Tips for Basic Lightning Photography !

Photographing lighting can be exciting as well as dangerous. But the output always makes the viewers stare at those. Normally lighting is something we dont see still for a long time, It dissappears in a fraction of second. So its always amazing to gaze at those lightning photographs.

Lets discuss a few tips that will help you start :

Location

 

Avoid locations where there is chance of lightning hitting directly. You can know this by observing the patterns for some time. Dont choose high locations like top of a building etc where the lighting is more obvious to strike.

 

 

Compose

Capturing only the lightning in your photo might be not as interesting as a photo where there are a few more elements included like towers, buildings , trees etc. Ultimately your composition will depend on where the lightning is appearing, but always consider what other elements you can bring into the shot.

Continue reading the article : Tips for Basic Lightning Photography !

Tips on Using Different Shutter Speeds

Shutter speed is one of the most basic but very important controls on a camera. If you master to control your shutter speed, you can get amazing images. Shutter speed controls the amount of time that your film, or digital sensor, is exposed to light. In effect, the shutter determines what image is captured on your film.

The Working

Shutter speeds are designated by seconds and fractions of seconds, such as 1/250 second, 1/125 second, 1/2 second, and 1 second. As you increase the shutter speed it doubles on each step, thus 1 second, 1/2 second, 1/4 second, 1/8 second, 1/15 second (rounded slightly), 1/30 second, etc. But now a day you’ll see many more steps in the total range of shutter speeds, such as 1/13 second, 1/25 second, 1/640 second, and so forth. In most dSLR cameras, you can set the incremental jumps of shutter speeds to change by 1/3 or 1/2 stop or even 1 stop. This lets you customize your choices of shutter speed settings.

At slower shutter speeds, the shutter fully opens like a door or window and completely uncovers the opening in front of the sensor. But at faster shutter speeds, such as 1/500 second, the shutter resorts to trickery, because its mechanical

Components cannot operate fast enough to fully open and close in such a short time. Instead of fully uncovering the sensor (as it does at slower shutter speeds), the shutter mechanism forms a narrow slit; as the shutter speed increases, and the slit becomes narrower. The slit then travels across the sensor area, painting it with light—almost like using a roller when you paint a wall

Continue reading the article here : Tips on Using Different Shutter Speeds

Tips for Successful Newborn Photography

As mothers of newborns, the sleepless nights and all the changes that come with a new baby sometimes shadow how quickly they change everyday.  This stage is one you will definately want to remember once you have recovered from those sleepless nights, and these infant photos will be ones you will treasure for a lifetime.

Keep the baby warm:

To keep them comfortable with no clothing on it is important that you keep your studio warm. If you choose to use a heater fan be sure to keep it far away from the baby so you don’t hurt their sensitive skin. Dont mind If you are sweating during your session then you have it nice and warm for the baby and he/she will likely sleep more soundly.

Make it noisy:

The sounds in the womb are very loud and some say as loud as a vacuum cleaner. Newborns will sleep much more soundly if there is white noise in the room. Use noise machines with rain noise or with the sound of the ocean. An app on iphone also provides static white noise.

Continue reading with more examples and videos , click here

How to photograph shiny objects with correct lighting.

In this video tutorial we take the pain off shooting highly reflective objects. Early in my career I was contracted to photograph a catalog for a major department chain in the Northeast.  I was given the housewares which included china and flatware. It was a great opportunity.  On the set I tried several types of photographic techniques including direct lighting and bounce light but nothing seemed to work. What helped me to come up with lighting solution is to take a moment and really analyze my subject and its properties.

Since the object is very reflective, it makes no sense to light the object itself as it does not absorb any light.  It simply reflects the light that is reflected off things around in.  Just like a mirror.  So the next step is to analyze where that reflection is coming from. According to physics:

The law of reflection is  θ_i = θ_r, which means that incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Now that you found where the light is being reflected from (in our case- above and behind the subject) you need to light that that area.  Positioning diffusion paper above our tabletop set created a vest white space that is now reflected in silverware.  By positioning the light source (clamp lamp in this case) to project light onto diffusion paper we are now in control what is reflected in our shiny object.

Read more and watch video tutorial here : http://twiching.com/learningcenter/twichorials/116/

How to take Levitation Photographs

Levitation is said to be some sort of skill that allows human to float in the air and yes, nobody did that successfully until now. However, it’s an interesting concept that has been played out in many movies to impress people, thus attracting photographers to produce their own fantastic work of levitation. Lets have a look at couple of examples and tutorials on how to do it !

 

 

Moving Block. Different with most photographers, Natsumi Hayashi prefers jump to create the levitation effect, but her works are even more realistic than most photographers who embraced photo manipulation. (Image Source: Natsumi Hayashi)

 

READ MORE WITH TUTORIAL VIDEOS HERE

A Must Try set of photoshop actions

Amazing PhotoShop Actions for Enhancing Your Photography

 

While nothing can really beat what you capture straight out of the camera, sometimes it’s nice to add a little zazz or incorporate a certain style that would be near impossible using filters and technique alone. Today we’re going to look at a few of our top Photoshop actions over at GraphicRiver that can be used to add a bit of punch or special effect to your photos.

 

Photo-FX-Actions

 

 

Photo-FX-Actions

 

Create cool looking effects for your photos. The effects include lomo+cross process effect, lomo+light leak & sketch effects.

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Few words that can change the value of your photography

Few words that can change the value of your photography

Tips : How to photograph Water Drops

There are many creative subjects that you can capture without having to leave the house. Water drops are one of my favourite, as they are easy to shoot but can produce some stunning photographs.

With their fascinating array of colours, reflections, and refractions, they make a great subject to photograph, producing some intriguing, abstract shots. It takes a bit of preparation and patience, but water drop photography can be simple, fun, and highly rewarding.

Design Your Drop

Choose a dish to drip your water drops into. Brightly coloured ones work best, bringing vibrancy to the photo, but you can also use a glass dish with a coloured piece of paper or card behind. Before filling your dish with water, clean it out thoroughly to remove any dust and hairs – these can become very obvious in the final shot.

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Tips to Stabilize the Camera without a Tripod

How to Stabilize the Camera without a Tripod

 

Here are some ways you can steady your digital camera without a tripod. With a bit of ingenuity, you can still get a great nature or landscape shot even when you forget your tripod.

 

Imagine it’s dusk. The billowing clouds are tinted in 20 hues ranging from purple to sky blue to pink. You have all the ingredients for a great shot except your tripod, which is in your closet gathering dust. You can:

 

• Place the camera near the edge of a table.

  If you can see the tabletop in the viewfinder or LCD monitor, move the camera closer to the edge.

  Read more here

Photographing Star Trails explained

Your Complete Guide For Photographing Star Trails

By Trevor Williams

Ever seen those pictures where the stars streak across the sky in a big arc? Or maybe the whole sky looked like it was spinning?

What you saw was star trails. The streaks were light left behind on the sensor or film from the star as it traveled across the sky in front of an open camera shutter. In fact, it only seems that way. What actually being recorded are stationary stars and the rotation of the earth that makes them spin. Kinda like you were standing on a vinyl record while it is playing. (yes, vinyl record, it is a form of ancient iPod).

For me, the images seem to have a certain magic or mystery about them. You must have heard a photographer talking about capturing that perfect moment in time. Well for capturing star trails you will need to capture the perfect hour or two in time. For such amazing looking images the technique to capture them is really quite simple. Keep reading for a complete set of instructions from start to finish.

For complete article click here