D.Gould Photography

Going Fast With Light – by Dan H. Bailey

2012-01-19T07:34:00.028-05:00

Like a lot of photographers, I love nature and landscape photography. One photographer I follow is a guy from Alaska named Dan Bailey. Because he resides in Alaska, he shoots a lot of snow-covered scenes that I really enjoy. Dan has recently published another Ebook (his third), which I think will be a big hit called "Going Fast With Light".

Dan also has two previous Ebooks that are loaded with beautiful images as well. His first Ebook is called "How To Become A Pro Photographer", and is for anyone who is considering taking his photography to the next level and starting a full or part time photo business. Like I mentioned, all his Ebooks are packed with beautiful photos, but they are also loaded with great tips. This Ebook will help you to get you started making money with your own photography. Dan knows what he's talking about because he’s been running a successful business since 1996, well over a decade!

His second Ebook is called "Making The Image – A Conceptual Guide for Creating Stronger Photographs". Making the Image is a 50 page Ebook that will help you start shooting more powerful photographs. In this book he explains in detail how to use light, color and viewpoint as building blocks to start capturing more compelling photographs. I personally got a lot of useful info from this book and really enjoyed his photos in this one as well.

Before Dan relocated and started his business in Anchorage Alaska, he worked as a photo editor at a Boston stock photo agency that really gave him a solid understanding of images. He definitely loves his work and his photos show his dedication to the craft. All three of his Ebooks are packed with all sorts of useful info, and I think his newest Ebook will be a big hit with people who are already into off-camera flash (Speedlights) or are just getting started..

With the incredible success of flash websites like David Hobby's Strobist and Joe McNally's and Syl Arena’s blogs, flash is obviously a big thing. Flash and external lighting is something that photographers everywhere want to improve on, whether they're brand new to the whole idea, or are about to buy their second or third speedlight. This Ebook, Going Fast With Light, is for anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of off camera flash in an easy to read style without all the technical mumbo-jumbo. Face it, most of us just want to pop a speedlight on our camera and shoot without having to bring along the manual.

In his newest book, Dan talks about his personal flash gear and the techniques that will help photographers dramatically improve the quality of their own photos, without worrying about heavy lighting equipment and all the technical details. If you’re like me, when it comes to lighting gear, I usually only take what I can carry by myself in one load. I don’t want to be bogged down with tons of equipment loaded into my backpack. In Going Fast With Light, Dan shows us how to put together a set of gear so that we can shoot with speed and confidence. The truth is that speedlights can make a huge difference, but they don’t have to slow you down. Whether you shoot sports, action, portraits, street scenes or exotic locations, all of your images will benefit when you learn the ins and outs of using your flash properly. Dan explains a variety of different lighting schemes that employ a single flash or multiple flashes, and which methods work best for triggering your off camera flash or remote strobes. Using flash allows you to take a great subject that’s lit with challenging light, and turn it into a great photograph. We as photographers know that you don’t always have the luxury of great natural light and that is where Going Fast With Light comes in handy.

Get yourself a copy of this Ebook and take your flash photography to the next level and you’ll start turning your so-so shots into great shots! Also, you might like to check out his other two Ebooks as well – Making The Image or How To Become A Pro Photographer. Click here to visit Dan Bailey Photography.

And remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

How to take great Holiday Photos

2011-12-16T13:15:00.011-05:00

Well it’s that time of the year again, Christmas season. For some us that means trying to squeeze in some time to get out with the camera and shoot some of those special outdoor Christmas light displays or maybe it’s just getting photos of the family on Christmas day. A lot of you might be trying out that new camera with the hopes of getting some great photos. But either way, whether you are photographing the symbolic subjects of the holidays or your friends and family, getting creative with your composition certainly cannot hurt. This means that by paying special attention to how you organize the various elements in each photo, you too can create your own set of great holiday memories.

For Better Family and Group Portraits

The most important thing to keep in mind when photographing groups and families is this: you absolutely must take a lot of photos. There is often a great deal of pressure when photographing groups. A lot of people complain about having their picture taken and want the experience to be over quickly. Plus, you need to work quickly in order to get the job done within the limits of their patience and to try keep the experience as fun and friendly as possible. Since there is always someone blinking or looking off to the side or facing another member of the group, having a large number of photos will give you the best chances of catching everyone looking their best.

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Especially if your subject is a child opening a gift - or playing with a gift for the first time - you know that within a split second, the scene can change. There are often just a few brief moments when that "magic spark" appears. Of course this means having your camera on hand and the batteries fully charged and its always a good idea to have back-up batteries ready also. After all, you can't capture the moment if you don't have your camera turned on and ready to go. Remember, you have to be ready to press that shutter button in a moment's notice, anticipating when the magic spark will surface. If you have a digital camera that suffers from a bit of a delay when taking the picture, then you will have to become even more intuitive and skilled at anticipating the moment. Another good tip; make sure you have enough space on your memory card and carry an extra card with you. Too often people will run out of space and either have to delete some photos or end their shooting for the day. Remember, these days’ memory cards are very inexpensive, so pick up an extra one and you’ll be glad you did.

Fill Your Frame

One of the most common mistakes I see in Christmas photos (or any party or event) is that people often end up with shots of their subjects off in the distance on the other side of a room with lots of space all around them. Fill your frame with your subject either by using your zoom or just getting up and moving yourself in closer. While this is one of the simplest tips I ever give it is one that can have the most profound impact on your shots. Try it out, you’ll be amazed.
Don’t Forget Your White-Balance
Now if your totally new to photography, your probably shooting in JPEG format with your camera set to auto and most digital cameras do a pretty good job with auto-white balance, but if you want to get better photos, try setting to white-balance. If you are shooting in RAW mode, you know you can always go back and change it afterwards if you forget.

Photographing Christmas Lights

The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark, plus arriving around sunset will give you time to plan your shot before the good light happens. Try to compose your shots with as much sky as possible, getting down real low. Then, once you get your photo framed, set your white-balance to Tungsten as if you were shooting indoors. All those little bulbs are tungsten balanced and as an added bonus your sky will look even better. Needless to say, you’ll need a way to steady your camera, preferably a tripod or mono-pod or even a beanbag for those long exposures. Plus a remote trigger or cable can come in real handy. Shoot a test shot every minute or so constantly checking the LCD. Somewhere between sunset and full dark your Christmas lights and the ambient light with start to mix beautifully. Usually you’ll have about a 10-minute window with nice light. After that, the good light will fade very quickly and you will know it is gone when your photos start looking like the "bad light" photos you used to take.

Bonus Tips:

If you plan to use flash, nothing screams point-and-shoot like using an on-camera flash. Red-eye reduction is nice, but a shoe-mounted flash is so much better. When shooting indoors, not only can you bounce off of a wall or ceiling you can add a diffuser and make it hard to know a flash was used at all. Of course you might be able to avoid using flash at all by using a nice wide aperture like f2.8 or f/4 and bumping up your ISO a little, but a little fill-flash helps to lighten up your shadow areas and can really add some dimension to your photograph.

Remember, its always a good idea to plan ahead, maybe even making a check list of the things to remember like batteries, extra flash cards etc. Another good tip if you already own the camera, read and re-read your manual and get to know it even better. I can’t tell you how important this is.

Well until my next post, I hope you all have a very safe and happy holiday season and remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Creating Droplets to Run Actions in Photoshop

2011-11-10T11:31:00.027-05:00

Have you ever wanted to email someone a bunch of images, but they were shot in RAW and you didn’t want to convert them into JPEG’s one by one? Or maybe you just want to send proof’s before you do your final editing? This tutorial specifies RAW files but it can also be used on other types as well. Droplets were designed to save us time when doing tasks repetitively.

This post is for those of you who have never used or perhaps never even heard of Droplets before. Droplets are one of those nice little features inside Photoshop that most people don’t know about. They are little applications that sit outside of Photoshop and run actions for you automatically, almost like the Batch command. Now you can create Droplets to do all sorts of things, but in this post I’ll show you how to create one that will let you drag-and-drop an image (or a whole folder of images) onto a droplet that will change the color space, the file size and then save them as JPEG’s in a favorite folder – all automatically! You do need Photoshop to create a droplet, but you don’t have to know how to use Photoshop to run one. Stick with me; I’m sure you’ll like this tutorial.

Step One: Open a RAW file in the Camera RAW panel. For this step, make sure your image is in landscape orientation, if it isn’t, open one that is. Also, make sure it will open in 8 bit mode. If you don’t know how to tell what mode it will open in, look beneath the preview window and it will say either 8 bit or 16 bit. If you have to change it, click on the blue bar underneath the photo and you’ll get a dialog box that will let you change it there. Once you change it, all your RAW images will open in 8 bit mode until you change this back. (See photo) Now click the Open Image button to open it in Photoshop.

Once it opens in Photoshop, open up the Actions panel (Window > Actions). All of my resizing Actions are kept in a separate set, so click on the Create New Set icon at the bottom of the Actions panel. In the dialog box, name it Resize for emails. If you don’t want to create a new set just click on Create New Action instead and then name it Landscape – 900 wide. Then hit the Record button.

Step Two: Now go up to the Image menu and choose Image Size. Change the width to 900 pixels. If the Height value doesn’t change automatically, make sure the checkbox for Constrain Proportions at the bottom is turned on. Don’t worry about resolution. Now click OK to resize the photo.

Now go over to the Edit menu, scroll down to Convert to profile and change the profile to sRGB IEC61966-2.1. Finally, go to File>Save As and when the dialog box opens up, change the format to JPEG and click Save. Don’t worry about where you save it; anywhere will be fine for now. Now you should get another dialog box for JPEG options, I use 5 Medium to keep my file sizes small (usually around 100 - 150 kb’s) but you can use whatever you choose, The larger the size, the higher the quality. Now just click the Stop button on the bottom of the Actions panel.

Now you should have 3 steps in your new Action: Image Size, Convert to Profile and Save. Now we’ll create our droplet.

Step Three: Go up to the File menu, scroll down to Automate and choose Create Droplet. The Create Droplet dialog box will open up. (See photo) The first step is to click the Choose button at the top to tell Photoshop where to save your droplet. This is not telling Photoshop where you want to save your images, instead you’re telling it where to save the Droplet Icon. I put mine on the desktop. Name this droplet Landscape and click Save.

Step Four: In the Play section, it asks you to choose an action to run. In this lesson, we’ll use the same action we created in Step One. Since we’re opening RAW files (RAW files automatically open in the Camera RAW dialog) turn on the Suppress File Open Options Dialogs checkbox so we won’t see the Camera RAW dialog every time. Important Tip: Make sure your action you’ve included in this droplet always exists or this droplet will not work anymore!

Step Five: Under the Destination menu, select Folder, this is where your final images will be stored when your Droplet has finished running. I have a folder on my desktop called JPEG’s for Email and that works for me. You can pick any folder and now all your images will be placed there. Nice huh? Now back in Step Two when we recorded the Action, we saved the image remember? Well, we really don’t want every image to be saved with the same name we did in that step, so check the Overide Action “Save As” Commands to override the location/name we used there and use the original (it’s OK because it’ll be a different file format) In the File Naming section, you can choose to generate a custom name for each image, but I personally leave mine at the defaults. I can rename them later by using the Batch command if I need to.

Step Six: Now some of you might be using a Mac and a PC at the same time and want to use this Droplet on both machines, choose as many Compatibility settings as you want. Usually if you’re working on just one system, you’ll leave the default checkbox for your operating system selected.

Important Tip: If there’s an error, you don’t want to find out after you’ve ran this Droplet on a hundred images, so leave the default Stop for Errors setting turned on. That way if something messes up, it will stop and let you know about it!

Step Seven: When you’re done, click OK to create your Droplet. Nothing will happen yet because you haven’t ran any Actions yet, but if you check your desktop you will see a new Icon called Landscape. (See photo)

Step Eight: Now, anyone who knows how to drag-and-drop can use this Droplet. To use it, simply drag an image (or even a whole folder of images) onto the Droplet Icon on your desktop. If Photoshop isn’t open, it will launch itself and run the batch process you specified in Step Four. When it is done, it will put your images in the folder you chose. Remember to make sure all your images are in Landscape orientation. To create one for Portrait mode, go back to step one, open a RAW image that is in Portrait orientation instead and when you have to name your new action, call it Portrait – 600 wide. In step Four, choose the new action instead. You shouldn’t have any problems. To try it out, just get a few RAW files and drop them onto the droplets and then check your destination folder.......Nice huh?

Remember, you can create Droplets to do many repetitive things for you to make your work flow easier. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and find it useful. Feel free to pass it on and remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Getting your photos on the Web

2011-10-17T22:12:00.013-04:00

These days if you’re a photographer, a clean, professional-looking website or blog is a must. This could be something to help you to promote your business or services, or maybe a place to display your work and sell your images. But for most people, the thought of having a site that displays your work like a pro seems either too expensive or too hard to create. Face it, you have to keep up with the competition or get left in the dust.

Now some people just want to show off their photos and you can do that on sites like Flick’r, Webshots, Facebook or the new Google + just to name a few and it won’t cost you a dime, but if you already have an established business or are just starting a business, you need a web presence.

In the past it used to cost you quite a bit to get started online. First, you needed to hire someone to create and design your site. Then unless you knew coding and HTML you still needed them to edit and make updates and changes to it for you. Finally, you needed a hosting service to go online. These costs could add up quickly and could get rather expensive.

Now you might know something about web design already, but most blogs these days are created in a program called Word Press. Word Press is nice because it is pretty easy to understand and it’s a totally free program, just download a copy and you’re ready to get started. Word Press was actually created in 2003 and as of February 2011 it has been download over 32 million times! The beauty of the program is you don’t have to know how to write any PHP or HTML code or have a formal education in web design skills. It is by far the most popular CMS (content management system) in use on the Internet and has helped bridge the gap for many people to create and edit their own sites without having to go back to school. Don’t get me wrong, it can be helpful to have some basic editing skills, but there are a ton of free sites online to help you with that once you get up and running.

If you have ever read any of my blog posts, you’ll know I’m a big fan of NAPP, (the National Association of Photoshop Professionals). NAPP is part of the Kelby Media Group, who also owns and operates Kelby Training and sponsors the Photoshop World Conferences. If you’re into photography and editing your photos in Photoshop, then these are the places to learn. Check out my May 2011 post for more info on NAPP.

Recently, Raphael ‘RC’ Concepcion, one of the curriculum developers over at NAPP, has written a book called “Get Your Photography on the Web”. The book has been a huge success with photographers everywhere. If you are ready to make the next move and get yourself a truly professional looking site up and running quickly without breaking the bank, then this book is for you.

In the book RC walks you through the whole process from start to finish. Like all books put out by the Kelby Media Group, they are filled with tons of photos and easy to follow diagrams. This book was designed to help people create a website and get it on the Internet as painlessly and as cost effectively as possible.

Not only do you get a step by step method for getting yourself online, you also get access to free templates for use on your own website. He has also added resources so that you will be able to sell your images immediately without having to learn how to program a shopping cart onto your site. Included are some real examples of other photographer’s blogs and websites along with their own personal stories. He’s dedicated another whole chapter on using plug-ins and for using and installing Google analytics (to keep track of your traffic) These days more and more people are getting into DSLR video and he even shows you how to add flash based gallery on your site with FTP, plus a ton of other great information.

This book takes you through an easy step-by-step process so you can build your own site from the ground up and have it look like you paid someone a lot of money to do it for you. “Get Your Photography on the Web” can be found in all fine bookstores or online at Amazon or at Kelby Training. I hope you find this article helpful and remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

Super Rechargables - How to get the most out of your batteries!

