0.

Cheaper alternatives to PocketWizards would be RadioPopper JX or the really cheap Cactus V2 (eBay triggers). Going cheaper usually does reduce reliability and/or capability, but the cheaper competition in radio triggers at the RadioPopper-CyberSync price range have received rave reviews.

Ratios

This partly ties-in with the Wireless Remote Flash and Flash Exposure Compensation using two or more flashes. In multiple flash scenarios the overall output can be rationed between the two, three, or more groups of flashes. This is useful when the photographer desires to distribute either evenly or proportionately a total amount of light.

In an A : B flash situation, the distribution is as follows (with 1/3-stop between each): 8:1, 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:8

This means that in an 1:1 ratio, the flash output of A and B groups is even. In a 4:1 ratio, group B gets 1/4 less power than group A. These ratios are based upon the flash exposure compensation dialed-in by the photographer. So, if a +1-stop of flash is dialed into a two group flash setup with a 1:2 ratio, group A would fire 100% of that +1 and group B would fire 50% of that +1.

Using ratios is an excellent and fast way to distribute light across multiple flash units. The photographer can -1 his ambient, +1 the flashes, and then distribute that flash proportionately between them.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this has been a helpful reference guide to the many built-in functions and capabilities of your hot shoe flash unit. Remember that not all flashes have all the mentioned features, but many do.

With a lot of practice, all these modes for your flash (as well as when to use them) will become second nature. For more detailed information, inspiration, and great how-to’s I strongly suggest you head on over to David Hobby’s blog, Strobist.com, as well as Joe McNally’s website at JoeMcNally.com. The Strobist.com helped me better understand the usefulness of Manual flash and Joe McNally helped with TTL-controlled flashes.

Phototuts+

If you’ve ever wanted to include streaming video in your designs, but didn’t want to bother with messy code solutions (or Flash), we’ve got two quick and easy solutions for you. Today, we’re going to take a peek at what each solution offers to web designers and how to use both of them in your own projects.

On the surface, streaming video through a web page isn’t something that a lot of web designers have at the top of their minds… This is understandable because just those two words (“Web” and “Video”) imply a knowledge base that is best found elsewhere in the Envato universe…

…But what if I were to told you that adding streaming video to your pages is now easier than adding a jpg. Now that I have your attention… let’s dive into the good stuff:

Streaming Video: A History of Confusing Technology

Before I begin walking you through the step by step process, let’s first look at the history of “streaming web video” from the point of view of web designers:

Let’s pretend that you’re working on a project and you’re handling the basic front-end coding. In the past, adding streaming video to our designs has been a pretty complicated process – requiring you to know (and have a license to) Adobe Flash. Assuming you have Flash and know your way around it, you then have to get the video in the right format, import it to Flash, go through the archaic process of setting up the video, and then export it. Finally, you’d have to embed it properly in your website. Seasoned Flash veterans might be able to pull this off quickly, but for most people on the design side of things, it’s a headache.

Another possible solution would be to use a service like YouTube or Vimeo. This is fine for most people, but what about those of us who simply want to display video on the web without the branding or other extras that sites like YouTube and Vimeo add? Until recently, there really hasn’t been a simple solution for this.

Thanks to the promise of the HTML 5 Video smokescreen, I found myself trying out some of the new “streaming video solutions” recently. Of course, that was precisely when Google brought webM into its loving embrace and things got a lot more complicated than I bargained for. I essentially surrendered and stomped off with a “Let God sort it out” attitude. Clearly, the debate over streaming web video wasn’t resolved yet.

Is There an Easier Way of Doing This?

A few years back I wrote an article , The Rise of Flash Video, that eerily traces a similar debate that started when video actually hit the web and the Flash Video standard took hold. Again, the crux of the argument was, “There has got to be an easier way of doing this.” Guess what? Now there is.

For the past couple of years, Adobe has been involved in the Open Source Media Framework. I have always found OSMF to be a bewildering array of technologies and techniques that, quite frankly, make my teeth ache. The technologies are seriously cool, very cutting edge and fun to poke around with – but they are aimed at developers… and if there is a way to overly complicate a simple solution, the hardcore coders of the world will find it. OSMF is no different. If you wander through the site, there is really not much in the way of simple, plug and play solutions for us humble designers to use.

It is only when you step back a couple of paces that the goal of the OSMF project becomes clear: “to provide high quality video playback experiences”. That means really smooth video loading, really slick players and none of the extra stuff thrown up by Vimeo and YouTube. Where this whole thing gets really interesting for us is that now we can get in on the fun and you won’t have to learn anything new.

Alright, Let’s Dive In Now

In this tutorial I am going to show you two ways of accomplishing this. The first is “Drop Dead Simple” and the second raises the level to “Dead Simple”. To get into the game all you need to do is to upload a video (one is enclosed with this tutorial for each solution) to a directory on a web site. Let’s get started:

Solution One: Use Flash Media Playback

Step 1: Upload Your Video to a Web Server

This part is pretty simple – just upload a video to your web server using an FTP program or something similar. For this demo we’ll be using the “Stockhorn.f4v” file. All you need to get here is the URL to your video. Keep is somewhere you can copy/paste for the next step.

Step 2: Point your browser to Flash Media Playback

Essentially this site offers an OSMF player for the masses. If you want to heave an mp4, flv or f4v file into your web page without knowing a lick of Flash, Actionscript or Flex, this is the place for you. What you need to do is to click the Configure Flash Media Playback button near the bottom of the page. This will open the Flash Media Playback Setup page.

Step 3: Enter the path to the source video along with a width and height for your video

You need to enter the absolute path to the video and the video’s file extension. The three formats used by Flash are flv,f4v and H.264.If you are unsure as to how these are created feel free to check out my Flash Video Basics series over at active.tutsplus. You also need to enter the width and height values of the video – the values for the enclosed video are 720 X 405. Once you have done that, click the Preview button in the Preview Player area and your video should start to play.

Step 4: Copy the Embed Code in the Preview Player and paste it into an HTML page.

If you are using Dreamweaver, open the page, select the <object> </object> tags and simply paste the code from the player into the Code view. If you test the page , you will see your video playing in the browser. At this point you only need to upload the html page to the diectory containing the video on your site.

Those are the steps and if you head over here you will see the video playing. The only thing I did differently was to include a poster frame. More on that in the next section.

Solution Two: Using Strobe Media Playback

As I said at the top, I am not going to go “all techie” here, but there is another way that is slightly more complicated than what I just showed that’s worth noting, called Strobe Media Playback.

Strobe Media Playback uses the same approach as Flash Media, but there is a ton more power under the hood. For example you can use multiple bitrates to detect connections and feed the proper vid based on the users connection speed. You can customize the controls, use it to play audio, display jpg’s and just about any media that will appear in a Flash SWF. In this example we are going to take the same “no code” approach as we did in the previous solution, but I am going to add a “twist”. If you want to work along with me all of the files you will need are in the Strobe folder in this tutorial’s download.

Step 1: Upload Your Video to a Web Server

Same as before – just upload a video to your web server using an FTP program or something similar. For this part of the demo we’ll be using the “GeorgeSquare.mp4″ file. All you need to get here is the URL to your video. Keep is somewhere you can copy/paste for the next step.

Step 2: Download the Strobe Media Playback file

The version you want is Strobe Media Playback 1.5.1 release. With Strobe ,beta versions are called “Sprints” and the current Sprint includes support for such things as the new Stage Video feature of the Flash Player. When you unzip the file you have a couple of choices: place the folder at the root of your computer’s web server or upload it to the root of your web site. I created a directory named “smp” and uploaded all of the files to my web server.

Step 3: Create a Poster frame in Fireworks CS5 or Photoshop CS5

A poster frame is a great opportunity to do some branding with a video.If the first frame of the video is just going to sit there and resemble an image, why not put that image to work. In this case I simply opened a new Fireworks CS5 document that matched the dimensions of the video – 1280 by 720-, assembled the assets and saved it out as a flattened .jpg image to the same folder as the video.

Step 4: Open the setup.html document found in the for Flash Player 10.1 folder

This folder is located in the Strobe download. When it opens it will look rather familiar.The main difference between this document and the one you encountered with Flash Media Playback is the choices are far more extensive and the player is one you own …. not one located on Adobe’s site. When the page opens you will see that there are a lot of choices. The important ones, for the purposes of this tutorial are:

Embed parameters:

• source: This is the location of the Strobe Player in thew for Flash Player 10.1 folder on the server.
• width: 720. Use this width if you are using the video accompanying this tutorial. Otherwise enter the width value of your video.
• height: 405.

Flash vars:

• src: Enter the full path to the video on the server.
• poster: Enter the full path to the .jpg image used as a poster frame.
• controlBarAutoHide: false. This way the video controller is placed under the video and the poster frame.

If you want a more complete explanation of this page and the Flash Vars, my colleague Joseph Labreque, has posted a rather extensive technical overview of Strobe Media Playback at active.tutsplus.

Step 5: Click the Preview and Updates button

You should see your poster frame appear in the player. If you don’t want that big Play button over the poster frame set the playButtonOverlay property to False in the Flash vars area.

Step 6: Copy and paste the Preview Code into your web page and test in a browser.

When the file opens play the movie. The really neat thing is all of the controls are active – meaning that if you are using an HD mp4 file , your video will grow to fill the screen with little or no pixelization.

Finally! Welcome to the world of streaming Flash video without you neeeding to know anything about Flash. Click here to see this project on my site.

Conclusion

As I pointed out at the start of this piece I really don’t think Flash Video is going to disappear any time soon. Still, with the advent of a multi-screen environment, getting the same video to play on say a Droid, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy Tablet and your HD TV set is now possible. This obviously makes web designers a little nervous because… well … because embedding streaming video in the past has been rather technical. That’s not really the case anymore! As I pointed out in this piece, if you can copy and paste text into a web page, Adobe has a couple of solutions for you.

If you find this to be interesting and really want to dig into OSMF or Strobe you really should start with Joeseph Labreque’s series that kicked off at active. tutsplus, as he goes into a lot more detail about the technical stuff surrounding the streaming video debate.

Webdesigntuts+

Don’t you just hate that little pop-up flash on your camera? Harsh shadows, blown highlights, ugly photos; no fun at all! If only there were a way to turn this little flash into something that you could actually use without being embarrassed of the results.

Today we’re going to take a look at a product that promises to do just that: The Gary Fong Pop-Up Flash Diffuser. We’ll discuss pricing and setup and take some test shots to see if it actually makes good on its promise.

The Plight of the Pop-up Flash

If you’re a new photographer, you might be confused about a trend in professional cameras. Generally, the more expensive the camera, the less likely it is to have a pop-up flash. This is of course counter-intuitive. Why would Canon and other manufacturers start stripping features as the price increases? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Why does the 0 Canon T1i come equipped with a flash while the ,000 Canon 5D Mark II doesn’t?

While I can’t pretend to fully understand Canon’s reasoning, an important part of the equation no doubt lies in an analysis of the customer purchasing the camera. Most people that purchase 5Ds aren’t merely looking for something to shoot photos of their kid’s next birthday party, they’re likely engaged in a level of professionalism.

These professional customers are also likely to know a thing or two about photography while Rebel customers are often at a near-beginner level. The thing that the professional knows that the newbie doesn’t is that pop-up flashes are generally regarded as horrible devices.

What’s So Bad About My Flash?

Pop-up flashes are harsh and direct. They can make photos taken with a 0 camera look like they came from a disposable flash and trash. Sure, you have the benefit of actually being able to take pictures where you otherwise wouldn’t, but the result is often flat, uninteresting images with harsh shadows and horrible white balance.

Many professional photographers desperately avoid lighting scenarios like the one above. So you can see why expensive cameras don’t even come equipped with a pop-up flash. Professional photographers generally use dedicated flash devices that cost nearly as much as an entire camera with a pop-up flash!

So Is My Flash Useless?

The information above isn’t very encouraging to anyone who owns a camera with a pop-up flash. Odds are, you aren’t ready to run out and spend hundreds of dollars for a good flash, so does this mean you’re out of luck?

Fortunately, the answer is no. To be honest up front, your pop-up flash will probably never produce the kind of results you’ll get from a Canon 580EX II, but you can take steps to make your flash usable and helpful.

Diffusion Techniques

Now that we’ve bashed pop-up flashes, you should know that even the high-grade on-camera flashes have a dirty little secret: they’re harsh as well! It’s simply the nature of the technology in its current state. They might be more powerful and spread the light out much better, but it’s also quite easy to use them to take horrible photos.

Professional photographers that aren’t a fan of directly hitting subjects with a bare flash generally take one of two routes. The first is to bounce the flash. Professional on-camera flashes have a pivot mechanism that allows you to point your flash at the ceiling, a nearby wall or a reflector card. This ensures that the subject isn’t taking the harsh flash directly but rather receiving much softer, reflected light.

If you take a look at your pop-up flash, this technique doesn’t really help you much. It would be ingenious of Canon to give their pop-up flashes a degree of swivel, even if just to point them up, but we have no such luck. Instead, the flash is fixed in its forward facing position.

The second technique that you’ll see professional photographers use is the application of a flash diffuser. The most popular of these are made my Gary Fong. Fong makes several diffusers but most of them generally look like a piece of Tupperware retrofitted onto a Flash.

These “Lightspheres” work much in the same way that a lampshade does, dispersing and softening the light all at once. When used properly, this eliminates the harsh shadows and flat lighting typical of flash-lit shots.

Since you can’t use the first technique very well with your pop-up flash, you’ll have to take the second route and use a flash diffuser if you want to reduce the impact of your flash. Let’s take a look at a product specifically for this purpose.

The Puffer

Gary Fong diffusers are generally for professional use and start at about . However, Fong also makes a neat little diffuser that you can pick up for around called the Puffer. This flash diffuser is specially designed for pop-up flashes like those found on Canon Rebels (Puffers exist for Nikon, Sony, Pentax and other cameras as well). I recently purchased one of these for my Canon Rebel T1i so I could show you how to use it and see what kind of results it produces.

Installing the Puffer

The Puffer comes in two pieces, both made of plastic. The first piece is the holder mechanism. This is cleverly designed to fit right into the hot shoe on your camera.

The second piece is the actual diffuser. It’s a piece of curved, translucent plastic with several holes in a vertical strip on either side.

Put these two pieces together and you’ve got your Puffer. The pegs in the holder pop right into the holes on the diffuser. Multiple holes help you position the diffuser properly in front of your pop-up flash. I used the third hole from the bottom for my T1i, you should experiment to see what works best on your camera.

Once you’ve got your Puffer put together, just slide it into the hot shoe on your camera. Note that there’s nothing electronic here, the hot shoe is just being used to hold the diffuser upright.

Isn’t that something? Now let’s do some tests to see if I wasted .

Testing the Puffer

First, I found a fairly poorly lit section of my house. It was in the middle of the day so the house felt quite bright to my eyes, but my camera didn’t quite agree. I was attempting to simulate a lot of the inside shots I’ve had trouble with during family gatherings, parties, etc. The resulting image was quite dark, even at a fairly slow shutter speed. Note that all of the images in this section are straight out of camera and have not been edited in any way aside from resizing and labeling.

Next I repeated the same shot, once with the diffuser and once with just the bare flash. The difference between the two results wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I had hoped, but they are noticeably unique.

Neither technique created harsh face shadows (I was straight in front of the camera), nor did either produce an overly harsh, flat look. Even more surprisingly, one isn’t significantly brighter than the other as I had expected.

The area that seems to display the most difference is the temperature of the image. The diffuser made the photo noticeably warmer (which is a good thing). This is more evident if we sample the skin tones from the two images using the same reference point.

Since my first setup wasn’t creating any harsh shadows to analyze, I moved on to something new. This time I changed the camera settings a bit to adjust to the new room and repeated my with/without the Puffer process. Below are the results:

Here you can see the results of the Puffer much better. The shadows are softer and the light is more spread out, resulting in an overall brighter looking image.

In one final test, I wanted to really see the difference between how the two different methods dispersed the light. Basically, I wanted to analyze the shape of the flash and the resulting light rays. The easiest way I could figure out to do this was simply to stand in front of a mirror and take a few shots.

The image on the top shows the flash with the Puffer and the image on the bottom shows the flash without the Puffer. The images are both hideous, but again we see an overall better dispersal of light when the Puffer is introduced.

Is It Worth The Money?

The Gary Fong Puffer did exactly what it advertised, it softened my shadows and spread out the flash. However, I must admit that I had hoped for a more dramatic improvement in the quality of the resulting image. To be fair, much of this can probably be attributed to the fact that Canon placed a not-so-horrible flash on the T1i.

To quickly answer some questions that you might have about the Puffer: No, it doesn’t eliminate redeye or pin lighting (little dots in the eyes). The flash carries around a big room a bit better, but is still not ideal for shooting anything more than a few feet away. No, I still wouldn’t use a pop-up flash in a dark professional situation such as a wedding reception. Though I might consider using the Puffer in an already bright outdoor shoot to add some filler.

So will this piece of plastic take a pop-up flash from horrible to amazing? Certainly not. Am I glad that I have one? You bet. I’ve spent a lot of time with it in the past month in lots of different lighting scenarios and I almost always get better results with the Puffer than I do without it. Sometimes the difference is so subtle that most people would see no real improvement, but a photographer’s eye will always spot the warmer skin tones and improved light spread.

How Do You Diffuse Your Pop-Up Flash?

Now that we’ve seen how the commercial product works, let’s have a look at some of your homemade methods! I know many of you have faced this problem before and I’ve seen some pretty inventive methods for a DIY diffuser, everything from a film canister to vacuum bags!

Leave a comment below with a link to your diffuser hacks. Were you satisfied with the results? How would you improve your rig if you did it all over. Also be sure to let us know what you think of the Puffer!

Phototuts+

http://wakwaw.com/

We are a Creative Designer &amp; Developer Team with a heart of passionate about what we do, and how we do it. We create clean, smart and effective websites and applications. We believe that creativity blended with technology is the key to unlocking ideas and delivering results. Homes in Tangerang and Jakarta, Indonesia.

In this part of the Fireworks Pro Series, we’re going to continue looking at how Fireworks works with other programs in the Adobe Creative Suite. Specifically, we’ll be creating a website design and then convert it to an interactive, animated website in Flash Catalyst… all in under half an hour!

About Fireworks and Flash Catalyst

If you’ve never worked with Flash Catalyst before… this is actually a pretty great starting point. Tom is going to walk through the creation of a simple, straight forward website in Fireworks… but that’s where things really get interesting. Once the site design is complete, we’ll walk through how to convert the entire design into a working, fully interactive (and animated!) site in Flash Catalyst that you can deploy just about anywhere on the web!

