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In this tutorial we will be teaching how to integrate elements from different sources to create a realistic photo manipulation with dark and conceptual elements. You will learn some lighting and blending techniques as well as some interesting post-production tips. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Background
• Sky
• Cigarette
• Smoke
• Teddy Bear
• Toy Pieces
• Toy #1
• Toy #2
• Robot
• Paper Texture
• Streamers
• Party Blower

Step 1

Open a new document, 3,000 x 3,000 pixels, at 300 dpi resolution. Drag and drop the model stock photo, resize to fit using Edit > Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) leaving some margins by the sides. Hold Shift to keep the aspect ratio. Name this layer "Model".

Step 2

Select the Pen Tool (P) to cut out the model from the background. Be sure that Paths mode is selected and that you are not using the Free Mode. To follow the shapes of the body, if you are not very familiar with this tool, you will have to click wherever you want to start, then, when you are going to do the second point, Click and hold, then move your mouse to adapt the path to the shape.

Once you are done, Right – Click and select Make Selection. Select a Feather Radius of 0 and check the Anti-aliased box.

Now go to Select > Inverse or Command/Ctrl + Shift + I and then press Delete. Put the image in Actual Pixels using the Zoom Tool (Z) and Right – Click, selecting that option from the emerging menu, or Double – Clicking on the Zoom Tool, to see if there are parts that have not been well cut out and use the Pen Tool (P) again to get rid of them. Now go to Edit > Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) again, hold Shift, and resize the layer to occupy an area similar to the one shown in the screenshot below:

Step 3

Add the Background image and Free Transform it (Edit > Free Transform or Command/Ctrl + T) to fit the canvas, again holding Shift to maintain the aspect ratio. Place this layer under the "Model" one. Name this layer "BG" and be sure that the "Model" layer is in the center of the Depth of Field of the "BG" layer, which is the most sharpened part of the ground.

Create a new Mask for this layer clicking on Add Layer Mask in the Layers Palette, then select the Brush Tool (B) and pick a 700 pixels size black brush, with 50% Opacity and Flow and 0% Hardness, and paint over the edges of the layer (inside the Mask) to blend it with the white background.

Step 4

Now we will blend the borders of the "Model" layer. This way, it will look more integrated with the sorroundings, because if the edges are too sharpened, it will look like pasted on the canvas. Select the Blur Tool (R) with 30% Strenght and use a 0% Hardness brush, 40 pixels size, over the edges of the image. The result will be unseen if the image is Fit to Screen, but it will help integration in full view mode as well as if the image gets printed.

Step 5

Now we are going to get rid of certain details of the "Model" layer that we do not want anymore, like the paper borders in the cone and the tattoos of the feet. Command/Ctrl – Click the "Model" layer to make a selection of the entire layer because we don’t want to create new pixels outside the original shape. We are going to use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) selecting a 0% Hardness brush, 40 pixels size and 100% Opacity and Flow. Press the Alt key near the area we want to override to take that as a reference for the Clone Stamp Tool, and then paint over the paper border.

You should get something like the image above. To get rid of that darker shape, select a bigger soft brush (around 80 pixels size), and lower Opacity to 30%, and keep on painting over the dark line. Lower Opacity even more and paint carefully until the cone looks like the image below:

Repeat the process with the feet tattoos, except for using the bigger brush because you won’t be needing that, since the area is not as regular as the cone is. Play with different opacities to get the desired result.

Step 6

Add the sky image and name the layer "Sky". Place it above BG layer and under the "Model" one. Click on Add Layer Mask in the Layers Palette. Select a 600 pixels size brush, 0% Hardness, 20% Opacity and 60% Flow, and paint in the lower part of the layer to blend it with the BG one.

Step 7

Go to Filters > Blur > Lens Blur and use the following settings. This way you are adapting this layer to the original Depth of Filed the BG layer has.

Step 8

Now go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U) and drag the Saturation bar to the left like in the screenshot below, or input a value of -56, to lower the saturation of the "Sky" layer.

Step 9

Add a New Layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) and name it "Blue". Place it above all layers. Select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and pick the color #1a1664 (or a similar one of your liking) as a Foreground Color and click in any part of the layer. Set it in Overlay Blending Mode and lower its Opacity to 35%.

Step 10

Add the cigarette layer and name it "Ash". Place it above the "Model" layer and again, Free Transform it (Command/Ctrl + T, hold Shift key) to make it fit with the top of the cone.

Once the "Ash" layer is fitting with the top part of the cone, Free Transform it again, Right – Click and select Distort in the emerging menu. Expand the box by the lower corners and play with it until the borders of the cigarette fit perfectly with the cone shape. Do this in Actual Pixels mode (Zoom Tool (Z), Right – Click, then select Actual Pixels, or Double – Click the Zoom Tool icon) to get an accurate result.

Now we have to cut out the ash from the background. The obvious procedure with a solid background would be to select the Magic Wand Tool (W), but it will select some parts of the ash as well, so preferably pick the Pen Tool (P), Zoom In the image with the Zoom Tool (Z) selecting the ash area and start making the selection with the Pen Tool. Once you are done, Right – Click and in the emerging menu select Make Selection.. Then go to Select > Invert or Command/Ctrl + Shift + I and press the Delete key.

Select the Burn Tool (O) and choose a 30 pixels size brush, 0% Hardness, with Midtones Range and an Exposure of 10% and paint carefully in the left side of the cigarette to make the shadows fit with the ones of the cone. When you are done, pick the Dodge Tool (O) with the same settings and paint the right side of the cigarette to make the lighting fit. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance or Command/Ctrl + B and put the following settings in the Shadows Tone Balance panel: +10, 0, -14. And at last, select the Blur Tool (R), with a small soft brush and paint over the borders like we did in Step Four.

Step 11

Add the smoke image, name the layer "Smoke" and place it above the "Ash" layer. Select the Screen Blending Mode. Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or just Command/Ctrl + Shift + U. Pick the Burn Tool (O) and select Shadows in the dropdown Range menu as well as an Exposure of 35% and paint over the white areas on the edges and corners of the layer to make the background completely transparent. Burn also a bit on the smoke "knot" in Highlights Range Mode with an Exposure of 10%. Use the Dodge Tool (O) in Highlights Range mode with an exposure of 15% in the base of the smoke to make it more visible.

Step 12

Now let’s use again the Free Transform command (Command/Ctrl + T) and Right – Click selecting the Warp mode. Drag the upper part of the image so the cut borders go outside of the canvas.

Step 13

Duplicate "Model" layer and name this new one as "Shadow". Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U) and in the Lightness bar drag it completely to the right, until it marks -100. You will get a black version of the model image. Place it under the "Model" layer and Free Transform it (Command/Ctrl + T). Then Right – Click and in the submenu select Flip Vertical and drag the layer until both feet get in touch. Now Right – Click again and select Distort. According to the model’s lighting, it is coming from the upper right part, so we have to make the shadow take direction a bit to the left, so drag the bottom left corner of the transform box to the left.

Step 14

Duplicate "Shadow" layer and hide the original. In the new layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and put an amount of 20,5 pixels. Create a new Layer Mask and pick a big black soft brush with the Brush Tool (B) and paint in the Mask deleting the blur near the model, leaving only blurred the farthest part (chest and cone).

Now make the original "Shadow" layer visible again, Mask it and again, use the same brush to delete exactly the opposite parts you have kept in the duplicated layer, so it looks like this:

In "Shadow" layer, go again to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and put the amount in 3 pixels.

Merge "Shadow" and its copy, selecting the one that is above and going to Layer > Merge Down or pressing Command/Ctrl + E, applying the masks when asked. Then, create a new Mask in this new merged layer, select the Brush Tool (B), pick black color (#000000), 200 pixels size, 30% Opacity and 50% Flow and carefully paint in the Mask the parts that are farther from the model, being the cone the most erased part (but not deleted at all) and then the chest. Erase a bit also the knees shadows since they are farther from the body than the ones generated by the feet. The end result should look like this:

Step 15

We are going to add a lighting focus to equalize all elements in composition. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) and name it "Light", pick the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and Click on the layer with white color (#ffffff) selected. Then go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and use the following settings:

When you are done, put the layer in Overlay Blending Mode with 60% Opacity. It will look like this:

Step 16

Now we are going to adapt the "BG" and "Model" layers to the lighting we have just created. We will be using the Dodge and Burn Tools (O). Remember where the light focus is coming: the top right corner. Knowing this, we have to paint both layers with these tools. Everything has to look accordingly to the lighting source, so if we do this right, we will be near of doing a realistic photo manipulation: lighting is the key. We will be using the following method in all future compositive elements. In the screenshot below, you can find a sort of "map" of the lighting here. You have to use the Burn Tool (O) in the darker area of the image, first in Midtones Range and then in Highlighs Range. Use always big soft brushes, with no more than 20% Strength. Take as a reference the bottom left corner, which will be the darkest area of the ground, being the most highlighted the area before and after the right model’s leg. Here, use specially the Dodge Tool in Highlights Range. In the "Model" layer, you should use the Dodge Tool first in Midtones Range and then in Highlights Range. Use a smaller brush size than the one you used with the Burn Tool but keep it being with 0% Hardness and less than 20% Strength, and paint over the right leg and arm, and lower by 10% the Strength to paint over the left leg and arm. There is no need to use the Burn Tool on this layer since the shadows are fitting with the overall lighting and are hard enough.

Keep on painting (but not too much) until your image looks similar to this one:

Now let’s see a before/after example:

Step 17

Now we are going to start adding elements to the composition, that will add some conceptual depth to our image. First, add the teddy bear image and name this layer "Teddy" and place it above the "Model" layer. Then select the Magic Wand Tool (W) and use a Tolerance of 84 pixels and the settings shown in the example below. Then Click in the white background and in any areas of the shadow that might not be selected at first while you hold Shift Key to make multiple selections at once.

Now use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) holding the Shift key to maintin the aspect ratio of the image. Resize it keeping the reality of proportions shown in the image, and then Right – Click and in the menu choose Flip Horizontal, since the original lighting of the "Teddy" layer is inverted according to the lighting we are applying to the composition.

So, we have some annoying white borders around the image. Double – Click in the "Teddy" layer to display the Layer Style window. Go to Inner Shadow and apply the following settings: Blend Mode Multiply, 29% Opacity, 120º Angle, 0 pixels Distance, 0 pixels Choke, 161 pixels Size. This is a good shortcut to avoid cutting out the image again, specially in this case where no max highlights will be used on this layer since it’s far from the light focus.

Now select the Blur Tool (R) and as we did in Steps 4 and 10, blur a bit the borders of the layer for a better blending with the scene, using a very small brush since this element is smaller than the ones we blurred borders before. Then we are going to repeat Step 16 on this layer. Use the Burn Tool (O) with 20% Strength and with Midtones Range selected over the borders that seem to be lighter than the rest with a very small soft brush. Once you are rid of the borders, use a bigger brush to Burn Midtones over the dark areas according to lighting: full left arm, left parts of head, chest and both legs. Then use the Burn Tool in Highlights Range with very low Strength (between 5% – 10%) and paint over the same parts. Don’t use the Dodge Tool this time. Sometimes using Dodge and Burn might end up in over saturated colors, so go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or Command/Ctrl + U, and drag the Saturation bar -30 pixels to the left. With all of this done, your "Teddy" layer should look like this:

Step 18

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) below the "Teddy" one and name it "Teddy Shadow". Pick the Brush Tool (B), select black color (#000000), 50 pixels size, 25% of Hardness, 50% Opacity and Flow, and paint carefully under the bear.

Now put Brush Hardness at 0% and decrease Opacity by 25% and paint around the ground where the bear is, specially on the left side.

Step 19

Add the pieces image, name it "Pieces" and place it above the "Model" layer. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) with 60 pixels Tolerance and click on the white background, then press Delete.

Now select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and make a selection of the grey areas created by the figure shadows. Then press Delete again.

Now use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) holding Shift to keep aspect ratio and resize the layer to keep proportions with the rest of the elements. Place it near the right shoe. Lower the Opacity of the layer to around 70% and create a new Layer Mask. Now select the Pen Tool (P). You have to make a selection according to the rock shapes. Once you have the Path closed, Right – Click and select Make Selection. Paint it black with the Brush Tool (B) or the Paint Bucket Tool (G) in the Mask to make it disappear. Restore the layer Opacity to 100% when you are done.

Step 20

Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and use the following settings. Again, we want to integrate this item within the Depth of Field of the image.

Step 21

Use the Burn Tool (O) to raise shadows in the Midtones Range on the left part of the layer as well as the bottom, then go to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Command/Ctrl + L) to raise a bit the lightings.

Step 22

Create a New Layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N), place it under "Pieces" and name it "Shadow Pieces". Use the Brush Tool (B), 60 pixels size, 0% Hardness, 25% Opacity and only 2% Flow, pick black color (#000000) and paint under the pieces just to darken a bit the area. Then take a smaller brush, and raise Opacity to 30% and Flow to 10% and paint the nearer shadows where the figure is touching the ground. You might need to paint also the borders of the near rocks.

Step 23

Grab the Toy1 image to the canvas, resize with Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) holding Shift key to fit the canvas, then select the Magic Wand Tool (W) with 50 pixels Tolerance and select the white background, then press Delete. Name this layer "Toy1".

Now place the layer under "Shadow" layer and Free Transform it again to make it smaller. Place it at the left of the model. The top part of this layer should be at the same height where the bushes start to grow. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and use the following settings:

Double – Click this layer to open the Layer Style menu, select Inner Shadow and put the following settings. This way, we will get rid of the white borders. We don’t need them anymore since the item is placed in a dark area of the image.

Step 24

Create a New Layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N), place it under "Toy1" and name it "Toy1 Shadow". Use the Brush Tool (B) 80 pixels size, 0% Hardness, 25% Opacity and 15% Flow, pick the black color, and paint the shadows casted to the left. The nearer to the item, the darker it should be.

Step 25

Return to the layer "Toy1" and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or Command/Ctrl + U and in the Lightness bar, drag it a bit to the left or put in the field a -10 value to darken a bit this layer.

Step 26

Take the Toy2 image, add it to the canvas, name it "Toy2", Free Transform it (Command/Ctrl + T, hold Shift key) to fit on screen, add a Layer Mask, then select the Magic Wand Tool (W) with 50 pixels Tolerance and select the white background. Grab the Paint Bucket Tool (G) with black color selected, and go to the Mask and fill the selection to make it disappear.

When we deleted the background, we also erased some parts of the toy base. We are going to do something that is not very fancy, but it will work combined with the next step. Go to the Mask in "Toy2" layer, pick the Brush Tool (B), 100% Opacity and Flow, 0% Hardness and select white color (#ffffff) and paint in the disappeared areas to make them come back. Don’t worry if you end up painting a bit and revealing parts of the white background again.

If you haven’t applied any Filter since the last time we did it, press Command/Ctrl + F: This will repeat the last filter we used. Or just go to the Filter menu. The first option should be to Apply Last Filter, which in our case was the Lens Blur we used in "Toy1" layer. Apply it again. In case this option is not available anymore (you might have closed Photoshop in between steps, etc), just use the Lens Blur settings of Step 23. You will now notice why we had not to worry about the base. When you are done, Double – Click the layer to open the Layer Style window, go to Inner Shadow and use the following settings to get rid, again, of the white borders… although not at all yet.

Use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T), Right – Click and select Flip Horizontal. We do this because the original lighting of the layer is opposite than the one we have in the composition. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U), put Saturation -46.

Go to the Mask, select the Brush Tool (B), 15 pixels size, 0% Hardness, 40% Opacity and 25% Flow and paint carefully over the light grey edges, so we can get rid of them at last to enhace the layer integration. You can see the difference in the screenshot below.

Step 27

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N), name it "Toy2 Shadow"and place it under "Toy2". Basically, what we have to do here is exactly what we did in Step 24 when we added the casted shadow of the "Toy1" item: Use the Brush Tool (B) 80 pixels size, 0% Hardness, 25% Opacity and 15% Flow, pick the black color, and paint the shadows casted to the left. The nearer to the item, the darker they should be.

Step 28

Take the robot image to the canvas. To erase the background, the best option here is to use the Pen Tool (P) with the same settings we have been using during this tutorial, so be sure that Paths mode is selected and that you are not using the Free Mode. Don’t worry about the white/transparent thing on the robot’s head… you are free to keep it, but in my case, I will just get rid of it.

When you are done, Right – Click and select Make Selection, then delete the background. Use the Pen Tool also to delete the white areas inside the clockwork. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) with 50 pixels Tolerance to select the space between the legs faster. Now Free Transform it (Command/Ctrl + T) holding Shift. Resize and place as shown below and name this layer "Robot":

We have to adjust the lighting of this item. Use the Dodge Tool (O) with Highlights Range selected, Exposure of 8%, and paint over the right parts of the head, right arm and right foot. Now use the Burn Tool (O), first in Highlights Range with an Exposure of 15%, with a soft brush of 100 pixels Size, and paint over the left part of the robot as shown in the image below. This shadow occurs because the robot is under the shadow casted by the model. To finish, set the Burn Tool Range to Midtones, and use smaller brush and paint the areas more oriented to the left.

Step 29

Duplicate the "Robot" layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U )and use a value of -100 in the Lighting bar. Place this layer under the original one, use Free transform (Command/Ctrl + T), Right – Click, select Flip Vertical, drag it until both feet are touching, then Right – Click again and select Distort. Drag from the bottom left corner to make the shadow be casted to the left as usual and then drag from the bottom right corner to create a diagonal.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use an amount of 2.7 pixels.

