“Photo of the Day” to Increase Photography Creativity

“Photo of the Day” to Increase Photography Creativity
Interesting Photo of the Day: Bajau Boy Ready to go Fishing
Architectural Interior Photography Equipment and Techniques
How to Develop and Share Photos with Lightroom (Video)

Posted: 13 Oct 2013 04:22 PM PDT

I have long incorporated the “Photo of the Day” exercise into my Photography Lab classes. They are a great way to make sure you are taking a least one photograph a day. They force you to begin to think creatively as you have to find more and more ways to photograph the same thing everyday. You begin to simplify as you become creative, and simplification is the be-all/end-all to great composition. You start to play with techniques you may not otherwise have tried out as you try to make each day’s photograph different from the last.

“Day 55 of the 365 Days Project” captured by Ernie728 (Click Image to See More From Ernie728)

You do lens study’s to see how different lenses affect your subject. You play with perspective. You play with light. You play with time. You begin to stop thinking of your subject (after all – it’s the same subject everyday) and start thinking solely about the creative process and how you can push yourself. You begin to imagine fun things you can do with your subject and you start to try some of these imaginings out.

My students always grumble: I have to have my camera with me every day; I have to take a photo every day; I don’t have time to take a photo a day; what am I going to shoot every single day; how am I going to shoot the same thing every single day; what in the world will I do with all the photos I’ve taken??

As a studio owner, I had similar grumbles and work at the studio prevented me from having time to take “fun” photographs so I never participated in the Photo of the Day Lab exercises. Until last summer. I decided if I was going to talk the talk I might as well shoot the shot at the same time.

“8/365 – Indian Chess” captured by Jason C. Wong (Click Image to See More From Jason C. Wong)

Wow. How difficult I found this to be the first couple of weeks. First -what to shoot? Coffee of the day seemed too boring. I wear funky socks so I already take a “Socks Photo of the Day”, but that is more for fun and Facebook, not for learning photography techniques. Time of the day – that seems easy enough. Thankfully my handy-dandy DroidX has not only an 8mp camera, but an alarm.

So – after randomly deciding on 3:03pm, and setting the alarm to go off at 3:03 each day, I set about to start my Photo of the Day Assignment. I started taking photos each day at 3:03. I got through 3 or 4 days and realized the part-time job I had at the time was not really the most conducive or creative place for taking a 3:03 photo. So, I changed my time of the day to 8:08pm. Reset the alarm, and restarted my assignment.

How quickly I learned the true point of photo of the day assignments. Of course, these are points I yammer on constantly about to my students, so it would seem I knew them already. Knowing these points intellectually – and knowing them photographically – two entirely different things all together. How in the world did I think Coffee of the Day could be boring?? I had totally missed the point!!! And while time of the day seems like a great idea – it doesn’t give me the same subject everyday so I don’t get the chance to lose myself in the creative process of making the same subject look different everyday.

“33 of 365 – Stormy Sky” captured by Linda L (Click Image to See More From Linda L)

So – I’ve reassessed my own assignment work and realized I had tackled this project all wrong. I’ve changed my photo of the day from 8:08 to an actual subject: a small paperweight. I start the assignment all over again, starting today. I’ll keep the 8:08 photo gallery I started, but I’ll start a new Photo of the Day for my paperweight. Let’s see if I really can shoot the shot while talking the talk.

About the Author:
Professional photographer Loreen Liberty (www.litewriting.com) has been taking photographs since her early teens, and in the professional industry for the past nine year. After many successful years as a wedding and portrait photographer, Loreen decided to turn her attentions to teaching photography full time. “It gives me more time to practice my craft and be artistic for myself.”

