If you have ever photographed at sunset or sunrise with a bunch of photographers, chances are you have heard someone talk about civil twilight. Civil twilight is defined as that period when the sun has set, but there is still enough light to see terrestrial objects. In other words, about 30 minutes before sunrise, and Read More
Blog
Center frame subjects
Photography has many axioms that we are taught to follow. These ‘rules’ have been established over time, some dating back hundreds of years…who hasn’t used the rule of thirds in a photograph? These guidelines help photographers compose their photograph, and serve as a starting point to explore compositions that break the rules. I always tell Read More
Tripod boom arm technique
I’ve been out of the office the last few weeks in Australia and Tasmania on a workshop. We had an incredible time, you can see our trip report right here. We photographed many wonderful landscapes and wildlife, and I finally got a chance to photograph the Twelve Apostles, something I’ve wanted to do for 30 Read More
Creativity, cliche and the snapshot.
One thing that I frequently discuss on workshops is developing creativity. While some photographers may feel like they have a good understanding of their camera functions, creativity is more elusive and harder to quantify. And when we travel to national parks or international destinations, there are those famous overlooks (you know the one, with the Read More
Alien Skin Exposure X4
I just returned from Fairbanks Alaska photographing the northern lights, dog mushing, ice sculptures and interesting Alaskan people. One afternoon we set up a portrait shoot (at ten below zero) to photograph one of the staff at our lodge. Paul was classic Alaskan…bearded, fur lined coat and rugged. For the shot we used an Elinchrom Read More
Lightroom Range Mask
With all the updates with LR, it is easy to overlook some of the helpful new features. I regularly use the graduated filter tool in Lightroom to darken my skies if I didn’t use a graduated ND filter in the field. But rarely is the transition from sky to ground an even one, especially if Read More
What is coma?
I’m headed to Fairbanks in a couple of days to photograph the northern lights. Now if the weather will cooperate, like it did last year, we should have some fantastic photography. Photographing the night sky involves capturing stars in your image, and that brings up the question of coma. Coma is an aberration of the Read More
Adding flare/sun to your image.
I shoot a lot of portrait assignments for magazines and advertising. On some tourism shoots we might photograph 40 or 50 different people over a one week shoot. Often the client wants light, airy inviting people images….and light/airy often means adding sun flare. Flare adds a positive uplifting feeling to most portraits, which is what Read More
D850 on sale!
The ever popular Nikon D850 is now on sale. The price has dropped from$3200 to $3000. The sale is being offered at major online camera dealers and possibly your local dealer (call to find out). I’m not sure how long this sale will last. I have been using the D850 since it came out about Read More
Radial Filter
We just finished a portrait shoot the other day of a terrific model in a gritty local alley. Well, as gritty as Fort Collins can get, which isn’t much. But the image came out nice using a 35mm 1.4, one of my favorite environmental portrait lenses. In post I wanted to work on the surrounding Read More
Fill Flash for birds
As part of my earlier post on flash extenders, I wanted to follow up with a simple post on flash exposure using a Better Beamer or similar product. You have two main choices for flash mode, Manual or a TTL mode. Manual flash is just that; the flash pops at whatever power setting you are Read More
Lens diffraction
Last night I did a webinar for Singh-Ray Filters, and the audience had some terrific questions. One question brought up a point you don’t hear mentioned a lot when talking about when to use filters; lens diffraction. What is lens diffraction? Light waves enter the camera through the aperture opening reaching the sensor, resulting in Read More