Trick Photography Ideas

I’ve launched a new camera store called CameraAddiction. This camera store could become your #1 source for camera, photography, and video equipment. It is filled with over 9,000 products and includes categories for best sellers, most wished for, gift ideas, and our picks. You’ll find film and digital cameras, camcorders, and surveillance equipment. Where possible, [...]

Scott Kelby does it again! Watch the video to find out: What the pros do Isolate from the background Bring you in close Have camera techniques They have the equipment How to get around the expense What shots do people like? This is a great video and well worth watching.

February will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On February 25, the moon will rise at the beginning of the blue hour and it will rise at the end of the blue hour on February 26. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Feb 24/99% 6:48 AM 6:20 PM 5:29 PM 5:43 AM Feb [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

If there is anything that I learned from the video it is that it takes more than just jumping in the air to take photos that look like someone is floating, i.e. the video is more entertaining than instructional. Nevertheless, two good tips from the video are to use a tripod and fast shutter speed. Click [...]

January will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On January 26, the moon will be low in the sky during the blue hour and it will rise during the blue hour on January 27. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Jan 25/98% 7:07 AM 5:59 PM 4:54 PM 5:46 [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

December will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On December 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Dec 26/97% 7:06 AM 5:37 PM 4:26 PM 5:31 AM Dec 27/100% 7:06 AM 5:38 PM 5:16 PM 6:19 AM Dec 28/Full 7:07 AM 5:38 PM 6:08 PM 7:05 AM Dec [...]

My Take: I found this article by Mark Laurie from 2011. Most of it still applies for 2012 so I decided to share it with you. I deleted a few suggestions and added some links to help you shop for the items. A Master Photographer shares his popular annual list of gift ideas to help [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

A Social Network for Photographers I just launched a new site for photographers. PhotoBuzz.biz is a full-featured site for members to upload photos, contribute to forums, post ads, and submit articles, news, and links to other sites as well as create your own blog entries. Help create a community for photographers The content of the [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

Summary: The works great. I selected this ball head because it can also pan without releasing the ball head itself. Review: I had been using a Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head with a Panosaurus panoramic head but the trigger of the 322RC would sometimes show in my shots so I needed a ball head with a smaller [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

October will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. No matter when you’re celebrating Halloween at the end of the month, there should be a bright, festive moon. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Oct 1/98% 7:13 AM 7:07 PM 7:59 PM 8:28 AM Oct 27/96% 7:26 AM 6:43 PM 5:21 PM 5:29 AM [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

360cities.net is a fantastic website filled with 360×180-degree panoramas.   BIG EGG Tokyo Doom 1988 in Tokyo You will find an amazing array of panoramas including: Aerial panoramas Underwater panoramas An 80 Gigapixel panorama of London A 18 Gigapixel panorama of Praque A 40 Gigapixel panorama of the Strahov Library (This 360º panorama is the [...]

There will two opportunities to shoot the moon at the end of August and four opportunities in September. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Aug 30/99% 7:00 AM 7:42 PM 6:58 PM 6:01 AM Aug 31/Full 7:00 AM 7:41 PM 7:35 PM 6:59 AM Sept 1/99% 7:01 AM 7:40 PM 8:11 PM 7:55 AM Sept 28/98% 7:12 AM 7:10 [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in July. The moon will rise just before the blue hour on July 3 and during the blue hour on July 4. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 2/98% 6:32 AM 8:17 PM 7:21 PM 5:16 AM July 3/Full 6:33 AM [...]

Overcast skies would have produced rather flat photographs so I waited for a bright sunny day. Finally the weather allowed me to schedule the photoshoot. I called ahead to ensure that there weren’t any conflicting events. I was told that weren’t any events until after 3:00 PM. That wasn’t quite accurate. When I pulled into [...]

My Take: Practice is important! As I found out recently, even an experienced photographer can feel awkward after a period of inactivity. What Does Practice Mean When It Comes to Photography? In sports or almost anything else one learns there is a period of practice or apprenticeship, a time of learning. I’ve said before that [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in June. The full moon will rise in the middle of the blue hour on June 4. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set June 3/99% 6:28 AM 8:10 PM 7:35 PM 5:32 AM June 4/Full 6:28 AM 8:10 PM 8:39 PM 6:32 AM [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

There will be four opportunities to shoot the moon in May. On May 5 the moon will rise before the beginning of the blue hour and on May 6 the moon will rise at the end. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The moon [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in April but April 6 will be the only day that the moon rises during the blue hour. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The best day to catch the moonset is April 7 because [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Summary: The is roomier than expected. Not only does it hold my with a on it but I can also store two more heads in the bag. This bag is really heavy duty! Recessed zippers Comfortable carrying handle Easy access even with the bigger video tripods Thermoformed padding Review: As I stated in the summary, [...]

Creating a photograph like to one on the right doesn’t require Photoshop. All you need are two willing participants, a bright environment, and a small aperture. The image is from Jill Harness’ mental_floss website. The real secret is the small aperture. Try f/16 as a starting point. The reason why you need a small aperture is [...]

Summary: The works extremely well but don’t expect the zipper on the included storage bag to hold up — the zipper broke the first time I used the bag. Luckily, the bag also has straps that help hold in the stands and cross bar sections. Features Two (2) High Quality Tripods, One (1) 3 -sections [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

There will be many opportunities to shoot the moon in March. The moonrise/sunrise and moonset/sunset will be close to each other on the horizon. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, the optimum days will be on March 8 and 9. The timing could be better but it may be possible to photograph both the moonset and [...]

There are many different tripods on the market and selecting the best tripod to fit your needs can be daunting. The following is a list of criteria to consider: Price Weight Height Construction Load capacity Ease of use Special features The main purpose of a tripod is to provide stability and prevent camera movement. Keep [...]

Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

Cokin H250A P-Series ND Grad Filter Kit Summary: I finally had the opportunity to use rectangular graduated neutral density filters and I’m glad I did. The is an inexpensive kit that will help get a good exposure of the sky and land at the same time. The main advantages of using this kind of filter [...]

Aaron Ansarov uses a macro lens from three inches away to produce 1 to 1 closeup photographs of a person’s face. The resulting collage of photographs is an amazing view that we seldom see. Aaron’s website 1to1.me contains many examples of his work as well as a zoomable sample that uses over 300 images. The file size is [...]

Summary: Buy Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (the or the ) now! David duChemin has written a fantastic book that clearly examines what it takes to make photographs that communicate. If you are serious about photography, read this book! Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the [...]

My Take: If you are thinking about going pro, read this post by Nigel Merrick. Nigel is a professional photographer, blogger and business coach for other working photographers. Nigel’s blog ( http://www.zenologue.com/ ) helps professional photographers find peace in their business, love from their clients, and happiness in their personal lives by clarifying their focus [...]

My Take: This is a good article about Canon lenses that are on sale during the holiday season. For some of them, the price is so low that you will have to put the lens in your cart to see the price because Amazon says the price on the item is lower than the manufacturer’s [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

If you have a compact digital camera, you should have various Scene modes that can be used to ensure that you get the best shot. Don’t rely exclusively on Auto mode. Auto mode doesn’t know what you are shooting. Scene modes can be used to ensure that you get the best shot for particular subjects. [...]

