Oct 31, 2017

[Photography] How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

Several years ago as I was just getting serious about photography, my only pieces of gear were a Nikon D200 and a 50mm lens. I was instantly enamored with the lens and almost overnight I stopped taking photos of my family and friends with a pocket camera. Instead, I preferred to bring my large DSLR setup with me everywhere because the resulting images were so good.

However, the more I used it the more I became aware of its limitations and I once told my friend Ryan, one of two people who were instrumental in getting me started on my path as a photographer, that I liked the lens but it wasn’t very well suited to wildlife photography.

He took umbrage with that assessment, and quite rightly so because that lens can be ideal for wildlife photography!

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

As I slowly reversed my position over the years I started to realize that the same principle holds true for all sorts of photography types. The camera gear you have, combined with the skills you possess, can work just fine if you simply adjust your perspective a bit.

Whether you like to shoot portraits, sports, wildlife, astrophotography, nature, still life, or any other kind of images you can probably find a way to make it happen with the gear already on your shelf. The first steps involve some mental adjustments that can be somewhat difficult to wrap your head around but make all the difference in the end.

Here are some tips to help you.

Define your terms

When I made that regretful statement about a 50mm lens not being suited for wildlife photography it was partly out of ignorance because I was a new photographer. But mostly it was because I didn’t understand what was meant by the term wildlife photography.

What I had in mind were images of lions, tigers, and bears set against sweeping African vistas. There was simply no way I could get shots like that with a 50mm lens while living in a small town in the middle of Oklahoma. What I realized over the years was that wildlife photography can mean many things, and I didn’t need to put that term in such a small, limiting box.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

Would you consider a turtle sitting on a rock at the edge of a college campus pond to be wildlife? At first, I did not, but now I most certainly do.

Instead, I decided to expand it to include animals I would encounter in my normal everyday routine and even bugs and insects that were literally in my very own backyard. The simple act of re-defining what I considered to be wildlife photography made all the difference in the world to me and has helped me get shots of which I am quite proud and now find great joy in pursuing.

What does it mean to you?

The question for other photographers in a similar situation then becomes: what does [insert type of photography] mean to you? If you want to start photographing people do you mean close-up headshots? Full-body pictures? Street photography? Parties and weddings?

You can even break this down further by looking at sub-genres and defining those terms to be what you want. When you think of a headshot your first mental image might be that of a magazine cover. But headshots can be any number of things and people can be photographed in infinite ways.

The same thing goes for other types of photography as well. You might think sports photography means prize-winning shots of soccer players scoring a goal. But it might also mean shooting an archery competition or even a chess match. And those require very different skills and equipment compared to a football match.

In short, don’t let your pursuit of a specific type of photography be defined by what you think it should mean or, even worse, what other people say. Let it be what you want it to be, then go out and pursue it.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

Can wildlife photography mean shooting a spider on the side of your house? Of course! There’s no rule that says it can’t.

Know what you’re working with

Along with knowledge of your own perceptions of a certain type of photography, it helps to have a solid understanding of the gear you own and the skills you possess. That way you can play to the strengths of what is available to you while also understanding areas in which you could improve.

As I started using my 50mm lens for more wildlife photography I developed a much clearer idea of what the lens could do and its limitations. That helped me understand the types of animal images I could get with it.

For example, instead of zooming in on animals that were far away I learned to be patient and find ways of physically getting closer to animals. That wasn’t always an easy task, but it taught me a lot about myself and my willingness to get the shot I wanted. It also helped me understand that my humble little 50mm lens was capable of a lot more than I initially gave it credit for.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

The best camera is the one you have with you

Every now and then I would get lucky and have an animal cross my path. Then almost as if it were aware of what I was doing, it would pause and wait for a picture. Of course, this type of scenario is only possible if you have your camera with you instead of sitting on a shelf at home.

No matter what type of pictures you are pursuing, by not practicing and not having your camera with you it will not help you advance. I also learned to conquer some of my fears and do what it takes to get the shot even if it makes me uncomfortable.

I made this image of a snake after seeing it crawl across the street and into my front yard. Not knowing whether the snake was venomous or not (turns out it wasn’t) I made sure to keep my distance and have an escape plan ready. But I wasn’t about to let an interesting photo opportunity pass me by.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

You’ll learn what gear you need

Several years ago I took the following picture of a spider outside my house and thought it was decent. But it was not nearly as good as it could have been because my lens would not focus any closer. (Are you seeing a theme here? You don’t need to go far to take wildlife photos!)