2011-09-16T17:03:00.024-04:00

I’m a big fan of using off camera flash (Speedlights) and love experimenting with various lighting set-ups. My goal is to get my lighting down to a science, unfortunately when your using Speedlights you will quickly find out that they can really drain batteries in difficult lighting set-ups. For example, if you’re using your flash unit as a main light and have to shoot at f/8 or better to get decent depth of field or when using high-speed sync at full power you can easily eat up the charge in your disposable batteries in no time.

Now granted, if you are familiar with lighting and power ratios, you know that by raising ISO you can lower your flash output to one quarter or one eighth power and then you can get hundreds of pops out of your flashes, (check out the diagram) But at the end of a typical wedding, you will still go through a lot of batteries and that can get expensive. Usually, we tend to think getting rechargeable batteries, Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) to cut down your costs, but the average (NiMH) rechargeables really don’t hold up that long. You’ll find that after they’ve been recharged 20 or 30 times, the recycling time between pops is much slower. When shooting a wedding, I usually try to get all my batteries charged the night before, but you’ll find that they will lose quite a bit of power overnight. What to do now?

Well, I read a lot of blogs and wanted to see what the Pros use out in the field in their flash units. I knew I needed a better solution than the plain rechargeable batteries that I had been using. I found one of the most popular products on the market today is the slow-discharge type battery. I personally use the Sanyo Eneloop hybrid Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiHD). Unlike plain rechargeable batteries, these batteries actually come pre-charged when you purchase them. Plus they maintain over 80% of their charge even after sitting around for over a year! Another nice feature is that they can be recharged up to 1500 times. What that means to you or me is, even if you recharge them twice a week it will take 10 years to reach 1000 cycles!

Now your probably saying to yourself that these must be expensive, but get this, a 4 pack of pre-charged batteries is only around 10 bucks or about the same price as a 4 pack of Energizer rechargeables! But you do have to be careful with how you charge them, some chargers can hurt these batteries and shorten their life span. I dug around online again and found a really highly rated charger, the Maha C801D made by PowerEX. I purchased mine through a company called Thomas Distributing because they actually had great customer reviews and the best prices around. PowerEX puts out their own line of batteries but I found that the Sanyo’s were rated even higher. The model I purchased can charge up to 8 batteries at the same time in under an hour. Plus each battery can be at a different level of charge and the charger actually knows this and charges accordingly! So it will charge your batteries correctly each and every time. You will never over or under charge your batteries again because the Maha will shut off that cell when the battery is fully charged. The charger also features a slow charge setting. The slow charge will automatically drain all the juice from your battery then fully recharge them. The rapid charge does exactly what the name implies; it fully charges your batteries in under an hour! So you can load the charger with 1 battery or up to 8 batteries and it will charge them all perfectly. On the front face of the unit are little power level guides so you know when your batteries are all charged up and ready to go. This charger even recognizes alkaline batteries and won’t try to charge them and risk hurting the unit. With the Maha C801D you can even charge both AA’s and AAA’s at the same time.

Now I aimed this article at off-camera flash fans, but these batteries can be used for all sorts of devices ranging from flashlights to digital cameras, basically anything that uses batteries. The Eneloop batteries are available in all sorts of sizes, not just AA or AAA’s. You can get C, D and even 9V batteries and you can purchase combo packs that come with their own charger if you prefer. If you’re like me and use batteries a quite a bit, maybe its time to check into some of these slow-discharge batteries and save yourself some money in the long run. These days I’ve always got fully charged set of batteries when I need them...........Nice huh?

Hope you find this article useful and remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

Sharpening Clouds

2011-08-27T14:33:00.016-04:00

Have you ever had a photo of a nice sunset or a landscape with some clouds in it, but when you open the photo up, you wish the clouds had a little more punch to them? I have a technique I use on almost all of my photos with clouds in them to add some extra punch. It’s a pretty quick process and the results make a nice improvement almost every time. The beauty of this technique is, all this is done on its own layer so if want to reduce the effects, you can just lower the opacity and if you still don’t like the effect, you can trash the layer. Either way, its just a few mouse clicks to adjust or correct your photo.

Grab one of your photos with a few clouds in it and follow along.

1. Whenever I work on a photo I always start by making a copy of my background layer (just in case) so click Cmd or Ctrl + J.
2. Now go up to the filter menu, click on it and scroll down to Other, then click on High Pass.
3. When the High Pass dialog box comes up, slide the slider until your clouds look really sharpened with lots of definition in your clouds. You don’t want to go overboard because it will make your photo look really funky. Every photo will be different so feel free to play around with your settings. When you’re done tweaking it, click OK.
4. Now I desaturate my new layer, just hold down Cmd + U or Ctrl + U to bring up your Hue and Saturation dialog box, and then drag your saturation slider all the way to the left to remove all the saturation.
5. Now go up to the top of your layers panel and change the blend mode of our High Pass layer to either Overlay or Hard Light, I usually prefer Hard Light myself.

Now depending on the photo you use, you might have to make some other minor adjustments to parts of your photo to either hide the sharpening effects or paint in the effects. This is actually quite easy to do using a layer mask and a nice soft brush.

Most of the time it’s easier to use a black mask and ‘conceal’ all the sharpening, then I use a white brush to paint in the sharpening on just my clouds. To get a black mask, hold the Alt key down before you hit the mask button on the bottom of the layers panel. (the mask button is the third one in from the left side of the panel) Make sure your painting on the mask by clicking on the mask box. Remember, if your effects are still a little too strong for your taste, just lower opacity to your own liking. In this image, I painted in the effects with a nice soft white brush. I use a Wacom tablet so I can paint with various degrees of pressure, but you can do this with a mouse too.

When I get it where it looks good to me, I tap on the top layer to make it active and then hold down the Ctrl + Shft + Alt keys and tap the letter E to make a flattened copy of all my layers right on top of my layers stack. Then I hit Ctrl + A to select it, (you’ll see the marching ants around it) then hit Ctrl + C to make a copy of that layer.

Now go over to the File menu, and click New. This will open a new blank document that will be the same size automatically. Now just hold the Ctrl key and tap V to paste your copied image into your new document and you’ll see a new single layered file, then just save your new image as you like. Now you can either save the original file with your changes or just close it out.

Now that you know this little technique you can use it to add a little punch to your clouds in own photos. Don’t be scared to try this with other photos also. It works great on images when you want to selectively sharpen only specific areas in your photos or to add some extra drama to your images. Try it yourself on a few images, the results might amaze you!

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

New England Camera Club Conference - 2011

2011-07-25T22:24:00.030-04:00

Each summer, one of the things I really look forward to is attending the NECCC conference held at the University Of Massachusetts campus in Amherst Mass. NECCC stands for the New England Camera Club Council. Every year the NECCC holds a three-day conference for people that are into photography. The council itself is a non-profit umbrella group of about 80 camera clubs in New England, which was established in 1937 and became so popular that it was officially incorporated in 1963. If you’re into photography, then this is the place to go. It is New England’s version of Photoshop World.

I had been into photography for many years but I had never even heard anything about the NECCC until I joined a local camera club (Stonybrook Camera Club). It was through my club members that I found out what the conference was all about and I instantly wanted to attend it myself. I have been to Photoshop World a few times and really enjoy learning just about anything to do with photography, camera’s etc.

I was very lucky because a few of the members of my club were also presenters and teachers at the conference (as well as being very gifted photographers themselves) Each year my club usually has about 20 or more members that attend the conference and its a lot of fun hanging out and talking shop all weekend.

For me, the conference is about 120 miles away from my home, so like most of the attendees we stay right at the campus in the same dorms used by the students during the school year. Very few students are on campus in the summer and for a minimal fee you can rent a room, with or without A/C. Some people choose to dine out during the weekend, but as an added convenience, the college opens one of the campus cafeterias for dining and offers various meal plans. I like this personally because I don’t have to drive anywhere and it gives me a chance to hang out with my club members and my fellow photographers.

Each year the conference offers classes and seminars on everything from printing and camera settings to subjects like flash photography and lighting. In addition to that, some of the big name equipment manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, Nik Software, Wacom, Epson etc have booths set up with reps there to answer any of your questions and also have a nice selection of the “latest and greatest” for sale. Some of them even hold classes to help people get up to speed on their equipment. You can even borrow some new cameras or lenses for the weekend or test some of the latest printers.

Classes on the Conference Schedule are rated according to your skill level, B for Beginner, I for Intermediate and A for Advanced. Every year they also offer shooting set-ups with live models (usually college students or faculty) either in a photo studio type environment or at various places around the campus. They also have set-ups for shooting exotic animals or birds, so there is usually something for everyone.

This year as always, they had a few of the big names teaching you their tricks of the trade, teaching how they got to where they are and how they stay ahead of the pack in this highly competitive field. Some of speakers/ presenters for 2011 included Ken Sklute, one of the Canon Explorers of Light, doing a show on sports photography. Eddie Tapp, also sponsored by Canon and a 2006 Photoshop Hall of Famer, doing a seminar on his digital process and back-up system. Adobe proudly sponsored Jane Conner-Ziser, and she showed her own workflow using ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) and Lightroom with her own personal tips and techniques.

I really enjoy the special presentations by some world-class photographers. This year, one of the feature artists was Wendell Phillips of Canada. His show consisted of some of his images from the Olympic games and his recent documentary from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Another world-class photographer, Andre Galant, also from Canada, did a presentation on his own world travels and as an added bonus they also had Jack Reznicki back again this year to do two presentations, one called Copyrights and Copywrongs – Model Releases and other Legal Issues and another called Lighting and Visual Perception. The NECCC also features local professionals from the N.E. area doing various workshops and shows on how they succeed in the world of photography.

One of my personal local favorites is Sarah Musumeci. Sarah specializes in architectural and travel photography and photographs everything from Bed and Breakfasts in New England to major hotels and businesses in the New York and Boston areas. I like to mingle with the presenters and artists when I can and one of the people I met this year was Robert Harrington, a first time instructor at the conference and he taught a class on Off-Camera Flash and it was a big hit. All in all, the conference is a great time and is almost guaranteed to have something for everyone.

Usually the conference people do a special presentation on Saturday night in the main auditorium on campus, but this year the building was having some renovations during summer break so for their feature presentation, a popular local photo retailer, Hunts Photo and Video, sponsored a show with hot air balloons. On Saturday evening they had three balloons tethered next to a pond on campus and ‘fired them up” for an evening tethered glow. The following morning, very early, the balloons were scheduled to do a take off. Both viewings were a lot of fun and made for great photo opportunities.

This year, as always, the conference was a great time. The NECCC has a faithful following and is sure to be around for years to come. I’m sure that there are conferences similar to this all around the country and you owe it to yourself to go online and find one in your area.
Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Creating your own light using Variable Neutral Density Filters

2011-06-21T23:11:00.014-04:00

If you’re like me, I make the majority of my income from my so-called 9-5 job. Trouble is, it usually turns out to be more like 45-60 hrs a week and that severely cuts into my personal shooting time. You know the scenario, you get one day a week off and make plans to go shoot a particular location. But when the day comes, you can’t get there early enough or late enough in the day to catch the right light and just have to make the best of it.

Has this ever happened to you? Then maybe this article will help you too.

I was online one day reading a story about this photographer’s personal experience shooting with a Variable Neutral Density Filter. The author talked about using one of these filters and being able to shoot wide open at f1.2 and maxing out his shutter speed at 1/250, all at 2:30 in the afternoon! I had never heard of these before. Variable Neutral Density filters are very handy in situations where you need a slower shutter speed than what can be achieved by using your camera’s lowest ISO and stopping down the lens. I found out that with these filters, your light could be adjusted from 2 – 8 stops just by twisting the filter, similar to using your circular polarizing filter. That means going from ND2 all the way to ND400 in a single filter! Check out this little clip to see how it works. Variable Neutral Density Filter

Well this started the wheels in my head spinning. I like to shoot anything with water; waterfalls, fountains, the ocean and I knew from experience that if you want your water smoothed out nicely, you usually have to be there really early (or on a very overcast day). Even timing it just right, most of the time you still had to use a 2 or 3 stop Neutral Density Filter so you that you could keep your open shutter long enough to blur your water without blowing out all your highlights at the same time. Then I thought about some other possibilities of where I could use these, like when I shoot a wedding and try to shoot the bride and groom in the mid-afternoon sun. Have you ever tried to minimize your depth of field at noontime, not an easy task huh? With these filters that problem is easily overcome, just dial down the density, pop it with a little flash, and presto - problem solved! Not only were they good for controlling depth of field and blurring motion, they were also useful for selective focus and Macro photography!

Well I always like a bargain and I decided to do a little research on these filters. What I found out was that these are getting really popular with people who shoot videos with their DSLR’s because they can shoot in the afternoon and still adjust their depth of field on the fly. I also found out that there were only a few companies that made these filters and they could get pretty expensive. Probably the best ones were put out by Singh-Ray and you could pay upwards of $400.00. But I continued to shop around online and came across a relatively unknown company called Light Craft Workshop, who manufactured the Fador Mark II - Variable Neutral Density Filters. For me, my favorite lenses are 77mm and I found out that I could save a couple hundred bucks and get one of these for $199.00. Don’t let that scare you, I found you could get a 58mm for as little as $109.00. Like everything else they come with mixed reviews and some people said that these types of filters could soften your images sometimes, but I really haven’t found that to be the case and I can always selectively sharpen if I feel the image needs it.

Take a look at the two images. On the one without the Fader ND filter, you’ll notice how I’m blowing out my sky and the water isn’t even softened yet. That was shot at f/8 at 1/50 sec. For the other image I repositioned my tripod and used the Fader ND. This was shot also at f/8 but at 0.8 sec, about a 5 stop of difference. Keep in mind that these waterfall photos were taken a minute or two apart, at about 2 pm with the sun almost directly overhead. To create this image, I opened it up in Camera Raw, cropped it a little and pumped up my blacks. Then I added some fill light to the rocks with an adjustment brush. Lastly, I adjusted the clarity, vibrance and saturation sliders to my liking. But now it looks like I was there around dawn! Of course to finish it off I’d bring it into Photoshop and tweak it here and there, but take a look at what this filter can help you do. Maybe you could use one of these in your camera bag too? I hope this article gives you some new ideas. Fader Mark II Variable Neutral Density Filter
Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

The value of a NAPP membership

2011-05-18T20:36:00.014-04:00

This is actually an updated reprint of an article I posted in June 2009. I’m still a huge fan of NAPP and highly recommend joining NAPP to all my friends who are into photography.

If you’ve been shooting digital for a while, then you have probably experimented with some sort of photo software by now. Every Digital Camera comes with some software to help you process the images after you capture them. Some of the better cameras have their own version of software that does more than enough for the average shooter. But maybe you really enjoy playing around with your photos and want to learn more?

I actually got into Digital Photography about 11 years ago. Back then Digital Cameras were pretty new to the general public and I found that I really enjoyed playing around with my images after I shot them. I soon found out that when it came to editing your photos, the major player in photo editing was a program called Photoshop. Unfortunately a full version of Photoshop was expensive and I didn’t want to pay full price. So I shopped around online and found an unregistered copy on Ebay in my price range and I was off. Since then I’ve updated my copy a few times and am currently using CS5. As you might know, Photoshop can be very intimidating to the newbie, but I wanted to learn more, so I used to go online and check out anything and everything to do with Digital Photography.