Create a New Mask for this layer and pick the Brush Tool (B), 80 pixels size, 0% Hardness, 40% Opacity and 25% Flow. As we are doing with all casted shadows, the farther the shadow is, the less it has to be seen, so start erasing from the part on the left and keep darker the shadows under the feet.

Step 30

Drag the party blower image to the canvas, name it "Party Blower" and use the Pen Tool (P) to cut it out using the same method as with the rest of elements. Place this layer above the "Model" one.

Free Transform it (Command/Ctrl + T) holding Shift and resize it until it fits within the shape of the left hand, then rotate it a bit to the left to follow the direction generated by the posture.

Use the Blur Tool (R) to blur a bit the borders (20 pixels size, soft, 50% Strength) to integrate the image in the composition. Then hide this layer and use the Pen Tool (P) to make a selection of the fingers like shown in the screenshot below. Command/Ctrl – Click and Make Selection, then erase it and make the layer visible again.

Use the Burn Tool (O) in Highlights Range with 35% Hardness, 20 pixels size and 15% Exposure to darken the part of the item that is being held by the hand. Darken the bottom part of it as well. Then put the Burn Tool in Midtones Range to darken the bottom part of the party blower. When you are done, grab the Sharpen Tool (R) with 23% Strenght and with Protect Detail checkbox enabled, use it to sharpen the left part of the party blower which was a bit out of focus in the original stock photo.

Step 31

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) and place it under the "Blue" one. Name it "Confetti". Now we are going to have some real fun. We are going to throw some confetti over the area and we want it to be very realistic. Select the Brush Tool (B) and go to the Brush Panel by pressing F5. Select any normal brush and use the following setting to create the new brush we are going to use to throw the confetti all around. When you are done, pick the color #ff00f0.

Step 32

Paint over the model (but not the cone), especially over the areas that could allow the confetti to be placed without falling, like shoulders, upper part of the legs, etc. Paint some confetti also on the ground, but not behind the model. Put some as well on the teddy bear.

We might have ended up painting outside the areas we wanted to, since the brush had the Scattering mode activated, so use the Eraser Tool (E), 100% Hardness, Flow and Opacity and with a size of about 30 pixels, delete any painted part that is outside of the model.

Select the Burn Tool (O), with Midtones Range and a Strength of 15%. Now, according to the casted shadows and overall lighting of the image, paint over the confetti parts that are standing out too much and that are obviously out of any concordance here, for example in the model’s shadows.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply it with a Radius of 0,4 pixels.

Double – Click the layer to open the Layer Style panel. Go to Drop Shadow and set it as follows:

Use the Blur Tool (R) with 50% Strength and start blurring the parts that should be affected by the Depth of Field, like the bottom of the image and behind the model.

Now with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) start selecting the confetti by areas. What we are going to do now is to apply some perspective so they won’t look like pasted anymore. Do it by small areas. With every selection, use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) and then Right – Click and in the emerging menu choose Distort, then drag from the bottom corners and open the field until they look adjusted to the perspective of the ground. Do this with all the confetti at the bottom of the image. When it’s finished, if you find any confetti that, due to its roundness, looks strange, just take the Eraser Tool (E), 100% Hardness, Opacity and Flow and no bigger than 20 pixels and delete it.

Step 33

We can make the confetti we have just created a bit more realistic, so let’s go to add some paper texture to it. Insert the paper texture and name it "Paper". Press Command/Ctrl + T to Free Transform it, Right – Click to open the menu and select Perspective. Grab any of the bottom corners and expand the box, then grab one from the upper side and make it smaller, like in the screenshot below, then press Enter:

Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or just Command/Ctrl + Shift + U. Set the Blending Mode of the Layer to Soft Light, then Command/Ctrl – Click the layer "Confetti" to select all of its content. Invert the selection with Command/Ctrl + Shift + I or go to Select > Inverse and press Delete in the "Paper" layer. We are done with the confetti, at last!

Step 34

Grab the streamers stock image, name it "Streamer" and place it above the "Confetti" layer. Select the Magic Wand Tool (W), put its Tolerance to 50 pixels, and very important, uncheck the Contiguous check box if it is checked, then Click on the background and press Delete.

We are going to place all the streamers around the image, in separate layers and we will give different treatments to them. We will be getting them from its original layer ("Streamer"). Select first the blue one with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), and Copy/Paste it by pressing Command/Ctrl + C and then Command/Ctrl + V, or if you prefer, go to Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste. Name this new layer "Streamer2". Don’t forget to hide "Streamer" layer now.

Free transform the blue streamer (Command/Ctrl + T, hold Shift as usual for aspect ratio maintenance) and place it under the robot.

Still in Free Transform mode, Right – Click and select Distort. Play with the image until it looks right with the perspective.

Take the Blur Tool (R), and with 50% Strength blur the right zone, and with 100% Strength the left one, to adjust the streamer to the Depth of Field. By the way, don’t worry about the casted shadows for now: we will be applying them when all streamers are placed.

Step 35

Make the layer "Streamer" visible again, and with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), select the red streamer, Copy/Paste it again (Command/Ctrl + C and Command/Ctrl + V) and name this new layer "Streamer3". Hide "Streamer" layer again.

Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T, then hold Shift) and go to Image > Adjustments > Level or press Command/Ctrl + L. The arrow in the middle controls the midtones of the image, so drag it closer to the dark, to the left, or put a value of 1,51.

Place the item in the left knee of the model, lower its Opacity by 80% and create a New Mask. Use the Pen Tool (P) to make a path on the knee, Right – Click and select Make Selection, and fill it with black color using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) on the Mask. Restore the Opacity of the layer.

Select the Blur Tool (R) and with a 10 pixels size brush blur a bit the edges of the streamer in the layer, not in the Mask.

Step 36

Return to "Streamer" layer, make it visible, and again, with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), select the yellow streamer, Copy/Paste it (Command/Ctrl + C, Command/Ctrl + V), name the new layer "Streamer4" and hide "Streamer" layer as well.

Resize the image with Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T , then hold Shift). Blur the borders as usual with the Blur Tool (R), and then use Burn Tool (O) in Highlights Range with 15% Strength to darken all the area of the streamer under the casted shadow of the model. Change the Range to Midtones, lower Strength to 10% and burn the end of the streamer (the part more to the left).

Step 37

I guess it is obvious what we have to do now: Make visible "Streamer" layer, select the pink streamer with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), Copy/Paste (Command/Ctrl + C, Command/Ctrl + V), name the new layer "Streamer5" and hide "Streamer".

Resize (Command/Ctrl + T, hold Shift), rotate a bit to the left and move it to the right shoe.

Still in Free Transform, Right Click and switch to Warp mode. You have to adapt the streamer to the shape of the foot. Follow the directions of the arrows in the screenshot below. When you are done use the Blur Tool (R) to blur the borders.

Step 38

Make visible "Streamer" layer, select the green streamer with the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L), Copy/Paste (Command/Ctrl + C, Command/Ctrl + V), name the new layer "Streamer6" and hide "Streamer".

Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T, hold Shift), resize and place it near the teddy bear. Don’t forget to blur the borders with the Blur Tool (R).

Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels or press Command/Ctrl + L and move the Midtones bar a bit to the left or put a value of 1,52.

Step 39

This Step is optional and up to you. What we are going to do is to put some more streamers in the composition. You can duplicate any of the streamers layers (Going to Layer > Duplicate Layer, or pressing Command/Ctrl + J), or extract them again from the "Streamer" layer. Due to some modifications in the streamers layers, some might not be useful for duplicating. Don’t be afraid and get as creative as you wish, playing with different options to place your own streamers.

Now I am going to explain a quick guide of what I have done with the new streamers. The method to manipulate them is the same we have been using with the rest of streamers. Duplicate "Streamer2", Free Transform, then Right – Click and select Flip Horizontal, Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U) and change the Hue bar to any color you like. Place it in the plushie’s right leg.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Command/Ctrl + L) and move the midtone bar to the left or enter a value of 1,62. When you are done, Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T), select Warp mode and adjust the streamer to the plushie.

Duplicate (Command/Ctrl + J) "Streamer4", Change its color with Hue/Saturation (Command/Ctrl + U), use the Pen Tool (P) and cut the bottom part to make it look like our character is holding it.

Use the Burn Tool in Highlights Range mode and darken specially on top. This area is very dark according to overall lighting, so you will have to increase Strength while you get on top of the layer.

Duplicate (Command/Ctrl + J) "Streamer3", change its color (Command/Ctrl + U), Flip Horizontal and apply a Gaussian Blur with a 4 pixels Radius.

Step 40

Create a New Layer (Layer > New > Layer, or Command/Ctrl +Shift + N) and name it "Streamer Shadows". Place it under the original "Streamer" layer. Pick the Brush Tool (B) and select a 10 pixels Size, 10% Hardness, 30% Opacity and 15% Flow brush and start painting under the streamers. Creating a base shadow under them all will be enough, but always following the original shapes. Also, remember than in all cases shadows must be casted to the left.

Step 41

Now, we are done with the composition. In the following steps, I am going to explain some post-production techniques to give a fine high-end effect to our photo manipulation. Select the "Light" layer and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White or click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon on the Layers palette and select it. Use the following settings and put the Blending Mode of the layer in Soft Light with 37% Opacity.

Step 42

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Click on the gradient image to open the Gradient Editor. In this new window, Double – Click on the left Color Stop marker (in the gradient bar, they are located below, in the right bottom corner). This way you will open the window of Select Stop Color. Choose #55bedc. Now Double – Click in the left Color Stop marker and choose #f5e70b. Click OK in the Gradient Editor. Set the Blending Mode of the Gradient Map to Overlay, and lower Opacity to 15%.

Step 43

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. We are going to enhace the natural colors of the image. For that reason, we have to change a bit its base colors. Choose one and start editing the settings. Leave Blacks unchanged.

Step 44

Let’s give some blurry atmosphere to our picture. Stamp Visible Layers by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. This will create a new layer containing all the items in the rest of layers, without affecting them. Name this layer "BW". Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set an Amount of 48,6 pixels. Set the Blending Mode of the layer to Screen and lower Opacity to 42%. Desaturate this layer by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift + U or going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. Then Duplicate the layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer or Command/Ctrl + J) and change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.

Step 45

Now we are going to add some noise to the entire image. This way, we will get a more photographic approach, because it will be visible both in sharpened and blurred areas and will make the image to be more homogeneous. Again, Stamp Visible Layers by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. Go to Filter > Sketch > Reticulation. Set Density to 1, Foreground Level to 2 and Background Level to 6.

Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Luminosity, and Opacity to 22%.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set an Radius amount of 2,1 pixels.

We are almost there. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set an Amount of 12% and select Uniform Distribution.

Step 46

Create a New Layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N). Name this layer "Gradient". Use the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill this layer with the color #eba102. Press de Paint Bucket Tool icon until it shows a small submenu and pick the Gradient Tool. Choose from the top menu the Radial Gradient and Click on the Gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor. Now we are going to invert the gradient, so that way, when we create the gradient, it will affect from outside to the inside, so we will add color basically to the corners and sides and we will leave the center without changes. In the Gradient Presets, choose the second one (Foreground to Transparent). Double – Click the left Color Marker to open the Select Stop Color window and pick #845e0c. Click OK. Now, to invert the Gradient, grab from the left Color Marker and move it to the right corner, and then grab the right Color Marker and move it to the left corner. If you did it well, the gradient bar should look like the one in the screenshot below. Click OK.

Click and hold in the center of the canvas and drag the cursor to any of the corners, then release to create the gradient. It should look like this:

We still need one more gradient. Open again the Gradient Editor and Click on the Foreground to Transparent icon to get back to normal. Double – Click the left bottom Color Marker on the Gradient Bar and pick the color #f88e1c. Click OK and Click and hold on the center of the canvas, drag to one of the corners and release.

Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Soft Light. Now we are going to play a bit with the atmosphere. You can leave the colors as they are now, but if you are not into warm tones, maybe you will prefer to switch them a little. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or press Command/Ctrl + U. Drag the Hue marker until you find a color combo that suits you well. In my case, I am choosing blues. When you are done, click OK and lower the Layer Opacity to 30%.

Let’s adjust the lighting of this layer a bit. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels or press Command/Ctrl + L. We have to darken a bit the gradient, so drag the Shadows Input Level marker to the right (more or less until it marks 88).

The center area of the image now looks a bit weird and out of tune. Use the Gradient Tool (G) with the last color we picked ( #f88e1c) and create a gradient from center to any of the corners, Clicking and holding from the center of the canvas. Now, the image looks more natural.

Step 47

Go to the layer "BW" and create a New Mask. Select the Brush Tool (B), pick black color (#000000) and choose a soft 130 pixels size brush, 30% Opacity and 65% Flow, and start erasing some shadows in the teddy bear and the model’s legs that due to the latest modifications now are bad exposed.

Step 48

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) and fill it with any color you want with the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Set the Blending Mode to Difference and lower the Opacity to 13%. Name it "Difference".

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or Command/Ctrl + U. What we want is to tint highlights and shadows. I recommend to find a color that gives the highest contrast (in this case, deep blue or -163 in the Hue bar). Otherwise we will lose some contrast in the levels range.

Step 49

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. We are going to give the final color touches to our photo manipulation. I recommend warming a bit the Midtones and set colder Highlights and Shadows:

Step 50

Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer or Command/Ctrl + Shift + N), name it "Fog", place it above everything, select the Brush Tool (B) and press F5 to display the Brushes Panel. We want to create a new brush to add some subtle fog to the scene. Use the following settings to achieve that effect:

Start painting from where the ground starts (not the bushes) to the bottom of the canvas to create a dreamy effect. Lower the layer Opacity to 25%.

It might happen that some shadows might get lost during this proccess. If that is your case, create a New Mask, pick a soft black brush and with an Opacity lower than 50%, start erasing parts that might look annoying, like deepest shadows (legs, chest, plushie, shoes).

Step 51

We are almost there! To give the final touch, we are going to sharpen up the image. Since it is very big, we cannot use the Sharpen Tool or the Sharpen Filters. So Stamp Visible Layers by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E, set the Blending Mode to Overlay, and go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set a Radius of 5 pixels and press OK. Name it "Sharpening".

Final Image

Psdtuts+

The year was 2007, and Apple Inc. was poised to change the cellular and photography world in dramatic ways. They weren’t reinventing the phone or even the cameraphone, but they were going to revolutionize the device with enhanced interconnectivity and features. Like iPod for music, the iPhone changed the phone and cameraphone market forever.

Now, nearly five years later, there are over 360 million smartphone users worldwide with nearly all of them containing a camera. This is more than 3 times the number of digital cameras sold in 2010. Within that time, smartphone photography went from hated to loved by nearly all who own them.

So, where is it now and where will it go?

A Controversial History

Back in the early days, before the iPhone really broke through and made smartphones seriously popular. The images coming from phones weren’t much better than Post-It Note doodles. Grainy, fuzzy, and nearly colorless images were as good as it got. Even as the image quality improved, there really wasn’t an efficient way to share or back-up those images. So, phone photography wasn’t really a threat.

The low image quality and lack of effect filters kept cameraphones on the back burner for a while. Here, I used my car’s window tints as a blue polarizing filter. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

All that changed with the iPhone.

There were other smartphones out there with decent cameras and internet connections, but none of the other manufacturers had as successful a marketing campaign as the iPhone. The touchscreen interface made it even more appealing than it’s keypad counterparts. iPhone and its Android counterparts also rode, and in some ways caused, the explosion of wireless Internet use. Now, information and connectivity in photography was more mobile than it had ever been.

It was the ease of use and and ease of sharing that made smartphone photography the same “threat” that the 35mm film camera, polaroid, and digital camera were in their day to photography and their professionals.

There was a widespread concern over further democratizing photography. Increasing the supply of photography would drive down the demand for it and therefore prices. In short, the professionals were concerned that making photography too easy would make their craft banal.

However, the cameraphone hasn’t made photography as banal as early critics said it would. It has increased the availability, but since more people have access to it, more people have taken up an interest. It actually helped push photography more into the forefront of society and as the preferred method of recording events both trivial and significant alike.

Smartphones & Social Media

The first explosion of cameraphone use was when the quality of images of these devices was decent enough for many consumers to be happy with. Even professionals found the quality of the images eyebrow-raising – they were (un)pleasantly surprised.

The second and current explosion of cameraphone use was the integration with ultra-popular social media websites. Now, images are not only floated via email and SMS, but could be easily published directly to the web and shared with friends.

This social form of photography is where we are now. In a few short years, the cameraphone has become a major part of our lives and an integral part of a professional’s personal work.

Professional photographers such as Chase Jarvis have even made apps that enable smartphone users to apply filters and effects usually reserved for Photoshop. The increased and creative use of the cameraphone by top-notch photographers further legitimized the cameraphone as a viable creative option.

Because of its simplicity and connectivity, the cameraphone has become the new point-and-shoot – or snapshot camera – of our time. Everyday people as well as the world’s top photographers are using these devices to record their lives.

More and more “baby’s first steps,” weddings, parties, dates, and more are being recorded on a phone then they are with a point-and-shoot camera. Of course, the cameraphone can’t compete with the image quality of decent point-and-shoots (yet), but their nearly inherent attachment to social media and our pockets makes them more preferred and available.

Vignette’s great filters, full-res quality, and ease of sharing make it my “go to” camera app. Since late 2010, I’ve taken and shared over 1000 phone photos. Nearly all of them have been shared on social media. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

The apps that combine creativity and social media are numerous. Instagram, Twitpic, and Vignette are perhaps the top three cameraphone apps that achieve this. There are many more out there that are great, but it all comes down to user preference.

Smartphones & Professional Work

Most of our experience, including my own, is casual use of our phone’s camera and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or blog. However, some camera manufacturers as well as app developers have taken integrating the smartphone (and tablet) into the professional’s workflow. There are apps everywhere that enable the photographer to remotely control and view
images taken by their high-end cameras.

