Photography.ca » Photography tips

137 — 5 Photography Resolutions For the New year

Marko Kulik — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 08:57:53 +0000

Photography podcast #137 finally returns to offer up 5 realistic photography resolutions that we can make for the upcoming year. Happy New year Everyone!!!

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to or download this (almost)10 minute podcast.

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You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!!

Photoshop file exposure and exif data

Marko Kulik — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:55:08 +0000

When we are working on our images in programs like Photoshop, sometimes we forget the exposure information in the original file. We can also forget many other useful bits of information that are embedded in the file like did the flash fire, what focal length was used etc.

In Lightroom and Bridge (comes free with Photoshop) this Exif data is easy to find, the default program settings reveal this information clearly. Not so in Photoshop where it is buried under the file menu (in Windows).

File — File info.… reveals the Exif data for any image you are working on in Photoshop. Click on the Camera Data tab to see the exposure information.

The keyboard short cut (Windows) ALT + SHIFT + CTRL +I does the same thing.
The keyboard short cut (Mac) OPTION + SHIFT + COMMAND +I does the same thing.

How to find exposure or exif data in Photoshop (This is a CS6 windows screenshot)

How to find exposure or exif data in Photoshop (This is a CS5 Mac screenshot)

104 — Backing up images like a pro versus a bonehead

Marko Kulik — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:41:34 +0000

Photography podcast #104 discusses strategies for backing up your images. One of my external hard drives that held tens of thousands of images failed recently. Even though I had a duplicate of the images on another drive, the duplicates were poorly arranged. This got me thinking about better and safer backup strategies. I’d DEFINITELY appreciate hearing about YOUR backup strategies.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– Crashplan.com
– Backblaze.com
– Carbonite.com
– Amazon S3 services calculator

- “Transportation” is our regular forum assignment for February
– Intentional Overexposure is our level 2 assignment for February

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

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If you are still lurking on our forum,
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Thanks to skcazador, amber, cartman75 and Glenn Iguanasan Euloth who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

103 — Photography umbrella for rain and snow

Marko Kulik — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:11:54 +0000

Photography podcast #103 talks about a wet weather photography umbrella contraption that I recently put together. Basically it’s a GIANT golf umbrella and a sling.
I’ve been shooting a lot in the rain and snow lately and sometimes you need to have both hands free. This umbrella contraption allows you to keep both hands on the camera and works well in heavy rain or snow so long as it’s not too windy.

This giant 68″ double canopy Gustbuster golf umbrella in a sling gives you close to 30 inches of dry shooting when it’s not too windy.

A close-up of the sling I purchased from brellabag.com — It’s pricey at $30. but works well when the sling is loaded with heavier items like a long lens or bottle of water.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– Golftown.com
– Gustbuster umbrellas
– Brellabag.com
– Podcast #88 — Rain photography
- “Lights” is our regular forum assignment for December
– Ugly ducklings — looking for beauty in everything is our level 2 assignment for December

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to cartman75, Benny and Gale who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

102 — Layering images with interesting elements

Marko Kulik — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:43:59 +0000

Photography podcast #102 discusses layering your photographs with interesting elements. This involves serious attention to the overall composition of every frame that you take.
If you are taking a shot of a mountain for example, there’s always more to the shot than just the mountain. When you are aware of what’s around the mountain and take the time to “layer” the image with interesting elements, the composition as a whole gets much stronger. We also touch on how to refine those “layered elements” in post processing.

Athabaska River Reflecting Pools at Sunrise by Marko Kulik — Banff National Park — Alberta, Canada. As you can see this shot is about more than just the mountain which is in the background. The foreground, midground and background “layered” elements all contribute to the overall composition in this scene.

Sometimes you feel like a nut — Image by Lisa Couldwell. Even scenes using larger apertures benefit from “layered elements”. Here, Lisa focuses on the nut medallion but the tire in the background is a repeating shape that adds interest to the image. The diagonal lines in the image help to guide your eye. The composition here is very deliberate.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– Improving boring landscapes
- Images that compliment SONG titles or Book titles is our regular forum assignment for November
– Intentional camera movement is our level 2 assignment for November

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Scorpio_e, Melissa Dorner, Josh G, Mathias, Avital Pinnick, Henry. b, and Jill bayer who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

101 — Intentional Camera Movement — Interview with Michael Orton

Marko Kulik — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:51:52 +0000

Photography podcast #101 features an interview with one of my favorite photographers, fine art photographer Michael Orton. In this podcast we talk about deliberately moving your camera during the exposure. Normally, this is FORBIDDEN and you do everything in your power to keep the camera as still as possible while shooting. But Michael has a very unique way of seeing and has again broken the rules. He has created a unique and fabulous new portfolio of one-of-a-kind abstract landscape images, by way of intentional camera movement. This podcast discusses intentional camera movements for creative effect.

Michael Orton is a fine art photography pioneer. First he created Orton Imagery, AKA the Orton effect some 30ish years ago. This technique has been used by tens of thousands of photographers and has become so popular that Adobe Elements 10 now features an action called the Orton Effect. I’d bet hard that Michael’s technique involving compound camera movements also develops a cult-like following in the years to come. Thanks so much Michael!

: Awakening by Michael Orton — The abstract painterly feel to this image was created IN CAMERA by using Intentional camera movement.

: Michael Orton at ‘Work’ — Image by Marko Kulik

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– Michael Orton Photography
- Michael Orton’s feature on Photography.ca
– 67 – Orton Imagery – The Orton Effect – Interview with Michael Orton and Darwin Wiggett — Podcast #67
– Photographing Creative Landscapes by Michael Orton: Simple Tools for Artistic Images and Enhanced Creativity

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Patrick, Bambi and Glenn Euloth who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

100 — Shoot in any light

Marko Kulik — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:38:29 +0000

Photography podcast #100 celebrates our 100th photography podcast and focuses on the tag line of the podcast which is ‘keep on shooting’ in any light.

I’d like to take this moment to thank all our listeners! Your support and encouragement during these past 100 episodes has been awesome. Thanks for all the feedback, all the comments and all the contributions. Special thanks as well to all the guests that have shared their knowledge so freely. More interviews are planned for the future.