One day I was in a local bookstore and picked up a copy of a magazine called Photoshop User and started browsing through it. I had never even heard of it before and I instantly fell in love with it. The magazine was filled with tips and tricks on learning Photoshop and even had tons of deals on photo gear and gadgets. But, the only way to get a subscription was to join NAPP for $99 per year. At that time, you got 8 issues of Photoshop User magazine which cost about $10 apiece if you purchased them at a bookstore, so that meant my net cost of joining was really only $19. Think about it, what can you actually get for $19 dollars these days anyhow? Here are just a few of the things you’ll find on their website. (Note: Starting in 2011 they now publish 10 issues a year at the same price) Since the time I originally posted this article they’ve added a quite few nice features aimed towards people who are new to either Photography or Photoshop. On the top right side of their websites homepage you'll even see links called 'Brand New to Photoshop' or 'Brand New to Photography'.

Tutorials
The NAPP member website has a section for text and video tutorials written or taught by some of the top names in the Photoshop education including Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, RC Concepcion, Corey Barker, Lisa Snider and a ton of others. As of the moment I am writing this blog post, there are almost 1500 tutorials.

Member Discounts
Let me just rattle off a few places that offer discounts to NAPP members… Dell, Drobo, Adorama, Mpix, Kelby Training, Hoodman, Corel Painter, onOne Software, MacMall, LensProToGo, Office Depot, B&H, and a horde of Photoshop software plug-in makers. I have used the one for B&H enough times to pay for my membership practically. At B&H they not only give you a discount but they include free shipping too! Nice huh?

Magazine Section
This is a very useful section for sure. In every issue of the magazine they have tutorials with downloads of the image files so you can work along with the article. In this section you can access past articles and tutorials as well.

Portfolios
The NAPP member website has a section for uploading images that you have created into a nice online portfolio that can be viewed by other members. It’s a nice way to check out other member’s photography.

Help Center
This is one of my favorite things about NAPP. Have you ever tried to do something in Photoshop or Lightroom that you just couldn’t get right? Ever had a question about camera gear or computer equipment that was driving you nuts? Just go to the NAPP Help Center and see if your question has already been answered before. If it hasn’t, then submit your question and they’ll email you with the answer!

Forums
This is the NAPP members community. When you register here you can post questions or comments of a variety of subjects like Photoshop Discussions, Graphics or NAPP classifieds, just to name a few. This is a great way to network with other photographers and designers.

H.E.L.P. - Quick Video Tips
HELP stands for How-To Educational Library for Photoshop. This is basically a help center to answer any questions you have regarding Photoshop by showing you a short video clip on the topic that you need help with. Just select the topic you need help with and a box will come up with associated topics to choose from with a short video tutorial. Nice huh?

Shortcuts, Brushes, and Styles
There is one page on Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, another with Patterns and Brushes and a third page with Actions and Styles. I use these resources all the time and they are always free to download and use.

NAPP Perks
There are additional perks that only members get. These perks include access to product reviews, the NAPP newswire, lots of freebies only available to members from various companies that make Photoshop plug-ins and other software. Plus you get access to the NAPP member forums. The forums are a massive resource that you can not only tap into but also contribute to on all topics relating to your Photoshop and photography passion. This is also a great medium to network with other members.

The NAPP Store
The NAPP store offers books, DVD’s, online training, and seminars at a reduced cost to members. In some cases we are talking about greater than a 50% discount! Once you become a NAPP member you will never buy another book at full cost again!
PhotoshopLightroom 3 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learning Centers
Now these sections are aimed at people just getting started in Lightroom 3 or CS5. They have a bunch of short videos describing features of both programs. Even people who’ve been using it for a while can pick a tip or two here.

Photoshop User TV
This is definitely one of my favorite perks from membership to NAPP. Not only do you get to view Photoshop User TV weekly, but you can also download previous episodes and watch them on your Ipod or your PC anytime. I’ve been watching the show since episode # 1 (Oct.24th 2005) and I always look forward to the next weeks show. They are now up to episode 266! Nice huh?

The fee for a NAPP membership is still only $99. Now factor in that you get 10 issues of Photoshop User magazine, access to members only forums, Online Tech Support, helpful product reviews, access to over 1000 Photoshop and Lightroom tips and tutorials and hundreds of product discounts. You also receive discounts for seminars, online training, Photoshop World tickets, books, DVD’s, not to mention and access to all the Photoshop User TV. You’ve got to admit; in this day and age this is an exceptional deal any way you look at it! It is almost like NAPP is paying YOU to join! Use this link and download a copy of Photoshop User magazine for free.

So what’s stopping you from joining? Click on one of NAPP links on my site and join today! And remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

Stripping Metadata the Easy Way

2011-04-23T17:37:00.025-04:00

If you’re like me, you probably send photos and images all over the place via the Internet. I’m always sending photos off to customers or clients or to my email friends and family just for fun. Digital photography has made the way we share our photos very easy and just about everyone is sharing their photos these days. Let’s face it, it can be fun to show off your photos to people on the other side of the country or just across town, all in a couple of minutes.

Some people who own digital cameras don’t even know that their cameras record a variety of things automatically when you take the photo. Just about every camera records the Camera Make and Model, Shooting Date/Time, Shutter Speed, Exposure Program, F-Stop, Aperture, ISO, Lens, Metering Mode and most of them can even tell you if you used your flash! This info is called the Metadata and it can be very useful. Those of us in the field using Photoshop or Lightroom usually have our own Metadata Templates that we automatically embed into our files when we take them off our cards on import. For me, I only use three boxes in the Metadata Panel – Camera Data, IPTC and Description. There are a bunch more, but 90% of the time I don’t need them myself.

Some of this info is mainly for our own personal use, but other things like our studio name or website and email address’s can come in handy. It also helps us with archiving because by adding keywords it will help us find them easier on our computers when we start getting thousands of photos. It also helps us in keeping track of things like shooting dates or occasions. But for me, some of this is info that I don’t want to share with everyone on the Internet, so I like to remove all that info before I start sending any of my photos off into the big scary world.

Most of my work is finished off in Photoshop, so I’ve created all sorts of different Actions to help me do tons of different things that I do all the time without having to go through the whole process over and over. Here is a little tutorial that will take you through the process of creating an Action that will automatically remove all of your Metadata info with just one mouse click so you can send them off with a little more confidence.

In this first image, you can see all the different camera settings. You’ll notice it was taken with a Canon EOS 5D on 10/9/2010 at 3:20:36pm and all sorts of other data. I don’t really like to share this info, because this info might help me to prove ownership if someone tries to use my images without my permission.

Now check out this second window. Notice all the new Metadata info, called IPTC. For purposes of this tutorial I’ve used fictional data, but you get the idea. Granted, sometimes I’m only sending a photo off to a family member or friend, but I still feel better when I remove this info.

The third tab, called Description, has places where I can add a description, rate the photo with one to five stars, add keywords and copyright status, notices, and info with links. You’ll notice on the bottom it also has other info, like the shooting date and time, format and a few other things I like. Lets get started:

Open any single photo in Photoshop, preferably a JPEG in sRGB mode so you can follow along. Now hold down the Shift + Ctrl + Alt and tap the letter I key to bring up the info on your image. You can also go under the File menu and click on File Info. This will also bring up the same dialog box. Click on all the tabs on the top of the box to see your info.

You’ll see how simple it can be to create an Action to strip out your Metadata with just one mouse click. In a future tutorial I’ll show you how to create Droplets so you can run these Actions on whole folders at the same time. Watch my blog for future tutorials.

Now, go up under the Window menu and click on Actions to bring up our Action Panel. On the bottom of that panel, click on the icon next to the trashcan to create a new Action.

A dialog box will come up, name it Metadata, and click the dropdown menu beneath it and click the Default Actions folder. You’ll notice you can also add a Function Key to your Action and a Color, but we’re going to skip that this time. Hit Record in the top right corner to start recording and you should see a Red Circle on the bottom of your Action Panel now.

First we need to select the image. I’m a big fan of shortcut keys, so hold the Ctrl key down and tap the letter A key. You can also go under the Select menu and click on All. You’ll see the marching ants around your photo. Now hold the Ctrl key and tap the letter C key to copy your selection to the clipboard. You can also go under the Edit menu and click on Copy.

Now we need to create a new template for our image, this is easy to do. Hold the Ctrl key and tap the letter N key to create a new document exactly the same size as our original or go up under the File menu and click on New. This will open a Dialog box and you can just click the OK button and it will create a new blank document the exact size to paste our image into.

Note: if you have more than one image open in Photoshop, you’ll have to tap the drop down menu in the Preset box and tap on the name of the image you just copied.

Now hold the Ctrl key down and tap the V key or go up under the Edit menu and click Paste. Also, a lot of us shoot in a different color space in our cameras, so when you try to you paste your image, you might get a Profile Mismatch Dialog box asking if you want to convert to a different color profile. For the purpose of this tutorial click on Don’t Convert and click OK.

You should have two documents open on your desktop now. Click on the tab of the original image to make it active, you’ll see your marching ants. Now hold the Ctrl key and tap the D key to deselect the image and turn off the ants and then click the X to close it, we won’t need it anymore. This will leave you with our new image.

Now on the bottom of the Actions Panel, click the square box on the bottom next to the Red circle to turn off our recording. If you want, go and check out your File Info again you’ll see we just stripped out all that information.

Now you should have a copy of your original without any of the Metadata in it. If you want to, you can resize your new file now and then go up under the File menu and click Save As or just hold Ctrl + Shift and tap the letter S key. This will bring up another dialog box, choose your file format and a place to save it to and give it a new name if you’d like. Now close that file, and open your original. You should still have the Actions Panel open so just click the start arrow and play your actions.....Nice huh?

There you have it, a quick and simple way to make a duplicate photo, with all your Metadata stripped out with just one mouse click. I’m a big fan of anything that will save me time. I have a whole set of Actions that I use to strip Metadata, resize for the web, change the color space and even drop the finished images into special folders on my desktop, all with a single click of the mouse (or pen ) I hope this tutorial will help you out.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature

2011-03-30T22:29:00.011-04:00

These days the number of people shooting digital is mind-boggling and just how many people are really starting to enjoy the creative side of photography – editing. By far the most popular photo-editing program out there is Photoshop. It has been has been the favorite of magazine designers, photographers and digital artists from day one. But there is one main feature that sets Photoshop apart from the competition and makes it the amazing program that it is, and that feature is layers!

The original book, “Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature” came out in 2008 when CS3 was the current version of Photoshop. That book was an instant hit and flew off the bookshelves. But Photoshop has been updated twice since then and a lot of things have changed since that original 1st Edition, so the book has also been updated to the new and improved 2nd Edition designed for Photoshop CS5.

I’ve been using Photoshop for 10 years now and was amazed at how much I was able to learn from this book. The author, Matt Kloskokwski said in an interview that he wished a book like this was around when he was first learning Photoshop. I definitely second that. There is a ton of information on things that you’ll use everyday plus other things that most people shy away from (face it Photoshop can be a little intimidating huh?)

Matt goes into detail on things like blending layers and adjustment layers, smart layers and layer styles. How to get the most out of layer masks and use layers for your basic and advanced retouching and much, much more. Like all his previous books, this one is loaded with plenty of photographs and easy to understand tutorials. And, for those of us who like hands on training, he’s included a link to download the images used in the book so you can follow along step by step. This book was designed to teach everyone something, from beginners all the way to advanced Photoshop users. If your a Photoshop user, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy today.

Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Creating Gallery Style Templates in Photoshop

2011-02-26T17:35:00.037-05:00

If you’re like me, you probably have a few of your own images on display around your home or office. I’m not going to lie, some of my prints I really like and I’ve created a way to display them that makes them look like they were professionally framed and matted. Not only that, when you get tired of looking at them, you can change your photo in just a few minutes. This tutorial was designed to be used with Smart Objects and Smart Guides, but will work with almost any version of Photoshop, so if you’re using CS3 or newer your all set.
Take a look at the image above, I use this style most of the time. The total size of the print is 11 by 14inch. If you look at my image, it appears to be double-matted. I’ve got mine framed in thin black metal frame, available at your local craft or frame store, and it gives it a classy-gallery style feel. Here’s a little tutorial that will show you how to create you own in just a few minutes.

1. Start by opening a new document and make it a 14in width by 11in height. Set your resolution to 240, and your Color Mode to RGB or sRGB and the make sure the Background Contents is set to white.

2. On your keyboard, press and hold the Control key (Ctrl) then tap the R key to bring up your rulers. It should be set to inches, if not, right click directly on the ruler and set it to inches. We’re going to need these to help us measure out our two matt layers. Now we want to create our first border.

3. On the bottom of the layers pallette, click the new layer icon or use the keyboard shortcut, Shift, Ctrl + N, when the dialog box comes up, name it Fill layer and click OK. You should see a blank layer on top of your white background layer in your layers pallette now.

4. Here is where our rulers come in handy. Left click and hold the ruler itself on the top of the window and drag a guide down until it reaches the 1inch mark and then let go of the mouse. Now we need the bottom guide so left click the top again and drag down to the 9 inch mark and let go.

5. Now we’ll repeat the same process on the both sides of the document. Left click the anywhere on the side ruler next to the tool bar and drag out a guide all the way to the right side of the document and let go at the 13 inch mark. Now do it again and drag one out to the 1 inch mark. If your guides aren’t exactly at their marks, tap the V key and then you can drag them to the correct spots. You should have 4 guides that form a rectangular shape in the middle.

6. Make sure your working on the empty top layer. (it will be blue in the Layers Pallette) Here is where we create our first matt border. Tap the M key to bring up the Rectangular Marquee tool. Look in the tool bar and if the rectangular tool isn’t showing, hold the shift key and tap the M key again. Your curser will look like a little plus sign, click directly where your guides intersect in the upper left corner and drag out a box where your guides intersect in the bottom left corner and let go. You should see the marching ants forming a rectangular shape.

7. Now tap the letter D to set your colors to black and white, then tap the letter X to change the foreground color to white. Now hold the Alt key and then tap the delete key. Your rectangle should be filled with white now. You should see a white box in the middle of your new layer in the Layers Pallette.

8. We need some layer style effects now and to do some magic. First, go up to the top of the Layers Pallette and set the Fill opacity to 0. To do this you can either click the little arrow or left click and drag next where it says Fill, (this is called a scrubby slider).

9. Now double-click next to the name on the Fill layer to bring up the layer style dialog box. On the left side of that panel, click the check box next to Inner Shadow, then click next to the name to highlight those style settings (it will turn blue) Copy all the settings from this image. Don't click ok yet.

10. Now click the check box next to Inner Glow in the Styles menu and then click next to the name and highlight those style settings (it will turn blue). Copy all the settings from this image. When you’re done, click OK to get out of that box.

11. You should have a line around the outside edge of an invisible box now. To see what I mean, turn off your background layer (click the eye icon) Hold the Ctrl key and tap the semi-colon (nest to the letter L) to turn off our guides. You should see only an outline of a box right? Now click the eye to turn the background back on and hold the Ctrl key and tap the semi-colon again to turn the guides back on.

12. Now we’ve got to create our template box for our image. With our Fill layer still highlighted (blue) hold down the Ctrl key and click the New Layer icon on the bottom of the Layers Pallette. This should create a new layer underneath your Fill layer. If it doesn’t, just drag that new layer underneath your Fill layer.

