UK Tripod conjurers, 3 Legged Thing decided to find out…

What’s on the 3LT menu?

• Carbon Fiber Tripods, Lightweight Travel Tripods
• Carbon Fiber Monopods
• Alloy Tripods
• Alloy Monopods
• Combination Tripod/Monopods
• Anodised Precision Ball Heads and Black Rapid R-Strap Compatible Release Plates
• Stuff (It’s not called that, but there you go) Bootz and Heelz and Budgie Smuglaz

So, I have Brian and Kirk here with me right now, Brian is a carbon fiber travel tripod that extends from as low as 125mm to over 2mtr tall – that’s the lowest shooting angle of any travel tripod I’ve ever heard of… Brian will happily muscle 8kg of gear on his anodised precision ball head (if you buy the kit, or the separate ball head, that is) Brian is as happy on three legs as he is on one, you can detach a leg and use it as a monopod. Brian has screw off feet that you can interchange with spikes… if that’s what you’re into!

I use a thinkTank roller, Brian easily slots into my bag when I’m travelling, or is as happy hanging from the side when I take all of my gear along to a shoot – very easy to erect, very easy to handle. You can see in the bag above, Brian is at the top under a RODE Videomic, second row from left is a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 ISL, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, Lensbaby, Hoodman Loupe, RODE Lav mic on top of Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 attached to a Canon 5DMKII, then to its left a Canon 30D + Grip, Sony NEX-5 with an SLR Magic 28mm f/2.8 and 430EX and 580EX flash units from Canon…

Brian (and all of his brothers) come with a 5 year manufacturers warranty, though, if you put Brian under a bus – you’re the idiot.

Brian is sexy and very functional – how do I know? I’ve been using a V1 Brian since he was born, now with his 2nd generation incarnation, there’s nothing but more love… One of the main reasons that I love this product, I mean.. a tripod is a tripod, right? Well, sure… But when you have a good team behind a product, it shows… Ideas I sent back after getting first generation Brian were taken seriously, ideas were chatted about, not just disregarded. These guys are innovating and it’s exciting to see that, in a market that is quite full, they stand out easily. Here’s Second Gen Brian as a kit – Legs and Head

Brian was picked up in England, he’s been to about 10 different countries and now lives back here in Australia with me – I couldn’t ask for more in a travel tripod. five out of five stars, 3LT… bravo

I also have Kirk who is a Mag Alloy cousin to Brian, he’s first gen “the original” and whilst I’m very happy with all of the second gen updates, I’m still equally happy with my first gen Kirk… He’s been to the beach (mmmm, sand and salt water) and he’s been a sturdy addition to my more ‘studio based’ shoots – when I need something that I can stand in his spot, whack something heavy on top and then add a shelf for my laptop when I shoot tethered – Kirk is my go to guy… Second Gen wise, go and have a look at Jack… Very well priced and a darn fine V2.0 if I may say so…

I’ve been using this gear for a while now and I’m very happy to tell anyone that asks about it – the build, the price and the plain awesomeness of 3LeggedThing as a company work for me.

Follow 3LeggedThing on Twitter or Facebook to find out more about what they’re doing.

Sime [ @gtvone ]

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

3 Legged Thing – The New Breed

As you say previous on the Q&A with Uncornered Market, creating panorama’s can create some amazing images. I took their methodologies and applied them to some of my own panoramas, which do not cover 360 degrees all around. This method is more practical for those of us without fisheye lenses. Take a look at this tutorial if you are curious for a step by step on creating your own immersion panoramas.

You will need to click over to my blog to view the immersion panorama described in this demo because DPS does not yet support embedding the SWF file type. The image can be found at this post and a static version is shown here:

Title: Nepal Himalaya Panorama Exploration

Location: Mong, Nepal

To answer the question, “How did you make that?” I offer this post as instruction. It’s not magic and it’s something you can accomplish. I had the aid of a number of computer programs:

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• Kolor AutoPano Giga
• Kolor PanoTour Pro

Additionally, the hardware I used included:

• Canon 7D camera
• Canon 28-300mm L lens
• Bogen 3021 tripod with ball head

Those are the basics. The other important piece of equipment was an alarm clock. I knew I needed to be up at least an hour before the sunrise in order to get dressed (it was a bit cold), grab a snack and find my location. I had scouted a likely spot the night before and I had taken nearly this same photo in 2008 while trekking. Scouting your location really helps when timing, as with a sunrise, is critical.

Get Ready

After getting myself out of bed and trudging up a small hill to the location, scaring a dzokyo with horns (it’s a cross between a cow and a yak) over a fence in the process, and after avoid his ‘cow pies’ (I’m not romanticizing this process enough, am I?), I set up my camera. Important in this step was to find a location with good visibility that would allow me to see over the roofs, but still capture the stupa in the middle of the village. Also important was good stability of the ground so I or my tripod would not slip.

My plan was to shoot the scene as a single swatch of panorama. I didn’t have the immersion viewer in mind when creating this, just a traditional super wide image for print. So I set up my tripod and made sure the base was level. I did this using the back of camera screen level that comes with the Canon 7D. If not, I would need a little level, like this one. This is an important step! If the camera is tilted, the longer your panorama, the less overall useable space you will have when it is leveled and cropped. Practice this at home so you don’t waste time in the field learning to get things level (and then become disappointed when back at home crying at your computer screen. Yes, I’ve done that).

Now with the base of the tripod level, I placed my camera onto it in a vertical orientation. I wanted a tall image and this would allow me to capture more scene. I also knew the timing would only allow for one pass. Once the sun was up, the lighting would change and I’d spend many aggravating hours on the computer trying to balance it all out if I didn’t get it in one pass.

Those steps in bullet form:

• Scout a location before
• Scare off large animals
• Set tripod on stable ground
• Level tripod
• Attach camera

Get Set

Camera on the tripod and the sky is getting brighter. I have a better idea where it will peek over the peaks. I start taking some meter readings and figuring out where I want to set my aperture and shutter speed. I already know I will set my ISO to 100 for the least amount of noise I can hope for. I then picked my focus point and locked it (turned off auto focus). Oh yeah, I also set my aperture at this point based on how much depth of field I wanted, doing this in conjunction with picking a focus point not completely to the horizon. I picked a point about 30 feet from me to focus on. This allowed me, at f/10, to have most of the scene in focus, which was going to include the fence, stupa and distant mountains. Plus my guest on this tour off to my side (who would later be begged, “Please don’t move!” when I shot frames with him in them). My closest object, besides some ground, was about 15’ away.

