How to take water shots

Great article by one of the forum members at Digital Photography School includes a photo of the set-up over the kitchen sink:

• Water Drops – Behind the Shot

Your favourite F/-

Brian Auer has revealed the results of his poll at Epic Edits:

• The most used F- nunmbers are…

Inspiration

We all need this sometimes. Damein Franco at Your Photo Tips provides:

• 3 simple ways to stay inspired

Twittering

If you do, or are planning to Twitter check out this useful list of photography resources by Photopreneur

• Twitter Photography Resources List

Enjoy.

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

15. What I learned about photography this week

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Fireworks with a point-and-shoot

As my only digital camera is a point and shoot I found this article very useful. See the tips at A Matter of Memories for shooting fireworks – including some impressive examples:

• How to take great fireworks with a point-and-shoot
  

Flickr-ing

Neil Creek tells us the 10 things he hates about Flickr – and its users – and raises some interesting points. For me, my use of Flickr has changed as my photography experience has grown. I still very much enjoy being a part of the community and no doubt will for a long time to come. It’s what you make of it, right? I’ve even been known to give some unruly banner awards myself ;-)

• 10 Things I hate about Flickr (and its users)

How to hold your DSLR

A tiny tip from Beyond Phototips:

• Hold your camera right

Whiten your whites

Planet Photoshop has a quick tip on ensuring your white background is, in fact, white:

• Making sure your whites are really white

Sharpen from in-camera

Fotohacker explains why in-camera sharpening mightn’t be such a bad idea:

• Use of in-camera sharpening

Effects using a long exposure

Beyond Megapixels shows a variety of ways in which you can use a slow shutter speed to great effect. I especially like the zoom blur:

• Shooting with slow shutter speed

A stock partnership

JMG Galleries sheds lights on a new partnership between Flickr and Getty Images. Could this be a good thing for Flickrites?

• Getty and Flickr enter into a limited stock partnership

Storing your precious photos

Hyperphocal shares a few different ways to ensure you don’t lose your photos:

• 5 Ways to store your photos

Getting the focus right

Photodoto has excellent advice on the when, why and how of focus. No doubt your photos will improve after reading this:

• The importance of focus and quick tips on how to get it right

And last, but by no means least

Martin Gommel, incredible photographer, has another round-up of tips over at Digital Photography School:

• 20 More things I’ve learned about photography

Enjoy.

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

14. What I learned about photography this week

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Are you a female or male photographer?

Brian Auer at Epic Edits Weblog recently took a “gender poll” of his readers with the aim of determining if his web content is equally balanced for both genders or if the website is (unintentionally) more targeted towards his male readers. As a female visitor to his blog, I find his content does not have a gender bias at all, it simply contains excellent articles, tutorials and tips about photography. The poll has generated a lot of discussion on his blog. Considering many, if not the majority, of the responses have been from his female audience, I don’t think he’s got anything to worry about:

• What’s your gender?

The “it” camera

Digital Photography School also took a poll of its readers to find out what are the most popular cameras used, with a tight race between Canon and Nikon:

• What are the most popular cameras at DPS

Photography links you need

This is on many a website already but I’m going to mention it all the same – just in case you missed it:

• 60 photography links you can’t live without

Why you should take photos

In a series of posts, Amy at Lives Less Ordinary is exploring the whys of starting photography, continuing and why you should take photos. This is the second post in the series:

• The Fire of Images: Why I Continue To Take Photos

Photographing your holiday

At Your Photo Tips find out how to take better holiday snaps:

• Take better vacation photos

And finally … what is your photography goal?

Shawn Duffy has been asking himself the hard questions, where his photography is going and putting a plan together as a result.

• Thinking out loud

Related posts

• See other posts from the What I learned about photography this week series

Enjoy.

This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

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Feeling romantic?

Check out Shawn Duffy’s Paris series over at sduffyphotography.com – he’s been regularly posting photos during his trip. The black and white images are especially romantic. The link below goes to the posts he has tagged “Paris”:

• Photographing Paris

Black and White

As a nice segue to the above link, Beyond Megapixels has a great article on:

• How to create high contrast black and white images

Photo projects and why you need to participate

This is a rather timely link considering I have just opened a project for photographers of the vintage camera Voigtlander Vito BL. Neil Creek has written a guest post at Digital Photography School on:

• Photo projects and why you should participate

A fading post process technique

This tutorial at Shadow Logic creates an amazing fade effect to your image by actually resizing the image over and over again:

• Resizing fade effect

And one for your inner GIMP

Photo Excursions has a tutorial which produces a wonderful result in 5 easy steps. Can’t wait to try it out.

• Portrait tutorial for the GIMP

Enjoy.

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This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

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Do you “shoot” or “photograph”?

This one has had me thinking about how I “talk photography” over the last week or so. Jim M. Goldstein at JMG-Galleries dares you to stop saying “shoot” and instead use “photograph” or “take a photo”, something along those lines. It does make sense after all, it’s a camera, not a gun:

• Philosophy of photography: to “Shoot” or to “Photograph”?

What kind of photographer are you?