Phase One’s ad for Capture Pilot.

One such app is ShutterSnitch (.99) that works both for the iPhone and iPad. ShutterSnitch enables you to wirelessly transmit and review photos taken by your camera – provided you have a Eye-Fi card or other wireless transmitter. ShutterSnitch also allows you to arrange your shoots into albums, send them via FTP, and share them on social networks.

Another app, also for the iPhone and iPad, is from the digital medium format camera giant, Phase One. Their application, Capture Pilot (free), adds wireless previewing, rating, and even tethered functionality for both their medium format systems and DSLRs. The catch is that you’ll need their RAW-processing program, Capture One Pro 6 (9), to use it, and of course one of their cameras.

Unfortunately, Android users are behind the curve when it comes to applications that enable the professional photographer to work as seamlessly as an iPhone/iPad user. I do find it interesting that an open-platform manufacturer such as Phase One would only develop an application for a closed-platform device. However, this is one of the few places Android-using photographers come up short.

Other common applications that are helpful to photographers are:

• Weather
• Maps/gps
• Voice-recording
• Note pad
• Sun angle
• Calendar

Smartphones of both main camps (Android and iOS) have other productivity programs that are essential to photographers on the go. For the all-important model/property release there is Easy Release (.99) and for getting paid on-the-go, there is Square (free). These two applications help streamline two very tedious parts of photography: money and legal. With these both the photographer and client have records in their email instantly.

I use my phone to record lighting setups during shoots. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

Integrating your phone as I’ve described into your professional workflow isn’t necessary for success or maximizing efficiency. It is just another method of getting the job done. And since it isn’t as commonplace as an Instagram photo, it definitely adds a ‘wow’ or ‘cool’ factor to a shoot.

Into the Future

So where is the smartphone photography going to be in the next few years?

I believe that the camera on our phone, much like the remote control on our televisions and the automatic transmission in cars, is here to stay. I think that the image quality will continue to improve as well as the interconnectivity. Already parts of movies and entire television commercials have been shot using these things, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that continued to expand. Just a few years ago, DSLRs “invaded” the movie scene, it was only a matter of time before phones did too.

The current niche for smartphones in photography for amateurs is the snapshot and the niche for professionals is workflow. But going forward, I see that the phone will continue to appeal to the masses but gain considerable steam as professional tool in the shoot itself (i.e. shooting the final image).

I predict the next big thing for cameraphone technology is one where you have much more control over the image capture much like a camera with manual controls. Yes, there are phones and apps out there that allow for brightness, contrast, WB, etc. to be changed, but I’m talking about more precise control like aperture, shutter speed, and even remote flash triggering.

Hmmm, being able to use my phone to remotely trigger or even control flash? – are you listening Pocket Wizard?

Phototuts+

Today, you’ll have another chance to try one of our Phototuts+ quizzes. We’ll have squinting to remember facts with this one. We’re going to be testing your knowledge of natural light photography. We all do it, but we can probably all do it better. Get crackin’ after the jump! And don’t forget to share you results in the comments.

Phototuts+

Like many inquisitive children, as a youngster I would often ask questions to parents and friends to try and understand the world. More often than not, my questions would be met with a simple and satisfactory response, but on one occasion, I was puzzled by the issue of perspective. I understood that objects look smaller when they are further away, but I didn’t understand why.

‘They are still the same size’, I thought, but yet if they were their actual size, regardless of where I was viewing them from, then the proximity of objects around me would be overwhelming! It was eventually made clear to me that it was due to how our eyes perceive the world around us due to visual angles and diminishing perspective. Now I’m not going to start explaining anything in scientific detail, but what is sufficient for this article is to demonstrate that for me as a photographer, perspective and depth should have a significant role within my work.

Even though we work with a 2D platform, the sense of depth within a shot is vital to our interpretation of the scene within the shot, so here are a few tips and techniques which should help you appreciate the benefits of perspective within photography and how to maximize it within your own work.

1. It’s all in the eyes

There are many ways in which we can involve and enhance the effects of perspective in our work. These are mainly through basic visual and compositional techniques that hopefully won’t be too difficult to grasp and understand.

To really get to grips with this subject, you need to focus on developing your photographic eye, keeping perspective and depth in mind while shooting. It’s essential that you understand the basic principles and tips to fully develop your appreciation of the importance of depth and perspective. To maximize their affect, you need to utilize them and build them into your photographic understanding, so that next time you’re out on a shoot, your eyes will pick up on opportunities to use perspective within your shots.

Learn to use your eyes effectively on a shoot, take in the location, its details and its nuances, and be aware of what is going on around you.

Photo by archetypefotografie

2 . The diminishing effect

This is one of the easiest and best ways to use depth within an image. Find a location that has a repetition of objects, such as a row of trees, lamp posts or along a wall and shoot down through the repetitions.

To really make the most of the scenario, get right up close to the first object in the line, making it appear very large within the frame. This gives the impression that there is a significant reduction in size through the repeated objects, with the final object appearing insignificant compared to the first.

Photo by equitus

3. Linear perspective

This technique is pretty much as the title suggests, utilizing lines within an image to create a sense of depth. The best way to use this technique is to find two converging lines, such as a train track (although I wouldn’t recommend hanging out on train tracks), and to shoot down the lines.

They will appear as if they are gradually drawing closer together through the shot, as if the distance between them is getting narrower, which not only adds a sense of depth, but also leads the eye into the image. To maximize its effect, try and shoot from a low point, so that the lines appear as if they are starting very wide apart and also aim to include the vanishing point. You will really capture the complete effect of the converging lines.

Photo by glaciertim

4. Size Matters

One of the best ways to ascertain perspective within a shot is by gauging scale through the comparative size of objects within an image. As photographers, we can ensure that there are recognizable objects within our images that will aid viewers in appreciating the scale of the shot.

For example, give or take a few inches, a humans are all roughly a consistent size and therefore, if you include a person within a landscape image of a mountain, the viewer will be able to relate the two and judge just how big the mountain is. Similarly, you could use trees, animals, a car or anything that is recognizable and of a relatively consistent size.

Photo by sabriirmak

5. Layering

This is less of a technique and more of an observation that can be used. When working on a location, depth is perceived to the eye through distance, which isn’t an option within a 2D photograph, but you can use the layers within a scene to imply depth, highlighting that one object is closer to the camera than others within the scene.

You will also notice that different layers within an image will be highlighted by variation of tones, which again, enhances the sense of depth. This is particularly important for landscape shots. You want to portray the breathtaking awe of the scene before you and want to avoid it looking flat and lifeless. By including some foreground interest and layers through the shot, you’ll do the scene justice and capture its majesty!

Photo by simonbray

6. The glass that will make the difference

Along with all of the compositional techniques that will aid your efforts to maximize the affects of perspective and depth within your shots, there are also some equipment choices that you can make that will enhance your work. Using specific lenses will significantly influence the perception of depth within an image.

A wide angle lens will increase the perception of depth by singling out objects and therefore giving the impression of bringing them to the fore of the image. A telephoto lens that is zoomed in will do the opposite, and will compress the perspective, reducing the perception of depth by flattening out the objects within the image. So choose sensibly according to the type of work that you are undertaking.

Photo by mrjorgen

7. Depth of field

Altering depth of field through varied apertures is a great way to highlight one aspect of a image to demonstrate it’s part in a continued sequence and place it’s depth within the shot. Try opening the aperture to f/2.8 or f/4 and only focus on a particular aspect of the shot.This will blur out the near and far regions of the shot, and will give the point of focus a sense of depth.

Alternatively, if you’re confident that the composition of the shot demonstrates depth, stop the aperture down to f/16 or f/22 to ensure that the whole of the shot is in focus to demonstrate the length and depth within the scene.

Photo by mstepniowski

8. Change your angle

It is surprising how many photographers only take photos at eye level, or at the highest extension of their tripod. If that’s you, you’re really missing out!

Try mixing it up a bit. Get down low, shoot from above, shoot from the waist and most importantly, use your feet! The perspective of a scene before you can vary greatly by shifting a few feet to the right or to the left, so when on location, don’t just pick your spot and stick with it, be sure to explore the area and find the best vantage point for your shot.

Photo by andrewyang

9. Go for the flat approach

An alternative option to the all of these techniques and tips for enhancing depth and perspective, is to experiment with removing all sense of scale or depth from an image, almost to the extent that the viewer will be unable to decipher the scale of the image. You could try creating almost abstract type images of scenes that don’t involve any converging or leading lines, that have very few layers and no diminishing aspects. This will make the image appear very flat, but won’t necessarily mean that it isn’t an engaging or eye catching image, you just have to be creative.

Photo by thomashawk

10. Try it for yourself!

Now it’s time for you to have a go for yourself. Ensure that you keep these tips and techniques in mind next time you’re out and about with your camera so you can experiment with maximizing perspective and enhanced depth within your shots. Utilizing these tips effectively really will make for some dramatic images and remember that practice makes perfect. Keep refining your techniques, and as you find yourself in new locations, you’ll be able to apply these rules more effectively.

Photo by meckimac

Phototuts+

Every two weeks, we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Phototuts+. This tutorial was first published in October of 2010.

Collating a photographic portfolio can be a daunting experience. Many have the intention to create one, or even get as far as collecting materials, but believe that their work isn’t good enough and don’t know how best to present it. Putting together a portfolio can be a very beneficial activity and hopefully these simple steps will guide you through the process!

Step 1. What Is a Portfolio?

A photographic portfolio is quite simply a collection of work. The common misconception is that it is required to be a ‘best of’ of all the work you’ve ever done. Although this can be true in some cases, it is more likely to be a series of work with a unifying theme, style or taken through a specific medium.

Step 2. What Is It For?

A portfolio is an opportunity for you to present your work, but it is important to consider what the portfolio is for. Are you taking it to a job interview, or are you looking to get your work exhibited at a gallery? Maybe you just want to bring your work together to present it?

Whatever the reason, it is vital that you create your portfolio with this in mind. A job interview might require you to display a variety of skills and techniques, whereas a collection for an exhibition would require a single unifying theme and will need to be presented with the gallery setting in mind.

Step 3. Your Audience

Once you’ve decided your intentions for your portfolio, you need to consider the audience your looking to reach. Try to consider what reaction you want to evoke – do you want them to be pleased, surprised, shocked? Not everyone is going to want to see your favourite landscape shot or generic shots that they see day in day out, so do you best to make your shots stand out and get the reaction you want.

Step 4. Paper vs. Digital

At this point you need to decide what format you portfolio is presented in. In the past, everything was on paper, but technology has introduced the option of presenting your portfolio on a PDF, JPEGs or through an online medium. Being able to email a link to your portfolio through to potential employers is obviously extremely convenient.

I would argue that the process and final product of a beautifully printed out paper portfolio far outweighs the option of viewing photos on screen. For more on presenting an online portfolio, check out our Quick Tip article on the subject

.

Step 5. Style & Design

It’s now time to consider the style and design of your portfolio. You’ll need a folder or portfolio case to hold it all in, but before you head out to buy something, consider what size your want your printed out shots to be. I would recommend something fairly large – maybe 20x30cm or about A4.

You then need to select the paper to print on and the print quality, preferably as high as you can afford. This said, remember there are no restrictions on size, shape or style – the more personal it is and the more it says about you as an artist, the better.

Step 6. Theme

Next you’ll want to consider what theme or style you want your portfolio to have. This will depend upon your audience For a job taking portraits, you should only include your portrait work. You could have a collection of black and white or sepia work, a set of shots taken with a specific camera format or a collection of shots from a specific time period or geographical region.

If you are looking to mix up types and styles of shots, make sure you have a valid reason for doing so. Remember that regardless of the theme, you should ensure a consistent colour balance and quality throughout the set of work.

Step 7. Choosing the Shots

The most difficult part of creating a portfolio is selecting the shots. There’s always a huge temptation to just select your favourites, but a photographer isn’t always the best judge of their own work as they take into consideration the setting, effort and editing taken to create the shot.

Try to get some help from someone whose judgement you trust and will be impartial. I’d suggest aiming to end up with a set of 20-30 shots, but start with maybe 100 and gradually take them out until you’ve got the desired collection. If a shot has any flaws, or is out of focus, leave it out. It’s much better to have a few perfectly executed shots, than a large collection of fairly good shots.

Step 8. Presentation

The presentation of the shots is vital to the reaction from viewers. A badly presented collection of great photographs just won’t do them justice and you’ll come away disappointed. Think carefully about how to enhance the images through presentation techniques, borders and the colour of the backing sheet.

It’s also important to consider the order of the shots, whether they are arranged chronologically or to create a particular mood. When choosing a title image, don’t just choose your favourite. Try and select something that captures the essence of the collection.

Step 9. Contents

Once you’ve got the shot layout sorted, you need to consider what other elements you might want to include in your portfolio. It’s totally up to you, but things to consider are:

• An artistic statement – outlining your concept or theme and personal information
• A list of shots included
• Titles for shots and a brief explanation
• Date/location of shot
• A thumbnail contact sheet

You may feel that you want the shots to do all the talking, or it might be necessary to give each shot some background contextual information. It’s up to you, but remember to keep it brief. You want people to be looking at the shots, not reading waffle about how you climbed a mountain at 5 AM to get the shot.

Step 10. What Do I Do Now?

Try not to be tempted to add to your portfolio once it’s finished. You’ll always take better shots in the future, but I’d suggest that a portfolio is a collection of what you’ve done, and adding to it will spoil the continuity and thought that you’ve put into collating it.

Now it’s time to show your portfolio to the world. Share it with family and friends and get some feedback, which may give you a chance to practice talking about your work in preparation for any potential interviews you might get. Good luck!

Phototuts+

The digital age is all about speed. Faster processors, faster data transfers, and faster photos. While a digital camera allows you see what an image looks like immediately, it’s still just a collection of dots on a screen: battery dependent and intangible. For truly instant photos, you need to look into the past to instant films. Polaroid-style instant photos are making a come back. In this article, you’ll find a quick guide to instant photography: the cameras, the film, the advantages and disadvantages.

Photo by Aaron Alexander

What is “Instant” Photography?

I’ll define instant photography as using a camera or process that produces a physical print of your image directly after the exposure is made without the aid of other devices. Polaroid, which has suspended it’s instant film and camera line, is probably the most well-known for this process. Fuji still produces instant film and cameras, which are gaining in popularity. Kodak also ventured into the game at one point, but abandoned it rather quickly.

Traditional instant photography is dependent on instant film. This special film usually comes in packs that contain ten pieces of film, resulting in ten prints. These packs are loaded into the camera. Each piece of film contains a chemical packet attached to one end. The camera projects an image onto the film like any other film camera. Then the chemicals are spread across the film by rollers as the film exits the camera. The chemical reactions develop the image and take a few minutes to finish, then you can see your image.

Photo by Aaron Alexander

The Film

As mentioned earlier, a few years ago Polaroid stopped producing instant film and cameras. Due to a group of very dedicated individuals, the old equipment was purchased and is now running again. The Impossible Project is now producing a variety of instant films for vintage Polaroid cameras.

It does come at a premium with prices hovering around USD per shot. The Impossible Project produces film for SX-70 cameras, 600 series cameras, Spectra format cameras and Type 100 cameras. This are all different sizes or ISO ratings and each type is designed for specific cameras. These new films are also experimental, meaning that they may not behave exactly the same as the old Polaroids you remember from childhood.

Photo on film from The Impossible Project. Photo by Tim Regan

Fuji also produces two formats of consumer instant film. They also produce professional style films for cameras with special instant film backs (these films are usually used in medium and large format cameras or in passport photo cameras). One of their consumer films is Instax Mini, which produces photos about the size of a credit card. The other consumer film is Instax Wide which produces images about 6cm x 10cm.

Photo on Instax Wide film. Photo by Phillip Pessar

The Cameras

The Impossible Project did produce a new 600 series camera for their films, but it was a limited run, and from what I can tell is no longer available on their site. Vintage Polaroid cameras can be found pretty easily. Online sites seem to be charging a premium right now, but flea markets and thrift stores often yield reasonable prices.

A 600 series Polaroid camera. Photo by Toni Rantanen

The most revered vintage Polaroid camera is probably the SX-70. It’s reputation comes from the fact that it was designed more like an SLR than a point-and-shoot. Most Polaroid cameras were auto-exposure and auto or fixed focusing. They also were viewfinder cameras. The SX-70 allows viewer to look through the lens, seeing a more accurate frame of what the image will look like. Many SX-70 models were also manual focusing, but they all maintained auto exposure.

The much-adored Polaroid SX-70. Photo by Iaihiuyeung Ryanne

Another thing to remember about Polaroid cameras is that most do not take batteries. The battery that powered the camera was located in the film pack. So when you purchase a used Polaroid remember that you won’t be able to test it without film. I often carry an old used film pack with me for testing. The film pack battery can last a lot longer than the ten shots it’s required to take.

Fuji offers a few different cameras for their Instax Mini film. Most are roughly the size of a modern digital point-and-shoot. The 50S is the top-of-the-line in this category. All the Instax Mini cameras offered by Fuji are basically automatic, but some have close-up lenses and basic exposure compensation. Fuji offers one camera that shoots Instax Wide, the Instax 210. It is also basically a point-and-shoot, but it offers two focus settings and simple exposure compensation. Most Fuji cameras offer the ability to turn the flash on and off manually.

A Instax Mini 25, affectionately known as the Cheki. Photo by Lordcolus

Why Shoot Instant?

Instant cameras and film offer you the ability to immediately see your final product. They produce something tangible that can be given and received. I use my instant cameras the most at parties. I hand out the prints as soon as they come out of the camera. At family parties, most kids have never seen a Polaroid camera. As cool as it is to see themselves on the back of digital camera, it is way cooler to get the picture and take it home.