This is a great jumping off point for anyone who is new to Flash, Fireworks, or Catalyst – But it’s also useful for just about anyone who hasn’t really used the entire Creative Suite to take a site from design to implementation. In under 30 minutes we’ll be creating a working website… not bad for the same amount of time that it takes to grab lunch.

The key topics that we’ll be covering:

• How to build a complete site design in Fireworks (with multiple pages)
• How to Export the design for Flash Catalyst
• How to convert the flat design into an interactive website, complete with video, scrollable content, and more.

Let’s Get Started!

About the Author

Tom Green is a professor of Interactive Multimedia through the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning’s School of Media Studies. Like all faculty in the program, Tom believes his students deserve to be taught by instructors who are regarded as experts in their field and whose knowledge of their subject is current with industry best practice. He is an Adobe Community Expert, Adobe Education Leader (Post Secondary), Community MX partner and was listed in Adobe’s Top Ten Most Influential Flash Designers.

Tom has written several books (9 in all!) and extended tutorials on the topic of Fireworks and web design over the last 7 years, so he’s a natural fit to guide us through this incredible program. After this introduction, Tom will be guiding us through the wonderful world of Fireworks with several video tutorials. Alright, now that you know a bit about Tom, let’s dig in!

About the Fireworks Pro Series

If you’ve been wondering about what makes Fireworks tick for a while, this series is being recorded for you!

We’re amassing quite a few tutorials for everyone from the beginner to the expert, so be sure to check out our entire library of Fireworks tutorials.

If you have a particular request or question about using Fireworks for web or app design, post it in the comments section along with any of your other thoughts!

Webdesigntuts+

http://www.dropbuilder.com/

We will catch premium domains in your industry as they drop that have existing traffic, links and PR. We will then build and host a blog on the domain on your behalf.

In today’s tutorial, we’ve been given permission to publish a really interesting chapter of a new photography book – Home Studio Photography. It will take you through a full series of steps to create your very own snoot – a device to block and control the light given off by your strobe.

What Is a Snoot?

A snoot helps you restrict light by blocking some of it that is coming from your strobe. Most snoots are tunnel-looking devices that attach to the light emitting side of your strobe. Obviously, the light must go through the tunnel and can’t spread outside it. This results in a circular pattern where the light hits.

Before we go on and show how easy it is to make (or adapt) snoots I would like to mention the two main factors that control how the light coming from a snoot will look.

The length of the snoot determines how tight the circle of light is when it hits the subject – short snoots block less light and provide “bigger circles” and long snoots restrict the light more and create tighter circles. So if you wanted to create just a small dot of light you need a really, really long snoot.

The interior color of a snoot determines how fast the edges of the light circle fall off. If the interior is painted black, you get fast fall off and sharp light edges; if it is painted white, you get softer edges while silver produces even softer edges again.

Materials

• Used cereal box
• Tape (and optional gaffer tape for the finish)

Tools

• Scissors – Black or silver marker – Ruler

Instructions

Step 1 – Trace And Cut

The first step is to measure the size of the front of your strobe. For the Nikon SB800 on this project the measurements are 2.35″ on the wide side and 1.52″ on the thin side.

Once you have the measurements, trace a set of rectangles on the inside of an opened out cereal box. The rectangles should be thin-wide-thinwide- flap, where the flap is .8″ wide, and will be used to assist with taping the snoot. The “long” dimension of the box should be the length of your snoot plus an extra .8″ (2.75″ snoot + .8″ extra = 3.55″ total in our example).

Step 2 – Colour Correction

If you are lucky enough to have a cereal box that is white or black on one side, this step is unnecessary but if, like me, your box is brown, you need to “color correct” it. Otherwise the light will pick up some hue from the interior color.

Note: As mentioned above, the color of the interior of a snoot has an impact on the way the light it throws falls off. Using a black marker creates relatively sharp edges and fast falloff, while silver or white creates softer edges and a more gradual fall off.

Using a pen or a utility knife lightly score over the traces to deepen them. We are going to fold this box and this will make folding easier. Using a marker of your choice, color the entire interior surface of the snoot. If you have a young child, this is a great opportunity to get them involved with “that weird thing that daddy / mommy does”.

Step 3 – Fold And Tape

Fold along the traces and tape the flap over the thin side.

For a professional look, you can gaffer tape all around the box.

When mounted, the snoot is held by friction, so precise fit is important. If you are using a few small hot-shoe flashes you may want to label different snoots with marked tape.

Sample Images

The following three images were taken with 6.7″, 4.2″ and 2.75″ snoots to demonstrate the effect of making a snoot long or short.

Quick Tip: A Beer Cozy

The same principle as the foamy snoot applies here – using a long cylinder to restrict light. Only, with cozies, some of the steps are saved courtesy of beer companies. (If you are under 21 please read “soda companies”.) Most cozies are black on the inside, so you can just cut the bottom and have an instant snoot. If you have the right size of cozy it will stay on by sheer friction.

The nice thing about this snoot, and the other soft snoots, is that they do not have to produce a circular pattern. Depending on how you press the front side of the snoot, you can get shapes ranging from circle, through ellipsoid to a very tight slit, as seen in the examples below.

Buy the Book!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, there’s plenty more to discover in the full book! Home Studio Photography compiles an invaluable collection of tutorials, quick tips and step by step instructions to building your own home studio on a shoestring budget.

Not only is this book a goldmine for the starving student, the skills it teaches are valuable for any photographer who wants to spend their money wisely, or needs to modify the light when they haven’t got exactly the gear they need with them at the time.

It costs .95, and you can find all the details over at the book website.

Phototuts+

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend, we feature an inspiring talk that graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister did at TED. He takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy — and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.

Vectortuts+

http://www.cappen.com/

Cappen Agência Digital, Produtora web, SEO, Comunicação Digital, Criação de Web Sites, Portais, Flash Site, Sistemas Bluetooth, Touchscreen, E-commmerce // Web Agency // Recife – Pernambuco – Brasil // +55 81 3241.5288

Put simply, the scaling fallacy is the phenomena where people wrongly assume that something that works at one size will also work at another size. In this article, we’re going to discuss how this fallacy comes into play in the real physical world, and then we’ll explain how to apply the lessons to your own web designs.

The Scaling Fallacy

Ugh, as if a giant 50 foot tall scorpion could even move, let alone do battle with a demi-god.

I was recently watching the movie remake for Clash of the Titans when this old design principle came to mind. In an early climactic scene, giant scorpions proceed to attack the hero of the movie in an epic battle to the death. The scorpions, scaled to gigantic proportions, were nimble and deadly as you might expect when dealing with such a fearsome foe…

The power of digital special effects nowadays makes it seem entirely possible that such a scaled up monstrosity could occur given the right alignment of Zeus and the Growth Ray from Honey, I Blew Up the Kids (another awesome example of why science and Hollywood should never make babies). However, the reality of a gigantically scaled up monster is physically impossible.

While much is said about tiny insects being able to lift huge weights compared to their relative body size, the sheer reality of that same strength being transferred to a super-sized version of that same insect just doesn’t work in the physical world.

A tiny ant may be able to lift 50x it’s weight, but that doesn’t mean that a massive 1,000lb ant would be able to lift 50,000lbs. The effects of gravity on a tiny insect are virtually non-existent, but gravity becomes a very real power once the size is scaled up. A 1,000lb ant would have a hard time just rolling out of bed in the morning.

The scaling fallacy doesn’t just work on scaling small things to big though – A massive mountain can stand through a thousand rain and snow storms… but a tiny hill of dirt will be washed away by the gentlest breeze.

You get it… what works at one size doesn’t always work when scaled out beyond the original design intentions. The design, function, and usability of just about anything in the entire world are tied to each other by scale. The fallacy occurs when a designer assumes that usability will be retained when a design is scaled up or down.

Applying it to Web Design

The Scaling Fallacy comes into play in web design in two key areas: interactivity assumptions and load assumptions. We’ll discuss both in a moment, but as you read, I want you to consider how easy these scaling problems are to solve.

As the old saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20“… it’s being able to accurately predict the future that’s so darn tricky.

In the majority of cases, solving these design problems is quite simple (adding a pagination system, protecting a layout from oversized images by using the CSS overflow: hidden property, instructing clients to never mess with the navigation system, etc.). All of these tasks are easy to do… it’s identifying these issues before they happen that requires careful thought and preparation.

Alright, let’s dive into the nitty gritty stuff:

Interaction Assumptions

Interaction assumptions occur when you create a design based on an assumption that the user’s behavior will be the same at different levels of scale.

The classic example is of a fire escape plan: A general fire escape plan for a small house is simple: exit the building as fast as possible, call the police. The same exit strategy, when applied to a skyscraper office building packed with people would result in catastrophe. The problem isn’t the design per say, it’s the fact that the design hasn’t accounted for the new scale.

A Web Design Example

In web design, similar interactivity assumptions can occur when you assume that a client is going to populate your web design with content as you expect them to.

For example, the placement, style and size of a navigation bar may perfect sense when a blog only has 4 or 5 categories, but the same navigation bar becomes nearly unusable when 20 or more links are added:

A navigation bar design, as it’s intended to be used.

The same navigation bar, this time with 20 or so links, making it difficult to read or use.

In this case, the solution is quite simple: instruct the client who is using the website to keep his main navigation links limited to a handful (or use a dropdown menu for additional links).

Identifying Interaction Assumptions

Identifying interaction assumptions isn’t rocket science, but it requires a sort of flexible thinking that accounts for different possibilities. In terms of web design, if you design an element under the assumption that it will only be used in a single way (either by a user or the person inputting the content a year after you leave the project), there’s a very good chance that the element will malfunction when it’s used in a way outside of what you intended it for.

Here are just a few examples where simple interaction assumptions are made… these aren’t all of them by any means, but it should give you good idea of how this works:

• Images - Imagine you’ve designed a website that uses all 200px by 200px images. The client later on adds a 400px by 100px image, which breaks the layout.
• Navigation Menus – You design a site with a innovative “docked” menu system that requires a user to hover over a certain area to see the menu… but you neglect to tell the users how to do this.
• Sidebars - You design a sidebar that’s exactly 300px wide, but the client adds images that are 500px wide, breaking the styling.
• Layouts - You design a site that relies heavily on multi-column layout, but the client later on wants to use a layout that uses the full width (without a sidebar).

Most of these problems should be easy to fix… just a few additional lines of code or a simple educational meeting with a client can prevent any problems from ever occurring… but what I want you to take away from this is that you must always anticipate scenarios where your designs are used in ways that you don’t originally plan them to be used.

Load Assumptions

Load assumptions are a little bit different – they occur when a designer assumes that the stresses on a given system will be the same at every scale. Load assumptions happen a lot on the development side of a web design project; Making assumptions that an image heavy web design that works when 1,000 people visit the site a month can be blown out of the water when more than a million people visit in a day and put additional stress on the server. The same principle can apply to the actual visual design of a site too…

For instance, you design an image gallery layout that is incredibly easy to browse when there are just 10 images… but by failing to provide a proper “pagination” system, the entire layout becomes difficult to browse when more than 25 images are added.

A pagination system is perhaps one of the simplest examples of tweaking a design to account for scale.

The solution is pretty simple in this case: by adding a simple pagination system, the very same design can be made “scalable” with a few small tweaks. A numbered pagination system is added, and whallah!, your design is usable again… at any reasonable scale. You would only encounter the scaling problem again if your library of images exceeded the reasonable limits of the pagination system… at which point you would have to consider a more refined tagging and search system.

Identifying Load Assumptions

Identifying load assumptions is pretty simple too: just imagine that any specific part of your design being stretched to it’s limits in terms of content… then plan accordingly. The solution might be a design or UI tweak (like the pagination example), but it also might be as simple as instructing users what the limits are. If your design only allows for 100 images and there’s nothing that you can do about it, just tell the users that up front. See how simple that is?

Screen Size Assumptions

The last type of assumption that I’d like to describe is one that most of you are familiar with: screen size assumptions. This topic alone is worthy of it’s own blog post (more on this next week), so I’ll try to keep this brief:

If you’re designing a website and never stop for a moment to test out how it looks in a different resolution, stop right now and do it!

Long gone are the days where 75% of internet surfers are browsing on a 1024×768 monitor. Nowadays, people are surfing the net on screens of all shapes and sizes… from tiny iPhone screens to massive HD televisions.

Designing a website under the assumption that everyone out there has a certain screen size isn’t just short-sighted, it’s undermining the core usability of your site. While it might not make sense to create a different website for each different type of device out there, it’s certainly worth taking an hour or two to at least consider how your site will fare on different screen types and resolutions.

Finding just a few adjustments that you can make during the design phase of a site will save you a lot of grief in the long run. Here’s just a few quick tips for avoiding screen-size assumptions:

• Don’t rely on complex menu systems that require a mouse to accurately use. Hint: 8pt font isn’t finger-friendly.
• Consider adding a mobile-friendly fallback theme to a WordPress site.
• Avoid designing “full screen” sites (sites where the core content occupies more than 960px wide) unless the site can scale itself down for smaller screens.
• Don’t use Flash for core navigation, unless you have a damned good reason (or an HTML fallback method)
• When in doubt, make all of your body text 2 points bigger… it won’t hurt the readability on normal monitors, and mobile users will actually be able to read your text.

Avoiding the Scaling Fallacy

No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy.

The only real way to avoid the scaling fallacy is to constantly be on the lookout for it. Throughout the design process, you should be aware of your own tendency to make these sorts of assumptions.

Don’t just design under the assumption that everything you create in Photoshop or Fireworks will stay the same when the website gets launched. Unless you are on a project where you’re going to be the sole entity that designs and adds content to the site, chances are high that someone, at some point, will add content that will break your expectations for how that design was intended to be used.

Likewise, avoid designing things that only work in a severely limited scale. As we all know, making customizations and revisions to a web design can be a painful, arduous and expensive process… designing under the scaling fallacy only makes these problems multiply as you’ll be required to revisit your old designs as often as people’s behavior falls outside of your own assumptions.

Conclusion

That’s it for now! I hope everyone finds this post useful… The Scaling Fallacy is one of those enigmatic principles that’s easy to explain in the abstract, but hard to nail down in concrete designs… so it takes lots of practice and constant vigilance to avoid the major pitfalls that come from the assumptions that we discussed.

If you liked the post or have something to add, post it below in the comments. Cheers!

Webdesigntuts+

Family gatherings are a wonderful time to experience the joy and fun of those you love. And as a photographer (if you are reading this, you are probably a photographer) your internal mission is often to capture the best photos of all the activity as it unfolds.

Maybe relatives are making a special trip across the country or across the world for the gathering. Or perhaps it is an annual tradition. No matter which, these tips will help give you the advantage you need to capture some truly memorable photos at your own family gathering!

Copyright David Becker

Shoot The Front Door

While I don’t mean the front door itself (although that can be a nice photo at the beginning of a slide show or photo album) unless it is highly decorated, I am talking here about shooting the activity at the front door. As guest show up, it is great to capture photos of the welcoming hugs and handshakes. This is also when people are most relaxed and themselves.

Not only are people relaxed, if there is a chance to stand behind and above the head greeter, such as on steps, you will not be noticed at all. This leaves the trap perfectly set to shoot a few genuine smiles and hugs before any one notices their picture being taken. And let’s face it, once people know a camera is near, they start posing or changing their demeanor. Get them while they are fresh and unsuspecting, at the front door!

Copyright martathegoodone

Increase the ISO and Drop the Flash

Modern DSLRs are quickly becoming more and more effective in low light. While ISO 400 was once the highest useable setting, now decent photos can be shot up to ISO 1600, depending on the camera in use. This higher ISO lends itself well to the low lighting in some houses when families gather.

Shooting without a flash allows for far more stealth. More stealth leads to more natural shots, the shots that remind you of the actual activities of the gathering, not the posed moments. (Posed moments are fine, by the way, and we will cover them in a bit.) When shooting without a flash, it is important to check the shutter speed to ensure there is no blurred action.

Copyright Mitch Barrie

Use a Remote Control or Timer

Using a remote control, or a timer with the camera set in a non-conspicuous location, is a simple way to take candid photos when people are most relaxed. Warning, this may lead to some embarrassing photos as people are left to be themselves. We all do things when people aren’t watching, that we would never do if we knew they were. And especially not if a camera was in our face.

Taking a cue from the previous point, setting the ISO higher and removing the need for flash will hopefully help your guest not even know the camera exists. The less they know of the camera, the more relaxed they will be.

Move the camera around at various times. A number of cameras have a remote control with a timer function, allowing the camera to take a photo every X minutes for up to 100 or more images. This can be very handy when you want to take a break and enjoy the party, but let your camera keep capturing the action.

Copyright Bryan Rosengrant

Food Preparation

There’s going to be food at your gathering, that is almost assured. Whether or not that food is cooked on site is a different story. If the event is catered on-site or if the food is prepared by other family members in the kitchen, you will have a smorgasbord of photographic opportunities available. Wind your way behind the scenes and capture the kitchen magic.

Shoot the broad shots; the whole kitchen, food on the move and the happy chefs. But also get close and personal with the prep work. This is a side of the event some may not be witnessing (or you might have the entire party crowded into the kitchen).

Be sure to let them know where their food is coming from. The chopping, broiling, baking, frying and grilling that goes into making a family gathering feast. Whether it is an outdoor Bar-B-Que or a Wintery sit-down meal, the food preparation and work of the fine chefs in the kitchen deserve some spotlight.

Copyright Tudor

The Food Itself!

Food, food, glorious food! Whether the family gathering is a sit-down affair or a backyard BBQ, food will most likely be involved. At times it is the main reason for gathering is to share a meal and that makes food photos all the more important.

There are a number great posts here on Tuts+ with instructional information on capturing quality food shots, such as Food Photography That’s Good Enough To Eat.

A personal caution about food shots. Actually, not so much about the food, but about the eating of it. While capturing the feel of the day, be thoughtful of those eating the glorious food. Rarely is there a good shot of someone eating just about any normal food. We humans are not fashionable in our normal food eating graces and photos can be downright embarrassing for some.

Here is where comedy can save the day. Instead of the normal “you caught me eating” photos, ask your subjects to pose in some way. Food as a prop lightens the mood and gives people something to do. It is usually a fun, spontaneous way to take unique photos of the event.

