I like to photograph nature, particularly landscapes. One of the factors that drew me into it is the challenge of capturing the beauty of mother nature. As landscape photographers, we often have to embrace the weather and work with it rather than around it, which means you may need to accentuate the light in post-processing software like Photoshop. That is what I will cover in this article.
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Concert Photography with a 35mm Lens
From street to landscape, from portrait to travel – the 35mm is an all-around lens, and it can be used for shooting basically anything. But what about concert photography, where a zoom lens is the norm? Is it any good there as well? This article covers some practical suggestions for photographing concerts with a 35mm lens, along with broader concert photography tips in general.
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Genaray Escort Daylight LED Interview 3-Light Kit Review
Today I am going to review the Genaray Escort Daylight LED Interview 3-Light Kit. As the name implies, this kit contains three LED light panels. Two of the panels are flood lights, while one panel is a spot light. While I feel that these lights are mainly intended for use with video, I tested the lights for both photo and video.
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Why Good Photographers Take Bad Photos
Have you ever seen a spectacular image and been flabbergasted when you saw that the photographer was an amateur – and they used their phone? Or looked at the website of a pro only to be disappointed by a slew of boring photos? Maybe you know someone who knows everything about photography has has perfect technique, yet still takes lacklustre images. Counterintuitively, being good at photography does not guarantee good photos.
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Chasing the Light
More than any other fundamental aspect of photography, light is at the heart of every image you take. Without light, photography cannot exist; it is the foundation of every image, giving shape and meaning to each scene in your viewfinder. Personally, as a landscape photographer, my photographic decisions are shaped more than anything else by the lighting conditions that I encounter. From a soft mist to a dramatic sunset, whether at a mountain or a desert valley, my preferred approach…
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What’s Important in a Photograph, and What Isn’t
You know the drill. You pick up a magazine or browse a website and flip through the photos. Most you look at for less than a second, but a select few grab your attention and demand a longer look. What’s different about these select photos? What makes some photos great and others mediocre?
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Creating Tabletop Landscapes Using Flour and Light
Recently, as part of a photography class at my university, I had an assignment to shoot two rolls of film with the theme “Point of View.” This topic was open to interpretation, but I was encouraged to try something out of my comfort zone. I puzzled over the assignment for a few days – and I almost decided to shoot a roll of typical abstract photographs – but one other possibility began to interest me: With enough effort, could I…
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Beginner’s Guide to Nikon Creative Lighting System
So you want to get your flash off camera? If you want to improve your flash lit portraits you need to get your flash off the camera. A great way to start is to use Nikon’s own CLS (Creative Lighting System). Since a lot of people will own one of the Nikon Speedlights, getting it off camera and triggered remotely is a very straightforward and relatively inexpensive task. In this article, we will explore the basics of Nikon’s Creative Lighting…
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How To Recover Your Photos From LED Lighting Artifacts
LED lights have been a big trend in the last few years in dance parties, Many of us have photographed events where harsh LED light was used on the dance floor, and these LED lights have flooded our images and prevented us from taking available-light photos without them looking over-saturated and alien. One obvious option is to use a flash, whether ON or OFF camera, but you may be losing those moments where the light is causing interesting shadow situations.…
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Taking Good Photos in Bad Light
Landscape photographers work primarily in natural light, which presents a few problems – for starters, the most beautiful lighting conditions each day last for no more than a few hours. Other times, sunsets will be lost behind cloudy skies, making it impossible to see a landscape at its best. When the sky is gray or the sun is directly overhead, it can be tough to find inspiration for high-quality photography. My hope with this article is to share some tips that…
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Macro Photography Lighting Tutorial
For our readers in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of year again — days are hotter, nights are shorter, and the air is stuffier. With the changes in weather, two different creatures are beginning to emerge from their deep winter slumbers: the insect and the macro photographer. As macro photography grows more popular, a key question arises: what is the best way to light a bug’s picture?
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Venus Optics KX800 Macro Flash Review
Macro photographers tend to struggle with two crucial variables when lighting their subjects. First, high-magnification macro photography usually involves apertures between f/16 and f/32. To use an aperture this small, you need a high-powered flash — especially if you want to use a diffuser. The second major issue is that many macro photographers work with just one on-camera flash, meaning that the lighting can appear flat and dull, even when diffused. So, when Venus Optics announced their alien-looking KX800 dual…
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Impact Soft and Natural 4 Socket 3 Light Kit Review
The Impact Soft and Natural 4 Socket 3 Light Kit is a lightweight three-softbox continuous light source for studio shooting. MSRP is $604.90, but it seems to be perpetually discounted at B&H. As I write this it is priced at $348.95. The kit comes with stands, softboxes, heads and bulbs, everything you need to get started shooting portraits except the model and background (oh yeah, and camera and photographer, d’oh).
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Raya 5-in-1 Collapsible Reflector Disc review
When I’m not scratching ever upwards toward the pinnacle of the high-stakes editorial bird photography world I find it helps my bottom line to prostitute myself as an HPLS. It’s not a pretty job, but imagine how ugly the world would appear if it weren’t for the services of us Human Powered Light Stands. When were not schlepping monolights, downloading memory cards, witnessing model releases, or checking to make sure the model’s sports bra isn’t wrinkled, we’re usually found holding…
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Impact Muslin Background and Background Support System Review
This review is for three Impact Muslin Backgrounds and an Impact Background Support System. I have always loved backdrops and how they can convert any space into a studio. By setting up a studio backdrop, you can create a whole new feel for a shoot and they are versatile and easy to use. I chose to set these up in my living room and home office space, but if you are tight for space in your home, a garage makes…
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Impact 5 lb Shot Bag Review
If you do photography in a studio, you probably have a few shot bags laying around. This very small shot bag has a variety of uses.
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Impact 18″ Diffuser Sock Review
If you’re a portrait photographer, you probably prefer softer light to more harsh light. I know I do. When I first used the Impact Flourescent Cool Light Kit, the only thing I wished I had was a diffuser of some sort. Now I do. Here’s a quick review of the Impact 18″ Diffuser Sock
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Impact Light Kit Bag Review
This is a review of the Impact Light Kit Bag. For my studio lighting, I use a set of four Alien Bees heads along with a variety of light stands and modifiers. When I’m shooting on location, I prefer to make as few trips to and from my car as possible, so the fewer bags I have to carry, the better. For the past few years the bag I’ve been using for my lights has served me well, but I…
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Impact 20″ Beauty Dish Reflector Kit Review
This is a review for the Impact’s Beauty Dish Reflector Kit with an adapter for the Paul C Buff Alien Bee Strobe. The Reflector kit includes a 20″ Beauty Dish Reflector, Honeycomb Grid for 20″ Beauty Dish Reflector, and a diffuse sock.
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How to Deal With Harsh, Midday Lighting
As photographers, light is something we are constantly concerned about. We need some sort of light source coming in, but from where and how much is always the question. A soft sun glow during the early hours of the morning or right before sunset is ideal, but often times wedding ceremonies or a client’s schedule does not allow for those prime shooting times. Light can take a normally plain image and transform it into a powerful and exciting picture, but…
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