October 2016 – Tips for a Good Photograph, Add Birds, Eyes, Double Exposure, Reflections, Clean Lenses

What Makes Some Photographs Better Than Others?  That’s the title of the first of this month’s articles.  It was written by Edward Johnson and found on Picture Correct.  Edward covers things like lines, shapes, patterns, contrast, color plus a lot more.  Here’s the link: 

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/what-makes-some-photographs-better-than-others/

Here’s a simple tutorial for Photoshop to help when you have a beautiful picture but too broad an expanse of sky.  Its titled How to Add Birds to Photos in Photoshop.  I’ve done this before but this guy’s approach is so simple it will become my go to technique.  We’ve had links to him before, his name is Aaron Nace and his website is PHLEARN.  Arron is a great teacher and explains things really well so his tutorials are easy to follow.  Somewhere along the line he adopted a man bun which I’m personally having a hard time accepting as a legitimate hairstyle for men.  Maybe I’m just jealous.  But I digress.  You can find Aaron’s tutorial here:

https://phlearn.com/add-birds-photos-photoshop

When we take a picture, what is that attracts us to the scene?  For me it comes down to the details.  The curve of the stream, the light on the trees, the rust on the door hinges or an out of place lock of hair on my granddaughter.  Here’s an article by Lily Sawyer posted on the Digital Photography School website titled 5 Tips for Developing an Eye for Details in Your Photography.

http://digital-photography-school.com/developing-eye-details-photography/

One of the trends I’ve been seeing for the last couple of years is a double exposure effect where you have a portrait or silhouette but the inside is a picture of foliage or a building.  This tutorial on Picture Correct by a guy who introduces himself as Manny covers the subject in great detail.  Now, a brief warning, Manny goes into a lot of detail.  You can pick up the technic in the first half of the tutorial and he really gets into some artsy stuff during the second half.  You can find it here:

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/guide-to-creating-a-double-exposure-effect-in-photoshop/

Now for some basics.  Something we all do.  Some of love it and do it every time we shoot and some of us hate it and only do it when we have clumps of dirt hanging off the end.  Like everything else in life there’s a right and a wrong way to do things so here’s an article on How to Clean a Camera Lens.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-clean-a-camera-lens/

We all do it.  We go out of our way to look for it.  We’ve even had a contest where it was a theme.  Reflections, they can add a lot of interest and drama to an image.  Here’s an article on Light Stalking by Jason Row titled 4 Very Clever Ways To Use Reflections In Your Compositions.

http://www.lightstalking.com/reflections-in-your-compositions/