Copyright Steven Depolo

Get Crazy With (Some Of) The Poses

Family gatherings often require an obligatory group photo. Or a photo of certain parts of the family all together. The larger the group, the harder the shot. One quick bit of advice would be to shoot multiple shots of any group to avoid the dreaded blinkers from ruining it.

Beyond the blinkers are the wandering eyes. When people have been standing for a portrait too long, with other family gathering around to admire the fine grouping, the eyes of those in front of the camera will wander around to the distractions coming from behind the camera and that can spell disaster.

As the photographer your goal is to gain control of the situation and try to hold the family together for just a few brief seconds. I tend to make this promise with those in front of the camera when things are getting a bit out of control:

“I need to take three quick, normal photos. Then we will shoot five goofy ones when you can do whatever you want.”

Is it cheap coercion just to get your way? Of course it is! And it works. If people know they will have a time to goof off that is more time than you are asking them to sit still and smile normal, they cave in and give you what you want. In return, there are always some keepers among the goofy set as well.

Copyright Evan Osherow

Employ Help, Especially Kids

This one can be a lot of fun if you know your family well. Enlist the help of a young one, someone who is outgoing and is a social butterfly, to wander the party and let you follow. Ask them to introduce you to the people they know.

Better yet, ask them to ask those at the party to pose for a photo. Again, it may seem like a type of coercion, but people often can’t say no and are more relaxed around kids.

If a child is not around or willing, grab an adult who tends to be the life of the party. Preferably someone who is not too tipsy so they don’t go off the deep end. You want someone who is fun and can get the crowd going without being obnoxious.

Follow this person around as they greet guests and ask to pose, then have them jump out of the picture so that one person doesn’t fill your entire album.

Copyright Alli

Props!

Most people feel odd standing in front of a camera and smiling. Admittedly, it is one of the more unusual things photographers ask of their subjects. We don’t naturally pose as we move through life. But we do work with props all the time. If things are seeming a bit humdrum in the photo field, grab an unlikely prop and walk through the party offering it up for people’s impressions.

It may be something simple, or it may be something completely off the wall. Stuffed animals work well for kids and something as simple as a household decoration works for adults.

This can also be a running theme. I have seen albums created where, at one point, there are photographs of all the party-goers wearing the same hat. Be creative and liven things up!

Copyright Fran Trudeau

Ask For A Favorite Memory

This technique works well if you plan to present the photos in some type of album (online or printed) and have room for captioning. It does take extra work, but the result is a great keepsake. The idea is to get your subject talking about a favorite memory they have about their family. This serves two purposes.

Firstly, it helps give context when captioning photos, such as “Uncle Jim loved fishing with his kids out at Lake Overfenchobie until the sky grew too dark to see.”

Second, when remembering a pleasant (or not so pleasant) time, it is almost impossible for the subject to be overly concerned about their photo being taken. People tend to be most self-conscious when they are told not to be. But if they are given a pleasant task, their attention shifts and their expressions become more natural. They will probably even be laughing at some point, a great time to grab their photo.

Phototuts+

In this Quick Tip you will learn how to apply the principles of Atmospheric Perspective within Illustrator. Using Transparency Masks, simple Linear Gradients and the Hue Saturation Balance color sliders you will blend flat objects to give a scene a sense of depth. Let’s get started!

Vectortuts+

How is a photograph created? Through light. Actually, every aspect of photography is dependent on light: light is what is captured by the film, light reflects off different objects making them visible and creating color. Well, what happens, when there is no light or there’s only little of it?

In this article we will explore every aspect of the artificial lighting evolution starting with early chemicals, flash powders, and moving on to flash bulbs and electronic flashes.

Early History of Artificial Lighting

In the early days of photography, the only source of light was, of course, the sun. So mostly photography depended upon long days and good weather. It was obvious that artificial light would be indispensable: not dependent on the sun anymore, pictures could be taken where natural light wasn’t sufficient, or on dull days when studio work was impossible.

The first artificial light photography dates back to 1839, when L. Ibbetson used oxy-hydrogen light (also known as limelight, discovered by Goldsworthy Gurney) when photographing microscopic objects. Limelight was produced by heating a ball of calcium carbonate in an oxygen flame until it became incandescent.

Despite being used widely around 1839-1840, the results of using the chemical were rather poor: chalk-white pale faces and a harshly lit picture, an effect created due to the imperfection of the light source and differentiation of the reflectance of different parts of the scene (due to different distances and materials).

Attempts of using limelight and other chemical sources for lighting the picture can be considered to have been a failure, either because they did not contain the rich blue, that the plates of the day required, as well as due to the chemical’s low intensity.

Other possibilities had to be explored. Nadar – an early French photographer and journalist – for example, photographed the sewers in Paris, using battery-operated lighting. Later the arc-lamps were introduced to aid photographers, but it was not until 1877 that the first studio using electric light was opened.

Powered by a gas-driven dynamo the studio by Van der Weyde in Regent Street, had the light sufficient to allow exposures of 2 to 3 seconds.

Flash Powder

Despite being quite a step forward in artificial lighting development, the early chemicals could not provide the satisfying result for the photos. Producing a shorter, and therefore more predictable flash became the goal. There was one solution: magnesium.

In 1862 Edward Sonstadt began experiments to prepare the metal on a commercial basis and by 1864 magnesium wire was finally placed on sale.

The wire was extremely expensive, but following an extremely successful demonstration in February the same year, where a photograph was produced in a darkened room in only 50 seconds, the highly actinic light proved ideal for photography and became incredibly popular.

The technology of the wire wasn’t too complicated. Magnesium was burned as a wire or ribbon twisted into tapers or clockwork lamps with a reflector. There were different lamp designs, each for different use. Despite different ways of using the magnesium, there were no ideal variant for this method.

Burning was often incomplete and unpredictable. Exposures varied considerably and the air remained laden with grey, opaque fumes, making the method unsuitable for studio use.

Even more, the technique was not without its obvious dangers and it also released a lot of smoke, smell and a fall-out of white ash.

Nevertheless, magnesium lamps gained in popularity through the 1870s and 1880s despite the expenses and danger. Trying to solve the unpredictability of the popular magnesium technique, Charles Piazzi Smyth, experimenting in the pyramids at Giza, Egypt, in 1865, had attempted to ignite magnesium mixed with gunpowder. The resulting picture was quite poor but the principle of combining magnesium with oxygen-rich chemical resulting in a combustion was developed.

In 1887, Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke mixed fine magnesium powder with potassium chlorate to produce Blitzlicht. This was the first ever widely used flash powder. Blitzlicht gave the photographers the ability to produce instant photographs at night at a very high shutter speed. This caused quite an excitement in the photography world.

Being the explosive that it is, flash powder accidents were obviously inevitable. Simply grinding the components was dangerous enough, and a number of photographers died while either preparing the flash powder or setting it off.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the flash powder formula was refined and improvements were made to make the process simpler and safer. The flashes now lasted for 10 ms only, so subjects no longer closed their eyes during the exposure which helped portrait photography.

There were still enough disadvantages to the method, for example, the smoke was still causing trouble, making studio work quite difficult, so another invention was awaited.

Flash Bulbs

In his experiments in underwater photography in the 1890s, Louis Boutan – a French zoologist and a pioneer underwater photographer – used a cumbersome magnesium lamp. Powdered magnesium, sealed in a glass jar fixed to a lead-weighted barrel to supply oxygen during burning, was ignited by means of an alcohol lamp.

Paul Vierkötter used the same principle in 1925, when he ignited magnesium electronically in a glass globe. In 1929 the Vacublitz, the first true flashbulb made from aluminum foil sealed in oxygen, was produced in Germany by the Hauser Company using Johannes B. Ostermeier’s patents.

It was quickly followed by the Sashalite from the General Electric Company in the USA.

The flash bulb was an oxygen-filled bulb in which aluminum foil was burned, with ignition being accomplished by a battery. The light of the bulb, although powerful, was soft and diffused, therefore less dangerous to the eyes than flash powder.

Using a flash bulb produced neither noise nor smoke when the charge was fired. This provided an opportunity to using flash in places where flash powder use was questionable or simply dangerous. The first photos using the “Sashalite” flashbulb were published by The ‘Morning Post.

The pictures were of the engine-room and other compartments of a submarine. These were not only interesting as unusual subjects, but they indicated a high technical standard. It was not to be until 1927, however, that the simple flash-bulb was to appear for sale.

Flashbulbs were a big step forward. They weighed little, were easily fired electrically and were extremely powerful and, therefore, convenient. Another important aspect of the technique was that it was extremely safe, especially compared to the widely used before flash powder.

Due to a high quality of the invention, mass-market cameras were soon fitted with flashguns or synchronizers to fire a bulb when the shutter opened. This was a huge technological leap forward for the photography and a very advanced technology in its own, so by the 1950s bulbs had virtually replaced flash powder on the market.

There were also several versions of the flashbulbs released to the consumer that fitted everyone from professional to amateur photographers. The purpose was mainly to make the use of the flash more convenient for a novice or an amateur user.

For example, Flashcube, a popular bulb by Kodak was a device that had 4 bulbs installed in one, making it easier to take several pictures in smaller amount of time.

Flash Synchronisation

Early flash photography was not synchronized. It’s hard to imagine an non-synchronized flash today, but the way those worked was that one had to put a camera on a tripod, open the shutter, trigger the flash, and close the shutter again – a technique known as open flash. The exposure time had to be managed manually, and the process was very inconvenient compared to today.

Despite all of the problems, the open flash technique using flash powder was being used quite widely until the 1950s. But with the success and ease with which flash bulbs were used, flash powder slowly became history. With the marketing success of flashes, and the value of the idea of taking pictures at any time of the night or day, by the late 1930s manufacturers began to incorporate flash synchronization into their cameras.

Some of the first mass produced cameras with this facility were the Kine Exakta, Falcon Press Flash, Agfa Shur-Flash and the Kodak Six-20 Flash Brownie box camera released in 1939 and 1940. After World War II, it became usual for a camera to have a flash synced shutters.

Cameras designed to be used with flash bulbs usually had different sync modes in order to be used with various bulb types. Depending on the requirements, the flash contacts were triggered accordingly prior to the shutter being open.

The principles of flash bulb synced cameras are still used today in modern cameras with electronic flashes and with big studio lights.

Electronic Flash

It was in 1931 when Harold Edgerton – a professor of electrical engineering – produced the first electronic flash tube. One of the most important advantages compared to the flash bulbs was that the electronic flash intensity could be controlled and adjusted.

Another great advantage, of course, was the rechargeable aspect of the electronic flash. Flash bulbs, despite being extremely useful, were very expensive and could only be obtained by professional photographers. Electronic flash used batteries of some sort, so it was possible to recharge the system.

Today’s flash units are electronic flash tubes. An electronic flash contains a tube filled with xenon gas, where electricity of high voltage is discharged to generate an electrical arc that creates a short flash of light.

Photographic flash has moved through chemical to electronic phase, mostly driven by a desire to shorten duration and increase intensity of the light. In addition, a sensor either in the flashgun or within the camera is now used to detect that enough light has reached the film (‘auto’ flash).

For that, an infrared sensor is usually used to determine the distance between the camera and the subject, therefore setting the aperture and flash intensity automatically.

With every automated process there is always a possibility of something going wrong. The disadvantages with automatic electronic flash lie with unequal lighting in subjects at dissimilar distances from the camera with the flash, however, this problem is easily solved by using several light sources when working with the subject.

An Interesting Side-Note

The red-eye effect happens because the light of the flash occurs too fast for the pupil to close and much of the very bright light from the flash passes into the eye through the pupil. The light then reflects off the back of the eyeball and out through the pupil.

The camera records this light. Since the light goes through the blood in the choroid which nourishes the back of the eye, the color of the eye is red, hence this annoying effect everyone is aware of. Various techniques are available to combat the problem today, but it’s interesting to know why it occurs!

Phototuts+

Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we understand how overwhelming our site may be to those of you who may be brand new to Photoshop. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start working in Photoshop.

Photoshop Basix, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak includes 25 short video tutorials, around 5 – 10 minutes in length that will teach you all the fundamentals of working with Photoshop. Today’s tutorial, Part 7: Blending is Fun will explain how to get to grips with layer blend modes. Let’s get started!

Psdtuts+

Ok, now you already have your cool images and ready to form HDR. Making HDR involves two steps:

1) Merging into a 32-bit HDR photo (which will not look nice at first glance).

2) Tone-mapping (which will produce the cool image out of a 32-bit photo).

To perform these two steps, you need an HDR software, preferably Photomatix. There are some other softwares out there including Adobe Photoshop which can make HDR but it is well accepted that Photomatix is the best one. Therefore, in this part, I will be demonstrating the two steps (Merging and Tone-mapping) with Photomatix. To make it easy, I made video tutorials which will give you a quick understanding of the software Photomatix and the steps to make the HDR with a real demo sample.

HDR VIDEO TUTORIAL:

Generating HDR with Photomatix (Quick demo)

1.1 Merging  into 32-bit HDR image

1.2 Tone-mapping of 32-bit image

Generating HDR in depth (Advanced)

2.1. Removing ghosting artifacts

2.2 Tone-mapping and saving the setting for batch processing

2.3. Batch processing

2.4. Polishing the Photomatix HDR result in Lightroom

2.5. Polishing the Photomatix HDR result in Photoshop

In this Quick Tip you will learn some practical and creative uses for Replacing the Spine in an Illustrator Blend. From mathematically placing elements, to making decorative ornaments, you’ll find a variety uses for this great tool.

Vectortuts+

Just because you didn’t get to go to that awesome photography conference doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! Occasionally, we’ll be featuring a recommended photography lecture on Phototuts+.

In this video, the photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin shows the power of photography for connecting us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.

Phototuts+

Yah, I said lasers! This year, at Adobe Max, Photoshop Guru Russell Brown showcased a new way to paint using Photoshop CS5, and yes, laser beams. This technique uses lasers to engrave an image onto a canvas made of solid wood and then, using a high quality flatbed printer, print the color image onto the carved wood, leaving the creator with an eye-popping 3D version of the original image; which is frankly, amazing! To make things even cooler, Russell is going to give away a custom image to 1 randomly selected fan, as well as 10 copies of his book “From Reality to Renaissance” to 10 others.

To learn more about how you can enter, click here. In addition, you can learn more about this process by watching the video below.

Psdtuts+

Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Phototuts+. This tutorial was first published in October, 2009.

The most common complaints I hear from most photographers of any experience level is “my images aren’t sharp”, and “I can’t get my focus to lock”. Most want to blame their equipment and, while there are many instances that equipment is to blame, I have found a vast majority are just simple user error. This is often down to a lack of understanding of how an autofocus (AF) system works. This tutorial will give you a better understanding of focus and sharpness, and hopefully help you take photographs that you’re very happy with!

1. Adjust your Diopter

My what? Your diopter – or your eyepiece. You will never know if your subject is in good focus if you can’t see what is sharp yourself through the eyepiece. On the side of your eyepiece (as shown below) is a small wheel to adjust the focus of your eyepiece in accordance to your vision.

You can adjust the eyepiece to a fairly large degree, but if you need more eyesight correction, there are replacement diopters available for DSLR/SLR’s from many of the major manufacturers in a range from -5 to +4 as needed. No, this won’t help your auto focus work any better, but it will help you appreciate when it’s failing and assist with manual focusing.

2. Understand your Viewfinder

What the heck are all those things in there anyway? Here is where you may have to take your manual out (remember that book of paper that came with your camera?) Most common DSLR’s have 9 – 11 focus points. Top of the line, professional cameras can have 45 to 51 focus points (although really only 11 -19 are selectable, the rest are assist points).

There are two types of focus points, single plane and cross point. Single plane only work on lines of contrast perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to their orientation. So if you look through your viewfinder as we have above, most of the focus points are rectangles, some are oriented horizontal, some vertical. Single plane focus points will work only perpendicular to their orientation. So – say you were shooting a tree – a vertical orientation focus point would not be able to find the edge of the tree, a horizontal one would. You can use this to your advantage by choosing a focus point that would lock to the line you want and ignore lines you don’t need the focus to seek.

Cross point focus points will work with lines of contrast that align either way. Most cameras consist of a single cross point in the center, surrounded by single planes around them. Newer high-end cameras now are featuring cross points at all focus points.

Each focus point also has a particular sensitivity. Most need a lens of at least f5.6 maximum aperture to even use auto focus. On most cameras, the surrounding autofocus points are of this sensitivity, and the center point offers increased sensitivity if you use a lens with a maximum aperture of at least f2.8.

So if you are working in a low light situation, you may obtain better AF using the centre focus point. If you are not using a lens of f2.8 or better there is no low light advantage to the center focus point but it still may be more accurate since it is a cross point.

Also, when looking at the focus point rectangles the actual sensor area is 2 – 3 times larger than what is shown. Bear this in mind when focusing. If you’re focusing on the bridge of someone’s nose as your point of focus, remember that the person’s eye is also within that actual sensor area. The auto focus will lock onto the eye rather than the bridge of the nose because it has more edge contrast than the flat light of the nose. Often it may not matter, but if you are working with a very shallow DOF it can make a difference to which area of the image has the sharpest focus.

3. Give Your Lens a Hand

Most autofocus systems have a certain amount of error or slop and may actually overshoot the point of best focus because of the mechanics and inertia of the lens movement. You can help minimize that by manually focusing the lens close to focus and then let the AF system take up the rest of the movement. Or, if that sounds like too much effort, at least give the AF two attempts to get it right. Perform one half-press of the shutter to bring it close and then do another to fine tune it.

An advantage that higher end lenses have is full manual operation even when AF is locked. Cheaper lenses will not allow you to touch up focus manually once lock is obtained, though this is a good way to ensure focus is as perfect as it can be.

4. Find the Fine Line

Auto focus systems work on lines of contrast, so can struggle on subjects without this feature (e.g. a cheek or a forehead, a white dress or black tuxedo, sand, single color walls etc). On areas like this, the AF will hunt all day and may never lock. The approach is to find a “better line” – eyes, lines between the a contrasting shirt and suit, the line between land and sky, a doorway. Anything that has contrast will help the AF work better and faster.

A Poor Focus Area

A Better Focus Area

5. Don’t use the “All Focus Point” Mode

Unless you are in an extremely fast situation that just requires incredibly fast focusing, it’s best to avoid using the All Point Focus. This mode doesn’t know what you want to focus on, and usually focuses on whatever is closest to the camera. There are some situations where this is perfect, but they are few and far between.

