Sharpen Your Photography Skills, Knowledge and Passion

Photography News February 22, 2021 Quote: “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” — Annie Leibovitz Articles: Deleting Images – Thom Hogan How to Take Better Portraits | 5 Tips with Jeremy Cohen Minimalist photography – Wikipedia – 40 Examples 5 Steps to Incredible Minimalist Photography – 17m Mads Peter Iversen A Simple Trick To Improve Your Final Image Sharpest F-stop setting for Landscape Photography – 15m 32s Thought for the day: How long can you safely use your disk drives? From this data set: Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020 I'd estimate that current disk [...]

Photography News February 15, 2021 Quote: "How are you going to upgrade your photography this year? What's the biggest hurdle holding you back from getting more wows when people see your images? Are you making images that are uniquely yours? I'm betting it's not a new camera or lens that will fix your problems. If it is, I want to know more about that magical piece of gear, because I don't seem to have it in my gear closet.”  — Thom Hogan Articles:  Ask Lensrentals: Lenses, Sensor Cleaning, and Sharpness Testing Sunrise/Sunset Exposures — Thom Hogan Create Incredible Sunset Photos With Editing [...]

Photography News February 8, 2021 Quote: "Painting what I experience, translating what I feel, is like a great liberation. But it is also work, self-examination, consciousness, criticism, struggle." – Balthus Articles:  Foolproof Way to Never Clip Important Highlights on a Sony Camera Minimalist Photography using Negative Space – 7m A Different Way to Improve Your Photo in Five Seconds  11 Ways To Improve the Sharpness of Your Images, Part 6: Dust and Condensation More on Cropping – Thom Hogan Fine art forest photography – 11m – Mads Peter Iversen Thought for the day: Success Rate I have claimed that, with careful deliberate practice, photographic [...]

Photography News February 8, 2021 Quote: "Painting what I experience, translating what I feel, is like a great liberation. But it is also work, self-examination, consciousness, criticism, struggle." – Balthus Articles:  Foolproof Way to Never Clip Important Highlights on a Sony Camera Minimalist Photography using Negative Space – 7m A Different Way to Improve Your Photo in Five Seconds  11 Ways To Improve the Sharpness of Your Images, Part 6: Dust and Condensation More on Cropping – Thom Hogan Fine art forest photography – 11m – Mads Peter Iversen Thought for the day: Success Rate I have claimed that, with carful deliberate practice, photographic cross [...]

Photography News February 2, 2021 Quote: “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” – Destin Sparks Articles:  What will provide a meaningful improvement to my photography? Thom Hogan How to Create Portraiture that is a Work of Art – 1h 49m – Lindsay Adler Photoshop painting process: Cage – Interesting, way beyond my skills What’s the Right Shutter Speed for Photographing the Sea? Using a Projector To Create Futuristic Photos 5 Composition Ideas You Should Try in Your Next Shoot – 9m 40s Thought for the day: Ways to Lose a Photography Contest I was the judge for a local camera club [...]

Photography News January 27, 2021 Quote: “A camera, like a guitar, is just a box with a hole in it. Until it is placed in the hands of a true artist, it will not make music, only noise. What do you want your music to sound like?” – Tim Mantoani Articles: Minimalist Photography – Show less say more! – 13m – Gary Gough One Light Beauty Image w/ Different Skin Tones – 7m – Lindsay Adler Top 5 Most Powerful Photoshop Selection Tools The Secret of the Broken Element: Teardown – Roger Cicala – very techie How Bad Is JPEG? Surprising Encounters in Landscape [...]

Photography News January 20, 2021 Quote: “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt Articles:  Shooting a natural light beauty portrait in direct sunlight – 7m30s – Lindsay Adler Photo Deconstruction: Vintage Beauty Photography – 6m30s – Lindsay Adler How Cold Can You Go? – Thom Hogan Introduction To Dramatic Portraiture With Chris Knight – 2h 39m Shooting Window Light Without a Window: Nathan Elson's 'How I Got the Shot' How to Automatically [...]

Photography News January 13, 2021 Quote: “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” — Ansel Adams Articles:  Ansel Adam's Prank Part II – 26m, humor, was it made by Ansel or not? Bokeh: How it’s evolving – 20m Criticize Your Photography and learn to improve – 23m – Gary Gough Landscape Photography – It's not about the gear– 21m, on using low cost used gear The Creative Process – John Paul Caponigro – Talks at Google – 43m Street Fashion Shoot Options - Lindsay Adler 5m – Natural or Natural + Strobe? Thought for the day: On [...]

Photography News January 5, 2021 Quote: “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.” – Joan Miro Articles:  Ansel Adams: Making of Moon and Half Dome - 4.5m Capturing Powerful Portraits - Photographic Tips and techniques - 51m Camera Focus Modes Complete Guide 15m Gary Gough Top Three Hacks for Cutting Out Hair in Photoshop Webinar Noir: Stylish Black & White - Harold Davis 1h5m Night Landscape Photography: From Light Painting to Light Writing - 1h3m Thought for the day: Recording Media [...]