In this podcast I offer up tips on how to shoot in any light so long as it suits the subject.

: I shot this image at about 2pm. The light that most of the ducks were resting in was bright and harsh. Had I shot this duck in that direct light, the shadows would have been too harsh. This particular duck though was resting under a shelter that softened the light and the soft light suited this subject far better and holds details in the blacks and the whites. Straight shot — No flash was used here.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– How to photograph with hard light — Podcast #97
– Rain photography — Podcast #88
– Studio lighting for beginners — Podcast #33
– September’s regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Yellow
– September’s level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Macros of any kind

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Rob vE, Rich, Anuj, Photo art cafe and Best who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

99 — Controlling brightness in photography

Marko Kulik — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:33:02 +0000

Photography podcast #99 discusses how to control brightness in your images. Our eye tends to follow or rest upon bright objects in a photograph and very often these objects or elements are not the focal point of the image thus causing our eyes to wander.

Controlling the brighter elements in a scene takes some planning during shooting, and some work in post-processing but ultimately your images will be stronger. You’ll also have way more control over the final image where you the creator of the image guide the viewer’s eye purposefully.

Brightness is well controlled in this image. Along with compositional curves, part of what makes this image work is that other bright elements in the scene are not competing with the bride. All eyes are on her as she makes her entrance. Image by Dominic Fuizzotto

Image by Richard Sparey — This lovely image of delicious pears suffers slightly from what I call weak edges. This causes our eye to wander out of the frame. It’s more noticeable on printed white paper or on a pure white background.

The same image with the edges burnt in (darkened) quite a bit to show the effect. This helps keep our eyes from wandering. Thanks to Richard for allowing me to use this image.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
– August’s regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Numbers — Photograph something with a number
– August’s level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Creating counterpoints
– Brightness problems and distracting elements — Podcast #44
– Neutral density filters and graduated ND filters — Interview with Darwin Wiggett — Podcast #77
– Dominic Fuizzotto Photography
– Richard Sparey Photography

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to forum members Northstone, Scorpio_e, Howard J, Yisehaq, Bill Sorensen and useakme who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Watch Your Backgrounds by Kristen Smith

Marko Kulik — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:53:57 +0000

Watching what is going on in the background is useful advice, not only for cops in urban shoot-outs, but also for close up and macro photographers. Because bokeh and depth of field are such prominent aspects of these types of shots, you really have to watch the background to make sure it complements your subject and doesn’t compete with it. Sometimes I get so focused on the subject itself that the background just fades away. And because often times a subject is far away from the background, things just don’t get noticed.

With this shot, I was so intensely involved with the flowers that I didn’t really “see” my backpack which was about 4 feet away and clearly in view. I really needed to stop and look at the whole scene, but I didn’t. Sometimes it can take a few minutes to settle into the groove and start practicing good habits and by the time I got diligent, it was too late for this one.

Photograph by Kristen Smith

In addition to watching the far background, keep an eye out for stray items close to the subject that might distract the eye. So many times I get my pictures home only to find some annoying leaf, pine needle or branch. Ugh. I find that using Live View not only makes taking the photo easier, but gives you a 2D image to look at right away. Many times I catch bad compositional elements this way. Check out this series of shots that illustrate how I cleaned up my shot –

Photograph by Kristen Smith

Hmm that background doesn’t do the flower any favors, does it? I need to make the flower really pop out of the bokeh, not just sit there in it. That stump has got to go. Luckily at this magnification and perspective, very small movements make for very big changes.

Photograph by Kristen Smith

I barely moved my camera, but the difference in background works so much better. But this time I notice two things – one, there’s a lot of light playing the backdrop and I have to time the shot right so that it is more uniform back there and there aren’t any hot spots to detract from the flowers, two, there are a few stray pine needles and that leaf in the bottom right isn’t contributing anything good. I pluck those out of the way and lo and behold there’s moss under that leaf and when I judge the light to be the best — Presto!

Photograph by Kristen Smith

So as you can see, the process can take a few steps to get a useable image. The key is to develop good habits.

Stop and look at the whole scene, background and foreground and evaluate each aspect including the light if it’s variable
Remove distracting things like sticks and leaves
Change camera position for more harmonious backgrounds and foregrounds
Use Live View to see how the 3D translates to 2D

Hopefully this helps you in the field the next time you’re doing close-up and macro work. Got any to share? Feel free to log in to the Photography.ca forum and start a thread.

For more of Kristen’s outdoor photography and other articles visit wickeddarkphotography.com

98 — 3 reasons you SHOULD crop photos

Marko Kulik — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:36:40 +0000

Photography podcast #98 talks about why it’s OK to crop photos.
Many photographers on the Net and throughout Photography’s history seem to be against cropping and in this podcast I explain why I am NOT one of them.

Guerrillero Heroico by Alberto Korda — The cropped photograph of Che Guevara is one of the most recognizable photos on planet earth. Although the original is still a strong photograph, unlikely it would have become the icon it is without the crop.

Pablo Picasso by Arnold Newman — Arnold Newman was a strong believer in doing whatever worked to improve his photographs. This obviously included cropping out about 65% of this very famous portrait.

Igor Stravinsky by Arnold Newman — Most people would agree that the cropped version of this photograph is much stronger. In this case, less is WAY more in this unusual but extremely effective crop.

Woman at the Door by Marko Kulik — This crop is unconventional and deliberate but I feel it helps the image and that’s the only reason it’s there.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
July’s regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — My city OR my country
July’s level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Creative use of my country’s flag

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to forum members Jimmy, Scorpio_e, and Brendan who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Short Photography Excursions by Ron Cardinale

Marko — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:04:57 +0000

For a lot of us, one big way we work on our photography skills is by making short excursions that may be only a few hours long or even less. These brief sojourns can help us refine our craft. There’s a famous saying that luck favors the prepared. I’ve got some favorite locations, which have changed over the years. Being familiar with them at various times of the day, various times of the year, and with different weather conditions is really helpful. Sometimes, these practice shots have had a drama that wasn’t in my mind when I left the house. This picture resulted from both preparedness and luck. (The location is in Foster City which isn’t too far south of San Francisco.)

