WHAT IS THE BEST FOCAL LENGTH LENS FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY?

Colourful duo by Rivertay

Cedar Waxwing by janruss

Chestnut-backed Chickadee by janruss

Boat And Ship Photographs From Around The World:

by Erwin Hanafi

by Erwin Hanafi

by Erwin Hanafi

by Erwin Hanafi

by KaireK

Copper Caribbean by marke.auvinen

by Erwin Hanafi

Gibraltar Marina by lagpres

by Erwin Hanafi

Waiting another day by Giancarlo Mella

Boats on Glenbuck Reservoir at Dusk by silverlarynx

 Up load and share your digital photos with the world at Flickr

Till next time, happy shooting, Terry

How To Photograph Waterfalls

Lower Watson Falls

 The key to getting a silky water effect is to use a slow shutter speed, all of the techniques described below revolve around this simple idea.

Although not required, a 2-stop ND filter can help you get a longer shutter speed too. This can be very helpful in brighter lit situations. A remote shutter release can help you get sharper images by preventing you from shaking the camera. And finally,a telephoto zoom lens ishelpful for zooming in on a specific part of the waterfall.

Step 2: Visit the waterfall at the right time.

Depending on the water source of the waterfall, it may look drastically different throughout the seasons. For example, waterfalls that are fed primarily by melted snow are often dried up or reduced to drizzles by the end of summer. These waterfalls are usually best in late spring or early summer. In early spring the water flow is usually a little too strong. So, as part of scouting out waterfalls, it’s a good idea to find out the source of the water and visit the fall when it’s running strong enough.

It’s also important to visit the waterfall when lighting conditions are ideal. Well balanced and diffused light is great for waterfallsphotographs because it helps bring out details in the shadows and minimize the contrast. The best diffused light occurs on overcast days but if you can’t wait for a cloudy day, then visit the waterfall at sunrise or sunset when the waterfalls is in shade with no hot sun spots. The worst time to photograph a waterfall is when half of it is in the shade and the other half is sunlit. Your camera won’t be able to handle that kind of contrast.

Step 3: Compose your image.

 Zoom in closer with a telephoto lens and capture one small area instead of trying to capture the entire falls and surrounding area. Include foreground elements (e.g. rocks, flowers, etc).

 Step 4: Adjust your polarizing filter.

Once you’ve found a good composition, then it’s time to carefully adjust your polarizing filter to maximize its effect. While looking through the viewfinder, rotate the filter and watch for the reflections to disappear. At the same time the greens will start to look a lot more saturated. You might want to rotate it completely a few times just so you’re sure that you’ve found the best position.

Step 5: Setup your camera for the shot.

In order to get that silky water effect you see in waterfall photographs, you’ll need a long shutter speed. So, here are a few recommended settings to start with. Use a small aperture. This is necessary for two reasons. It helps you get a longer shutter speed and it helps keep everything in sharp focus. I recommend starting with f/8 and then going smaller if that doesn’t give you a slow enough shutter. Use the lowest ISO speed on your camera. This also helps you get a longer shutter, but it has another benefit too.Lower ISO speeds will produce less noise and capture more dynamic range. Since you’ll be using a long shutter speed, your image will be much more sensitive to noise, so a low ISO will help prevent that noise.

This tutorial is by no means a complete guide to photographing waterfalls, but it should get you started on the right track.

You’ll find more great information on how to improve your photography @ “Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy”

When you arrive at the waterfall, don’t setup your tripod right away! Walk around the waterfall and look through the viewfinder to explore different angles and camera positions. Here are few tips for composing your image. Shoot at an angle instead of directly in front of the falls.

21 Wedding Photography Tips

Love Is In The Air

 2. Family Photo Coordinator.

I find the family photo part of the day can be quite stressful. People are going everywhere, you’re unaware of the different family dynamics at play and people are in a ‘festive spirit’ (and have often been drinking a few spirits) to the point where it can be quite chaotic. Get the couple to assign a family member (or one for each side of the family) who can be the ‘director’ of the shoot. They can round everyone up, help get them in the shot and keep things moving so that the couple can get back to the party. I prefer to do all of these shots prior to the ceremony and give the bride and groom a time schedule for each group of people I will be working with. It doesn’t hurt to tell them to be ready about 15 minutes earlier than they will actually be needed. Better for them to wait a few minutes than having them be late and delaying your schedule.