Photography News December 30, 2020 Quote:  “Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal” - Pablo Picasso Articles: Review of Winning Photos It is the end of the year and a good time for review. I’d like to suggest doing something maybe a bit different. Look at winning photos by others.  Pick a group below of interest to you: BW, Landscape, Portraits, Street, etc. Look at them closely. Which do you like? Why?  Which do you dislike? Why?  And from both groups what ideas/methods/techniques/capture/processing/etc. can you adopt to improve you own work? 2020 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest Top Shots From [...]

Photography News December 22, 2020 Quote: “The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed.”– Anne Geddes Articles:  10 Things I Use to Enhance Story in Photography  14m video Creating a Stylized Art Shoot on a Shoestring Budget Making a Moody Long Exposure Fine Art Photograph - 11m - Mads Peter Iversen Fine Art Photography with a cheap filter - 20m Gary Gough Precautions to take when carrying a camera in foggy weather with a lots of dew?  How to Use Textures to Enhance Your Photographs Thought for [...]

Photography News December 9, 2020 Quote: “Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.” – Martin Parr Articles:  How to Build a Signature Style - Brooke Shaden 11m How to Test a Lens - Roger Circa (originally published 2010, still useful) How to Buy a Used Lens – LensRentals podcast How I Photography on Clear Days with Telephoto Landscape Photography Ansel Adams Versus Amateur Snapshots Prank 46m video Glowing Mushroom - Photoshop Fantasy Manipulation Tutorial 19m Thought for the day: My Disk Died A couple of days ago one of [...]

Photography News November 11, 2020 Quote: “Photography has no rules, it is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it is achieved.” – Bill Brandt Articles:  Photography is About to Change Massively, Here's What it Means for You The Freedom of Creating 8m Brooke Shaden Webinar Noir: Stylish Black & White - 66m - Harold Davis Tone Curve is the Most Powerful Tool in Lightroom Photographs That Flow - Michael Frye Photoshop - Using the Mixer Brush - 25m Aaron Blaise Thought for the day: 10,000 hour rule or? It has been stated that to become a genius you need deliberate [...]

Photography News October 30, 2020 Quote: “The pictures are there, and you just take them.” – Robert Capa  Articles:  What's New in Photoshop 2021 - 21m Matt Kloskowsjk19 Get Creative With Intentional Camera Movement  2020 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards announced - check URL after 22 Oct What Can Happen to My Equipment in Storage?  Curves vs. Levels: What's the Difference? - 14m Audience Thought for the day: Favorite Current Photographers - Gary Gough Gary is a prolific fine art landscape photographer in the UK. Actually he seems to me to be more of a fine art seascape photographer. If for no other reason than to [...]

Photography News October 21, 2020 Quote: “A photograph is like a recipe. Memory is the finished dish.” – Carrie Latet Articles:  How to Find Interesting Locations for Black & White Landscape Photography  Create Your Own Cloud In Photoshop – 4m Fine Art Landscape Photography - Photograph what you want to see! – Shipwreck photography in Pin Mill UK 15m Adding Texture in Photoshop – 6m-good intro and some useful more advanced tips Get CLEAN, noise-free images at NIGHT with this "stacking" workflow – 30m Complete Guide to Long Exposure Photography 17m, Gary Gough Thought for the day: Favorite Current Photographers – Brooke Shaden I currently have [...]

Photography News October 13, 2020 Quote: “It's likely to take some new sensor technology breakthrough for me to want a different sensor than the ones we've already got, which are all really good.” – Thom Hogan (on APS-C cameras but applies to all now) Articles: Shooting and Editing a Portal by Brooke Shaden, 23m – really cool! Glowing Maples – Michael Frye Ways to Improve the Composition of Your Black and White Landscapes Photoshop Tutorial: How to Use Texture – Brooke Shaden 12m How to Transform Photos into Gorgeous, Pencil Drawings 4m Fine Art Photography The Beach Huts 14m Thought for the day: Fire Skies If [...]

Photography News October 7, 2020 Quote: “The two most engaging powers of a photograph are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” – William Thackeray Articles:  Brooke Shaden-White Wall Wednesday #8 - an amazing amount of information I found very interesting in a 15 minute video Four Unconventional Ideas For Improving Your Landscape Photography  Adding Texture to Your Backgrounds in Photoshop Easily  Floral Portrait Photography | Wearable flowers - example of a creative process Impactful Portraiture in Black & White with Peter Hurley How to Use the Orton Effect in to Save Blurry Photos (Photoshop, Luninar, etc.) Thought for the day: How Waterproof is Your [...]

Photography News September 29, 2020 Quote: “Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.” – Ambrose Bierce Articles: How To Create Your Own Texture Resources in Photoshop & Illustrator 9m Compositing a Pirate Ship Image - Dead Mans Fingers  Use Live View and Electronic Viewfinders for Better Macro Photography  Seven Common Black and White Photography Post Processing Create Beautiful Indoor Portraits Without Flash How to Relax a Nervous Boudoir Client - applies to any new model and some of this for working with experienced models Thought for the day: How not to clean a sensor On one workshop (I was a [...]