I did this in Manual mode so the exposure settings would not change. My settings ended up being 1/100th of a second and f/10. Going into the menus for my camera, I turned on the exposure bracketing and chose one step over exposed and one step under exposed. I locked my tripod’s ball head once all was level as I would be using the base swivel where the tripod met the head’s body to turn my panorama. I swung through the action a few times, making sure it was level in all spots. There are newer heads on the market, such as the Induro PHQ, which have levels built-in to help make this step easier.

Lastly in this step, I set my white balance (not required, but it makes post processing easier) and turned off my lens’ image stabilization because I was using a tripod. A couple more swings through to make sure I knew what I’d be doing. One more step was to turn my frame rate to high. This would allow the bracketing to shoot quickly and speed up the whole shoot. In these practice swings I timed myself to make sure I would have time to stop at each point, get my shots, and move while not causing blur from too fast a motion. I also wanted to complete my shot in less than a minute to make sure the lighting didn’t change too dramatically during the shoot.

Those steps in bullet form:

• Meter
• Switch to Manual mode
• Set Shutter Speed
• Set Aperture based on desired depth of field
• Turn off Image Stabilization
• Set focus and lock
• Check level throughout path of shoot
• Turn on high speed shooting mode
• Make sure camera is set to RAW (if desired. A note here: if you find your camera’s buffer can’t keep up with your rate of shooting, you may need to choose a smaller size RAW format if you can, or switch to JPEG)
• Breathe

GO!

I ratcheted my camera back to my start point on the far left side. I was on a hill and would not be making a full 360 degree sweep as the hill itself wasn’t exciting (and far too close). When the sun just started to top the left side of the peak, I started shooting, overlapping by about 30%, give or take. A robot like the Gigapan EPIC would have helped. Each stop produced three images as such:

Under exposed by a stop, at exposure and over exposed by a stop

Sweeping through my shot in just about one minute perfectly I checked the images on the back of my camera and breathed easy. The buffer had started to get full and I had to slow my shooting a half way through, but it wasn’t bad enough to effect the final image.

With the 117 shots secured (and later that night they were backed up to a second and third drive), I continued my tour while still contemplating how to merge them without spending hours on the computer when I returned home.

Those steps in bullet form:

• Wait for your moment to start
• Know your timing for the whole panorama if timing is critical
• Shoot!
• Breathe, again

Putting It All Together At Home

At first I attempted to use hugin to stack my images (each set of three shots makes a stack) and then create a panorama. The results were ok, but there was a LOT of manual work in aligning the images. I then was given a copy of AutoPano Giga to try out and it has created, for me, a boon in panorama processing. I will give a full review in the coming weeks, but for now I just want to show how I created this particular image and not get into all the nuts and bolts of the program.

My first step was to import the images into Adobe Lightroom and adjust the exposure settings. I did this for the middle shot, the one you see above. It has the widest range of light and I wanted to make sure I kept it looking realistic. I only adjusted the middle image, the one with the camera’s suggested exposure settings. After I did this and removed any spots, I also adjusted the image for clarity, saturation and the like, but not too much as I would perform more near the end of the process. This is a personal preference and your settings will vary.

With the one image edited to my liking, I then synced those settings with the rest of the images using Lightroom’s sync feature. Nice and easy. I then exported each image as a full sized JPEG. In later work, I will be using the DNG file type as AutoPano Giga can handle those and there will be less compression. All of those files went into one folder and it’s time to use AutoPano Giga.

This software is quite easy for basic shoots. After starting the program I imported all the photos by selecting “Select Images”. Once loaded the screen looks like this (click for larger version):

An important feature in this software is the simplicity with which I can create stacks. All it takes is a right click and then selection of the “Create stacks by N…”. This allows me to input that there are three (or any number) of images per stack. Now I don’t have to line them up or tell the program I was using bracketing for my shots. With the stacks created, I pressed the “Detect” button up top and AutpPano Giga does its best to align my images. Here’s the result, which appears on the right side of the screen.

Luckily there was not a lot of waste in this image because of taking the time to level the camera properly. AutoPano Giga aligns, color corrects, adjusts exposure and a few other items when performing this step. I will have more on the software in a full review later.

I output this as a PSD file to help preserve the image quality. This takes a while and makes a huge file (2GB). Patience is needed. I could also output to a JPEG to save time, but as I want to present my best work and make it highly zoomable, I chose the PSD format.

Opening the resulting file in Lightroom (in this case, Lightroom 4 Beta), I then crop the image and play with exposure to get it how I want it.

After adjusting the image, I exported the file as a .PSD file type, again to preserve as much detail as I can (and again, I will be using DNG files for the first compression in the future, but that also adds considerable time when processing multiple panoramas. At the very least, you will see the quality possible when using one of the faster methods given here). Opening the file in PanoTour Pro, I have a number of options to set.

On the right hand side are most of the important bits for this project (a review of PanoTour Pro will be forthcoming as well, after I have played with it more). The size is already set with the width of the image imported. I set the JPEG quality to 12 instead of 10. In the next tab, I set the projection to only be 300 degrees so it does not wrap around.

Lastly, I ticked the check box next to “Embed all data”. This enables the output to be a singular file, which can make for easier handling (and a higher file size).

All that was left was to upload the resulting .SWF file after I performed an export (the program has a facility to upload the resulting SWF file or files, but I wanted to check the results locally before spending the time to upload).

I encounter one small glitch while creating this file; my web service isn’t the fastest on the planet. The SWF file that resulted was about 125MB large. Normally not a problem but it slowed down the experience for many readers. So I went back in and cut the image size to 14,000 pixels wide in PanoTour Pro and decreased the compression to 10. This resulted in a file about 5.5MB large and much quicker to download. On that original post, I linked to the original file for those with patience, as the full detail is really incredible.

Those steps in bullet form:

• Import into Lightroom (or your editor of choice) and adjust as needed (but not too much)
• Export to DNG files, ideally
• Import into AutoPano Giga
• Create Panorama and export as PSD (Tiff would be another fine option, or JPEG if your space and resources are limited)
• Open in Photoshop or Lightroom or GIMP or … and crop. Make final adjustments. Export as PSD or simply save file
• Import into PanoTour Pro and set variables as needed
• Export as SWF file and upload to server (using the programs built-in FTP capabilities if desired)

On The Website

To make all this magic work on my blog, I had to install a plugin. The one I chose is called PanoPress and you can download it from their website. It’s an easy install and so far has not wreaked havoc on my site. Natively, WordPress, which is what powers my site, does not support SWF files in the sense of viewing panoramas like this. The best part of all this magic is the ability to choose fullscreen mode. Letting viewers fill their entire screen is something we photographers don’t often do and it can be intoxicating. PanoPress makes this magic work.