6. Focus and Recompose – But Do It Correctly

I used to focus and recompose by always using the center focus point. I’d lock my focus and then recompose. Then I read a few articles that said you shouldn’t do that – that you should shoot with the focus point closest to the final subject composition. The theory behind this is that the amount of lens movement and the arc angle made the distance from subject to lens change as you recomposed. If you used the focus point over the subject and did not recompose, you would not have this change in camera to subject distance and therefore no focus error. So I set out to take some shots to show you that it was so – and it wasn’t.

There was absolutely no advantage to using the point over the subject without recomposing. In fact, focusing using the center point and recomposing actually was sharper in every shot except one case – macro. And I shot everything from 17mm to 200mm, and every distance from macro to 30 feet with the same results.

In every test, using the centre focus point and no recomposition resulted in the sharpest image. The next sharpest was to use the centre focus point and recompose, with the least sharpest being to use an outer focus point over the subject. To clarify – the theory is correct in that you do lose sharpness recomposing from the center point. What isn’t correct is that using the point over the subject will bring back the sharpness – it does not.

Now one possibility that I think highly likely is that on my camera, the center focus point is three times more sensitive than any of the other eight points and is a more precise cross point. But that is the case with many cameras except for high-end models such as a Canon 1Ds Mark III or Nikon D3X. Another reason may be that most lenses are sharpest in the center and fall off to the side.

Here are three very typical examples of what I shot with two different cameras. The inset is a 100% crop of the lettering.

All I can say is that switching focus points is not, in my opinion, worth the time. But test for yourself as your results may vary.

A quick note on macro – this should always be done with a tripod and manual focus, because of the extremely shallow DOF and closeness of lens to the subject.

7. Use the Correct Focus Mode

Most DSLRs have at least two similar focus modes. The first is “One Shot” (Canon) or “Single Servo” (Nikon). In this mode it is assumed that the subject is stationary. Focus locks, you get a confirmation light in the lower display, and then the shutter fires. The shutter will not fire if a focus lock is not obtained.

The second type is “AI Servo” (Canon) and “Continuous Servo” (Nikon). In this mode it is assumed that your subject is in motion, i.e. sports, wildlife etc. The Camera will seek a subject with the focus point and focus will change continually to keep up with the subject but will never lock. The shutter will fire even if focus is not obtained.

There are other modes on some camera, such as “AI Focus” on Canon that are good for when you have a subject that is still, but has the possibility of movement like a small child. The AF will lock on the subject but if the subject moves it will go into AI Servo mode to keep track of the subject.

A third possibility – predictive focus – is for objects that are moving closer to or away from you. The camera will try to predict the movement and give you acceptable focus.

8. Don’t Substitute Depth of Field for Good Focus

While using a deeper depth of field with a smaller aperture can improve “apparent” sharpness of the image, remember one thing: no matter what the depth of field, there is only one point of focus. So always practice good focusing techniques regardless of the aperture you may be using.

9. Use a Tripod or Take a Stand

When we stand taking a photo, we all have a tendency to sway forward and backwards – especially bent over a subject with a heavy camera/lens combo. It is natural; every one does it to some degree. And, if you are shooting with a very narrow DOF, that small distance you sway can influence how sharp and in-focus the area you want is. If you have a DOF of 4 inches, swaying two inches can make all the difference in the world. So, use a tripod.

Now I have to admit, as much as I use a tripod – I hate them. They interfere with how I work and most of the time with the way I shoot. So, if you’d prefer to avoid using on, at least take the time to use a good photographer’s stance. One foot in front of the other with a slight crouch, arms locked to your sides, not up in the air (this is where battery grips with side controls come in handy), and body weight centered over your legs.

10. If All Else Fails – Use Manual Focus

I always hear a big gasp when I suggest this to photographers. They regularly tout “I only shoot manual, never auto” but suggest manual focusing to them, and they look at you like you just suggested they sell their children. Manually focusing in most cases (providing your dipoter is set correctly) can achieve the best and most precise focus. Especially in this digital age in which it is so easy to look at 100% or even 200% zooms on our monitors.

In fact, if you look at the unofficial specs for auto focus, you can see that they are not very precise. Here is the specification for “sharpness”: The image is considered sharp if it appears sharp in a 6 x 9 print from 10 inches away. Yep that’s it. No 100% zoom, no 20 x 30 print. Just that.

Now a number of new cameras come with “Live View”. This can be a helpful tool in manual focus. Turn on your live view, zoom in to your subject/point of focus and check the sharpness on the LCD. This doesn’t work well for me since I am almost always in bright conditions; deserts, beaches etc – but for some it works excellently.

One quick note on the image above. I originally used it just to show the Manual Focus switch, but another switch raises an interesting point; the 1.2m to Infinity and 3m to Infinity. This switch relates to something I said earlier about not requiring your lens to hunt through the whole range of focus. If you know you will not be focusing on anything closer than 3 meters away, switch it to this mode and the lens will not have to travel as far to focus. This can lead to a more accurate auto focus first time around,

11. What Should I Focus On?

For portrait/headshots, it’s fairly widely agreed upon: the eyes. For other portraits it is still the face, unless there is another body part that you want the “focus” of the image to be on. Have your sharpest focus on the area that you want to draw the viewer’s eye to.

In landscapes it is not always as easy, but you still follow the same rule as above. Don’t settle for “it’s a wide angle landscape, focus on infinity”. If you have a foreground subject, focus on that and let your DOF carry the image to the background. If the foreground subject does not have sharp focus, it adds confusion to the image, since we naturally see things up close sharper than far away objects.

Now I could get in to focusing at the “Hyper Focal Distance” but that may be beyond the scope of this Tut. If you are interested in it, and you should be, perform a quick Google search for it.

12. It’s in Focus, but is it Sharp?

Focus and sharpness are two different things. Explaining sharpness could take another whole tutorial, so I’m just make a couple of useful points.

If an image is out of focus, you can’t make it in focus by sharpening. You will just have a very sharp out of focus picture. Most RAW images need sharpening of some type. Whether you use Smart Sharpen, an un-sharp mask, or hi-pass filtering techniques, most RAW images benefit from some sharpening. That said, as I have gradually moved up in camera quality I have found less and less need for sharpening and now only use it in about 25% of my images.

Remember also that sharpening is final product dependant. You would not sharpen the same amount for a web-sized image as you would for a 16 x 20 print. And with that in mind, if you intend on selling an image to a stock photography agency, don’t sharpen your image at all. Most ask that you do not, as you cannot predict the use and size of the image.

13. Considering Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is another issue that can lead to a lack of sharpness. Every person has a limit to how slow a shutter speed they can hand hold at any given focal length lens. Some people are steadier than others but if you don’t have sufficient shutter speed to overcome the movement (shake) of your hands, your image will come out blurry. For standard and wide angle lenses, most people can hand hold down to about 1/30th to 1/60th of a second.

For longer telephoto lenses it usually requires much more. A general rule that people start with is “1 over the focal length of their lens”. So if you have a 200mm lens, shoot at 1/200th of a second and go from there to determine your holding ability. Personally, I shake like California on a bad day so I usually shoot higher. It also depends on how far away you are from your subject, as movement is exaggerated the further away from the subject you are.

If your subject is moving, holding the camera still or a tripod won’t help – you’ll need to have sufficient shutter speed to stop the action. Most start at around 1/250 but it depends on how fast your subject is moving. Requirements also vary depending upon whether you are shooting static or panning along with the subject. If you pan, you can get away with a far slower shutter speed and also get some interesting effects. It lets you show movement in the background but stops the subject.

Image stabilization systems on lenses allow for hand holding at lower shutter speeds (up to 3 stops more) but will not stop action any better than a non-IS lens. You can only stop action with shutter speed (or a high speed flash)

14. Expose Yourself Correctly

Having the correct exposure and having great light (the essence of all photography) is essential to good focus and sharpness. Since sharpness is determined by a line of contrast, if you are underexposed or have dull lighting, an image will not appear sharp even if all your other focus criteria are met.

15. I did all that. I’m still out of focus!

There’s a small chance that it may actually be a problem with your equipment. Since third party lenses have to be reverse engineered, they won’t always work perfectly with brand name cameras. Some do great, others don’t. But sometimes even the brand lenses are not perfectly produced.

Cameras such as the Canon 50D and 1D/Ds Mark III’s have fine tuning for front and back focus for up to 20 different lenses, so if you know one lens in particular focuses in front of your subject every time, you can make an adjustment in the camera to fix that. If this isn’t available, you’ll need to determine whether it’s just your lens – or your lens and camera – that need taking for repair.

Here is a test you can do at home to give you a good idea if it is you or the camera. Find a ruler or yard stick and place it on a table going away from the camera. Mount your camera on a tripod, and open the aperture up all the way. Shoot down on the ruler at a 45 degree angle, focusing on a certain mark – in this case, the 6″ mark.

If that is what you see clearest when you open the picture, then your equipment is fine – go back and work on your technique! If the sharpest point is in front of or behind that point, then you know there is an equipment problem and it should be sent in for service.

16. Conclusion

I’ve covered a huge amount of ground in this tutorial – so well done for reading this far! I do feel that good focus and sharpness are two of the most important technical things you need to get right in an image. It can make the difference between what looks professional and what looks like the work of amateur (and we all want to look professional – whether we are or not).

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments – do you ever have a problem with focus and sharpness?

Phototuts+

Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we understand how overwhelming our site may be to those of you who may be brand new to Photoshop. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start working in Photoshop.

Photoshop Basix, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak includes 25 short video tutorials, around 5 – 10 minutes in length that will teach you all the fundamentals of working with Photoshop. Today’s tutorial, Part 6: Layers, Got to Love Them will explain how to work with layers, opacity, free transform, groups, and layer styles. Let’s get started!

Psdtuts+

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend, we feature an inspiring talk that Don Norman did at TED. He turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy..

Vectortuts+

Long exposure photography means using a long shutter speed, a tripod, and often a remote shutter release. The resulting effect is to sharply capture stationary elements of a scene, while blurring, smearing, or obscuring any moving elements. It’s a beautiful effect, and can lead to incredibly beautiful images. In this roundup, we’ve compiled some amazing long exposure photography, along with useful tips and links to help you try it yourself!

3 Tips For Long Exposure Photography

Go Steady

Whenever you’re leaving your camera shutter open for a long period (anything above the reciprocal of the lens’ focal length – i.e. 1/50th of a second for a 50mm lens), you’ll need to have something to steady your camera. Holding it by hand is perfectly fine for many shots, but not if you’re wanting to experiment with a long exposure.

Start by picking up a tripod. It doesn’t need to be a particularly fancy or expensive model, particularly if you’re only just starting out. Choose a size that fits your compromise between being large enough to be useful, but small enough to carry around as needed.

You could also purchase a cable release, to avoid any shake when you physically press the shutter. A cheaper alternative to this is simply using the self-timer on your SLR. Set it to two seconds, and then stand back!

Use a Neutral Density Filter

If you’re wanting to use a long exposure in daytime for a blurring effect, you’ll often find that your image quickly becomes over-exposed with blown out highlights. To remedy this, try using a neutral density filter. These come in all manner of different varieties, each of which will allow you to maintain a longer shutter speed in particular light conditions.

These are particularly useful when you’re trying to blur the motion of water in daylight, or if you’d like to reduce the depth of field in very bright lighting conditions.

River Llugwy

Head Out at Night

Although there’s plenty to be captured in the day, long exposures at night take on a completely new feel. It’s a widely showcased type of photography, but one that never fails to impress and amaze. It shows a blurred aspect of light that we never see with our own eyes, and captivates viewers for that very reason.

The usual advice applies – You need a tripod, lots of patience, and a few interesting sources of artificial light to incorporate in the photo!

Bright Atlanta

Dazzling Long Exposure Examples

Endurance

Making An Appearance

In The Groove

Super S

News flash

Country Road at Night

7 snake

Another Early One

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Kiz Kulesi

Golden Gate

time to choose the right colours..

Platform Holly

Santa Monica Spin

Railway to Heaven

Snake Trail Road

Dune Blazers

Zion at night…. with a real camera.

Sunset Road

Another Sunset in Austin

Last passenger

Hyperdriiiiiiiiive

Burning Man

Railroad

back to the future…

Davenport

Rowena Crest

exposure

Rockstar

Petit groupe nocturne …

Daily Disney (Explored)

Speed Tunnel

Inter City Fisheye

Moonlit Cruise

flickrwhore

Champs Elysée

More Tower Bridge Traffic

Extreme Remix

The Stars Will Always Shine

Freeway Flow

1907 Yosemite Valley

Noches doradas

Abduction in Altadena

Ball of light – That Sinking Feeling

Foppolo by Night

port-O-potty

KFOG KABOOM

Speed of light

Car

Heavens Above

Nòria del Tibidabo

last train

Don’t Walk, Dante!

Locked

Expressboat leaving

- U -

Pacman II

Persistence

Northern Chicago and the Lake Michigan

Long Exposure

Holy Long Exposure

People mixer

Golden Gate bridge

The couple

Point Lobos

On the roof

Ode to Notraces

Vernazza

Long exposure Self Portrait

Other Resources Elsewhere

Ten Long-Exposure Photography Tips

Guide to daytime long exposures

8 Tips for Long Exposure Photography

Technique – using long exposures to achieve “glassy” water

Long Exposure Night Photography Technique

How to Shoot Light Trails

Phototuts+

Want vector to pay your bills or an extra piece of income with your vector illustration and design skills? Then you’re in the same boat as me, as I want to know more about careers in vector too! Check out today’s article that asks the question to some big names in vector, as well as what qualities you need to make that career launching step!

Introduction

I’ve only recently thought about vector seriously in a way to bring home the bread. I’ve had this passion for our scalable friend for longer than I’ve been obsessed with anything else, but always saw it as a hobby and a casual creative thing to do. When looking at vector art as an illustrative art form, it seems a weak medium to work with in comparison to the big guns that paint and create using Photoshop and Corel Painter, so I always thought that my little vector illustrations would get me nowhere.

So what careers are out there in vector art? It is something you could actually earn a crust with? I decided to ask some vector artists, and those who use vector everyday, what they do for a living and how they got into it. Of course, this is only a sampling of what is out there and no way the limit to what can be done with vector in your work life.

Cristiano Siqueira aka CrisVector

I’ve admired the work of CrisVector as soon as I was aware of his work. He was the first person that made me realize that you can make a living from vector and a good one at that. He’s ever inspiring and is probably one of my all time favorite pioneers of the medium.

I’m an illustrator. My work is translate/complete or explain concepts, texts and ideas through illustrations. I work with vector most of the time, but this is not a rule, it’s just because I love vectors Actually I must use the best technique required for the illustration I need to do. Sometimes this is a vector, sometimes photo compositions, 3D or even pencil drawings.

I had to be very persistent because it’s hard to convince new clients that I was able to produce the illustrations they wanted. Yes, it requires some qualifications, the main one is to be able to create any illustration, so in order to do it, a good skill level in drawing is required. This is not just about using computers or software, but the basic skills to create images, draw objects, people, anything… If the client wants a specified illustration style, let’s say a vector illustration for example, so obviously a good knowledge of the tools for creating a vector illustration are required, same with digital, 3D and so on.

The basics, as I said, is a good skill level in drawing. If the illustrator can draw or sketch your ideas using paper and a pencil, so he will be able to translate this initial idea to a finished illustration, using any ways to finish it.

Another skill that helps much is an eye for a good composition that can translate the concepts and ideas into an interesting, eye catching image. By good composition we can take a good organization of elements, colors and such. For my line of work, I’m working more and more with organic shapes and drawing style, this basic skill in drawing is very important because I can break the usual look of a vector illustration, hard and solid and create some organic and artistic images.

I think the latest works I’ve been doing for magazines… I’m proud of them, specially the latest collection of works I did for ESPN Magazine Brasil. I had to illustrate portraits of famous Brazilian sports people, including an idol of mine, Ayrton Senna.

Helen Huang aka CQCat

Who else better to ask than a friend of mine who’s worked with vector in her day job and is planning to make the move into more illustration based work. Surely with her professional experience with vector working with huge Hollywood clients would give me a little insight…

I work as an interactive designer at my full time job. The agency I work at is an award-winning digital creative shop and experts in entertainment advertising, interactive design, casual games, online media, websites and iPhone apps. As a designer, my main responsibility is design and conception. Since most of the assets we work with are provided by clients, I don’t work a lot with vector. I work mainly with Flash, Photoshop and After Effects. Recently however, I’m involved in creating a FaceBook game, designing characters, UI, etc. So I’ve been working with vector almost every day. That makes me very happy.

I also started an illustration career as a freelancer. I’ve been doing character designs for games, illustrations for children’s books, editorial for magazines and such. This job involves mostly vector.

I stepped into the design and illustration career by passion and determination. I was working in the legal field for a few years and one day I decided to pursue what I really want to do. It was not easy at first. I gave up everything and started from scratch. But as I always feel, when your heart is on something, it gets easy, and fun. Now I look back, I am still amazed at how far I’ve come.

To start a career in design and illustration, there are three very basic and fundamental qualifications:

1. Good sense of aesthetics.
2. Knowledge in design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash.
3. Good work ethics and sense of responsibility.

Aside from the qualifications I mentioned earlier, there are a few more factors I think will benefit this career:

1. Have a passion for what you do and be eager to learn and improve.
2. Have good communication skills and teamwork spirit.
3. Stay current.

As an interactive designer, I feel very lucky to have the chance to promote so many big movies, including the past three Harry Potter movies, Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes, Slumdog Millionaire, Alice in Wonderland, Inception, Avatar, The Hangover, Tron, The Social Network and many more.

As an illustrator, being able to do what I do is already a big reward. Let alone when people tell me they find inspiration in my artwork. I do look forward to opportunities in the near future to do more commercial illustrations and fashion illustrations.

Jared Nickerson aka J3Concepts

I’ve always enjoyed the whimsical illustrations of J3Concepts. Reading a copy of Computer Arts Projects of recent on “Make More Money As A Freelancer” (issue 142, November 2010), there was a huge smile on my face as I saw his characters scattered across pages.

I’m the Lead Illustrator/Owner of Jthree Concepts, I lead a team of freelancers (programmers, illustrators, and account management, etc.) to determine style and direction of each client project. I only work with vector.

The company is based on my freelance endeavors and grew from there. Just an imagination and the ability to teach myself a few graphics programs along the way.

Anyone can learn a program and there are a lot of people who are good artists, but being able to market yourself, deal with clients and conduct business professionally is the most important part of any freelance career or entrepreneurship.

The ability to do what I love and make money at it! Also, the ability to work with large clients like Adidas, Nike, and Microsoft, to name a few.