Photo by joyboffin

Instant photos also have a one-of-kind aura about them. Even a film negative can be reproduced over and over again. Instant photos don’t have that sense. To me, they also seem more private. In an era where privacy concerns make headlines, instant photos seem safer. There’s no digitally archived file stored anywhere. Obviously, they can be scanned and uploaded to the web, but I think they are perceived as safer and less invasive.

The Downside

Many of the things that make instant photos cool also hinder them. They’re not easy to share online. If you want to send them around or make copies of them, you have to go through the trouble of scanning them. If you take an image with two people in it, only one gets to keep the image.

But the biggest issue for me is the limitations of the cameras. With the exception of a few hard-to-find and currently over-priced vintage Polaroid cameras, you cannot find an instant camera that allows you to properly control focus and exposure. I wish Fuji or The Impossible Project would look into this.

Photo by squeakymarmot

Cost is also major issue when you talk about instant photography. When shooting digital, the cost of shooting is nothing. Gear investment and printing can hurt your wallet, but shooting is essentially free. Shooting instant costs money, and a lot of money. Even Instax Mini film costs at least .75 USD per shot.

The Future

There is a modern camera produced by Polaroid that attempts to capture the essence of instant photography. The Polaroid PoGo is basically a digital camera with a built-in printer. The concept began as the PoGo printer, which was a portable battery-powered printer that could be hooked up to many digital cameras directly. The Pogo camera shrunk the original design of the printer and strapped it to a digital camera.

The PoGo uses special ZINK paper that doesn’t require ink (ZINK actually stand for ZERO INK). The PoGo camera operates like a normal digital camera, but whenever you want, you can scroll through your images and make 2×3 inch prints that slowly come out of the side of the camera just like a regular instant camera.

One Last Option

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lomography’s efforts to embrace instant photography as well. They have produced instant backs for a couple of their infamous cult cameras: The Diana (a medium format plastic camera) and the LC-A (a compact 35mm camera). The instant backs replace the door that normally allows access to the film compartment. They both utilize Fuji’s Instax Mini film, and installing them does not permanently alter the camera itself. Instant backs used to be common accessories for medium format and even 35mm cameras. They were often used to verify exposure and lighting. Lomography did a good job modernizing this idea with a new application.

The Lomo LC-A with an instant back attached. Photo by Joi Ito

Instant Infatuation

Making the plunge into instant photography can be relatively cheap. A used camera for under USD (or free from your parent’s attic) and some film from The Impossible Project for around USD. In the grand scheme of photography, USD is not a ton of money. And in my opinion worth the cost just for a couple experiments.

Photo by Aaron Alexander

But before you dive in, consider what you hope to use your camera for. For most of us, instant cameras aren’t something we can afford to carry around and shoot every day. So it may help to justify the purchase if you have an overall purpose in mind.

Photo by Phillip Pessar

Instant photography can be addictive. Those white-bordered talismans just call out to some of us. Give it try. And if you’re already a instant photo fan, post links to your images or share your favorite tips and tricks below.

Phototuts+

Photography takes many forms and incorporates many different styles, most of which either fall into the categories of documentary or fine art. It is in the second category that we find abstract photography, a means of visual expression that’s purpose is not to inform the viewer, but to engage and excite.

Step 1 – What is abstract photography?

Handily, there isn’t really a defined meaning or explanation of what abstract photography entails, and in the same regard to abstract art, the content of the work is essentially unimportant and often entirely ambiguous. What does take precedence is the form, colour, line and texture within the composition, to create a piece that is visually stimulating. With regard to abstract photography, you don’t need any sort of special equipment, just a camera, any camera you like, and your imagination.

Step 2 – It’s all in the approach

So how does one go about taking abstract photographs? The first thing to remember is to keep your eyes open for interesting and engaging subject matter. Whenever I shoot abstract shots, I’m always attracted to the subject matter instinctively; something about it will catch my eye and draw me in. React emotionally to the subject, consider why you were attracted to it and how it makes you feel and this will inform how you photograph it. Spend time with the subject, think outside the box and approach it in a means that you would not really approach it, from different angles and regardless of it’s usual purpose.

There aren’t any given camera settings to recommend as each subject and circumstance will vary greatly, but don’t be afraid to stick your camera on manual and try out different shutter speeds and f-stops in order to reveal the true potential of your subject.

Step 3 – Break the rules!

It’s important to consider what elements of your subject that you want to engage with in order to enhance your shot. Use your imagination, stop thinking about the subject in it’s literal form, forget all the photographic preconceptions and get creative. It can be quite a challenge to do away with established photographic concepts, the rules regarding composition and exposure, but instead use the subject as an artistic means, almost as if you had a blank canvas in which to express yourself artistically. It’s now time to think about how you can maximise the features and detail within the subject, the line, texture, colour and form.

Step 4 – Pattern & Line

The first key element to look at is the pattern and lines within your subject. Look carefully at your subject and consider whether there are any reoccurring shapes or themes with the object and use these to your advantage. I always like to try shooting an object very straight and symmetrical; to get a clinical structured feel that I feel would enhance the affect of a pattern, but you can also try shooting at angles that counter the pattern. Also look at the lines and edges of the subject, are they straight or curvy, do they lead into the shot, through the shot or away from the shot. Line can be used very effectively in photography as the eye will tend to follow a line through a shot from it’s origin to it’s end, so consider how you might want to engage the viewer and where you’d like to lead them.

Step 5 – Form

The form or shape of a subject will play a crucial role in how you approach your subject. Assess the form carefully and think about which aspects of the subject you want to exploit, for example, is it very straight and formulaic, does it lots of curves and imply movement or is it a natural object whose form will change over time? Decide whether you want the form of the subject as a whole to be within the image or whether you want to focus in on one particular area of interest. Also think about whether there are any recognisable shapes that you can work with, be it circles, triangles or hexagons, use them to your advantage!

Step 6 – Colour

Colour is probably the strongest visual element to an abstract shot, it draws the viewer in and the colour of a subject will immediately inform the viewer as to what they are looking at and form assumptions and a mood setting in their mind. Try and use colour as an expression, it’s the best and easiest means to make your shots attractive to the eye and just as in a painting, think carefully about how you use colour to bring certain aspects of the piece to the fore.

Step 7 – Working with architecture

Architecture makes for extremely interesting abstract subject matter, especially commercial buildings and modern structures designed for public use, as they often have distinctive shape, form and lines which are very easy to exploit. Older buildings tend to appear far more structured and are often symmetrical in nature, but this can be used to your advantage as you try to pick out patterns to use in your shot. Newer buildings are likely to be far more diverse, with odd angles, curves, large planes of solid colour and far more glass. Ensure you spend time with a building, explore it inside and out (you may have to ask permission to shoot inside) and take advantage of the architects design work!

Step 8 – Abstract & Macro

Another technique that works very well when trying to achieve abstract shots is working in macro. Many abstract shots are of subject matter that would be totally recognisable if it were shot from a distance, but the photographer has chosen to close in on a specific area of interest, maybe because of it’s texture or colour. In this case, ensure that you fill your viewfinder with the subject matter; you don’t want any blank spaces in your shot. Again, think about the angle at which you approach the subject, for example, the most common way to shoot a flower is from above, to see the detail in the centre, but maybe you could try shooting from below up towards the light and see what results you get.

Step 9 – You’re an artist!

As I mentioned previously, abstract photograph is quite different to most other types of photography in that it’s centred on the artistic expression of the photographer, which is worth bearing in mind, especially with regard to the fact that it’s not always going to be obvious what your shot is of. Don’t expect people to see your abstract shots in the same way as you do. I love it when people have to ask me what the content of an image is or think it’s of something totally different to what it is actually of, because they’re seeing it in a totally different way to me, it’s an intriguing insight into them and their approach to the work. I find my abstract work to be very personal, I’ve picked out that subject, the approach, the angle, the exposure and the beauty of it is that few people would approach it in the same way, it’s a very personal expression.

Step 10 – Get out a give it a go!

So now it’s time to get out there and give it a try for yourself. Plan a couple of photo trips out to places you’ve not been to before and keep your eyes open for subjects that catch your attention. In a new place you will be surrounded by new photographic opportunities, so take your time and really engage with the subjects you choose. I always like to use my 50mm prime lens for outings such as these, purely because it’s quick and has a nice wide aperture that really helps when trying to achieve artistic results. Failing all this, just make sure you have a camera with you at all times so you’re ready to snap away at anything of interest that you may find on your travels!

Phototuts+

As you begin to make the jump from amateur to professional, it is extremely easy to overlook the business and legal side of photography. However, if you’re getting paid for making images, it is important that you protect yourself with a basic contract. Today we’ll briefly go over some types of content and considerations that should be in your contract so that you can be sure that you’re on the right track to a professional career.

Seek Professional Council

To be clear, it should be noted that any advice in this article should be seen as general suggestions and not the professional advice of a licensed attorney. The content below is meant to provide basic ideas and considerations, all of which should be proposed to a legal professional before being implemented.

This is also not an exhaustive list. Contract law is a complicated topic and the subjects mentioned below are just a starting point.

Do I Really Need a Contract?

Rendering professional services, especially in the creative arts, is a tricky business. With any job, there is s0 much that could go wrong. Camera equipment failures, natural disasters, moody clients and illness are just a few of the factors that can work to turn a perfectly planned day into an absolute mess.

Contracts make things formal, which can be both positive and negative. If you’re working with someone you don’t know, they’ll appreciate the formality and the fact that you’re professional enough to provide a contract that offers protection for all parties involved. However, if you’re working with close friends or family, the presence of a contract may be seen as a lack of trust and therefore appear offensive.

I simply can’t stress enough the importance of requiring a contract for any event that you have agreed to take on as a professional. In some cases, contract should even be drafted for pro bono work. If friends or family take offense, stress that a contract will genuinely improve the situation for everyone and that you’re not accusing them of being flakey or dishonest.

A simple question to ask yourself when faced with the decision to draft a contact is whether the potential for regret is higher for making the contract or neglecting it. You’ll almost never regret providing yourself with the extra protection of a contract but there are a million possible scenarios that will leave you regretting not having that protection on paper.

With this information in mind, let’s take a look at ten things that everyone should consider when building their photography contract.

1. Basic Information

The first thing you need when outlining your contract is the standard photographer/client identification and contact information. This information will be provided by both you and the client. Keep in mind that all of this doesn’t need to be custom-printed in the contract, but can be filled in by hand upon signing.

For your side you’ll need, at least, your name and/or the name of your business, the business address, the proper state and county, your relevant contact information (name, address, email, phone) and fields for you to sign and print your name. You might be tempted to wonder why you would need any of this information (you already know your phone number) but remember that the contract is for both parties and not just you! No matter which party is looking at the contract, they should be able clearly see who the other party is and how to contact them.

On the client side, you’ll need much of the same info: the client’s name(s), address, phone number, signature, etc. You should also include the date, time (which we’ll discuss more) and location(s) for the shoot.

2. Hours of Work: A Firm Start and Exit Time

This is something that I didn’t personally think was necessary until I went without it. I wanted to be considerate and to let my clients know that they since they were holding up their side of the bargain by paying me, I would shoot for as long as they needed me. This sounded like good customer service but wound up being a convenient way for clients to take advantage of me.

I shoot a lot of weddings and generally consider around eight hours of shooting to be more than enough to capture both the shots that I need and those that I know the bride and groom will want. But without including a firm stop time in the contract I found that people like to party well into the night at the reception. Partying clients loosened by the joys of alcoholic beverages aren’t easy to get away from. They tend to try to pull you back into the fun.

After a few 12-14 hour shoots, for which the prices were set considering an eight hour day, I decided that my policy of staying as long as the client needed was a bad one. You simply need to give yourself a clear and agreed upon exit time. Specifically state in the contract what both the start and stop time for the shoot are and what the charge will be for any additional time spent at the location. That way when the client begs you to stay for a few more songs, you can kindly remind them that you don’t mind the extra work if they don’t mind the extra cost. Odds are, they’ll decide that 200 shots of people they barely know doing “The Electric Slide” aren’t as valuable as having some spending money on the honeymoon.

3. Price

Speaking of cost, another thing that you’ll want to include in the contract is the overall cost of the shoot. This will obviously be different for every photographer. Some charge a flat rate, others charge by the hour and there’s even room for a hybrid of the two (bill a flat rate up for a set amount of time, then hourly after that).

It’s always good to be as specific as possible when it comes to money in a contract. Friends and strangers alike will have selfish motives in monetary exchanges and you don’t want to get caught up in an argument about a supposedly verbally agreement. This can end very badly for you (once again, I learned this the hard way).

As indicated in the previous tip, you want to carefully consider all of the scenarios that should and shouldn’t add to the cost of the agreement and spell these out in the contract. For instance, if you deliver the photos and the client demands that you spend more time in post-processing or requests a few extra images of someone special, state how much it cost in the contract.

Just remember that the phrase “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it” is your mortal enemy when planning out a contract. Anything that isn’t explicit stated is a potential headache down the road that can cost you both time and money to resolve.

4. Terms of Payment

You might think that this sounds redundant in light of the previous tip, but the terms of payment are actually quite different than the mere consideration of overall cost. Again, you’re simply avoiding stress and problems in the long run by making sure the terms of the payment are clearly stated.

The terms of the payment are simply how the payment will be delivered, who it will come from and when it is to change hands. Typically, photographers require a deposit. If this is the case, it should be stated in the contract how much the deposit will be and its due date (make sure you write out a receipt when the client makes the deposit).

Likewise, the rest of the payment should have a clear due date after the event. To make sure the dates actually mean something to the client, a late fee is often established. Spell out that the client will pay a certain amount for every day that the payment is late and what happens in the event of a complete failure to pay.

Topics like these aren’t fun to think about and they absolutely aren’t easy to discuss with a client without sounding like a money-grubbing jerk, just remember that anyone worth working for understands and appreciates a high level of professionalism.

5. Deliverable Items

Many photographers set their pricing and the specific items to be delivered based on pre-built packages. This is typically three to five different arrangements that gradually increase in value, time and the number of items received by the client (digital photos, prints, albums, etc.).

The benefit of creating packages is that they’re often structured very specifically so that both parties know what they’re in for. You definitely don’t have to build or abide by preset packages if you don’t want to, but keep in mind their advantages and try to make up for that loss of specificity in another way if you decide to go without them.

Every contract should clearly state what you, the photographer, will provide to the client. This usually takes the form of a minimum number of photos that you commit to giving to the client. This can be twelve or twelve hundred depending on the event and your style of running a photography business.

Another very important consideration is exactly how the photos will be delivered to the client. If you expect to hand over a DVD of digital images and nothing more, make sure your client knows it. Likewise, if you plan on only providing printed images and not granting your clients access to the digital originals, you should definitely make it very clear in the contract. Whatever your policy may be, just make sure that, when everything is said and done, your client can clearly compare what you’ve given them against what is outlined in the contract. Only promise what you absolutely know you can deliver, anything extra should just be a bonus.

One final piece of advice in this area: Make sure to state that your deliverable items are contingent upon the client performing certain actions and cooperating with you. You shouldn’t be liable if the client’s neglect leads to a compromise of what you promised. For instance, if you agreed to take photos of a bride getting ready for her big day, but she doesn’t make herself available at this time, you were denied the opportunity to hold up your end of the agreement and aren’t liable for that exclusion.

6. Delivery Date or Time Period

Another thing that new photographers can easily forget to include is a specific time period when the client can expect to receive the photos. This can be a complete disaster if you don’t account for it beforehand.

Imagine that you’re the client and you’ve set in motion big plans for the photos, you’re going to feature them prominently at some event two weeks after the shoot date. Surely two whole weeks is enough for anyone to simply hand over some photos right? However, a few days before that event you call your photographer only to find out that they won’t have the images ready for another six weeks! Enraged, you immediately call up your brother-in-law, Bob the lawyer, to help sort the situation out.

If this situation sounds like a contrived one meant to scare you, it is. However, the simple truth is that you don’t ever want to be on either end of a situation like that. Further, problems like this are easily avoidable. All you have to do is clearly state the range of time within which you will do your job and prepare the photos. The period of time that the situation merits will differ from photographer to photographer and isn’t nearly as important as simply making sure that you and your client have reached an agreement and put it in writing.

Just recently I spoke with one photographer who allows four to six weeks for delivery and read about another who promises images the very next day! If you’re unsure about it, err on the side of caution and give yourself more time than you need.

7. Long-Terms Image Rights for Both Parties

If a client pays you to take some photos, who owns the resulting images? You took them, so they are in fact your work, but the client purchased them, which also implies ownership. It’s a sticky situation to say the least.

Some photographers are crazy protective of their work. They would never dream of giving out high-resolution digital images for fear that clients would use them to order prints through someone other than themselves. Furthermore, who knows what a client will do with your work without your permission if you let them? It could end up on a stock photography website without your knowledge or consent!

On the other hand, some photographers take a relaxed approach. They let clients have all of the original high-resolution digital images and even encourage them to look elsewhere for getting them printed in the future, thereby cutting themselves out of the profit loop in the long run and possibly opening themselves up to legal issues with the misuse of those photos.

I won’t tell you how to construct your copyright agreements for your images, this is something very personal that photographers need to decide for themselves. However, I will tell you that, whatever you decide, it needs to be clearly stated in the contract.

The problem that I think most photographers struggle with is the assumption that most people understand how photography businesses work. You work with this stuff every day so it might feel like common knowledge, but it’s not. Your average Joe doesn’t know about photography copyright laws and the general conventions for what is and is not allowed. You have to explain these things both verbally and in your contract so that everyone understands who has what rights regarding the images.

