Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography Review


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Great portraits go beyond a mere record of a face. They reveal one of the millions of intimate human moments that make up a life. In Beyond Portraiture, renowned photographer Bryan Peterson shows how to spot those “ah-ha!” moments and capture them forever. A teary child...old people laughing together...a smiling girl with big, big hair. Everyone remember pictures like these, usually taken by a mother, a father, a friend holding a camera, forever preserving small yet revealing vignettes of our personal histories. But we always relied on pure luck and chance to catch those moments. Peterson’s approach explains what makes a photo memorable, how to spot the universal themes that everyone can identify with, and how to use lighting, setting, and exposure to reveal the wonder and the joy of everyday moments. Beyond Portraiture makes it easy to create indelible memories with light and shadow.


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Feb 01, 2012 08:36:36

Sunday, January 29, 2012

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures From Your Digital Camera

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures From Your Digital Camera Review


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This paperback edition of How To Photograph Absolutely Everything by renowned photographer, author, and broadcaster Tom Ang, delivers exactly what the title promises. Avoiding intimidating technical jargon, he explains the basic elements of photography - light, color, composition, and focus - then goes on to show how to make them work for you. From still lifes to children's parties, thunderstorms to sunsets, close-ups to panoramas, every photographic subject, technique, and challenge is covered. Using step-by-step photographs and instructions, Tom shows you how to take the best possible picture in any situation. Want to photograph city lights at night, animals in action, a family portrait? Tom makes it easy. Employing a user-friendly "recipe" formula, he shows you the best approach for each subject, gives expert tips on improving an image, and tells you how to set up your camera - so you really can't go wrong. Inspiring galleries at the end of each section describe alternative techniques to try for every subject. There are also tips on basic post-production, showing how to crop, improve color and contrast, and remove unwanted elements of an image. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything guarantees to make a better, more confident photographer of absolutely everyone who reads it.


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Jan 30, 2012 09:57:07

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review


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Capture the beauty of the world around you with this professional advice

Landscape photography inspires millions of photographers. If you're one of them, you'll find new insight into landscape photography in this book by professional photographer Harold Davis, as well as tips, tricks, and technical advice to help you improve the quality of your photos. You'll learn to use lighting and composition creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, look at your subject matter in a new way, and even when to break the rules in order to capture the best image of all. Illustrated with the author's own spectacular landscape photos.

  • Landscape photography intrigues and inspires photographers, but there is more to getting great landscape photos than many photographers expect
  • Professional photographer Harold Davis teaches tricks and techniques that will enhance your skills
  • Explains how to approach the subject creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, and refine photographic technique to create spectacular landscape shots
  • Looks at how lighting, texture, and composition affect landscape imagery
  • Lavishly illustrated with the author's own photos

Landscapes have long been a popular photographic subject; this book helps you advance your skills as a landscape photographer.

An Amazon.com Exclusive Introduction from Author Harold Davis

Dear Amazon Reader,

I’m passionate about landscape photography. I love getting out, traveling, finding new vistas, and photographing them. But, there’s a surprising paradox with landscape photography. On the one hand, this kind of photography might seem easy: It isn’t hard to find spectacular landscapes, no specialized gear is needed, and on its face, landscape photography doesn’t seem technically difficult.

On the other hand, as Ansel Adams put it, “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.” Great landscape photography is, in fact, far harder than it looks.

Part of the trick is being in the right place at the right time. But even if the scene you are witnessing is sublime, there’s no guarantee that you’ll bring back compelling digital landscape imagery without the right creative ideas, techniques, and tips—which is where Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques comes in.

I’ve always loved landscape photography, and in the course of my career I have had the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of landscapes from many perspectives. I’ve pursued my love of the landscape by hiking solo across the Brooks Range—the northernmost Mountain range in Alaska—crossing ranging torrents with my camera perched precariously on my back and the rest of my gear on handmade rafts. I’ve gone hungry in my pursuit of the wilderness landscape. I’ve dangled from small planes and helicopters, lashed in with a harness, to photograph urban and wild landscapes from above. And I’ve sought the dark spaces of the night, to photograph landscapes and show them in ways they haven’t been seen before.