13. Now we need another set of guides to create our image window box. You do remember how to drag out guides right? If not, go back to steps 4 and 5. This new set of guides are going to be on the inside of our other guides. I’ve found they look good to me set at 3/8 in from our other guides.

14. When you’ve got all four sides done, we are going to use the Rectangular Marquee tool again, tap the M key and drag out a rectangular shape on the new inside guides. In other words, you’ll create a box inside of the last box. Now tap the D key to set our colors to default, then hit the X key to change our foreground to white.

15. Make sure your new layer is highlighted and you see the marching ants. Now go down to the bottom of the Layers Pallette and click the Layer Style icon (the little black and white circle) and a menu box will come up. Click on Solid Color at the top. A dialog box will come up, make sure white is selected and click OK.

16. Now you should see a Solid Color icon and a layer mask on your new layer. Click once on the layer mask to select it, (you’ll see a white border around it) then hold the Ctrl key and tap the letter I. Your mask should change colors. The outside is now white and the inside is black.

17. With your mask still selected, hit the Effects icon on the bottom of your Layers Pallette. It’s the little fx, get it - Ef-fects? When the dialog comes up, check Stroke and highlight it, and copy the settings in this image. You want to make sure size, position, opacity are set and your color is set to Black. If the color is not black, double-click it to bring up the color picker dialog box. Don’t worry, we’re almost done now.

18. Now we need our image layer. With your Color Fill layer highlighted, hold the Ctrl key and then tap the New Layer icon in the bottom of the Layers Pallette. It should create a blank layer beneath our Color Fill layer, if not, drag it below your layer.

19. Select an image to use in your template and open it in Photoshop. You have to make sure it’s large enough for frame, preferably somewhere around 12 x 10 at least. When you have it opened, hold Ctrl and tap the A key to select your image. You should see the marching ants around your image. Now, hold the Ctrl key and tap the letter C to copy it, and now click Ctrl + D to deselect the ants.

20. Now go back to your photo template. Make sure you new layer is highlighted and hold Ctrl and tap the letter V to paste it into our new layer. Your image should be large enough, but if it doesn’t fill the whole image window in the template, press Ctrl and the letter T to bring up the Free Transform handles. Press and hold the Shift and the Alt keys and drag any corner handle to resize it to perspective. Drag it until you see the Free Transform box just outside your last set of guides.

Notice how the mask on the Color Fill layer hides the outside of your image? Now hit the Enter key or the little Checkmark in the top menu bar to get rid of the handles. If you still need your image centered or just moved around, tap the letter V, click on the photo, and just drag it to where you need it. Now when you have your image where you want it, Right click next to your image layers name in the Layers Pallette, a menu will come up, then click Convert to Smart Object. Now when you want to replace this image with another, just right click again and you’ll get a dialog box called Place and it will navigate to any image on your computer. Nice huh?

21. Now we need some text, so click the top layer in the Layers Pallette to select it. Then hit the T key to select the Type tool. On the title bar, select Trajan Pro as our font and set it to Regular and 34.5 size. Click underneath your photo to start your text, don’t worry if it isn’t centered yet, we’ll fix that in a moment. On my image it says Castle Hill Lighthouse, yours can say whatever you like it to be, then hit Enter.

22. Now hit Ctrl J to copy that layer and then drag that layer beneath your other Type layer. You can also hold the Ctrl key and tap the left bracket key instead of dragging to place it beneath your other text layer for you automatically. You’ll notice I use shortcut keys all the time huh? Now hit the V key (the move tool) and tap the down arrows on your keyboard until you get your second line of text where you want it. (see original image) Now we need to center everything.

23. To finish everything off, hold the Ctrl key and click on both Text layers and the background layer to highlight all three of them, then tap the V key. All we need to do is center all our text, so up on the menu bar, click the 5^th icon and Photoshop will align everything.

24. Almost finished now. Hold the Ctrl key and tap the semi-colon key to turn off all our guides and take a good look at your new image. Pretty nice huh?

25. Last but not least, you probably don’t want to lose all this work you’ve done so far, so go to the File drop down menu and click Save As.....name it Photo Template or whatever you prefer. Now you have a completely editable template you can use over and over. Nice huh?

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

DIY - Home Studio Photography

2011-01-14T22:29:00.020-05:00

There is a new eBook just made available from the people over at DIY Photography, written by a photographer by the name of Udi Tirosh. It's called, Your Complete Guide to Building A Photography Studio At Home.

Once photographers take the big step forward of finally moving their lighting off camera, a whole new world of possibilities opens up to them. Unfortunately, photographic lighting and equipment can be prohibitively expensive for the average hobbyist and most of us don't want to max out our credit cards just to do it. Luckily, light is light, no matter how expensive your modifiers, and there are countless ways to get nearly the same look as pro-equipment, and for only a fraction of the cost. This eBook is perfect for people interested in making their own Home Studio, tools and equipment.

Face it, if we could afford all the gear and all the space in the world it would rock, wouldn't it? Sadly, if we are shooting in our living room, we probably can't. As shooting-at-home photographers who might have their studio double as living rooms or garages, we have to deal with two constraints, lack of space and lack of gear. While this book mostly deals with lack of gear, it also deals with lack of space. A studio at home can be set up in the garage or the basement of even in a spare bedroom. Nice huh?

Originally when I got this eBook I was very surprised because I've purchased quite a few eBooks in the past and most of them averaged between 25-50 pages, but this eBook is 115 pages and it comes loaded with easy to understand diagrams and step-by-step guides along with tons of photos. Granted, you probably won't need or use all the techniques in this book but there is sure to be something for everyone in here. I enjoy checking out the DIY website and have found all sorts of useful articles there.

Last but not least, Home Studio Photography also features 23 do-it yourself projects. Some by other guest contributors such as Nick Wheeler, David Turman, Rui M Leal, Matt Haines, Megan Abshire, Sandra Freeman and Alex Campagna.

Now the people over at DIY are so sure that your are going to love this book and that it will help you kick-start your home studio, they even offer you a Full Refund! If your are unhappy with the eBook for whatever reason, let them know within 30 days and get a Full Refund, no questions asked. So if you've been wanting to experiment with Home Studio Photography without going broke, this eBook is for you. To check it out for yourself, click the link found on the left-hand side of the page and it will take you right there!

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

How to take great Holiday Photos

2010-12-15T17:36:00.068-05:00

For Better Family and Group Portraits

The most important thing to keep in mind when photographing groups and families is this: you absolutely must take a lot of photos. There is often a great deal of pressure when photographing groups. A lot of people complain about having their picture taken and want the experience to be over quickly. Plus, you need to work quickly in order to get the job done within the limits of their patience and to try keep the experience as fun and friendly as possible. Since there is always someone blinking or looking off to the side or facing another member of the group, having a large number of photos will give you the best chances of catching everyone looking their best.

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Especially if your subject is a child opening a gift - or playing with a gift for the first time - you know that within a split second, the scene can change. There are often just a few brief moments when that "magic spark" appears. Of course this means having your camera on hand and the batteries fully charged and its always it good idea to have back-up batteries ready also. After all, you can't capture the moment if you don't have your camera turned on and ready to go. Remember, you have to be ready to press that shutter button at a moment's notice, anticipating when the magic spark will surface. If you have a digital camera that suffers from a bit of a delay when taking the picture, then you will have to become even more intuitive and skilled at anticipating the moment. Another good tip; make sure you have enough space on your memory card and carry an extra card with you. Too often people will run out of space and either have to delete some photos or end their shooting for the day. Remember, these days memory cards are very inexpensive, so pick up an extra one and you’ll be glad you did.

Fill Your Frame

One of the most common mistakes I see in Christmas photos (or any party or event) is that people often end up with shots of their subjects off in the distance on the other side of a room with lots of space all around them. Fill your frame with your subject either by using your zoom or just getting up and moving yourself in closer. While this is one of the simplest tips I ever give it is one that can have the most profound impact on your shots. Try it out, you’ll be amazed.

Don’t Forget Your White-Balance

Now if your totally new to photography, your probably shooting in JPEG format with your camera set to auto and most digital cameras do a pretty good job with auto-white balance, but if you want to get better photos, try setting to white-balance. If you are shooting in RAW mode, you know you can always go back and change it afterwards if you forget.

Photographing Christmas Lights

The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark, plus arriving around sunset will give you time to plan your shot before the good light happens. Try to compose your shots with as much sky as possible, getting down real low. Then, once you get your photo framed, set your white-balance to Tungsten as if you were shooting indoors. All those little bulbs are tungsten balanced and as an added bonus your sky will look even better. Needless to say, you’ll need a way to steady your camera, preferably a tripod or mono-pod or even a beanbag for those long exposures. Plus a remote trigger or cable can come in real handy. Shoot a test shot every minute or so constantly checking the LCD. Somewhere between sunset and full dark your Christmas lights and the ambient light with start to mix beautifully. Usually you’ll have about a 10-minute window with nice light. After that, the good light will fade very quickly and you will know it is gone when your photos start looking like the "bad light" photos you used to take.

Bonus Tips:

If you plan to use flash, nothing screams point-and-shoot like using an on-camera flash. Red-eye reduction is nice, but a shoe-mounted flash is so much better. When shooting indoors, not only can you bounce off of a wall or ceiling you can add a diffuser and make it hard to know a flash was used at all. Of course you might be able to avoid this just by using a nice wide aperture like f2.8 and bumping up your ISO a little.

Remember, its always a good idea to plan ahead, maybe even making a check list for things to remember like batteries, cards etc. Another good tip if you already own the camera, read and re-read your manual and get to know it even better. I can’t tell you how important this is.

Well until my next post, I hope you all have a very safe and happy holiday season and remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

How to Make Money From Your Photos

2010-11-15T12:40:00.007-05:00

If you’re like almost everyone new or semi-new to Digital Photography, you’ve probably noticed that your photos are starting to multiply. No, it’s not some new computer virus creating new photos on your system; you keep taking photos and your collection is just starting to take up more space. Maybe, the dreaded photography bug has bitten you?

Believe me, you’re not alone. Millions of people are purchasing Digital Cameras every year and a lot of them are starting to get the photography bug. Now not everyone who picks up a camera wants to be a professional photographer, but just about everyone who has ever taken a shot that makes them proud and gives them pleasure, has dreamed of making money from their photography. Maybe they’ll see a photo somewhere and say to themselves, I can do better than that or they might imagine one of their photos in the local newspaper or on a billboard, or maybe even hanging in a gallery somewhere?

Once upon a time this was limited only to professional photographers and it used to be that the equipment needed to capture quality images like we see daily, was very difficult to operate and far too expensive for the average person to go out and purchase. But luckily, this has all changed in recent years. Anyone who can afford just a few hundred dollars can get a camera capable of capturing these shots, and these days’ the buyers are more concerned about the quality of the image rather than what type of camera was used, how long the photographer that shot it has been shooting or what kind of formal education they have.

The good new is, that with a little effort and some research on the Internet, you too could find a way to sell some of those images that you’ve got sitting around on a hard drive or a disk somewhere. Wouldn’t it be nice to make a little extra cash to buy that new lens you’ve wanted or maybe you’ve thought about how you could turn you’re hobby into a side business? Whatever your reason might be I wanted to let you know about a new book out there that might help you out.

One of the websites I go to quite often is one aptly named: Photoprenuer.com. Maybe you’ve even visited it yourself. The site originated in 2007 and has since become a huge hit because this site is dedicated to helping people fulfill those dreams. It has tons of articles and new ideas on different ways you might market your own collection of photos. They have topics ranging from how you might start a photo business and selling the pictures you love, to articles about scams you might want to watch out for, and they even throw in some new shooting ideas now and then.

Well these fine people over there at Photoprennuer.com have put together a book titled ‘99 Ways to Make Money From Your Photos’. Like the cover says, the editors there have come up with 99 different ideas on how you too might start marketing your photos. They’ll show you some easy ways (and some not so easy ways) to turn your images into cash with proven ideas from experienced photographers who are doing it in today’s market. This book will give you tips on how you might sell your own vacation and travel photos and even give you ideas on how you might organize photo exhibitions yourself.

Maybe you’ve thought about shooting some stock photography? This book will teach you various ways on how you might get started and how to license your photos for selling to stock agencies. This book can be a very useful tool to get your creative juices flowing and spark some new ideas. Maybe this is something that interests you or you have someone on your Christmas list that might enjoy it? Either way you can check it out here at “99 Ways to Make Money From Your Photos”.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Shooting Macro-Style Photography

2010-10-17T10:28:00.028-04:00

Recently one of my camera buddies asked me if I ever shoot any Macro and my answer was yes and no. What I meant was, I shoot Macro type shots, but I don’t even own a dedicated Macro lens.

The best Macro lenses are the latest Autofocus models and there are a lot of companies that put out great ones. The most common lengths are the 60mm or 100mm; and usually each lens will focus in close for a 1:1 ratio. Keep in mind whether you’re shooting with a crop sensor body or full frame, because they are different lenses.

One thing to note; a Macro lens and a Macro Zoom Lens are not the same thing. Macro Zooms are not actually Macros at all. They just focus closer than normal lenses and most of the time the quality suffers. Quite a few Point and Shoot cameras also have a Macro setting. Canon also makes the 500D close-up lens, which is actually a filter that screws on your lens. Canon even makes these to fit Nikon lenses. It isn’t Macro but it magnifies quite a bit. They sell from $85.00 to $150.00, depending on what size filter you need.

By definition, true Macro isn’t achieved until the subject is reproduced on film or on a sensor at life size which means 1:1 ratio or greater. There is also Extreme Macro, which is larger than that. Canon also offers the MP-E 65 mm f/2.8 . This lens is capable of shots up to 5:1, which is pretty wild. Another example of Extreme Macro is when a camera is attached to a microscope, now that really opens up a whole new world.

What I use normally are Extension Tubes. Basically all the tubes do is move your lens further from your sensor, enabling your camera to focus closer. There are no moving parts and some can even use autofocus.

The most popular brand is Kenko. Canon and Nikon also make tubes but they are not as popular as these, plus they are sold individually and are more expensive. The Kenko Extension Tubes come in sets of three, which includes a 12mm, a 20mm and a 36mm. You can usually purchase a set from about $100.00 - $175.00. The nice part is you can use one tube or any combination of the three. Keep in mind though, just like using Tele-Extenders, you lose a lot of light so a Tripod is a must and it’s a good idea to use a Cable Release to avoid any shake.

It is always better to turn off your autofocus and focus manually. Depth of field is very shallow, so you’ll need to be at f /22. You’ll notice you can focus on the front of a flower and a petal just an inch behind will be completely out of focus. Plus a lot of the newer SLR cameras also offer Live-View, which is great for doing Macro-type work.

I shoot mostly indoors under controlled lighting and I like to shoot tethered to my laptop so I can see it on a large screen and can focus on all the finer details. You can purchase dedicated Macro Ring Flash set-ups but they’re expensive, so I just use an off camera flash and a couple of daylight balanced desk lamps and they work fine. I like to get in real close and capture the fuzzy little parts of the inside of flowers. For example, did you ever see all the texture on a petal or a leaf? Maybe you’re asking yourself if something would make a nice Macro shot, just take out a magnifying glass and check it out before you set up all your gear.

One of the most common practices for Macro work involves shooting bugs and insects or for shooting flowers and plants. Shots like this take a lot of patience and practice. Plus, if you’re shooting outdoors, you have to watch out because even the slightest breeze is greatly magnified and there is always the chance that one of your little bugs will take off on you.

