PhotoCalc for iPhone

I snagged a copy of PhotoCalc for the iphone and I must say that I am very impressed. It has screens for calculating exposure reciprocation, depth of field, and flash exposure based your camera model and the available light - I’m assuming calculated from the iPhone camera. It also includes a pretty decent reference manual which includes a beefy glossary and reference on the zone system, sunny 16 rule, films, and filters. Oh, did I mention sunrise, high noon, and sunrise times based on your physical location? Check out PhotoCalc at http://www.adairsystems.com/photocalc/.

Tags: application, iphone, Software

Shooting with available light

Catching up on some older posts I’ve been meaning to reference here. The first is a wonderful post over at DPS on Shooting with available light.

Sounds like a contradiction doesn’t it? In fact, shooting available light frees you from all the encumbrances of dragging strobe equipment around with its stands, modifiers, strobes and possibly even power packs. On the other hand, shooting available light chains you to whatever the light is willing to do at a given time of day. So you see now how it can free you or chain you up. There are a few tips and techniques you can use to tame available light and bend it to your will in many circumstances. Best of all, you don’t have to purchase a thing to use this technique.

I’ve shot with available light a lot, I really do enjoy it, especially playing with the manual settings to get the exact look that I am going for.

Check out the How To Shoot With Available Light post over at the DPS Blog.

Tags: available light, DPS, light, Tips

Portrait Photography’s Power Posing - Part II: The Poses

DPS posted the sequel to Portrait Photography’s Power Posing Part I: The Components that I blogged about a little over a week ago.

The post talks about three power poses and how to achieve them:

1. Standing Tall: Give an air of confident ability and self-assurance.
2. Casual Seated: Express an easygoing attitude
3. The Wall Chill: Describes natural and casual expression

Check out the Portrait Photography’s Power Posing - Part II: The Poses post by Christina Nichole over at the DPS blog!

Tags: chirstina nichole, DPS, Portrait, posing

Portrait Photography’s Power Posing Part I: The Components

Great article over on the DPS Blog (when don’t they have great articles?) regarding portrait photography and posing.

Some of the tips include positioning for head, arms, legs, hips, joints (”if it bends, bend it!”), and more!

Check out the “Portrait Photography’s Power Posing Part I: The Components” article by Christina Nichole over at the DPS blog!

Strobist: Lighting 101

Good set of articles over at Strobist.com with regards to off camera flash use and lighting…

Been having fun with the 430EX I picked up for the wedding shoot just over a week from now… been learning a lot as well! The image above I actually used the pivot features on the Speedlight and bounce it off the wall slightly up and pretty much right behind me… definitely makes a difference over the on-camera and straight on flash.

Tags: 430ex, bounce, external, flash, light, lighting, photography, Portrait, self-portrait, strobist, Tips, Tutorials

10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography

To follow up the 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits post from the other day, DPS has posted 10 more tips:

11. Frame your subject
12. Go with a wide angle
13. Play with backgrounds
14. Change the format framing
15. Hold your camera on an angle
16. Take unfocused shots
17. Introduce movement
18. Experiment with subject expressions
19. Fill the frame
20. Find an interesting subject

Seems I’ve managed a couple of these in past self-portraits, good tips for the future!

Check out the 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography for more details!

Tags: DPS, Portrait, self-portrait, Tips

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

Being part of the 365 Days/threesixtyfive self-portrait a day for a year project, I found this article over on the DPS Blog today very interesting. Always looking for different ways to shoot myself, and I’m sure this will come in handy for portrait shooting as well!

How do you take Portraits that have the ‘Wow’ factor?

Today and tomorrow I want to talk about taking Portraits that are a little out of the box. You see it’s all very well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules - but it hit me as I was surfing on Flickr today that often the most striking portraits are those that break all the rules.

I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and adding a little randomness into your portrait photography.

In a nutshell here are the ten points from the post today:

1. Alter your perspective
2. Play with eye contact
3. Break the rules of composition
4. Experiment with lighting
5. Move your subject out of their comfort zone
6. Shoot candidly
7. Introduce a prop
8. Focus upon one body part - get up close
9. Obscure part of your subject
10. Take a series of shots

My favorite technique, as you can see, is playing with and experimenting with light (photo above). I also find some of my best portraits are when shot candidly - as can be seen in the two photos below.

Be sure to head on over to the DPS Blog and read in detail 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits!

Tags: 365, DPS, People, portraits, self-portraits, threesixtyfive, Tips

The Secret to Ultra-Sharp Photos

I really have to get back to posting every day if I can… anyways, today’s tip comes one again from the Digital Photography School Blog provided by Jim M. Goldstein.

These days digital cameras simplify not only your ability to see what you’re focusing on, but they also give you an immediate view of your photo enabling you to move on to your next photo or to try again. As great as these features are consistently getting sharp photos can still be a challenge.

I know I’ve been frustrated a few times with the lack of sharpness - sure the Unsharpen Mask in Photoshop helps with most images, but is that the real answer?

Whether you’re using film or digital cameras the optics of lenses hasn’t changed as optics are all about math and physics. Don’t worry I don’t want to talk math or physics any more than you want to read about it, but there is a key principle that every photographer should be aware of and that is hyperfocal distance.

Sounds pretty technical!

The short and sweet tip for those using shorter focal length lenses is to focus 1/3 of the way into your photo with a smaller aperture setting to maximize your depth of field.

Note for longer focal length lenses like telephoto lenses this principle still applies, but it becomes less of a factor for most people given the types of subjects  photographed with these lenses are generally less foreground-centric.

A bit easier to swallow… anyways check out the rest of the article over at DPS - great little read, as well as links to a Depth of Field calculator and a chart you can download for use in the field!

Tags: depth of focus, dof, DPS, jim goldstein, jim m. goldstein, sharpness, tip

Tilt-shift miniatures

I’d seen them on occasion, but recently looked into how to actually fake a tilt-shift.

In case you are wondering, Wikipedia defines tilt-shift as:

Tilt-shift photography is an artistic technique where the lens is tilted and shifted relative to the attached camera.

On a view camera, the lens and camera are connected by a bellows. When tilt is applied, the film or image sensor is not at a right angle to the optical axis of the lens, causing a gradient of focus. The technique can also be done with a modern camera by constructing a tilted lens manually.

On the other hand, tilt-shift miniature faking (according to Wikipedia):

…is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, the artist simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is. Many miniature faked photographs are taken from a high angle to further simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature.

It’s pretty easy to do, just check out this tutorial… I use it loosely, and usually add a vignette on most as well to help draw in the focus. Happy miniaturizing!

Tags: fake, miniature, photoshop, tilt-shift, Tips, Tutorials

Tone-mapping: Single RAW vs 7 exposures generated from single RAW

Had a few people inquiring after reading my blog post about HDR if I’d tried tone-mapping from a single RAW file. So here’s the result… the top image is tone-mapped from a single RAW file using Photomatix, the bottom image is tone-mapped from an HDR file generated from my 7 exposure from a single RAW method that I described in my blog post.

There are noticeable differences, the 7 exposure version definitely still gives a wider range of detail, it’s especially noticeable behind the pipe on the far right… I found it interesting that there was a slight color variation as well. I’ve uploaded this larger than I usually do to give you a better chance to see some of the differences.

Anyways… just thought I’d test it out and fill you all in!

Tags: hdr, jpg, photomatix, RAW, Tips, Tutorials