3. Scout the Location.

Visit the locations of the different places that you’ll be shooting before the big day. I find it really helpful to know where we’re going, have an idea of a few positions for shots and to know how the light might come into play. On some weddings I even visit the locations with the couple and take a few test shots. You might even use these for engagement photos.

4. Preparation is key.

So much can go wrong on the day – so you need to be well prepared. Have a backup plan (in case of bad weather), have batteries charged, memory cards blank, think about routes and time to get to places and get an itinerary of the full day so you know what’s happening next. If you can, attend the rehearsal of the ceremony. Here you’ll gather a lot of great information about possible positions to shoot from, the lighting, the order of the ceremony etc.

5. Set expectations with the Couple.

Showing them examples of your work puts them at ease and takes the guess work out of what style of images you are expected to deliver. Find out what they are wanting to achieve, how many shots they want, what key things they want to be recorded, how the shots will be used. Make sure you are clear about what your charges will be and be sure you have an agreement or contract ready for them to sign.

6. Turn off the sound on your camera.

Beeps during speeches, the kiss and vows don’t add to the event. Switch off sound before hand and keep it off.

7. Shoot the small details.

Photograph rings, backs of dresses, shoes, flowers, table settings, menus etc. These shots help give the end album an extra dimension. Flick through a wedding magazine in a news stand for a little inspiration.

8. Use Two Cameras.

Beg, borrow, hire or steal an extra camera for the day. Use a different focal length lens on each camera. I try to shoot with a wide angle zoom lens (17-40 mm) which is great for candid shots in tight spaces. Use a longer lens on your second camera. I use a 70-200mm.

9. Consider a Second Photographer.

Having a second backup photographer can be a great strategy. It means less moving around during ceremony and speeches. This allows one photgrapher to capture the formal shots and the other to get candid shots. It also takes a little pressure off you being the one to have to get every shot!

10. Be Bold but Not Obtrusive.

It is your job to produce results and sometimes you need to be bold to capture a moment. However timing is everything and thinking ahead to get in the right position for key moments is important. In a ceremony I try to move around at least 4-5 times but try to time this to coincide with songs, sermons or longer readings. During the formal shots be bold, know what you want and ask for it from the couple and their party. You’re driving the show at this point of the day and you need to keep things moving.

11. Learn how to Use Diffused Light.

The ability to bounce a flash or to diffuse it is important. You’ll find that in many churches that light is very low. If you’re allowed to use a flash (some churches don’t allow it) think about whether bouncing the flash will work better than direct flash Just remember, if you bounce off a colored surface it will add a colored cast to your image. You may also want to buy a flash diffuser to soften the light. I usually use a diffuser for most of my on camera flash shots. If you can’t use a flash you’ll need to either use a fast lens at wide apertures and/or bump up the ISO. A lens with image stabilization might also help.

12. Shoot in RAW.

I know that many readers feel that they don’t have the time for shooting in RAW (due to extra processing) but a wedding is one time that it can be particularly useful as it gives so much more flexibility to manipulate shots after taking them. Weddings can present photographers with tricky lighting which result in the need to manipulate exposure and white balance in post processing. Remember, you can’t reshoot a wedding!

 13. Display Your Shots at the Reception.

One of the great things about digital photography is the immediacy of it as a medium. One thing more and more photographers are doing recently is, taking a computer to the reception, uploading shots taken earlier in the day, and letting them rotate as a slideshow during the evening. This adds a fun element to the night.

14. Consider Your Backgrounds.

One of the challenges of weddings is that there are often people going everywhere, including the backgrounds of your shots. Be sure to check out the area where you’ll be working ahead of time, looking for good backgrounds. Ideally you’ll be wanting uncluttered areas, and shaded spots, out of direct sunlight, where there’sless chance of a person wndering into your background.

15. Don’t Discard Your Mistakes.

The temptation with digital is to check images as you go and to delete those that don’t work immediately. The problem with this is that you might just be getting rid of some of the more interesting and useable images. Keep in mind that images can be cropped or manipulated later to give you some more unusual, or abstract looking shots, that can add real interest to the end album.