Conclusion

2000 words later…that’s it! I know it might seem like a lot, but with the choice of software this time around, I am very happy with the flow. I can also process multiple images in series (often setting my computer to pound through the large files while I sleep) and receive predictable results. I have more learning to do with the Kolor products to refine things and see if I can automate more of the mundane settings.

Also of note, I went through this process in both Lightroom 3 and Lightroom 4 Beta. I was far happier with the results in Lightroom 4 and they are what you see on the site.

I look forward to crafting more of these types of images (and have already started to, here) as I go back through old panoramas that I have taken and make them more presentable on the web. This process will not work for everyone out there (it can, though, be performed on a Mac or PC as listed and on a Linux machine without the Lightroom aspect) but it is my sincere hope that it helps more of you present your art in a dramatic way on the web.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How I Shot And Edited It – Nepal Zoomable Panorama

How did you begin your journey as a professional photographer?

I have been taking photos since I was twelve years old.  I didn’t go to school for Photography, I majored in Film and Broadcasting. When I graduated, I did the usual ‘film set PA stuff’ and took photos on the side. I liked the intimacy of photography. At that time, I could easily experiment with it without having to drag around a huge film crew and burning through reels of film.  My first break happened when I was supposed to leave to shoot model tests in Milan, a New York Ad Agency called asking me to shoot a national campaign for one of their clients.  That led to more work and an editorial spread for GQ Magazine. Since then, I’ve been established in New York.

Take us through an average day or week. What’s your routine, or non-routine?

There is no routine. Routines are boring, if I’m shooting; I’m off to location, or to the airport. If I’m not shooting I’m at my office on 28^th street with windows over looking old New York rusted water towers and gritty fire escapes. I’m surrounded by my things, sketchbooks, test shots, inspiration wall, and worktable. I use them to put together my personal shots. It’s also a great place to have castings and stylist meetings for potential projects.

How do you find inspiration? What’s driving you now?

Inspiration comes from looking. I watch movies, watch people on the subway, read books and look at magazines. I’ve found that trying to “think” of an idea doesn’t always work. You can research all you want but at the end of the day, your best idea usually pops in your head as you walk down the street or while you’re in the shower. Here’s my work order when dealing with a photo ‘problem.’

Identify the problem

Research and think hard about the solutions

RELAX (and forget the above)

Something will pop

Work on that

How do you draw out the energy and “realness” factor in your lifestyle work?

I’ve always worked with talent that can act. I discuss characters I want to create with my actors, give them a scene to play, block out the action then let it go. I call it “building the box.” Inside of the box, we place all the elements we need to create photos like the talent, wardrobe, lighting, etc. Then, we let it happen and prepare to capture it or manipulate it to make it just right. This brings a realistic approach to the photos especially when creating relationship images.

What do you look for when casting talent?

I need talent that is comfortable and confident.  Actors who are willing to open up and take risks, to ad-lib a scenario and react to the others around them. People are most beautiful when they are honest.

You traveled for four months around the globe for Starwood hotels. What did you learn from the experience?

Planning can only take you so far.  You can think of everything but in the end you have to work with whatever you are dealt with in a situation.  Also, I really enjoyed walking into a new hotel and figuring out what the “wow” factor is. When scouting, I take quick shots or make notes of what struck me about the location. I find that if you linger too long in a location it can dull your sense of what really rocked you when you first came in.

What goes into putting together a professional portfolio that art buyers and photo editors want to see?

Only your best photos should be in here. Don’t put anything in just because it will sell. You have to be true to yourself. Put in what you want to shoot. That way when someone hires you from your book, you are getting a job you love. Also ask the opinion of people you trust and who have a good eye.  Many times, I am too close to my photos and I am attached to the memories associated with creating the image. I have some very talented people I receive feed back from. I value their opinions for that outside perspective I cannot offer myself.

How has video played a role for you in the past few years? Where do you see it growing in the future?

I see it becoming a big part of my future.  I have always run my still shoots like small-scale video productions.  The transition from still to video has been very easy for me.  I love exploring an emotion or action with a sequence of footage. Video allows me to gradually build to the final pay off. With still photos, this is not the case. You have to get the whole situation in one shot. I also enjoy exploring sound, which is very important with video.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to people looking to turn their photographic hobby into a career?

You have to be willing to drop everything for your photos. You have to have a passion for what you do. This is not a 9 to 5 thing; you have to want to do it more than anything else. Do you stay up late at night thinking of photos? Do you get ‘high’ from taking a great photo? Are you willing to push yourself to do your very best for a photo? You have to have these feelings before you can think about being a professional.

Where can we hear from you or see more of your work?

As always, my website www.chris-sanders.com plus my blog, www.talktalkblahblah.com depicts more in the life of Sanders.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Chris Sanders – Photographer Spotlight

1. Describe your photography in 100 words or less.
I’m passionate about light in my photography, be it ambient or fully controlled in the studio. I love mood and drama and creating it where it wouldn’t otherwise exist. For fashion, it’s all about the clothes: shape, form & texture. The whole works. And it’s about the team, your stylist, makeup artist and hair stylist. It really is a collaboration, making more than the sum of your parts.

2. What gear/software do you use?
Camera wise I’m a Canon system user, but I also shoot film on a Mamiya 645j. For lighting, I’m using Elinchrom generally, with the Quadra system making up my location lighting. I do shot Strobist style with speedlights too. It’s all about the tool that fits the job. Software wise, I use Lightroom for most of my work and Photoshop where more extensive retouching is required. Recently I’ve been doing a lot more compositing as well.

3. What’s one quick tip that you’d give people interested in fashion photography?
Find a team, especially a stylist. Ultimately they’re the ones that choose and make the clothes look great. Hair and Makeup finish the look and then you use that to complete your vision.

4. What 3 Photography Sites or Photo blogs do you recommend?
Design Scene and Fashion Gone Rogue are great sites for seeing current fashion magazine work. As for fashion photographers, Melissa Rodwell’s Fashion Photography Blog is pure gold. She’s not prolific writing wise, but when she does post, it’s worth taking a break for.