Sean Kelly of Bucket O Thought

What about working with vector across a variety of formats… not just in static art but more? I went to Sean over at Bucket O Thought to see what he gets up to on a daily basis.

I don’t really have a “job title,” I am an independent illustrator, compositor, animator, I also teach at RMIT University Melbourne… which frees me up to follow my own creative direction. Vector ranges across most of the programs I use so even if I am working on motion graphics my vector skills will come into play, so for me vector is an almost daily thing. Understanding how the pen tool works really broadens your ability through almost all graphic programs.

My career has not been linear: Starting as a traditional paint and ink illustrator I went digital to broaden my appeal, I then became a video artist and digital illustrator, taking up University teaching to make ends meet. Video art morphed into animation and composting which leads to where I am today. The only role that really requires a qualification is teaching.

Imagination, persistence, artistic talent and good communication skills. Though persistence would be the major factor.

That would have to be the Suit Up show this brought together many of the areas I am interested in, illustration, event management, promotions and organization. I am really proud of the project and the artists involved.

Conclusion

I’m still at the beginning of my career in vector and like a school girl with a multitude of options ahead of her, I don’t know yet the direction I want to go in. I know I love vector and everything about it, which is why I enjoy writing articles and tutorials about vector. Is this the start of a career or is it something I want to go more into? With food for thought from the people I admire and look up to, it’s definitely given me something to think of.

Do you work with vector every day? We’d love to hear about your day to day work and how you go into it. What special qualities do you think it takes to do what you do? What do you aspire to do?

We can be sure that being good with vector and being creative is not going to pay the bills without additional effort. There are definitely other skills a person needs to succeed in the field they want, especially if it’s in a freelance capacity. Does this mean we will all be rushing to our local colleges to do a course on selling ourselves to dream clients or learning how to pitch to others your ideas?

If you’re wanting to know more or read some interesting articles about life as a freelancer in general, then check out FreelanceSwitch. Here are a few related articles to get started with there:

• Succeeding as a Freelance Illustrator: FSw Interviews Oliver Weiss
• Superfreelancer: Henry Martinez and the World of Illustration, Storyboarding and Comic Books
• How I Make ,000 Every Year Without Doing Very Much

Vectortuts+

http://www.cornerd.com/

Specializing in designing and building websites for small businesses.

You’ve heard there is big money in wedding photography and you want a piece of the action. After all, it sounds like a good gig, right? Five hours of work one evening on a weekend and a 00+ payday! What could be simpler?

Before the dreams of grandeur and big pay checks start clouding your vision, here are 20 tips I hope will help steer your growth so you are an asset to the happy couple entrusting you with their fond memories.

Persistence Is Essential to Success

I have this saying posted above my computer in my office. It stares at me every day I sit in front of the screen and get work done. It’s drilled into my head from repetition. I can’t remember where the quote came from but I want to thank whoever brought it into my life.

It is one of the single most important bits of advice which keeps me going on the days the phone doesn’t ring and no magical “we want to pay you ,000 for a photo shoot!” emails are filling my inbox.

Copyright Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

Those phone calls and those emails (minus a few thousand dollars) don’t come in unless you make them happen. And the way you make them happen is by keeping at the task of building your business every day of the week.

I can tell you, for a fact, I have received work only because I was persistent and sent four emails asking a potential client for work. You will hear over and over again, “I know you sent me an email before but it got buried. Thanks for the follow up.” if you keep at it.

Not many fishermen get a bite on their first cast. You have to keep at it. Say it with me: Persistence is essential to success.

Look Professional

This bit of advice varies greatly from region to region, country to country so I’m not going to give any specific advice on what to wear. A suit may be required in your area or maybe a sport shirt will suffice. The key here is to look professional — both when you are meeting potential clients and when performing your wedding shoots.

Copyright Michael Dunn

There is a balance that must be struck between dressing to a tee and having functional clothing. After all, you will be walking and standing for hours on end, sometimes half a day or longer. Make sure your outfit is workable.

But also strive to be the second best dressed person in the room (behind the wedding party). Some photographers spend as much on their outfits as they do on their camera gear. The impression you leave on your clients and others at the event is one way to generate leads to other paying jobs.

Be Professional

Looking professional is not enough. You need to act professional. What does this mean? Do:

• Refrain from getting drunk
• Avoid chatting about politics/religion/sensitive topics
• Point out your positive attributes rather than put down your competition
• Be respectful to all everyone you meet
• Listen
• Be on time
• Respond to emails and calls (see next item)

These are just a few of the items it takes to act professionally. If you want to make a living at wedding photography, you are going to have to stop treating it like a hobby and start treating it like a life long commitment. Your reputation is what will get you referrals. It will serve you well to always present a professional image.

Return Calls

It’s tempting when you are starting out in the wedding photography field to hide behind your keyboard. It’s easy to set up a ‘store front’ website, make some nice business cards and start sending out emails to potential clients.

Yet, many of us have a problem with direct contact if our confidence is anything less than 100%. And when you start out in the business, your confidence might not be 100%.

Copyright Gillian C.

One of the ways that lack of total confidence manifests itself is in avoidance, especially when the deal is not yet sealed. I’ve known a number of photographers who are masters of the English language when typing up proposals and creating portfolio websites, but the moment their phone rings, they stammer or press ignore. If you aren’t in a good position to take a call from a potential client, it is OK to let it go to voicemail.

And yet, you need to return calls, promptly. I speak from experience on this point. I still am not always the smoothest character on the phone, but I have found those phone calls to be the life blood of the business.

It does take some nerve when starting, but you will find more value in returning the calls promptly rather than putting it off for a day or two. Even a few hours could mean the loss of a client. Take care of your business first and return calls promptly.

Get Accustomed to Rejection

No one likes rejection. That’s obvious. If you absolutely can’t stand rejection, this might not be the best industry for you. A freelance photographer has to have tough skin when it comes to dealing with rejection.

Most of the time it is nothing personal, although at times a personality conflict might be exactly what it is. You’re going to get turned down at some point in your professional career.

Copyright LeJyBy

The good news is the world keeps turning. More clients will call, more leads will crop up, and opportunity will keep knocking. The sting of “No” doesn’t last and gets easier to take as time goes on. The less you have all your eggs in one basket, hoping for that dream client, the better off you are to handle rejection.

Try to turn the rejection around and ask why a client has decided on another photographer. If you look at the situation in the right light, it’s a chance to understand what the market is looking for and how you can adapt.

Know Your Limits

Just how low will you go, financially speaking, for a shoot? How far will you drive before charging mileage? Do you have a midnight cut off? How many phone calls are too many?

Copyright Harini Calamur

Knowing your limits is an important aspect in this business. There comes a point when a gig starts costing you money (via time, usually). Clients will try to barter you down or get as many free items as they can. Not all of them, but some will.

You need to know your limits before the questions come up, or you stand a chance of wavering and faltering in the face of pressure. If 00 is the lowest amount you will take to spend 10 hours shooting a wedding, stick to it and be OK with saying, “No thanks,” when a client tries to lowball you.

Build a Portfolio

Building a portfolio can be a classic ‘chicken and the egg’ problem. You want to break into wedding photography, but you have no wedding photographs to show. What do you do? One thing you do not do is show clients other people’s work. Ever. Not even in a “this is what I can do” manner. It’s dishonest and a bad reflection of character.

Copyright Mrmand Dijicks

What you can do is start on the low end. This business is a classic example of the school of hard knocks. You need to spend some time doing it before you can do it.

One way to accomplish this is signing on as an assistant for an established photographer. They can be a great resource for learning and, if you get lucky, they will act as a mentor for many years after you have professionally parted ways. Look for someone with a long history and who you feel you can work with.

Another option is to shoot as an unofficial second photographer. This is a bit trickier, because you will need the right set of circumstances to make it happen. You will need a wedding couple you feel comfortable approaching about the idea and the main photographer will have to be OK with it.

The latter is the harder piece to fit. But there are photographers out there who don’t feel threatened by a newbie wanting to get into the field. Again, you might get lucky and find someone who is willing to give you advice while you both have a free moment.

They will surely have some limits, such as not allowing you to shoot alongside of them for the portraits (having two cameras to look at confuses most groups and you get wandering eyes). Don’t be afraid to ask.

Know Your Gear

The night before your first or second wedding shoot is not a time to be pulling out the instruction manual or trying new things. Know your gear and know it cold.

Know how to adjust the basic settings in darkness or the flashing lights of the dance floor. Know just how far you can push the ISO before it is unrecoverable. Know how to control your strobe from the camera body and how long the batteries will last. Know your gear inside and out.

Have a Backup

Picture yourself at your first wedding shoot. Your heart is already racing. Your palms are getting sweaty and you’re not too sure of where you want to stand. It’s nerve-racking enough the first few times. Now imagine your camera won’t turn on… If you think you were nervous before, now you’re panicking!

Copyright TheSussman (Mike)

Bring a backup for everything that is vital to your job at hand. Starting out, you might not have enough money to buy a spare camera body and lens, and that’s just part of the game. Maybe you can borrow a friends.

As soon as you can, pick up another body similar to your main camera for a backup. And keep it within easy reach.

Some people normally shoot with two camera bodies to lessen time in switching lenses, but this doesn’t mean your spare has to be on you at all times (especially if you are not accustomed to carrying a spare camera and it keeps getting in the way). Keep it nearby and handy.

The same goes for extra camera and flash batteries, an extra flash, and more than enough memory cards.

Remember, the bride and groom are paying you well (because you knew your limits and stuck to them) and they entrust you with capturing the magic of the day. It’s your job to be prepared.

Communicate!

I mentioned it a little in the section about about returning calls. Communicate! While you can communicate too much, the odds of that dampening your relationship with your clients is not nearly as vast as the opportunity to alienate them by turning into a recluse.

If you are, in fact, a recluse, it’s time to pop out of your shell and be proactive with communication.

Copyright mikael altemark

In the beginning, you are learning and things won’t always go right. As time goes on, you will learn your own pattern for communicating with the happy couple. You will start to get a feel for when they might be antsy to see their final images, or proofs.

You will know to call X many days before the wedding to check in, again, even though you did it two weeks ago. Different clients will demand different amounts of communication and it’s your job to adapt to that and be proactive.

Being the first to communicate shows you care and your clients are important to you. That reputation is what will help secure referrals for other weddings.

Get to Know Other Photographers

Maybe you think of other wedding photographers as the enemy. Get over it. You need other wedding photographers, believe it or not.

While you can go it on your own and shun the industry, that tactic only works for a few. Make friends – or at least acquaintances – with as many local and distant photographers as you can.

Copyright Amanda Hatfield

Why? Because even though other photographers are indeed your competition, they can also be your comrades. As you build a reputation in the industry (see points above) you will also receive referrals, from time to time, from other photographers not able to cover a wedding.

If your name is in their mind and they know your work, you have a chance at securing gigs you didn’t even know existed. And things do come up. Photographers get sick and can’t cover a shoot. They need a second photographer and don’t normally shoot with one. Or maybe they want to hand off some editing work and are willing to pay a good price for your time.

Not only that, it’s great to have a community you can ask questions when in doubt. Shooting in a new location and want to know about great spots for portraits? Throw the question out to your community.

If you have made friends in that community, someone is bound to lend a hand or know someone who can. Don’t underestimate the power of networking! And to help you out, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to throw questions my way if you’re just starting out! (obviously I like to help)

Advertise

Who knows you are a wedding photographer? You need to advertise, period. This can be in the form of direct mailings to people you know, or a purchased mailing list. It can be shouting it out from Facebook every 15 minutes, or purchasing one of their ads.

There are lead generation sites where, for a fee, customers come to a common site and ask for bids for their wedding photography work. Pound the pavement, walk into bridal shops, let people know you exist.

Post business cards where you can, and network outside of your normal comfort zone because almost any interest group out there has someone looking to get married.

Value Your Time

Think quick: what is your time worth? Not “how happy would you be that anyone would pay you to shoot a wedding?” But really, how much is your time worth? Do you want to make a living at wedding photography?

Copyright Nina Matthews

It’s easy when you are first starting out in the business to take any low hanging fruit you can find. 0 for your four hour wedding? I’ll take it! That’s 0/hr. I’m rich!

But wait, what about time to edit the photos? What about time to negotiate the contract and meet with clients on the other side of town through an hour and a half of traffic, each way?

What about your cost to advertise? And time to create the ads? Then there’s time before and after the wedding itself, time to set up your website, wear and tear on your equipment, and the ever present desire to get nicer, newer cameras.

A lot goes into a photography business. I’ve heard it estimated only 10% of your time is spent shooting weddings. When you are starting out, ask around to other local photographers to get an idea of what they charge.

Those who charge 0 for a full day wedding shoot can not making a living in the business or will not last long. Value your time and charge accordingly.

Know Your Worth and State It

Wedding decorations last a few hours. Flowers, a week. Cake, a year (in the freezer). Photographs: a life time. That’s why they aren’t cheap.

Continuing with the item above, know what you need to make and charge that amount. State your value to your clients. Starting out, it’s a bit hard, but with a few weddings under your belt you will be able to point out the experience you bring, the expertise, the knowledge of how weddings unfold.

Don’t be afraid to state clearly what value you are adding to the wedding. Your job now is to be a salesman for yourself. Some people already have an understanding of a photographer’s worth, but many people don’t quite get it

It’s your job to know your value in this situation and communicate it clearly.

Ask Questions

A client has called! It’s an exciting day and you’ve probably already told a few friends about the meeting next Thursday. In your glow, you set aside thoughts of the meeting until….it’s Wednesday night! Wait! What is tomorrow really about? What will they be asking?

Copyright Marc Worrell

A better question is; what will you be asking. The initial client meeting is a two way street. Yes, you are there to impress them with your gorgeous portfolio and vast knowledge of your art. But it’s also a time for you to decide if you want to take the assignment.

Remember; you are never required to sign on a client if you don’t want to, and that’s what this meeting is for – to make sure both parties involved want to work with each other. The best way to determine your desire to work with the clients is to ask questions.

I have turned down weddings before because the “vibe” wasn’t right. Another word for vibe might be that our personalities didn’t quite gel. Sure, you can still shoot a wedding like this, but do it once or twice and you soon realize the lost revenue is less than the heartache of working with a truly horrible client.

It can also be a disservice to the couple if your style and theirs don’t match. I’ve also declined offers because they bride and groom wanted highly stylized photos, lots of posing and staged shots. That isn’t my forte.

In the end the couple was better served by finding someone with whom they ‘clicked’. You will only find out if this is the case by asking a lot of questions at that first meeting.

Make a List

This item is a simple task which takes some time upfront to get ironed out, but saves a lot of time on the backend. Create a shot list you can hand to the bride and groom, long before the wedding day.

Ask them to check which shots they want, and highlight which shots are vital/do not miss. Leave space for them to add their own requests. Then make them a copy and keep the original some place safe until the wedding day.

Copyright Tony Case

The good part of making the list is you can reuse it from wedding to wedding. There are a number of lists on the web and I’ve even posted mine if that will help you get started.

Preview the Location

Sometimes, the wedding party has been to the ceremony site and knows it like the back of their hand. Sometimes they don’t have a clue.

Either way, it is your responsibility to preview the site to know where you want to shoot portraits. It’s OK if the bride already has plans, but it’s not OK if she doesn’t and neither do you.

Copyright Rupert Brun

It’s best to try to view the ceremony site at the same time of year to get an idea of how it’s lit. As a lot of weddings are in summer, this can be accomplished by visiting in the Spring when the sun sets at the same time of day. If the ceremony will be in a remote site, show up a few hours early to scout for shooting locations.

Deliver!

Remember the earlier items about responding to emails and communicating? This is the last step in that process; following through. You’ve talked the talk and now it’s time to walk the walk.

Deliver proofs when you say you will. Deliver the final product, be it a disc, album or online gallery, when you say you will. Make sure contracts are in hand when they need to be.

Copyright Nathan Rupert

You will rarely hear it said to your face, but if you are mercilessly consistent with your communication and delivery, your reputation will grow. Those referrals you will be getting will be bolstered by the statement, “He always returned our calls promptly and delivered the photos on time.”

People want to know you will do what you say and that comes from doing it over and over and over again. Know your deadlines and meet them before they are due to ensure everything is done on time.

Here you will need to be responsible for your time and commitment. Make sure to block out time for editing soon after the wedding. Don’t let things linger until the night before because your quality will suffer.

Who doesn’t love receiving an unexpected email, two weeks early, telling them their photos are ready? Deliver time and again, and the work will build with your reputation.

Don’t Get Drunk

If you are normally the life of the party, it’s time to hand the reins to someone else while you are working. It might be tempting because it is a party, after all. People will nearly force you to drink at times, insisting just one shot won’t kill you. “Loosen up!” they’ll say.

Copyright Leo Reynolds

While I enjoy a drink just as much as the next guy, I feel it is vital to hold off on the booze while working. You’re a professional photographer, not a guest.

I know that line gets blurry at times and it’s great when you’re shooting a wedding at which you really feel welcome. Again, it’s about your reputation, which will linger long after the alcohol has left the party guests’ systems.

Your responsibility is to your clients, the bride and groom, and they hired you to shoot photos and capture the fun of the party, not to be the life of it. Your goal in this regard will be to hear a month or two later, when the pictures are delivered, “He didn’t really party with us and wouldn’t even take a drink of the wine.” “No, but he gave us wonderful photos.”

Pack Snacks

You may be offered food at the reception and you may not. You might even request it. But don’t count on having time to sit down and eat. I’m lucky in this regard. When I shoot, my stomach shuts down and doesn’t request anything while I concentrate on the shoot.

But not everyone can do that. If that someone is you, pack a number of snacks as if you are going for a hike. Some sugars, but lots of protein and fats. You will be on your feet for hours, so don’t worry too much about gaining weight on this one day. Worry instead about having enough energy to get the last shot of the couple driving off into the sunset.

Remain Calm

Copyright tyler.wainright

This bit of advice holds true for many aspects of life: remain calm. There will be enough energy and emotion swirling around the ceremony without you adding to it. Be a pillar of calm.

When the bride turns to you and wants to know when the portraits will be shot, you can reassure her there is enough time, they’ll be in 15 minutes and it’ll all work out.

You might not know it, but you will soon become the most experienced person at the wedding. Most of us have seen or been in a wedding, but photographers and officiants are the ones who people turn to over and over as experts on what to do, where to stand and what comes next.

It will all work out. Even if you are nervous during your first wedding shoot, confidence will come in time. Until then, fake it and remain calm while those around you give in to all the nervous energy.