Paul Indigo at Beyond the Obvious defines two types of photographers, the observers and the controllers:

• There are two types of photographers

Rain, rain go away

Niels Henriksen at My Camera World offers hope and inspiration to all photographers facing wet weather:

• What to photograph on a rainy day

Make an HDR

Abduzeedo.com has an easy to follow tutorial to creating HDR images using Photomatix (I’ve got to get this program):

• How to create HDR Photos – HDR/Photomatix tutorial

What to buy …

And lastly, Photocritic.org has put together an excellent list on:

• The top 15 entry-level digital SLR cameras

Enjoy.

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This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

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Bokeh in detail

This article at bokehtests.com is by far the most technical explanation of bokeh I have read:

• About bokeh

Shooting the snow

RRD Photo has some good tips on shooting snow scenes … if only I lived somewhere it snowed!

• Exposing for snow
  

Creative Common Licenses

Jim M. Goldstein has a thought-provoking article on the creative commons licensing and photography. Make sure to follow the discussion in the comments:

• Creative Commons, only as good a those that use it

Where’s it gone?

The West Ring has a tip as to why your photo’s metadata may have gone amiss:

• Is your EXIF data missing?

Are you doing the April Challenge?

Trevor Carpenter is running a new photo challenge on Entropy. Deterioration, decay, devolution – go forth and shoot a photo a day for the month of April. I have never participated in a project such as this before, fingers crossed I can keep up!

• April Challenge

Enjoy.

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This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

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Learning The GIMP

If you have been learning to process your photos using GIMP, as I have, you will find this video tutorial at Photodoto interesting:

• Selecting foregrounds in the GIMP
  

Make a time-lapse movie on your DSLR

Ross Ching has written a guest post at Digital Photography School on making his awesome time-lapse movie, Eclectic 2.0, using his DSLR. He goes through the gear he used and how he put the film together. A very inspiring piece!

• How I made a time lapse movie with my DSLR
  

Look after your memory

Mangiaphoto provides some tips on looking after your memory card:

• Few tips on memory cards
  

Exposure compensation

Beyond Megapixels gives a good tip on setting your camera’s exposure manually:

• When to use exposure compensation
  

iPhoto overview

I’ve written a few tips on using iPhoto and came across this overview on PhotoWalkPro:

• Apple’s iPhoto – a review for the uninitiated

Enjoy.

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Shooting underwater, kinda

Light Chasers Photography shows off some nice results from a visit to an aquarium. Must try this one day:

• Under the sea

Lessons in light

Neil Creek is teaching over at Digital Photography School. And yes, he has set some (voluntary) homework:

• Photography 101 – light and the pinhole camera

Cross-process

Originally spotted on Photojojo this cross-processing tutorial at Layers Magazine is an easy to follow guide on how to add that very cool, retro effect to your images:

• Curvy cross processing in Photoshop CS3

More Flickr goodness

kuanhoong.com lists some useful Flickr widgets:

• 8 alternate ways to embed flickr photos onto your webpages

Amateur to professional

Photopreneur reveals the ‘warning’ signs that you should take your amateur photography to the next step:

• 7 signs that you should be a professional photographer

Something to aspire to…

Enjoy.

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This is an article by Anthea Brown of Lilahpops::Plunging into Photography

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One day at a time

I recently came across this website run by Barrie Brewer. It’s a creative and challenging way to improve as a photographer:

• 365 days [and learning]

A 2 mega-pixel cameraphone

This website is another great find – the challenge of learning photography with limited photography gear, namely a 2 mega-pixel camera phone. There are also some great photo editing video tutorials here:

• My GPS Camera Phone

HDR Explained

Fotohacker explains HDR with an easy-to-follow tutorial so you can create your own masterpieces:

• How to create an HDR image

Blogging tips

Shawn Duffy has a welcome part two on his original (Photo)Blogging Tips:

• (Photo)Blogging Tips Part Two

Photography project

Neil Creek has a new photography project you can join – get creative with a fork!

• Iron Chef Photography: Fork

Enjoy.

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Bad weather, good photography

Digital Photography School gives you six good reasons why you should leave the comfort of your home in adverse weather to shoot photos:

• Make the best of bad weather – 6 challenges for photographers

Turn your photos upside down

I Speak Film flips some photos with scenes reflected in water to add some interesting effects:

• Flip your reflections

I actually tried this one out before reading the article and posted the result to Flickr.

Put the color back in your sky

Beyond Megapixels has a great Photoshop post on using gradient filters:

• How to fix washed out skies in landscape photos

A quick snapshot

Photodoto has an amusing post on taking a quick snapshot:

• The making of a “simple” snapshot: a photo essay in four frames

Photography to go

For travel photographers check out Single-Serving Photo for the:

• Ultimate travel photography checklist

Blogging tips

For all you photo bloggers out there check out this informative article by Shawn Duffy:

• (Photo)Blogging Tips

Always read the fine-print

And lastly, Jim M. Goldstein reminds us to always read the fine print when it comes to entering photo contests. You’ll be surprised what some companies will try and do with your incredible image:

• How the rights to your photo are being hijacked through photo contest and social media

Enjoy.

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