To view more of Sean’s photography visit his web site at http://seanmcfoto.com

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

3 Minutes with Photographer Sean McCormack

11. Photo Editing
As you photo edit, selecting the best photos of an image set, learn to separate your photo from your photo taking experience. Invariably every photographer remembers the moment they took a photo or the journey it took to get that photo and become emotionally invested. One’s personal adventures and journeys add a lot to the meaning of an image to you the photographer, but more times than not that is not what a viewer sees or experiences. A photo viewer sees a visual representation of a very brief moment in time,  usually without context to know more about the effort taken to get the photo or the emotional significance of those in the photo. Learning to see through the cloud of your emotional investment will allow you to more clearly evaluate and edit your work.

12. Follow A Photo Hero
Since my original article was published on DPS back in 2008 several amateur and professional photographers have been able to make full use of Social Media to the make themselves easy to follow and approach on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Follow your photo hero(s) via social media sites. If one photographer more than another is someone whom you’re inspired by then take note of their photo philosophy, influences, recommended reading and build on their influence to help you grow and define yourself as an individual photographer rather than a clone.

13. Professional Critiques and Workshops
While the Internet provides us all with great free or nearly free online resources nothing matches the one-on-one instruction of a professional photographer. As you grow as a photographer it will pay to get the personal guidance and advice of a professional to help you achieve your goals. Whether your goals are to successfully photograph specific subjects, find new ways to think creatively, learn specific software or become more technically proficient with your camera private workshops or critique sessions can put you on a fast track to grow and improve.

14. Find a Photography Mentor
Find someone at a higher level of skill than you to mentor you and go out and take photographs with. A mentor could be a close friend, an acquaintance or a professional photographer. In working with a mentor you’ll get direct in-person feedback to questions, pick up ideas and solutions that you might have never thought to ask about in online forums and enjoy a closer camaraderie with someone you know and respect.

15. Inspiration + Education = eBooks
In the past few years there has been a renaissance in the world of self-publishing and several photographers have taken advantage by releasing eBooks in the form of PDFs, ePub files and mobile applications. eBooks are far more comprehensive than blogs and are a great alternative to traditional books as they can contain a level of interactivity you might be more accustomed to seeing on a web page. eBooks are often written focusing on specific topics and techniques and can be a great resource to learn and help you improve as a photographer. More prominent eBook resources include DPS eBooks, Inspired Exposure, Craft and Vision, Flatbooks, DIYPhotography and individual authors such as Guy Tal, Dan Bailey, & William Neill to name a few.

16. Go to Step 1
Re-read 10 Ways to Top Your Best 2008 Photographs often.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Year In Review: 6 More Ways to Top Your Best Photos

At the conclusion of every year I’ve adopted the tradition of reviewing my year in photos, picking my 10 best photos and evaluating those that were near misses. This exercise is something I’ve written about on DPS in  How to Top Your Best 2008 Photos and Year In Review: 6 More Ways to Top Your Best Photos and is something I consider to be critical to my success and growth as a photographer. On my blog I encourage my readers to adopt this exercise and to share their results in my annual Best of Photos blog project. In addition to benefiting from the underlying effort of evaluating your work and identifying areas of growth, accessing a list of best work by other photographers provides a spring of inspiration to launch participants into the new year.

Participants in this years “Best Photos of 2011″ blog project spanned a spectrum of skill levels from hobbyists to professionals and covered a wide variety of genres. There are likely many names you’ll recognize below and many others you won’t. I highly recommend visiting each entry as I have. Even after 5 years of running this blog project I’m blown away by the talent and creativity of those that take part. It is truly inspirational to see so much creativity and beauty. If your curious to see photos I personally enjoyed look out for the entries with *** next to them.

If you have not yet taken stock of your 2011 photographs, it’s not too late. Share your best of 2011 photo sets from your blog, Flickr, 500px, Google+ or Facebook by adding a link in the comments below.