 16. Change Your Perspective.

Get a little creative with your shots. While the majority of the images in the end album will probably be fairly ‘normal’ or formal poses, make sure you mix things up a little by taking shots from a variety of angles.

17. Group Shots.

One thing that I attempt to do at every wedding is photograph everyone who is in attendance in one shot. The way I do this is to arrange for a place where I can get up high above everyone right after the ceremony. This might mean getting tall ladder, using a balcony or even climbing on a roof. The beauty of getting up high is that you can fit a lot of people in the shot. The key is to be able to get everyone to the place you want them to stand quickly and to be ready to get the shot without having everyone stand around for too long. I found the best way to get everyone to the spot is to get the bride and groom there and to have a couple of helpers herd everyone in that direction.

18. Fill Flash.

When shooting outside after a ceremony or during the posed shots you’ll probably want to keep your flash attached and use a little fill in flash. I usually dial it back about 1 1/2 to 2 stops so that shots are not blown out. When shooting backlit or midday shooting conditions where there can be a lot of shadow, fill flash is a must.

19. Continuous Shooting Mode.

Having the ability to shoot a lot of images very fast is handy on a wedding day. Try switching your camera to continuous shooting mode. Sometimes it’s the shot you take a second after the formal or posed shot when everyone is relaxing that really captures the moment!

20. Expect the Unexpected.

One more piece of advice.Things will Go Wrong. In every wedding that I have photographed something has gone wrong with the day. The best man can’t find the ring, the rain pours down just as the ceremony ends, the groom forgets to do up his fly, the flower girl decides to sit down in the middle of the aisle or the bride can’t remember her vows…. These moments can feel a little panicky at the time, but it’s these moments that can actually make a day and give the bride and groom memories. Attempt to capture them and you could end up with some fun images.

21. Have Fun.

Weddings are about celebrating and they should be fun. The more fun you have as the photographer the more relaxed those you are photographing will be. Perhaps the best way to loosen people up is smile and stay light hearted. As the photographer your photographs are the relection of your personallity. Keep it light and cheerful.

10 Tips To Help You Become A Better Photographer

Fall Soft Water

There are so many different sources of material out there to help you improve your photography, but reading website after website and a book or twelve isn’t always the best way to improve your shots. While reading all these lessons, tips and tutorials, we tend to forget something that would help us much more. All the knowledge in the world is useless unless you know what to do with it, so here are 10 tips to help you learn how to improve your photography.

1. Learn Where You Need To Improve

Before getting better at anything, you need to work out what you actually need to work on. Write a list of things you don’t feel confident with, it can be as long or as short as you like but try to keep each one as narrow as possible. When you have your list, concentrate on just one item from it and spend time practising, researching and doing everything you can to improve that particular aspect of your photography. When you feel confident with it, cross it off and move onto the next one.

2. Be Critical

When you take a photograph that you’re not happy with, don’t just scrap it. Spend some time looking at it and work out what you don’t like about it. Write your thoughts down so you can look back over them later. You might start to find a pattern where it’s the same things that you aren’t happy with. If that’s the case, go back and add it to your list.

3. Set Yourself Assignments

A great way to improve your photography when you know what it is that needs improving, is to set yourself assignments. This gives you a challenge, something to aim towards and it helps keep you on the right path. Make it achievable though and preferably something that you will enjoy doing. If, for example, you want to improve your close up animal shots, don’t just take a thousand photographs of the dog, set yourself a challenge that will take you out of your comfort zone, like getting yourself a shot of a squirrel holding a nut.

4. Try New Things

The worst thing you can do is take shot after shot of the same things, with the same settings. Even if there’s something you’re brilliant at, it’s always good to make changes to make sure you don’t get complacent. You might learn something that will improve what you are already great at but it’s even more important for beginners, trying new things will definitely speed up the learning process.

5. Be Patient

I’m terrible for this one but it’s a really important trait to have! Don’t expect brilliant results instantly, becoming a great photographer takes time and isn’t something that can be learned overnight. It’s even more important when you are completing your smaller tasks to not give up at the first sign of failure.

