Photography Tips - Page 11 of 13

How to Brighten Eyes in Photoshop

Jan

2010

January 28, 2010

This Photoshop tutorial is for brightening people’s eyes and making them pop in portraits.

Eyes represent the soul of a person. They tell our story and are capable of magically transferring our emotions to the viewer. Good photographers know the importance of being able to capture people’s inner feelings through their eyes, which is why they always strive to highlight the eyes by bringing them into complete focus. While as human beings we are quite used to looking at people’s eyes while communicating to them, it doesn’t always work the same way in photography. Sometimes there is just too much distraction in the picture and other things to look at that we would not even notice in everyday life. Whatever it is, these distractions move us away from the real story of the subject, getting us lost in insignificant details.

Fortunately, there are some simple tricks in Photoshop that can help to bring the viewer’s attention back to the subject’s eyes. In this quick tutorial, I will show you how to brighten your subject’s eyes and make them “pop”.

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Filed Under: Post Processing Tagged With: Photography Tips

RAW vs JPEG

Jan

2010

January 26, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 76 Comments

The RAW vs JPEG topic seems like a never ending debate in photography. Some photographers say shoot RAW, while others say shoot JPEG. What is RAW format in digital photography? What are the advantages and disadvantages of RAW versus JPEG and why? Should you shoot in RAW or JPEG? Will shooting in RAW complicate your post-production and workflow? These are some of the most common questions that people ask after they buy their first DSLR camera and go through the camera options. Having a thorough understanding of advantages and disadvantages is essential for photographers to make the right decision on whether to use RAW format for their work.

Sand Dunes - Shot in RAW

I remember my first time going through the camera options and reading the Nikon D80 manual, wondering about what RAW does and why I should consider using it. JPEG is a no-brainer – it’s the default image format that is used in most point and shoot cameras and we all got used to it and know it very well, seeing and sharing JPEG images online and downloading/uploading them from and to our mobile devices. But there was something about RAW that I wanted to find out about immediately. Maybe it was the word “raw” that sounded intriguing, maybe it was the immediate desire to get the sharpest, highest quality and best pictures ever without knowing much about the camera…whatever it was, I went ahead and changed my camera settings to RAW and tried to take a picture. The first thing I noticed, was how small all of a sudden my memory card became. Wait a second! How come the number of pictures went down from over 700 to under 200? The image looked exactly the same on the LCD and yet it consumed more than three times more memory? Bummer. Then, I took the memory card and inserted it into my laptop. To my surprise, I couldn’t even open the darn thing! Worthless, I thought and changed my camera settings back to JPEG.

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DNG vs RAW

Jan

2010

January 25, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 68 Comments

Should you use DNG or RAW format? This is one of the most important questions that you as a photographer need to ask yourself, because it will definitely affect your digital photography workflow. Every photographer has their own say on whether to use DNG or RAW, but it is important to know the key differences between the two, along with their advantages and disadvantages. In this article, I will provide as much information as I can about both formats, in addition to my opinion and workflow. If you are looking for more information about how RAW images compare to JPEG images, then please read my “RAW vs JPEG” article.

1) What is RAW?

RAW images, also known as “digital negatives” are truly “raw”, meaning they are almost unprocessed data coming directly from the camera sensor. Unlike JPEG files that can be easily opened, viewed and printed by most image-viewing/editing programs, RAW is a proprietary format that is tied to the camera manufacturer and sensor, and therefore is not supported by all software products. RAW files preserve the most amount of information about an image and generally contain more colors and dynamic range than other formats.

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Filed Under: Photography Tutorials Tagged With: DNG Files, Photography Tips, RAW Files, Tips for Beginners

How to Organize Pictures

Jan

2010

January 24, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 9 Comments

I wrote this basic guide on how to organize pictures for those, who occasionally take pictures with digital cameras and who are looking for ways to organize images on their computers. This is NOT a guide for serious photographers with large catalogs of photographs. If you are a photographer looking for ways to organize your photo library, please see my “how to organize pictures in Lightroom” guide written specifically for serious photography work.

During the last 10 years, all kinds of digital cameras have flooded both traditional and online stores. Today, the market is over-saturated with a wide array of digital cameras for personal and professional use and tough competition among the manufacturers pushed the prices so low, that most US households now own one or more digital cameras. Digital cameras have gotten so popular, that they made their way into our phones and other electronic devices as well. With such a wide array of sources where pictures come from, how do we keep them organized?

Most people do not even bother organizing pictures. They take pictures, leave them on their cameras and mobile devices and use them when needed – to share a picture via Facebook or to send the latest pic to their friends and family. As a result, many pictures get lost and memories are gone forever. So, what should you do to keep your pictures organized and saved?

1) First, find all of your photographs

Start with your computer and try to locate every single picture. Common places to look for photographs are in your “My Documents” or “My Pictures” folders, but you might have pictures in other folders as well. Just search your computer for all files with “JPG” extension and see what it finds. Create a local folder on your desktop and move all your pictures there. If you have other computers/laptops at home, perform the same search and try to find every single picture. Next, go through your mobile devices (iPhone, iPod, Zune, etc) and see if you have any pictures stored there too. Copy them all to your main PC, into the same folder that you created earlier.