There were also problems with the picture from a compositional standpoint: the light is too harsh, the subject is somewhat unclear, and it’s not all that obvious exactly what is happening.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

One of my earlier photos of a spider eating on an evening snack. Much like the grasshopper, this picture clearly has some problems.

As I learned more about my gear while refining my skills I realized that I simply didn’t have what I needed to take close-up shots of bugs and insects. So I bought a set of close-up filters for about $35 that allowed me and 50mm lens to get much closer to subjects than before.

I also spent time studying light, composition, mood, emotion, and other principles of photography because I knew I had a lot to learn in those areas. The result is a similar image that I took recently which, in my opinion, is far superior to its earlier counterpart.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

It took several years and hundreds of shots before I was able to get a photo I was happy with.

Use what you have to its potential

The lesson here is that you don’t necessarily need to buy new equipment to get the kinds of shots you want. But you do need to know how to use what you’ve got and what you know.

Are you shooting with the kit lens that came with your camera? That’s fine! Those lenses are great for wide-angle shots and short telephoto images, and you can get fantastic shots especially if you have plenty of light.

Your camera might even have features you don’t know about, like fast autofocus or good high ISO capabilities that would make it well suited for sports or nighttime photography. The more you learn about what you have, the more photographic possibilities you will see open up right in front of your eyes.

Manage your expectations

No matter what type of photography you want to pursue it is essential that you have your expectations in line with the reality of what you are attempting to do.

If you want to take amazing poster-worthy images of basketball players going for a slam dunk, by all means, go for it! Are you looking to capture some brilliant wedding photos and fun memories from the reception afterward? Or maybe you want to do like I did and get into photographing animals and wildlife.

Have patience

Whatever type of photography you want to pursue, know that you won’t get from here to there overnight. Getting the pictures you want takes years of practice, education, and an intimate knowledge of what your photography gear can and can’t do.

Pursuing those photos is certainly a lofty and admirable goal and one that is obtainable given enough time and effort. But when you start out your photos will almost certainly not look like what you might be picturing in your mind.

How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills

Be like this cottonwood borer beetle and reach for the stars! Just know that it might take a little while to get there.

Even if you can clearly define what you mean by portrait, sports, wedding, wildlife, landscape, real estate, or family photography and you have a solid understanding of your camera gear and your own abilities, your initial pictures will probably fall short of your expectations.

That’s perfectly fine, and it’s all part of the process of growing as a photographer. As long as you don’t let your initial shots get you down. Go into it with an understanding that you have time and room to grow. In the meantime, don’t let anyone tell you your pictures aren’t good enough, you don’t have the right gear, or you aren’t as skilled as you need to be.

This photo represents my White Whale: a goal I have been pursuing but always seems out of reach. I always seem to end up with images like this which are almost there…but not quite. Someday I would really like to get a shot of a bee drinking nectar from a flower, and I will keep at it until I finally get it.

Conclusion

What are some of your photography goals, and what are you doing to make those goals happen? Is there a type or style of photography you have always wanted to try but never thought you could do? Leave your thoughts in the comments below–I’d love to hear from the DPS community on this and hopefully help others find some encouragement and inspiration on their photographic journey.

The post How to Make the Most of Your Camera Gear and Skills by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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[Photography] How to use Macphun’s Luminar for Beginners

If you haven’t used it before, your first question might be what exactly is Luminar? Simply put, it’s photo editing software designed by Macphun (available soon for Windows – download the beta version to try it here).

It might differ a little bit from other photo editing software that you’ve used because it is a photo editor only – it does not include an image cataloging component. It is also a one-time purchase rather than a subscription-based product. Luminar’s workflow focuses on very easy-to-use presets that literally enable you to press one button and completely process your image, ideal for beginners.

Luminar for beginners - white hibiscus

Cropped and edited in Luminar using Mild Image Enhancer Preset at 85 opacity, plus a white balance adjustment.

In this article, I’ll upload some images and take a whirl around the user interface so that you can understand where all the tools are, and what they do. After that, we’ll dive in with some basic editing techniques. In just a few paragraphs, you’ll have some great ideas on how to use Luminar to edit your own photos.

