Advanced Photography Techniques

March 1, 2014

Autofocus Evolution

Radical advancements in AF technology are blowing away old assumptions about phase- and contrast-detection systems

By David Schloss
Since the advent of digital photography, there have been aspects of a camera’s operation that are shrouded in mystery and confusion. That’s because many of the technologies involved in digital photography are rooted more deeply in optical physics and computational algorithms than in shutter speeds and lens openings. Most recently, a seismic... Read more
January 1, 2014

The Hero Image

The evolution of a shoot with Corey Rich

By David Willis, Photography By Corey Rich
Illustrating the dramatic impact that even a subtle change can bring to a photograph, commercial lifestyle photographer Corey Rich spent a day working out with cross-trainer Del Lafountain to capture a series of high-impact shots of the towering athlete as he muscled through several hundred kettlebell repetitions. Ultimately, despite an extended sequence... Read more
November 5, 2013

Mothership & Scout

How to work with photos on location and seamlessly integrate them back into your studio’s system working with Apple Aperture

By David Schloss
As the plane clears 10,000 feet, I open up my MacBook Air and launch Aperture 3. We bank to the north and I look out the window at the lights over Las Vegas. Just a few hours earlier, I was finishing off the last day of a multiday bicycling event where I captured more than 5,000 images at a series of bicycle races and a bike ride called the Mobile Social. ... Read more
November 1, 2013

Tone Curves

This often misunderstood control is as much about brightness as contrast

Text And Photography By George Jardine
I recently read one popular author’s introduction to his chapter on the Lightroom Tone Curve, and he started out by saying that with the improvements in the 2012 Process Version, the Tone Curve was basically outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s true the Lightroom 4/ACR 7 update represented a complete overhaul of the Basic... Read more
September 1, 2013

Why Make Prints

The process of evaluating, editing and prepping an image for making a print refines and consolidates your vision

Text And Photography By John Paul Caponigro
Despite the ubiquity of images that are shared entirely in digital form, via computer screen, tablet and smartphone, a print remains the ultimate expression of a well-conceived photograph. Images shown on a tablet screen can look spectacular, but a print is tangible in a fundamentally different way. The paper (or canvas or other medium) itself adds... Read more
September 1, 2013

It's Hip To Be Square

Changing the shape of your frame can give you a completely different perspective on the world

By Jon Sienkiewicz
Back in the day, serious film shooters had to decide between the 3:2 rectangular 35mm format and the much larger 2¼-inch square. Legions of photography and art students learned the basics of composition on a square-shootin’, 2¼-inch Yashica D twin-lens reflex camera. Yes, long before Beta vs. VHS, there was a very different, but very real format... Read more
August 5, 2013

DPP Solutions: New Features In Lightroom 5

The latest version of Adobe’s workhorse software has some particularly useful tools

By Staff
2013 has been a big year for Adobe. Their biggest announcement, of course, was the change in licensing of their software to a pay-as-you-go subscription model facilitated through their Creative Cloud service. Around the same time as the Creative Cloud announcement, and almost lost in the din of controversy that it generated, was the Lightroom 5 Public... Read more
July 1, 2013

Mastering Soft Light Photography

Little differences between light modifiers make for big changes in the look of a light

Text And Photography By William Sawalich
Any discussion of soft lighting tools begins with two classic modifiers: the softbox and the umbrella. From each of these devices has sprung a world of variations—so many that it can be difficult to know why to choose one modifier over another. Soft is a relative term, after all, and the little differences between modifiers produce subtle, but important,... Read more
July 1, 2013

Time-Lapse Primer

Preston Kanak takes us through the skills, steps and gear to making your first time-lapse

Text And Photography By Preston Kanak
There has been an explosion in interest in time-lapse, and for professionals, being able to add time-lapse skills to your repertoire gives you one more thing a client may want. It also gives you some cool motion to have in your portfolio. Creating time-lapse can be incredibly rewarding, too. Half the pleasure of going out to shoot is the journey that’s... Read more
June 2, 2013

Animate your Stills

The latest trend for photos online is making parts of them move. We’ll show you how to do it

By The Editors
Cinemagraphs are in. If you haven’t heard the term, a cinemagraph is a still photo that has some part of it animated. These images are meant for web display, and they’re a great example of how digital means for displaying images are bringing new aesthetics and possibilities. A cinemagraph is different from a video clip in that only a portion... Read more
May 1, 2013

Heresy In Library Organization

Keep track of an ever-expanding digital archive by getting things right from the start

Text And Photography By George Jardine
Scanning the horizon, there are so-called workflow tutorials everywhere you look. Each and every one of them is promoted under the guise that it will help you become "fast and efficient." But what fast and efficient really means for most of the gurus out there is automating everything, and trying to do all 10 steps (or whatever) of the workflow... Read more
May 1, 2013

DPP Solutions: Blog It!

Try this simple method for exporting photos directly from Lightroom to a WordPress blog

Text And Photography By Terry White
I’m a photographer, and I blog. This means that I often use a lot of my own images on my blog posts. I use Lightroom 4 as my primary image-management application. Although I really like WordPress as a blogging engine, I find the process of uploading and adding images to a post to be a bit archaic. You can style your blog just about any way you... Read more
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