Image by Ron Cardinale

I’ve walked the shore of this lagoon many times. On this morning, a storm was approaching from the Pacific. I had an idea of what to expect so I had my wide angle zoom with me and used it at 12mm for this shot. The luck part of it was being there at the right time to catch these dramatic clouds with unusually still water. I’d taken a few other shots around the lagoon that morning but I like this one the best because the clouds and their reflection appear to converge directly across the lagoon. Despite the calm conditions on the ground, the clouds were moving along so I didn’t have a lot of time. The converging pattern was vanishing and I could see that the clouds that were moving in weren’t as dramatic as these.

One issue with such a wide angle lens when shooting a scene with bright clouds is that the lens sees a lot of those clouds so the camera’s meter very often reduces the exposure and the shot ends-up too dark. In previous shots, I had increased the exposure but that caused the loss of too much highlight detail in the clouds. The clouds are a key part of the image so it was important to hold detail in them. For this shot, I used the camera’s normal metering. The exposure was 1/500 at f/8 with ISO 100. The resulting image was dark but it held details in the clouds except right were the sun was.

I made some adjustments later at the computer. I made a quasi HDR photo from different processings of the single raw image and also made a curves adjustment. A real HDR image sequence wasn’t feasible in this situation because the clouds were moving and the water wasn’t completely still. Have fun and keep shooting!
Read a little more from Ron Cardinale at http://roncardinale.110mb.com

97 — How to photograph with hard light

Marko Kulik — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:13:34 +0000

Photography podcast #97 is a primer on how to use hard light. Hard light is trickier to use than soft light but there is NO reason to avoid using it. It just needs to be used appropriately. Part of using hard light and shadow in photography is being very aware of where the shadows will fall and changing your position or your lighting if you don’t like where they fall.

Here’s a couple of basic points when using hard light in photography:

- Hard light comes from a small light source relative to your subject. The sun IS a small light source in this respect because it is 93 million miles away from the earth.
- Hard light produces hard shadows which are good in many cases especially to reveal form.
- The farther the light source is from the subject, the HARDER the shadows.
- The farther away the light source is from the subject, the SHORTER the shadows.

To prove this to yourself take a flashlight into the bathroom and shut off the lights. Shine the light on your finger in front of the wall. Move the light around and you will learn a ton about shadows.

Hard light demo — The image at left shows a shadow from direct hard sunlight. Moments later some very light clouds diffuse the sunlight to create a softer shadow at right. Had the sky been completely overcast (very soft light) almost no shadows would be present and this image would lose its punch and be totally boring. © Marko Kulik

Image by BzdegaPhotography — The hard light totally works in this image despite the flare.

Carmy Working by Marko Kulik — One hard light at camera left creates a shadow that adds to the gritty flavour of the shot

Their Objects by Marko Kulik — Candle light is hard light. This shot took quite a while to set up due to thinking about where the shadows would fall.

Judy Garland by George Hurrell — 1944. This striking portrait was shot 67 years ago by lighting master George Hurrell. The very dark shadows attest to the hard light used here.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
June’s regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Breaking the rules
June’s level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Creative self portraits

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to forum members NorthStone, Wicked Dark, Howard J, KawarthaBob and Jonny Hotshoe who posted blog comments about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

96 — Tripods for photography (the good stuff)

Marko Kulik — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:56:23 +0000

Photography podcast #96 is a primer on how to buy a great tripod, what to look for in a tripod and why you should buy a great tripod. (In the longrun, if you stick with photography long enough, you will be buying a great tripod eventually anyway)

If you are serious enough about your photography that you save money to buy great lenses, then this podcast won’t scare the crap out of you.

If you are into the cheap stuff, and are more concerned about overall price versus overall quality, be afraid — be very afraid.

Tripods and heads for photography

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Tripod article by Thom Hogan — a must read
Gitzo GT2540LLVL tripod at B&H
Manfrotto 055 Tripod plus 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head w/ Quick Release at B&H
The following companies make recommended ballheads — Arca Swiss — Acratech — Really Right Stuff - Markins — Gitzo — Manfrotto
Cheaper Carbon fiber tripods by Induro — Benbo (Remember to research and TRY specific individual models)
April’s regular assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Geometric shapes
April’s level 2 assignment on the Photography.ca forum — Creative underexposure

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to forum member Benny who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Bokeh baby! by Kristen Smith

Kristen Smith — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:09:20 +0000

Aside from the razor-sharp subject, one of the most important elements of any close-up or macro picture is bokeh. It is a funny concept that has many interpretations and is definitely one of the more subjective elements of photography. I’m not going to debate those, but I want to talk a little bit about how the deliberate use of bokeh can help strengthen your images. Before I get going though, definitely listen to this mini-podcast from Martin Bailey on how to pronounce bokeh and its etymological history and cultural meaning.

In its simplest photographic definition bokeh refers to the out of focus areas of a picture. Mostly the meaning is applied to photographs where there is a specific subject in the immediate foreground. Not always a close up or macro, but not really a landscape either where some of the photo might not be in crisp focus. Bokeh is a product of shallow depth of field which is achieved by a wide aperture relative to the length of the lens.

One of the most dramatic uses of bokeh is to separate your subject from the background. Especially if the background is very busy. Rendering it smoothly out of focus makes things really pop –

Joyeuse by Kristen Smith

One of my favorite bokeh techniques is to echo the main subject exactly. Your imagination can easily fill in the missing detail because it resembles the sharp subject so much. The echo reinforces the main idea, but also gives your brain something to play with. The trick is to utilize an aperture that will simultaneously allow you to recognize the out of focus object and leave it fuzzy. I love this technique –

Vinca by Kristen Smith

I also love how bokeh can create atmosphere in a photo – mostly a gauzy, dreamy effect. It doesn’t work in all circumstances, but if you are working in the right light it is beautiful. With this kind of image, the subject most often is the bokeh itself with the sharply focused parts playing supporting roles only.