Outdoor nature type Macro shots are really nice, but shooting indoors there are tons of different ways to get creative. Textures, shapes and details take on a whole new dimension when captured with a Macro lens or Extension Tubes. Indoor shooting also allows you to be a little more imaginative. Using Gels on your flowers can open up all sorts of possibilities. Using colored backgrounds is also nice. Macro photography can be a lot of fun, but like I mentioned, it takes patience and practice to get those fantastic shots you see in magazines.

Sometimes I like to take shots of everyday items like coins or jewelry, but watch out, your items might be a little dirtier than you might imagine. This shot of the coin, was taken with a 24-105mm lens, racked all the way out to 105mm, with all three Kenko Extension Tubes on it, for a total of a 68mm extension. That means my lens is about 3 ½ inches away from the body. Check out the details like all the scratches and the dirt.

This shot of the frog was taken on a full frame camera with a dedicated Macro lens, a Canon EF 100mm f / 2.8 Macro Autofocus lens. This lens will set you back over $500.00. This shot wasn’t taken out in a tropical swamp or in the wild; it was shot through an aquarium glass. The image of the plant with the water droplets was taken with another fine lens, Canon EF-S 60mm – f / 2.8, a crop sensor lens, which goes for around $400.00. The background is actually just some colored paper, and because most Macro’s will not focus to infinity, it is nicely out of focus. Check out the background on the car keys, each one getting more and more out of focus.

And lastly, another benefit to shooting Macro type photography is, it can be a lot of fun when the weather isn’t too friendly, especially if you have a dedicated space you can keep set up, like a spare room etc. You can probably think of tons of new things to shoot. Experiment, get creative, have some fun. The possibilities are practically endless.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

How to get 100% Reliable Flash – every time!

2010-09-16T10:21:00.008-04:00

I know, I know, I get kind of lame when it comes to putting up new articles on this blog. For those of you out there that have blogs and websites that you feed with new info daily, or even weekly, my hat goes off to you. Coming up with new content that you think someone might find useful can often be difficult. Recently I found something that you might enjoy.

For the last five years or so, I’ve been constantly trying to improve my portable lighting techniques and I've found the easiest way to do this is with Speedlights. Of course when you’re in a studio environment, most of the time you’d probably be using Mono-Lights or Studio Flash set-ups, but out in the field or on a remote location, Off-Camera Flash units, usually called Speedlights, are a quick and easy way to get the lighting your looking for with minimal effort.

Unfortunately even these units can be rather difficult to use. You can either ask someone who knows how to use them that might have the time to take you through the process or can try to find the right Internet site (or sites) or read books and magazine articles and devote the time to learn how to use them that way. For myself it’s actually been a little bit of all of these methods.

I actually started out by going online and checking out a fantastic Blog called “The Strobist” put out by a guy who was a 20 yr career-newspaper shooter, David Hobby. David actually created it in 2006 to avoid doing a lecture at a photo class for someone. He quickly found out how many people are into using Speedlights these days, myself included! It has since turned into a full-time job for him and he’ll be the first to admit he spends about 8 hrs a day researching and writing articles to “Feed the Blog”. You’ll find a link to his site on my Blog List also.

Another one of my favorite Blogs to get Off-Camera Flash tips and tricks is a site by a fellow photographer named Neil van Niekerk. Neil’s home base is in New Jersey, but his work these days take him all over the country. Weddings and portraits comprise the majority of his work, but he also holds workshops and seminars teaching digital photography and lighting. Neil also has a great book on Off-Camera Flash and you can click on the Amazon link on this site and type in Neil van Niekerk to check that out. You’ll also find a link to his site – Tangents, on my Blog List.

But now you’re probably saying to yourself, those are great ideas if you’ve got tons of time on your hands, but I just want to be able to take my Speedlight and get the lighting I want quickly and easily without all the fancy lighting ratios and all that creative stuff - Fair enough.

Recently I found a little eBook called 100% Reliable Flash Photography by Edward Verosky. He has a regular website and a nice little blog featuring techniques and tricks for using Off-Camera Flash and I actually found it quite by accident while browsing through another photographers website. I’ll tell you what, I wish he had put this eBook out about 5 yrs ago because it would have saved me tons of trial and error time, not to mention hours of researching on the Internet.

Ed’s eBook is about 75 pages long with tons of useful diagrams and examples of his set-ups and photographs on how he gets his images. He does not get into all the fancy mumbo-jumbo talk, instead he just tells you how to do it quickly and easily. Ed has a technique he calls Standardization, in which he tells you exactly what camera / flash settings he starts with when shooting outdoors or indoors to get consistent results. Of course you can modify these yourself, but it makes your work so easy, you’ll say to yourself “why didn’t I think of that?”

These days, I start with his Standardization settings and then go from there if I want to get a little more creative – just a quick and easy method, ba-da-boom! Like I stated, if your into using Speedlights, either on or off your camera, and want to get quick and reliable results, you owe to yourself to check out his eBook. You’ll find a link right on my site, 100% Reliable Photography.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Third Annual Scott Kelby’ Photowalk

2010-08-16T11:24:00.010-04:00

Recently I had the opportunity to be part of Scott Kelby’s 3rd Annual Worldwide Photowalk on July 24th. The walk I attended was held in Providence Rhode Island. Like always, it is a great way to get out there and meet other photographers and have a good time. This year was no different. I met a lot of great people from my area who share my passion for photography. Some operated studios and photo business’ and some were regular Joe’s like myself who just like to get out there and shoot. I also met some people in my area who ran a “Photo Safari” which is a group that organizes local outings and photo shoots regularly....nice huh?

The whole Photowalk idea was originated by a man named Jeff Revell. Jeff owns and operates a website called PhotoWalk-Pro. The idea is to get a group of photographers together (usually around 50 walkers) and then walk around in predetermined locations for a few hours and afterwords, get together and share their imagery. Alone or with a group, the purpose is still the same and that is to get out there and shoot. It’s a great way to share ideas and boost your own photography skills, not to mention, meet new people who enjoy photography.

Three years ago, Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and the number one selling computer and technology book author, organized the first Worldwide Photowalk to celebrate the release of his book, Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers and to help raise funds for the Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya. Their original expectations were blown away.

On the first Photowalk, there were 8,324 photographers registered in over 47 countries. There were Photowalks held in 44 states and over 236 cities worldwide. Over 1 million photos were taken on the first walk, and now it has become an annual event. You can also view entries from other walkers around the country (and the world) on a special Flick’r site dedicated to this event.

This year there were about 1150 walks and over 33 thousand registered walkers attending Worldwide Photowalks around the globe. Did I mention it is also a great way to compete and win some great prizes? All Photowalk leaders (organizers of local walks) receive a copy of Scott’s newest book, (this year was his Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers) and all walkers can submit entries to compete for some really great prizes from sponsors like Adorama and Kelby Training.

Maybe next summer you’ll be able to attend the 4th Annual Photowalk in your area? They’re a lot of fun and great way to meet photographers in your area......Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

Adobe Configurator – finally customizable Photoshop!

2010-06-10T17:14:00.012-04:00

Every now and then I come across a program that makes it feel like I’ve won the lottery. I had heard about Adobe Configurator and had even watched quite a few videos on it, but at the time I was using Photoshop CS3 and it does not work with anything before CS4. Myself, I usually upgrade about every other version and when CS5 was released I upgraded within the first week or so.

I spend a lot of time in Photoshop editing and manipulating photos and graphics, so anything that makes it quicker and easier I definitely like. I immediately went out and did some more homework on the Configurator. You can download it here for free at Adobe Labs.

At home I’ve got a two-monitor set-up and most of the time I would just put my panels on the other screen. I’m a big fan of Wacom tablets and I’ve been using them for about 4 yrs. When I’m in Photoshop I rarely ever use a mouse so I’m using my pen to navigate and edit. I’ve been using Photoshop since 6.0, so I already knew tons of shortcut keys and commands, but even so, sometimes I had to use two hands to hit some of the shortcut keys and it would be much easier to just tap a button. If you are like me, you don’t use half of the items in the menus anyhow? I know that you can customize the menus and create your own shortcuts, but some times you still have to go hunt for certain tools and then you have to dig through menus or scroll through dialog boxes just to activate them. For years I thought that with all of Adobes technology that they should come out with a program that would let me create my own panels and add just the things I use daily, finally Configurator is that program!

The Adobe Configurator is a utility that lets you create custom panels (palettes) for use in Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5. It also works in Adobe InDesign CS5 for those who work with that program. Think of Configurator as a box of Legos--an application that lets you drag and drop all the tools and menu items in Photoshop, and then even lets you call actions & scripts, and add widgets complete with images and videos. Configurator makes it all this pretty easy to do. You can create your own panels in the Configurator panel and them just export the results into Photoshop or InDesign, nice huh?

I know it sounds pretty complicated, but seriously, I sat down with a cup of coffee (or two) and played around with it for a couple hours. But I finally created just the perfect panel for me. One of the biggest obstacles for me was making the panel the correct size. I wanted mine to look exactly like it was built into the program at the factory. I had to play around with it for quite awhile until I got the exact measurements for my own personal panel. The one I have in the photo is 230 wide by 372 height, but you can change yours to fit your layout. You can also change the size of the buttons or re-arrange them to get just the right look. Once you get the hang of it, you can go back in anytime and easily edit your panels in minutes. Another nice feature is that if you have another PC (maybe a Laptop) you just download Configurator on it and then you can just export the panel or panels you just created and instantly load them on that computer too! Through trial and error, I created the panel that works for me and now I have a custom panel that has all my favorite tools and actions loaded on it in one spot and I can control them all with the simple click of a button.....nice huh?

If you’re a trainer or you teach Photoshop or InDesign, you can also add video panels or text panels with buttons for any of the commands. Configurator will let you create as many panels as you’d like and set them up exactly the way you want. Load one at a time or load all of them, its up to you. I’ve included a few links to videos, grab yourself a coffee and check them out. One of these is narrated by John Nack of Adobe on YouTube, you might want to check that out. If you’re like me, you’re going to love Adobe Configurator too!

Captured By the Light by David Ziser

2010-05-12T09:40:00.012-04:00

This book is aptly subtitled “The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography”, and for good reason. If you have ever shot a wedding, or were just thinking of shooting one, this book is like the instruction manual for wedding photographers.

Some you of you might not know anything about David Ziser, but his work is very well known in the professional wedding circuit. David has been shooting weddings for over 30 years and because of his skills, he has also been a much sought after lecturer and teacher on the art of wedding photography for many years. His bio reads: “David is an internationally renowned portrait and wedding photographer, and has shared his knowledge with tens of thousands of photographers in five languages and in 14 countries worldwide”. David has also been teaching at Photoshop World for the last few years and when Photoshop World comes to Boston, I always make it a point to catch his lectures.

I enjoy his style of teaching because he lays it out, plain and simple. I especially like his work with speedlights and off-camera flash and this book is loaded with tips and techniques everyone will find useful. He emphasizes the fact that you’ve got to get your flash off the camera because in doing so you will add detail, depth, dimension and color saturation to your images.

His blog; Digital Pro Talk, is one of my personal favorites that I try to read daily. I like the fact that it is always fresh because he submits new articles to it every day. In it he covers everything from camera and flash tips, how to use umbrellas and soft-boxes for lighting effects, some product reviews, some of his own shooting and personal experiences and even sharing his business knowledge and expertise on how to increase your sales and boost your own profits.

In his book, he goes from describing simple posing techniques designed to make your clients look their very best, to tips on how to get the most out of your lighting with speed lights and off camera flash. He describes how and when to utilize front and back lighting, how to get the most out of natural light and even some great tips on composing your shots. David even devotes one chapter entirely to his personal choice of gear – cameras, lenses, and lights and why he chooses those particular tools. His personal choice of equipment might surprise you!

David has two chapters where he takes you out on a sample-wedding shoot and covers everything from packing the equipment to take with you on your shoot, to saying goodbye at the end of the evening. He really covers everything from the alter shots and posing the family, to tips and tricks to boost your own creativity. He then takes you through the whole reception and describes some of his favorite shots to get, and covers everything from the cake cutting, the first dance, and shooting the entire evening right up to packing up your gear at the end of the night. Then, to finish it all off he devotes over 20 pages of sample page layouts designed to get your creative juices flowing.

Granted, these days the weddings he shoots personally are more upscale than the ones we all start off shooting, but his work speaks for itself and has earned him the reputation of being one of the very best in the business. These days his weddings are the cream of the crop and because of that fact, he uses assistants and extra shooters, which can definitely help your creative style, but this book is loaded with tips and tricks of the trade that every photographer will find useful. It’s eleven chapters filled to the brim with over 30 years of experience, laid out in over 275 pages and crammed with tons of beautiful full color images.

The whole idea of this book is to help you make the best possible images so that you stand out from the crowd. This book will show you how you too can deliver an album of treasured memories to your clients that both of you can be proud of. To order this book you can click here: Captured By The Light and get yourself a copy today. So, if you’re a wedding photographer, or just want to be, I know you will definitely enjoy this book…... Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

The Digital Field Guide by J. Dennis Thomas

2010-04-24T09:57:00.013-04:00

These days more and more people it seems are getting into photography. Really, if you think about it, the cameras are getting so sophisticated that even people with no experience can take good photos. Granted, not everyone knows how to compose their photos or has a good eye, but these days the new cameras can take most of the guess work out of getting good shots and do most of the work for you. My personal photos have evolved quite a bit over the last 5 yrs or so. I’ve learned new techniques and tricks, have improved my composition, and now I slow down and take my time. With my style of photography, mostly landscape and portrait, I’ve found if I take my time and “set-up” the shot, my photos improve ten-fold. I wrote an article back in December 09’ about a book I was all excited about, On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk. What I didn’t realize was, quite a few people really don’t understand their off camera flashes units that well or know what they are really capable of.

Like a lot of people, when I get a new camera toy, like a Speedlight, I’ll usually skim through the owners manual and then jump right out and start shooting. But you know how that works, I’ll run into a situation where I don’t understand why I’m not getting the results I was expecting and then I go back to square one, the owners manual. This is why I always recommend having your manuals in your camera bag or on your person when you’re out shooting.

This brings me to the topic of this article, a book called the Canon Speedlite System – Digital Field Guide. For those of you shooting Nikon, there is also a book called Nikon Creative Lighting System – Digital Field Guide by the same author, I would definitely recommend these books to help improve your knowledge of these powerful, yet very compact lighting systems. The Canon book came out shortly before the new 580 EX II came out, but the only thing really different on those units is the hotshoe footing and a very slight increase in power.

These books will give you practical knowledge of your Speedlights as well as tips and techniques on Wireless shooting with your 580 EX or 430 EX units as well as using the ST-E2 remote master unit. He gives useful tips on setting up portable portrait studios and on location lighting set-ups. Very useful for anyone trying to get the most out of their off camera flash units. The author also explaind the various types of portrait lighting, like broad or wide lighting, (also called wide or short lighting). He explains the difference between High-key and Low-key set-ups as well as various posing techniques.

One thing great about these books is everything is described in detail and is loaded with diagrams and full-color photos to make learning these techniques even easier. ( I know I need all the help I can get ). He gives tips on photographing pets and children, plus wedding and events tips, how to compose groups and even how to shoot macro, all done with your own Speedlights!

I really can’t say enough about these little books (they easily fit in your camera bags too) These days you can pick these books up right here at Amazon for under $15 dollars. Do yourself a favor and pick one up and remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

How Well Do You Really Know Your Camera ?

