One Brief Moment

When you think of close-up photography, you probably think of getting in close with a macro lens. After all, it’s called “close-up” photography, right?

Although you can certainly create some awesome images when you’re up close to an object, sometimes it also helps to get farther away. This will give you a lot more control of what to put in the background.

This is best illustrated with an example, so let’s say you have this toy Lego that you want to photograph in front of a blue water bottle. We’ll start with a super closeup photo at about 60 cm away from the Lego:

via Sometimes Close-ups Are Better From Far Away.

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When we photograph something very small we call it a macro photography. I would imagine we should call it Micro photography, but I don’t have control over the jargon.

Shooting small things poses great challenges and comes with high rewards. In this tutorial I to get all the info that you’d need to take macro shots. starting from equipment through subjects and tip and wrap up of some of my favorite macro photographers on Flickr if you need some extra inspiration.

When we talk about macro photography we tend to think about small things that we shoot from a close distance. This definition works for me as an on-the-nose definition and is probably right for just about 95% of all macro images.

via The Comprehensive Guide To Macro Photography | DIYPhotography.net.

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Photoshop is universally considered to be a killer digital image editor and for digital photographers it is an extremely powerful post-processing tool. But the professional post-processing is not restricted to Photoshop only, you can use the same adjustments to fine-tune the images in Lightroom, Capture NX or GIMP as well. With the proper information about the adjustments involved in color correction, image enhancement and fine-tuning the image for sharpness, contrast, etc. you can bring out the best in your photos. Here are 7 Photoshop tutorials that will help you get familiar with the tips and tricks involved in post production process using Photoshop (which you can of course try out in other photo-editors as well). These tutorials serve as the guide to get started with the Photoshop adjustments but the final result is largely influenced by your personal liking.

via Photoshop Post-Processing — 7 Photoshop Tutorials For Image Post Processing.

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In an era when we are drowning in images and lots of people and talents are competing for the viewers’ eyes or the magazines’ attention, have you ever wondered what makes you have a longer look at an image?

Is it the person that was photographed? Perhaps a certain color or an angle?

What is the secret of the photographers that mange to get their work published on magazines and newspapers? What is the secret of taking a strong image that lasts?

The secret of all strong images is their ability to provide the viewer a story .

Since the dawn of time, People gathered around the fire and shared stories with each other.

It doesn’t matter what subjects you like to shoot. If you want to become a good photographer, you have to be a good storyteller first. An image with a story, one that evokes emotion and curiosity will rise above other images and catch the viewer’s attention.

So what is the stuff of which “visual stories” are made from?

In most cases it is an emotion that the image creates. It can be empathy, curiosity or even negative emotions such is anger.

Even if you are dealing with macro or landscape photography it is better to have an image that tells a story. However, the best way for me to get a story is with people photography, as people are a large “pool” of stories and emotions.

Here are 5 tips for finding your “visual story” in Travel photography before departure, and on the road:

via The Secret of Creating a Strong Image – 5 Tips for Creating a Story in Your Image.

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One very common question I get from photographers is why they can never get their images as sharp as the ones they see online. This is a loaded question, and it really made me think about all the things I go through to get tack sharp focus on my images. Sure there are the obvious tips like holding the camera properly, squeezing the shutter instead of stabbing it, tucking your elbows in, and so on. The truth is, that is just the beginning to taking sharper photographs.

Let me start off by saying that I still take blurry images from time to time. All professional photographers do. The only difference is that we don’t post them online! However, I will also bet that I take far less than most other photographers, and there are clear reasons as to why. Getting sharp images involves a combination of a few different techniques, and when put together they will produce a far higher success rate of sharp images.

via Advanced Tips for Tack Sharp Images.

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Some really AWESOME photos in this!

13 Places to Practice Taking Beautiful Motion Blur Images.

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Here are some really awesome photos with shadows that can give you some great ideas on what to look for. So keep your eyes open and your camera ready, because you just never know when you’ll spot that shot!

20 Shadow Images to Inspire You.

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Lightroom’s Survey view is a tool that makes choosing one image from a group of images a simpler process.

via Choosing images using Survey view in Lightroom.

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When you have a lot of similar images from a shoot, you can organizing them using the Lightroom Stacks feature. This allows you to stack images together so that only one image representing the stack appears in the Grid, Filmstrip and Loupe. This can clean up the screen reducing the number of images you see.

via Stacking images in Lightroom.

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