Best Photos of 2011
content courtesy of JMG-Galleries

1. JMG-Galleries Best Photos of 2011 – Jim M. Goldstein
2. Dalal al-Dhubaib’s flickr – Dalal al-dhobaib
3. www.mawpix.com – Matthias Wassermann
4. 2011 Retrospective – Alex Wise
5. Jon McCormack Photography – Jon McCormack ***
6. Top 10 of 2011 a Exploring Light Photography – Chris Moore
7. The year in review: My favorite 2011 Photos – Ed Rosack
8. Dave Wilson Photography – Dave Wilson
9. Top 10 from Behind The Clicks – Mohammad Noman
10. Art in Nature Photography: Best of 2011 – Floris van Breugel ***
11. Alaska Photography – Mike Criss
12. My best photos from 2011 – Lasse Sørnes
13. http://www.500px.com/photo/3230405 – Keivan Zavari
14. My Five Best Images of 2011 – Peter Cox ***
15. My Top 10 images of 2011 – Charlie Widdis Photography
16. MY TOP PHOTOS FROM 2011 – Chaz Curry ***
17. Best of 2011 – Juan Guevara
18. Stories From Home – David Patterson
19. My Best Of 2011 – The Photographs – Sven Seebeck
20. The Uprooted Photographer – Zach Frailey
21. Top ten wildlife photos of 2011 – Burrard-Lucas Wildlife Photography ***
22. Eleven From Twenty Eleven – Jacob F. Lucas ***
23. My ten favorite photos of 2011 – Stefan Bäurle
24. Changing Perspectives – Jenni Brehm
25. 2011 Top 10 Photos – Andrei Olariu
26. Best Photos of 2011 – Ahmed Almuhairi
27. Favorite Photos of 2011 – Pat Ulrich ***
28. Top 11 of 2011 – Younes Bounhar
29. Natural California – John Wall ***
30. 2011 – A Review – Jim Denham
31. yeeehah.com – William R. Bullock
32. 2011Top11 – Kate Church
33. Top Ten Photos of 2011 – Steve Cole
34. Top 10 of 2011 – Brian Rueb ***
35. http://www.davidjohnstonart.com/index.html – David Johnston
36. 7 Images of Denver in 2011 – Neil Corman
37. My Top 10 for 2011 – Lon Overacker
38. Craig Ferguson Images | The Year That Was – Craig Ferguson
39. My Best Images of 2011 – Clark Crenshaw
40. “Sort of the best of 2011: ants – Jeroen Mentens
41. Best Photos Of 2011 – Dawnstar Australis – Daniel McNamara
42. Skolai Images – Carl Donohue ***
43. Favorite 10 of 2011 – Alan Dahl ***
44. Tony’s Blog – Tony Unwin
45. Best of 2011_Laurie Rubin – Laurie Rubin ***
46. FlixelPix Best Photos of 2011 – David Cleland
47. Ilja Melnikov – Ilja Melnikov
48. Best of 2011 – Rob Tilley ***
49. Free Roaming Photography 12 Best Photos from 2011 – Mike Cavaroc ***
50. Adventures Through the Lens: 2011 in Review – Rebecca R Jackrel ***
51. Top Photos of 2011 by Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images – Gary Crabbe ***
52. My 10 Best Photos of 2011 – Michael Russell
53. Digitized Chaos’ 2011 faves – Rian Castillo
54. Top 10 Photos of 2011 – Mike Chowla
55. John Fujimagari’s Best of 2011 – John Fujimagari
56. 10 Best Landscape Photos of 2011 – Cody Duncan ***
57. Best photos from 2011 – Janis Janums
58. Best Photos Of 2011 – David Leland Hyde ***
59. PhotogAbby’s Photoviews – Abigail Gossage
60. Do Not Get On or Off While in Motion – G. Kaltenbrun
61. Tony Wu’s Underwater Photography Blog – Tony Wu ***
62. 12 Months – 12 Favourite Images – Petr Hlavacek | NZICESCAPES IMAGES ***
63. Alpenglow Images | Greg Russell Best of 2011 – Greg Russell ***
64. An End of Year Retrospective for 2011 – The Top 11 Images of ’11 – Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston
65. 11 from ’11 – Dru Stefan Stone
66. William Neill’s Top Forty Images for 2011 – William Neill ***
67. Dave’s Best Of 2011 – Dave Reichert
68. 10 Best Photos of 2011 by Scott Thompson – Scott Thompson – Scott Shots Photography
69. My best 10 images of 2011? – Duffy Knox
70. My 5 Top Photos from 2011 and Photography Year in Review – Tommy Holt
71. Russ Bishop Photography – Russ Bishop ***
72. My Top 10 Favourite Images of 2011 – John Dunne Photography
73. Asif Patel Photography – TopPhotos2011 – Asif Patel
74. The Best of 2011 – Neil McShane (aka Mononeil) ***
75. Top Nature Photographs of 2011 by Mark Graf – Mark Graf ***
76. Year 2011 in 10 photos. – Filip Lucin
77. Views Infinitum: Best of 2011 – Scott Thomas
78. Dobson Central Photography – Top 10 Photos of 2011 – Ken Dobson
79. “The Best of Myrmecos – Alex Wild ***
80. Your Favorite Shots from 2011 – Fred S. Brundick
81. Patrick Gensel – The Best Of 2011 – Patrick Gensel
82. 100 Favorite pictures from 2011 – Patrick J Endres
83. My Ten Favorite Photos of 2011 – Randy Langstraat
84. KennethVerburg.nl – Kenneth Verburg ***
85. Naturography: My Top 5 for 2011 – Mike Spinak ***
86. Edith Levy Photography – 2011 A Year in Review – Edith Levy
87. G Dan Mitchell Photography – G Dan Mitchell ***
88. Jonesblog – Bryan William Jones
89. Timages’ 2011 Top Ten – Tim Mulcahy
90. naturalvision-photo.com – Derek Griggs
91. Favorites of the Year: 2011 – Ken Trout
92. Beetles in the Bush – Ted C. MacRae
93. Chuqui 3.0 – Chuq Von Rospach
94. Peter Carroll Photography – Peter Carroll
95. My photos of 2011 – Frederico Quintao
96. http://raptorgallery.wordpress.com – Glenn Nevill
97. Best of 2011 – Brad Barton Photography – Brad Barton Photography ***
98. Rocky Mountain National Park 2011 / Non-Rocky Best of 2011 – Erik Stensland
99. My Favorite/Best Photographs of 2011 – Inge Fernau
100. Best Photos of 2011 – Ryan Golias
101. Best of 2011 – Larry Rosenstein
102. Best of 2011 – Mellimage
103. The Quiet Picture – Year 2011 In Pictures – Minna Kinnunen
104. My personal Top 10 images from 2011 – Alexander S. Kunz / Daylight Colors
105. 11 Best of 2011 – Olivier Du Tré ***
106. Best Photos of 2011 – Jim Coda ***
107. Living Wilderness: Best Images of 2011 – Kevin Ebi ***
108. Oxherder Arts – Best of 2011 – Don Schulte
109. my best images of 2011 – Rhoda Maurer ***
110. http://www.stamates.com – Jim Stamates
111. Organic Light Pan – Youssef Ismail ***
112. Rick Diffley Photography – Rick Diffley Photography
113. Best Images of 2011 – Robin Black ***
114. PhotoWalkPro – Jeff Revell
115. Highlights from 2011 – Roman W. Schatz
116. Uncommon Depth – Roberta Murray ***
117. TKM Journal – Highlights of 2011 – Kent Mearig
118. Amanda Herbert’s best of 2011 – Amanda Herbert Photography
119. Google+ – Umes Shrestha
120. Anne McKinnell’s Top 10 Images of 2011 – Anne McKinnell
121. Best Photos of 2011 – Jim Maher
122. www.fredmertzphotography.com – Fred Mertz
123. Top 10 Photos of 2011 – Ireena Worthy
124. 11 in 2011 – My Favorite Photos – Debra Feinman
125. 2011 Top Ten Plant Photos By John Manuwal Photography – John Manuwal
126. www.azaelmeza.com – Azael Meza
127. David Sharp – The Best of 2012 – David Sharp ***
128. Looking back at 2011 – Ivan Makarov ***
129. Best Photos of 2011 – Pete Miller – USKestrel Adventography
130. My favorite 10 of 2011 – John Christopher
131. Neil Creek – Photographer – Neil Creek ***
132. JohnLPhoto Best of 2011 – John Lemen
133. Momentary Awe – Catalin ***
134. 2011 Top Ten – Andrew S Gibson
135. “Crest, Cliff and Canyon – A. Jackson Frishman
136. 2011 – A Good Year – Margaret Summers
137. Favorite Photos from 2011 – Richard Wong *** – Richard Wong
138. latoga photography – Favorite Photos of 2011 – Greg A. Lato
139. Looking Back – 2011 – Derek Fogg
140. My Photo Blog – Ron Niebrugge’s favorite photos from 2011 – Ron Niebrugge ***
141. My 10 Favorite Photos of 2011 – Dan Bailey ***