2010-03-28T12:07:00.011-04:00

These days Digital Cameras are sophisticated pieces of technology. With all those buttons, menus, options, and features comes a steep learning curve and it takes a good investment of your time to master the equipment. So today, rather than give out advice on how to operate your camera, I’m asking a list of questions to get your gears turning.

I’m not really asking you to answer the questions directly – it’s just kind of a way to test your own camera knowledge. If you read through these questions and you either don’t understand what it’s asking or you don’t know the answer, you may not know your camera as well as you thought you did. It’s always a good idea to carry your camera manual in your camera bag, just in case.

These questions are really aimed at the digital SLR users, so if you’re a compact camera user some of these questions don’t apply. Even so, a good chunk of them apply to almost any digital camera made today. These days video is making the scene on digital SLR’s and that opens up another can of worms, I won’t delve into that today, maybe another post?

CAMERA CONTROLS

Exposure Mode
What exposure modes are available on your camera? Manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, program, auto, presets? Do you know how to use them or why you would want to?
Drive Mode
What drive modes are available on your camera? Single frame, continuous, bracketing, self-timers? What uses do these have in different situations?
Focus Mode
What options do you have for focus control? Single shot, automatic, continuous, manual? Why would you use one over the other?
Metering Mode
Which metering modes does your camera offer? Evaluative, Partial, Spot, Center Weighed, or Nikon’s Matrix mode? Do you know how each of these responds to different lighting conditions? All of these are very important when you’re trying to balance the light in your shots.
Flash Mode
What are you telling your flash to do when you release the shutter? Auto, fill flash, red-eye removal, slow-sync, high speed sync, wireless? Hopefully these will make you think more about you’re flash techniques.
Flash Control
How are you controlling your flash? Through the lens (TTL), manual, auto, or some other type of control? Do you use off camera flash? If so, do you know how to use its controls? I could get into using gels etc. but that’s definitely another post.
Flash Compensation
Do you know how to control flash intensity separately from your exposure? Do you know how to increase or decrease you exposure or why or when you would want to do this?
Camera Sensitivity
What ISO ranges can you use? How sensitive are your auto settings? At what point does the noise become too noisey? These days some cameras go over 100,000 ISO, but what kind of quality do you want. There are some nice noiseware products out there that really help with noise levels. My camera can easily shoot at 1600 ISO with nice clean images. If I shoot higher ISO’s I can clean them up nicely with my noiseware program.
White Balance
What are your options for setting white balance? Auto, presets, or custom? Do you know how to set your white balance to the location you’re shooting? Do you know how to create a custom white balance. If your new to this an Expo disk could help you out.
Exposure Compensation & Exposure Lock
Do you know how to compensate for exposure when your using auto or semi-auto exposure modes? Do you ever use your histograms? Can you lock your exposure? Can you do it without locking the focus? Can you lock it across multiple shots?

CAMERA SETTINGS

Image Quality
What resolutions and qualities are available? Can you shoot JPEG, RAW, or both? Can you change the size of them? I shoot only in full size RAW mode because I want the best images my camera can possibly get unless I know I’ll only email them or if I’m shooting in studio conditions where I control all the light.
Color Mode
Which color modes are available? Why would your change this? Pro-Photo RG B, Adobe RGB, sRGB or maybe some others? Do you color manage your workflow? This is extremely useful if you do your own printing.
JPEG Processing
What processing adjustments are available for JPEG’s? Can you control sharpness, saturation, contrast, hue, etc.? Do you know how to change these to give you better results?
Bracketing Order
Are you doing any HDR work or exposure blending? If you are then this is very useful. It’s comes in handy when your shooting quick and want to make sure your exposure is in the ballpark.

CAMERA FEATURES

Diopter Adjustment
Can you adjust the diopter on your viewfinder? Do you know the correct way to do this? This is useful for people might wear glasses or are slightly far-sighted. Have you adjusted yours?
DOF Preview
Do you know if you have this feature and if so, how to use it? Do you know how to interpret the results? This is especially nice if you shoot landscape photos.
Mirror Lock
Why would you use this? All great landscape shooters know this feature and it’s a big plus for getting those tack-sharp images from your camera. This is where a cable release comes in very handy also.
Sensor Cleaning
Do you know how to enter the sensor-cleaning mode on your camera? Nowadays quite a few cameras have automatic sensor cleaning when you turn it on, but its nice to know how to operate this. Some people send theirs out to have the sensor cleaned properly, but it’s not that difficult to do on your own if you decide to do it yourself. You can find places on the web to learn how to do this, but keep in mind if you mess up you could void your cameras warranty.

So do yourself a favor, especially if you’re new to SLR photography, read your manual and learn how to utilize the all the wonderful features your camera offers. Make it a habit to carry your manual in your camera bag and you’ll find the more photos you take, the less you need to refer to it. Feel free to print these out as a little quiz and see how you do. Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

My Favorite Tool – My Wacom Tablet

2010-01-08T16:33:00.016-05:00

I know, I know, I’ve been really lame in getting new articles posted so I figured it was about time for a new one. This one is about my favorite tool in my photo editing toolkit, my Wacom Tablet.

Wacom recently released a new tablet, the Intuos 4 which looks like another excellent tablet in their line-up. I’ve been using mine, an Intous 3, since they were first released and absolutely love it. Once I used one, I wondered how did I ever live without it. I was debating whether to get a small version to carry in my laptop bag and found a great deal on a smaller version of mine, and I picked it up. It fits right in my laptop case and comes with me now. I seriously don’t know how I would work on my photos or artwork without it. I was reluctant about getting one for quite a while and had to do my homework and watch some videos on the use of the tablets to see what all the hype was about. But when I actually saw a live demo of someone using one, I knew first hand what they were capable of and went right out and bought one the next day. Let me tell you, I have never regretted it. Wacom even has some tutorials on their website to get you going. Gone are the days of making complex selections using a mouse. Here is a simple test, just try to write your name with a mouse!

My Intuos 3 tablet gives me the power to quickly and professionally edit photos and create digital artwork by turning on the full power of Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and believe it or not, over 100 other leading software applications.

Intuos pen tablets use Wacom's Pen-abled technology to give you the natural feel and superior performance of Wacom's patented cordless and battery-free tablet technology. You will find that using the Intuos pen and mouse gives you a lot more control, comfort, and productivity. I alternate between the comfortable Grip Pen and the ergonomic five-button mouse. It is an easy and natural way to work.

I’m also a big fan of the Express keys and Touch Strips built into the tablets. I use them every time I’m on my computer.
We are all used to using a regular pen or pencil so using a pen tablet comes really easy. The tablet makes it is easy to use the pen because every point on the tablet has a matching point on the screen. When you move your pen over the tablet the cursor moves in precisely the same way on the screen. Where you touch your pen tip to the tablet is where you click. Also, the tablet automatically configures itself to whatever size monitor(s) you have, and I personally have two monitors and the Wacom knows this and works great. Nice huh?
The Intuos 3 cordless pen features a larger grip for comfort, 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, a Duo-Switch and even a built-in eraser on the end. It even comes with its own pen stand for when your using the mouse. The Duo-Switch on the side of the pen and is nice because you can program the buttons for various functions. I have mine set to double-click and right-click to open programs or to use menus etc.
The pressure option is also really cool. You can program it to use pressure sensitivity or turn it off. It’s like using coloring crayons, press hard for dark color, lightly for light color, or if set for pressure, it will determine how large or small your brush size is. This is an excellent feature when using regular brushes or adjustment brushes in any of your favorite editing programs.
The pen and the mouse both work without any batteries, just by plugging the tablet in to a USB port. The pen comes with 3 tip feels: standard, stroke, and felt, but I’ve only used the standard and it suits me fine. They also have optional air-brush pens which are supposed to be great for artwork and graphics.

The 5-button mouse on the Wacom is great. These days most mice have 2 buttoms and a scroll wheel. Well this mouse has 5 buttons. It has the usual left and right buttons and a scroll wheel, but on both sides is a little button that is automatically set to activate the back and forward keys on your web browser. You know when you open a web page and then click a link, it takes you to another web page. Usually you use the back and forward arrows to navigate back or forward, well with the Wacom there is a button on both sides of the mouse to do just that, one for forward the other for back. I had the Wacom for over a year before I even knew they were there! (so much for reading owners manuals huh?) It’s just another nice feature that Wacom added which I use daily.

Some other great features are the Express keys and the Touch Strips. The finger-sensitive Touch Strip allows for quick zooming, panning and scrolling or you can set them up to change brush sizes etc. I don’t really use the Touch Strips that much because I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, but I definitely use the Express keys. You can program these to do just about anything or open any program you want. I’ve got mine set up to open various programs I use all the time. So if I want to check my mail, I press one key, (the red one in the photo) or if I want to go on the Internet I press another. I’ve got others set to open Photoshop, the Bridge, Lightroom and Corel Painter, all with the touch of one button. These will work with all your favorite programs on your computer so there’s no more clicking on an icon on your desktop or scrolling through menu’s anymore. Neat huh?

I could go on and on about how much I love my tablet but if you spend any amount of time using Photoshop, Lightroom or Painter you’ll regret putting off buying one for so long. It’s an investment, but definitely worth it. There are many models to choose from ranging from hobbyist to pro and they even offer cordless tablets. If you ever get the chance to use one or see one in use, you owe it to yourself to check them out. I’ve included this link to the Wacom site if you might like to check them out and see all the new models. Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk

2009-12-06T12:42:00.013-05:00

I haven’t posted anything for quite awhile so I guess it’s about time huh? I recently ordered a book that I was really excited about and I think you'll be very pleased with also. The name of the book is On Camera Flash – Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography, written by a fellow blogger and pro photographer from the New Jersey area, Neil van Niekerk. I have a few select blogs and websites I frequent regularly and Neil’s (Tangents) is one of those.

I’m a fan of anything to do with off camera flash and I’m always reading up on it. What I like about Neil’s work is that he teaches you that when done properly, you rarely ever know flash was involved in the shot. I consider myself an amateur at photography and really don’t get enough time to go out and take photos, so I need all the short-cuts I can get. My aim, and yours should be also, is to get the best shot your equipment is capable of getting. These days I’m using a lot more fill-flash and a good technique I’ve learned is to try to balance the ambient with my flash for more pleasing photos. A lot of people say they only shoot with natural light, but I’m a firm believer that when balanced correctly, flash is no longer your enemy.

When composing photos I usually have a pretty good idea of what I’m looking for, but most of the time, my problem is that I have to think the shot out step by step which can be time consuming. Some times the shot your trying to get has to be a quick grab-shot, and what I’m trying to do is to get it to be more intuitive. Neil’s book will definitely help.

What I like about Neil’s style is he does not get too technical. I don’t need all the mumbo-jumbo geek talk; I just want to know how to get the shot. His book is almost like classroom training. He explains some things that need explaining like flash modes (manual, auto, TTL) and when and why to use each of them. The book also has five chapters on techniques about using various flash modifiers and diffusers, using bounce flash and when to use gels to help you to get the natural look. Neil also explains using flash outdoors both as a main light and as a fill light. He goes over his idea of when to use direct flash and when to bounce and explains how to control the ambient light with flash. In the last couple chapters he goes into off camera wireless TTL flash and off camera manual flash.

The book, On-Camera Flash, is loaded with many full color photographs with detailed explanations and tips. This is one of those books I’ll definitely keep in my “must have” collection. The book lists for $35.00 and if you use Amazon links to the left you’ll save about $10.00. I know you’ll love the book, and remember to keep shooting and have some fun!

Digital Photography Book – Volume 3

2009-08-21T14:36:00.013-04:00

A couple months ago I wrote a post on what I thought were three great photography books to read if you were just starting out or wanted to learn some useful techniques. In that post I stated that I was waiting on a particular book, The Digital Photography Book Volume 3 by Scott Kelby. Actually, Volumes 1 and 2 of that series were on my list and Volume 3 follows up where those first two books leave off. I was actually on a pre-order list waiting for my copy, and like all the Scott Kelby books I’ve personally read to date, this one is a great read.

I enjoy reading his books and always find useful tips and quicker ways to do certain things. I like the way he lays out his Digital Photography books, with one tip or technique on each page with a photo that gives a visual description. Scott has an easy to read writing style that I enjoy and I’d definitely recommend this one too. Obviously I’m not alone there, he’s the number one author in the world on these types of books for 4 years running. If you’d like to purchase a copy of any of these books, click on the Amazon link on this site to direct you there.

I personally would recommend reading the first two volumes to help get you up to speed. These books will only run you about $15 bucks each and are nice because even if you have really never picked up a camera, or if you have been shooting for years, you’ll find these books filled with useful information. I still go back to the first two volumes when I need to refresh my memory or to learn how to achieve a certain type of shot. They are all nice books to add to your photography collection, and if you liked the first two, you’re going to enjoy this one too!

The value of a NAPP membership –

2009-06-19T23:25:00.015-04:00

NAPP is “ The National Association of Photoshop Professionals ”

If you’ve been shooting digital for a while, then you have probably experimented with some sort of photo software by now. Every Digital Camera comes with some software to help you process the images after you capture them. Some of the better cameras have their own version of software that does more than enough for the average shooter.

I actually got into Digital Photography about 9 years ago. Back then Digital Cameras were pretty new to the general public and I found I liked playing around with my images after I shot them. I used to go online and check out anything and everything to do with Digital Photography and soon found out that when it came to editing your photos, the major player was a program called Photoshop. Unfortunately Photoshop was expensive and I didn’t want to pay full price so I shopped around online and found an unregistered copy on Ebay in my price range and I was off.

One day I was in a local bookstore and picked up a copy of a magazine called Photoshop User and started browsing through it. I had never even heard of it before and I instantly fell in love with it. The magazine was filled with tips and tricks, articles on learning Photoshop and tons of deals on photo gear and gadgets. But, the only way to get a subscription was to join NAPP for $99 per year. At the time, you got 8 issues of Photoshop User magazine which cost $10 apiece if you purchase them at a bookstore, so that meant your net cost of joining was really only $19. What do you actually get for $19 dollars these days? Here are just a few of the things you’ll find on their website. (Note: Starting in 2011 they now publish 10 issues a year at the same price)

Tutorials
The NAPP member website has a section for text and video tutorials written or taught by some of the top names in the Photoshop education including Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, RC Conception, Corey Barker and a ton of others. As of the moment I am writing this blog post, there are almost 1200 tutorials.

H.E.L.P. - Quick Video Tips
HELP stands for How-To Educational Library for Photoshop. This is basically a help center to answer any questions you have regarding Photoshop by showing you a short video clip on the topic that you need help with. Just select the topic you need help with and a box will come up with associated topics to choose from with a short video tutorial. Nice huh?

Tips & Tricks
This section of the NAPP member website currently contains a total of about 90 tips and tricks for using various features within Photoshop.

Shortcuts, Brushes, and Styles
There is one page on Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, another with Patterns and Brushes and a third page with Actions and Styles. I use these resources all the time and they are always free to download and use.

Help Center
This is one of my favorite things about NAPP. Have you ever tried to do something in Photoshop or Lightroom that you just couldn’t get right? Ever had a question about camera gear or computer equipment that was driving you nuts? Just go to the NAPP Help Center and see if your question has already been answered before. If it hasn’t, then submit your question and they’ll email you with the answer!

Member Discounts
Let me just rattle off a few places that offer discounts to NAPP members… Dell, Drobo, Adorama, Mpix, Kelby Training, Hoodman, Corel Painter, onOne Software, MacMall, LensProToGo, Office Depot, B&H, and a horde of Photoshop software plug-in makers. I have used the one for B&H enough times to pay for my membership practically. At B&H they not only give you a discount but they include free shipping too! Nice huh?