Starting in Luminar Stand-Alone

To start, click on the Luminar icon. The initial screen asks you to Open Image. Click the blue button to open a Finder  (or Explorer) window, navigate to your chosen image, select it, and click open. Your image opens in Luminar.

Luminar for Beginners - Start

Opening in Luminar from Lightroom

If you prefer to start in Lightroom, right-click on your image, select Export > Luminar > Open Original Image. Your image opens in Luminar. Note: you can also select Edit in > Luminar.

Luminar for Beginners - Lightroom

If you made adjustments to your image in Lightroom such as lens corrections, cropping, straightening, spot removal or noise reduction – instead of choosing Open Original Image, choose “Use .TIFF with Lightroom Adjusters”. Or select Edit in > Luminar and choose “Edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments” from the options.

The Top Toolbar

Let’s take a quick look at the top toolbar inside Luminar. We’ll discuss where everything is and what they do but, just in case something doesn’t make sense, and you’re not sure what each icon does, hover your cursor over it. A tiny pop-up will appear and you can confirm that you’re looking at the right tool.

Luminar for Beginners - top toolbar

Luminar’s top toolbar.

Side Panel

Starting in the far right corner of the Top Toolbar is an icon that allows you to open and close the Side Panel, which is where you add Layers and Filters to make adjustments to your image. I prefer to work with the Side Panel open but if you need to see a larger version of your image, click this icon to toggle it off and give yourself a larger workspace. Click it again to toggle it on.

Luminar for Beginners - Side panel open

Here the Luminar workspace has the Side Panel toggled on. Note that if the icon is white, it is toggled off; if an icon is orange, it is toggled on.

Preset Panel

The icon for the Preset Panel is one to the left of the Side Panel one. Again, click the icon to toggle this panel on and off.

Luminar for Beginners - Preset Panel

When activated, the Preset Panel runs along the bottom of the Luminar workspace, giving you a preview of what each will when applied to your image.

Layers and Histogram

The next icon is the Layers panel. It looks like two sheets of paper in a stack. Because the focus of this article is on beginning techniques, we’re not going to talk about layers here. Just make a quick note of where this icon is so that when you’re ready to give it a go, you know how to find it.

To the left of the Layers icon is the Histogram icon.

Luminar for Beginners - histogram icon

The Histogram icon is highlighted here in red, the Layers one is just to the right of it. Currently, Layers are turned off so it is gray.

The Histogram itself has two triangles that can be clicked on and off as well. Solid orange triangles indicate this feature is on. When these alerts are on the triangles indicate if your image has any blown highlights/whites or blocked up shadows/blacks. If it does, they’ll be called out in red or blue respectively on the image.

Luminar for Beginners - highlight alert

The bit of red “paint” on the petal all the way to the left indicates blown-out whites.

History

Click the little clock icon to pull up the history of all the changes you’ve made to your image. If you’re not sure you like what you’ve done, click on any of the previous steps to get back to a point that you do like.

Luminar for Beginners - History Icon

Undo

The curved arrow to the left of the History icon will undo the last step that you’ve made.

Compare

Possibly one of my favorite Luminar features, Compare is the little icon just to the right of the eyeball. Once you activate the comparison frame, you can slide the before/after line back and forth over the image to see how your adjustments are affecting it.

Luminar for beginners - compare icon

Preview

The eyeball icon can be toggled on and off to quickly show you your original versus your edited image.

Luminar for beginners - preview icon

Zooming Icons

There are four zooming icons. You can toggle between 100% and Fit to Screen or make incremental size changes by using the + (plus) and – (minus) icons.

Luminar for beginners - zoom icons

Side Toolbar

Running down the right-hand side is a list of tools that are mostly more advanced so we won’t be addressing them gere. However, the Crop Tool, a scissors icon, is part of almost every workflow.

Luminar for beginners - crop tool

Luminar for beginners - pink hibiscusCropped to a square and processed using Quick and Awesome Workspace in Luminar.

Filters

Now that you know where all the tools are, let’s talk about how to use them to make adjustments to your image.

Luminar calls each set of adjustments a Filter.  For example, the Tone Filter contains sliders that adjust Exposure, Contrast, Whites, Blacks, etc. Some filters, like the Polarizing filter, contain only one adjustment.