If you’re with how this looks in a contact, a typical agreement might state that the photographer retains the copyright for the photographs but also grants non-exclusive use of them to the client.

8. Policies on Other Photographers

This one seems fairly random and even arguable, but in truth in can become a major problem and should be a consideration for every event. These days, lots of non-professionals have a really nice digital SLR with a reasonably good lens that they pack around to family gatherings, social events and the like. If you’ve ever run into this at an event, you know what a hassle it can be.

I was recently the second shooter for a wedding where, during the ceremony, the hired photographers (including myself) were practically tripping on other people taking photos with their big, expensive-looking cameras. This had several negative effects. First, the client received fewer quality images because we had to dodge all of these extra “photographers” and try to make sure they weren’t in our shots. Furthermore, the other people with cameras complained as we jumped in front of them to capture an important moment, despite the fact that we were the only ones actually hired to do so!

Another important aspect in this argument is the idea that having all of these other people shooting the event lessens the impact of your own work. To be fair, you should be good enough to stand out, but you are hired for your talent and shouldn’t have to deal with competition on the date of the event.

As the originator of the contract, you get to decide what your policy is on other photographers, and it may even change from event to event. If you don’t mind other people shooting but want to make sure they avoid specific places so they aren’t in the way, make sure your client understands where those places are and can guide their guests accordingly. Likewise, if you prefer, you can state that guests can’t have any cameras that require interchangeable lenses.

Most of the time, this isn’t something you can enforce very well. You can’t exactly walk up and yell at any guy with a Canon Rebel! However, simply having it in the contract lets your clients know your thoughts on the subject, which is often enough to make the event go much smoother. It also provides you a modicum of protection when your picture of the first kiss turns out to be a photo of the back of some other photographer’s head.

9. Failure to Comply Clause

You’d love to think that, no matter what, you’ll be where you promised to be when you promised to be there. But we all know though that crazy stuff happens. You could get into a car accident, someone close to you could have an emergency, your memory cards could be eaten by a bear. There are a million possible things that could hold you back from coming through on your end of the agreement and such a scenario should be covered by your contract.

This is one of those situations where you really want to make sure to protect yourself so you don’t end up getting sued for vast sums of money. A typical agreement might state that, in the event of an emergency, equipment failure or other unforeseen circumstance, you will return any money given to you up to that point but claim no further liability beyond that.

Clients might get a little nervous at this part of the agreement, and that’s understandable. You are interested in the necessity of protecting yourself but in doing so it might appear easy for you to jump ship at the last minute with no penalty, thereby leaving the client vulnerable. Be sure to read the next tip for more on this.

10. Mutual Protection

Most of the information and considerations above have been pretty one-sided. This article’s primary goal is to make sure that you know how to protect yourself as a professional photographer and to show that a well-written contract is one of the best ways to do that.

However, every good contract contains considerations for both parties. Who would want to work with you if your contract lets you get away with whatever you want while the client is forced to take on an unhealthy amount of risk?

Your contract should be mutually beneficial. When your clients read it they should be able to clearly identify several points where their own interests are being accounted for in addition to yours. This may mean making a few concessions and leaving yourself slightly vulnerable. It makes it easier for a client to sign a contract when they see you’re taking on some risk as well.

Ultimately, photography clients just want to know that you’re going to do your absolute best to provide them with fantastic images. If upon reading your contract, they feel that this is true and you are satisfied that the interests of both parties are addressed, your job is done.

Sample Contracts

With all of the necessary considerations, preparing your own contract can be extremely intimidating. The good news is that it’s probably easier than you think. One of the best ways to wrap your mind around the subject of photography contracts is to take a look at a few. Follow the links below to see what others have done and decide what components you should mirror in your own endeavors.

• Wedding Photography Contract: IQ Photo
• Photography Contract: PrintableContracts.com
• Photography Contract: Justin Tinapay Photography
• General Photography Contract: Ladies Who Launch
• Sample Photographer Contract: Keep Your Copyrights
• Model Photography Contract – Sample: f6point3studio.com

What’s In Your Contract?

To sum up, contracts are a boring, stiff, and mostly unpleasant part of being a professional photographer. However, they are a vital component of your business and help ensure your long-term well being and your clients happiness.

As stated above, this list is by no means exhaustive. There are many more clauses and considerations that could be included in a photography contract. Help us out by leaving a comment below with your own tips about constructing a contract. How do you protect yourself and your clients?

Photo Credits: Jesse Shapins, Richard Cawood, Alexander Boden, Hilde Vanstraelen, Don LaVange and Richard Busch.

Phototuts+

Toy photography can be absolutely great fun, and is a really unique subject to capture. With creative lighting, it’s possible to capture some incredibly unique shots of toys, characters and small objects.

The main challenge of toy photography is to give your subject life – either through placing it in a life-like setting, or in an action-packed post. To give you a hand, today we’ve collected 70 beautiful examples of toy photography along with couple of tips!

Autumn Loneliness

SotA Ken Ryu

Tilt Shift Photography aka little toys

The Arrival of a Star Destroyer

Street Fighter

Street Fighter

He’s no good to me dead….but Goldfish are

Here’s Johnny!

Winged Warrior

Three Note Charlie

Indiana Voorhees and the Final Chapter

Sunday Drive

Hide and Go Seek

In a land of mist… listening, observing..

Outside and ready to capture the Summer away

Drawing In The Sand

G-Force

It’s A Small World

For Gnomeregan!

WALL-E

On the Run

Sheep in the big city

Carl

Summer Time Fun

DOMO RUSH HOME

Look what we found!

Today’s Forecast – Windy

It’s-a me, Mario!

Cold Sunny Day

DOMO CLEAN!

Sackboy

Yotsuba & Ramen

Batman

“sleep…don’t weep”

Hey Geppetto, turn me into a real elephant!

Woody had a couple of drinks.

Toy Story Cosplay

The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing.

FASTER!

Thinking of you.

been there, done that.

Hitching a Ride

Ironman

Disruption

Domo, the Predator.

Batman

Joker

Punisher

Yotsuba & the Catch of the Day

Laying with the Leaves

Kingdom Hearts

Helpless? Just Help

Land Ahoy

My Buddy

The Last Crusade

Gunslinger

War Toys

Gomez – Secret Super Spy

Savage Henchman

Attack at home

Denizen of Dagobah

The Comedian

Tricycle Terror

Band of Brothers

GTA III

Petit Lapin

Other Resources

Here are a couple of other links to interesting articles that might help you on your way!

• Getting Started in Toy Photography
• 5 Tips for Better Toy Photography

If you have any of your own examples, we’d love to see them in the comments. Just share a link to your own photos below!

Phototuts+

Ever since Creattica added photography to its expanding categories, the section has been filling up with some stunning work.

Today we are going to take a run through some of that work here on Phototuts+. We hope you enjoy the site and find the inspiration to make some brilliant work of your own. And when you do, don’t forget to submit it to Creattica!

1.Diver

2.Trafalgur Square Phone Boxes

3.Burton Wold Wind Farm

4.Magdalena Wasiczekís Magic Garden

5.Natural History Museum HDR

6.The Storm

7.Deep Inside Your Ocean

8.Winterminimalism

9.Viaduct

10.Mystical Sunset

11.A Storm Is Brewing

12.Seen Better Days

13.Sand Dunes

14.Mica Part III

15.Urban Solitude 03

16.Canary Wharf Metro Station

17.Stunning Landscape

18.Golden Poison Frog HDR

19.Zau012

20.Lightone

21.Spinning

22.Como Caravaggio

23.Tunnel Of Light

24.Top Of The Rock ñ NY

25.Navayo

26.Peggys Cove Lighthouse

Phototuts+

Sports photography is fun and accessible. You don’t have to be a pro to want great shots from your child’s game or your favorite local team.

Sports photography can also be a lucrative addition to your freelance business. Almost every week of the year, school teams meet to compete, and parents love photos of their kids in action. Due to the specialized nature of sports photography, it will take a lot of practice to master, regardless of your background.

This tutorial will help you identify the skills you will need to develop to be successful.

Know the Game

The most important thing about sports photography is understanding the many nuances of the sport you’re covering. Moments in sports happen very, very quickly.

In order to make really strong sports images, you need to be able to predict what the players are going to do and how they’re going to react to specific circumstances. If you don’t understand the rules, your reaction time will not be fast enough to capture the action you want.

Use An Appropriate Lens

Take a look at the sidelines the next time you’re watching a sports match on television. Those photographers are packing heat. While you might not have the budget to purchase one of the howitzer cannons they have strapped to their cameras, you do need to plan to have an appropriate lens for the sport you wish to shoot.

The first thing you need to consider is whether the sport is played indoors/at night or if it’s played during the day outside. If the game is played inside or at night, it’s best to have a lens that opens up to f/2.8 or at least f/4. If you’re shooting outside during the day, then any f/stop will work.

For most sports, you’ll want a lens length of at least 200mm on the telephoto end. Then you’ll either need something around 35mm to 50mm. This could be another lens or the wider end of your zoom.

If you’re stuck with a “normal” or wide angle lens shooting most sports, you’ll get pretty bored waiting for the action to come to you.

Control Your Shutter Speed

Most sports involve some element of speed. The players are running fast, throwing fast or hitting fast. You’ll want to use a fast shutter speed to “stop” the action. Photographers use this phrase to describe the freeze-frame effect fast shutter speeds create. Ideally, you’ll want a shutter speed around 1/400 of a second or faster, but in dark situations 1/250 can work.

In other situations, experimenting with slow shutter speeds can fun. Try dropping your shutter speeds to 1/30 or 1/15 and pan with the action. Whichever approach you use, you need to be conscious of your shutter speed. In these fast action scenes, choosing the wrong shutter speed can easily ruin a shot.

Pre-Focus When Possible

In some sports, you know where the action is going to happen, you just don’t know when. In games like baseball, cricket, volleyball and track, you know that the action is going to take place at certain base or wicket, or at the net or finish line. Set your focus to that point and wait.

Forgive me if action doesn’t take place at the wicket, I’m an American and know about as much about cricket as I know about abstract physics equations. What you call futbol or football, I call soccer. Forgive my Yankee ignorance.

Back to pre-focusing. When you know where the action will happen, ambush it. Instead of trying to track your subject, wait for it to enter your pre-determined plane of focus. Sometimes switching your camera to manual focus or using focus lock helps with this.

Anticipation

As I mentioned earlier, you need to be able to predict what the players of your sport are going to do. Anticipating what will happen is another extremely important aspect to sports photography. Keep your eye to the camera and follow the action.

When you think something is about to happen, mash that shutter button. Having a fast “continuous” setting on your camera is nice advantage in these situations.

Once the action has stopped, don’t immediately check your camera to see if you got the shot. Keep following the action. You’ll miss something if you’re always checking the back of your camera.

Peak Action

Traditional sports shooters working for magazines and newspapers are always looking to capture peak action. This is the moment that shows the most conflict and/or athleticism.

It’s the moment of the game-changing slide tackle. It’s the slide into home barely beating a throw from the outfield. It’s the moment the sprinter glances to his left to see the face of person he’s about to beat.

Those are the moment all sports shooters want to capture. Sometimes they involve the context of the game or the season or event the career of the player, but they just as often capture a fleeting second of fierce competition.

Capture the Conflict

It has been said that games of sport and physical ability were created to replace war between tribes: a chance to prove prowess and strength without the risk of death. You can still witness intense loyalty and even national pride when it comes to sports.

Sport and war are very different, but one similarity remains. Conflict. In a photo, this usually means physical contact between athletes. A single player running down the field can be compelling, but not nearly as dramatic as two players colliding and battling for the ball.

Feature the Face

If sports weren’t intense, we wouldn’t watch them. Team sports especially allow the players to express anger and joy without penalty. This is why it’s especially important to show the faces of these players. If we can’t see their face, we can’t tell what the players are feeling.

Making that emotional connection between viewer and subject is your job in every kind of photography. When shooting sports, the task of showing a clear face can be harder than it sounds. Athletes are often looking at a ball or wearing helmets. Fields, stadiums and courts are not lit like a theater stage, so often that is also working against you. But I think you’ll find that a photo with a face is often far more powerful that one without.

Find the Ball

So there are three things I look for in most sports photos. First, I look for conflict or contact. Second, I look for a face. Third, I need to know what sport I’m looking at. I need to know what these people are fighting over. That means, you need to show the ball.

Now, there are a lot of sports like track, gymnastics and other individual sports where this principle may not apply. In these sports, you’re goal is to capture the grace of the sport or the physical skill or strength required to compete in it. But if the sport has a ball, try to include the ball in your shot.

Tight Is Right

The phrase “tight is right” is commonplace in sports photography. Tight refers to framing or cropping. When shooting a game, zoom right in on the action. This also takes quite a bit of practice. You have to move quickly with the action, and be aware of the entire game.

Don’t get tunnel visioned with your telephoto lens. Literally, keep both eyes open, so you can tell where the action is going. Look up and over your camera quickly when you lose track of where the action is happening. When you take your photos into post-production on the computer, use your cropping tools to further apply this concept. Crop in tight as well.

Shooting Reaction

I mentioned earlier that sports are emotional, so sometimes it’s important to capture that by itself. When the final buzzer or bell sounds, don’t put your camera down. Shoot the happy or sad reactions of the athletes.

The end of the game is also usually the only time photographers can be on the field. Get out there and join the team. Get in close with a wide angle lens if you can. This becomes even more dramatic when the game or match is an important one.

Utilizing Flash

In many high school and amateur indoor venues, you’ll find that the lighting is horrible. In some cases, the best way to overcome this is to use a flash. The most important thing to remember is that the flash cannot be on your camera for most sports. The bright light flashed into the eyes of athletes is distracting and dangerous.

When using flash in these venues, you’ll either need a wireless system like those offered by Pocket Wizard or Cactus, or you’ll need to link your camera to your flash with a long cord.

Before I invested in wireless, I used a modified extension cord that you’d find in any hardware store. Once your flash is far enough away from the court, the athletes and referees won’t even notice it.

But it can dramatically improve your photos. Keep in mind, you cannot use your “continuous” shooting setting unless your flash recycles very quickly.

Some Position Tips For Specific Sports

There are thousands of different sports across the world, and I’ve only experienced a handful of them. For each of these sports, there are common places where photographers post up to shoot. Knowing these positions can give you a good starting place when shooting sports. In the comments, feel free to add some more common positions in other sports that I don’t list here.

Baseball: Position yourself by first base or third base, so you can just see second base. Use the sun’s position to choose between first and third. You want the sun to your back in order to get those faces illuminated properly.

Basketball: Avoid shooting from the sides of the court and instead position yourself under the basket just to the left or right of the center, if you prefer using a shorter lens. If you prefer using longer, more telephoto, lenses, position yourself in a corner of the court.

Football (American): You’ll need to progress down the field with the line of scrimmage, so you’ll be moving. Position yourself 10 yards ahead of the line of scrimmage. Once the line of scrimmage has reached the 20-30 yard line. Reposition yourself behind the endzone in case of a touchdown.

Soccer (Football): If you have a very, very long lens (400mm or above), position yourself at the endline directly to the left or right of the goal. If you’re shooting with a shorter lens, stand on the sideline halfway between the endline and halfway line in the center of the field. Reposition yourself on different sides of the field occasionally throughout the game. Similarly to baseball, keep the sun to your back.

Phototuts+

During my recent visit to Envato headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, I was able to hit the streets to try my hand at photographing this amazing city. Melbourne is a hot bed of sites and cultures that make for some wonderful photo opportunities. Today we’re going to showcase some photography from around Melbourne, along with some tips if youíre planning on a visit.

Getting Around

Most of the following landmarks and areas can be reached on foot within Melbourneís downtown core. If you’re looking to get from one location to another without wearing out your shoes, be sure to look for the Free City Circle Tram. This burgundy-coloured tram makes a loop around Melbourne’s downtown with plenty of stops that are close to some of the main sites.

Shoot the Landmarks

There are a ton of beautiful parks, historic buildings and landmarks to visit in Melbourne. Here are a selection of a sites you’ll find within easy walking distance of the downtown core.

Federation Square & Flinders Street Station

Photo by @Melbourne on Flickr

Photo by RaeA

A combination of the traditional and modern make Federation Square and the Flinders Street Station a hot photography spot.

Flinders Street Station is a huge orange brick building that really stands out with its domes and clock tower. As Melbourne’s main train station, there’s always a constant stream of traffic making it a great place to watch the locals.

Federation Square is Melbourne’s place to meet. Its modern buildings make for a nice juxtaposition with the Flinders Street Station across the street. Being that it’s one of Victoria’s most popular tourist attractions, you’ll always find people coming and going in Federation Square.

Royal Botanical, Carlton, Royal Park & Fitzroy Gardens

Photo by geoftheref

Photo by Space Cadet Marko

Photo by proper dave

Melbourne has plenty of lush, sprawling gardens to photograph. If you’re looking for old buildings to photograph, Royal Botanical houses the Government House while the Carlton Gardens contain the impressive Royal Exhibition Building. This massive domed building is one of Australia’s UNESCO World Heritage sites and make for some stunning photographs.

If history is your cup of tea, check out Fitzroy Gardens where you will find the transplanted home of explorer James Cook as well as a replicated Tudor village.

If you like to photograph nature and flowers, you can’t go wrong with any of Melbourne’s many parks.

Yarra River

Photo by mugley

Photo by alistair_35

Photo by mugley

Although the Yarra river is relatively small as far as rivers go, it makes a great location and background for some Melbourne skyline pictures.

A leisurely stroll along the river’s embankment should make for some good photo opportunities. If you want take a tour down the river, there are several opportunities to hop aboard one of Melbourne’s river boats and get some stellar water shots.