6. Find Inspiration

When you are feeling confident with your camera and you want to experiment a little, it can be a challenge to come up with new ideas and it might be a good idea to take inspiration from other people’s work. Look around the internet, in magazines, even in shopping malls where there can be many promotional posters. Try taking ideas from the material rather than copying them, so you can develop your own unique style.

7. Learn From the Best

Following on from finding inspiration, take some of that inspiration and work out what makes it great. Critique the photographer’s work, look at why that particular shot is so good, what do their photographs have that yours don’t? This is a great way of improving your own photography, as you look closer at photographs rather than just thinking ‘that looks nice’ and moving on to the next.

8. Shoot, Shoot and Shoot Again

There’s no better way to learn than getting out there and experimenting. You can read a million books but you will still learn faster just by doing it and learnig from your own mistakes. Spend some time taking shots of the same subject over and over again in different ways. It could also be a good idea to record what settings you used for each photo so you can work out what worked the best when you look back over them later.

9. Listen to Feedback

When you are improving, get other opinions instead of just judging your own work. There are plenty of people out there willing to help your photography, even if they don’t realise it. Tell people you don’t just want to know if they like a shot or not, but you want to know what they like or don’t like about it. Also, it’s not just other photographer’s you want feedback from. People who have no idea about photography can still give an opinion that could make you realise something you could have done to improve the shot, so get feedback from as many different sources as possible.

10. Don’t Give Up

The final tip is the most important of them all. If you really want to become an amazing photographer, it takes time, dedication and commitment. Everyone has to start somewhere, and many people do give up when they get impatient or frustrated, but stick with it and you will get there. Here is a link where you can find some valuable training at a price anyone can afford. “Mastering Digital photography Made Easy”

PS: If managing and editing your photos is causing you problems, I think you’ll enjoy this Free CD containing 21 Video Tutorials for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You can get your Free CD at “Photoshop Made Easy”

“Mastering Digital Photography” And “Photoshop Made Easy” Special Pricing:

Hey everyone, just a quick heads up. I wanted to let you know that you can know own “Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy” and “Photo-Shop Made Easy” for prices that anyone can afford.

If you have been putting off ordering these two great courses, wait no longer. You can pick up both of these easy to learn courses for, never before seen, rediculously low prices. Here are the links to the special discounts. Just click on the banners below and check them out.

Till next time, Thank you, Terry

http://www.photographylessoncenter.com

How To Improve Your Digital Photos The Easy Way:

Learning how to get the most from your digital photography can be frustrating. Every digital photographer knows that there is more to making awesome photos that just clicking the shutter of your camera. Trust me, your camera can only do so much.

Experienced digital photographers know that post processing and image enhancement is the key to transforming flat and colorless images into beautiful, dynamic works of art. Every digital photograph that you record with your camera can be improved upon with post processing (enhanced, after downloading to your computer). With post processing you can turn dull, lifeless images into vibrant colorful images by increasing the saturation and density of the colors. You can add contrast, lighten and darken specific areas of your images, or even add special effects with filters and actions.

 Example, Original Image.

 Example, After Post Processing.

 Post processing is your digital darkroom. The beauty of your digital darkroom is, you don’t need to mess around with any wet chemicals and you can process your images in the comfort of room light and a comfortable chair. You have far more creative control than you ever had in conventional film photography without the material expense.

The negative aspect of digital post processing is the learning curve. Photoshop and some of the other professional quality image editing programs have fairly steep learning curves. Another consideration is the initial investment. Professional quality post processing software is expensive and takes a strong commitment to master.

 If you are just learning digital photography and would like to learn to enhance your images I have some good news. There is a very affordable image editing software available for anyone who does not require all the bells and whistles that Adobe Photoshop provides. This software is very user friendly, affordable, and handles just about anything the average amateur photographer needs to transform their work into images that they can be proud to display and share with others. Image Image Enhancer has a free trial offer. This is an incredibly fast and simple piece of software that does exactly what it says it will. It is unpretentious and effective. Most importantly, you can down load your free trial so you can decide for yourself!

 Examples From Imagic:

 Before:

 After:

Before:

After:  

Imagic Image Enhancer has easy to uses control sliders to improve your photos.