NAPP Perks
There are additional perks that only members get. These perks include access to product reviews, the NAPP newswire, lots of freebies only available to members from various companies that make Photoshop plug-ins and other software. Plus you get access to the NAPP member forums. The forums are a massive resource that you can not only tap into but also contribute to on all topics relating to your Photoshop and photography passion. This is also a great medium to network with other members.

The NAPP Store
The NAPP store offers books, DVD’s, online training, and seminars at a reduced cost to members. In some cases we are talking about greater than a 50% discount! Once you become a NAPP member you will never buy another book at full cost again!

NAPP Portfolios
The NAPP member website has a section for uploading images that you have created into a nice online portfolio that can be viewed by other members. It’s a nice way to check out other member’s photography.

Photoshop User TV
This is definitely one of my favorite perks from membership to NAPP. Not only do you get to view Photoshop User TV weekly, but you can also download previous episodes and watch them on your Ipod or your PC anytime. I’ve been watching the show since episode #1 (Oct.24th 2005) and always look forward to the next weeks show. There are now over 250 episodes to view any time you'd like!

To sign up for a NAPP membership you are going to pay $99. Now factor in the discounts that you get for the seminars, online training, Photoshop World tickets, books, DVD’s, not to mention 10 issues of the magazine and access to all the Photoshop User TV episodes, plus all the other perks that I mentioned above and it is almost like NAPP is paying YOU to join!

So what’s stopping you? Click on one of the links on my site and join today!

How Many Megapixels Do I Really Need ?

2009-05-11T07:01:00.006-04:00

Now that digital cameras have been around for a while, most people either already own one or have at least used one. For the most part, they work exactly the same as the cameras you were used to shooting with before, but in a different format. They capture your images on digital media (a memory card) instead of film.
With so many different cameras to choose from and only so many different features, what are the manufacturers going to do in order to sell you new models? What they do is try to push megapixels on you as a way to purchase their particular brand of camera. The average consumer has been trained to think that they need super-megapixel cameras to take great shots and that is just not entirely true.
Here is what megapixels really mean: how large can you print your final photographs. The truth is that most consumers go to a local kiosk in a nearby mall or camera shop and only print regular 4 x 6 photo’s or maybe an occasional 8 x 10 in. print, and with a 5 megapixel camera you can actually print up to 11 x 14 inches.
Actually the 10 – 12 megapixel cameras are great, but just a few years ago they were usually just for pros or semi-pros who needed to print larger prints like a 16 x 20 in. or maybe a 24 x 36 inch.

If you’d like to do some after the shot editing in your favorite photo software program, the extra megapixels allow you to zoom in really close to edit small sections of your photos with more detail and also allow you to crop to another size and still keep a printable image.
Just remember, unless you are specifically using your images only on the web, try to always shoot at the maximum resolution. Why have a 10 megapixel camera if you’re only going to shoot at 3 megapixels? You are actually throwing away valuable digital information. You can always make a smaller print, but it doesn’t work the other way around without manipulating pixels or special software!
I hope this information has helped you. Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

Great Photography Books To Help You To Take Better Photos

2009-05-04T07:59:00.013-04:00

If you are just getting started in digital photography or just want to start taking better photos, then there are some books that I would highly recommend to help you to start taking great photos.
As you probably know already, there are tons of books on the market and picking one to cover all the basics in a plain, easy to read format can get confusing. If a friend asked me to suggest a few good books to read, I would recommend the following three. My first two choices would be a pair of books written by Scott Kelby and the third book would be one written by Bryan Peterson.

The Digital Photography Book and The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 by Scott Kelby are both enjoyable reading and full of useful tips and techniques. These books do a great job of getting you started in digital photography. In the first book (I call volume one) he covers a lot of the basics in good detail without getting too technical and even adds some tips on sharpening and printing your images. He has entire chapters written about shooting sports, people, weddings, landscapes and wraps up the book with a chapter called “Photo Recipes” with tips on what to do to get the shot.

In Volume 2 he actually picks up where he left off in the first book, and gives you tips on using flash, building a studio and shooting more professional portraits. Plus he has entire chapters devoted to shooting travel, landscape, macro photography just to name a few. He gives us tons of useful tips on how to take better photos. He even includes another chapter in this book on “Photo Recipes”. Both books are full of tips and techniques and loaded with photos and examples, which I will guarantee to help you take better photos. There is actually a Volume 3 in the works, which should be out very soon and I will definitely pick that up when it reaches the stores. Scott Kelby is the author of many excellent books on photography and Photoshop, all in an easy to read, friendly style all his own. If you ever have a chance to attended one of his all day Photoshop seminars I would recommend that also. Scott is also the president of the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals), which I have personally been a member of for a number of years. Joining NAPP entitles you to a yearly subscription to Photoshop User magazine, open access to Photoshop TV and tons of members perks and discounts. You can click on the banner at the bottom of this page to join or to just find out more about it.

The third book is one I would highly recommend and is probably the most important book I’ve ever read on photography, it is called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. This book is a little more technical, and the author gets into details on aperture, shutter speeds and shooting in manual mode on your SLR camera. He also includes a lot of tips to help you get more creative in your photography. This book I consider a must read for anyone who wants to get the most out of his camera. I refer back to this book over and over and recommend it highly. I purchased this book and a training DVD and utilize them both often. Bryan, in addition to being a great photographer, is also the founder of The Perfect Picture School of Photography. It’s an online school that offers a wide choice of classes taught by excellent instructors. Click on the Amazon.com box on the side of this page and you will find all of these books and more.
I hope you have a chance to pick up these books. I will guarantee they will help you start to take photos you can be proud of. Remember, keep shooting and last but not least, have some fun!

What's In The Bag?

2009-04-27T10:20:00.022-04:00

For some people who frequent my blog, you’ll notice I refer to a few different sites often, and I have a list of my favorite personal blogs that I check out regularly (on the left hand side of this page) and I also reference some of the equipment that I use personally. Every photographer will find the equipment that suits him or her best. Some times I’ll find a piece of equipment that “I can’t live without” while out shooting with friends in the field.
I personally have my own little set-up that covers just about everything I might need while out shooting. I’ve hinted around that I shoot with Canon gear, but that doesn’t mean I have anything against the other brands, its just what I use personally. Every manufacturer has its strong points. I got into Canon totally by accident after joining a camera class, but that’s a story for another blog post.
In my camera bag I have the “stuff” I use regularly. Here is a list of the gear I carry in my bag most of the time. My main camera and three main lenses
o Canon EOS 5D digital SLR
o Canon EOS 40D digital SLR
o Tamron 17 – 50mm f / 2.8
o Canon 24 – 105mm IS f / 4
o Canon 70 – 200mm IS f/ 2.8
For each of these lenses I always have a clear UV filter on the end, for safety reasons mostly. I’ve seen expensive lenses get scratched or broken too often, and having one of these on your lens could possibly save you in the case of an accident.
I also have Polarizing filters for each of these lenses as well. These are definitely my most used filters. They are great for reducing reflections (like on water or glass) and for greatly enhancing your colors especially in skies, making your blues deeper and richer.
Another great piece of gear is my Graduated Neutral Density filter set-up. There are a number of different manufacturers that make them, I find that Cokin has the best set-up for me. They are great when shooting landscapes with the sky in the frame. The filter goes from dark at the top to clear at the bottom so you can compensate for the difference in the light. If you’ve ever taken a photo of a beautiful landscape and have either gotten blown out skies or the background had no details, you know what I mean. They can range from one to three stops usually. Here is more info on that: Graduated Neutral Density filters
Sometimes I like to shoot some “poor mans Macro” so I carry a set of extension tubes for that. They help to get really close up details of plants, insects, coins or any tiny objects by allowing you to focus closer. They fit between the camera body and the lens and are made by several manufacturers.
I also carry at least one external flash with a off-camera shoe cord with me. Being a Canon shooter, my main flash is a 580EX II speedlight. These are really useful to help you to take better photos by getting your flash off the camera. On my favorite websites on my blog list is the Strobist, and I check that out regularly. It was created by a man named David Hobby and it is all about shooting with off-camera flash, check it out.
Another few things you should always carry are a small air-blower and a bottle of lens cleaner solution and a micro-fiber lens cloth for cleaning the ends of your lenses and filters without scratching them. I watch people all to often use their shirt or a napkin to clean these and they can actually ruin your expensive gear!
Last but not least is my trusty Hoodman Loupe. These are great for checking out my LCD on the back of my camera. They come in handy when you really need to make sure you got the shot. Often when shooting outside on a sunny day you really can’t see your LCD without one. They are a little rectangular piece of gear that you put up to your eye and then put over your LCD to get complete glare free viewing. They even have a cord to hang around your neck which is very handy. Check them out here: Hoodman Loupe .
Well, that is just a little tour inside my camera bag, hopefully you got some good ideas out of it. Remember it really helps to think smart and travel light. You don’t want to be lugging around a ton of gear with you all the time. A little planning can go a long way.
These are just a few little tips and I hope you find them helpful.
Oh yeah, and last but not least, have some fun!

Tips On Planning A Photography Outing

2009-04-20T13:18:00.016-04:00

Tips On Planning A Photography Outing

Having been around and involved in photography for many years, sometimes we get complacent and kind of dry up on new ideas. Sometimes we can get so busy, that when we do get some free time at the last minute and want to grab the camera and shoot something, we just don’t know what? Does this happen to you? With a little planning and forethought you can avoid this.

Fortunately I belong to a photo-club and we exchange ideas for new shoots. It’s usually a lot of fun getting together with other photographers for a day of shooting, especially when we have some location all planned out. If you don’t belong to a photo-club I would definitely recommend it. Not only will it help you to improve your shooting techniques, but it can be a lot fun to hang out with other photographers. Plus you never know when you’ll pick up a few good shooting tips or get some new creative ideas. Being out with other photographers you can compare shots either by ‘chimping’ on the spot (looking at your LCD screen) or by emailing shots afterwards. Comparing photos can always open you up to new ideas and helps to get the creative juices flowing. Perhaps you happen to live in a scenic area anyway, that can always be helpful. Even when shooting solo, with a little planning you can usually come up with some pretty good locations to shoot.

Over a period of time, every photographer will usually find his niche, something he loves to take photographs of. I’m a big fan of lighthouses and I enjoy just about anything to do with water. Fortunately I live on the New England coastline and there are tons of photo opportunities available.
If you’ve been shooting awhile, you already know that the best light is around daybreak or in the late afternoon and early evening hours. These times of the day the light is awesome and your photos will almost automatically improve just by shooting at those times. This is where planning really comes in handy because most of these little road-trips will take a little forethought. With a little effort you can make your day much more enjoyable.

Most of the time when you’re shooting something or someplace new, you’ll need directions. This is where maps (or your trusty GPS if you have one) can come in handy. Sometimes you might get the opportunity to scout out the location beforehand or go with someone who’s been there before, so that you’re better prepared.
For photo shoots it’s a good idea to carry a comfortable backpack with a sturdy tripod strapped that to that. Most of the time it’s nice to have a small cooler or thermos with you also. Depending on how long you’ll be there, it might be a good idea to carry a snack or a lite lunch. It’s always nice to have a flashlight handy also. Learn to carry one in your bag all the time and you won’t regret it. They come in handy for checking trails or paths, or for just viewing your camera settings when it’s dark. Just make sure the batteries are charged. It’s a good idea to charge everything the night before your shoot, and get in the habit of using a checklist just to make sure you remember everything.
These are just a few little tips and I hope you find them helpful. Oh yeah, and last but not least, have some fun!

New To Photography? Where Do You Start?

2009-04-15T09:22:00.005-04:00

A lot of us were shooting 35mm or 110 films before digital photography took hold, so we had to develop a whole new set of techniques when digital started taking over. I remember I kept reading new articles about digital, and how it had its pro's and con's. Most people thought it was just a passing fad because the prices of digital cameras were astronomical and the quality was not that good. But low and behold, that's all changed and now its here and almost everything is shot digitally.

In the early days of digital you were limited to putting your photos on a CD and then handing it to the clerk for developing which was only available at certain places. Now, you can have your digital photos printed just about anywhere, and even do it without leaving your home.

Basically there are three ways of getting images printed:

First, through photo centers or mini-labs (kiosks) at local stores;
Second, through online printing services; and
Third, by printing them up yourself at home.

The first option is the most popular. It's somewhat similar to the film days where you visit the store to drop off your "film" then come back to pick up your developed photos. Some have do-it-yourself digital kiosks that let you develop your digital photos through ATM-like machines. You can add borders or crop or a variety of other options.

The second way is online, just type in photo printing and you'll find dozens of sites to print them for you. Depending what you want to do with the photos, some companies let you upload your JPEG images and you set certain specifics like size and quantity while others require you download a version of ROES, which is like a online kiosk that lets you order your prints in a variety of templates and printing options. You can choose various papers, postcards, mugs, and calendars or matted prints and the list goes on.

The third way is getting more popular all the time, home printing. All digital cameras come with some photo editing software to 'tweak' your images, and they all have a learning curve. Secondly you'll need a decent printer. Printer prices have come down drastically and the print quality has gotten better and better. Most of the free software programs that come with cameras are pretty good, and then there are some aftermarket programs that can range from inexpensive to quite costly. All of them require practice and some can feel overwhelming. Luckily there are literally hundreds of tutorials and tons of information online to help you learn the techniques. Do a little homework and take your time. It can be lots of fun and the printing possibilities are endless.

Canon Digital Camera Accessories - Looking For Ideas?