142. My 11 favorites from 2011 – Kurt M. Lawson Photography ***
143. Happy New Year – Lori Ann Cole
144. My Top 10 Mixture – Ashley Cottle
145. Google+ Beach Photography – Jennifer Brinkman
146. Top 10 images of 2011 – Denise Goldberg
147. www.azaelmeza.com – Azael Meza
148. Erwin Kessing Photography – Erwin Kessing
149. The Closing of the Year – Eustace James
150. Mark Feenstra Photography: 10 Favourites from 2011 – Mark Feenstra
151. Best Photos of 2011 – Ingo Meckmann ***
152. Dynamics of Light and Shade – Richard Murphy
153. My 20 Best from 2011 – David Maurer
154. Top11 2011 – Patrick Ottoy
155. Best of 2011 – David Edenfield
156. Little Time Machine – This was 2011 – Pete Carr
157. The Owl and the Wildcat – Jen Joynt
158. Best of 2011 – Alison Wells
159. My 2011 Best Nature and Landscape Photographs – Steve Sieren ***
160. Best photos of 2011 on Flickr – Jono Hey
161. Best Photos of 2011 – Ken Snyder
162. Best Photos of 2011 by Ilya Genkin – Ilya Genkin ***
163. My best of 2011 – Terri Jacobson
164. Piya Trepetch Photography – Top Ten Images from 2011 – Piya Trepetch
165. My Best 10 Pictures for 2011 – Barbara Newson
166. Woo’s 2011 in Pictures – Gary Woo
167. My (Possibly) Ten Best Photos from 2011 – Jim McCoy
168. Favorites – 2011 – Daniel Leu ***
169. Closescapes Favourites From 2011. – Marshall Black
170. Nature and Landscape – Small Choice 2011 – Ben Schreck
171. http://wernerpriller.wordpress.com/ – Werner Priller ***
172. Peter de Rooij’s Top 10 for 2011 – Peter de Rooij
173. Best photos of 2011 by ISIK MATER – ISIK MATER
174. Best Photos of 2011 – ysvry
175. Focused Planet Photography – Justin Scicluna
176. Best of 2011 by Carl-Johan Rådström – Carl-Johan Rådström
177. Western Skies Top 11 From 2011 – Björn Göhringer
178. My Best People Shots – Matt Goode
179. Darin Rogers Photography: Best Of… – Darin Rogers
180. http://www.juzno.com/ – Rob Castro
181. Remembering 2011 in Photos – Aaron Hockley ***
182. Favorites From 2011 – Brad Mangas ***
183. Robb Hirsch Best of 2011 – Robb Hirsch ***
184. Best Photos of 2011 – Sathish Jothikumar ***
185. My best underwater photos 2011 – Suzy Walker ***
186. Year 2011 in review and favorite images – QT Luong ***
187. “10 From Michael Toye – Michael Toye
188. Photoimagery.net – Peter McCabe
189. 2011 – Our Favorite Images of the Year – Isabel & Steffen Synnatschke ***
190. ylitalot.net – Juha Ylitalo
191. Top Ten Photos of 2011 – by Brian Grzelewski – Brian Grzelewski
192. Jim Nickelson Favorites of 2011 – Jim Nickelson
193. 2011: My Top Ten Images – Michael Frye ***
194. My Top Images of 2011 – Andrew Kee
195. Favorites of 2011 – Simon Ponder
196. 2011′s Top 10 Picks – Vidya Narasimhan
197. My Top Ten Favourites from 2011 – Adriana Glackin
198. Top Ten of 2011 – Fedor G Pikus
199. Best Photos of 2011 – Hady Moslehi
200. Mara @ Fantasia – Photo Round up of 2011 – Mara Acoma
201. My Journey through 2011 – Kevin Thornhill
202. My 10 personal favorites of 2011 – Marleen Hallaert
203. Favorite Photographs From 2011 – Seung Kye Lee ***
204. Best Photos of 2011 – Michael Gerken
205. Simple Photography – Jay Shah
206. My Top Ten Photos of 2011 – Mike Isaak ***
207. http://lensmankc.com/?p=811 – Amit Jung K.C
208. baliultimatephoto.blogspot.com – Hendra Wiguna
209. My Favourite photos from 2011 – Alan Owens
210. John Dusseault’s top 10 of 2011 – John Dusseault
211. Favorites of 2011 – Plastic[Picture]
212. Farsighted – Ron Artigues
213. Google Plus – Darren Harmon
214. Bill Hornbostel Photography – Bill Hornbostel
215. Korwel Photograpy blog – Iza Korwel
216. Favorite Photos of 2011 – Elizabeth Brown Photography PhotoBlog – Elizabeth Brown
217. 2011 Highlights – Alan Grinberg
218. TJTPhotography.com – Ted Truex
219. Thamer Al-Hassan Photographer – Thamer Al-Hassan
220. Top 11 of ’11 – Brian Arnold
221. Looking Back – 2011 Top Ten – Jessica Sweeney
222. Light Coming Back – Favorite Images of 2011 – Jennifer Durham
223. My Favorite Landscape Photos of 2011 – Joshua Cripps
224. Favorites Photographs from 2011 – Sudheendra Kadri
225. João Almeida Photography – João Almeida
226. Le meilleur de 2011 – The Best of 2011 – Francis Gagnon
227. Five Pictures for 2011 – David Lloyd ***
228. Ian Ference – Google+ Top Photos 2011 – Ian Ference ***
229. Marcin P?kalski – Google+ – Marcin P?kalski
230. www.thephotographerblog.com – Mandy Jones
231. My Top 10 of 2011 – Clement Biger
232. russell.tomlin at Flickr – Russell S Tomlin
233. Yosemite – Sheldon Neill
234. My Top 10 shots for 2011 – Greg Berdan
235. Best of 2011 – Dan Baumbach ***
236. Top Photos 2011 by Mark Dodge Medlin – Mark Dodge Medlin
237. The Carey Adventures – Peter West Carey ***
238. http://www.wildernessadventureimages.com/ – Michael Burkhardt
239. “Looking at the West – Andrew McAllister ***
240. Photos and Ramblings by Steve Mattheis – Steve Mattheis
241. My Favorite Photos of 2011 – Brandon Doran ***
242. Shanti Gilbert – Best Of 2011 – Shanti Gilbert
243. “10 of 2011 – David S. Ottavio
244. Best photos from 2011 – Mark J P
245. Heather’s Flickr – 2011 Top 10 – Heather Wallace
246. Ben Chase Photography – Benjamin Chase
247. Hypo-theses – Ian Stimpson
248. “Best photos of 2011 – Robert Kusztos
249. “Best of 2011 – Anton Huo
250. Best of 2011: JMG Gallery – Stephen Zacharias
251. Flickr Best of 2011 – Esther Reyes
252. My Top 10 of 2011 – The Siggins Photography – Richard Siggins
253. Andrew Benson | Best of 2011 – Andrew Benson
254. http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/blog/ – John Paul Caponigro ***
255. Google+ – Jim Davis
256. Beckmann Images – Best of 2011 Images – 500px – Matt Beckmann
257. Google + – Paul Conrad
258. Avelino’s Best of 2011 – Avelino Maestas
259. JMK Photography’s Best of 2011 – J. Krasner
260. Rob Dweck’s Top 10 From 2011 – Rob Dweck ***
261. www.myFedoraPhoto.com – Neal Fedora
262. Best of 2011 on Google+ – Robert Mann ***
263. My Top 10 Best Photos from 2011 by Matt Suess – Matt Suess ***
264. My Favorites from 2011 – Michele Wassell
265. My Top 10 Images of 2011 – Tom Bushey
266. A Selection of Favorites from 2011 by Christine Hauber – Christine Hauber ***
267. Favorite Images from 2011 – James B Martin
268. Kauai 2011 – Sharon Willson
269. “Best of 2011: Top 10 – Mark Hespenheide ***
270. shirley lo photos – shirley lo
271. Google+ – Christina Lawrie – Christina Lawrie ***
272. My Ten 2011 Faves – Rich Greene
273. Sunset at Vizhinjam – Agnisoonu K
274. Gary Randall Photography – 2011 – Year in Review – Gary Randall ***
275. 2011 faves – Anthony Chiong
276. NewmanImages: 2011 in Retrospect – Jay and Sue Newman
277. My 11 favorite pictures of 2011 – Marc Perkins
278. My Best Images of 2011 – Vaibhav Tripathi
279. My Best Shots 2011 – Annika Ruohonen
280. Top 11 Photos of 2011 – Shane Srogi ***
281. Wolfcats Top 10 images – Wolfcat
282. Alexander Filatov Photography – Alexander Filatov ***
283. Wendy Baker Photography Best of 2011 – Wendy Baker
284. My 6 best of 2011 – Patrick Smith
285. randomfire: The best of 2011 – Ramin Miraftabi
286. Closing California Parks – Eliya Selhub ***
287. MY BEST OF 2011 – Stan Rapada
288. 2011 Top 10 – Kyle Jones
289. 2011 Studies | Best of 2011 – Oskar Bruening ***