Some of the products listed below are under $50 because they are on sale. A polarizing filter is mandatory. It darkens skies, makes blue skies bluer, removes glare, and should be in every photographer’s kit. Be sure to get the correct size filter for your lens. This set is designed for photographic studio and on-location [...]

Get your inspiration from what is around you! Don’t forget that you are surrounded by photographic opportunities. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to go somewhere special. One of the best ways to break this mindset is to imagine yourself as a tourist and try to find out what [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

My Top Picks If you plan to use the iPad to display your photos, get this model which has 64GB. The 3G network isn’t manditory but I have found myself wishing that I had gotten the 3G version when there isn’t a Wi-Fi network in the vacinity. iPad apps such as NIK Software’s Snapseed and Adobe’s [...]

Summary: The is a huge, heavy lens. Be prepared to use a monopod or tripod with this lens. Review: The lens weighs 4.2 pounds and is 3.7 inches in diameter by 10 inches long when at its shortest length. This is the longest lens I have owned so please bear with me if I write about [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

Summary: I love this lens. I can easily see it becoming my preferred lens for HDR and panoramic shots. This is an inexpensive (under $300) lens that really delivers. Review: I received the  a few days ago and already love it. The lens is fully manual but don’t let that scare you. Images are sharp, it [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

My Take: I’ve heard a lot of good things about the  but this article makes me want to try out the . The prime lens I own is the . The reason I purchased it was because it would give me about the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

Follow this link to EarthShots’ Photo of the Day calendar. You will find many incredible photographs. This is a website well worth bookmarking.

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This isn’t a bad comparison of the two cameras but I don’t think that digital zoom is a useful feature. It degrades quality and should not be used. When you think about the  vs , you may ask if there are enough feature differences to substantiate the production of two digital SLRs in [...]

The is such a perfect accessory for photographers, some camera bag manufacturers have started to design camera bags with iPod pouches. For instance, the is designed to hold an iPad or a netbook. I’ve used an iPad on location and teamed with an SD card it was possible to wirelessly send photos to the iPad [...]

I found that I have been recommending to my students. In another post, I mentioned that I had made my own light kit out of 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights when I was in college. For under $250.00 you can get a light kit that includes 2 light stands, 2 softboxes, 1 boom kit, and [...]

My Take: Great tip for point and shoot cameras plus the article contains a link to a viable portfolio website for photographers. Next to a fully charged battery and a huge memory card, a polarizing filter is the digital photographer’s best friend. It reduces unsightly glare, deepens the richness of skies, and improves overall color saturation. The [...]

My Take: The tips in this article apply to any digital camera with Portrait mode. Portrait mode opens up the aperture so that distracting stuff in the background is out of focus and the subject becomes the focal point. Portrait Mode is a simple to operate exposure selection on our . Like the Green Zone, [...]

My Take: This is a great opportunity to get your work seen and possibly win a Canon EOS 60D. The Burrard-Lucas Blog is sponsoring a competition for landscape photographs. You could win a Canon EOS 60D! The deadline for this competition is July 31, 2011 so you still have a chance. Follow this link to [...]

My Take: You’ll want to bookmark this website. They offer weekly Photoshop instructional videos. The only downside is the banter at the beginning of the episodes. They could get to the meat sooner. Matt has a tutorial on adding your own lighting source to a photo, including a lens flare. Corey shares a retouching tip [...]

My Take: Subscribe to their RSS feed. Thursday, 23rd June 2011 Join Earth Shots on Facebook. Source: Earth Shots – Photo of the Day Contest I highly recommend that you bookmark EartShots.org. They have many spectacular photographs.

My Take: When I was in college, I made my own light kits from 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights. I even sprayed the inside of an old umbrella silver so that I could use it as a reflector. It is great to find that there are lots of other photographers that enjoy making their own [...]

My Take: Now I know why I avoid taking pictures of children. Family portraits are something that parents want to have done before their kids grow up and go to college. These special pictures can be used for many things, including greeting cards during the holidays, souvenirs for other family members, and family pictures to [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

My Take: Repeat this mantra after me, “Aperture, Speed, ISO.” Mia Rose does a good job of explaining all three. Although technology is constantly advancing, the principles of basic digital photography stay the same, and knowing these fundamentals will help you improve your skills so you will be more satisfied with your photos. Photographs help [...]

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

If you find it frustrating that your camera focuses and sets the exposure when you slightly depress the shutter button, there is a solution. Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras can separate auto focus from the shutter button and use a button on the back of the camera instead. They don’t call it back button focusing [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Tips for learning photography: This may seem overly simplistic but the best way to learn photography is by taking lots of photographs. Read your manual. Digital cameras have lots of settings and some of them may be hidden deep in the menus. If you don’t read your manual, you might never discover the important ones. [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Summary: The Panosaurus is a low-cost panoramic head that can be used to take 360×180 degree panoramas. Don’t let the cutesy name put you off, this head actually works. I had read quite a few reviews of the product before purchasing it. This kind of head usually costs over $600 but the Panosaurus is just [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 is a light but stable and heavy duty tripod. It is made out of carbon fiber and magnesium. Product Description: The tripod specifically designed for extreme outdoor assignments. The legs and the column are made of 100% carbon fiber combined with magnesium die-casting quick action lever locking collars. Each leg can [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head works as advertised but expect to have to bulk up to use it. The grip takes more forearm strength than I imagined but performs extremely well. Manufacturer’s Description: Take the versatility of a ball head, add true ergonomic control and you get the 322RC2: a photographic head that allows [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

Summary: The is roomier than expected. Not only does it hold my with a on it but I can also store two more heads in the bag. This bag is really heavy duty! Recessed zippers Comfortable carrying handle Easy access even with the bigger video tripods Thermoformed padding Review: As I stated in the summary, [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

If you find it frustrating that your camera focuses and sets the exposure when you slightly depress the shutter button, there is a solution. Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras can separate auto focus from the shutter button and use a button on the back of the camera instead. They don’t call it back button focusing [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

My Take: If you are thinking about going pro, read this post by Nigel Merrick. Nigel is a professional photographer, blogger and business coach for other working photographers. Nigel’s blog ( http://www.zenologue.com/ ) helps professional photographers find peace in their business, love from their clients, and happiness in their personal lives by clarifying their focus [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

Summary: The works extremely well but don’t expect the zipper on the included storage bag to hold up — the zipper broke the first time I used the bag. Luckily, the bag also has straps that help hold in the stands and cross bar sections. Features Two (2) High Quality Tripods, One (1) 3 -sections [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Tips for learning photography: This may seem overly simplistic but the best way to learn photography is by taking lots of photographs. Read your manual. Digital cameras have lots of settings and some of them may be hidden deep in the menus. If you don’t read your manual, you might never discover the important ones. [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

My Take: Repeat this mantra after me, “Aperture, Speed, ISO.” Mia Rose does a good job of explaining all three. Although technology is constantly advancing, the principles of basic digital photography stay the same, and knowing these fundamentals will help you improve your skills so you will be more satisfied with your photos. Photographs help [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

My Take: The tips in this article apply to any digital camera with Portrait mode. Portrait mode opens up the aperture so that distracting stuff in the background is out of focus and the subject becomes the focal point. Portrait Mode is a simple to operate exposure selection on our . Like the Green Zone, [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

If you have a compact digital camera, you should have various Scene modes that can be used to ensure that you get the best shot. Don’t rely exclusively on Auto mode. Auto mode doesn’t know what you are shooting. Scene modes can be used to ensure that you get the best shot for particular subjects. [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

Summary: Buy Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (the or the ) now! David duChemin has written a fantastic book that clearly examines what it takes to make photographs that communicate. If you are serious about photography, read this book! Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: This isn’t a bad comparison of the two cameras but I don’t think that digital zoom is a useful feature. It degrades quality and should not be used. When you think about the  vs , you may ask if there are enough feature differences to substantiate the production of two digital SLRs in [...]