Digital has changed almost everything about the tools of the landscape photography trade, and how captures are processing in the digital darkroom.

My goal in Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques is to be your companion and guide in landscape photography. I work with you to find the right locations for your kind of landscape photography, and help you figure out the right time to be there. I share my best creative ideas about landscape photography with you, and explain the equipment, tools, and techniques you need to master. Finally, I show you how I process my landscape work in the digital darkroom.

Each of the photos in this book can be used as idea generation for your own work—how you might approach a specific kind of landscape to make spectacular photos of your own. I’ve included the story behind each photo in the book, as well as full technical data about the captures. Like other books in my Creative series, Creative Landscapes is intended to be useful as an idea book.

Creative Landscapes is divided into four parts. As you’ll see, there’s a great deal of material that covers a lot of ground:

Part I: The Tao of Landscape—Tao is a philosophy with ancient roots that refers to the primordial essence of things, the natural order of existence, and the fundamental aspects of the universe. My approach to landscape photography involves embracing the Tao of the world, and this section begins a conversation about integrating one’s work holistically with the world around us and the demands of modern life.

Part II: Tools & Techniques—Explains in detail the camera settings you need to know to make the most of your landscape photography opportunities.

Part III: One World, Many Landscapes—Photographing a mountain landscape is different from photographing a desert—and both are different from capturing a seascape, or the city as landscape. This section explores different considerations to keep in mind depending upon the kind of landscape you are photographing.

Part IV: Landscapes and Post-Processing—With digital photography, taking the photo is only the beginning of creative image making. In this section, you’ll learn to use RAW processing, Photoshop, and HDR techniques to improve the creative impact of your landscape photos.

I hope you enjoy Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques. I hope it encourages you to try new techniques. Be adventurous, and seek out awe-inspiring vistas. Explore the world around you, as you capture your own creative landscapes.

Best wishes in photography!

Harold Davis

Landscape Photos from the Author

Bridge and Stars at Night
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)
Yosemite Morning
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)
Yosemite in Snow
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)


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Jan 27, 2012 09:52:06

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes

The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes Review


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This book teaches us how to fully connect with the visual richness of our ordinary, daily experience. Photography is not just a mechanical process; it requires learning how to see. As you develop your ability to look and see, you will open, more and more, to the natural inspiration of your surroundings.

Filled with practical exercises, photographic assignments, and techniques for working with texture, light, and color, this book offers a system of training that draws on both Buddhist mindfulness practice and the insights of master photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.


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Jan 26, 2012 07:15:04

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Camera (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 1)

The Camera (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 1) Review


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This is an atrractively priced photography classic made accessible to a wider, new audience. It covers everything from "seeing" the finished photo in advance, to lens choices. It is illustrated with many of Ansel Adams most famous images.


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Jan 21, 2012 13:20:13

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography

Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography Review


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Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography Feature

  • ISBN13: 9780321646873
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
IMAGINE THE ADVANTAGE YOU’D HAVE IF ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP WEDDING SHOOTERS SHARED HIS SECRETS WITH YOU

World-renowned wedding photographer, and one of the most widely acclaimed instructors in the industry today, David Ziser brings his no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point teaching style to a book that totally rewrites the rules for how wedding photography is taught.

This groundbreaking new book is the first of its kind to focus on the exact areas that wedding photographers have been begging a top pro like David to cover, including how to create professional quality light and beautiful images in every situation, how to compose wedding images that sell, and how to create amazing images in the limited time and at the fast pace of a wedding.

But David doesn’t just stop there. He covers every aspect of what today’s brides and wedding couples want from a wedding photographer, including poses that work every time and can’t-miss lighting setups you can use again and again, and everything is laid out in a brilliant step-by-step method that makes learning these techniques so easy, you’ll be able to pull off these same looks yourself (without spending thousands on expensive equipment). Plus, the book is packed with David’s tricks of the trade that he’s picked up in a career shooting all over the world.