Arrive early or late to catch some awesome shots of the Melbourne skyline being reflected in the river below.

Food photography

Photo by adactio

Photo by JoeGray

Photo by i (heart)

Melbourne isn’t called the food capital of Australia for nothing. With reportedly over 60 different types of ethnic cuisines, Melbourne is a food photographers dream come true.

Walking through the major streets of Melbourne, one will come across everything from Japanese Sushi and Korean BBQ to German Schnitzel and British Pubs. Be sure to bring extra cash along with your camera, as the price of food may put a true foodie into the poor house.

Eureka Skydeck 88

Photo by mugley

Photo by Puddles

If you’re looking for some inspiring views of Melbourne, you can’t go wrong with the Eureka Skydeck. Contained on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower, this skydeck is the highest public vantage point in the entire southern hemisphere.

The deck features a glass cube which juts out 10 feet from the building making for some breathtaking views. Come here after dark for some once-in-lifetime shots of Melbourne.

Yarra Valley Wine District

Photo by 98octane

Photo by Eyes of “L”ens

Photo by Jason Tabarias

Photo by Jason Tabarias

Just north of Melbourne you will find the Yarra Valley which is packed with orchards and wineries. Australia’s great dividing mountain range serves as a backdrop for the lush wine growing region.

If you can manage to join up with a tour or find a car of your own, driving through the valley will offer some tantalizing landscape photography opportunities. One of the only upsides to the devastating flooding in Australia is that the valley hasn’t been this green in decades.

Any Other Tips?

Do you have any of your own Melbourne photos or photography tips to share? We would love to see your shots and hear about your favorite photo spots in the comments.

Phototuts+

Pet photography is one of most the interesting types of photography. Photographing your pet can be a fun experience, but it is not always easy to capture your pet’s true adorable personality. You should keep few thing in mind while taking snaps your animal: be patience, focus on the eyes, experiment with them. In this roundup, we have a collection 70 cute, clever, and sweet pet photos along with few tips.

Yellow Eyes

Cat in a bag

Portrait of a dog

cuddle puppies

Miucha…..

Voltou trazendo uma amizade sem tamanho.

friend…or foe?

Dog Portraits

…and just HOW is this fun?

day in the park with Latte

Java’s day at the beach

Small Dogs Rule!

Babysnuggle

Curious

Apple

Baby Tiger

Posing

Olive is today’s Daily Puppy

Dont be shy

My beautiful mama and me

miss you…

One More Cup of Kitten

Gretta

Arkanys 8 – Fancy rat

Wrapped in cuteness

Strawberry

Paws

Moritz in Box

I’m WORN OUT

hi

Am I cute

Festive Lights, Sayeth the Cat

Little Angel

Call me.

Buck, The Noble Retriever

sleep

Rabbit

Panda Puppy Eye

Kiss

Tommi in the twilight – cropped

Fetch! [v2]

Linus

The little terror

singing in the rain

where’s my chocolate?

Herr Hildezart on strawberry

The Friendship

Sweeney Dog

It’s not my birthday?

Secret Hiding Place

Almost Christmas

pet

Hoverdog

Dodger

12 Weeks

Pet file

Roxy

Nagri Muri

Wait

Blessing

Simply Aline

You can’t see me

ANIMALS

Dog

dog

Other Resources

Quick Tip: Top Tips for Pet Photography

9 Pet Photography Tips

13 Pet Photography Tips

5 Tips of Pet Photography

Phototuts+

Conceptual photography - as a part of conceptual art - is a photography genre in which the artist makes a photograph of a concept or idea. In this type of photography, you try to convey a concept or message with a photograph.

Few photographers are using Photoshop to edit and process – all the magic happens in-camera. In this collection we’ve sourced 70 imaginative and beautiful examples of this wonderful type of photography.

Never Been Alone

Quality Time

me and me

Ethereal atmosphere

AnnTena

Adventure afterlife

Caffeine Fix

Reborn

black sheep

Trauma #2

A Creative Mess

1882

There’s nothing on

Magic of the season

Drowning

Inheritance

I miss you

Roll the Dice……….

Distraction

Shyness

Take a bath

Watch

Flying on the Rooftops

Oops!

HotWok – A Rusted Flash in the Pan

crucified

horeee dapat

Expanding the horizons of imagination..

Wake Up

Bus Stop

Anti-Fascism !

[ desire for freedom ]

Abduction

nick

Fly

First lesson

Heavy things won’t fly

Energy – Man and Nature Connected

Nita

The journey

Bubu

But I Would

Crossing Lines

Shadows of summer II

Silent Morning

wandering spirit

Stop The Time

Racism … IV

Racism – VI

.Racism

The Fugitive

The Harvest

Yin Yang

resurection of the zombiephone

walking the cloud

Whichelo Place

Lord of the rings

My own little sun

Level one

Conceptual Photography

Ubersoldat

sleeping beauty

Hi…

Don’t touch me

snow in autumn

angels wanna fly

” jump ”

Do you mind?

Share Your Own!

Do you have any of your own examples you’d like to share? Just leave a link in the comments – we’d love to take a look!

Phototuts+

High Dynamic Range photography is one of two things: something that will be as commonplace as a built-in flash in ten years, or a silly fad that will soon die and fade away. One interesting facet of this debate is that camera manufacturers are beginning to embrace HDR so much that they’re actually building it straight into cameras as a way to get more detail out of your images.

Today we’ll go over what both what HDR is and what it isn’t. You’ll learn the difference between the core technology and the popular resulting effect that perhaps takes it too far. We’ll also take a look at the camera market to see which manufacturers are fully embracing in-camera HDR and which ones are hesitantly testing the waters.

Your Camera Vs. Your Face

Have you ever wondered why you can’t really shoot what you see? No matter what camera you have, from a cheap cell phone to a 5D, the images that are produced are notably different than what you’re perceiving in the real world.

There are several reasons for this: the fact that you have two eyes and one camera lens, different focusing mechanisms, etc. One of the most limiting of these factors is dynamic range, which, loosely defined, refers to the scope of lighting conditions in which we are able to perceive the world around us.

Your eyes have a much higher dynamic range than most or all commercial electronic sensors. The best of these sensors have dynamic ranges of about 13.5 stops of light, while human eyes are closer to 18-24 stops.

What this technical babble means on a practical level is that you possess the amazing ability to see well on a dark night, a bright sunny day and everything in between. In other words, your “range” of perception is quite broad.

Your camera, by contrast, isn’t quite so gifted. As you well know, it struggles with both shadows and highlights. If you set the exposure settings so that the details in a dark room are clearly shown, any points of light present in the image will be completely blown out.

Similarly, if you adjust your exposure for a sunny day, most or all of the detail present in a shadow will be completely lost. Digital photography is a constant game of juggling tradeoffs and it’s literally impossible with the current consumer-grade technology to capture the full range of detail that you see before you with a single image.

How HDR Works

So why use a single image? This was the heart of the question posed by the pioneers behind HDR imaging. The idea is actually extremely simple. By combining images taken at different exposures, you can meet or even surpass the range seen by the human eye. This is where bracketing comes in.

Bracketing involves setting your exposure down a given number of stops, taking a photo, then upping the exposure and snapping another shot of the same scene. This process is repeated until the photographer is satisfied with the range captured. It’s fairly typical for a photographer to use a three image system: one shot underexposed, one shot properly exposed and one shot overexposed.

Odds are, your DSLR already has this feature built into it in an automated fashion. This means all you have to do is click a single button, after which several photos are taken automatically at different exposures.

After this, the images are transferred to a computer where they are compiled into a single end product. By utilizing multiple images taken at multiple exposures, you’re able to create one final image containing all of the image detail from all of the photos. The end goal here is of course capturing a striking image that is much closer or even better than what you personally see.

The benefits here are clear but there are limitations and hurdles as well. The most significant of these is the fact that not everything you photograph will stay perfectly still as you take three to five different photos!

Addressing this problem is something that many applications like Photoshop and others are currently tackling and improving all the time, but there’s still plenty of progress to be made.

The HDR Taboo

HDR is a touchy subject. Many photographers absolutely hate the entire idea of HDR for several reasons. First of all, it admittedly feels a bit like cheating. However, there will always be purists who make this claim regarding any new photographic technological advancement.

Film fans descried the end of the art of photography when digital came along, digital post-processing of any kind (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.) was and still continues to be something that is scorned by those that prefer to brag about the superiority of straight-from-camera shots.

HDR is simply another step on the same staircase. Technological geniuses will continue to invent amazing tools for photographers and we’ll continually reject them until the fad of doing so wears off and the benefits are too enticing to pass up.

A slightly more legitimate critique in my mind is the HDR craze that has resulted in endless roundups of photographs that look like something you might see on an acid trip at Disneyland.

Some people love this particular style of photography, others abhor it. Regardless of where you fall, you have to admit that this is simply a niche within the greater HDR field and not a legitimate reason to reject the entirety of HDR as a useful technology.

This would be similar to rejecting the incredibly useful RAW image file format because certain people use RAW Lightroom presets that you don’t like!

Built-In HDR: The Next Step

HDR is a fascinating technology to me because it represents a clever software-driven way to get better photos out of hardware that is otherwise much more limited. Simply put, who wouldn’t want the option of more detail in their photos?

However, on a practical level, there’s no way I’m ever going to manually combine exposures for every photograph I take in a shoot. My current post-processing procedure is quite lengthy as is and I have no intention of tripling it. And I think a lot of photographers are with me on this. This puts HDR technology more in the realm of an occasional fun experiment than something used by most photographers in every day work.

The only way I see HDR ever breaking out into widespread use by just about every photographer is automation. It has to be something that doesn’t add significant amounts of time to our current workflows.

One of the best possible scenarios for this is to have HDR as something that our cameras do for us behind the scenes as a feature that can be easily switched on and off, just like flash or auto-focus. This way it becomes just another pre-shot setting that I have the option to play with. We photographers hate extra work but we love extra buttons!

If you think automatic HDR inside a camera is a pipe dream, think again. Currently, one of the world’s most popular, ever-present pocket-sized cameras has this very feature: the iPhone.

Apple’s touchscreen wonder phone has a simple HDR on/off switch which causes the camera to take multiple shots and combine them in seconds with zero effort on your part. If a tiny cell phone can do it, why not a big, powerful DSLR?

Cameras with Built-In HDR Functions

Armed with the knowledge that the technology does in fact exist, we had a look around to see what camera manufacturers are doing about it. It turns out that there are indeed a number of cameras on the market today that possess built-in HDR functionality!

Though many of these are small and cheap, some of them are serious professional cameras with specs that will blow you away. Let’s take a look around too see who is doing in-camera HDR and how.

Pentax K-5

Amazon Price: ,599.95

Surprisingly enough, Pentax seems to be one of the camera companies really at the forefront of this wave. Not only do they have several cameras with built-in HDR, it seems like it’s quickly becoming a standard feature.

The Pentax K-5 shown above boasts some really impressive specs, including 16.3MP an impressive ISO range of 80-51200, and full 1080p HD video at 25fps. This model features an upgraded HDR system designed to be used without a tripod. You just flip on HDR, point and shoot.

The camera does everything else and what you get is a JPG image (no HDR RAW option) with an impressive range of highlights and shadows. Check out a complete breakdown and review of the Pentax HDR system here.

Pentax 645D

Amazon Price: ,995.95

Not sure that cutesy HDR features will ever make it into serious high-end professional cameras? Think again. Pentax is pushing HDR all across the board and the whopping ,000 645D is no exception.

This beast boasts 40MP and ultra-high resolution images at 7264×5440. It’s interesting that Pentax saw HDR as an important enough feature to place in here, but left out the video capability present on many of their other SLRs. Someone is certainly putting a high priority on this technology!

Sony a550

Amazon Price: 9.95

Sony is another camera manufacturer jumping on the HDR bandwagon. A few of their cameras, like the a550 shown above, now have an on-board HDR system. It’s important to note that the a550 pulls detail from only two photographs while the Pentax system uses three. However, this is a much more affordable camera.

Also, Sony has another system called the “D-Range Optimizer” that isn’t true HDR, but does attempt to optimize a photo’s dynamic range. D-Range Optimizer is designed to work with moving subjects and therefore fills in where HDR falls short.

Canon Powershot G12

Amazon Price: 4.95

Canon hasn’t fully embraced in-camera HDR technology to the extent that the some of the other manufacturers have. One of the few places you can find it in the Canon line is on the Powershot G12, which is obviously more of a point and shoot consumer camera.

However, this does indicate that Canon is indeed working on the technology. And it’s not unheard of for them to figure something out on low end models and then bring it up to the big cameras like they did with video capability.

Furthermore, many tech blogs recently shot up a red flag when Canon filed a very interesting patent relating to HDR. It seems they might be trying to change the game completely before they get into it! Canon’s patent outlines a system whereby the camera alters exposure on a per-pixel level. Sound too crazy to be real? Check out more here.

Nikon Coolpix P100

Amazon Price: 9.95

Nikon seems to be taking the same road as Canon by tipping their toes into the HDR water and waiting to see how it pans out before taking the dive. Again we see this manifesting through introduction of a special HDR system in a low end camera: the Coolpix P100.

It is interesting to note however that higher end Nikon DSRLs have a special mode for combining multiple exposures. Though it’s not necessarily the intended purpose, photographers are increasingly starting to use this feature to create HDR images.

Casio EX-ZR100

Casio Price: 9.99

Casio is gradually introducing in-camera HDR features across their Exilim series of products. It definitely makes sense that cheaper cameras are embracing HDR technology first (iPhone, Coolpix, Casio, etc.). Many of these products simply don’t have the expensive hardware necessary to create professional quality images and HDR provides an easy way to boost the quality without changing the hardware and adding production costs.

Casio is actually embracing this technology on multiple levels. Like the other cameras that we’ve seen, the EX-ZR100 has a standard HDR mode that attempts to mirror reality but they’ve also included an HDR-ART mode that makes combines the images to look like the popular over-processed HDR fad mentioned above.

The Future of Photography?

The products above prove that there is hardly a camera manufacturer out there that isn’t experimenting with in-camera HDR capabilities. Pentax is by far leading this rush by including its HDR system in several different high and low end models. The others are a bit more hesitant but you can bet the threat of competition will continue to push Canon and the others further and further with their own systems.

The big question now becomes “Is it all just a fad?” Big dogs Canon and Nikon sure seem hesitant about jumping in and some find it hard to consider anything a professional feature until it’s on the 5D. Further, there are plenty of skeptics, like Aaron from Social Photo Talk, who think that real professionals won’t go near an HDR feature whether it’s there or not, similar to the “Auto” mode on modern DSLRs.

However, I definitely disagree and think that it’s not a far-fetched scenario that many or even most new professional DSLRs will have an in-camera HDR feature within the next few years, and we’ll all use it. The reason that I believe this will happen is because image quality isn’t a fad.

It’s true that cartoon-land HDR tricks have already overstayed their welcome (sorry Casio) but technology that improves the overall look of our photographs in a way that mirrors reality is something that photographers will continually pursue and appreciate. We’re never going to wake up and suddenly not want better photographs.

Simply put, if there’s a button on my camera that will pull more detail out of a tricky scene, you can bet I’m going to press it with zero concerns about the purity of the art of photography. Honestly, the biggest downfall I see at this point is that I would have to give up RAW, which I’m not willing to do in many circumstances.

It will be interesting to see if Canon or anyone else comes through with the promise of truly High Dynamic Range technology that utilizes only one image. This would certainly make in-camera HDR infinitely more convenient and usable.

What Do You Think?

Now that you’ve heard our spiel on in-camera HDR technology, what are your thoughts? Do you wish your Canon T1i had the same HDR feature as your iPhone? If it did would you use it? Most importantly, is HDR just a passing fad or are we seeing the tip of the iceberg in a long-term improvement of the dynamic range of our photographs?

Also be sure to let us know if you’ve tried any cameras with built-in HDR, what you thought of them and how you think they should improve.

Phototuts+

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Feature me is a creative blog which celebrates new up and coming artists and designers, in the hope you find some inspiration, to make you smile!

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.

Have you ever got home after what you thought was a great day’s photography, only to upload your images and find that they were sharp in either the foreground or background but with the rest of the image not quite in focus?

By applying the simple rules of Hyperfocal Distance you can be sure that you are shooting images which are sharp from foreground to background on almost every occasion. I will be using an image that I took recently of Castlerigg Stone Circle to show you how you can put these simple rules into practice so that you can obtain maximum depth of field (DOF) in all your landscape images.

1. Introduction

The hyperfocal distance is the point at which you should focus your lens to allow you to get maximum DOF. Once you’ve focused on this point, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity will be sharp. This means that if you’re focused at a hyperfocal distance of 10 metres then, five metres to infinity will be sharp.If you simply focus on the subject itself, then only one-third of the area in front of that subject and two-thirds of the area behind it will be sharp.

A simple cheat that will work most of the time, is to focus one third of the way into the scene. Whilst this works up to a point, to obtain maximum depth of field, you will need to calculate the hyperfocal distance correctly!

Step 1

I took the above image at Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick which is in the northern part of the English Lake District. The stone circle, which is owned by the National Trust but is free to visit, lies on the top of a low hill with great views across to the fells in all directions. It is approximately 30 metres in diameter with the tallest stone being 2.3 metres high. There is plenty of interest in the foreground, middle ground and background making it a perfect place to illustrate hyperfocal distance rules. If you get your calculations correct, the stones in the foreground at the front of the circle, the stones in the middle distance at the back of the circle and the fells in the distance should all be sharp and in focus.