My Take: This is a great opportunity to get your work seen and possibly win a Canon EOS 60D. The Burrard-Lucas Blog is sponsoring a competition for landscape photographs. You could win a Canon EOS 60D! The deadline for this competition is July 31, 2011 so you still have a chance. Follow this link to [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Tips for learning photography: This may seem overly simplistic but the best way to learn photography is by taking lots of photographs. Read your manual. Digital cameras have lots of settings and some of them may be hidden deep in the menus. If you don’t read your manual, you might never discover the important ones. [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

If you find it frustrating that your camera focuses and sets the exposure when you slightly depress the shutter button, there is a solution. Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras can separate auto focus from the shutter button and use a button on the back of the camera instead. They don’t call it back button focusing [...]

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

My Take: Repeat this mantra after me, “Aperture, Speed, ISO.” Mia Rose does a good job of explaining all three. Although technology is constantly advancing, the principles of basic digital photography stay the same, and knowing these fundamentals will help you improve your skills so you will be more satisfied with your photos. Photographs help [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: The tips in this article apply to any digital camera with Portrait mode. Portrait mode opens up the aperture so that distracting stuff in the background is out of focus and the subject becomes the focal point. Portrait Mode is a simple to operate exposure selection on our . Like the Green Zone, [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

If you have a compact digital camera, you should have various Scene modes that can be used to ensure that you get the best shot. Don’t rely exclusively on Auto mode. Auto mode doesn’t know what you are shooting. Scene modes can be used to ensure that you get the best shot for particular subjects. [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

My Take: If you are thinking about going pro, read this post by Nigel Merrick. Nigel is a professional photographer, blogger and business coach for other working photographers. Nigel’s blog ( http://www.zenologue.com/ ) helps professional photographers find peace in their business, love from their clients, and happiness in their personal lives by clarifying their focus [...]

Summary: Buy Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (the or the ) now! David duChemin has written a fantastic book that clearly examines what it takes to make photographs that communicate. If you are serious about photography, read this book! Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

Creating a photograph like to one on the right doesn’t require Photoshop. All you need are two willing participants, a bright environment, and a small aperture. The image is from Jill Harness’ mental_floss website. The real secret is the small aperture. Try f/16 as a starting point. The reason why you need a small aperture is [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

If there is anything that I learned from the video it is that it takes more than just jumping in the air to take photos that look like someone is floating, i.e. the video is more entertaining than instructional. Nevertheless, two good tips from the video are to use a tripod and fast shutter speed. Click [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

My Take: When I was in college, I made my own light kits from 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights. I even sprayed the inside of an old umbrella silver so that I could use it as a reflector. It is great to find that there are lots of other photographers that enjoy making their own [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

If you find it frustrating that your camera focuses and sets the exposure when you slightly depress the shutter button, there is a solution. Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras can separate auto focus from the shutter button and use a button on the back of the camera instead. They don’t call it back button focusing [...]

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

Get your inspiration from what is around you! Don’t forget that you are surrounded by photographic opportunities. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to go somewhere special. One of the best ways to break this mindset is to imagine yourself as a tourist and try to find out what [...]

Cokin H250A P-Series ND Grad Filter Kit Summary: I finally had the opportunity to use rectangular graduated neutral density filters and I’m glad I did. The is an inexpensive kit that will help get a good exposure of the sky and land at the same time. The main advantages of using this kind of filter [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

If there is anything that I learned from the video it is that it takes more than just jumping in the air to take photos that look like someone is floating, i.e. the video is more entertaining than instructional. Nevertheless, two good tips from the video are to use a tripod and fast shutter speed. Click [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 is a light but stable and heavy duty tripod. It is made out of carbon fiber and magnesium. Product Description: The tripod specifically designed for extreme outdoor assignments. The legs and the column are made of 100% carbon fiber combined with magnesium die-casting quick action lever locking collars. Each leg can [...]

Summary: The Panosaurus is a low-cost panoramic head that can be used to take 360×180 degree panoramas. Don’t let the cutesy name put you off, this head actually works. I had read quite a few reviews of the product before purchasing it. This kind of head usually costs over $600 but the Panosaurus is just [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: The tips in this article apply to any digital camera with Portrait mode. Portrait mode opens up the aperture so that distracting stuff in the background is out of focus and the subject becomes the focal point. Portrait Mode is a simple to operate exposure selection on our . Like the Green Zone, [...]

I found that I have been recommending to my students. In another post, I mentioned that I had made my own light kit out of 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights when I was in college. For under $250.00 you can get a light kit that includes 2 light stands, 2 softboxes, 1 boom kit, and [...]

The is such a perfect accessory for photographers, some camera bag manufacturers have started to design camera bags with iPod pouches. For instance, the is designed to hold an iPad or a netbook. I’ve used an iPad on location and teamed with an SD card it was possible to wirelessly send photos to the iPad [...]

My Take: This isn’t a bad comparison of the two cameras but I don’t think that digital zoom is a useful feature. It degrades quality and should not be used. When you think about the  vs , you may ask if there are enough feature differences to substantiate the production of two digital SLRs in [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

My Take: I’ve heard a lot of good things about the  but this article makes me want to try out the . The prime lens I own is the . The reason I purchased it was because it would give me about the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera [...]

Summary: I love this lens. I can easily see it becoming my preferred lens for HDR and panoramic shots. This is an inexpensive (under $300) lens that really delivers. Review: I received the  a few days ago and already love it. The lens is fully manual but don’t let that scare you. Images are sharp, it [...]

Summary: The is a huge, heavy lens. Be prepared to use a monopod or tripod with this lens. Review: The lens weighs 4.2 pounds and is 3.7 inches in diameter by 10 inches long when at its shortest length. This is the longest lens I have owned so please bear with me if I write about [...]

My Top Picks If you plan to use the iPad to display your photos, get this model which has 64GB. The 3G network isn’t manditory but I have found myself wishing that I had gotten the 3G version when there isn’t a Wi-Fi network in the vacinity. iPad apps such as NIK Software’s Snapseed and Adobe’s [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

My Take: This is a good article about Canon lenses that are on sale during the holiday season. For some of them, the price is so low that you will have to put the lens in your cart to see the price because Amazon says the price on the item is lower than the manufacturer’s [...]