LEARN HOW THE PROS REALLY DO IT
Each year David trains thousands of photographers on how to shoot weddings like a pro. He knows the problems and challenges today’s wedding photographers face, and that’s exactly what he covers in this book. You’ll learn everything on the list here and much more:
  • Professional posing and composition tips
  • Simple on-location lighting setups that are specially designed for the wedding photographer
  • How to get gorgeous images using a minimal amount of time and equipment
  • Creative lighting techniques that anyone can use to create dramatic wedding portraits that will set you apart
  • David’s own camera settings and lens selections (which lenses to use when, and why), and how to get the best results with your existing gear
  • How pros use on- and off-camera f lash, and a host of tricks of the trade that will make you more profitable and have you delivering the type of wedding shots you’ve always dreamed of!
Plus, the book includes the complete cover-to-cover layout from one of David’s wedding album designs to help spark your creative juices and give you ideas to take your own layouts to the next level.

The wedding photography industry has been waiting for a landmark book that would become “the book” that finally changes everything, and that’s exactly what you’ll be getting with the purchase of this book.


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Jan 18, 2012 23:42:37

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Exposure Photo Workshop: Develop Your Digital Photography Talent

Exposure Photo Workshop: Develop Your Digital Photography Talent Review


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Named One of Shutterbug Magazines Top Digital Imaging Books of 2008!

Capturing an image and getting the right exposure is critical and Jeff Wignall recognizes exposure as the secret for creating an image that captures a vision and shares it with the world. When you apply his techniques with patience, experimentation, and a focus on the outcome, you will begin creating images that reveal not only what you saw, but how you felt when you saw it. In fact according to Shutterbug magazine Exposure Photo Workshop “may be the best book yet written about exposure.” By learning to work with natural light as well as when to use flash you will confidently capture action, night scenes, rainbows, sunsets, and reflections like never before. With stunning images, Jeff Wignall shows you how to perfectly expose pictures in even the most challenging existing light conditions, including poor weather, using a flash, and even a section guiding you through using multiple wireless flash units. You can upload your own images to Photoworkshop.com and get feedback from other photographers.

Wignall starts by explaining the fundamentals of exposure and why it’s important. This leads into learning the basics of exposure controls. By the end of chapter 2, you will know how to control the exposure on your point-and-shoot or digital SLR camera. Chapter 3 walks readers through measuring light using just about any light meter and Chapter 4 delves into lens apertures and depth of field. The focus moves to shutter speed and subject motion. After Chapter 6, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to turn off your camera’s automatic settings and take manual control. Wignall then examines natural light exposures, discussing the intricacies of light quality, light direction, and time of day. As you approach more advanced exposure options, you’ll need the troubleshooting advice provided in Chapter 8, covering difficult situations such as metering challenges, handling contrast, and creating dramatic silhouettes. With more advanced techniques mastered, you can then approach night and low-light conditions and then examine special considerations such as the weather and natural phenomena. The book finishes strong with a comprehensive look at all things flash photography.


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Jan 17, 2012 22:08:35

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Elements of Photography: Understanding and Creating Sophisticated Images

The Elements of Photography: Understanding and Creating Sophisticated Images Review


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Photography is a complex craft. Some excel at the technical side of image-making, focusing perfectly on the subject, releasing the shutter at just the right moment and making exposures with the precise amount of light. Others are artists and storytellers, capturing a fleeting moment in time which inspires a viewer to gaze upon an image and ponder its meaning. The best photographers are masters of both.

In this highly visual, informative book, Angela Faris Belt discusses the four crucial elements of photography that are essential for successful technical and conceptual image-making:

.the photographic frame and its borders
.quality of focus as determined by the aperture or lens
.shutter speeds and their effects in relation to time and motion
.the physical media used to create the aggregate image

Step-by-step guidance including informative screen shots, traditional darkroom and Photoshop techniques, suggested exercises, and before and after images help both film and digital photographers improve their skills, learn new techniques, and better understand their craft. More than 300 stunning, full color images and portfolios featuring the work of over 40 prestigious artists provide visual inspiration as well as a gorgeous collection of artwork for photography enthusiasts.