Birch by Kristen Smith

The digital age is a real help when experimenting with bokeh because you can see your shot immediately and use live view and depth of field preview to fine-tune each one. Get to know your lens by shooting objects at different apertures and focal lengths then studying the effect. Think about what kind of photo you want to make and how bokeh can emphasize your photo’s intent.

Got any good bokeh shots? Feel free to add them in comments or join the Photography.ca forum and start a thread.

For more of Kristen’s outdoor photography and other articles visit wickeddarkphotography.com

Photo Editing On The Cheap by Glenn Euloth

Glenn Euloth — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:44:54 +0000

I love photography and as much as I try to get the image right in camera when I press the shutter release there are just some times when you need adjust some overexposed bits or possibly do some custom editing to create a miniature look or selective colouring. Whatever the reason might be there will be times when you need to edit your images. A full out copy of Photoshop is more than $500. Even Photoshop Elements clocks in at $100 or so which is not super expensive but still, if I have an extra $100 I’m putting it towards a new lens or maybe that new tripod that I need.

In my last blog for Photography.ca I wrote about Picasa. Picasa does a wonderful job of basic photo editing, however, it just doesn’t cut it for anything really detailed. When I need more detailed editing capabilities I use Gimp. Gimp is a wonderful piece of software available for free use for Windows and Mac users as well as the original Unix platform. A companion product called ufRAW, also free, allows Gimp to open and edit RAW image files and since I shoot almost exclusively in RAW format it was a necessary add-on.

Gimp will do a lot more than I am capable of doing and I have still used it to do some amazing things. Like Photoshop it allows you to edit images using multiple layers, has many different filters and scripts that can change the look of your images (or parts of it) and also provides many different tools to work on your images. In this blog post I’ll edit an image and provide some screen shots to give you an idea of the capabilities of this wonderful piece of software, however, to really learn how to use it visit the tutorials page on the Gimp site.

In order to give you the broadest tour possible I will take an original image where I’ve done a fair bit of work on the image and walk you through the editing steps that I took to get it the way I wanted. Some of you out there may be much better at photo editing and so you will undoubtedly see areas where I am doing something wrong. Please feel free to comment below so I can learn more about how to do this stuff properly.

Let’s start with this photograph of a butterfly. Here’s the JPEG version created by exporting from Picasa with default settings. All things considered it’s not a horrible shot of the butterfly but the composition is kind of blah and the butterfly’s camouflage makes it difficult to see. Let’s open it in Gimp to see what we can do with this boring image.

First up, since it’s a RAW and I have ufRAW installed it automatically opens in ufRAW for me. Here I can make adjustments to the RAW image before jumping into the Gimp editor proper. For this image I’m going to make a few adjustments here so I end up in Gimp with the basics already completed. This is the general process for me.

From Picasa I right click and select Open in Gimp.
It automatically opens in ufRAW because it’s a RAW image.
I’ve clipped a few highlights 0.1% and so I adjust the black levels a touch to eliminate those.
I then adjust the curves to boost the overall exposure to where I like the image.
Using the crop/rotate/size adjust tab I select a pleasing crop which puts the butterfly on an intersection of thirds and gives him space to “fly into”. Note the grid lines allow me to do this easily.
Clicking OK transfers the image into Gimp for further editing where I adjust the colour levels and pump up the saturation on this one to give that butterfly a little more life.
Next, I’m going to do some selective colouring to really make him stand out. So, I’ll duplicate the layer so I now have two butterflies.
Change the top layer to B&W and create a layer mask that I paint through to expose the butterfly.
I switched to the colour layer and added a touch of unsharp mask to sharpen up the image.
Last, to finish it off, I add a couple of borders, first white, then black and save as a JPEG.

1 2
3 4

5 6a

6b 6c

7 8a

8b 8c

9a 9b

10a 10b

That’s it! Here’s the result:

Living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Glenn Euloth enjoys travelling on the photographic journey. Visit www.euloth.com to join him on the trip or find him on our photography forum under the nickname of Iguanasan.

95 — Larry King family portrait — Interview with Laszlo of Montreal

Marko Kulik — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:57:45 +0000

Photography podcast #95 features an interview with Canadian photographer Laszlo of Montreal. In this interview Laszlo talks about a recent portrait session with Larry King and his family. In an effort to illustrate how keeping it simple can yield great results, Laszlo deconstructs this photograph while talking about lighting, composition and technique.

Larry King family © Laszlo of Montreal

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Show us your parks is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Macro — closeup is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum
If you liked this podcast and want to write a testimonial, it’s a great way to say “Thanks” and it’s super-appreciated

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to forum member Glenn Euloth (AKA Iguanasan on our forum) who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Graven Images – Ideas for Cemetery Photography by Kristen Smith

Kristen Smith — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:23:48 +0000

Strange as it may seem to some, I find cemeteries peaceful places and I enjoy spending time in them. I also enjoy photographing them. I’m mostly fascinated by the overall aesthetic of a cemetery, how the stones are placed, the ways they’ve shifted and changed over time, the carvings and motifs through the decades, decorative arrangements like walls and gates; it all fascinates me and I do my best to capture the essence of a graveyard whenever I shoot one.

Haunting the Obscure by Kristen Smith

There are some general guidelines you should follow when shooting burial grounds. The first thing to remember is to be respectful. These places represent lives and history and often sorrow. If there are mourners or visitors present, give them space. Don’t crash a ceremony.

Also don’t touch or move anything with respect to the graves themselves. If one is damaged or fallen over, leave it. Sometimes branches or other debris fall on monuments and I always leave those as well, unless it is photographically in the way. I also avoid climbing over anything I don’t have to like walls or gates. And I never remove anything from a gravesite and I can’t imagine doing so.

Angle of Repose by Kristen Smith

My main interest is in old cemeteries. Luckily in New England we have the oldest European cemeteries in the country and I’m never short of subjects. Whatever your particular interest is, find ways to accentuate what you find interesting. It might be particularly moving epitaphs, or artwork and common decorative motifs or maybe just finding stones of people with your name. Personally I like to show the overall structure and character of a cemetery as well as highlight some of the oldest or most interesting headstones. Decaying stones are always terrific subjects; lichen, cracks, weathering and even outright destruction can make for really interesting images.

