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Five Tips to Better Photos

June 9, 2010 JasonLeave a comment

With the sudden surge and swell in the blogosphere, Twittersphere and Photosphere over Lightroom 3 hitting the streets (and a nice combo discount is available in the sidebar by the way), let’s not forget that this software is all meant to be doing one thing – letting us get back to the business of taking photos instead of spending our time in our computer.

With that in mind, I’m bringing back a popular concept of “Top Tips”. Today, I give you…(drum roll please):

“Five Tips to Better Photos”

Be Ware of Exposure Values – No matter how good your camera is, if you under or over expose too much, you’ll be losing detail which either takes too long to recover in post production or is unrecoverable. Check your histogram for “blinkies” (meaning stay away from the edges), and you’re in a much better zone to start!
In keeping with watching exposure values, don’t rely on new-fangled features lie “content aware fill” or “clone tools” to fix things afterward. If it takes ten more seconds to get it right in camera, do it, because it means you are still shooting and not stuck behind a monitor at 2am fixing stuff for tomorrow’s delivery deadline!
Avoid increasing Noise. It’s like a broken record at this point, but would you rather keep noise down in camera or address it because you were shooting at ISO 64000 in camera? Yeah, the reduction features are amazing, but it’s even better if you don’t even have to touch that slider. Swap lenses, check settings, and heck, maybe even add a fill flash. It helps to keep noise down, which ultimately means your shots are cleaner.
Look for the Light – the direction of the light, the intensity of light, and the shape of the light all can impact your photos. As a general rule, keep the light to your side and behind you, and try to keep the intensity down as you don’t want to over-expose your subject (see Tip #1). Don’t forget, you can shape and modify even ambient light with diffusers, reflectors, and umbrellas. It’s all part of the larger principle that photography is about “writing with light”.
Shy away from shadows – Just as the quality of light can make or break a photo, so too can shadows. Watch for overhead lights as this can have nasty effects on things like portraiture (shadows under eyes). Coming at your subject from the wrong angle can also lead to nasty and unwanted shadows of yourself in the picture. For instance, if you are shooting a building at sunset with the sun directly behind you, your own shadow can creep into the scene, making for some not-so-fun post production work in Photoshop.

There you have it – 5 easy tips to better photos! Lightroom? We don’t need no stinkin’ Lightroom! (Well, we do, but it made for a good quote! 🙂 )

What sorts of tips have you come up with to make and take better photos in camera? Share your own in the comments! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

P.S. Remember, there are two contests going on right now – if you stop over to the podcast day (Monday) where I talked with Rob Sylvan and share a comment you are entered to win a free copy of his upcoming “Taking Stock” book – courtesy of Peachpit Press. Also, the monthly giveaway for 2 4GB Lexar Pro 300x CF cards is rolling and you can submit your photos to the Flickr thread here! Enjoy and good luck to all!

Migrating Photoshop to a New Computer

May 18, 2010 Jason3 Comments

Over the past three years or so, I’ve had several people ask me about what’s involved in migrating from one installation of Photoshop to another, or what’s involved in moving from an old system to a new system. With Photoshop, it’s just not as easy as it is with other applications for a number of reasons:

1. Dependencies – While Photoshop is insanely popular, this popularity has spawned an entire industry of third party applications called plug-ins that get installed into Photoshop. If you simply remove Photoshop without considering these 3rd party “apps”, you could lose their functionality. There are also other things that become part of your work flow in Photoshop that you may want to save too, including actions, scripts, font folders, brushes, and much more.

2. Licensing – Because it’s not a cheap application, Adobe has to carefully manage licensing, which means that any serial number can only be activated twice before it gets “locked”. This allows you to have an installation on a desktop and a laptop, or a work computer and a home computer. Well, if you go an just un-install or delete the files for Photoshop, you may find yourself unable to activate again should you re-install on a new computer. The way to avoid this is to ensure you de-authorize (or deactivate) before uninstalling. This will free up the license for use again.

