HDR, or High Dynamic Range Imaging seems to be all the rage these days. HDRI is described as:
In image processing and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques.
Digital Photography School has a fantastic Introduction to HDR Imaging, covering the methods used to achieve the effect.
Photo by Wil Hybrid
Smashing Magazine held a texture photo contest last month and has recently released the results. A variety of interesting, exotic or creative textures from all around the globe. Wood, stone, metal, nature, ice, sand, fabric, paper, glass, fire, food and plastic textures. A large number of daily routine things observed from a completely new perspective.
All the images can be used for both private and commercial projects free of charge and with no restrictions.
The images are all large, high resolution, and the compressed image files range between 1 and 15MB, for a total well over 700MB in size. Most all of them are suitable as backgrounds on brochures, pocket folders, posters and more - they aren't just small seamless textures. Each image is an individual download, so you can grab just the ones you want.
You can start downloading the images here.
Apple is offering users 20% off the purchase of all calendars and photo books created and ordered through OSX's iPhoto app until February 29, 2008.
To take advantage, simply create your calendar or photo book in iPhoto, click “Buy Book” or “Buy Calendar” and select Use a Coupon. Now just enter the appropriate code:
Photo book: NAWinterBook08
Calendar: NAWinterCal08
Aperture users can also take advantage of the photo book offer using coupon code: NAWinterBook08
You ponied up for a digital SLR camera because you hated the shutter lag on your little point-and-shoot. The good news: Your photos have improved! The bad news? You know they could be even better—if only you dared to let go of the camera's "auto" mode. It's as if you've been creeping around the neighborhood in a new Mustang using only first gear. No more! It's time to take control, hit the highway, and learn what you can do in program mode.
Lifehacker has a great feature titled Master Your DSLR Camera: Program Mode -- worth taking a look at if you have a digital camera and you're not yet used to the settings.
You've been in the situation. You're up close to your subject in a low-light situation, you take the picture and the flash goes off. It's a once-in-a-lifetime shot - but when you check the photo, it's completely washed out and white from the flash.
Digital Photography School has 7 Strategies for Avoiding Flash Blow Out in your digital photos. One of the techniques I really love using is #4 on their list, commonly referred to on digital cameras is "night mode." This mode uses a technique called slow sync flash, where the camera shutter stays open a little longer to allow more light in, and then the flash goes off at the beginning or end of the shot. This method allows you to allow more ambient light from the background, while still freezing the action when the flash goes off. The technique can produce stunning results.
There are a lot of different methods for producing quality black & white images from color originals - I've covered some of them here in the past.
Graphics.com offers yet another method, along with a brief history lesson, on getting great black & white results using duotones in Photoshop.
Reader "Gerry O." sent this bit of information to my attention and I thought it worth mentioning.
New York City is planning to mandate photography permits and a minimum $1 million liability insurance for photographers who shoot with one other person on any city sidewalk or street location for 30 minutes or more, or ten minutes for those with a tripod and five people.
Public comments are being accepted on the CIty's Film, Theatre and Broadcasting website until August 3rd.
I would encourage people to mention the negative effect this will have on NY's economy, as well as the embarrassment it will bring to the agency in question (and it's leadership) when the courts declare it unconstitutional.
Digital Photography School has posted a roundup of digital photography tips from around the Web, as well as a few great ones of their own. Among those is a great breakdown of some popular DSLR lenses, and how to take great group photos.
If you're shooting your own photos for ads, or you are just getting into digital photography as a hobby, Digital Photography School is a great resource.
Digital Photography School has a brief tutorial on photographing silhouettes available that may help you in your creative photography. The silhouette technique can be quite stunning when used in ads & other collateral materials . Of course, having the right subject matter always makes a big difference.
Surfing around the other day, I came across a great digital photography Web site called Tips from the Top Floor. Now at first look the site appears to be a jumbled mess of ads and social bookmark iconmania – and well, that's because it is. But if you spend a few minutes looking through the site, you'll find a wealth of information.
TFTTF offers a podcast (iTunes Store direct link) featuring all sorts of useful digitial photography topics, forums to discuss a variety of topics, and the Photoshop Corner which covers a variety of techniques to improve your images.
Strobist shows you how to build a light box for shooting perfectly-lit close-up items for all you digital photographers on the cheap. I particularly like this one as it's something I've often done myself. The only real expense is a large piece of white poster board, a cardboard box, some tissue paper (or tracing paper), some tape, scissors and some lights (any lamps or bright lights will probably do the trick).
A lot of digital camera owners has difficulty understanding the relationship of resolution to physical dimensions of a photo. They just assume that low resolution means small photos and high resolution means huge photos. For that reason, they often times try printing their photos, only to find them print out clipped off or grainy.
If you're one of those folks, do the following. Go to Image>Image Size, uncheck the Resample Image checkbox and change the resolution to 250 to 300 dpi. What we're doing here is telling Photoshop/Elements to reduce the image, but use all the pixels captured in the original sized image. Without unchecking the Resample Image checkbox, Photoshop would actually reduce the image AND throw away pixels – which of course degrades the image quality.
An easy way to tell which of these methods you've done is to look at the file size in the bottom left corner of the document window. If the file size stays the same, you've done it correctly. If the file size gets smaller, then you forgot to uncheck the Resample Image box – thus, the image file size is smaller because there are less pixels.
Quite simply, RetouchPRO is a resource for anyone, professional or hobbyist, who is interested in photo retouching, restoration, and manipulation. It is a place to learn, to teach, to share, to connect, and generally to talk to others with the same interests.
They have close to 2 Gigabytes of information and illustrations, all free, covering Photoshop, Elements, Paintshop Pro, Painter, PhotoImpact, The Gimp, Picture Window Pro, and every conceivable other photo editing application.
If you're new to digital photography (welcome aboard!), Canon has a nifty little site that discusses all the basics about your digital camera (regardless of the brand) and how to take great pictures.
Some of the topics covered are:
Again, this site is mostly for beginners, but there may be some interesting tips for hobbiests who simply refuse to read their camera manual! :-)
If you've ever used iPhoto, you've certainly noticed that when you edit a photo you have the ability to remove red-eye with the click of a button. Quite handy!
Well if you've upgraded to Photoshop CS2, then you'll be happy to know that Adobe has FINALLY built-in a Red Eye tool. To use it, simply select the Red Eye tool by click & holding the Healing Brush tool and placing the crosshair over the red portion of the eye in your photo and click. That's it! It really couldn't be any simpler.
You can also make some size and darkness adjustments to the tool in the Control Bar.
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