March 2016 – What’s New on the Web
One of the great advantages we have as photographer’s today verses 15 years ago is the vast amount of information available for free on the internet. Anything you’re interested in, you can find articles, tutorials and videos that will show you exactly how to do it. If you want to learn and get better at taking pictures, the knowledge is available to you. Every evening from around 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM I spend watching photography tutorials online. (I know; I need a life right?) I thought I would put together a monthly article in the newsletter of some of the more interesting ones I’ve found. Now, everybody’s got different interests and what I might find utterly fascinating may not even peak your interest. So here’s the deal. If there’s something you want to learn about, send me an email at shooter@gate.net giving me your interests. I look at dozens of articles a month. If I find something on your list, I’ll list it in a future Newsletter. All right, the administrative stuff is out of the way so let’s get on to this month’s stuff.
Everyone occasionally has a blurry or out of focus picture. Some of us get a lot of them. It happens to everybody, even the pros. Rick Sammon had the perfect solution to the problem. He said “if you have one or two blurry or out of focus pictures it’s a problem, if you have 20 of them it’s a style. So this article from David Shaw posted on the Digital Photography School’s website discusses how you can make it a style. The article is titled “Intentional Blur – How to Create it and Why it’s Awesome”. You can find it here: http://digital-photography-school.com/intentional-blur-create-awesome/
Currently I’m trying to learn to use my Speedlight’s. I have two Granddaughters, and since I have a camera, I’m expected to take pictures. The Speedlight’s are supposed to help. Lighting equipment can be very expensive so I look for alternatives since it’s not something I’m extremely passionate about. I was thrilled when I found “How to Create Awesome Portrait Lighting with a Paper Bag an Elastic Band and a Chocolate Donut. (It was the donut part that really intrigued me.) It’s also from the Digital Photography School and you can find it here: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-create-awesome-portrait-lighting-with-a-paper-bag-an-elastic-band-and-a-chocolate-donut/
Those of you who know me, know I try not to take pictures of anything that can talk, Granddaughters excluded. I go out of my way to avoid having anyone in my pictures. Sometimes it requires waiting around for an hour for everyone to move. The next article, published on the Photography Life website, didn’t get rid of the people for me but it helped me deal with the psychological trauma of having people in the picture. It’s called “People In The Way” and you can get to it here: https://photographylife.com/people-in-the-way
The last article is a little more technical and it addresses exposure compensation. Our cameras are marvelous computers. It’s been said they have more computing power than the computers who put the first men on the moon. But it’s a computer, it still can’t think. Your camera looks at a subject and analyzes the light to create what it thinks is the perfect exposure for balanced lighting conditions. But what if your conditions aren’t balanced? Let’s say you’re shooting a polar bear in the snow. The camera balances it all out by making it grey. That’s where exposure compensation comes in. You need to get that shot white by overexposing the image 1.5 to 2 stops to make that bear white again. So here’s an article by Jim Hamel titled “How to Use Exposure Compensation to Take Control of Your Exposure”. Here’s the link: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-exposure-compensation-to-take-control-of-your-exposure/