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Interesting Photo of the Day: Bajau Boy Ready to go Fishing

Posted: 13 Oct 2013 02:30 PM PDT

Among the shores of southeast Asia live an indigenous group of people called the Bajau. They primarily live off the ocean, using small wooden boats to traverse the blue waters of their native land. Pictured here is a young Bajau boy photographed by Hesham Alhumaid. This photo was taken using a Canon 5D MarkII and 24-70mm lens:

The Bajau live off the sea (Via Imgur, Click to View Full Size)

What’s so captivating about this image is the colors and perspective. The aerial-esqe angle allows the brilliant blue water to fill the frame and complement the yellow and browns in the image. The boy’s pose and facial expression also convey a kind of relaxed eagerness, as if he’s patiently waiting to take a trip out to sea.

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Architectural Interior Photography Equipment and Techniques

Posted: 13 Oct 2013 01:14 PM PDT

With any art form, the quality of light is an essential component in the work. This is true when it comes to photography, as well–especially when it comes to architectural and interior photography. Whether it be lighting for hotel photography, residential interiors, or larger architectural corporate interiors, light defines the textures, planes, and atmosphere of the space. The professional architectural photographer uses light to emphasize and reveal these characteristics in the space that is being photographed.

“Interiors” captured by Tom Merton

Light is used to direct the viewer’s eye to areas of interest, to separate spaces and planes, and to create the illusion of light flooding the interior. Light defines space. Textures and colors can only be made visible through light, and although the trend these days is to shoot natural light, which is just a euphemism for ambient or available light, in almost every situation, the judicious use of additional lighting makes for a much higher quality interior photograph.

There is no reason to buy the latest and greatest system. My lights are basic Balcar strobes with 2400 and 5000-watt power packs. They are over 25 years old, and they are just fine. I say this because light is just light. What is important is how one uses it.

The following is a run down of my lighting equipment:

Flash system

I usually travel with 25,000 watts of power (approximately 7 power packs and 12 flash heads), and I frequently use it all. This is not necessary, however, to achieve good lighting. Although my style and lighting set-ups are generally complicated, one can still produce a nice effect with a much simpler setup.

The advantages of strobe lighting are:

The ability to overpower or balance with the ambient light
The ability to convert the color temperature of the flash head, which is daylight, (5K) to other light sources, i.e. tungsten or fluorescent
The ability to control the shutter speed–this is critical when there is strong interior daylight or when you want to capture the exterior view through a window

If you were to have only one lighting system, I highly recommend a high-powered flash system with 4 to 6 flash heads and enough power packs to use them at 1200 watt-seconds of power for each head.

Other Lighting Systems

Professional studio lamps: If the primary light source is tungsten, I will use hot lights or studio lights. These hot lights, either spots or floods, are balanced to 3200K, so a 1/8 CTO (Rosco #3410) correction is required. Otherwise these lights will appear too cool in relation to the rest of the scene where the lighting is tungsten.
Modeling lamps in my flash heads: These are used to supplement the ambient tungsten lighting. These lights don’t require additional color correction because their color temperature is very close to that of tungsten lights–especially when dialed down from full power. I also like the quality of the light from the modeling lights. They are directional but not too powerful.
PAR Bulbs: I also use standard bulbs (Par lights 30-75 watt in spot and floods) in inexpensive work lamp reflectors. These lights are used to spot and open up small areas and are very helpful in creating drama and interest. I also use these lights when lighting building exteriors at night. You can put together a nice lighting system very economically with these bulbs.

“Plato Showroom” captured by Wison Tungthunya

Other Light Control Tools

An assortment of umbrellas for fill lighting: large, small, hard, soft, diffused, and shoot-through
Grid spots: to focus the light for a spot effect
Black wrap foil: to put on the reflectors for controlling light spill and direction; also for Gobos to keep the light from hitting a surface or to prevent light from entering the camera lens and causing flare. The more distance from the light source the more precise the control.
Various diffusion sheets: to put over and to diffuse the lights. The more distance from the light source the more diffused the effect.
ND filters for over the lights: ½ stop, 1 stop, and 2 stop
Black Chiffon material: to put over the top 1/3 or 1/2 of the umbrellas to keep light off the ceiling or sides; also effective when stretched out to cut down the light from a window or adjoining room
Matthews flags and scrims: for cutting down the light by flagging it off
Reflector cards: white and silver, to bounce light for fill or reflection, or to block or subtract light
Radio and optical slaves: to set off flash packs remotely
Rosco (Lee also makes these) Conversion light gels: to go over the flash heads to convert the color temperature