Cokin H250A P-Series ND Grad Filter Kit Summary: I finally had the opportunity to use rectangular graduated neutral density filters and I’m glad I did. The is an inexpensive kit that will help get a good exposure of the sky and land at the same time. The main advantages of using this kind of filter [...]

Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

There are many different tripods on the market and selecting the best tripod to fit your needs can be daunting. The following is a list of criteria to consider: Price Weight Height Construction Load capacity Ease of use Special features The main purpose of a tripod is to provide stability and prevent camera movement. Keep [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

Summary: The works extremely well but don’t expect the zipper on the included storage bag to hold up — the zipper broke the first time I used the bag. Luckily, the bag also has straps that help hold in the stands and cross bar sections. Features Two (2) High Quality Tripods, One (1) 3 -sections [...]

Summary: The is roomier than expected. Not only does it hold my with a on it but I can also store two more heads in the bag. This bag is really heavy duty! Recessed zippers Comfortable carrying handle Easy access even with the bigger video tripods Thermoformed padding Review: As I stated in the summary, [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

Summary: The works great. I selected this ball head because it can also pan without releasing the ball head itself. Review: I had been using a Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head with a Panosaurus panoramic head but the trigger of the 322RC would sometimes show in my shots so I needed a ball head with a smaller [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I’ve launched a new camera store called CameraAddiction. This camera store could become your #1 source for camera, photography, and video equipment. It is filled with over 9,000 products and includes categories for best sellers, most wished for, gift ideas, and our picks. You’ll find film and digital cameras, camcorders, and surveillance equipment. Where possible, [...]

Cokin H250A P-Series ND Grad Filter Kit Summary: I finally had the opportunity to use rectangular graduated neutral density filters and I’m glad I did. The is an inexpensive kit that will help get a good exposure of the sky and land at the same time. The main advantages of using this kind of filter [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

My Top Picks If you plan to use the iPad to display your photos, get this model which has 64GB. The 3G network isn’t manditory but I have found myself wishing that I had gotten the 3G version when there isn’t a Wi-Fi network in the vacinity. iPad apps such as NIK Software’s Snapseed and Adobe’s [...]

Some of the products listed below are under $50 because they are on sale. A polarizing filter is mandatory. It darkens skies, makes blue skies bluer, removes glare, and should be in every photographer’s kit. Be sure to get the correct size filter for your lens. This set is designed for photographic studio and on-location [...]

My Take: This is a good article about Canon lenses that are on sale during the holiday season. For some of them, the price is so low that you will have to put the lens in your cart to see the price because Amazon says the price on the item is lower than the manufacturer’s [...]

My Take: I found this article by Mark Laurie from 2011. Most of it still applies for 2012 so I decided to share it with you. I deleted a few suggestions and added some links to help you shop for the items. A Master Photographer shares his popular annual list of gift ideas to help [...]

I’ve launched a new camera store called CameraAddiction. This camera store could become your #1 source for camera, photography, and video equipment. It is filled with over 9,000 products and includes categories for best sellers, most wished for, gift ideas, and our picks. You’ll find film and digital cameras, camcorders, and surveillance equipment. Where possible, [...]

My Take: If you are thinking about going pro, read this post by Nigel Merrick. Nigel is a professional photographer, blogger and business coach for other working photographers. Nigel’s blog ( http://www.zenologue.com/ ) helps professional photographers find peace in their business, love from their clients, and happiness in their personal lives by clarifying their focus [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

Overcast skies would have produced rather flat photographs so I waited for a bright sunny day. Finally the weather allowed me to schedule the photoshoot. I called ahead to ensure that there weren’t any conflicting events. I was told that weren’t any events until after 3:00 PM. That wasn’t quite accurate. When I pulled into [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

If you find it frustrating that your camera focuses and sets the exposure when you slightly depress the shutter button, there is a solution. Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras can separate auto focus from the shutter button and use a button on the back of the camera instead. They don’t call it back button focusing [...]

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

If you have a compact digital camera, you should have various Scene modes that can be used to ensure that you get the best shot. Don’t rely exclusively on Auto mode. Auto mode doesn’t know what you are shooting. Scene modes can be used to ensure that you get the best shot for particular subjects. [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

Summary: Buy Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (the or the ) now! David duChemin has written a fantastic book that clearly examines what it takes to make photographs that communicate. If you are serious about photography, read this book! Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the [...]

Best Digital SLR Cameras is a new website that I have created dedicated to spotlighting Amazon’s best selling DSLR cameras. The cameras are broken down into entry level, enthusiast, and professional categories. If you are in the market for a new DSLR camera, this is the place to shop! Shop for the Best Digital SLR [...]

Creating a photograph like to one on the right doesn’t require Photoshop. All you need are two willing participants, a bright environment, and a small aperture. The image is from Jill Harness’ mental_floss website. The real secret is the small aperture. Try f/16 as a starting point. The reason why you need a small aperture is [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

If there is anything that I learned from the video it is that it takes more than just jumping in the air to take photos that look like someone is floating, i.e. the video is more entertaining than instructional. Nevertheless, two good tips from the video are to use a tripod and fast shutter speed. Click [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: This is a great opportunity to get your work seen and possibly win a Canon EOS 60D. The Burrard-Lucas Blog is sponsoring a competition for landscape photographs. You could win a Canon EOS 60D! The deadline for this competition is July 31, 2011 so you still have a chance. Follow this link to [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

There will be four opportunities to shoot the moon in May. On May 5 the moon will rise before the beginning of the blue hour and on May 6 the moon will rise at the end. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The moon [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

My Take: I’ve heard a lot of good things about the  but this article makes me want to try out the . The prime lens I own is the . The reason I purchased it was because it would give me about the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera [...]

Summary: I love this lens. I can easily see it becoming my preferred lens for HDR and panoramic shots. This is an inexpensive (under $300) lens that really delivers. Review: I received the  a few days ago and already love it. The lens is fully manual but don’t let that scare you. Images are sharp, it [...]

Summary: The is a huge, heavy lens. Be prepared to use a monopod or tripod with this lens. Review: The lens weighs 4.2 pounds and is 3.7 inches in diameter by 10 inches long when at its shortest length. This is the longest lens I have owned so please bear with me if I write about [...]

My Take: This is a good article about Canon lenses that are on sale during the holiday season. For some of them, the price is so low that you will have to put the lens in your cart to see the price because Amazon says the price on the item is lower than the manufacturer’s [...]

I found that I have been recommending to my students. In another post, I mentioned that I had made my own light kit out of 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights when I was in college. For under $250.00 you can get a light kit that includes 2 light stands, 2 softboxes, 1 boom kit, and [...]