Bonus Advice: Have Fun

Weddings are a fun, frantic and exciting time. While it is considered a job for you, don’t forget to have fun with it. It’s a celebration and you are doing what you love to do; taking pictures. I can’t think of a better career to have than that of a wedding photographer!

Phototuts+
Print / Web Design Company India

In today’s Quick Tip, you will learn how to map a simple Symbol to a 3D cylinder to make curly vector ribbons.

Vectortuts+

One of the things that makes photography a successful art form is that it can show a viewer things in a different way. As photographers, we notice small details, weird juxtapositions and the small oddities of daily life. We use many tools to capture our subject matter in a different way: a variety of lenses, changing our camera angle, using long exposures, or very fast ones.

But this tutorial is going to focus on the technique of the detail shot. By getting up close and personal with our subjects, we can show our audience things they rarely experience.

Defining Detail

I’m going to try to dispel some common beliefs about details shots. I believe they can have entire people in them, be shot with a wide angle lens and that they don’t always have to be taken with a 00 macro set-up. So for the purposes of this tutorial I’d like to propose three broad aspects of detail shots in order to define the subject.

First, a detail shot can be image with any subject matter that is small size or small in overall relation to the general subject. Detail shots often tell the story of the situation by focusing on a relatively small portion of it. Details shots also can be images that, through compositional techniques, draw attention to a specific detail of a subject that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Using Macro Lenses

I don’t want to limit detail shots to macro images, but I also don’t want to ignore them. A macro lens lets you focus on something that is very close to your lens. Some lenses have the function built into them. You can also purchase extension tubes or bellows to achieve this effect with any lens.

The last option is to purchase macro filters that screw onto the front of your lens. Lenses labeled as “macro” are like any other lens in the fact that you get what you pay for. A cheap “macro” lens may allow you focus as closely as half a meter. An expensive macro lens may allow you to focus much closer.

Bellows, extension tubes and filters can all work well, too. But when you’re using them, your lens will not be able to focus on things in the distance. You’ll have to take the device off to do that. Finally, keep in mind that the closer you’re focusing, the less depth-of-field you will have.

Creating Layers

Layers are what gives your image depth and creates interest of the viewer. Many detail shots just show one thing close-up and ignore the background. You’ll see a few of those in this tutorial, but it’s often good to include the background in your image. It gives the viewer something else to look at and places the subject in a context.

In the situation pictured below, I was hunting for good light at a concert like you would do while taking shots anywhere. When I saw the guitar lit so nicely, I decided to take a nice detail shot of it. As I was snapping away, I zoomed out slightly and shifted my position to include the drummer in the background who was bathed in yellow light. It added a nice contrast and a new layer to the photo.

In Your Face

You don’t see many close detail shots of faces, and even when you do, people don’t typically consider them detail shots. The next time you’re shooting a portrait or a photographing people, try to set your mind in detail shot mode and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

The following image is a posed portrait. Shooting photos during an actual poker game might get you in trouble. I used a really deep depth-of-field to attempt to get everything in focus. I was happy with the result. I’ve been accused of putting the chips and cards in the image with photoshop, but the image was made completely in-camera.

Non-Close Up Details

As I said earlier, I don’t think of detail shots as simply an image where you’re extra close to your subject. I also try to make photos that just emphasize a detail through my composition. I call these detail shots as well. They have the quality of getting to view something up-close with the added bonus of shooting at a normal distance and including background information.

You can emphasize your detail in a variety of ways. Try selective focus, panning with the detail while it’s in motion, or emphasize your subject with light by having it lighter or darker than then background. The image below was made in a dance studio. In the photo, you can see the detail of the older dancers shoes, while the out-of-focus background shows the young dancers looking on.

Hands

Hands are a classic subject of detail photos. For hands, be careful with your exposures. What the hand is doing is often just has important as the hand itself, so lighting can be tricky. In most cases, you want the details of the hand to be exposed the same as the whatever the hand is doing.

The same theory applies to focus. When working up close with a shallow depth-of-field, remember that it might be hard to get both the hand and the other subject in focus. You can stop down to increase your depth-of-field or you can adjust your position so both are the same distance away from your camera.

Reflections

Utilizing reflections is a great way to show people a scene in a different way, but in order for it to be a detail shot, the object doing the reflecting must add something to the story of the image. In the poker image above, the sunglasses add more information to the story.

The following image was taken at the scene of an accident. A car had been struck by a train. As a newspaper photographer this is not an uncommon scene to shoot. Instead of showing the whole scene, I focused in on the cracked windshield and allowed the reflection to tell the rest of the story. You don’t see a car or a train, but you can immediately figure out what happened.

Flora

Flowers are also a classic subject for macro photography and detail images. There are so many of these photos floating around that it’s very hard to make your images stand out.

Using the techniques above of backing off just a little to show the background and using selective focus to emphasize the detail I choose, I think that this image (while by no means groundbreaking) is a little more special than your standard flower shot.

Another good way to make these kind of detail shots stand out is to over-emphasize the light. This could be mean waiting for the perfect time of day or using an off-camera flash to really make your photos pop.

Fauna

I am by no means a wildlife photographer, but I have on occasion been required to shoot animals. Unfortunately, I haven’t made my voyage to Africa just yet, so I’ve mostly photographed birds and insects. These are small and usually fall into the detail shot category.

The first “fauna” image I’d like to show you is of a small bird being nursed back to health. In situations like this, be patient, move slowly and shoot a lot. When dealing with moving object and shallow depths-of-field, it’s can help to over shoot and be sure that you’re going to nail that perfect image.

Butterfly photos are almost as prolific as flower images, but I find them exponentially harder to shoot. Pardon the pun, but butterflies are flighty. Their movements are unpredictable, and just when you think you’re going to have all the time in the world to set up a shot, they just decide to fly away.

Utilizing fast auto-focus really helps when shooting butterflies, but what takes the image to the next level is when you can catch them interacting with people. The same goes for other insect and animal images as well.

Texture

Using the detail approach is a great technique for capturing texture. Wood, fabric, skin and food are all great subjects for texture. The most important thing to remember when shooting texture is that the light will drastically affect how the texture appears.

Side light will emphasize flaws in smooth textures, but also brings out detail in very curvy ones or those with deep valleys. Front lighting can hide flaws, but it also makes things look flatter.

The other important aspect of light in these shots is shiny spots on reflective objects known as specular highlights. For the image below, I utilized side, almost back, lighting to really emphasize the texture of this food dish. You can also see the specular highlights on the sauce.

Silhouettes

In the same arena as lighting texture, there is the silhouette shot. Again, the technique of silhouette can be used for any type of shot. But in relation to detail shots, I find them useful with when trying to emphasize bold lines. The image below could have been shot in any number of ways, but by emphasizing the lines and shape of yucca plant, it places the viewer in a specific part of the world and bestows a certain feeling.

Keep in mind that silhouettes often involve a very distant background, so in order to shoot a close detail shot you’ll either need to have an out-of-focus background or use an extreme f/stop in order to create as deep a depth-of-field as possible.

Framing

Framing a larger object in a small detail can be tricky and even for me, it borders on not being a detail image, but it’s something to think about when shooting close up.

You can create a comic look by making things appear to be inside another small object, or you can attempt to create repetition of form by repeating the shape of something small in the foreground with something larger in the background. Imagine the windows of dollhouse framing a real house. In the image below, I decided to show the handle of the gas pump and within it frame a person actually pumping gas.

Easily Passable Details

The most enjoyable part of shooting details for me, or shooting photographs in general, is finding those little moments in the world that go unnoticed. I hunt for them. It’s almost a bad habit. When driving in the car, I often try to point out fleeting bumper stickers or odd buildings to my friends instead to paying attention to the road.

But if you slow down and keep your eyes open, you’ll notice all sorts of things. Take this tiny plant pictured below. Without getting too dramatic, I was awe-stuck to see it make such a pronounced mark a sheet of metal.

This next photo of abandoned shoes makes me want to become a detective and try to figure out why they were just left by a park bench. Hunting up these tiny details that others might pass by is one of my favorite things to do and why I love shooting detail shots like the ones in this tutorial.

Training Your Eye

While I do think some people catch on to photography more quickly, I do not believe that it’s some sort of talent that some people have and some people don’t. Looking back at my early work, it is anything but impressive. In fact, I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvement. I think almost anyone can be taught to think visually and to notice things, and those are the most important parts of photography.

The last tip I have for you is to always stop. Anyone sees at least ten things a day that are worthy of a photo. Always take the time to stop and shoot them. Don’t just pass them by in a hurry. If you’re running five minutes late for a meeting, I doubt being six minutes late is going to make that much difference. Always stop and shoot. This last photo was taken during the Memorial Day for Police.

Phototuts+

Flowers are a beautiful and popular subject, but taking photos of them outdoors is often a frustrating process. You have to wait until the flowers are in bloom before you can even start, and then you are at the mercy of the light and weather. But there’s an easy way to take photos of flowers at any time of the year, no matter where you live – take them indoors, where you can control the light and the background. That’s how I took this high key photo of a lily, and in this tutorial I’m going to show you how I did it.

Light Tents

All you need to get started is a light tent, like the one pictured above. The semi-transparent sides diffuse the light so that you can have a softly lit subject (window light is a good light source, or you can use flash).

Light tents are inexpensive to buy and you can use them for a wide range of still life subjects, not just flowers. I got mine from the EOS magazine shop – an ideal source if you live in the UK or Europe (check your local photo suppliers if you live elsewhere).

Other Bits and Pieces

The other things I used were coloured card for the background (several colours so you can change the background colour), a plastic cup with a weight inside it, and some masking tape.

Camera Equipment

I used a Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens fitted with a Canon 500D close-up filter to take the photos. The close-up filter got me close enough to the flowers to fill the frame and the fast maximum aperture of the lens let me hand-hold the camera at relatively low ISOs at 1/160 second.

If you don’t have a prime lens, or you want to take photos with more depth-of-field, then you can use apertures in the range of f5.6 to f11. You’ll either be working at high ISOs (think 3200 plus) or you can use a tripod so that you can use slow shutter speeds.

Alternatively, to get a brighter light source you can take the light tent outside (best when there’s no wind) or use a flash as the light source (position it outside the light tent pointing at one of the sides or from the top).

Getting Close

If you have extension tubes or a macro lens you can use them as an alternative to the close-up lens. But be aware that you will experience some light loss with these accessories which means slower shutter speeds and a darker viewfinder image (making it harder to focus).

I prefer close-up lenses for this type of work, because there is no light loss. The 500D close-up lens is a little expensive but it has two elements and the image quality is excellent – you can buy cheaper single element close-up lenses just about anywhere but don’t expect them to match the image quality that you get from double element close-up lenses, extension tubes or macro lenses.

Flowers

Flowers are quite easy to obtain, either from your own garden or from a florist. White flowers are good for high key photos, but you can use any flower that appeals to you for this technique.

Be careful if you are picking flowers in the wild that you are not inadvertently taking rare or endangered species.

Setting Up

The set up is very simple. I set the light tent up on a desk with light coming from two windows, one behind it and another to the right. I taped the flower to the plastic cup and then cut a slit in the cardboard so that I could place it behind the flower. Some more masking tape underneath held the cardboard in place.

This arrangement let take photos from several angles and still get a green background. The join in the cardboard is easy to edit out in Photoshop if it appears in the photo. I could also change the cardboard easily to make a background with a different colour.

What Is a High Key Photo?

This is a high key photo. The tones are bright, the colours are light or pastel rather than saturated, and there are very few shadows and little contrast. The lack of shadows means that there is very little modelling on the subject.

Here is the Lightroom histogram for the photo. The graph sits on the right hand side of the histogram, indicating that there are no dark areas or shadows in the image. This is normal for a high key image.

To create a high key photo, you need a very soft light that lights the subject and background equally. You can’t make a high key photo if your background is darker than the subject. The light tent creates exactly the sort of light you need.

Use high key if you want to create a light, ethereal photo. Flowers are a good subject for the high key treatment. Portraits are another.

Camera Settings

I used manual exposure as I could see that the white flower would make the camera underexpose the image. I used the camera’s histogram to check the exposure, and tweaked the settings until I got a histogram which was as far to the right hand side of the graph as possible without going over it.

This technique is called exposing to the right, and works here because the brightness range of the subject was well within the dynamic range of the camera’s sensor (note that exposing to the right only works if you shoot in RAW).

For most of the photos in the series I used a shutter speed of 1/160 second, an aperture of f1.8 (although I did play around with some wider apertures too) and set the ISO to give the correct exposure at these settings. The sun kept going behind the clouds – every time it did that the light levels dropped and I had to increase the ISO to compensate.

I used RAW so that I could fine tune the colour temperature, contrast and exposure at the post-processing stage. It also gave me leeway in case I overexposed the photo – RAW files retain highlight detail that would be lost if you used JPEG.

Manual Focus

Manual focus is the easiest way to focus on close-up subjects. I set the focus on the lens to where I wanted it (normally at or near the minimum focusing distance), then moved my body towards the flower until it came into focus.

This technique had the additional benefit of letting me concentrate on the composition – if you use autofocus you have to make sure that the active autofocus point is pointing at the relevant part of the photo, which can throw your framing out.

High ISO

Don’t be afraid of high ISOs. This is a 100 per cent enlargement of a photo from the series taken at ISO 3200. It was taken on an EOS 5D Mark II, which has a good high ISO performance, but you can see that there is virtually no noise. Use the expose to the right technique when you take high key photos and you will see a big improvement in the noise levels at high ISOs, especially if you have an older camera.

Today’s RAW processing software is also good enough to remove most chrominance noise (the unpleasant coloured specks you see in noisy photos) leaving an aesthetically pleasing, film grain-like effect. Both Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop are great at this, and so is Digital Photo Professional (Canon’s own RAW conversion software supplied with its cameras).

Lightroom Settings

These images didn’t need much tweaking in Lightroom, as most of the work was done in the lighting setup and by getting the exposure settings correct.

A slightly cool colour seemed to suit the images so I set White balance to 4850. I liked the low contrast and decided to make it even lower, which I did by setting Blacks to zero and Fill light to 11, then adjusting the Exposure to suit. It’s worth noting here that these adjustments were possible because I was shooting in RAW – they are unavailable if you use JPEG.

These settings became the starting point for each image. Lightroom lets you copy the settings you used for one photo and apply it to another (just go to Settings > Copy settings and then Settings > Paste settings when you start editing another photo). Once the basic settings had been applied it was easy to tweak each photo depending on what needed to be done.

I carried out all my editing with the Show Clipping function enabled in case I started to lose highlight detail, which is easy to do with such bright photos (go to View > Show Clipping to do this – any blown highlights will be displayed in red).

Photo Gallery

Here is a gallery of photos that I took during the session. I got a good series by varying the composition, using several different flowers, and changing the colour of the cardboard in the background.

Phototuts+

http://www.digitalgunner.com/

Digital Gunner – The Portfolio of Patrick Toribio – Graphic Design – Web Design – Front End Development – Flash Design – Animation – Actionscripting

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend, we feature Thelma Golden, curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, talk at TED about three recent exhibitions that explore how art examines and redefines culture.

Vectortuts+

Sometimes when you’re taking a photo, you can be concentrating so much on your subject that you forget about the background. I’m sure you’ve seen the standard advice reiterated in photography magazines and books about avoiding lamp posts or other objects that appear to grow out of the back of someone’s head. But have you ever really considered just how important getting a good background is to making great photos?

What is a background for? The background enhances the subject by setting the scene, creating atmosphere or providing environmental information. A poor background distracts from your subject and will ruin the photo.

A good background does the opposite. It works with the subject to make a great photo. If you do it well, the background can help add mood and atmosphere to the photo. It can help you capture the feeling or impression that you have of a place. Backgrounds help you be a more creative and expressive photographer by adding visual elements that enhance the subject.

Fixing a Poor Background

Sometimes you may be faced with a photogenic subject but a poor background. In this situation you have a few options. You can change your point of view – it may be that looking up at your subject, so it is framed against the sky, may resolve the problem of a poor background.

That’s what I did with this photo taken at Avebury Stone Circle. By framing the standing stone against the sky, I’ve created a semi-abstract image that is free of distractions. I was forced into this approach because there were a lot of visitors to the stones at the time, making it difficult to take photos without people in the background.

Another potential solution is to use a telephoto lens, if you have one. This reduces the amount of background included in a photo letting you concentrate on excluding elements that are not relevant.

The Difference a Lens Makes

The diagram on the left shows what happens when you use a wide-angle lens – the wide angle-of-view means that you get a lot of the background in. You’ll see these lenses used a lot by photojournalists who like to get in close to their subject and also get a lot of the background in the same photo.

The diagram on the right shows what happens when you use a telephoto lens. The narrow angle-of-view means that less of the background is included. If the background is some distance behind the subject, it will be out of focus too. A telephoto lens is a good tool for taking photos with simpler backgrounds.

Take a look at these two travel photos. The above is photographed with a wide-angle lens. Because the lens includes so much of the background, it’s hard to exclude distracting elements. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use wide-angle lenses, plenty of good photographers do. The trick is to develop the discipline of making the backgrounds as simple, and as complementary to the subject, as possible.

The second is photographed with a telephoto lens. It was easy for me to isolate the girl against a background. The wall adds to the atmosphere by showing the setting – I photographed the girl in her natural environment. Anyone who has been to Bolivia, where the photo was taken, will be familiar with the architectural style of the wall behind her.

Find a Better Background

It’s quite possible that none of these suggestions help, and that the only solution is to go and find a subject with a more interesting background, or to place your subject in front of a more interesting one (easy to do if you are taking photos of people, for example). Good photographers don’t look for ways to fix poor backgrounds – they go and search for good ones instead.

Photoshopping Backgrounds

I’ve been taking photos since long before digital photography was invented, and I have little patience with photographers who use Photoshop to do things like drop in more interesting skies or change the background.

This is lazy photography – and ironically will probably take you longer than making the effort to find a more interesting background in the first place. It is extremely difficult to create a photo that doesn’t look photoshopped, thanks to the differences in lighting, colour temperature, contrast and so on between the subject and the ‘fake’ background. I don’t recommend Photoshop as a solution for photos with poor backgrounds.

Simplicity

The first step to improving the background of a photo is to eliminate any distractions. The big thing to look out for is highlights. Bright areas draw the viewer’s eye. If your background has bright highlights, the odds are that they are drawing the viewer’s eye from your subject and photo loses impact.

The only things you should see in your photo are elements that add to the atmosphere or the message. If it shouldn’t be there, then eliminate it. That’s what I did in this portrait. I used a 50mm lens on an APS-C camera (so it behaved like a short telephoto – a perfect focal length for portraits).