Step 2

I took the shot using my Canon EOD 5D full-frame digital SLR fitted with a Canon ‘L’ series 24-105mm zoom lens. I used a Lee 0.3 ND grad filter to correctly expose by one stop the lighter background with the darker foreground containing the stones. The use of ND grads to obtaining correct exposure is a subject worthy of a tutorial in its own right and too complex to discuss here in any depth.

My camera was placed on a Manfrotto 055 PROB tripod with an 804RCT 3 pan-tilt head which gives me excellent stability on uneven terrain and in the gale force winds that summer in the Lake District can often bring! I use this in conjunction with a Canon RS80 remote switch to obtain the crisp images essential for printing and publishing. It’s no use carefully composing your image and going to the trouble of calculating the hyperfocal distance correctly if the camera then moves when you press the shutter!

NOTE: Before you start to shoot, you will need to go into your camera’s menu system and make sure that you are able to change individual focusing points. (See your user manual if you need hep on how to do this).

Step 3

Firstly, I needed to compose the shot. I always try to do this using the rule of thirds so that I will end up with a well-balanced image. The idea here is to divide your camera’s viewfinder into a jigsaw puzzle containing nine even pieces – three across and three down. The focal point of your scene should then be placed along any of the four intersection points. It’s also good to place the horizon or any other strong feature along one of the horizontal lines; either one third from the top or one third from the bottom of the scene.

The image below that I took of Scale Force illustrates this composition rule perfectly and I have superimposed a grid over it to make it more obvious. The waterfall flows down along the left vertical grid line and there are strong focal points on three out of the four intersections. Whilst there is no real horizon here, the waterfall is contained in the top two-thirds of the image.

But remember rules can be broken sometimes as you can see from one of my best selling images – Morning Mist on Buttermere. In this image the tree silhouette has been placed directly in the middle of the scene which is what gives it impact.

If you apply this to my finished image, you will see that I have ensured that significant stones fare placed on or close to the two lower intersection points giving the image balance. As there is no real horizon here, I have placed the field edge close to the lower horizontal line and the line of bracken on the fells perfectly on the upper horizontal line. Also, the stones fit nicely into the bottom three pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, the fells into the middle three pieces and the cloud formations into the top three pieces. The image shows strong elements in all nine pieces with the stones forming a perfect ‘lead-in line’ to the image. As you always read a book from left to right so a human eye views an image from bottom left to top right, so it is important for an image to grab the eye where it instinctively first looks for something. For this reason, I have placed one of the large stones, in the bottom leftmost piece. I have only just touched on composition here, as this is a big subject worthy of a tutorial in its own right and too complex to discuss here in any more depth.

Step 4

So let’s imagine for a moment that I knew nothing about hyperfocal distance rules. I would set my camera to aperture priority (AV on most digital SLRs) and to f22 thinking that this f-stop would give me maximum depth of field. Because I would be using a tripod and shutter release, the shutter speed would not really be that relevant as there would be very little chance of camera shake. But I would choose a low ISO (160) to try to ensure that I got a good crisp image. With my chosen lens, I would set the focal length to 24mm to obtain the widest angle shot that I could to get in most of the stones in the circle. Because the stones are the main subject of the scene, I would focus on the stones in the foreground. The resulting image would appear sharp but diffraction would occur. This is caused when light passes sharp edges or goes through narrow slits deflecting the rays of light to produce fringes of light and dark bands which distort the image. Whilst this will not be noticeable on your LCD and you may think that it looks just fine, it will be more noticeable when the image is viewed at a larger size or printed.

The following images show the results that I would get using the same ISO and focal length but changing my f-stop to f11, which is the optimum f-stop to get maximum depth of field for landscape photography, but focusing on various parts of the scene.

Step 5

In this image, I focused on the fells in the background. As you can see, the stones in the foreground are out of focus whilst the fells and a third of the distance from the fells backwards towards the camera are sharp and in focus.

Step 6

In this image, I focused on the stones in the middle ground. Here the stones nearest to the camera are slightly out of focus, the stones in the middle ground and the fells in the background are sharp and in focus.

Step 7

I will now let you into the simple secret which will correct all the above focusing problems and allow you to obtain the maximum depth of field in your landscape images. Let’s start with the formula for calculating hyperfocal distance. Don’t worry about it; it’s much less complicated than it looks!

Focal length – This will, of course, be different for every image that you take. For my shot of Castlerigg Stone Circle I used my 24 to 105mm lens at its widest focal length i.e. 24mm. This value can be read off from the top of your lens barrel once you are happy with your composition. For fixed length lenses just use the fixed focal length of your prime lens.

Circle of confusion – All you need to know here is that this constant differs depending on the type of camera that you are using and is based on what is considered to be acceptable sharpness in an 8” x10” print seen at normal viewing distance. The most popular values are as follows:-

Digital SLR = 0.02
35mm format and digital SLR full-frame = 0.03
6x6cm format = 0.06
4x5in format = 0.15

F-stop – The optimum f-number for landscape photography is considered to be either f11 or f13. My preferred f-stop is f11 as I find that this gives you the maximum depth of field without any diffraction occurring.

Step 8

Using the above formula, the hyperfocal distance for my shot was calculated as follows:-

Therefore, the hyperfocal distance is approximately 1.8 metres.

Step 9

Once you have calculated this figure, you now know the distance from your tripod that you need to focus on to obtain maximum depth of field. Without re-composing your photograph, you now need to identify an object which is that distance away from your tripod and set the focusing point on your camera on this object. Your camera will have a number of focusing points displayed on its LCD and you need to make active the focusing point that is covering this object. Again, you need to consult your camera’s manual if you are unsure how to make this focusing point active. Everything from this focusing point (i.e. the hyperfocal distance) to infinity and half way between this focusing point and the tripod will now be sharp and in focus. If you are unable to make a focusing point active on an object then switch your lens to manual focus and focus on the object manually.

Step 10

In this image, I focused on the hyperfocal distance point of 1.8 metres which I estimated to be on the two stones in the left foreground. As you can see, the result is an image which is crisp and sharp from front to back. Also, half the distance between the hyperfocal point and the tripod (approx 0.9 of a metre) would also be pin sharp.

2. Conclusion

OK, so calculating the hyperfocal distance is a bit more effort and you may need to carry a calculator around when you first start to use this technique. But providing that you stick to either f11 or f13 for your landscapes, you will soon remember the different hyperfocal distances for the lenses and focal lengths that you normally shoot at. To help you, I have set out two tables below which show the hyperfocal distances at various focal lengths for the most commonly used cameras. All you need to know is the focal length multiplier i.e. crop factor of your camera and choose the appropriate table. Your manual will help you here. Cut out the appropriate table, laminate it and put it into your gear bag. Believe me; you will be truly amazed at the results that you will you get from making such a small effort.

Table 1 – Hyperfocal Distance Calculator for Digital SLR Cameras with a Focal Length Multiplier of 1.6

Table 2 – Hyperfocal Distance Calculator for 35mm and Full Frame Digital SLR Cameras with no Focal Length Multiplier

Phototuts+

While photo sharing websites like Flickr can be a fun way of putting photos online, I’m sure that most photographers would like to have their own personal website. But what if you don’t know how to put a website together and get it online?

Well, the good news is that it’s easier than you think. In this article I’m going to introduce you to WordPress – a popular and relatively easy way of building your own website. There isn’t space in one article to cover WordPress in detail – so I’m going to give you an overview and direct you to websites where you can learn more (they are listed at the end).

What is WordPress?

The main function of WordPress is blogging software. Blogs have moved way beyond the online diaries they were originally intended to be. As well as blogs, WordPress is used as the platform for personal websites (such as Jake Garn’s website), magazine style websites (including Phototuts+ itself) and photoblogs (such as the Fine Art Photoblog).

WordPress has developed beyond its original purpose of blogging software into an excellent content management system (CMS). What’s a CMS? It lets you upload content to your website, where it’s stored in a database. The CMS software, in this case WordPress, then displays that information in your browser according to the theme that you’re using.

If you want to change the appearance or layout of your website, you just amend your theme or change to another one. A CMS separates the appearance of your website from it’s content, so that you can change the appearance without altering the content.

The main advantage of WordPress for photographers is that it lets you make updates and publish new photos or new blog posts whenever you like. If you had someone build a website for you that wasn’t a CMS, you would have to go back to them every time you needed something added. This is time consuming and expensive – especially as photographers, we always have new stuff that we want to add to our websites.

Best of all, WordPress is free (you download it from the WordPress.org website). The only costs to you are buying a domain name and a hosting package. Depending on where you live, the outlay for the cheapest hosting packages is only a few dollars, pounds or euros a month.

Do I Need a Blog?

If you’re looking for a website rather than a blog, then maybe WordPress isn’t for you. But WordPress is still worth considering because it’s very flexible. For instance, you can use it to build a website and use the blogging part of the software as a ‘news’ section. Just because you use WordPress doesn’t mean that you’re committed to maintaining a blog or making regular updates.

Who Is WordPress For?

WordPress could be what you’re looking for if you are one of the following:

• You have more time than money (WordPress isn’t overly difficult to use but it still takes time to learn).
• You want to learn a new skill. If you work in media, publishing or for any employer who has a website, learning to use WordPress could be a very useful skill, especially if you are the only person in your organisation who knows how to use it.
• You know, or want to learn, how to use HTML (hypertext markup language – the building code of all websites) and CSS (cascading style sheets – the code that controls the appearance of web pages).
• You don’t mind doing some of the work, but don’t want to get involved in anything too complex. WordPress is easier to use than a lot of other content management systems.

However, WordPress is not for you if any of the following apply:

• You don’t know how to use HTML or CSS and you have no desire to learn.
• You have money, but no time. If you have the money to pay for it, and need or want a professional website, then consider paying someone else to do it.

If either of these apply to you, there are alternatives. One is to use WordPress.com – it’s a blogging service hosted by WordPress. You don’t need any programming knowledge but it’s more restricted and less flexible than using the WordPress software to build your own website.

The basic service is free, and may be all you need, and there are some extra features that incur a small charge. Steve McCurry’s blog is a good example of what you can use WordPress.com for (Blogger and Typepad also offer similar services).

If you’re looking for a photography website rather than a blog, then gallery websites like Clikpic are a good option. For an annual fee you can build your own website using their online website creator – no programming knowledge is required and full details are on their website.

Web Hosting

Before you install WordPress you need to buy a domain name and a hosting package. There are lots of companies that offer both online – I use Web Hosting UK and they’ve done a good job for me so far. Whichever host you go with, there are a couple of terms you need to understand:

Shared hosting: This is where your website is stored on a server along with a lot of other websites. The least expensive hosting packages are always on shared servers. This is fine for most people.

Bandwidth: Your hosting package will come with a bandwidth restriction. Every time someone views your website they use bandwidth – and if you come to the end of your monthly allocation your website may go down until you buy more bandwidth. Only a concern if you start getting lots of traffic to your website.

Semi-dedicated server: Servers with only a limited number of websites stored on them. More expensive but will give you more storage space, bandwidth and a faster website.

Dedicated server: A server all to yourself. The most expensive hosting option, it’s designed for high traffic commercial websites where website performance is a priority.

Whichever option you choose, you need to make sure that it has the features to support WordPress (most hosting packages do). You will need to be able to create a database, and it must support PHP version 4.3 or greater, and MySQL version 4.1.2 or greater.

That gives us a couple more terms to look at:

PHP: A scripting language used to create dynamic webpages. The PHP is embedded in the HTML code that makes up the webpage – every time that a PHP command is encountered the server accesses the database to check what content to display.

MySQL: The database management system. SQL stands for structured query language.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to know any PHP or MySQL to use WordPress.

How to Download and Install WordPress

Once your domain name and hosting package are in place, you can download WordPress and install it on your website. Start by going to the WordPress home page and clicking the orange Download tab in the top right corner.

Once you’ve downloaded the software you need to unzip it and upload it to your website. But first you need to create a database on your server and decide which FTP client you’re going to use to do it.

Creating a Database

The database is where all the information for your website is stored. Check your host’s instructions to find out how to set up a database on your web site.

It’s normally quite easy to do, and at the end of it you will have a database name, a database username and a password. You’ll need this information for the installation.

FTP Clients

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. An FTP client is the program you use to transfer files from your computer to your website’s server space. You need an FTP client to upload the WordPress files to your server.

I use Transmit (Mac only, ), but there are plenty of free FTP clients too. Try Cyberduck for Macs, and CoffeeCup or FileZilla for PC’s.

Installation

The installation process is too detailed to cover in this article – however, all the instructions, including troubleshooting tips, are on the WordPress website. For a quick explanation of the installation process, go to the Five Minute Installation Guide.

The WordPress Installation Guide has detailed information, including a troubleshooting guide.

WordPress Themes

Once you’ve got WordPress installed and running, log into it to access the dashboard – this is the screen where you get to make posts and control every aspect of your WordPress website.

One of the first things you’ll want to do is to change the theme. WordPress comes with a basic theme – it works but it’s not very exciting. But how do find a theme to suit you? One way is by looking at other websites built with WordPress – there is usually a link to the website from where they obtained the theme at the bottom. There are also a number of themes on the WordPress website.

Some themes are free, some you pay for. You may pay anything up to 0 for a premium theme. These are aimed at commercial websites and often look more polished and have more functionality than than free themes.

A good place to start looking for themes is Envato’s ThemeForest. You’ll also find themes designed for photographers here,here and here.

You’ll find instructions on choosing and installing new themes in WordPress’s support section.

Altering Themes

Once you’ve chosen a theme, you may want to alter it. You will need to know some HTML and CSS to do so. You’ll find the information you need to get started at these websites:

• Web Design From Scratch
  has some of the easiest to understand articles on HTML and CSS that I’ve read.
• ThemeShaper has a series of articles explaining how to modify WordPress themes.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress as you download it has plenty of functionality, but it doesn’t do everything. Plugins, most of them created by independent developers, fill the gaps. You can find out more about plugins at the WordPress plugin page. Here are the some useful ones that I use:

• Askimet: Filters spam comments left on your blog. A big time saver as these can soon add up.
• WordPress.com Stats: Lets you see how many views your blog gets, where visitors come from and which pages they visit.
• WordPress Related Posts: Generates a list of posts related to the one that the viewer is reading. Encourages visitors to read more posts.
• SexyBookmarks: Places icons and links at the end of each post so that readers can share on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon.
• WP Super Cache: Speeds up the performance of your WordPress website by saving cached versions of pages to serve up to visitors. Also saves bandwidth usage.
• TAC (Theme Authenticity Checker): Scans theme files for potentially malicious code (a possibility if you don’t obtain your theme from a reputable website).
• WP Greet Box: Places a welcome message at the start of each post encouraging visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed or share the link on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Promoting Your New Website

Now that you’re the proud owner of a WordPress website, you’ll want to let the world know that it’s there. Start by announcing it on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, so that your friends and contacts get to see what you’ve done.

When it comes to website promotion, it’s important to have a website that’s worth visiting. This is a long term strategy – it takes time to upload a decent selection of photos and blog posts. But if you post stuff that is interesting and useful you will get traffic from search engines and social networks.

I’ve found Networked Blogs to be a good way of promoting my blog. All you do is register and it will post an update on your Facebook page whenever you make a new post. It also brings in traffic from people browsing for interesting stuff to read.

Another option is to ask other photographers if you can write a guest post on their blog. This can bring traffic if they have a popular blog – it’s also a good way of reaching a new audience.

Useful Articles

Need more information? Here is a list of useful articles and websites:

• Nettuts+ WordPress tutorials
• Photoblogs and Galleries (from the WordPress website)
• Ultimate Guide to Using WordPress for a Portfolio
• Designzzz
• WPdaddy.com
• WPCandy.com
• Blog Design Studio

Phototuts+

Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects and people in candid situations. It’s usually focused on public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings. In this showcase we have collected some beautiful examples of street photography, along with few tips to perfect your own technique!.

Our 10 Simple Tips

Before you pick up a camera and head out into the street, it’s worth reading through our guide: The Ins and Outs of Street Photography: 10 Simple Steps. In it, we discuss the best choice of camera, finding a location, trusting your instinct, and the challenges and dangers of photographing in public. It’s a great place to start!

Other Street Photography Resources

• 20 Quick Street Photography Tips
• 19 Killer Street Photography Tips
• 11 Tips for Candid Street Photography
• 21 street photography tips from the professionals

80 Superb Examples

street photography

Solo

New York Street Photography

Rain

street

Clown And Man

Dreaming

street

photography

Foggy Day in the streets of Brussels

Lush Life

home delivery

Pizza To Go!

4 days of freedom

The Accidental Tourist – Windswept!

Old Play

Snow walk

The Little Match Girl

Getting a Shave

A silhouette walking alone in heavy rain.

Romance in the Rain

July 24th

Envy . . .

Unexpected Smile!

The Girl Who Ate the Apple

space

Street Photography

Hi Folks!

pigeons .

street

why i am ?

Basic Instinct

watching you

Sunset market mist

The Crying Game

Almost home

BubbleStare

stories from the city 1

Between the lines

bag snatch. . she’s getting away. . .

’09

winter memorie

Techno-Attitude

honey, which way?

Huddled.

A Splash of Burgundy!

Make a Wish!

red

Textbreak

stuck

Mobile facebook

hide-and-seek

Boat on the river

The birdman & the squirrel

Why Me?

Lost

Generation gap

Hats – Unexpected Smile II

Night – The Ice Maiden!

Night – Lucid Dreams!

Street Interview

Silence

She loves LOVE!

EYES

Life with the new 5D Mark II is all smiles

Shower

Undercover

Clarinet & Accordion

Extended communications …

Simba

Melbournia

The Street is a Catwalk

Street Scenes

Share Your Own Images!