Aaron Ansarov uses a macro lens from three inches away to produce 1 to 1 closeup photographs of a person’s face. The resulting collage of photographs is an amazing view that we seldom see. Aaron’s website 1to1.me contains many examples of his work as well as a zoomable sample that uses over 300 images. The file size is [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

There will be many opportunities to shoot the moon in March. The moonrise/sunrise and moonset/sunset will be close to each other on the horizon. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, the optimum days will be on March 8 and 9. The timing could be better but it may be possible to photograph both the moonset and [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in April but April 6 will be the only day that the moon rises during the blue hour. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The best day to catch the moonset is April 7 because [...]

There will be four opportunities to shoot the moon in May. On May 5 the moon will rise before the beginning of the blue hour and on May 6 the moon will rise at the end. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The moon [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in June. The full moon will rise in the middle of the blue hour on June 4. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set June 3/99% 6:28 AM 8:10 PM 7:35 PM 5:32 AM June 4/Full 6:28 AM 8:10 PM 8:39 PM 6:32 AM [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in July. The moon will rise just before the blue hour on July 3 and during the blue hour on July 4. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 2/98% 6:32 AM 8:17 PM 7:21 PM 5:16 AM July 3/Full 6:33 AM [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

There will two opportunities to shoot the moon at the end of August and four opportunities in September. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Aug 30/99% 7:00 AM 7:42 PM 6:58 PM 6:01 AM Aug 31/Full 7:00 AM 7:41 PM 7:35 PM 6:59 AM Sept 1/99% 7:01 AM 7:40 PM 8:11 PM 7:55 AM Sept 28/98% 7:12 AM 7:10 [...]

October will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. No matter when you’re celebrating Halloween at the end of the month, there should be a bright, festive moon. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Oct 1/98% 7:13 AM 7:07 PM 7:59 PM 8:28 AM Oct 27/96% 7:26 AM 6:43 PM 5:21 PM 5:29 AM [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

December will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On December 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Dec 26/97% 7:06 AM 5:37 PM 4:26 PM 5:31 AM Dec 27/100% 7:06 AM 5:38 PM 5:16 PM 6:19 AM Dec 28/Full 7:07 AM 5:38 PM 6:08 PM 7:05 AM Dec [...]

January will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On January 26, the moon will be low in the sky during the blue hour and it will rise during the blue hour on January 27. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Jan 25/98% 7:07 AM 5:59 PM 4:54 PM 5:46 [...]

February will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On February 25, the moon will rise at the beginning of the blue hour and it will rise at the end of the blue hour on February 26. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Feb 24/99% 6:48 AM 6:20 PM 5:29 PM 5:43 AM Feb [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

There will be many opportunities to shoot the moon in March. The moonrise/sunrise and moonset/sunset will be close to each other on the horizon. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, the optimum days will be on March 8 and 9. The timing could be better but it may be possible to photograph both the moonset and [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in April but April 6 will be the only day that the moon rises during the blue hour. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The best day to catch the moonset is April 7 because [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

There will be four opportunities to shoot the moon in May. On May 5 the moon will rise before the beginning of the blue hour and on May 6 the moon will rise at the end. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The moon [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

January will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On January 26, the moon will be low in the sky during the blue hour and it will rise during the blue hour on January 27. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Jan 25/98% 7:07 AM 5:59 PM 4:54 PM 5:46 [...]

February will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On February 25, the moon will rise at the beginning of the blue hour and it will rise at the end of the blue hour on February 26. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Feb 24/99% 6:48 AM 6:20 PM 5:29 PM 5:43 AM Feb [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

360cities.net is a fantastic website filled with 360×180-degree panoramas.   BIG EGG Tokyo Doom 1988 in Tokyo You will find an amazing array of panoramas including: Aerial panoramas Underwater panoramas An 80 Gigapixel panorama of London A 18 Gigapixel panorama of Praque A 40 Gigapixel panorama of the Strahov Library (This 360º panorama is the [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: You’ll want to bookmark this website. They offer weekly Photoshop instructional videos. The only downside is the banter at the beginning of the episodes. They could get to the meat sooner. Matt has a tutorial on adding your own lighting source to a photo, including a lens flare. Corey shares a retouching tip [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

My Take: Subscribe to their RSS feed. Thursday, 23rd June 2011 Join Earth Shots on Facebook. Source: Earth Shots – Photo of the Day Contest I highly recommend that you bookmark EartShots.org. They have many spectacular photographs.

Follow this link to EarthShots’ Photo of the Day calendar. You will find many incredible photographs. This is a website well worth bookmarking.

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

Vizcaya was built by agricultural industrialist James Deering in 1916. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens features a Main House, ten acres of formal gardens, and a rockland hammock (native forest). I used the Panosaurus panoramic head and a Canon T1i to take all the examples in this post. Since I have also become obsessed with infrared, [...]

My Take: This is a great opportunity to get your work seen and possibly win a Canon EOS 60D. The Burrard-Lucas Blog is sponsoring a competition for landscape photographs. You could win a Canon EOS 60D! The deadline for this competition is July 31, 2011 so you still have a chance. Follow this link to [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

Check out my new gallery where you can purchase framed reproductions of my artwork. Subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter receive a coupon code for 10% off all purchases in the Gallery. Click here to subscribe and receive your coupon code in your welcome email. Artwork is printed, framed, or mounted by the following [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

Aaron Ansarov uses a macro lens from three inches away to produce 1 to 1 closeup photographs of a person’s face. The resulting collage of photographs is an amazing view that we seldom see. Aaron’s website 1to1.me contains many examples of his work as well as a zoomable sample that uses over 300 images. The file size is [...]

Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

There will be many opportunities to shoot the moon in March. The moonrise/sunrise and moonset/sunset will be close to each other on the horizon. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, the optimum days will be on March 8 and 9. The timing could be better but it may be possible to photograph both the moonset and [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in April but April 6 will be the only day that the moon rises during the blue hour. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The best day to catch the moonset is April 7 because [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

There will be four opportunities to shoot the moon in May. On May 5 the moon will rise before the beginning of the blue hour and on May 6 the moon will rise at the end. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The moon [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Overcast skies would have produced rather flat photographs so I waited for a bright sunny day. Finally the weather allowed me to schedule the photoshoot. I called ahead to ensure that there weren’t any conflicting events. I was told that weren’t any events until after 3:00 PM. That wasn’t quite accurate. When I pulled into [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in August. On August 1, the moon will be full and rise before the blue hour. On August 2, the moon rises during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 31/97% 6:46 AM 8:08 PM 6:55 PM [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

360cities.net is a fantastic website filled with 360×180-degree panoramas.   BIG EGG Tokyo Doom 1988 in Tokyo You will find an amazing array of panoramas including: Aerial panoramas Underwater panoramas An 80 Gigapixel panorama of London A 18 Gigapixel panorama of Praque A 40 Gigapixel panorama of the Strahov Library (This 360º panorama is the [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

November will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On November 28, the moon will rise during the blue hour. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Nov 26/97% 6:47 AM 5:29 PM 4:15 PM 5:02 AM Nov 27/99% 6:48 AM 5:29 PM 4:57 PM 5:54 AM Nov 28/Full [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

January will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On January 26, the moon will be low in the sky during the blue hour and it will rise during the blue hour on January 27. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Jan 25/98% 7:07 AM 5:59 PM 4:54 PM 5:46 [...]