A wide aperture blurred the background which helped keep it simple. But I also made sure that I included some crucial elements that help create mood – the standing stone and the greenery. Both are out of focus. This works because hinting at things leaves the viewer’s imagination to fill in the gaps, and that helps create mood.

Lighting

You often get bright highlights in the background when you are shooting in bright sunlight or in midday light. The solution is to shoot at the end of the day when light levels are lower, and the quality of the light is much nicer. At these times your background is more likely to be lit by soft light, which helps eliminate distracting highlights.

This photo of a dandelion was taken in soft light at the end of the day. There are no distracting highlights in the background. If the photo had been taken during the middle of the day, the sunlight would have created bright spots on the background and pulled attention away from the dandelion.

This background is about as simple as it gets – notice how the limited colour palette also adds to the mood of the photo. It is always worth thinking about the predominant colours. Green is a fresh, natural colour and is the perfect background colour for this photo.

Shadows and Silhouettes

Another way to create mood is to include dark areas in the background. Silhouettes and shadows lack detail. Just like out-of-focus backgrounds the viewer has to use their imagination to visualise the missing detail.

This photo uses that technique to create atmosphere. There is very little detail in the ruined building and the tree behind the girl. This is deliberate – the idea was to create an ambience of mystery. A similar technique is used in horror movies.

Backlighting

Lighting is an important element of mood. Backlighting is the moodiest lighting of all. Use it to surround your subject with light and capture the atmosphere at the start or the end of the day.

Here is another photo from the same shoot. I’ve used backlighting to create silhouettes and dramatic, high contrast lighting. I also used a flash positioned to the model’s left to light her from the front, so that she didn’t become a silhouette herself.

Dark and Light Backgrounds

Areas of contrast draw the eye. If your background has more contrast than your subject, your eye will be drawn away from the subject and the photo becomes weaker. One way of avoiding contrasty backgrounds is to frame the image so that the background is either very dark or very light. Both capture different moods – dark backgrounds can be sombre and mysterious. Light backgrounds suggest sunshine and light.

This is another photo taken with a telephoto lens. The bright sun on the wall ceates a light background behind the girls. It’s a highlight, but it’s not distracting, because it’s a large continuous tone.

I took the opposite approach with the following. I like dark backgrounds – they are mysterious, moody, and work really well against light toned subjects like this flower.

Negative Space

Magnum photojournalist Robert Capa is credited with saying that if your photos aren’t good enough, it’s because you are not close enough. This doesn’t mean that you have to get really close to everything you photograph though. Sometimes you should leave space around your subject.

Think of it as room to breathe – sometimes that space will provide a setting for the subject, such as a person in a landscape. The term for this is negative space.

This photo is a good example of the use negative space. The expanse of sky creates a backdrop for the rock formation and helps convey a sense of the atmosphere of the location.

Setting the Scene

The background sets the scene. Here, the dominant elements of the background are the sea, the clouds and the sunset. The background captures the atmosphere of this place, situated on the edge of the ocean.

Another dominant element of the background, and the entire photo, is the colour. The colour cast is entirely natural. I set the white balance to daylight and the cloudy skies, in low light at sunset, gave a strong blue cast to the entire scene except for the sun setting between the clouds.

All I had to to in post-processing was decrease the colour temperature a little (I shot in RAW so I could fine tune the colour temperature setting later) and increase the contrast.

Wherever you go taking photos, whether it’s a well known location like New York City’s Central Park, or somewhere almost completely unknown, look for backgrounds that set the scene and also help capture the atmosphere of the place that you’re visiting.

This photo taken in Central Park does that by including the skyscrapers of New York City in the background.

Photo Gallery

Here are links to some photographers on Flickr whose work I like because of the way that they use backgrounds in their work. It’s well worth spending some time looking through their Flickrstreams to see how they implement some of the ideas I’ve talked about in this article.

Phototuts+

2010 has been an incredibly verdant year for web designers. Mobile has hit the mainstream; Web typography has reached new levels of sophistication; New coding techniques have vastly improved our ability to get creative with design (without compromising stability). All in all, it’s been a year that’s moved fast, even by the standards of the web, so let’s dig in to our first annual post covering the state of web design as 2010 turns to 2011.

The Death of the Fold

The traditional “fold” (the imaginary line on a screen that designates what content is visible before a viewer needs to scroll) became vague, unimportant, and nearly irrelevant in 2010.

Why? Because the traditional “screen” that people view the web through has undergone an explosion of variety… no longer can we expect web-surfers to be on something close to a 19″ monitor with a resolution somewhere between 1024×768 and 1280×700. Screens nowadays come in all shapes and sizes, from iPhones (and smaller phones) to 60″ HDTVs. It’s not just resolution that can vary wildly though; the very aspect ratio of a screen (even on the same device like the iPhone) can change with the flick of the wrist. Sure, web designers will always be advised to keep the most important messages of a site near the top, but with so many new ways for web-surfers to view the web, there’s no longer a defined height for where content must be above.

We’ll be discussing this topic in a lot more detail this month, so subscribe (it’s free) to stay tuned

Mobile Sites

Sites have been being designed for mobile scenarios since the inception of mobile devices… but 2010 has seen a huge push towards entire sub-sites that are designed specifically to be viewed on small, handheld screens. You can thank the iPhone for starting this trend, but the wave of “mobified” sites is spreading like wildfire…. and come this same time next year, I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to find a major publishing site without a mobile companion site.

What’s neat about mobile screens is that it forces designers to get creative with a relatively small amount of real estate. Succeeding in the mobile environment isn’t tough if you keep a few rules in mind: Messages need to be conveyed quicker and with more efficiency; Links have to be designed for a touchscreen environment; and text needs to become legible (or at least effectively zoomable). Here are just a few examples of mobile sites:

SubTrend: Tabletified Sites

Just like 2010 saw an explosion of mobile site designs, it can be expected that as consumers pick up tablets more often, major websites will follow suit by creating sites (and apps) designed specifically for a medium sized touch-screen environment.

A Typographic Explosion

Alright, I guess you could make the claim that “typography will explode” each and every year… but 2010 has seen a few major changes to the underlying technology that actually make this claim legitimate. Primarily, the huge amount of growth of font-replacement technology over the last year and the mass adoption of “fonts as services” where third party companies host fonts (and licenses) that designers can use in live development environments. You could also say that designers are getting a lot more bold with typogrpahy as well… with more and more designs coming out lately that blur the line between print-4design and web design.

You can read more about this how to navigate the wide variety of these awesome new typography solutions here. Let’s check out some examples (some using font replacement, others using other methods):

SubTrend: Print Design Inspired Sites

This was all the rage in 2009 – 2010, but the “print revolution” is alive and well on the web, and more and more sites are being designed to mimic great print designs, such as magazines, posters, fliers, and more.

Desktop Application UI Influence

If I were a betting man back in 2009, I would have put all my money into apps… iPhone apps, Android apps, Apple apps, PC apps, web apps… the software environment seems to have gone completely berserk over the past year or two. All of this excitement over creating applications has trickled into the web design style-lexicon in an interesting way: where once the web looked, well, like a website, nowadays it can often look more like an application. Everything from modal windows, context menus, OS inspired buttons, and more are being brought into the web design environment in new and exciting ways… the end result: sites that feel more user friendly and natural.

Grid Intensive Layouts

Grid layouts aren’t new to 2010 (or even 1980), but web designers are starting to break away from traditional web layouts (header, content column, sidebar, footer) in favor of more unique, grid driven layouts. What started out with the 960.gs movement has quickly spread to grid systems that can actually adapt to the viewers screen resolution.

Massive Images

Here’s another trend that’s been happening for more than just this last year. Massive images were once taboo for web designers, but thanks to better image optimization, faster internet connections, and smarter loading methods, designers can gain a lot in some sites by pushing image sizes to the max.

More than just “big images”, we’re beginning to see more trending towards sites that use vast illustrative (and photographic) backdrops that are as a part of the actual experience as they are simply additional artwork.

Immersive Script Integration (jQuery Sliders, etc.)

Coded plugins used to be an afterthought in most web designs… you would finish a mockup, then replace an image with a slider if you could find a great plugin for it. Nowadays, entire designs can be based on scripts and plugins that do more than “add something” to a design… they can define the entire website experience.

Here are just a couple examples of sites that don’t just add script interactivity, they make it the foundation of the site:

CSS3 Hits the Mainstream

If I had a dime for every CSS3 article I saw in 2010, I’d be swimming in a pool of them. While CSS3 mass adoption is still a little ways off (here’s a handy link to see what browsers have adopted what parts of CSS3), designers haven’t hesitated to start using some of the fantastic new features. Everything from rounded corners, box shadows, glow effects, CSS3 animation, @font-face, and more have started popping up in designs all over the place. here’s just a handful of examples:

Texture, Texture, Texture

Textures aren’t new, but as each year passes we see it being integrated in new and interesting ways. 2010 saw a lot of the “subtle noise” texture, but more than anything, we’re beginning to enter a style phase where more designs are starting to feel “touchable”. This doesn’t necessarily mean that big, file-heavy textures are being used… instead, we’re seeing more subtle, well designed textures that repeat naturally.

Infographic Driven Designs

I’ve always been a huge fan of infographics, so it’s nice that we’re starting to see them being integrated into web designs as more than just attachments. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for new and exciting ways of infographic site integration, so keep an eye out for these designs in 2011.

Single Page Sites

3D Environments

This is more of a novelty than a trend… 3D based sites are fun to use, but aren’t entirely accessible from some browsers and devices. That said, there are some fun new things happening in the way of three dimensional environments, so they’re worth checking out, even if you won’t be seeing them on your iPhone anytime soon

Social Media Convergence

The last trend that I’m going to mention isn’t one that requires much in the way of screenshots… mainly because the shift is more strategy than substance. While this trend has been happening for years, things seem to be coming to a head at the moment… and the fate of the future of the internet is going to be decided.

What I’m talking about is “social media convergence”, or rather, the pattern of brands and businesses focusing their efforts on social media sites (rather than their own independent sites). Instead of individual domains, we’re beginning to see more and more businesses moving to strategies that either are based on sites like Facebook, or are at the very least integrating social features in a way that is 100% reliant upon the social media sites.

…instead of an internet composed of millions of different and unique sites, we could end up with a handful of “mega-sites” that everyone (individuals and businesses alike) simply have a page on…

This makes sense for a number of businesses; it’s a whole lot easier to get people to discover and visit your Facebook or Twitter page than it is to have them stumble upon (pun intended!) your own domain (ie: myownawesomewebsite.com/me). The winners of this trend are, of course, the big social media sites who gather up more and more traffic. The losers? Well, if this trend continues, the losers could very well be anyone who doesn’t jump on the bandwagon… so instead of an internet composed of millions of different and unique sites, we could end up with a handful of “mega-sites” that everyone (individuals and businesses alike) simply have a page on.

Let the Discussion Begin!

Alright, so I’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg for all of the great trends happening in 2010, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m sure I missed something. Post your comments, thoughts, trends, and anything else in the comments section and I’ll be taking any really great comments into account when it comes time to edit this post later on!

Happy 2011!

Webdesigntuts+

Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we understand how overwhelming our site may be to those of you who may be brand new to Photoshop. This tutorial is part of a 25-part video series demonstrating everything you will need to know to start working in Photoshop.

Photoshop Basix, by Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor, Martin Perhiniak includes 25 short video tutorials, around 5 – 10 minutes in length that will teach you all the fundamentals of working with Photoshop. Today’s tutorial, Part 4: Colour Modes and Bit Depth will explain the difference between RGB vs. CMYK, JPEG vs. RAW, as well as how to proof and manage colours. Let’s get started!

Psdtuts+

Like most people, I’ve listened to music my whole life – certain events even seem to have their own soundtrack! As I’ve grown up, I’ve decided that music, much like a cuddly pet, is best enjoyed in person. Working for an alternative weekly newspaper means that I cover lots of live music, and I have the opportunity to see a lot of concert photography.

Frankly, much of it is pretty bad. Dark bars and venues offer some the hardest shooting environments in the world. Antarctica has nothing on some of the light-eating, beer holes I’ve had to shoot in. But today, I’m here to help.

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

The biggest problem photographers have when shooting is overcoming or utilizing typically horrible light. Keep in mind that photography is all about light. So when you decide to shoot concerts, the very first thing you need to assess is the light. Pay close attention to color, quality, and direction of the light. Choose your approach to shooting based on what light is available to work with.

Fast Times

The easiest way to overcome dark lighting is the most obvious. Use the fastest lens you can get your hands on. A “fast” lens is a lens with a large maximum aperture, typically f/2.8 or faster. There are several tutorials on this site about these types of lenses, so shop around. The most accessible fast lens for almost every camera type is the 50mm. Nikon, Canon and other brands produce very affordable 50mm f/1.8 lenses.

With these lenses, realize that your depth-of-field will be very shallow, so be careful with your focusing. The following image was shot with a 50mm f/1.2. The depth-of-field was so shallow that the guitar is in focus, but his face is a little soft. It doesn’t totally ruin this image, but it shows the difficulties shooting with fast lenses can pose.

Motorin’

Another easy way to overcome bad lighting to shoot at a low shutter speed. I hear all of you screaming “what about motion blur!” Well, that’s were your motor drive or continuous shooting mode come into play. Keep that shutter release button mashed down, and with a little luck, you’ll catch a moment where things are still.

People never move constantly, so just keep shooting. Be careful that you’re not moving too much while shooting like this as well because camera shake can blur your shots just as much as the performer’s motion. But after you mash the button, you can just hang out and ride it out. The following image was made in this way.

Jumping Jack Flash

Flash is also a way to overcome poorly lit rooms, but there are several reason to be very careful about using it. First, some venues will not allow you to use a flash. Second, you want to be as courteous as you can to both the performers and the audience members. In a dark room, even a small flash can be blinding and even painful.

If you’re going to use a flash, try to bounce the light off the ceiling or the wall. If possible, use a wireless set up to get the flash off to the side of the stage. This way, the flash won’t be pointed into anyone’s eyes. The image below was made using a wireless flash, way off to the left.

Slow Ride

During especially exciting shows or when you’re in a very active crowd, you might be able to get away with using direct flash – and it might be your only option. In order to make this technique more appealing, use a very slow shutter speed. This will allow the ambient light (the normal lights in the room) to come through. Your flash will freeze the action preventing blur, but the background lights can make interesting patterns and give movement to your image. This image and the first one in this tutorial were both made using this technique.

In The Spotlight

The second biggest problem with a lot of concert photography is that it’s just plain boring. We’ve all seen a guy with a guitar or a somebody playing the drums. So after figuring out the light, your second duty is to make your photo interesting!

Look for unique elements and angles. One way to spice up your pictures is to include the light source in them. Use a wide angle lens, a low angle, or back up to show what is lighting the stage. Most people don’t notice these when watching a show, so by including them, you’re showing people something different.

Champagne Supernova

Lens flare is something we often fight against. It’s occurs when a light source is shining directly against your lens. Camera companies have researched anti-flare coating for their lenses for decades, and many lenses come with hoods to help reduce it. But lens flare can sometimes add an interesting effect to your images.

Older lenses have less effective coatings, so strap an old piece of glass on to your camera and get your flare on. You’ll want to check your exposure and the positioning of the flare using your camera’s screen, because often you can’t see it with through your viewfinder.

Stand By Me

The best place to watch a show is right in front of the stage. And while you don’t want to ignore this spot while shooting, get off to the side of the stage and – if you’re resourceful – try to get behind the stage to shoot photos. If you have permission from the venue owner to be there, they usually won’t mind if you wander a little.

The side angle will allow you to get more than one band member in your photos. It also allows the light to fall on your subject from an indirect angle, giving your image more depth and your subject more shape. Flat light is usually not very interesting.

Closer To You

When I was in my photo classes in college, my professor repeated over and over again: “Get Closer!” Every time you’re about to take a photo, take two steps closer to your subject. We don’t like to violate people’s personal space, but as a photographer, sometimes too close is just right.

All of this theory applies to concert photography as well. Try to get as close to the stage as you can, at least for part of the show. Normally, if you arrive early for the opening act, you’ll have no problem with this. After the first act ends, the crowd should clear out for a little while.

Three Is The Magic Number

Now there’s live music and then there’s live music. Show at bars and smaller venues will be less strict, but if you are photographing a famous artist or something at a large venue, you’ll probably be limited to shooting the first three songs.

This is the industry standard, so don’t think you’re being cheated or treated poorly when a public relations person tells you that you can’t shoot the entire show. The image below is of a member of the semi-famous band Space Hog.

Deep Purple

Along with being an extremely important part of general photography, it’s even more important when shooting concerts. Remember how I said most concert photography is boring? Well that’s because most of it is just a guy and a guitar. How many of those pics can you look at before falling asleep? So, layer it up. Live music is a very specific type of situation. There are a limited number of elements to work with.

First there are all the members of the band. Find angles that allow you to layer them in the same image.

Second there’s the crowd, so again look for ways to layer the crowd and the band.

Thirdly, there are instruments, so you can also look for interesting ways to layer the instruments with those performing.

Little Things

Detail shots are the candy of live music. People love to see what’s scrawled on their favorite musician’s guitar or what kind of shoes that gorgeous singer chose to wear for her show. Look for the little things, but keep in mind what I’ve already mentioned. Layer the object with something interesting and pay very close attention to the light.

Can You Take Me Higher

If the house is packed, as it should be if you’ve chosen a good show, then sometimes the best option is to retreat for higher ground. Balconies, chairs, whatever works for you. You can also just hold the camera over your head. In big crowds, check to see if there’s anyone who has already taken my advice. Usually, there’s a girl with a very gracious and strong-backed boyfriend who’s been hoisted above the crowd. Check it out, it happens.

The In Crowd

Speaking of crowds, ask any musician and they will tell you that the crowd is just as important to the success of a concert as the band. If the crowd isn’t into the show, the show just isn’t fun. So when shooting, don’t forget to turn around.

A concert is a conversation between the artist and their fans, so by leaving the fans out of your photos, you’re missing half the action. I’ve mentioned layering the crowd in the photos, and getting above the crowd to get the photo, but let’s not forget the most important thing…

Dancing Queen

Dancing shots are the best. Rarely do you have the opportunity to photograph people in their most free state. So jump on the chance when it comes. If you’re right upfront and close like I suggested, you’ll be in a prime spot.

Unlike the band, there will be few, if any, lights on the crowd, so flash is just about the only option. I often utilize the slow shutter speed technique to suggest movement in the images, and to fill the area behind your subjects. Using a fast shutter speed can make it appear that dancers are alone in a basement, which again, is a little boring.