3. Other add-ons – Photoshop also has other add-in elements like automation tasks you may have added over time. I have a few from On One, Topaz Labs, and a few others that I’ve gathered over time. Make sure you check to make sure these don’t have installers with licensing too, because that can also be problematic for a software migration.

4. System settings – Unlike e-mail, some settings and preferences don’t stay with you during the course of a migration. So, it’s often helpful to grab screen captures of various setup windows so that you can get things configured just right once you get in your new digs! Here are the 11 screens you may want to capture before un-installing off any computer:

As you can tell, there’s a lot to consider. And, given the length of this post already with the included screen captures, to make things easier in terms of reference information, I’ve put together a step-by-step procedure to migrate Photoshop from one computer to another that you can download for free! Enjoy!

Migrating Photoshop

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Keep on Shootin'!

May 12, 2010 Jason1 Comment

It’s been a while since an episode of LDP ran, but as we keep on shootin’ our way through life, so to does LDP continue on albeit not as frequently as any of us would like! Nevertheless, I get caught up somewhat on the photo news beat with some of the top stories over the past three weeks, have a great conversation with Tyler Stableford, a recent addition to the distinguished annals of the Canon Explorers of Light group. He’s been featured in photo magazines including Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and many more. A recent series on the Colorado F-16 fighter pilots is what caught my eye about him and we recently had a chance to chew the fat…on this show! Continue reading “Keep on Shootin'!” →

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Adobe CS5 FAQ

April 28, 2010 Jason6 Comments

Ever since Adobe announced the impending release of the latest Creative Suite 5, there have been many questions circulating in various online communities and outlets. Although I was not one of the beta testers, I’ve been following the developments rather closely, and have seen a lot of questions repeated over and over. Many of the answers to these questions I’ve put together from reading various reliable outlets, including Adobe web pages, reading content from Adobe folks blogs, and from the fountain of information available to me as a NAPP member (and if you’re not a NAPP member, you should consider becoming one – it’s probably one of the best deals out there, including educational materials, discounts, and a ton of other member benefits)!

So, without further ado – here’s the most common questions I’ve seen on Adobe Creative Suite 5:

1. I own ***** – can I upgrade to CS5?

Pick your product, it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s a single product upgrade (not part of a suite). If you want to upgrade to Photoshop, CS5, here’s the list of products that are eligible for the upgrade path to CS5, courtesy of Adobe (I added the product to my shopping cart, and got this list of eligible products and the pricing path (upsell versus an upgrade):

Photoshop Elements 6, 7, or 8 on Windows – (upsell = $599)
Photoshop Elements 4, 6, or 8 on Mac – (upsell = $599)
Photoshop CS4, CS3, or CS2 (Regular or Extended) – upgrade = $199

2. What if I purchased CS4 recently – do I have to pay for the upgrade to CS5 now too?

While there is no official “window” from Adobe, all indicators suggest that if you have recently purchased CS4, you may be able to get an upgrade. Some sites claim the window is between certain dates such as April 12th and August 10th, but I’ve not been able to verify this information independently so the site is not linked here

3. What about Lightroom – can I upgrade to Cs5 from that since it’s part of the Adobe Photoshop family?

No. Although there are similarities, Lightroom is a different software path than the Creative Suite, and you cannot upgrade from LR to CS5 anymore than you could upgrade a Dell to a Mac

4. Speaking of Macs, can I upgrade my Windows software to a Mac equivalent or vice versa?

Adobe does allow for this in what is called a “cross-grade”. You must sign a release that states you have destroyed the other media, and pay a small fee (I think it’s something like $20) to do this.