Luminar for beginners - filter panel

To add additional Filters to your image, click the + (plus) sign to open the flyout menu, scroll through it, select the filter you need and then adjust the slider.

Luminar for beginners - Filter flyout menu

Note: if you click the name of the filter it will be added and the flyout menu will close. But if you want to add more than one filter just click the little + at the end of the filter name and it will add that filter and keep the menu open so you can add more.

Workspaces

Luminar offers quite a few different Filters and as you are learning the program you may not know which is the best set of Filters to add to your image. One of the ways that Luminar helps you narrow things down is by giving you Workspace options. For example, let’s say your image is monochrome (or you want it to be). You can choose the B&W Workspace as a starting point. If it’s a landscape, choose the Landscape Workspace.

Luminar for Beginners - Landscape workspace

Luminar’s workspaces make it simple to use.

The Filters included in each Workspace have been selected to enhance just the type of image you’re working on. The adjustment of each slider is left to your discretion.

Luminar for beginners - wild horses

Cropped and edited in Luminar using the Landscape Workspace.

If you haven’t used Luminar before (or have, but not successfully), start with the Quick and Awesome Workspace. With some images, applying the Accent-AI Filter is all you may need to do. Activate the Compare feature so that as you adjust this Filter, you can see what it is doing. Add Saturation, Clarity, and Vibrance as needed. How do things look? Do you still need additional adjustments but are not sure which ones to apply? Now is the time to try Presets.

Presets

Presets are similar to Workspaces because in each Preset includes a select group of Filters. However, in Presets Luminar adjusts the sliders (or pre-sets them, get it?) to create a unique look. Usually the name of the Preset will give you a good idea of the look that Preset will create.

Luminar for beginners - preset applied

One of my favorite parts about Luminar Presets is that I can adjust the Opacity of them. In the photo below, the Image Enhancer Preset looks just a tad too strong. Dragging the Opacity Slider to reduce it to 65 was a perfect – and easy – solution.

Luminar for beginners - wild horses

Cropped and edited in Luminar using the Image Enhancer preset at 65 opacity, with no other changes.

Four favorite Presets

If you’re not sure where to start, or which Preset to choose, here are four of my favorites:

  • Happy Memories in the Travel set.
  • Warm Sunset in the Travel set.
  • Bright Day in the Outdoor set.
  • Mild Image Enhancer in the Basic set.

To locate the Presets, click the Preset Menu icon in the lower right corner of the interface then click through the choices in each category. Once you find yourself using the same Presets over and over, add it to Favorites so that you can locate it faster. Just click the star on the preset to add it to your Favorites list.

Luminar for Beginners - preset menu

Applying Presets using Compare

To choose the right Preset for your image, scroll through them with the Compare preview panel turned on. As you click on each one, you’ll see both your original image and how it will look after applying the Preset at 100%. That will help you learn how each Preset affects your image and eventually, you’ll find your own favorites.

Luminar for beginners - bright day preset

Fine-tuning Presets

If the Preset you chose for your image looks good but not perfect, remember they can be used as just a starting point. Once you apply them you can decrease the opacity. You can also adjust individual sliders or add and delete Filters in the Side Panel.

Luminar for Beginners - St Johns NL

Cropped and edited in Luminar using the Bright Day Preset at Opacity 80, Vignette adjusted to -25, Blacks adjusted to +10.

Saving your image

If you started in Luminar, have completed work on your image, and want to create a JPG, Select File > Export to image then select the correct folder and rename the file as appropriate.

If you plan to continue to work on the image, or might want to make changes in the future, select File > Save As to create a native Luminar file, then select the correct folder and rename the file as appropriate. That will retain any Layers if you used that feature as well as the History.

Saving your image to your Lightroom Catalog

If you started in Lightroom, it’s a snap to save your image. After you finish processing your image in Luminar, click the Apply button in the upper left corner of the interface. This saves your image and also catalogs it in Lightroom in the same folder as your original image.

Your Turn

Hopefully, you’ve been following along and processing a few images in Luminar as you were reading. Now take a minute to upload your best image for the dPS community and tell us about how you created it in Luminar. Which are your favorite Luminar presets?

Disclaimer: Macphun is a dPS advertising partner.