Harriet Obscured by Kristen Smith

I will admit that after years of shooting in cemeteries it does get tougher to come up with original compositions. Sometimes approaching a grave yard in a different season helps, like winter. Sometimes it means getting there at a certain time of day so that carvings are brought up strongly with shadows. Sometimes it means finding unusual perspectives and including other things like walls and gates in my compositions. Frequently I use different post-processing techniques to bring out what I want in a photo. This doesn’t always mean black and white or sepia, but I do use them since they especially suit the older burial grounds I haunt.

Keeping Watch by Kristen Smith

So don’t be afraid to step into that cemetery near your house. Explore it respectfully, photograph it creatively and walk away with a sense of history.

Kristen Smith is a New England photographer whose cemetery work can be found in her Graven Images Gallery

94 — Turning day into night

Marko Kulik — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:32:45 +0000

Photography podcast #94 teaches how to turn day into night or late afternoon for portrait purposes. This technique is often used by wedding, fashion and portrait photographers. The goal of the technique is to make the sky look darker so that the model pops against the sky. This often adds mood and/or drama to a shot. We discuss 2 techniques; using flash and camera in manual non TTL (Through the lens) mode as well as TTL mode. We also touch on flash sync speeds.

This image looks like it was shot in the late afternoon but it was shot at 1pm. Camera mode was aperture priority using TTL flash. Exposure compensation was set to –3 on camera and +2 for the direct on camera flash. I would have taken the flash off camera for a better lighting pattern but it was minus 15 C and my model only had 5 minutes in her.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Show us your parks is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Macro — closeup is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum
If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to kat, Wicked Dark and Shant M who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Managing Photos with Picasa by Glenn Euloth

Marko Kulik — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:45:27 +0000

I am a geek and I have been a geek for a long time. ‚So, when I first started managing my digital images I never thought I could trust a piece of software to look after the files on my computer. ‚I would use Windows Explorer to copy the files off of my camera and into a folder on my hard drive. ‚If I wanted to edit an image I would make a copy first and then edit the copy. ‚It worked great but it was very time consuming.

I tried the Kodak software that came with my first point and shoot but it was very slow and clunky and didn‚„t come with a decent image editor so I gave up on it and went back to copying files in Windows.

Google bought Picasa from Idealab in 2004, branded it, and started giving it away as a free download. ‚The Google fan-boy that I am I decided to give it a try and it was instant software love. ‚I don‚„t know how much of it was Idealab and how much of it was Google but I found Picasa to be a wonderful piece of software that did everything I needed in a slick, easy to use package.

First up was image import. ‚I no longer had to launch two explorer windows, create a folder and copy the files from my SD card to the new folder. ‚Instead, inserting the SD card into my laptop automatically launches a window that asks me if I want to import the files into Picasa. ‚All I have to do is click OK. ‚Picasa looks after the copy process and deletes all the images off the SD card after confirming the copy so I‚„m ready to go shooting again.

Next is the easy editing tools. ‚Once the image is in Picasa I can quickly navigate to an image and perform a number of easy edits.

Picasa software — Click to enlarge

Red-eye removal
Saturation and sharpening
Convert to black and white or sepia
Crop to any dimension or aspect ratio
Facial recognition
Straighten the image
Tag and Geotag
And much, much more…

Not only do the edit tools work easily and quickly but Picasa automatically creates a backup copy of the image and performs the edits on the copy so if you make a mistake or if you want a copy of the original you can always find it or revert back.

I ran into a bit of problem organizing my images initially as I was not using Picasa so I had created a 2009 folder and in it I created January, February, March, etc. ‚After I started using Picasa I had a very simple way to upload images to PicasaWeb for sharing with just a click of a button, however, it used the folder name as the album name on PicasaWeb. ‚This became a problem when I started uploading ‚“January‚ images from 2010 as they got put in the same album on PicasaWeb.

To solve this problem I developed the following strategy: ‚At the beginning of the month I create a folder in Picasa with the format YYYY-MM (Monthname), so for example I have 2011-01 (January), 2011-02 (February), etc. ‚This allows me to store and manage the images by date without worrying about duplicates and when I want my holiday photos I can easily search for ‚“December‚.

If you are not sure how to manage your photos or if the software you are using is awkward and not working well for you then I highly recommend you‚download and install it. ‚At the very least you should check out the‚video. ‚Come back next month and I‚„ll talk about advanced image editing without having to spend a lot of money on expensive software.

Living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Glenn Euloth enjoys travelling on the photographic journey. ‚Visit‚www.euloth.com to join him on the trip or find him on our photography forum under the nickname of Iguanasan.

Three Basic Rules of Close-Up Photography by Kristen Smith

Kristen Smith — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 14:11:31 +0000

So you want to get close, huh? ‚Close-up photography is magical and can be done with almost any lens, even your normal zoom lens (all of these shots were taken with the Zuiko Digital 12-60mm zoom, not a macro lens). ‚Sure, serious macro photography requires specialized equipment, but you can get good results right away using what you have if you remember a few guidelines.

First ‚œ get close! ‚So many times I see ‚Ëœclose-up‚„ pictures that include way too much in the frame. ‚Like a flower image that shows other flowers, leaves, a fence, the dirt etc. ‚That‚„s not a close-up. ‚The reason good close-up and macro photos are so magical is that they show us a world we might not ordinarily notice. ‚Here‚„s what to do, find out how close your lens will focus and then try and stick to that as much as possible. ‚My ZD 12-60mm lets me get a couple inches from my subject and does a good enough job that I can sometimes leave my macro lens at home.

Ice Crystals by Kristen Smith

Second ‚œ isolate! ‚Close-up photographs are much more effective when the subject is clearly separated from the rest of the scene. ‚You can do this in two ways, first by choosing a subject that doesn‚„t have anything near enough to be in the frame with it. ‚So pick that flower or mushroom that doesn‚„t have any friends. The second way you can isolate your subject is by opening your lens to a large aperture. ‚Doing this limits your depth of field and creates an out of focus background also known as bokeh. ‚Of course sharp focus on your main subject is critical, so be careful. ‚Watch the shutter speeds and use a tripod if necessary.