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Filed Under: Photography Tutorials Tagged With: Photography Tips, Tips for Beginners

Low Light Photography Tips

Jan

2010

January 21, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 66 Comments

Low light photography is not necessarily just night photography, as many people assume. There could be different amounts of light coming from various sources and whatever is less than daytime light outside, I consider low-light. Indoors photography without much ambient light (as in many of our homes) as well as the light that is barely visible to our eyes at night, is also considered to be low-light. In this article, I will provide tips on how to take pictures in various low-light environments, whether indoors or outdoors.

Antelope Canyon, 5 second exposure @ f/10, ISO 200

Three levels of low-light

Before we go any further, let’s first identify the varying levels of low-light and categorize them, so that we could refer to them in examples. Although it is very hard to categorize the amount of light, due to the fact that it is a long range of light between very bright and pitch black, just for the sake of making it easier to explain and refer to, I still decided to divide it into three categories:

Visible: in daylight, when you happen to be in shadow areas behind buildings, under large trees or bridges.
Low Light: after sunset, when you can still clearly see everything around you, but you can tell that it is getting dark or when you are indoors.
Dark: at night, when you can only see the brightest objects.

Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture – A Beginner’s Guide

Jan

2010

January 12, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 81 Comments

It is difficult to take good pictures without having a solid understanding of ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture – the Three Kings of Photography, also known as the “Exposure Triangle”. While most new DSLRs have “Auto” modes that automatically pick the right shutter speed, aperture and even ISO for your exposure, using an Auto mode puts limits on what you can achieve with your camera. In many cases, the camera has to guess what the right exposure should be by evaluating the amount of light that passes through the lens. Thoroughly understanding how ISO, shutter speed and aperture work together allows photographers to fully take charge of the situation by manually controlling the camera. Knowing how to adjust the settings of the camera when needed, helps to get the best out of your camera and push it to its limits to take great photographs.

Understanding Digital Camera Modes

Jan

2010

January 5, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 69 Comments

Having a good understanding of the digital camera modes is essential to control the exposure in photography. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced amateur, you should know what each camera mode does and when it should be used, under what circumstances.

1) What are Digital Camera Modes?

Digital Camera Modes allow photographers to control the parameters of an exposure, specifically, Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. While certain modes can fully automate the camera exposure, there are other modes that let the photographer manually control some or all parameters of the exposure.

Back in the old days, there was no such thing as a camera mode – everything was manual. Photographers had to manually set the aperture, shutter speed and choose the right type of film for their cameras. To evaluate the intensity and the amount of light, they used to carry special light metering devices that measured the light and provided the exposure information, which they would then use in their cameras. In 1938, Kodak introduced a film camera with an integrated light meter and in 1962, a Japanese company called “Topcon” introduced the first SLR camera that measured the light coming through the lens into the camera. What this meant, was that photographers no longer needed to carry special light meters with them – the camera would do it for them. New “Automatic” camera modes started appearing on cameras, which would evaluate the amount of light that passed through the lens and would automatically pick the right exposure parameters to produce a properly-exposed picture.

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Filed Under: Photography Tutorials Tagged With: Howto, Photography Tips, Tips for Beginners

How to Photograph Children

Jan

2010

January 4, 2010

By Lola Mansurov 39 Comments

Photographing children can sometimes be a challenging task, since children typically do not like posing for the camera (especially when they are too busy doing something they like). Everything happens way too fast, making it extremely difficult for the photographer to capture the moment. Because of that, many of us end up with blurry and out-of-focus photographs and wonder how we can improve our photography skills to get better results. After learning much about child photography, taking pictures of my two boys and doing some work on the field, I decided to write an article and provide tips and pointers on how you can successfully photograph children.

Powerful child portraits are much different than “look at the camera and smile” pictures. A true portrait will reflect a child’s personality, energy and uniqueness that every one of the bundle of joys have.

Post-Processing Tips for Beginners

Jan

2010

January 2, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov Comments are closed

This page contains a collection of our articles on Post-Processing for Beginners. These beginner tips should hopefully help our readers to enhance their knowledge of photography and get the best out of their equipment. If you do not know the difference between Lightroom and Photoshop, see our Lightroom vs Photoshop article. If you are wondering about whether to choose Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, check out our Photoshop vs Photoshop Elements article.

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Post-processing Tips for Beginners:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Mastering Lightroom Series

Other Lightroom Articles

Adobe Photoshop

Filed Under: Tagged With: Photography Tips, Tips for Beginners

Understanding Shutter Speed – A Beginner’s Guide

Dec

2009

December 20, 2009

By Nasim Mansurov 61 Comments

Shutter Speed is one of the three pillars of photography, the other two being ISO and Aperture. Shutter speed is where the other side of the magic happens – it is responsible for creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring motion. In this article, I will try to explain everything I know about shutter speed in very simple language.

Dolphin - 1/1600 Shutter Speed

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Filed Under: Photography Tutorials Tagged With: DSLR Camera, Photography Tips, Tips for Beginners

How to Brighten Eyes in Photoshop

RAW vs JPEG

DNG vs RAW

1) What is RAW?