The post How to use Macphun’s Luminar for Beginners by Lara Joy Brynildssen appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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Oct 30, 2017

[Photography] How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

Who doesn’t love a good sunset photo? There’s something about that colorful, ethereal time of day that strikes a cord with just about every person. But as appealing and ordinary as sunsets are, the ability to capture that magical time of day as a photo can be surprisingly difficult.

Sunset Photos

Photo by Martin Genev

Yes, gear and camera settings are important. However, the ability to be in the right place at the right time of day is arguably the most important factor to photographing a sunset. Below, I’ll highlight several tips for planning

Yes, gear and camera settings are important. However, the ability to be in the right place at the right time of day is arguably the most important factor to photographing a sunset. Below, I’ll highlight several tips for planning

Find the best sunset location

How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

If you’re visiting a new town and searching for an ideal sunset spot, your best bet is to do some online searches. Do a Google image search for “[location] sunset” and see what pops up. Better yet, visit stock image sites and enter similar search queries.

In most cases, you’ll see sunset photos taken from one or two popular locations. It might take some digging to find out exactly where those spots are, but once you have the answer, you’ll know where to shoot.

What time is the sunset?

A simple Google search will tell you exactly when sunset happens in the location of your choice. Keep in mind, however, that the hour or so before sunset is the ideal time of day for most photographers, so you’ll want to show up at your chosen sunset location closer to Golden Hour.

To really hone in the ideal times of day to shoot in a new location, the PhotoPills app is a handy tool. It’s packed full of information that can help you plan and execute outdoor photo shoots.

PhotoPills Sunset Planner - How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

Image courtesy of PhotoPills

Camera settings for sunset photos

Your ideal camera settings for shooting a sunset depend on a variety of factors, but generally speaking, these are some rules to go by.

Shoot in RAW

When it comes to shooting the sunset, one of the biggest challenges is making sure your camera captures the same warmth and vibrancy that your eyes are seeing. You can typically make White Balance and Picture Style tweaks in camera (more on those below). But just in case, it’s also a good idea to shoot in RAW to give you greater creative control when you post-process the image.

Set White Balance

Leaving your camera White Balance set to Auto might suffice. However, if the color cast of your image is looking too cool or slightly off, try setting your White Balance to Daylight or Cloudy to warm up your shot.

Shoot in Aperture Priority

What shooting mode you should use is certainly debatable, but Aperture Priority will give you greater control over the depth of field. Shooting with a small aperture (f-step of f/16 or higher) will give you a large depth of field. This is ideal if you want more of your scene in focus.

How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

Keep ISO Low

To avoid excessive noise in your image, maintain the lowest possible ISO for the amount of light you have available. If it happens to be a cloudy sunset or you’re shooting a scene with lots of shadows, you might have to increase your ISO unless you use a tripod.

Composition tips for unique sunset photos

After you’ve got your ideal sunset spot secured, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of sunset image you want to capture.

Keep this in mind: the way that most people photograph a sunset is to whip out their camera at hand, point it directly at the sunset and start snapping away. There’s nothing wrong with capturing the sunset this way, but it doesn’t always make for unique images.

If you’re trying to think outside of the box and get an interesting sunset photo, try some of these tips.

Zoom in

How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

For most spontaneous sunset photographers, the camera at hand is their point and shoot or cell phone. These cameras are usually equipped with wide-angle lenses. Set yourself apart from the crowd by picking an interesting feature and zooming in.

Shoot away from the sun

Instead of shooting directly into the sun, consider pointing your lens in the opposite direction. The bright and often vibrant colors generated by the sunset can make the scene in the opposite direction equally alluring, without having to compensate for shooting directly into bright light.

Wait for Blue Hour

Every photographer has heard about Golden Hour, that magical time of day just before sunset. Lesser known is Blue Hour, that brief time of day that begins roughly 10 minutes after the sun has set (and before it has risen at dawn).

Blue Hour Photography - How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation

This image was taken just after sunset during Blue Hour.

The sky isn’t as obviously colorful during Blue Hour as it is during sunset or Golden Hour. However, Blue Hour still offers a window of time when it can be best to shoot cityscapes or landscapes with deep blue tones in the sky. You will almost certainly need a tripod to shoot during Blue Hour as it is significantly darker without the sun. But the lesson here is that many more photo opportunities exist even after sunset.

Over to You

Do you have any tips for shooting sunset photos? Share your photos and tips below!

The post How to Plan and Take Killer Sunset Photos on Your Next Vacation by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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