February will have many opportunities to shoot the moon. On February 25, the moon will rise at the beginning of the blue hour and it will rise at the end of the blue hour on February 26. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set Feb 24/99% 6:48 AM 6:20 PM 5:29 PM 5:43 AM Feb [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

Overcast skies would have produced rather flat photographs so I waited for a bright sunny day. Finally the weather allowed me to schedule the photoshoot. I called ahead to ensure that there weren’t any conflicting events. I was told that weren’t any events until after 3:00 PM. That wasn’t quite accurate. When I pulled into [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

PhotoTube.info is a website dedicated to photography videos containing tips for producing HDR, infrared, landscape, portrait, flash, macro, night, and product photographs. It is a relatively new website but already contains hundreds of instructional videos. Here is a list of some of the most viewed videos: DSLR Tips: Night Photography Strobist Preliminaries DSLR Tips: How to blur backgrounds [...]

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head works as advertised but expect to have to bulk up to use it. The grip takes more forearm strength than I imagined but performs extremely well. Manufacturer’s Description: Take the versatility of a ball head, add true ergonomic control and you get the 322RC2: a photographic head that allows [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 is a light but stable and heavy duty tripod. It is made out of carbon fiber and magnesium. Product Description: The tripod specifically designed for extreme outdoor assignments. The legs and the column are made of 100% carbon fiber combined with magnesium die-casting quick action lever locking collars. Each leg can [...]

Summary: The Panosaurus is a low-cost panoramic head that can be used to take 360×180 degree panoramas. Don’t let the cutesy name put you off, this head actually works. I had read quite a few reviews of the product before purchasing it. This kind of head usually costs over $600 but the Panosaurus is just [...]

Summary: The Eye-Fi SDHC card includes the ability to connect to a WIFI network and upload pictures and videos from the camera to a computer, portable device, or website. The latest version of the firmware also includes the ability to create a WIFI network so that devices such as an iPad or iPhone can connect to [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

Summary: OK, so I feel a little dorky having the Hoodloupe hanging around by neck but I don’t care because it makes it possible to see my LCD in the brightest sunlight. Review: The Hoodloupe is rubberized so you don’t have to worry about scratching your LCD screen. It comes with a carrying case and [...]

I found that I have been recommending to my students. In another post, I mentioned that I had made my own light kit out of 1″x2″ lumber and clamp-on lights when I was in college. For under $250.00 you can get a light kit that includes 2 light stands, 2 softboxes, 1 boom kit, and [...]

My Take: This isn’t a bad comparison of the two cameras but I don’t think that digital zoom is a useful feature. It degrades quality and should not be used. When you think about the  vs , you may ask if there are enough feature differences to substantiate the production of two digital SLRs in [...]

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

My Take: I’ve heard a lot of good things about the  but this article makes me want to try out the . The prime lens I own is the . The reason I purchased it was because it would give me about the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera [...]

Summary: I love this lens. I can easily see it becoming my preferred lens for HDR and panoramic shots. This is an inexpensive (under $300) lens that really delivers. Review: I received the  a few days ago and already love it. The lens is fully manual but don’t let that scare you. Images are sharp, it [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

Summary: The is a huge, heavy lens. Be prepared to use a monopod or tripod with this lens. Review: The lens weighs 4.2 pounds and is 3.7 inches in diameter by 10 inches long when at its shortest length. This is the longest lens I have owned so please bear with me if I write about [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

My Take: This is a good article about Canon lenses that are on sale during the holiday season. For some of them, the price is so low that you will have to put the lens in your cart to see the price because Amazon says the price on the item is lower than the manufacturer’s [...]

Summary: Buy Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images (the or the ) now! David duChemin has written a fantastic book that clearly examines what it takes to make photographs that communicate. If you are serious about photography, read this book! Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the [...]

Cokin H250A P-Series ND Grad Filter Kit Summary: I finally had the opportunity to use rectangular graduated neutral density filters and I’m glad I did. The is an inexpensive kit that will help get a good exposure of the sky and land at the same time. The main advantages of using this kind of filter [...]

Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

Summary: The works extremely well but don’t expect the zipper on the included storage bag to hold up — the zipper broke the first time I used the bag. Luckily, the bag also has straps that help hold in the stands and cross bar sections. Features Two (2) High Quality Tripods, One (1) 3 -sections [...]

Summary: The is roomier than expected. Not only does it hold my with a on it but I can also store two more heads in the bag. This bag is really heavy duty! Recessed zippers Comfortable carrying handle Easy access even with the bigger video tripods Thermoformed padding Review: As I stated in the summary, [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

360cities.net is a fantastic website filled with 360×180-degree panoramas.   BIG EGG Tokyo Doom 1988 in Tokyo You will find an amazing array of panoramas including: Aerial panoramas Underwater panoramas An 80 Gigapixel panorama of London A 18 Gigapixel panorama of Praque A 40 Gigapixel panorama of the Strahov Library (This 360º panorama is the [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

Summary: The works great. I selected this ball head because it can also pan without releasing the ball head itself. Review: I had been using a Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head with a Panosaurus panoramic head but the trigger of the 322RC would sometimes show in my shots so I needed a ball head with a smaller [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

A Social Network for Photographers I just launched a new site for photographers. PhotoBuzz.biz is a full-featured site for members to upload photos, contribute to forums, post ads, and submit articles, news, and links to other sites as well as create your own blog entries. Help create a community for photographers The content of the [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

Summary: PhotoBuddy runs on the iPhone or iPad and is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions that would be helpful to any digital photographer. At $1.99, it’s a bargain. In his book, , Rafael “RC” Concepcion, suggested PhotoBuddy because it has the ability to calculate the number of shots and exposures needed for an [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an application that will let you know when the sun and moon rise and set plus a lot more than you might expect. Here is a list of key features: Time and direction of sunrise and sunset Time and direction of moonrise and moonset Phase of the moon and % illumination [...]

Summary: HDR Efex Pro 2 is a major improvement over the original version. Not only is it much faster, the presets are usable right out of the box. Finally, Photomatix has competition. I highly recommend upgrading. If you already own HDR Efex Pro, the upgrade cost is only $49. Review: I seldom used the original [...]

Scott Kelby does it again! Watch the video to find out: What the pros do Isolate from the background Bring you in close Have camera techniques They have the equipment How to get around the expense What shots do people like? This is a great video and well worth watching.

I recently came across an inspiring e-book by Evan Sharboneau that contains many examples of trick photography and special effects. I am really impressed. This is a 190 page e-book filled with impressive photos and how-to tips. The author is young but really knows his stuff. I highly recommend it. You also get a bonus [...]

Reality Check: Most of the time, you can’t take a properly exposed photograph of the moon and the landscape/seascape being illuminated by the moon at the same time. If you expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out and appear white. If you expose for the moon, the foreground will be much too [...]

You can take a panoramic image with a very wide angle lens or you can take a series of shots and stitch them together. The great thing about creating a panorama by stitching photos together is the incredible detail than can be preserved. The panoramic images displayed across the top of this website were stitched [...]

