Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
The Art of Photographic Lighting is a new book from photographer Eib Eibelshaeuser. From the description, “In this book you will learn how light and shadow can be used to compose photographs. Example images and diagrams illustrate lighting concepts and demonstrate how different sources of light affect a subject.”
The Art of Photographic Lighting retails for $44.95; however, it is currently available for $24.52 on Amazon.com.
In our last Photography Basics article, we took a look into the basic principles of aperture and lens speed. We learned that the aperture of a lens is a critical component to a properly exposed photograph and powerful composition tool. In this article we are going to examine the fundamentals of shutter speed and how it will affect your images.
Hopefully, we will also be able to answer that frequently asked question . . . why are my photos so blurry? Frequently, the culprit is our shutter speed. [Read more…]
Tamron recently started a new video learning series on YouTube. The series will be comprised of 1-minute videos geared toward new DSLR owners (like the above intro video) and will be added on a weekly basis to Tamron’s YouTube channel.
You can get more details about the new educational directive in the press release below or head over to Tamron’s YouTube channel to see if you want to subscribe for future updates. [Read more…]
If you’ve had difficulty understanding what the new PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 can do for you, take 7 minutes and watch this video. Mark from the SnapFactory Blog does a great job of introducing the technology that these devices offer. And, he shows you how they work in a shoot, along with some sample images. Good stuff Mark.
Are you interested in Photowalking, but don’t know anyone like Thomas Hawk or Rich Legg to walk with? Consider TimeShooting.
The advantage of this idea is you don’t necessarily have to *be* in a particular place at a particular time – all you have to do is have your camera with you at that time. If you happen to be at your office, click away. At home? Take shots of your kids. On the bus? Take pics of the city streets.
The first TimeShoot was great – the Flickr page received pictures of moose, housecats, indoors, outdoors, lighthouses, beaches, beer, ice, at least one person in a bathtub and shots from four different continents! (via Shawn King)
The next TimeShoot is planned for March 9th at 6pm ET. Head on over to Shawn King’s page on The Digital Camera Conference for more.
UPDATE: Bryan from the PhotowalkingUtah crowd dropped me a line in response to this post. Here’s what he has to say:
Ann, Rich and myself have organized a number of photowalks in the SLC area since the first one you linked to and we’ve got lots of new photowalks planned for SLCPhotowalking. But I should let you know that we’ve changed the name of our group to PhotowalkingUtah to reflect the amazing success our group that has been drawing people from all over the Utah area. We’ve also grabbed http://www.photowalkingutah.com/ that currently links back to the Flickr group.
All of you Ute’s have no excuse not to be Photowalking. Head on over to PhotowalkingUtah to get the details on the next event.
The following post on commercial magazine photography is by Atlanta based photographer Zach Matthews. Learn more about him at the end of this post.
Every amateur photographer who’s ever flipped through a magazine has shared the same fleeting thought: I could do this. I am this good. And who’s to say that’s wrong? With the advent of digital image-making, cameras have become not just tools to record and describe, but tools that teach. The mean of photographic quality has skyrocketed in recent years, as a casual perusal of Flickr or a photography hobbyists’ board will immediately illustrate. What, then, is holding amateur photographers back? Why aren’t they selling images to magazines and commercial clients? Why aren’t you?
The difference between a working professional and a dedicated amateur is fairly minimal these days, and it has a lot more to do with business decision-making than talent or equipment. A number of important differences jump immediately to mind, however. The way I see it, there are two types of professionals: full time, and everyone else (and by that, I mean you, too). The full-time professional starves his way to the top. Typically a full-time pro goes to photography school, where he learns darkroom techniques, film chemistry, light physics, and the hard, cold reality of living paycheck to paycheck for decades. Most full-time pro photographers share one thing in common: they’re broke. But not all. A sizable population of working professionals make a living at photography, and they do it with the same business acumen necessary to operate as any entrepreneur. They set up a shop, build a client list, hire employees, and above all, they shoot their tails off.
Full-time pros of my acquaintance in the outdoor photography world spend as much as 40 weeks a year in the field. In my business, that’s in far-flung locations, involving international travel, injections, passports, broken gear, and hard deadlines. It isn’t an easy job, and it’s a long climb to the top, but eventually these pros tend to top out and make a respectable living.
There’s only one problem: chances are, this isn’t you. Full-time professional photographers won’t be reading this article; they know the route to success, they are logging their hours as we speak, and they’re aware of the rules of the game. But here’s the question: would you really want to be a full-time pro? What if you could have all the benefits, including international travel (for money), access to the best locations (for money) and the respect and praise of your peers, sometimes even for money, all while keeping your day job? It’s not a bad option, is it? [Read more…]