5. What about converting from one Suite of products to another, or converting to a single product?

While I don’t have the space to cover extensive details on the many options, and this is not official Adobe policy (I could not find anything specifically addressing all the possible conversions), I think it’s a safe assumption that you can downgrade from a more expensive suite to a lesser expensive suite or product, but not vice versa. So, say for instance you had the Master collection. It is likely that you could downgrade that to a web collection or a design premium. It is also likely that if you had a suite of products, you could downgrade to a single product within that suite. However, adding additional products to your existing ownership for free is not likely. As the old saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

6. Are there any discounts available?

Of course there are – and if you are an eligible member of any one of a number of communities, you are eligible for discounts on products from Adobe. The most common ones I know of include educational discounts, governmental agencies, and NAPP. The other question that usually arises from the “discount” one is whether you can apply multiple discounts, and the answer here is no…Adobe does restrict you to one discount per purchase, so if you are a NAPP member and also a teacher or college student, you cannot apply both discounts. Pick the one that gives you the best savings, and be happy to are eligible – many people are not.

7. So, where do I purchase CS5?

You can’t yet – the announcement that Adobe made was kind of a teaser, to build excitement and to sort of “ramp up” for the eventual release date. It’s all part of the marketing, hype, and advertising of upcoming products. Also, keep in mind that Adobe, like any other software developer, has approved channels for distribution. So, when it does become available, make sure you find a reseller in your area through their partner page.

8. When will it be available for purchase?

Well, you can pre-order it any time you want. But if you want an official release date, take a seat with everyone else outside of Adobe headquarters, because that information is not available (that I can find anyway). There are several indicators that suggest the release will be in early to mid-May based on their history (Adobe usually does product releases on about an 18 month cycle, or ever year and a half) with the Creative Suite of products.

9. What are the differences in all the packages?

Excellent question! This is the one that vexes a lot of people, but thankfully, Adobe has put together a comparision page that not only show syou the products that go into each package, but the retail cost of each. Rather than regurgitate all that information here in some confusing chart, simply bookmark this link: Adobe Product Comparison Chart

10. Are you going to upgrade?

Yes I am. I will probably not be an early adopter, primarily because I have a couple other purchases to make first (hardware, a lens, and some lighting gear), but the advancements in CS5 are probably among the most significant of any version in the last 7 years! I may also need to upgrade my computers to handle the processing requirements.

That’s it – the top ten questions I’ve seen (and been asked) about Creative Suite 5! Got your own questions? I may not have the answers, but I can either give you my best guess, or pass the question on to someone who may know the answer, so feel free to sound off in the comments. Also, if I got anything wrong, or if you can shed additional light, all contributions are welcome!

Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

CHDK is Cool!

April 7, 2010 Jason5 Comments

So, while debating the intervalometer cost implications for my SLR – I decided to give the Canon CHDK a run for its money. After downloading the CHDK for the A590 and making sure it didn’t break the camera I went out in search of an intervalometer script. I think it’s a VB script, but can’t be sure…nevertheless the results were kind of fun!

I tried to include as much info in the teaser as possible, but if anyone has questions on how I did all this, feel free to share your questions (or feedback if you prefer) in the comments or vial email! Here’s a dry run of my daily commute home (if only the real time commute went that fast!):

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Happy shooting! If you have your own time lapse productions, feel free to link them in the comments too! See you back here again tomorrow… 🙂

What is it about Bridges?

February 25, 2010 Jason3 Comments

As the popularity of this theme continues to grow, I am really having more fun culling through my own archives, and have several ideas for actually getting out and shooting even more “themed” sets. However, today, I present to you (courtesy of my wife, who astutely remembered that I shoot a lot of…):

Bridges

What is it About Rocks?