If your digital camera has Manual mode and manual focus, you can take successful night photographs your first try. The reason why is because you can see the results of setting changes on your LCD immediately. Start with these settings then alter your shutter speed as needed: ISO: Use ISO 100 for Canon cameras and [...]

Hugin is free software that can be used to stitch together panoramic shots. Hugin was even able to stitch together standard panoramas that Photoshop CS5 failed to stitch together properly. It can even be used to stitch together 360×180 degree panoramas. Standard panoramas are much easier to shoot and stitch together. Hugin does an admirable [...]

Start by testing your DSLR to find out if you can use it to take infrared photos. Point a remote at your camera and take a one second photo. If your camera records the light produced by the remote, you can take the next step – buy an IR filter. The is a good choice. [...]

Summary: is a Photoshop plugin that is used to convert color images to B/W. Silver Efex Pro 2 now works with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. If you are serious about converting color photos to B/W, Silver Efex Pro 2 won’t disappoint. Product Description: The World’s Leading Black and White Software. Discover the beauty of [...]

Summary: In a word…fantastic! Creates correctly aligned panoramas from photos that stumped Hugin and Photoshop. creates horizontal, vertical, and 360×180 degree panoramas. Product Description: is the powerful yet easy-to-use photo stitching software that lets you create and share stunning panoramic pictures and virtual reality movies. With PanoramaPlus X4’s automated stitching process it’s possible to capture [...]

Google has a new service to enhance Google searches. In order to use Google Subscribed Links, you must create a new Google Account or sign in with an existing Google Account.

My Take: Add Composition to the Aperture, Speed, ISO mantra. Have you wanted to create pictures that National Geographic would think are high quality?  Have you just purchased a digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it to take great photographs?  Do you want to achieve digital photography success?  From a review of [...]

My Take: Here are some good basic tips for taking portraits. Are you looking for portrait photography tips so that you can improve your picture taking skills? At first thought, portrait photography would seem easy, yet the results are often disappointing. Many of our pictures often include people, and whether you are photographing a model, [...]

My Take: Now I know why I avoid taking pictures of children. Family portraits are something that parents want to have done before their kids grow up and go to college. These special pictures can be used for many things, including greeting cards during the holidays, souvenirs for other family members, and family pictures to [...]

My Take: The tips in this article apply to any digital camera with Portrait mode. Portrait mode opens up the aperture so that distracting stuff in the background is out of focus and the subject becomes the focal point. Portrait Mode is a simple to operate exposure selection on our . Like the Green Zone, [...]

My Take: Great tip for point and shoot cameras plus the article contains a link to a viable portfolio website for photographers. Next to a fully charged battery and a huge memory card, a polarizing filter is the digital photographer’s best friend. It reduces unsightly glare, deepens the richness of skies, and improves overall color saturation. The [...]

My Take: The suggestions in this post would be helpful for taking 360 degree product shots as well as other product photography. Here’s a quick tip on how to work around one of those issues that we often have to deal with when photographing reflective products, which is especially applicable to our 360 product photography. [...]

My Take: This post does a great job of explaining how to put a client at ease but you also have to take into consideration your equipment. Many photographers have switched to flash or fluorescent lights so that their client will not bake under traditional tungsten lights. Sweat usually isn’t attractive in a portrait. If [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

A real HDR is created by taking a series of photographs with different exposures then merging them together in software in order to tone map the separate exposures into one HDR image that has an extremely high dynamic range. Since the photographs used to create the HDR are separate shots, anything that is moving can be problematic because [...]

When taking night photography you should take the following into consideration: A tripod is mandatory. Long exposures require for your camera to be a steady as possible. Bring a jacket. It is amazing how chilly it can feel immediately after sundown. Bring a towel. Condensation can begin to occur immediately after sundown. The towel can [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

My Take: This is a good article that starts with 10 tips for beginners and ends with 10 tips for the more advanced. The suggestion of focusing 1/3 of the way into a scene may or may not work — the aperture that you select and the length of your lens will determine depth of field. [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

You may have noticed the bubble levels on your tripod and tripod head. Use them! Each serves a different important function. The following is a list of level and tripod related tips: The level on your tripod itself is used to ensure that your tripod doesn’t fall over. If you are using your tripod on [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

There will be many opportunities to shoot the moon in March. The moonrise/sunrise and moonset/sunset will be close to each other on the horizon. According to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, the optimum days will be on March 8 and 9. The timing could be better but it may be possible to photograph both the moonset and [...]

Creating a photograph like to one on the right doesn’t require Photoshop. All you need are two willing participants, a bright environment, and a small aperture. The image is from Jill Harness’ mental_floss website. The real secret is the small aperture. Try f/16 as a starting point. The reason why you need a small aperture is [...]

Summary:  by Scott Kelby is a worthy addition to his series of digital photography books. It picks up where volume 3 left off and, like the other books in the series, contains many useful tips written in a non-technical, conversational style. Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book(the best-selling digital photography book of all time), [...]

I uploaded an HD video compilation of some of my high dynamic range (HDR) and infrared (IR) photographs. I created the music using Sony Acid. Hope you enjoy. Use the following links to find out more about HDR and IR: Secrets of Creating a Fake HDR Infrared Photography Tips Infrared Photoshoot at Vizcaya Trick Photography [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in April but April 6 will be the only day that the moon rises during the blue hour. The blue hour is the time immediately after the sun sets and the sky turns a deep blue. The best day to catch the moonset is April 7 because [...]

Nighttime is one of my favorite times to take photographs. There is always the element of surprise! Long exposures make it possible for your camera to record something that you can’t even see. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions in a lightbox. The only caveat for shooting at night is that most of [...]

Why Shoot in Black and White? The answer is simple; black and white is timeless. Black and white images transcend the here and now to stand on their own. It is easier to see the art in a black and white image because the image is removed from reality. Rather than mentally comparing the photographic image to [...]

Crafting Reality: Painting with Light is an inspiring eBook by Eric Curry. The photographs in the eBook look like HDR images but they are created in quite a different way. Small sections of the subject are illuminated from different directions then merged together with Photoshop. Eric goes into detail about how to take the photographs and [...]

The Top Three Things to Do When Photographing Children Spend a lot of time with your subject Get down on their level Use a wide open aperture for limited depth of field The photograph on the right was taken by Maria Henderson, one of my students. This a wonderful example of the top three things you [...]

The Cloister’s of the Ancient Spanish Monastery is extremely popular site for weddings, receptions, and quinceañera’s in South Florida. History of the Cloisters The Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux was built in Sacramenia, in the Province of Segovia, Spain, during the period 1133-1144. It was originally dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mother and named the [...]

My Take: Practice is important! As I found out recently, even an experienced photographer can feel awkward after a period of inactivity. What Does Practice Mean When It Comes to Photography? In sports or almost anything else one learns there is a period of practice or apprenticeship, a time of learning. I’ve said before that [...]