A Little Bit Louder Now

The lead singer is usually the most interesting and photogenic member of any band, but please, no pictures of him eating a microphone. I know that it’s tempting, since singing seems like such an important part of what a concert actually is, but profile shots of the singer looking like they are about to take a big bite out of a hot dog are pretty awful.

Equally, straight on shots where the microphone is covering up the singers mouth are also very unappealing. So watch where that mic is – I’m sure the singer had a nice dinner before the show, he doesn’t need a snack on stage.

Standing Next To A Mountain

In some ways, shooting a performance is a lot like shooting sports. You’re looking for the peak action. The moment when things reach their most active point. Much like knowing the sport of cricket helps if you’re photographing it, knowing the songs that are being performed helps as well.

But even if you don’t know the music, feel the rhythm and the pattern of the music, and you’ll be able to anticipate when that singer is going to shoot for the high note or the guitarist is going to rip a crazy solo.

Wild Thing

The peak action is important, but you’ll also want to look for the unusual things that might be happening. Does the artist you’re shooting have a particular thing that they do differently? Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed guitar left-handed. That’s pretty unusual.

Also, be ready for those moments when the frontman for the band decides to jump of the stage and crowd surf – or just slide across the stage on his knees. These are hard to catch, but if you’re thinking about them ahead of time, and have a plan for if and when they happen, you’re likely to succeed. The photo below is of a finger-style guitarist. Most of time he looks like normal guitarist, but how many people pay the guitar with their hand crossed?

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Well, be happy with what you’re doing, but don’t hesitate to think negatively. And by that, I mean look for negative space. Typically, performers are lit with stage lights or even spotlights, and the background is totally black.

Utilize the black negative space as a compositional tool. It can give your photos an “epic” look, or convey the story of a lonely road-tested artist struggling on stage to make it big. It can also just look cool, and set your images apart.

In Living Color

Stage lights, for some reason, are usually the most horrible colors imaginable. Many are red, which make skin tones look, well awful. The first way to deal with this is going into your camera color settings and turning the saturation down.

The second, and usually more favorable way, to deal with it is to abandon color altogether when editing. Make your especially troublesome image black and white – or even sepia. This will make toning your images much easier. It will also allow the viewer to focus on the emotion or moment in the photo without being distracted by bad colors.

Signs, Signs

This is a minor note, but keep it in mind, especially if you hope to sell your photos at some point. Try to find a way to put the show in context. Look for signs (actual or metaphorical) that would tell someone viewing the image where the photo was taken.

Is there a banner behind the stage? Does the venue you’re in have a particular architectural or decorative feature that people might recognize? When shooting images that include these features, your photo is no longer just of a band, but it’s of a particular moment in time.

The image doesn’t tell the story of performer, it tells the story of a specific performance. People can look at the picture and say “hey, I was there,” instead of “oh, I like that singer.” To me, that’s more special.

Hair Metal

We all suffer a bad hair day from time to time, but rock stars always seem to always have unreal hair. If you happen to find yourself at a show, look at the hair of the performers. I’m sure at least one member of the band will have something spectacular going. Shoot for the hair as well. There are two reasons for this.

First, if the hair is just crazy looking or unique, it tells your viewer that this guy is rockstar material. He doesn’t work in an office. He is not of this world. He is awesome. You cannot dye your hair red and shave lightning bolts in it, because you are not a rockstar.

The second thing that hair can do in photos is defy gravity. When shooting, you can freeze that moment when the performer’s hair seems to be the wild mane of a lion, shooting out all angles and floating in the air. This is also pretty awesome, and highly appropriate for rockstars!

Time After Time

VH1′s Behind-The-Music is so successful because it shows a side of an artist’s life that isn’t typically on view to the public. While you’re covering an artist, you can do this on a smaller scale. All it takes is time. Come early and stay late. Try to get access to the band before or after they go onstage.

For smaller shows, this might mean hanging out in front of the club before they arrive. For larger ones, it might mean making arrangements far in advance with a publicist. However much work it is, I promise that the photos you’ll get will be worth it.

Nothing But A Good Time

The most important thing to do while shooting live music is have fun. Enjoy yourself. You’re surrounded by people who are enjoying themselves, so join in. Listen to the music, experience the show.

Sometimes it can be easy to get lost behind the camera, lost in your thoughts of shutter speeds and f/stops. If you find yourself doing this, take a break and listen to a whole song, and then jump back in. Don’t get so wrapped up that you forget what’s going on around you.

I hope to see you at the next gig!

Phototuts+

In this interview we meet Cathy Martin aka flashparade, a vector artist from Canada. Her style of illustration is simple yet attractive with an appealing color scheme. Cathy talks about how she got started with vector art, her design process, ideas and inspirations. Read more about this artist who loves to create some amazing modern, sassy and cute female characters.

Well I was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and have lived there most of my life, though I did live in Halifax Nova Scotia for awhile. I have been married to my awesome husband for 6 years and we have a 2 year old son together who keeps me busy most of the day. I also have 3 kitties and 3 cute bunnies.

In the run of the day I can be found doing so many different things! Besides chasing my son around I have a part-time job at a craft store to feed my addiction to my many hobbies, such as scrapbooking. When I’m not immersed in one of my hobbies I’m usually sketching or working on an illustration while listening to whatever song I’m currently obsessed with, or watching my favorite cartoons over and over again. God bless DVD box sets!

I don’t really have a single moment of inspiration when I decided to pursue art, it was something that I had always done as a child, but as I got older I set my artistic nature to focus on school and studying. By the time I graduated High School art was the furthest thing from my mind, and I hadn’t drawn in years.

After going to University for a year I decided I wasn’t enjoying it, and after taking a year off I went back to school, but this time I went in the completely opposite direction of my studying and went into a Graphic Design program, and I immediately fell in love with it. I now have two diplomas in Graphic and Digital Media design, but besides a class in character design I have no formal illustration training. I’m pretty much self taught.

What fascinates me the most is just the possibilities that are out there for me. My mind is always working, and I’m constantly coming up with concepts or ideas, and being able to actually get them out of my head and onto paper is unbelievable. I would say the best and definitely most fun part of illustration for me is coming up with the concepts of what I’m going to draw, though the most difficult is also the execution of those ideas. I’m always worried that my skills won’t add up to what I see in my head and I won’t be able to properly convey what I want.

My work flow is not always the same, but I usually either start out with an idea or I start pursuing art sites or images, looking for inspiration. Sometimes my inspiration comes from the music I’m listening to, or the mood I’m in. I then sketch out my idea using animation pencils. I love drawing in different colors and since the lines never fully erase I can always go back and redo something.

After I’m satisfied with it I scan in and then I use a tablet and pretty much the pen tool exclusively to line/color my piece. The majority of my time spent on a piece is in selecting a color scheme or deciding on a background, I’m always so indecisive about those two aspects of my art. Though I’ve been using Illustrator for years I haven’t really ventured beyond the basic tools, which can sometimes be hindering, but I always figure out a method to achieve what I’m looking for.

Coloring my art is a huge part of my process, though it’s one of the most difficult parts of it as well. I go through many color choices when I am working on a picture, selecting and re-selecting colors until I’m happy with their harmony.

I tend to go for more subdued and somewhat retro colors. I’m always drawn more to artwork that has subtle colors, rather than bright or bold colors. Coming up with colors combos and palettes is something I find I tend to have a knack for. It’s something that I find comes naturally, and I think my studies in Graphic Design helped me have an eye for it.

For the most part I draw females because I find there’s so much more I can do with them. I can make them beautiful, vulnerable, strong, ugly, whatever takes me. I’m a role-player and I always play a female character because I just find them more interesting then the male characters.

Most of my inspiration comes from viewing artwork with females and when I come up with a concept it almost always appears in my mind as a woman. There is a fluidity to their lines and bodies that you can’t quite achieve with a male character. I also tend to draw females because I struggle drawing male characters. Since I was always drawing for myself I never bothered to really delve into drawing men, though it is something I have wanted to do, if I can ever tear myself away from drawing cute girls!

Oh my god 5 words! I have trouble defining my style in a paragraph! Well I would have to say (in no particular order) retro, simplistic, unusual, hip, cute. I find those tend to be the words I use the most when talking about my art.

When it comes to upcoming projects I’m still in the midst of trying to really find a style that I’m satisfied with, so I’m doing a lot of sketching and experimenting. I’m currently still working on my stockings series, as well as my ugly pretty series. I have a tendency to want to draw art series as opposed to just single pieces, though it doesn’t always work out that way! I have a ton of finished sketches in my sketchbooks just waiting for me to color, all I need is the time and drive. I’m also currently designing stamps for anitabestampin.com. It’s a terrific little site for anyone who likes to make cards or scrapbook and wants a cute pinup or something a little different in a stamp. I absolutely love creating stamps for her, it’s so much fun to come up with pinups.

My list of artists I look up to is always changing and expanding and the majority of the artists that I draw inspiration from are on Deviantart. Currently my role model is Julie West, I am absolutely loving her style, but I have so many artists and friends that I love on DA. Camilla d’Errico, Beth Spencer, Jason Levesque, Jenevieve Broomall, Aleksandra Marchocka, Anneli Olander and so many more it would take up the entire page to name them all.

I have many other obsessions in my life hehe. For one I am an avid scrapbooker. I’ve been doing it for over a year and am absolutely obsessed with it. When the mood strikes me I also enjoy doing other crafts, I’ve always got a few different ceramics sitting around half painted. Aside from art and crafts I love geeking out whenever possible. I roleplay from time to time, and I do enjoy a good video game. It’s nice every once and awhile to just numb out and get immersed in an entirely different world.

My advice to aspiring artists out there is not to get discouraged about how much knowledge you have about programs or techniques and just go at your own pace. I myself am still learning new techniques and tricks and while sometimes I wish I knew how to do everything, not knowing makes me use my creativity to come up with my own solutions to achieve the look or style I want.

Cathy Martin on Web

• Portfolio
• deviantArt

Vectortuts+

Are you looking to shoot better sports photos, and make an impact? Sports photography presents you with many opportunities to capture dramatic and vivid imagery that will last a lifetime. No other medium presents you with heart-pounding action, vivid color patterns and unique shooting opportunities.

The steps and guidance featured in this tutorial cover a broad range of areas – from perfecting shutter speed, to making sure you don’t miss the action.

Following these eight tips should greatly improve your photography, and have you become the envy of all your friends. The key, above and beyond these eight tips, is to always keep shooting! Practice makes perfect, ensuring you have a steady hand and are ready when the big play happens.

1. Prepare to Use High ISO

Looking to capture the perfect shot but maybe the lighting isn’t great? Trying to stop the action at a little league game and needing a higher shutter speed? Raising the ISO on your camera will allow you to shoot at a higher shutter speed, giving you a better chance of getting the perfect shot.

Professional sports photographers use a shutter speed of around 1/1000 of a second to stop motion. During the day this is simple. At night however, you may need a faster F Stop than your lens is suited for. To compromise, you increase the ISO (what used to be film speed) of your camera. This now allows your camera to see more light.

So, how high do you go? If you are shooting with the latest and greatest cameras, such as the Nikon D700 or Canon 5d Mark II, you can actually use ISO up to its highest levels (3200 ISO) and your pictures will still look good. In the past, higher ISO meant more noise in your photos. With newer camera systems, though, pictures look great at any level.

With that said, I usually shoot at 1600 ISO. It provides a good happy medium between 800 ISO and 3200 ISO and allows me to shoot at a much faster shutter speed for sports.

Depending on the camera, you may also want to use Auto ISO to allow your camera to automatically choose the best ISO settings for you. The one unique feature about this is that the auto system doesn’t change your ISO at full steps, such as 400 ISO to 800 ISO, instead it can change your ISO from 200 ISO to 210 ISO. Consider this setting if you are just starting to use ISO settings for improved night shooting.

2. Try Something Different

Every sports picture doesn’t have to look the same. A few years ago, several photographers from a little American magazine tried something different for football. Instead of shooting at eye level, they laid as low to the ground as they could in the end zone with a wide angle lens. What did this do to their pictures? It presented them with a new angle to help tell the story. Who were these people, you ask? Sports Illustrated photographers. Now, everyone does it.

When shooting, be original and try something different. At each event I cover, I look for as many new ways to approach it as possible. I primarily work as a professional motorsports photographer, shooting mainly NASCAR, but at each event there is a new setup. This allows me to try new backgrounds, new angles, and new shooting locations.

You don’t have to be shooting professional sports to try something different. Even when I photographed high school football, I would always look for new angles and ideas.

By trying something different, you allow your creativity to flourish and capture something that everyone else doesn’t have. In the picture below I shot through a racecar’s windshield and caught the driver preparing to hit the track.

3. Don’t Forget the Surroundings

This may seem like a no-brainer, but don’t forget your surroundings. Whether it be a stadium full of cheering fans, to the tailgating outside, the surroundings present unique opportunities to capture the spirit of the game without shooting the action itself.

Before kick-off, tailgating is a great place to capture shots of true fans before the game.

Before tip off of a basketball game, court side is also a great place to shoot pictures of team spirit.

Even after the game begins, don’t forget the surroundings. If you have a wider lens, such as a 10.5mm or 14mm, climb as high as you can and take a shot showing the whole stadium full of cheering fans.

4. Be Prepared With an Equipment Belt or Bag

Ever wonder why sports photographers carry so much equipment? It’s because we like to build bigger muscles while walking.

All joking aside, once you are on the sidelines or in the middle of the action it’s hard to run to your bag and change equipment. Many sports photographers use one of three things to carry their equipment while working on the sidelines: a fanny pack, a belt system or a photo vest.

Photo vests were cool a few years ago (I had one) but now they are impractical with all the lenses you need to carry and quickly have access to. I prefer using a good belt system. My belt system has 6 holsters that can be used at any one time, each ranging from large lens holders to one meant just for a flash.

The belt system allows me to quickly change between lens and keep all my compact flash cards together in safe place. On the sidelines, this allows me stay prepared for the action with a variety of lenses and, since it has covers for each holster, also offers rain protection for outdoor sports.

Some companies also offer a “sideline bag” which is meant to be used for sports photography.

The key to having a good system is finding one that fits well and works for your specific needs. Visit your local camera store, try them out, and see what works best for you.

5. Long Glass Goes a Long Way

The key to capturing the perfect shot in sports comes down to relatively few things. One of the most important things is glass. Sports photography, unlike any other type, occasionally requires the biggest and most expensive equipment available. This allows you to shot from anywhere around the stadium, including the end zones in football, creating the perfect head on shot.

I say occasionally for a key reason. As we mentioned earlier, cameras now can do cool things with high ISO settings. This now allows people to use slower lenses for shooting sports, such as an f/4.

When looking for good glass for sports photography, consider these factors:

• Consider a long lens such as a 300mm or 400mm if you can afford it. If not get a 70-200mm.
• Choose a lens with an f/stop of f/2.8 of f/4. Try and avoid f/5.6 like the plague.
• The bigger and heavier the lens, the better it usually is.
• Make sure the lens has a tripod mount built in.
• Look for lenses that have stood the test of time: there is a reason Nikon and Canon don’t change their lens line up often.

When buying good glass, it’s not like buying a new camera body. A good lens will last at least 10 years with proper care and maintenance.

6. Don’t Chimp, Please.

Every sports photographer is guilty of “chimping”. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, this definition will clear everything up.

Essentially, chimping is when you check every photo you take on the LCD. Why is this bad? It takes your eye off the action and puts it on the camera. This is bad for two reasons: (1) you can get hurt more easily, and (2) you may miss a good shot.

When you chimp, you take your eyes off the field and the action. If you’re shooting football, you can easily be run over on the sideline when not paying attention.

While reviewing your pictures is ok, there is a time and a place to do so. In sports, after the shutter clicks there’s no second chance. You must move on to the next play.

7. Use a Slow Shutter Speed

A slow shutter speed? Earlier I said to use 1/1000 of a second to capture the action and stop it…

Along with trying something different you should try a different shutter speed sometimes. If you’re shooting baseball and want to capture the swing in a perfect silhouette, I don’t suggest shooting at 1/60 of a second. If, however, you want a cool blurry background shot, it works great.

Many professional photographers from Getty Images and Reuters use this technique to add energy to their pictures and create great looking clean backgrounds. Shooting at 1/100 of a second or 1/80 of a second allows the player to be in focus and sharp but the background to be very blurry and creates a cool effect.

8. Avoid Using a Flash

When shooting professional or college sports, flash photography is typically strictly prohibited. Flash can distract the players and cause coaches to go crazy. There are a few exceptions, including basketball and other indoor sports, but on-camera flash is usually never allowed.

For indoor sports, schools typically have very powerful flashes (or strobes) installed in the rafters of the gym, allowing an ideal amount of light to fall on the playing surface. These flashes are then synced to your camera using a Pocket Wizard.

When shooting outdoor sports such as football or baseball, you should never use an on-camera flash. This is why ISO settings are so important.

Now, if you are shooting a local sports event or a lower-level event, such as high school football, then flash is usually acceptable. I always check with either the coaches or the school’s athletic director to ensure no one gets upset when the flashes start popping.

Many sanctioning bodies have specific rules for photographers, so before you shoot an event be sure to read these so you know what is ok and not ok.

Phototuts+

The phrase “born to do it” comes to mind when we talk about those who excel in their chosen field, but is this really the case. In this article we’ll look at the early work of the vector artist and what turned it around for them.

Introduction

It’s very rare you find a person who can pick up a pencil and paper and create a masterpiece. Even more so when they pick up their stylus and open their vector program. There are many hurdles to overcome when venturing into a digital art form. You have your basic creativity hurdles of learning how to draw, composition basics and color theory, and this is just to name a few. Imagine coupling this with learning how to use an application to achieve the desired results.

Whatever your genre or medium, you develop as an artist emerges in three areas:

• Creatively: development in overall design elements and composition.
• Technically: be it learning anatomy proportions or learning to illustrate an emotion, these can be a genre specific development.
• Medium Specific: learning your medium, in vector it would be learning how to use your application.

Websites such as Vectortuts+ and the Tuts+ network are here to help those who want to develop, however what have some vector artists done to improve in their craft?

The Development of a Vector Artist

I asked some seasoned vector artists what their motivation and inspiration to develop as an artist has been, what piece they’ve created has been their turn around piece, and what advice they have for others.

It’s from seeing their earlier work we can truly appreciate how far they have came in their craft. I know that by seeing other people’s earlier wo