Tips & Techniques

Natural Light technique from Stephen Knuth

When shooting in natural light:
Pose your subjects in front of the sun, aim your lens to shoot with the sun behind them and make sure you are standing in their shadow to create your own “soft box diffuser”.  Put your settings at ISO 100, 1/1600, f/2.5. You’ll get perfect skintones and capture a nice rim light behind them!  Once you have the sun behind the subject, slightly tilt your lens and get the edge of the sun to poke out. This will allow a small sun flare to appear on your images.

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Back to Zero: Using Reset

Back to Zero: Using Reset
We’ve all done it — we pick up the camera to shoot for the first time in awhile, and we’re rushed to get the shot. Maybe it’s a sporting event, family event, etc. We take a few critical photos, look down to check our pics… and we quickly realize we’re shooting small jpgs at ISO 3200 because that’s what we were shooting at last time! Moment ruined (well, probably salvageable nowadays).

I’ve gotten into the habit of resetting my camera right before I shoot. With a Nikon, it’s extremely easy: on the top of the body, there are two buttons marked with a bright green dot. Hold those two buttons down simultaneously for a few seconds, and you’ve quickly ‘reset’ your camera: ISO 200, Program mode, Normal size jpgs. Now, if you’re using your customizable Shooting Banks, you an flip right to one of those that fits the moment. If not, at least you’re ‘back to zero’. If you’re a Canon user, I do believe there’s a Menu command to do the equivalent.

Happy shooting!

Bobby Alcott was voted one of the Top 5 Photographers in Detroit, and shoots weddings all over the World.
Link: http://www.bobbyalcottweddings.com
Twitter: bobbyalcottphoto
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bobby-Alcott-Photography/37567129944

Custom Presets from Jules Bianchi

Custom presets for use with Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
If you like the way Jules Bianchi processes her images, you might want to consider checking out her custom presets! This set includes both the creative set, which will allow you to tweak your color and change images to black and white AND the practical set, which allows you to make such corrections as changing white balance, create or remove a vignette, or give an image “snap.” Using these presets allows you to make the changes without ever having to open PhotoShop. Presets make your post-processing workflow a lot faster, and a lot more fun, too!
http://www.julescafe.com

Creating Catch Lights

Creating Catchlights
Learn how to make sure the eyes of your subject have sparkle by adding catchlights, including two different ways to create catchlights from scratch.
http://www.kelbytraining.com
Kelby Training
Education for Creatives