There will be three opportunities to shoot the moon in July. The moon will rise just before the blue hour on July 3 and during the blue hour on July 4. Location: Miami, FL (All Times EST) Sun Moon Date/Phase Rise Set Rise Set July 2/98% 6:32 AM 8:17 PM 7:21 PM 5:16 AM July 3/Full 6:33 AM [...]

Summary: I highly recommend Digital Landscape Photography by John and Barbara Gerlach. If you are at all interested in landscape photography, get this book! Digital Landscape Photography covers cameras, lenses, exposure, composition, HDR, and panoramas. Table of Contents Chapter 1. Landscapes are Everywhere Chapter 2. Cameras and Accessories Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Lenses Chapter 4. [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

What Is Bracketing? Backeting is taking several shots of the same subject using different exposure settings. Usually three shots are taken. The exposure the camera thinks is correct One shot darker One shot lighter Any of the settings that affect exposure (aperture, speed, ISO) can be used to manually bracket shots. Why Bracket? The main reason [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

HDR (High Dynamic Range) emphasizes texture and color. It has become extremely popular for landscapes and cityscapes but is also used for food and sports photography. HDR images of food look delicious and the essential oils glissen. For sports such as body building, every muscle and vein pops off the page. HDR images actually have [...]

If there is anything that I learned from the video it is that it takes more than just jumping in the air to take photos that look like someone is floating, i.e. the video is more entertaining than instructional. Nevertheless, two good tips from the video are to use a tripod and fast shutter speed. Click [...]

Scott Kelby does it again! Watch the video to find out: What the pros do Isolate from the background Bring you in close Have camera techniques They have the equipment How to get around the expense What shots do people like? This is a great video and well worth watching.

Summary: The Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head works as advertised but expect to have to bulk up to use it. The grip takes more forearm strength than I imagined but performs extremely well. Manufacturer’s Description: Take the versatility of a ball head, add true ergonomic control and you get the 322RC2: a photographic head that allows [...]

Summary: The Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 is a light but stable and heavy duty tripod. It is made out of carbon fiber and magnesium. Product Description: The tripod specifically designed for extreme outdoor assignments. The legs and the column are made of 100% carbon fiber combined with magnesium die-casting quick action lever locking collars. Each leg can [...]

Summary: The Panosaurus is a low-cost panoramic head that can be used to take 360×180 degree panoramas. Don’t let the cutesy name put you off, this head actually works. I had read quite a few reviews of the product before purchasing it. This kind of head usually costs over $600 but the Panosaurus is just [...]

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Summary: I can’t recommend this head unless you have lightweight equipment. I really like the compact style but it droops too much with a long lens. Review: I have used the with a variety of lenses and the head doesn’t tighten enough to prevent droop with a long lens. I really wanted to like this [...]

Summary: The is roomier than expected. Not only does it hold my with a on it but I can also store two more heads in the bag. This bag is really heavy duty! Recessed zippers Comfortable carrying handle Easy access even with the bigger video tripods Thermoformed padding Review: As I stated in the summary, [...]

Summary: The works great. I selected this ball head because it can also pan without releasing the ball head itself. Review: I had been using a Manfrotto 322RC Joystick head with a Panosaurus panoramic head but the trigger of the 322RC would sometimes show in my shots so I needed a ball head with a smaller [...]

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

Required Equipment: Panosaurus Shooting 360×180 degree panoramas usually requires a special tripod head. Trying to shoot this kind of panorama hand held would not be an easy task. Each picture has to overlap by 25-30% not to mention the likelihood of seeing parallax errors in the final image. Parallax errors occur when the camera rotates [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

This is a great tutorial for creating fake smoke using a string and a Mag light. I highly recommend Evan’s eBook Trick Photography and Special Effects.

Photomatix Pro is a program that can create stunning High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from high contrast subjects that defy being captured in one exposure. The results can range from ultra real to surreal. This post contains an exclusive video tutorial for using Photomatix Pro. The thumbnails below are images created with Photomatix Pro presets: Usually, [...]

PhotoBuddy is an iPhone/iPad app that is a Swiss army knife of photographic functions. The following exclusive video is for subscribers to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click here to Subscribe to the Trick Photography Ideas Newsletter and receive the video password in your Welcome letter. If already subscribed, [...]

Finding the no parallax point of your lens mounted on a panoramic head can be a task. This video does a great job of explaining how to do it. Follow this link to read my review of the Panoraurus panoramic head. This link leads to my post, “How to Shoot 360×180 Degree Panoramas with a [...]

Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is a amazing book that has many examples of fantastic night photographs as well as step-by-step instructions for how to get the same kind of results. Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark Description Night photographers have one big thing in common: a true love of [...]

Warning! Even though burning steel wool creates spectacular effects, it is dangerous and you need to take safety precautions for yourself and everything around you!! The first video does a great job of giving you a brief rundown of how to take photographs of burning steel wool but I highly recommend that you also view [...]

Other than your camera, the most important piece of equipment is a tripod. The exposures required for fireworks are too long to handhold your camera. I found an excellent video for how to shoot fireworks on YouTube from phototips.biz. Basic Settings for a DSLR Manual Mode Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter speed: 1 second to start ISO: [...]

“Canon Speedliting with Multiple Flashes” is a two hour video by Syl Arena uploaded to YouTube by B&H Photo Video Pro Audio. Many of the concepts in this video apply to any flash setup that you might have whether you use Canon, Nikon, or studio flashes. Key Concepts Master/Slave Groups Ratios Enabling/Disabling Master Channels In [...]

With all the opportunities to shoot the moon in October, I decided to scour YouTube looking for a good tutorial for shooting the moon. I found a two-parter. Be sure to watch both videos. The first video gives great advice for shooting the moon with just about any digital camera. You will need a tripod [...]

Sorry for not posting much during February. I’ve been spending most of my time working on PhotoTube.info and I’m starting to see results. For one thing, it now contains over 800 instructional photography videos. Be sure to check it out. Here is a list of current categories and the number of videos in each category: [...]

Scott Kelby does it again! Watch the video to find out: What the pros do Isolate from the background Bring you in close Have camera techniques They have the equipment How to get around the expense What shots do people like? This is a great video and well worth watching.

360cities.net is a fantastic website filled with 360×180-degree panoramas.   BIG EGG Tokyo Doom 1988 in Tokyo You will find an amazing array of panoramas including: Aerial panoramas Underwater panoramas An 80 Gigapixel panorama of London A 18 Gigapixel panorama of Praque A 40 Gigapixel panorama of the Strahov Library (This 360º panorama is the [...]

Join Panomonkey.com and stitch 360×180-degree panoramas for free. Well, mostly for free: Creating panoramas can be absolutely FREE on Panomonkey. Every successfully stitched panorama can be downloaded and shared to Twitter and Facebook or embedded to your website. The FREE version of the panorama is 3000 x 1500 pixels and can be viewed up to [...]

A Social Network for Photographers I just launched a new site for photographers. PhotoBuzz.biz is a full-featured site for members to upload photos, contribute to forums, post ads, and submit articles, news, and links to other sites as well as create your own blog entries. Help create a community for photographers The content of the [...]