I hope you enjoyed today’s inspiration post, and feel ready to head outside and capture what’s going on around you. Do you have your own example to share? We’d love to see it in the comments – just post a link to it below, and we’ll take a look!

Phototuts+

Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair. It’s essentially the art of capturing beautiful photographs of a subject that is inherently not beautiful, and – for those of us who live near a city – it can be an easy form of photography to explore. In today’s showcase, we have collected 80 impressive examples of urban decay photography to encourage you to head out to the derelict parts of town!

institute de chemie

The stamp factory

bureau centrale

spiral of loneliness

conserved in spiderwebs

education lost

the forgotten staircase

leave this life

house of pain

forgotten tragedy

DETENTION

the pastors chair

untouched memories

red forest

] strum [

Hardcore Chair for a Hardcore Place

#jailhouse#

Abandoned Packard Plant

Denbigh abandoned asylum

Cane hill abandoned asylum

Stories Told In The Dark

MT Psychiatric Center, NY

MT Psychiatric Center, NY

Eternal staircase

Opel Olympia

the last drops are dried

the old winery

residence of oblivion

craving for saviour

crematory

hotel of decay

HK2009 – 12

Down the well

Cinema Theater Varia

Tyersall House

Tyersall House

Towards The Doorway

the final curtain

st curvy pano

Cane hill abandoned asylum

Lonely beams

Cane hill abandoned asylum

Gravity Confusion Anonymous

the intruder

Piano

R00M

Hallway

Abandoned church, Detroit

Sink

Sweet Dreams

Chatillon (Grand Cimetière)

66 Imperial 66

Urban Decay: American Auto

detroit waltz

CPS Library

Shutter Penitentiary (prison)

House of Horror

è quello che sai che ti uccide?

Maltings ‘S’..”Elegance Unravelling”

Detroit book depository

Leaving the jail.

Villa Maggiordomo

the UFO house in Sanjhih

Red Alligator

Trains

Urban Decay

That Train Don’t Stop Here Any More

Urban decay

Abandoned Houses

Urban Decay

Aubes perpétuelles

Urban Exploration

Other Resouces

Here is a collection of links to resources and tutorials elsewhere that can help you get started with this type of photography:

• How to Photograph Abandoned Places
• 9 Tips for Urban Decay Photography (With Cool Examples)
• Tips for Urban Decay Photography

Share Your Images!

I’d love to see a few examples of your own urban decay photography, so feel free to share your insight and experience in the comments. Just post a link to your photo either on your own website, Flickr, or anywhere else!

Phototuts+

After publishing our call for entries a few weeks ago, I’m pleased to let you know that we’ve now completed our second Sonic Slideshow! Combining your photography with a soundtrack from our sister site, AudioJungle, we’ve created another fantastic photo slideshow (with a few prizes to boot!).

Today we bring you a roundup of 30 wonderful winter photos submitted by readers, our second “Sonic Slideshow”, and – to top it all off – our winners announcement!

The Sonic Slideshow Video!

The audio used in this track is called Icicle Melt. Congratulations to DarkSunz – you’ll be the proud recipient of marketplace credit!

Our Chosen Photos

Here are all the photos that made it into the slideshow this time around. Thanks to everyone who submitted their images, and I hope the following shots inspire you to head out in the cold with your camera!

Julie C

Waldek Chadzynski

Jussi Pietarinen

Stanislav Yaremenko

Thomas Richter

Stephen Thomas

mattalthouse

Hugh Leoidsson

sasrigais

Matt Kursmark

Darren O’Rourke

Nathalie Ouederni

Greg Brophy

Jan Richard Tallaksen

Lazyworks

Richard Kolasa

vladLitvak

Vincent Ribbers

einehandvollmuhhh

Chad Rames

Maximilian Zimmermann

Jared Campbell Photography

wikidfoto

jeromewharris

Giona Andreani

The Winners

Congratulations to the three winners of this month’s Sonic Slideshow, who will be receiving marketplace credit! They are:

• Matt Kursmark
• Jan Richard Tallaksen
• Chad Rames

We’ll get in touch with you to let you know how to claim your prize, but it would be really helpful if you could email us at photo@tutsplus.com with your details. Thanks!

Stay tuned for future editions of Sonic Slideshow, and thanks again for submitting all of your fantastic photos. It was a pleasure to go through and choose our favourites!

Phototuts+

Pet photography is very similar to photographing children – it’s difficult to coax and encourage them into the perfect composition. But when you get it right, the hard work can pay off in dividends.

Working with animals is far easier if you know the subject personally, and not all the tips below will be relevant for every different animal. Still, hopefully they’ll give you a few ideas on how to take great shots of your pets!

Step 1. Focus on the Features

One of the first things to consider is how you want to portray your pet in your photographs. Consider whether your pet has any particular traits, habits or physical that you could capture. This may well affect what posture you’d ideally like the pet to have in your shot.

Try and maximise the affect of the animals facial features, such as teeth or eyes. Maybe you can try and evoke a particular reaction from the animal, but a good rule to start you off is to focus in on the eyes.

Photo by Jeff Balke

Step 2. Direction

It’s difficult to make a pet shot look natural, as they don’t necessarily follow directions and will behave unpredictably. But there are a few things you can do in order to get your pet to respond and make your life easier.

Try and get their attention – either call their name or use a treat or biscuit to get them to focus on you. If you’re not the pet owner, try and ensure the owner is present, as the animal will be far more receptive to their direction than yours.

If you like, you can try getting the pet to interact with the owner or other animals – this can produce some wonderful moments, but could also prove a major distraction, so it’s your call!

Photo by Trey Ratcliff

Step 3. Get to Their Level

Make sure you’ve got a nice quick lens, as undoubtedly your pet will move around quite a bit. Try and be as mobile as possible, so don’t burden yourself with loads of equipment. You want to be able to respond to your pet’s movement.

Get down (or up!) to their level, and consider it the same as taking a portrait shot, you want to capture the face of the subject and any expression or posture that they hold. Also, if you can, try and get in close, so you can capture the detail of the fur or skin and fill the frame with your subject.

Photo by jcoterhals

Step 4. Environment

It’s also important to consider the context and setting in which you’re taking the shots. Try and get the pet to a place with a decent amount of light – this could either be out in the park, or at home near a window or strong light source.

You could also trying using props, positioning your pet by a particular piece of furniture or even in someone’s hands depending on how small it is! Remember that the environment you choose will affect your pets behaviour. Somewhere familiar indoors will probably lead to them being quite subdued, but out and about, or even somewhere new to them, may lead to more excitable shots.

Photo by snapped_up

Step 5. Doing Something Different

Hopefully you’ve gathered a few ideas together of how and where you might construct your shoot, but don’t be afraid of trying something creative or different.

Think about the context in which you usually see your pet and maybe try removing it from that setting and trying a new location or environment. I’ve got nothing against capturing a really detailed face on portrait shot of a pet, but please don’t forget there is the potential to be creative!

Photo by frozi

Phototuts+

To truly travel is a photographers dream. On setting out on an adventure our thoughts may lie entirely in the future, the places we’re going, and amazing things we’ll see once we’ve arrived. For many of us an exiting destination is the only thing that will persuade us to get on a plane at all…

But what about the travelling itself? Isn’t our use of incredible machines to travel great distances not one of the most romantic and fascinating aspects of any journey? Below we’ll look at some basic tips for capturing beguiling and creative shots of travelling and transportation before diving into a gallery of 70 inspirational examples!

Not Just Machines…

In order to move beyond taking lifeless photos of our transportation, it’s worth consciously trying to capture something above and beyond the ordinary.

What are the most dramatic aspects of your particular mode of transport? How does it make you feel? Is its motion unerringly powerful or marked by effortless subtlety? What about the people around you?

Moving Objects

When looking more practically it’s worth bearing in mind that some of the most dramatic shots of transportation will feature significant movement. There are two key ways to capture and express motion in photography: to blur the moving object while keeping the background in focus, or to blur the background while keeping the object in focus.

To blur the object itself is, by and large, the easiest of these two techniques and simply requires the use of a tripod and a good sense of timing – you may only get one shot! To blur the background while keeping a moving subject in focus is called ‘panning’ and can produce amazing results if you can get the hang of it!

The key is to pan your camera along with the moving subject to achieve a relatively sharp subject but a blurred background. It works best when the subject’s trajectory is straight and predictable but takes a good deal of practice, or some welcome good fortune, to get it right!

Be Original!

While perhaps less practical than the previous tip, using your creativity and imagination when shooting transportation is at least as important!

Consider your elevation, the features of the landscape, and think carefully about the composition. A varied array of techniques such as good use of symmetry and expression of motion go a long way towards achieving a stunning shot!

Photo Inspiration

rAmmoRRison

Kicki Holmén

Joshua Davis

Stefan Sonntag

Kecko

John Ward

Evan Leeson

The U.S. Army

Potyike

François Roche

Jeff McCrory

Kelvin Pulker

James Loesch

John Hietter

Kim Seng

Chaval Brasil

eckenheimer

Matt Hintsa

Jim Maurer

The U.S. Army

L*aura

Luis Argerich

the longhairedgit

Doug

Paulo Margari

Trey Ratcliff

Aaron Hockley

Kanegen

Juan Ruand

Bartek Kuzia

Trey Ratcliff

Chuck Patch

Dene’ Miles

William Cho

Ville Miettinen

Claudio Alejandro Mufarrege

Dene’ Miles

Kamshots

Steve Jurvetson

Ville Miettinen

Simon Bray

Jakob Hürner

The U.S. Army

belpo

Joel Bankhead

Nguyen Hung Vu

Alberto P. Veiga

Ville Miettinen

Evan Leeson

Asim Bharwani

Michael J. Slezak

Thomas Hawk

Atilla Kefeli

Jeff Laitila

Jo Christian Oterhals

cranky messiah

Chris

Lian Chang

M

Steve Calcott

VisualAge

Akshay Mahajan

Paulo Margari

Simon Whitaker

Trey Ratcliff

Jerrycharlotte Miller

Garry

Christopher & Amy Cate Esposito

Fred

Trey Ratcliff

Further Reading

Here are a few links to really useful tutorials and articles that will teach you more about this type of photography:

• How to Capture Motion Blur in Photography
• Photos That Capture Moving Objects
• Mastering Panning
• 10 Travel Photography Tips/a>
• 7 Tips for Taking Travel Photos Like a Pro

Share Your Own Images!

Hopefully this has given you some new inspiration and got your creativity flowing so that next time you’re on a journey you’ll think again about leaving your camera in your bag. We’d love to see your favourite travelling photographs – just post a link in the comments below!

Phototuts+

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

The objective of this tutorial is to provide some little tricks and advice to help you make the most of your first flying experience. If you are planning to fly soon, whether it is for a trial flight in a small aircraft or maybe for an exploring flight in a helicopter, make sure to read these first. Hopefully these will ensure you will take off with the right equipment and the good tips to capture stunning photographs from above!

Choose the Right Period

The landscape can look completely different depending on the season. Spring and autumn usually offer the most colourful pictures. They are the perfect time to capture fields in flower or orange-coloured forests…

Winter is interesting if you have the chance to fly around a mountainous area. However, any plain under snow can look even more flat and monotonous.

It is also important to choose the right time of the day and, more specifically, to check the position of the sun in the sky. Because of the altitude, the risk of dazzle increases in late afternoon when the sun is low in the horizon. The sunset can offer spectacular views but with extreme contrasts between the sky and the land making it very difficult to capture. If you’re flying when the sun is low, if possible choose the seat opposite to the sun.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloudy or Sunny Weather

Unless the pilot is a very good friend of yours, you probably won’t have the opportunity to postpone the date of your flight and wait for the perfect weather. Do not be too disappointed if you are not flying in a perfect blue sky, you can always take advantage of a cloudy sky.

Of course, sunny days provide in most cases the brightest pictures and accentuate the details of the ground. However, even when the weather on the ground is perfectly clear, you can encounter haze with altitude, significantly reducing your visibility and misting over your pictures.

I find the best conditions come with a fairly cloudy day. Clouds have the advantage to naturally balance the light, and can also be a good shooting subject. Look out for funny shapes!

An overcast sky inevitably reduces the light on the ground, tarnishing the pictures, but can also provide the right conditions for dramatic photos.

Recommended Equipment

It is absolutely necessary to protect your camera and lenses from shocks during the flight. Use a protective or UV filter for your lens. If you do not have one, use a lens hood. It will avoid the lens hitting the window handle for example.

For your camera, always use your strap as you never know when an air pocket will happen. This way, you will avoid it getting caught up. Other recommendations are:

• Map
• Bottle of water
• Microfibre or chamois skin cleaning cloth

N.B. The purpose of the above will be explained later in the tutorial.

Choose the Right Optic

The first thing to consider when choosing your optic is that you will most likely use the same lens during the whole flight. The movement of the aircraft, the turbulence, and the confined space will discourage you from changing your lens when on board.

The choice of the lens depends on your preferences; whether you like close-up pictures or panoramic views. To help you make your decision, here are the advantages and disadvantages of the each type of lenses:

Telephoto zoom lens:<

Necessary if you want to get very close to the ground and isolate your subject, but difficult to handle in a light aircraft because of their weight and size.

Wide-angle lens:<

Great to capture a landscape or a sea of clouds and ideal for panoramic views.

Zoom lens:<

Great for a first aerial photography experience, enabling you to try several different compositions during the flight: from stunning panoramic landscapes to close-up images.

Prime lens:<

It is well known that prime lenses take sharper photographs. However, I would only recommend you use a prime lens if you have already done aerial photography and want to challenge your skills.

The following example has been shot with a Canon 50 mm f/1.8.

Check the Windows

If you have ever tried to shoot through a window, you probably already know that the three main factors of risk are: stains, reflections and unfocused images. There is nothing worse than a beautiful landscape spoiled by a stain in the middle of the picture or an unfocused picture. Therefore, I suggest you do the following.

Check the inside and outside of the windows before the flight and get rid of any stains. This is where the microfibre or chamois skin cleaning cloth and some water will be useful. Always ask the permission of the pilot beforehand and do not use any other type of clothes (cotton, tissue…) as most of the light aircraft windows are made of plexiglass and you could otherwise cause micro-scratches.

To avoid reflection in the glass, just follow the usual advice: use a UV filter, avoid wearing bright clothes, and get as close as possible to the window.

Manage the Risk of Camera Shake

Getting sharp images is the first challenge of aerial photography. Because of the vibrations of the aircraft and the turbulence, avoiding blurry pictures becomes a tough task. As you can imagine, a tripod is also completely useless in these conditions. So to avoid blurry images, you first need a short shutter speed.

Here is another good tip: use the window to stabilise your camera. Hold your camera with your right hand. The index finger on the shutter release and the thumb next to the setting buttons. Place the index finger and thumb of your left hand around the edge of the lens to hold it. Then, press the other fingers and the side of your palm against the window to stabilise the camera.

Set the Camera to Manual Mode

In order to experience aerial photography you must be familiar with the manual mode of your camera, as it requires complete control of both the shutter speed and the aperture. Here are the settings to consider:

ISO between 100 and 200: Depending on the weather and external light, I always select an ISO setting between 100 and 200 to minimise the noise. I usually keep the same ISO for all shots in the same session.

Aperture: When I first started aerial photography, I was using a fairly small aperture around f/7-f/8 in order to ensure a great depth of field. In consequence, I had to reduce the shutter speed in order to keep a good exposure. Through experimentations, I decided to try wider apertures, even up to f/1.8. I eventually realized that my pictures still had a great sharp focus with the benefit of a lighter image.

High speed shutter: The key to success in aerial photography is to get the shutter speed right. As I mentioned earlier, the high shutter speed is essential to get good sharpness despite the movement of the aircraft. I usually set the speed shutter around 1/2000s when I use a wide aperture, or to 1/250s with a small aperture. Any shot below 1/250s ends up blurry.

Settings for the following picture are ISO: 100, Shutter speed: 1/2000s, and Aperture: f/2.8

Compose Your Image

To get the right composition is another big challenge in aerial photography for various reasons:

1. You depend on the position of the aircraft
2. The size of the window considerably reduces your shooting area
3. The aircraft’s wings obstruct part of your field of view (especially low-winged aircraft)
4. Even small turbulence can push the main subject out of the frame
5. And finally, you only have a few seconds to capture your subject.

Therefore, my advice is to avoid zooming in too much and to keep a wide angle. Use a post-processing software to level, crop, or re-frame your pictures afterwards. It is often the best option to consider at the beginning.

Prepare the Flight

Good preparation will save you precious time, since you only have few seconds to get the right picture. Here is some advice for your preparation:

• Make a list of the spots that you plan to shoot (monuments, stadiums, lakes, castles, airfields, etc.)
• Mark them on a map. If you do not have aeronautical map, use a normal map and take it with you on board
• Have a look at the satellite view on Google map. From above, some spots will look closer than you think.

If you do your homework, you should be able to guess during the flight the position of the aircraft from the different spots, and from which side you will shoot. During the flight, keep an eye on motorways, railways, roundabouts, lakes, woods, towns, etc., as they are the best localization marks.

By doing this, you should have some time to test your camera settings before you arrive right above the spot.

Be Creative

I know by experience that it is difficult to get your eye out of the camera sometimes. You are going to discover some breathtaking views from the air, so do not forget to enjoy the landscape and the whole picture!

There are lots of exciting things to look at and to capture. Watch out for the shape of the clouds, the mix of colours on the ground, or the inside of the aircraft, etc.

Conclusion

You all already know that in photography, practice makes perfect. But it is even truer in aerial photography. The first step is to achieve focused images by getting the right shutter speed and aperture. Framing will come later, and can always be improved in post-processing.

Phototuts+

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.