Chicory Blossom by Kristen Smith

Third ‚œ surprise! ‚Show me something different. ‚Oh gee, another flower picture. ‚Yay. ‚How about a bug? ‚Yawn. ‚A leaf? ‚Zzzzz. ‚Sorry, I‚„m not really dumping on any of these things, but haven‚„t we all seen a million of them? ‚I‚„m just as guilty of it. ‚After a while they‚„re all the same and it takes an effort to bring something different to the world of close-up photography. ‚Find it. ‚Whatever it takes, find something unusual about an everyday object or something you hardly ever see photographed. ‚Try new angles, perspectives, juxtapositions, play with depth of field, background, color combinations; anything to help your image break free of sameness.

Broken Cork by Kristen Smith

So that should get you started. ‚Get close, isolate and surprise me! ‚Feel free to post comments with links to your best close-up photos or share them on the‚forum.

My Website = www.wickeddarkphotography.com and I’m based in New Hampshire, USA

Photographing Architectural Abstracts by Lisa Couldwell

Lisa Couldwell — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:15:09 +0000

Living in the downtown core of a large city with some interesting glass towers makes for great opportunities to shoot urban architectural abstracts. The beauty of this type of photography is that sometimes uncooperative weather or light can make for some great opportunities to catch building reflections. So any day I feel the need to get out for a walk, I take my camera and head downtown to see what the towers will offer up for opportunities.

I guess the most important aspect of shooting these types of subjects is the ability to look up, vertical, sideways, basically any way that gives one a different perspective. When shooting, look for interesting shapes and reflections off the glass windows of the towers. This can be anything from the reflections of the other parts of the buildings themselves, to reflections of the sky or clouds, sunlight or other buildings in the area.

Energy Plaza — Calgary, Alberta by Lisa Couldwell

If you see something that catches your eye, try turning your head, body in a way that might perhaps give you a different perspective and if you see something, get the camera ready. I usually set my Pentax into auto-bracket mode because I like to have the option of an HDR shot to play around with when I get home. Put the camera to the eye and again turn the camera, sideways, on an angle or basically any way that intensifies the abstractness of what you see through the lens. Take your time and don’t be afraid to take several versions of the shot while moving the camera and your body into different angles as you never know what may work and what may not. When composing the image in camera, I often compose lines to move on the diagonal as this moves the eye through the photo and creates a pleasing perspective. I look for symmetrical and geometric shapes when I move and photograph. I will go across the street and try from a different street corner as well. The beauty of this kind of photography is anything goes and you never know what you may end up with just by moving either a few centimeters or several feet. (Just as an FYI, sometimes you may get hassled from security people but in Canada as long as you are on a public sidewalk and not on private property you have the right to continue to photograph.)

In this image, I really was attracted to the V shaped angle of the building, vanishing perspective, symmetry, and the reflections of the other windows and the clouds. I pointed the camera straight up and tried to angle it so it was perfectly symmetrical. I then autobracketed 3 shots at exposures of +.5/0/-.5 stops, combined them into an HDR image in Photomatix, converted to BW in Silver Efex and minor touch ups in Lightroom to really bring out the cloud detail.

Lisa Couldwell is a photographer living in Calgary Alberta, Canada. You can check out more of her work in the Pentax Gallery, on fluidr,‚and on Smugmug. She also goes by the handle casil403 on our photography forum.

93 — Black and white photography — qualities that make good bw images

Marko Kulik — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:10:20 +0000

Photography podcast #93 is based on a thread in our photography forum by member asnow where he asks about the qualities make a good black and white photo. A number of other forum members help answer the question and I offer up some personal opinions as well. One‚piece‚of good advice involves learning to see in black and white using a digital camera. Most digital cameras can capture the image in colour but SHOW it to you on your camera’s screen in black and white. This allows you to learn how coloured tones under a given light look in black and white. (Look up the word monochrome in your camera’s instruction manual for instructions on how to do this). Live view is also fantastic as it shows you how the scene will look in BW even before you click the shutter. (Many thanks to asnow, raven4ns, Wicked Dark and Andrew for their contributions to the thread and podcast.)

Snow Tracks — Marko Kulik

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

The Zone System — Wikipedia | The Zone system on Luminious landscape
Wicked Dark’s article Black and White 101
Emotion is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Backlighting is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum
If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( ‚ A ‚ T ‚) G m ail ‚Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly ‚Photography forum

Thanks to kawarthabob, and kat‚who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the‚Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

92 — My damn lenses keep vignetting — solving vignetting problems

Marko Kulik — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:25:03 +0000

Photography podcast #92 talks about solving vignetting which is the unwanted darkening around the edges or corners in your photographs. We talk about 2–3 very common reasons why even professional lenses that cost a fortune, STILL suffer from vignetting in certain cases. ‚We also talk about why many people never notice the vignetting in their photographs even though it’s often there.

This is mechanical vignetting of a shot of the sky on my F2.8 24mm wide angle lens and is due to too many filters in front of the lens. Shot at left at F2.8. Stopping down to F 5.6 (right shot) ‚helps slightly. A better solution here is to simply use less filters, or wider ones.

Optical vignetting on neutral subject. Shot at left is at F-5.6 focused on infinity using the 300mm end of my 28–300 zoom. Shot at right is at F-11 focused on infinity using the 300mm end of my 28–300 zoom‚and the vignetting is almost gone. Both images shot without filters of any kind. This type of vignetting can occur in some cases on almost any DSLR lens regardless of price.‚Listening‚to the podcast explains why this happens.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Cambridge in Colour article on lenses
Wider Cokin Z filter holders at B&H
Step up rings at B&H
Adapter rings at B&H
Emotion is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Backlighting is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly ‚Photography forum

Thanks to Jack Label and Sevenwords‚who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Happy New Year everyone and only the best for 2011 — thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

91 — 3 ways to reduce noise in photography

Marko Kulik — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:52:26 +0000

Photography podcast #91 discusses 3 common‚reasons‚we get noise in our photographs and we offer tips on how to beat that noise. For the purposes of this podcast, noise is the appearance of coloured‚specks, ‚monochromatic‚specks or bands/lines that appear in your photographs (often in uniform areas like the sky or in the shadowy parts of the image) that should not be there.