 Lighting: Adjust your image for softer or sharper lighting

 Intensity: Adjusts the amount of lighting effect and color filters.

 Exposure: Use this to darken or lighten the highlight values.

 Brightness: Increase or decrease the overall lightness of the image.

 Saturation: Removes or adds the overall amount of color.

 Tonal Balance: Use to fine tune the tone of the image.

 If you are ready to improve your digital photographs the easy way without dealing with the expense and learning curve of Photoshop IMagic Image Enhancer could be just what the doctor ordered. Get your free trial download and give it a shot here.

Getting to Know Your Digital Camera; What Model Is Best For You?

Eye To Eye

How To Take Better Pictures With Your Digital Camera

Photography is both about knowing how to use a camera and also knowing how to make decisions. Today’s media projects images that can be difficult to understand, and learning photography can help you to understand what you’re being showed every day on television, on the internet, and in movies. Photography is a good way to occupy your time, especially if you are a teenager, as it is fun and harmless. Besides that, it’s a great way to bring a community together for a project, such as photographing activities and gatherings.

Understanding how your camera focuses will help you get better pictures. Just about all digital cameras these days have autofocus with two-step shutter release. In dark lighting, you will notice that when you press the button halfway down, a red light appears for a moment, but not in areas that are lighter. Then, when you press the button down fully, there is a flash. When you hold down the button halfway, that focuses the image, and when you depress it fully, the camera takes the focused image. If you want the subject of your photograph not to be in the center but still focused, first center them in the middle of the picture and focus the frame by pressing down halfway. Without removing your finger, reframe the picture with your subject in the right position, and take the picture. Your subject will still be focused.

Love Is In The Air

Days End

One aspect of taking a pleasing photograph is depth of field. When you look at a picture, you will notice that all the area surrounding the focused subject is also focused. This area is called depth of field. In order to change the way the depth of field in a picture is seen, focused, and lit, you must change the size of your lens aperture. The larger the lens aperture opening is, the smaller the depth of field will be. To decrease the depth of field you can also move closer to your subject. To increase it, you can use a smaller lens opening or move further away from your subject.

Not Again Chicken Little

A great technique that helps photographers create eye-catching pictures is the rule of thirds. This is a composition technique, create a pleasing balance between the different objects in a photograph. In order to use the rule, divide your screen into six different parts: three horizontal sections, and three vertical. The focal points, where the eye is attracted when it first looks at a picture, are where the lines intersect. Placing the subjects of your pictures at or near the focal points can help create a balanced and attractive picture.

She Sells Sea Shells

Landscape photos are very popular and can be very nice-looking. The whole photograph will need to be in focus, unlike some pictures where only a certain part is in focus. In order to have the picture completely focused, you’ll need to have a short focal length. This will create a larger depth of field, and everything will be focused. In order to creating a pleasing balance between land and sky, or water and sky, you can use the rule of thirds. Furthermore, if you want a sense of three dimensions, you can have a subject in the foreground.

Zion-Narrows

Death Valley

A tripod is a good investment in photography, especially if you want to take panoramic pictures. You’ll have to set your tripod in a place where you can swivel the camera smoothly from left to right, and not up and down. You will have to figure out where you want your pictures to overlap, so that you don’t have huge gaps in your resulting picture. Once you figure that out, you can swivel your camera in one direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, to take the pictures you want. Once you’re done, all you have to do is put them together with a simple graphics program or photo-editing software.Recommended for More Help:

Need to improve your digital photography techniques? “Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy” can have you shooting like a Pro almost instantly.

Article courtesy of: Dan Fieldman

How to Share Your Digital Photos With “Flickr And Yahoo”

Sharing your digital photographs on the internet using Flickr is becoming more and more popular with both amature and Professional Photographers. If you are interested in sharing your photographs and getting some interesting feedback from viewers, Flickr is a great place to start. All you need is a free Yahoo account and you are ready to go. Here is a link to a quick tutorial on how to get started. You can be posting your digital photos for millions to see, on Flicker, in a matter of a few minutes. Here’s the link to the Flickr Tutorial.

Till next time, enjoy, Terry

PS: I thought you might enjoy this HDR image of an abandoned business, on highway 50, near Eureka Nevada

Hard-Times