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

289 “Best Photos of 2011″ Blog Posts

1. Create Atmosphere

Use long exposures to create an ethereal atmosphere. Weather conditions are often thought of as static, but in reality they shift and change slowly.  In many instances these changes occur too slowly to be held in our visual memory, but our camera can record these changes. Misty, foggy or smokey scenes can be created with moving clouds, surf, etc.

2.  Discover Hidden Movement

We are often so rushed that we seldom pause to take note of slow moving subjects. Once you start to look for slow moving subjects you quickly open a door to a new world of photo opportunities. Clouds, shadows, stars, plants and even people or animals make great long exposure subjects.

3. Create Using A Canvas of Light

While your camera shutter is open your sensor or film is in essence a canvas. Normally that canvas is open very briefly but with longer exposures the light running over your sensor acts a brush. If you let a scene unfold before you with your shutter open it is “painted” onto the sensor yielding blurs of light. If you work in an environment where there is little light you can manually paint light into a photo with strobes, flashlights, cell phones, etc. to create a unique image.

4.  Alternate Reality of Color

Back in the days of film there was a phenomenon where the color in your image could shift in long exposures from reciprocity failure. Different film types would experience reciprocity failure at different exposure times and produce varying types of color shifts. For many photographers these color shifts were seen as something to avoid, but many artist have employed this phenomenon to create very neat photographs. If you’re still shooting film this may be something you want to experiment with. If you’re shooting digital you can get color shifts by creating or using pre-made presets in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Note: This was taken with Fuji Velvia film whose reciprocity characteristic is to shift colors toward green hues.

5. Photograph the Ordinary to Make the Extraordinary

When you show someone something new that is under their nose all the time it reawakens their interest in it. Highlighting one or a combination of the visual effects previously discussed with long exposures of ordinary scenes will catch eyes. To find that eye catching photo you’ll need to experiment though as the net effect(s) of a long exposure may not be apparent until you view it.

To learn more about long exposure and slow shutter techniques check out my new eBook Photographing the 4th Dimension – Time .

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Tips To Transform Your Photography With Long Exposures

We had a very tight budget, and I had recently done a behind the scenes video on creating and lighting a unique scene with just Home Depot lights. So, I thought why not do the same thing for the ONE project.

So, in this tutorial, I am going to show you guys exactly how we setup the lighting for this scene to pull off the final shots shown below. The entire budget for the shoot was $1,500, and lighting (including wiring) only cost a total of $265.

Final Result Samples

Samples from the final video – Shot 1080p 30fps on 5D Mark II w/ 100mm @ F/4

Samples from the final set of stills – Shot sRAW on 5D Mark II w/ 50mm @ F/4

The Setup

Step 1 – Flooring and Wall Tiles ($1065 Total cost)

The first step was setting up the flooring and the wall tiles. Interestingly enough, this was actually where the majority of our budget was spent. But, we figured that we would be using this set in future videos, so it wouldn’t be a one time cost.

The entire space is 10×10 feet. So we purchased 100 square feet of wood flooring tiles from Home Depot (which cost around $200) along with 200 square feet of Seesaw Wall Flat tiles to cover both walls. For some reason, these cardboard molded wall flats cost $86 per box and it took 10 boxes to cover both walls. So, yeah, that is where the majority of our budget went as it cost $860. To the attach them to the wall, we simply used 4 pieces of double sided tape per tile.

Step 2 – J.C. Our Lighting Dummy

Whenever I am doing scene setups, I place a lighting dummy where my subject is going to be in order to shape my light. It isn’t reasonable to have a person stand in for 60 minutes as I sit there and mold and shape our light. So, I pop in J.C., our lighting dummy, to give me a nice example of how the lighting is changing as I add and modify each light.

Step 3 – Wiring the Set ($50 in wires and strips at Home Depot)

Concealing cables on a set is always a challenge, especially when you are shooting wide. Luckily, in this video we didn’t shoot wide enough to see the flooring. But, for future videos I knew that we would. But, with the wood tile floors we had a simple solution, we simply ran the cables behind the tiles along the edge of the wall then pushed the wood flooring against the cables to pinch and conceal it against the wall.