Scene from Oka Park Quebec Canada

This image from OKA Park looks pleasing enough and looking at it here you might not know that the image was underexposed. I boosted the levels in Photoshop so at first glance it looks pretty good.

HOWEVER, this 100% crop from the same image reveals the noise (colours in the snow) due to underexposure.

Snow detail crop at 100% shows colour noise

TIP — Don’t automatically underexpose. Underexpose the scene only when necessary.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Cambridge in Colour article on noise
Noise Ninja
Dfine
Topaz Denoise

Shiny‚is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Ton sur Ton is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to rabs, Lee Sacrey, Las Vegas Weddings, Charles binns landscape photography, and Michael Van der Tol who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Happy Holidays everyone and only the best for 2011 — thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Photo of the day (most days)

Marko Kulik — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:46:00 +0000

As many of you know I spend far too much time in front of the computer.‚ Being the admin on Photography.ca and Pets.ca is a great job and even though I do take pictures regularly, I often go many days without shooting and this just has to change.

Three weeks ago I went on a photo tour in the Rockies with Darwin Wiggett who has been interviewed on our podcast a few times already. Man, that Darwin Wiggett is inspirational and I came back on a photo high. Darwin has been shooting an image a day for well over a year I believe, and he calls it his daily snap. Here is Darwin’s daily snap for today December 3rd 2010.

Although I am envious of Darwin’s passion and commitment, I know myself pretty well. I’ll try hard to post images that are shot by me and others, or post vintage photography that I dig. I’ll even write a few lines about what intrigues me about the images. I should be able to do this several times a week each week — but not every single day. Anyway, effective immediately and thanks again Darwin for your additional inspiration, I’ll start posting photos of the day as often as I can.

Here’s an image I shot just yesterday a few meters from my home. The day was very overcast and windy and puddles reflecting the city were everywhere. The wind caused ripples in the water and gave it a painterly feel which caught my eye immediately. Because the scene already had very little colour I thought it best to convert it to BW using Silver efex pro. Although the shot does feel a bit ‘dark’ to my eye, it did represent the mood of the day and the changing seasons. Please feel free to critique or comment on any aspect of this image.

Puddle Reflection by Marko Kulik

90 — Tilt shift lenses for landscape photography — Interview w/ Darwin Wiggett

Marko Kulik — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:21:21 +0000

Photography podcast #90 features an interview with Canadian landscape photographer Darwin Wiggett. It was recorded on a photo tour in the Alberta Rockies led by Darwin. In the interview Darwin discusses why he often uses a tilt shift lens in landscape photography. For those that have never heard of a tilt shift lens, it’s a lens that has the ability to tilt and/or shift while attached to your camera. The tilting aspect of the lens allows you to get amazing depth of field (REGARDLESS‚ of aperture) because the lens can tilt in the same direction as the plane of focus. The shift aspect of the lens allows you to correct non parallel lines in camera when photographing a building for example. It also allows for easy panoramas. Darwin is a fabulous teacher so take a listen and it will all make even more sense. We also talk a bit about testing your lenses, resolution, aperture, depth of field and image circles.

An example of a tilt shift lens

Note how the image on the right has SUPERB depth of field because the tilt shift lens was TILTED into the plane of focus. Image at left uses a regular wide angle lens. ‚©D. Wiggett

Note how the lighthouse is straight in the shot at right due to the SHIFT correction on a tilt shift lens. Image at left uses a regular wide angle lens. ‚© D. Wiggett

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Workshops and photo tours with Darwin Wiggett
Jay Maisel Documentary for inspiration
Show us where you live is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Time (No clocks) is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum
Nikon’s 24mm tilt shift lens at B&H
Canon’s 24mm tilt shift lens at B&H

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to IceCreamMan and Benny who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |Subscribe with iTunes |Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

89 — Interview with Joyce Tenneson — Michael Grecco — Notes from Jay Maisel

Marko Kulik — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:41:56 +0000

Photography podcast #89 features 2 interviews that were recorded at the PDN Photoplus Conference and Expo in New York last weekend.‚ This conference and show happens yearly and is one of the largest photo shows in North America. It’s an AWESOME show/conference with all the latest products and fabulous seminars from some of the best photographers in North America. This post/podcast will cover some of the seminars and other posts will cover some of the products.

Interview 1 is with fine art photographer Joyce Tenneson. I’ve been following her work for close to 20 years so it was a real treat to interview her. In this interview we talk about finding a personal style.

Interview 2 is with well know portraitist and celebrity photographer Michael Grecco. In this interview Michael shares some of his lighting secrets to achieve a dramatic portrait.

Finally I share some of the notes that I took in a seminar led by master photographer Jay Maisel.

Thanks again to Joyce Tenneson, Michael Grecco and Jay Maisel for allowing us to feature their work and for their wonderful seminars.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Joyce Tenneson — feature on Photography.ca
Michael Grecco — feature on Photography.ca
Jay Maisel — feature on Photography.ca
Jay Maisel Documentary
Light tools — for modifying light
Dynalite kit at B&H
Show us where you live is the regular assignment this month on our photography forum
Time (No clocks) is the level 2 assignment this month on our photography forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly ¯¿½Photography forum

Thanks to Sean G, Robertv, Shant M, Michael Van der Tol, IceCreamMan and Glenn Euloth who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links. In the interest of full disclosure, I did not actually pay to go see the seminars, I had a press pass. That said, if I did not think the seminars were great, I simply would not have written about them.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the¯¿½ Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. |¯¿½Subscribe with iTunes |¯¿½Subscribe via RSS feed |¯¿½Subscribe with Google Reader |Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

86 — Inkjet paper review 2 – Museo Silver rag, Portfolio rag – Moab entrada bright

Marko Kulik — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:06:21 +0000

Photography podcast #86 is the second? podcast devoted to high end inkjet papers and it reviews and discusses 3 of them. I LOVE photo papers (traditional and digital) and I just bought a new Epson 3880 inkjet to test inkjet papers with?.and of course make larger prints.?There?s LOADS of creative possibilities when you try new inkjet papers so I hope the review of these 3 papers?is useful to many listeners/readers.

