Toluu

Beyond Megapixels

Cameras,Photography

Continuous Shoot AdvantagesJanuary 7

Do you shoot in Continuous Shoot mode?  It’s a setting on your digital camera that I highly recommend you check out.  I usually shoot in this mode so I get at least one good photo from a moment that can not be recreated.  When I was starting out that’s precisely what I’d get - one good photo.  And I was really happy with that one good photo.  But now that I’ve been working on my photography skills and experimenting with depth of field and white balance and exposure I’m finding that I have more then one good photo.  Today’s post is about what to do when you have more then one good photo from a moment.  

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about compilations and montages and grouping of photos.  Since that post I’ve been really looking at photo opportunities for displaying my photos in a montage/collage.  My very favorite subject was kind enough to sit for a photo shoot this past weekend and there were five shots within a 90 second span that really capture Lexi.  First thing I did was open up my Adobe Photoshop Elements and grab the five raw files that I liked.  I opened up a new document sized 8×10 as that’s what I want my finished product to be and I played for an hour.  I experimented with the images overlapping like so:

New “Links” Section: looking for submissions!January 7

I am currently building a section on our website for links. If you want your own site added to this list or know of suitable websites please add a comment to this post with the following information:

• Brief description of the site.
• URL of the site.
• Anchor text you want added

Inspiration Board Tuesday: K.C. BaileyJanuary 6

Trish over at The Fur Girls tipped me off to K.C. Bailey and her work with animals.  INCREDIBLE.  I owe Trish a huge Thank You because not only is this photographer amazing but her presentation of her work is inspiring and her motivation is just good for the soul.  

She features a few of her projects on her website and they are incredibly cool.  Her rescue dog project was so sweet in the way she photographed each of the dogs and then made a diorama reflecting their personality.  What a thoughtful idea not just for a pet lover but for any photo.  I went on a trip to NYC with a good friend of mine in college, this is when I just dreamed of living there - I have a great photo of us and then all of this stuff (nuts for nuts bags, metro north ticket, Aida Playbill) I’m going to be making a diorama because all of those memories are currently residing in a plastic tote bin in my basement.  

K.C. has another project called SCREAM and she captured her subjects mid-scream and then pre or post scream.  LOVE it.  What a fantastic way to get a genuine moment out of someone.  Great inspiration.

Care to share some inspiration with me?

Photographers in the News: A passion revisitedJanuary 5

I’m starting to really love these posts about Photographers in the News, I’ve read some really interesting pieces because of this weekly bit and this weeks reminded me that starting again is always an option and being a new year, I thought it was poignant.  It’s about a retired professor Alan Rubin.  He had a career, a family, obligations and a life and with retirement he picked up a passion that had faded to the background since his youth.  

Mr. Rubin not only picked up the camera again he pushed himself to learn.  This really appealed to me. The last line of the piece was my favorite:

His story as an artist is one of rediscovery and adaptation, and one suggesting that it’s never too late to pursue a dream, to learn and to grow.

The beginning of that sentence, “His story as an artist” just grabs me.  An artist.  Do you consider yourself a photographer, an artist or someone with a camera?

Removing and Adding CatchLightsJanuary 2

For this photo editing lesson I’m going to be using this SOOC (straight out of the camera) image of my nephew.  You will remember it from this post over here about CatchLights and about how I loved the picture but didn’t like the reflection of the TV acting as a CatchLight. 

So today we’re going to do the following.  FIRST we’ll remove the CatchLight of the TV and the other misc light noise on his eyes.  SECOND we’re going to add in new CatchLights.  For this lesson I’m going to be using Photoshop Elements although the tools I use are available on nearly all photo editing softwares. 

Before we begin I want to remind you of the importance of zooming in to the edit area and out of the edit area frequently.  I always find that I get a little “edit” happy when I’m zoomed in for too long.   Ready?  Let’s go.

Step #1- Make a copy of your photo so that you have a place to compare before and after.

Step #2 - In your photo editing software zoom in to the area that needs to be edited so it fills your screen.