The Graphic Mac: Apple | Adobe | Design - Photography

Night photography tips

James — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:14:55 -0600

Photo by inoc @ Flickr / CC BY 2.0

Robin Ryan shares some fantastic tips over at Digital Photography School for digital photography enthusiasts who want to try their hand at night shooting. The same composition rules that apply to day apply to night, except with night we have our long exposures to take advantage of, but in this article, Robin shares some great advice to help you get started.

Tips for photographing pets

James — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:03:58 -0600

Pets fill very quickly their place in our hearts and families and we enjoy having their pictures framed on our desk or wall! However taking pictures of your best friend is not always easy. Pets, unlike humans, do not understand what we are trying to do and won’t just pose for the camera!

Photo by José Luna

Digital Photography School has 9 tips for photographing pets that will help you help you get the most of your photo session.

Latest issue of PhotographyBB available for download

James — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:49:59 -0600

Digital photography fans can download the latest issue of PhotographyBB e-magazine in PDF format.

PhotographyBB is a free online magazine composed by a hardworking team of volunteer contributing authors whose goal is to teach beginners all about digital photography and image processing.

The June 2009 edition features articles on photography techniques and issues facing today’s digital photographer. Readers will learn tips on composition and how keeping things simple can lead to great photography. The issue also examines how to overcome “photographer’s block” when lack of inspiration occurs. Included is also a Photoshop® tutorial on creating an urban “grunge” type effect for dramatic impact.

Tilt-Shift photos on the cheap

James — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:56:00 -0600

A short while back, I reviewed Bokeh from Alien Skin Software, an excellent Photoshop filter perfect for simulating tilt-shift photography. The filter offers the maximum amount of flexibility and features available to simulate tilt-shift photography with your existing images, as well as much more in the way of adding the bokeh effect to your photos. But if your need for simulated tilt-shift photography is limited, the $199 price tag might be too much.

A friend of mine recently informed me about a new tool to simulate tilt-shift on your images, and it's absolutely free.

View your iPhoto library on a 3D wall

James — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:54:45 -0600

iPhoto is perfectly capable of displaying your photos as a slideshow or one at a time. But you’re limited to a flat display that doesn’t exactly “wow” anyone.

With one simple download, you can view your iPhoto collection on a visually stunning 3D wall, right in your web browser.

In my mini-review at The Apple Blog, I show you how you can avoid launching iPhoto to view your photos, including events, albums and the full collection using Cooliris, a plugin for Safari and Firefox.

This is one of those plugins that is so utterly sexy, you can't help but install it, even if you only use it once in a great while.

Alien Skin Bokeh plugin review

James — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:40:44 -0600

Macworld recently published my review of Alien Skin Software's Bokeh plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks and Elements.

Part 1 of the review can be found here, and covers the bokeh effect to emphasize your subject by adding blur to the background and adjusting the highlights of your image.

Part 2 of the article can be found here, and covers the ability to use the Bokeh plugin to simulate tilt-shift photography, which effectively allows you to turn your image into a miniature model as seen in the image above.

If you don't have the budget for expensive tilt-shift and bokeh lenses, this plugin might be just what the digital doctor ordered to enhance your images.

HDR photography tutorial

James — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:22:32 -0700

Photo by Stuck In Customs

Stuck In Customs, a unique photo site which features rich HDR images and reviews of photography equipment, has a great tutorial on how the HDR images are produced (such as the one above).

While you can simulate HDR photos with nothing but Photoshop, the results are rarely as stunning as the ones produced using the combination of equipment and software in the tutorial.

Aside from the tutorial, Stuck In Customs is just a great site to view some beautiful photography work. Also be sure to check out the Stuck In Customs photostream at Flickr.

Technorati Tags:
High Dynamic Range, Photography, Tutorials

BrightQube and the future of stock photography

James — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:30:18 -0700

Guest post by Lee Corkran, Founder and CEO, BrightQube

After more than 20 years of observation, former photojournalist and photo industry veteran Lee Corkran envisioned the future of the stock photo industry in an online marketplace with an innovative visual search engine. From that “aha” moment, BrightQube was born.

Corkran, nearly three years ago, after going through his own experiences selling stock photos, knew there had to be a better way to make transactions. He appreciated that stock photographers didn’t want their work buried on, say, page 27 of lengthy list of search results. And, he understood buyers didn’t want to click through to get to that page 27, or to check dozens of different Web sites to find just the right photo to fit their design and budget.