Gels

To color balance flash (5000k) to tungsten (2900k) I use a ½ CTO (Roscosun #3408). A ¾ CTO conversion may be required under some situations (½ CTO 3408+ ¼ CTO 3409).
When in a mixed light scene with daylight and tungsten lights, a ½ to ¼ CTO works well.
In commercial environments (fluorescent or metal halide) I usually use the Rosco tough ½ plus green which, although only a half correction from daylight to cool white fluorescent, is ample for digital media. A full tough minus green (3304) filter was required in the film days, but it is too much with digital.
I find that most modern lighting in commercial spaces is considerably warmer than the old standard cool white fluorescents, so I usually use the Rosco ½ tough plus green and a ¼ CTO (3409) or a ½ CTO (3408) to warm up the color temperature.
Rosco also makes CC filters to go over Studio hot lights, but I don’t use them much anymore.
To convert 3200 to daylight: Rosco 3202 Full Blue
To convert 3200 to half day 4100: Rosco 3204 Half Blue
To convert 3200 to 3800 Rosco 3206 Third Blue

Lighting is a critical factor in quality architectural and interior photography, and it should be regarded as a key component that is no less important than composition, color, and contrast. The proper use of light maintains proper color balance, reveals textures and colors vividly, and can create a dramatic atmosphere of light that would not be possible if the scene were photographed using ambient light only. Although you could spend a small fortune on lighting equipment, it certainly isn’t necessary. Watch for older equipment on the used market and, with patience, a collection of adequate gear can be acquired very affordably.

“Stylish Adelto interior design” captured by My DotPress

About the Author:
Paul Schlismann is a professional architectural photographer and has specialized in photographing architecture and interiors since 1980 for the professional architect, interior design, hospitality, architectural product and corporate markets (www.schlismann.com). Having been established in his career for over 30 years as a Chicago architectural photographer, he now also has an office located in Arizona as well and is working in Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and California statewide.

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How to Develop and Share Photos with Lightroom (Video)

Posted: 13 Oct 2013 10:43 AM PDT

Photographers have long favored Photoshop for editing digital images. Because the software is so powerful, many artists don’t much consider other options. But if you haven’t used Lightroom before or haven’t yet upgraded to the latest version, you might not know what you’re missing. Learn some of the program’s capabilities by watching Tim Grey‘s two hour presentation on optimizing and sharing photos using Lightroom 5:

Grey begins his session by demonstrating his workflow in the Develop module. He describes this module as the tool for making your images worth sharing. In addition to providing quick tips and shortcuts that simplify post-processing, he goes in depth to cover how to work with all of the sliders and controls to edit your images undestructively, emphasizing that the order in which you adjust your photos is unimportant. Lightroom applies all adjustments in its own, optimized way.

Once you’ve enhanced your photos to perfection, using color adjustments, tonal adjustments, presence, cropping and straightening, and all of the other powerful features available, you’re able to choose one of Lightroom’s sharing modules to publish your work.

From within Lightroom 5, you can easily email photos and use publish services to send photos to social media accounts. Beyond simply emailing and posting to Facebook, the sharing modules include Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web. Grey gives just a quick overview of the capabilities of these modules. You can set printer profiles, fit multiple images on a sheet of photo paper, and create books and albums for clients. Slideshows can be shared online or exported as PDFs or videos. With just the click of a button you can upload web galleries with private URLs to your website. The sharing features in Lightroom are designed to be easy to use while still producing professional results.

Grey’s informative, lengthy tutorial covers just some of Lightroom 5′s multitude of features. This image editing software is great option for photographers who want to pack a lot of options into one program.

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

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Monday, 14 October 2013