*Learn from an expert author how to combine your creative vision with technical accuracy to produce images that are visually provoking as well as technically inspiring
*Includes over 300 stunning full color images and highlights the portfolios of 40+ prestigious artists
*Contains screenshots, before-and-after images, and how-to information to help both students and photographers practice skills and learn new techniques
*Follow the suggested exercises at the end of each chapter to develop your own portfolio of images


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Jan 16, 2012 03:47:05

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop

Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop Review


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How to create stunning black and white photos in a digital format

Shooting pictures in black and white presents unique challenges for beginners and experienced digital photographers alike. A strong understanding of photography’s fundamentals is crucial to capturing great black and white images, and factors such as contrast and lighting are much more integral to black and white photography than to color. Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop teaches digital photographers the skills they need to master black and white photography.

  • Focuses on the rules of photography and how they apply differently to black and white photography
  • Offers guidance for properly uploading digital images to a computer
  • Explains insider tips and tricks for using Photoshop and Lightroom to successfully enhance black and white images

Black and white photography presents different challenges than color photography. In Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop, photographers learn how to identify great opportunities for black and white photographs and how to turn those opportunities into stunning monochrome images they can be proud to display.

From the Author: Sample Photos and Their Stories

One vital element of good black and white photography is lighting and how the light affects your subjects. I believe that many of the black and white images that I shoot are light driven, meaning that many times I will see how the light and shadow are interacting with the subject in front of me, and will use the tones and contrast there to determine if it should be a color or black and white image.

This can happen whether there is the bold contrast of big areas of light and shadow, or the subtle tones of gray, smoothly fading towards bright and dark areas. Pay attention to the shapes and textures of the scene in front of your camera, and start to engage your brain in trying to learn how the colors of real life will convert into tones and textures in monochrome.

In your home, on a walk or even on your commute, begin to see the tones of light and dark all around you to help visualize how the contrast of the light is creating the emotional tone of the scenes in front of you. Ask yourself questions about the light always helps in visualizing-is this a bright or dark scene? Is the interaction of the light and dark areas of the scene hard and abrupt or is it soft and gradual? How does this light fit the scene? And finally… how does the light in the scene make me feel?

Spend more time trying to visualize how light is creating the shape, texture and contrast in the scene in front of your camera and the feel that you are attempting to share in your black and white photographs, than worrying too much about a lot of technically perfect settings. Imparting the feel and emotion of the scene in front of you will be far more impactful to the viewer than making sure you had just the right f/stop.

Commuter
(see story below)
Sunset
(see story below)
Boxer
(see story below)


Commuter
The image of the commuter’s legs is interesting to me because of the strong lines and contrast of the scene. With a square shaped image, the line of legs and shadow created with the backlight of the setting sun on the sidewalk keep our eyes moving right back to the shoes and the step. All of the other line and texture in the scene continue to do the same thing, bringing interest right back to the point of the step. This image really breaks the rule of thirds, and yet there is subtle interesting balance by being off kilter and just off center.

1/1600 second, f/4 and ISO 320

Sunset
So often the color of a sunset becomes such a big focus in photography that we forget how much the beauty of that sunset can be seen in black and white. The layers of the scene are shown with the different textures from top to bottom, from ethereal sky, to smooth foothills, to the soft rounded texture of the trees down to the pastoral agelessness of the barn and wagon.

1/80 second, f/7.1 and ISO 320

Boxer
A moment of reflection is captured in a split second after a bout; the boxer readies himself for the judges’ decision. Black and white photography brings the focus right to his lean and muscular shape and expression in the soft tones of the shadows, while in color this image may be full of distraction colors, from the ringside ropes to the color of the light itself.

1/320 second f/2.8 and ISO 4000


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Jan 15, 2012 03:46:35