All 3 of these papers are highly recommended. Museo Silver rag is a thick (300 GSM) light cream coloured paper with a medium gloss finish and a slight texture. Museo Portfolio rag is a thick (300GSM) matte paper with a cream colour and very slight texture. Moab Entrada 300 bright is a thick (300GSM) double sided matte paper with a white colour and slight texture. Just as an FYI, if i say a paper has a cream colour, others may say on first glance, no it’s white. However, take that paper and put it beside something like regular plain white laser paper and the creamy base tone is more apparent.

Note as well that the 2 matte papers have optical brighteners in them. I also talk about ICC profiles again. Here is where they go on your computer after you download them. MAC= MAC HD > Library > ColorSync > Profiles
Windows PC= C: > Windows > System 32 > Spool > Drivers > Color

Detail from Parisian self portrait on Museo silver rag — ?Marko Kulik

Parisian self portrait on Museo silver rag — ?Marko Kulik

Detail from Reflection at Dorwin — 2009 on Museo portfolio rag — ?Marko Kulik

Reflection at Dorwin — 2009 on Museo portfolio rag — ?Marko Kulik

Detail from Parisian self portrait on Museo portfolio rag — ?Marko Kulik

Parisian self portrait on Museo portfolio rag — ?Marko Kulik

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Epson 3880 at B&H
Podcast 62 — Monitor/printer calibration
Podcast 63 — I1 Extreme and ColourMunki review & printer dialogue boxes when printing.
Museo Silver rag — Buy Museo silver rag at B&H
Museo Portfolio rag — Buy Museo portfolio rag at B&H
Moab Entrada 300 bright- Buy Moab entrada bright 300 at B&H
Main assignment on our photography forum — Minimalism
Level 2 assignment on our? photography forum — Sidelight to create texture in B/W

Publicphotograpgy.org — Celebrating the rights of photographers -?Publicphotography.org — Flickr group — Publicphotography.org — Facebook group

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Thanks to Benny who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the?Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I?Subscribe with iTunes I?Subscribe via RSS feed I?Subscribe with Google Reader ISubscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

74 — Hyperfocal distance — How to use the hyperfocal distance

Marko Kulik — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:54:22 +0000

Photography podcast #74 is all about the hyperfocal distance and how to use it in landscape photography. In a nutshell, hyperfocal distance is the distance you focus at to get greater depth of field when focusing on an object in the distance. In this podcast we define what hyperfocal distance is and how to use it for both traditional (film) photography and in digital photography with new DSLRs and lenses.‚ We also talk about when not to use the hyperfocal distance in landscape photography.

Hyperfocal distance chart from dofmaster.com — used by permission; thanks Don Fleming!‚ This beautiful application from the dofmaster.com site clearly shows that by focusing at the hyperfocal distance you gain over 4 feet of sharpness toward the foreground when you use a 5omm lens at F-16 and focus at 27.1 feet instead of‚ where the object actually is at 50 feet.. Try this test for yourself; shoot 1 shot the regular way and 1 shot using the hyperfocal distance. This application already lists the most common digital cameras and takes their crop factors into account.

Left image shot normally while right image was shot at the hyperfocal distance. Even at this small size you can see that the right shot shows a bit more sharpness in the midground while the background looks similar in both shots. The effects are more noticeable when you print at larger sizes.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Dofmaster’s awesome depth of field calculator that also calculates hyperfocal distance
Dofmaster’s depth of field calculator for free use with an iphone (need to connect to the Net — use this URL from an IPhone ONLY — NOT from your computer)
Dofmaster’s simulated depth of field calculator for free use with an Non-iphones (need to connect to the Net)
Dofmaster’s Itunes depth of field calculator App for $1.99 (No Internet connection required)
November’s ‘landscapes in portrait orientation’‚assignment on the Photography.ca forum
Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile — Feel free to “friend” me — please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page — I will follow you if you follow me — Let’s connect — PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Kat, Glenn Euloth (Iguanasan), Bambi and Alex Maxim who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca — Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I Subscribe with iTunes I Subscribe via RSS feed I Subscribe with Google Reader I Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast — Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Photography tips (recap) — Photography podcast #50

Marko Kulik — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:50:55 +0000

Photography podcast #50 recaps many of the photography tips talked about in the past 49 photography podcasts. Here are some quick tips talked about in this podcast chosen from previous photo podcasts; Watching the background — depth of field — fill flash — exposure in photography — painting with light — framing your subject — intentional blur — polarizing and neutral grad filters — digital in camera filters — patterns — leading lines — the rule of thirds in photography — deliberate underexposure — shutter-speeds - using shadows creatively — wide angle lenses — posing models — using reflectors — studio setups for beginners — cheap macro photography — one light portraits — low-light photography — using histograms — your rights as a photographer — simple back lighting outdoors — brightness and other distractions — photographing babies — dodging and burning in photography.

I’d also like to thank Laszlo, Dominic Fuizzotto, Dita Kubin, Ann Dahlgren, Raphael Goldchain, Vicky Reed, Jolene Monheim and Andre Nantel for the informative interviews that they let me record with them. More interviews are already scheduled for future podcasts.

Here’s a quick snapshot of a small part of Parc-Lafontaine where I have been recently recording these podcasts.

Thanks as always to Landon, Benny, Sandra 543, Manamarak, Claudia regina, destructivemicrowave, ratio, kathleen, taffy, kiddo, dag, trhoads, megster85, langdon9720, Richard Annable, kate and Ashmuddy for recent comments and suggestions. We LOVE comments and suggestions so please send more.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

If you wanted to review the podcast in Itunes it would be most appreciated. You’ll need to download Itunes for free and you can search for the podcast if you don’t know where it is. You can search the itunes store for photography podcast — photography blog and you’ll see my name (Marko Kulik). You’ll see the icon with the word photography.ca and under that, you’ll see customer reviews with a link to post a review. It takes a few minutes to do this (and you’ll need register for an apple ID) so I thank you in advance for taking the time. If you know itunes well, you can also do a power search from the quick links menu on the front page of the Itunes store and it will be faster.