2009-04-10T22:14:00.002-04:00

If you just bought a Canon camera, you will be happy to know that there are tons of Canon digital camera accessories that you can purchase to go along with your camera. When it comes to additions, Canon has certainly thought of everything. In fact, that's one of the best reasons to purchase a Canon camera - this is one camera that isn't a bore!
While some other cameras only come with a lens and a body, this isn't part of Canon's philosophy. Instead, you will find that the many add-ons listed below are more than enough to keep you occupied. When it comes to Canon digital camera accessories, you can choose from the following items: battery charger (very useful), soft case (practical for traveling), various accessory kits, any lens that you can think of, power adaptors, battery packs, various cables that attach to nearly anything, a new flash, and even a clever underwater housing wrapper.
Whether you plan to shoot on land or at sea, this is one camera that can really go with you anywhere. If you love to accessorize, you might want to consider one of the kits that Canon sells. These kits can contain anything from lenses to battery packs.
You can find lots of Canon digital camera accessories and Canon kits online or in nearly any electronics store that you may come across. In fact, Canon often participates in various promotions that include cleverly put-together kits, which may interest you. Check on the Canon website in order to view current promotions - you'll find that nearly every season brings a different kind of Canon kit for you to choose from.
Purchasing a Canon camera is a great idea for those that enjoy different gadgets and accessories. No matter what kind of accessory you are searching for, Canon is sure to make it.
Do you have a Canon camera? If so, make sure to purchase lots of Canon digital camera accessories. Part of the fun of owning a great camera is playing around with lenses, battery packs, and various cables that you can purchase. Shop online to find the best possible prices out there, and don't forget to check out those Canon kits.
As you begin to research the possibilities, you'll also find out a lot about different lenses and other items that you can add to your camera. In this manner, you'll quickly become incredibly knowledgeable about the many ins and outs of digital cameras.
Find out more by reading the full article which explains what you need to know about camera accessories.
Thinking about getting camera accessories? Be sure to visit the author's website for more FREE Information as well as discounted camera accessories. Visit: Camera Accessories.
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How To Start Your Own Photo Retouch Business

2009-04-06T22:22:00.011-04:00

How To Start Your Own Photo Retouch Business
Adobe Photoshop and other image editing software are a necessary part of any photographer’s arsenal. Some photographers even supplement their income with a photo retouch business for competitors. Why would they do something like that? Because there is money to be made!
Retouching photos is a very time intensive task for most people. So, a person with talent in that area of expertise can charge a considerable amount of money for doing something they enjoy.
Most photographers are just that... photographers. They want to be in the field as much as possible shooting images and not be stuck behind a desk editing their pictures. A savvy person can capitalize on this by advertising on a few basic sites and providing samples of their work.The needed resources to start a photo retouch business are:
· A computer with photo editing software
· Software proficiency
· Internet access and email able to receive large files (or use something similar to yousendit.com)
· A good work ethic.
Most of the time, a set fee is paid for certain services. This fee can be negotiated or be simply a flat per-image type of fee. Some common services would include:
· Levels adjustment
· Skin smoothing
· Sharpening and contrast boost
· Scaling for print
· Etc.
Take consideration when quoting time. Figure out how long it takes to adjust certain types of images and make a note of your most common edits, this way you will be able to advertise your specialties.
Once you've prepared yourself for the workload, simply post classified ads on free sites such as craigslist.org and photo forums and message boards. All of your work should be able to be done remotely from anywhere in the world via email. Enjoy!
Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Basic Photography Tips - Take Better Pictures Today

2009-04-01T09:46:00.003-04:00

We all want to take better pictures. Modern digital cameras are incredibly complex devices and are more than capable of producing excellent images. All too often we are quick to blame our cameras for our poor photographs and instantly feel that when others show us their wonderful pictures that 'they must have a better camera than me'. This article will provide some basic tips that will help you improve your photography today. If you follow the advice offered here you are sure to improve the quality of pictures you take.
Focus on Composition
When you are out with the family and want to take a picture it can be all too easy to pull out the camera and take the snap before the moment disappears. Instead try to plan your shots a bit better. Rather than just looking at your kids smiling faces take a few moments to look ar the background. Is there a garbage bin next to them? Can you find a better back drop near by? If not then consider zooming in just for a head shot. The point is to pay attention not just to the subjects in your pictures but also to their surroundings.
Pay attention to light
Any professional photographer will tell you that light is their best friend. Pay attention to it and try to take most of your pictures when it is favorable. Sunset and sunrise generally provide the best times to photograph outside and the sun produces a warm bright light. In addition if you can avoid using the flash as it tends to make people look washed out and pale.
Shoot More
Do something enough times and you will get better. Get into the habit of taking more pictures. Try to always take your camera with you when you leave the house and shoot all day. The more you do this the better your eye will get at spotting potential for good photographs.
Now follow this link to learn more free basic photography tips.
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Taking Photos for Cash

2009-03-28T20:02:00.006-04:00

Selling photos online, doesn’t mean you need your own business, or even your own website. Some online services even provide a website for you to sell your work on. Normally you would have to hire a web designer, get a merchant account, setup up a credit card account etc. With today’s technology that is a thing of the past. Instead of using the photo networks, you can also build your own website online, free of charge in a matter of minutes with a Site Builder. Several companies have been experimenting to put together, “Do It Yourself” systems that make building a website a breeze. Google has caught on to this and came up with their own version like this blog here, called Google Blogger. You can find lots of these online, just type in “free websites” and check them out.

Once you have shot enough images and feel pretty comfortable with your digital camera, start looking online to find out what other Photographers are taking pictures of. See what is selling on some of the top sites, like I-Stock Photo or Getty Images.

Really dig deep into these sites and see what others have to say. See if any of the photos are rated and see which ones come up on the home page. Some of these sites have quality guidelines when selling though, so you have to read their Terms and Conditions pretty thoroughly. Some of these larger photo networks may be too competitive for you if you are just starting out. Another good idea is to really focus on selling photos in your local area. You can shoot photos of kids at the local baseball games, soccer games, football games, etc. and sell the photos to the parents. You could talk to restaurant managers at any of your local restaurants and see if they need any photos for upcoming ads or menu additions. Is your community growing? Are there new businesses popping up? Go to your local Chamber of Commerce and ask them if they can provide you a list of all the companies in your area or new businesses coming soon. Sometimes it is a paid list, but is usually worth it. Depending on where you live this business list can be anywhere from $15-$50, but again, it will give you an entire list of Names, Numbers and Addresses. There are plenty of photo opportunities out there, just do a little homework and start shooting.

Digital Photography Secrets - Creating Breathtaking Landscape Photos

2009-03-23T23:11:00.008-04:00

Landscapes can be among the most captivating photos a photographer can create. They can also be challenging, especially when using a new digital camera. With a little preparation you will be able to create beautiful digital landscape photos.
The first tip is to be prepared. Carry a tripod as well as extra memory and batteries to allow you to keep shooting. Tripods will eliminate camera shake in your photos, which is particularly noticeable when you are shooting large vistas. You will also want to find a good telephoto and wide-angle lens for landscapes. Telephoto can be used to zoom in on interesting characteristics of the environment, while you would use the wide-angle to give a panoramic feel to your pictures.
The key to good shots outdoors is the light. The best time to shoot landscapes is early in the morning as the sun is coming up, or during dusk. This way the colors don't become washed out in the harsh mid-day sunlight and shadows tend to have more character.
Don't lose yourself in the background. Find an interesting element to focus on. This will give your pictures more character as ensure that the scale of your landscape is not lost on viewers. The foreground subject could be as simple as a person, or a unique rock outcropping.
Keep your photos off-centered. Referred to as the Rule of Thirds, you want to invasion the scene as being cut into three sections. Aim slightly off center, either along the horizontal or vertical axes, to give your pictures depth and a look of professionalism.
Find ways to guide your audience to the main feature you want to highlight. You can use anything that resembles a line running in the direction you want people to look in. It could be a river, a road, or kids running through a field, whatever. This again adds depth and scale to your photo, as well as giving it "life."
Play with black and white. Never before has it been possible for a photographer to seamlessly switch from colour to black and white photography. What used to necessitate several cameras is now as simple as the push of a button. Black and white produces drastic contrasts between light and dark and can make even a dull seeming picture more spellbinding.
Get more help on taking digital photography landscapes and other ways to get the best from your digital camera

Getting started in Digital SLR Photography

2009-03-22T08:31:00.003-04:00

Like so many other technologies, digital cameras have come a long way in a very short time. If you’ve decided to buy a digital SLR camera, have you worked out what features you are going to be looking for? Ask yourself what sort of photography do you intend to use the camera for. Just family type shots and everyday stuff or for photo’s you might be able to sell or make some nice wall prints?
Competition is fierce and prices have plummeted dramatically in recent years. If you are using your home PC to carry out photo editing, you will need to think about whether it is up to the task. Remember, you can never have too much RAM. Editing software is already included when you buy a digital camera but like everything, some programs are better than others. I use a full version of Photoshop and it can do just about everything, but can be rather intimidating at first.
The megapixel resolution of the camera should be set as high as it will go to insure the best quality and to produce decent size prints. You can always resize for the web or email later. Another thing to consider is the memory card. Most SLR cameras either don’t come with one or they are very small. Myself, I shoot mostly with a 10 megapixel camera and shoot totally RAW format (which are larger files) I use 4 GB cards, and can get around 300 photos on each card. These days’ cards are pretty inexpensive and I always carry a few with me (formatted). I advise against the larger 16 – 32 GB cards in case you lose one or have an accident, and for quicker download times.
From the moment you pick it up, it should feel right in your hands. Consider where the buttons are located and how they are spaced out. Digital cameras use a great deal of power, mostly the LCD screen. Most of the better cameras come with a rechargeable battery pack and I always carry a spare (charged) with me. If they are not supplied, I recommend rechargeable batteries. I use those with my external flash units and they pay for themselves easily. (just remember to charge them before using them) When buying your digital camera, look for a nice large LCD, these days 2½ in or 3 in. screens are common.
Depending of what type of shooting you’ll be doing, lenses are major factor in camera packages. You can easily spend more on lenses than you do on the camera body itself, but there are some nice camera outfits aimed at the beginner at very decent prices. Do yourself a favor when buying new, shop with a reputable dealer and do some Internet research on features. Try to purchase the best you can afford and it will pay off in the long run. If you’ve narrowed down a camera, you can find some great used outfits on places like Craigslist.com. Plus try to talk with people who shoot regularly or are members of a local camera club for some inside tips. Oh yeah, and last but not least, keep shooting and have some fun!

Photography Tips From a Pro on Shooting in Low Light

2009-03-20T09:47:00.005-04:00

Photography Tips From a Pro on Shooting in Low Light
Focus is critical, pixels are cheap
If you are shooting wide open, which is at the camera's largest aperture, your depth of field will be correspondingly shallow. That means your focus is going to be even more critical than otherwise. Pick a point that needs to be sharp and really pay attention to keeping that point sharp. Generally, if you are shooting people, the most important thing to keep sharp is the eyes. When I am shooting people I focus on the eyes, shoot, re-focus and shoot again...and then do it all over again. I can't tell you how much I hate to be editing and find that I have a potentially great shot, but out of focus eyes ruin the picture. I have found that if I am worried about an image not being sharp, I am usually right. Pixels are cheap...shoot enough to make sure you have your shot!
Shooting for stock, know your equipment, know your agency
If you are shooting with a stock agency in mind it is good to know just how high you can push your ISO before you reach the point where the agency is going to reject the image. That means you have to know both your own equipment and the standards of the agency. I was once shooting from the interior of a jeep on a mountain road in China. The scene, road-building equipment clearing a landslide, was lit by the headlights of the cars waiting for the road to be cleared. I shot the scene, hand held, but braced against the head-rest, at an ISO of 1600 with a Canon 1ds. Man did I work on that image in post (processing the digital files)! They accepted it too. With the newer cameras I have no qualms about shooting at 400, I am comfortable shooting at 800 and don't think 1600 would really be such a stretch. But don't take my word for it... do some testing!
Exposure and more
RAW (the file format native to the camera) has been talked to death, but keep in mind that it is more akin to negative film than transparency film and I personally find that I can safely get another stop to a stop-and-a-half in post-shoot processing. Shoot RAW, not jpeg! As far as exposure, keep your histogram as far to the right as possible without clipping (going off the edge). If you loose your highlights (which are on the right hand side of the histogram) you probably can't get them back. I guess in that way a digital file is like transparency film.
I am not a big user of on-camera flash, but it can be a real life-saver. I suggest a good starting point is to set your flash to under expose by two-thirds of a stop. That can help bring out details without overpowering the image...and looking like you used on-camera flash! If you do use on-camera flash it is generally a good idea to bounce it or at least put some sort of diffuser over it.
Use movement to your advantage
Another thing to keep in mind is that a little movement in your image isn't necessarily an image killer. Sometimes you can make it work to your advantage. A year ago I was shooting in the train station in Mumbai, India. The station is indoors and while it wasn't exactly gloomy, it still qualifies as low light. I put the camera over my head as high as I could hold it and fired off a half-dozen frames at an eighth of a second. I only shot six frames because at that point a machine gun carrying police officer politely but firmly informed me that photography in the train station was forbidden. That image, in which everything has movement, even the lamp posts, has already sold a number of times as a stock picture with Getty Images (1377). Sometimes movement can make an image more dynamic and help it convey a mood or message.
Stock Photos of cute puppies, cats, cows, elephants happy people, ethnic people etc.: John Lund Stock Photos Animal stock photos, Fine Art Prints, and printed gift merchandise
Visit John Lund's Blog Creative Stock Photography Concept stock photos, Fine Art Prints, and printed gift merchandiseArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_M_Lund

Photoshop For Photographers

2009-03-18T14:16:00.009-04:00

Photoshop For Photographers
A picture is worth a thousand words and that is why beautifully edited photos make loud statements and speak for themselves. As a photographer, you need to know how to use Photoshop to process all your digital photos, touch them up for professional look and feel. Photoshop software is used all over the world to edit, amend and touch up dull looking photos into elegant vivid colored photos that are used for magazines and newspapers.
You don't have to be a Professional Photographer. These days you do not have to be a professional photographer to produce quality photos. You do not have to learn how to do exposure compensation, white light balance, aperture adjustments, field of depth knowledge or to tweak your SLR camera. Just a normal digital camera to take photos and software to download to the computer is sufficient for you to produce professional looking photographs by using this software. It can correct the color saturation, make good exposure compensation and remove blemishes to old yellowed photos and add in new backgrounds.
By using levels adjustment in Photoshop, you can instantly add more colors to your otherwise plain washed out photos. One can also brighten up the colors and images in a dull and dark lighting. If your flash light is not powerful enough to reach the distant environment, fret not because you can turn to Photoshop to brighten up the dark photos.
Correct Hand Shake Errors. You can also correct hand shake errors in your digital photos by sharpening the images with the various tools like Smart Sharpen. Alternatively, you can also blur your photos for that misty feel by using Smart Blur. One can also change the numbers of the car plate, remove an unwanted object in the photos or add new objects to them. Such is the power of Photoshop for photographers.
You can also add text to your photos for posterity. On the other hand, you can also add a copy right text with your name to the digital image including the copyright sign to show ownership. This is useful when you need to post photos of products in eBay pages so that your potential clients know that the photos originate from you and not copied elsewhere.
If you are an avid aspiring photographer, it makes good sense to sign up for a course in Photoshop so that you know the basics of how to edit your digital photographs, re-size them for faster upload to the web sites. This is an investment in itself.
For further reading please see our site for Photoshop Training London and InDesign Training London and book a course at our training centre in London or private tuition at your offices in the UKArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Wood

Digital Photography Changed the Way in Which We Look at Family Photos

2009-03-16T23:41:00.012-04:00

We are all well aware that Digital photography has changed the way in which we look at our family photos.
It was only a few short years ago we use to wait with excitement for our vacation photos to be developed and printed at the local photo lab, now it's all different because we can view the results on the LCD screen on the back of our digital camera right on the spot.
It's then easy to decide if we want to change the exposure, the position of the camera, or whatever else, simply by viewing the image on the screen immediately after taking the picture and deciding if a re-shoot is the best option or deleting the unwanted image just taken... In fact life couldn't be easier!
But don't you miss the good old family album, recording events as they happened... Well there's no need to fret because you can still do exactly the same thing and have your digital lab print up only what you need.
Now here is the big advantage, apart from the saving in costs of buying, processing and printing all the images taken, many just don't make it to print. Any images you don't like you just simply delete them, saving only the better ones. This means when it comes to getting the digital lab to print up your images of choice, there is a substantial saving to you. These days a lot of people are investing in a good printer and printing them themselves and Digital Scrapbooking is really catching on.
Also consider the other options, for example keeping your family in the loop with up-dated images of your vacation and other special events via your email. This doesn't cost you a thing and sometimes your family and friends are grateful that you thought of them by supplying your latest vacation images for them to see.
So in a way, not only can you maintain your traditional family album the same way you always did, you can also store your latest images on your computer, perhaps later burning to disc to save hard drive space or maybe to send a disc to your family and friends.
These days people are already taking this for granted, so occasionally you need some old photographer like me to remind you that it wasn't always that easy!
Next time you take a digital photo, think of what I've just reminded you of and really use these options to the fullest….and remember, keep shooting and have some fun !