February 23, 2010 Jason3 Comments

Hmmm….seems I have a new series theme going on here – people keep asking when the next series will be posted and are also asking me for specific series sets of photos. I am not sure I have the library of images to accommodate everything, but that just gives me motivation for subject matter whenever I go out shooting again! So, if you have a series that you’d like to see from me – suggest it in the comments or via email! For the time being, here’s another popular set from the library of yours truly:

Rocks

There’s the latest “set” for everyone’s viewing enjoyment. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments with your thoughts as we are always learning from one another! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

5 Tips to Better Landscapes

January 28, 2010 Jason7 Comments

The most common questions I get here on the blog center around the idea of how to take better pictures. Whether those “better pictures” are better landscapes, or portraits, wildlife or events, everyone wants suggestions on how to approach the practice of taking pictures better. Esoteric and creative considerations aside, there are some fundamental “tricks of the trade” that, by and large, will almost always improve your craft in pretty much any genre. So, today, I thought I would take a moment to share 5 “tricks” I’ve learned that always lead to better landscapes: Continue reading “5 Tips to Better Landscapes” →

Against my better judgement…

January 27, 2010 Jason2 Comments

For those of you that have been following the blog for a long time (and let me know who you are, because I want to ask why!), you may recall that I used to put out video tutorials on how to do various things inside of Photoshop. After plodding around with that for a while, I came across the gurus of NAPP and realized that several were already doing it, and doing it much better than I ever could. So, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I abandoned the video tutorials in favor of just sharing my “wisdom” in the form of the written word (blog posts and articles) and audio tips (which are now part of the Learning Digital Photography podcast).

Well, when I recently twittered with excitement over the newly released calendar of some of my favorite images for 2010, someone asked me about the template I used to create those images. I honestly answered that I didn’t really use a template as the website www.lulu.com just let me upload the images and they handled the rest. On realizing that they were talking about the images on my Photography Website, I recalled that a template was used for those images. I could have done a written post about this, but those take a lot of time to put together (lots of screen grabs, lots of writing, and lots of uploading), so I instead decided to put together a new video on how to create a template for your photos inside of Photoshop. The video may take some time to load, so please be patient as this is a self-hosted video production! 🙂

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Keep in mind – this is just one way – in Photoshop there are always many ways to reach similar results, and as the old adage says, there’s more than one way to skin a cat! Anyway, this is for you @mitz! Enjoy, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! Oh, and lest we forget, there are very few days left in the January giveaway! For your chance to win a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft, get your Circle-themed photos in the Flickr Contest Thread by midnight on Friday (Mountain Time – GMT-7).

P.S. For those that like my videos and want to see the archives, check out the Learning Resource Page from the sidebar for more materials. And as an additional side note, this is post #600. No fuss, no muss, no fanfare, but yet somehow I landed back on video tutorials – which is kind of how it all started! Somehow, ,ind of poetic, eh? 🙂

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Portrait or Landscape

January 22, 2010 Jason3 Comments

One of the more common questions when it comes to composing images is whether to shoot with the camera oriented in the landscape or the portrait position (horizontal or vertical). As always, the answer is usually along the lines of “it depends…”

There are some instances though when a portrait orientation is more conducive and others where a landscape is equally superior. For instance – if you want to have your images published in magazines, portrait mode might work better primarily because that is how magazines are typically laid out. Calendars, on the other hand, because of the opposing orientation, are more inclined toward landscape setups. Your subject matter can also dictate preferred setups too…portrait mode is called portrait mode for a reason – it is particularly well suited to photos of people. Likewise, landscape mode is also named that way because scenes and vistas (landscapes) typically extend from left to right and not top to bottom.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, when a landscape orientation may work for a particular portrait, or a vertical orientation make work for a group setting of people. So, which one should you shoot? My easy answer is to shoot both for any particular scene. Often what I will do is if I find a subject that I want to capture to make a picture, I will shoot it four ways:

Portrait
Landscape
Zoomed in
Zoomed out

The latter two is a subject for another post some day, but for today, I thought it’d a be a fun way to cue up the weekend by reminding everyone to try shooting more ways than one – the results may surprise you!

A final reminder for the week too – there are only seven days left in the January circles themed Flickr Giveaway. The winner will enjoy a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft. Is your picture in? Don’t delay, submit today! 🙂 Happy shooting all and we’ll see you here next week!