Step 4 – Husky Daylight Work Lights ($50 each at Home Depot)

We used two Husky Florescent work lights as uplights to bring out the texture of the wall tiles. We used florescent daylight temperature lights because we wanted the background to be a nice shade of blue, while we white balanced to tungsten that would be used on the subject.

The image above shows the placement of the uplights on the floor. Each is evenly spaced from the corner of the set.

Step 5 – Workforce Tungsten Work Light Stand ($35 at Home Depot)

The next light in our setup is a twin head Workforce Work Light light which we use as a rim light on our subject off camera left.

While using work lights is cheap, there are downsides. Some of which include the heat, the lack of power control, as well as directional control. While we can’t change the first two, we can change the direction of the lighting. To prevent the tungsten light from hitting the uplit walls, I added on a little cardboard GOBO (Go In Between Object). Don’t worry, the light doesn’t get hot enough to burn the cardboard, though just to be safe, I wouldn’t leave the set turned on while I went to do my grocery shopping.

Step 6 – Workforce Tungsten Work Light ($15 at Home Depot)

To define the right side of the subject, I added an additional tungsten Workforce light to camera right.

Step 7 – Tungsten Modeling Light (Can use the $35 light used above)

Since we have modeling lights sitting around the studio, I didn’t need to spend more money on the work lights for our set. So, while we are using a modeling light as the main light, this would look and work exactly the same with the dual light stand used above. The benefit to using a modeling light is that I have a nice little barn door to easily control the direction of the light.

This light is placed directly to camera right and is used as the main light on our subject.

Step 8 – Softening the Main Light ($30 Scrim)

To soften our main light, we are using a standard scrim out of a simple silver reflector kit that can be purchased for $20 – $30 pretty much anywhere. The purpose of softening this light is to prevent hot spots and shine on the subjects face. This is particularly useful as our set is getting quite hot (literally) because of the amount of tungsten lights in close proximity. So, keeping that main light soft is going to help conceal any oil/shine on our subjects face.

The scrim is placed on a stand directly in front of the main modeling light as shown above.

Finished Set

With the ambient room lights off, you can see the final look of our set above. At this point, we are ready to bring in our real subject, and make a few fine tweaks with the light positioning in order to adjust the exposure and any stray bits of light.

Hope you guys enjoyed this little behind the scenes look. To check out this behind the scenes video as well as our other tutorials be sure to subscribe to the SLR Lounge YouTube Channel.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Shooting Products and Video Using Home Depot Lighting

1.  Visual Distractions

One question that you can ask yourself that will allow you to capture a substantially larger number of “keeper” photos is, “What is around my subject that people will see?”.  Asking this question as you compose your image will allow you to take note of distracting elements that might otherwise go ignored. As you keep this question in mind look for and avoid unwanted contrasty shapes, color and objects that intersect with your subject.  Looking for cleaner and more interesting backgrounds to add polish to your photos.

2. Depth of Field

Employing a shallow depth of field by using a larger aperture will blur your background. Employing deeper depth of focus may introduce distracting details that are not critical to your photo.  A background that is blurred and lacking detail will allow your viewers to focus on your well focused subject. It’s amazing how well this works, but you’ll still need to be conscious of Tip #1 as it is not a magic bullet.

3. Define A Physical Location & Setting

Use background objects to give your viewers a sense of location and/or meaning. Carefully composing your subject so that you can see relevant background objects will help communicate a broader story. A graduate with an iconic university building in the background, a family with the Golden Gate Bridge behind them, or a unique desert plant with sand dunes are all more meaningful with their respective backgrounds as they tell you more about the significance of the primary subject.

4. Define Your Subject with Lighting Contrasts

There is certainly a time and a place to use a studio background, but when outdoors lighting contrasts can really help place emphasis on your subject. Shooting a well lit person against a dark background can add pop to your image. Use lighting contrasts to your advantage and keep an eye out for differentials in lighting to exploit this effect.

5. Compose & Zoom With Your Feet

It’s very easy to mentally lock in on your photo subject and lose sight of everything else. As you compose your photo(s) move around to determine where you can place yourself to get the best background. Don’t just rely on a zoom lens to do this, your feet are both your best friend and #1 photo gear accessory

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Ways Backgrounds Make or Break Photos

It took a few shots to get the timing right but I learned a lot in the process!

Like many photographers, I concentrated first on capturing macro images of flowers and insects. I enjoyed it and learned a lot, but quickly realized I wanted to try other things. Besides, there is snow cover for four to five months a year where I live, so opportunities for outdoor macro photography are limited.  I decided to step up my macro photography efforts and experiment with other shots.

There are many great macro tutorials available online, but I enjoy creating my own experiments and learning that way.  Part of the fun for me is figuring out the setting that will get the right shot.  I also prefer looking at pictures over tutorials for inspiration.  Most online tutorials give away the exact settings you need to get a particular shot. What’s the point of that? They may be a good place to start, but you will have more fun and learn more “off line.”  Photography is a craft that is best learned by trial and error. To achieve real skill and experience, figure out all the settings by yourself by photographing those things that interest you.  I’m confident you will quickly learn how to get that perfect macro shot on your own.

Although I occasionally shoot macro handheld, I use a tripod and a remote trigger most of the time.  (You can also use the timer on your camera.)  Keep in mind that macro photography requires you to shoot at a really small aperture (big numbers) in order to get the most depth of field possible.  And the slightest camera shake will ruin your shot, so be sure to use a good, steady tripod.

What do I shoot with my macro lens?  I still enjoy getting close to beautiful flowers, but I have found many other interesting subjects around my house.  Once you start seeing things up close, you can’t stop looking for new things to shoot. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your macro lens. There are hundreds of fascinating subjects around you right now!  Macro photography is much more than photographing flowers and insects – it’s a unique way to see, and experience, everyday objects. Put a macro lens on your wish list and maybe your own amazing adventure will begin in 2012!

I had never paid much attention to those old French coins until I decided to experiment with macro photography!

Water and oil don't mix! Here the glass dish was set up over colored pencils to add interest.

This broken pocket watch was just too beautiful not to take a closer look!

Open your refrigerator, I'm sure you'll find a few interesting subjects in there!

Of course, I will always love photographing flowers with my macro lens but there is so much more out there, just look around and dare to experiment!

 Note: The photos above were shot with the Canon macro 100mm f/2.8 on 5D Mrk II

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Fun with Macro Photography