Released Today: Sharp Shooter – Proven Techniques for Sharper Photographs

Released Today: Sharp Shooter – Proven Techniques for Sharper Photographs
How to Photograph a Gold Watch
Can You Believe this is NOT a Photo Mosaic?
Clamshell Lighting Techniques for Portrait Photography

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 04:39 PM PDT

There's nothing worse than getting home thinking you've bagged a world-beater, only to look at your new prize on the computer and find that it isn't sharp. this new eBook isn't going to transform every image you shoot into a razor-sharp wonder, but it will give you some tools to nail that world-beater more often than you lament it. Now available here: Sharp Shooter Photography Guide

New: Sharp Shooter Photography eBook (Click to Learn More)

The book goes into depth of field and why things are sharp in the first place, and the author covers various focusing techniques and settings. But it's important to remember that there's no single right way to set up your camera and shoot the various scenes you'll come across. Being a sharp shooter is about arming yourself with an understanding of why focus is what it is, learning the techniques required for each situation, and selecting the best method when the time comes.

Topics Covered (36 Pages):

Introduction
What makes it sharp?
Where to focus
Focus in the macro range
Advanced focus techniques
The great un-sharp
Checking critical sharpness
Analyzing blurriness
Sharpening in post
Conclusion

Pages from Sharp Shooter (Click to See More)

“I'll show you ways to figure out why a shot didn't work out and provide some tips on how to fix it. We'll also experiment with using out-of-focus areas and intentional blur to great effect. In addition, if despite your best efforts you don't quite nail the focus on that dream shot, we'll look at what can be done on the computer so that you don't have to throw it out.” -Author Martin Bailey

How to Get a Discounted Copy for the Next Few Days:

For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code SHARP4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Beyond Thirds for only $4 OR use the code SHARP20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the C&V collection. These codes expire at 11:59 PM (PST) July 4, 2013.

Now Available Here: Sharp Shooter – Proven Techniques for Sharper Photographs

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

How to Photograph a Gold Watch

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 02:30 PM PDT

It sounds like such a basic task: photograph a gold watch. But if it sounds simple to you, then you’ve never done it the way Phillip McCordall does. Light can reflect off the gold, creating glares, flares, and major wash-outs of detail. So, how do you expose for a still life that’s throwing your studio light right back at the camera lens? You work with the reflection by controlling it (for those of you reading this by email, the video tutorial can be seen here):

Photographic Gold, in a nutshell:

Position the light overhead, and place the watch on a small white background. Since the subject of the shot is rather small—just the face and a bit of the band—keeping the background small prevents unnecessary flares of light back into the camera.
Adjust the watch’s hands so that the time reads 1:51 or 10:09—in both cases the minute and second hand will act as a frame for the watch’s brand name. The second hand should be in the bottom helf of the watch, preferably around the 28 second mark (McCordall’s watch in the video had dead batteries, so he was stuck at :22).
Set up white and gray cards around the watch to further control the light and how it will reflect off your subject.

photograph gold watch jewelry lighting

Turn off all the lights in your studio (except the ones lighting your subject) and keep ambient light out, as well. It’s important to have total control over the lighting of this scene, and any light you can’t control has to go. You can then begin to start moving your overhead light around to get the effect you want. McCordall says he spent an hour getting it just right, which meant having just a small portion of the watch reflecting the overhead, and with most of the face cast in shadow.
The camera is set up on a tripod just outside the jumble of sheets and white cards, and pointing down at the watch. McCordall used a 135mm lens and a flash, and set his white balance accordingly.

Left: How McCordall lit the shot. Right: The finished product.

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Can You Believe this is NOT a Photo Mosaic?

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 01:11 PM PDT

Appearances can be deceiving. Even though the camera supposedly never lies, the same can be said for photography. One intriguing example is the cover artwork for band VLP’s “Terrain” album photographed by Béla Borsodi. What looks like a mosaic of four different photos cleverly tiled together is actually a single photograph, resulting in a sort of visual illusion:

Mind-bending single photograph (click for larger size, imgur)

Borsodi devised the innovative idea and painstakingly arranged everyday objects in patterns of shape and color to give the final product the appearance of multiple photos.

Look closely: the perspective is so perfect and the objects acting as straight dividing edges are positioned with such accuracy, that you might never guess that it was a single photo, or get to appreciate all the prep work that went into this fascinating project — that’s why we’ve included the following video for your enjoyment (for those reading this by email, the video can be seen here):

(It’s almost hard to believe your eyes as you watch a jumble of random items transform into a precise work of art; you might need to watch it twice to fully absorb the whole process.)

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Clamshell Lighting Techniques for Portrait Photography

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 11:26 AM PDT

Traditional clamshell lighting is used frequently by photographers to bring out the best in their subjects. The even light produced by placing one light angled above the subject and one reflector or light source below the subject serves to flatter most faces. Slightly modifying the setup can significantly change the look and feel of an image to emphasize a subject’s individual characteristics. Watch this demonstration where Lindsay Adler introduces a clamshell technique for bringing out muscle shapes and emphasizing physique (for those of you reading this by email, the video can be seen here):

The clip above demonstrates how the placement and angle of lights portray a subject. If the light had been directly in front of the subject, his muscles would have looked flat in the resulting image.

Instead, Adler used modified clamshell lighting to make her subject look strong and contoured. A silver dish with a ten degree grid served as the lower light, while a larger gridded dish was angled above the subject. The back rim lights in her setup give definition to the model’s muscles and hair. By shooting from a low angle and having the subject look down at the camera, she highlighted his musculature.

Clamshell Lighting Setup

Final Image

This clamshell lighting pattern is ideal for photographing athletes or making any subject look tough. But other looks can be achieved with similar techniques. Tweaking traditional lighting setups to create varied looks is a creative way to get more out of your lighting equipment.

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

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