1. Help people save face.
Don't mock or attack someone for having made a mistake (even as a joke). Instead, point out the mistake, offer suggestions for fixing or improving it, and move on to the next area of concern.

2. Focus on specific, observable behavior-not judgment or personality.
Instead of making a statement of judgment, like, "You suck," or "This blows," point out the specific problems a given photograph has. For example, "Since you're shooting something in such a dark environment, you might want to try using a tripod to reduce camera blur and make the focus sharper."

3. Don't generalize.
General comments may show that you caught a mistake, but don't say exactly where it is or offer any suggestions on how to fix it. Instead of "This is out of focus," try, "You seem to have a really limited depth of field in this photo. For instance, the center of the photo seems to be in focus, but since you're shooting a group of people they all need to be sharp. What if you tried…"

4. Tell people when errors exist.
Don't be afraid of pointing out mistakes. If you don't tell people when they've done something wrong, how can they do it right the next time?

5. Avoid nitpicking.
The objective is to teach with a thoughtful comment-not to humiliate or discount people and their work. If you honestly can't find anything too important to say to help out the photographer, then point out the specific aspects of the photograph you do like. I'd categorize a nitpicky comment as something like, "The pixel in the very right bottom corner is just one shade too bright in relation to the surrounding pixels," and not "You seem to have a really large hot spot in the lower right corner."

1. Don't be thin-skinned.
The individual offering feedback is not attacking you personally, they're trying to help you create a better photograph. (This only applies to honest attempts at criticism. While you should still try to avoid being thin-skinned since you're putting your work out there for everyone to see, there are also going to be times when people simply say idiotic things in order to prove themselves morons. Know this and try to ignore it.)

2. Ask for clarification.
If you don't understand a point being made, or if it is too generic to offer any real help, ask for additional information or possible solutions to help you better understand what the person is trying to say.

3. Acknowledge your mistakes.
The guy in the background has a tree growing out of his head, you didn't see it yourself, and someone else pointed it out. Note the error, fix it if you can (don't fixate), learn from it, and move on.

4. Assume best intentions.
A comment from another may seem nitpicky to you, but if the other person points something out, they thought it was important enough to mention. Treat it as an important item, even if you decide to ignore it.

As one of the many serious photographers of this community, can you describe how you execute your digital workflow?

Here's mine:

1. I first create a folder in my PC (i'm not a Mac user). Naming it the date i shot the photos (mm/dd/yyyy) + the location of the photo taken. eg. 082208 Hacsa Macau.

2. I plug in my Canon 40D into my PC. I look for the drive that indicates where my photos of my cam are located. Notice that i didn't use a card reader because it is fast as it is than through cable. It last around 5 minutes for about 200 RAW picture files. And then I copy or drag them to the folder i created.

3. Then I open my DPP (Digital Photo Professional) software to view my RAW picture files.

4. I delete garbage photo. Garbage photo includes out-of-focus, unrepairable over exposed & under exposed shots, blurred photos, etc.

5. Rotate vertical shots. Select em all non vertical shots and click rotate in one motion.

6. Select best photo one by one. I PP them straight in my DPP. Correct exposure, white balance, sharpness, saturation, crop, resize, noise reduction, etc. And then convert and save as high-quality JPEG on another folder (JPEGs) inside the first folder i had created.

7. I open JPEG files in PS CS3 for digital watermarking for the worthy pictures. For the not-so-worthy, I leave them alone. Sometimes I polish some kinks in PS but no heavy PP.

8. And then i copy the folder JPEGs to my external hard drive and rename it the same as the folder i created in my PC.

9. Upload it to my Flickr, Multiply, Photobucket and Friendster ofcourse.

10. When i have the time and money, I go to the local digital print shop and have a 5R print. (i know, i have to work on my CMYK colors).

That's it folks! How about yours? It's not that refined but i'm working on it. Peace out!

The Problem
If you've been researching digital SLR cameras, you've probably drawn the following conclusion:

The amount of technical information is overwhelming.

Good news – you've found the right web site for step-by-step instructions that will guide you to the best digital SLR camera.

Simple Practical Information
Everything in the Digital SLR Guide is explained in plain English.

You won't have to wade through a lot of technical babble, and you won't need a bottle of aspirin to get through it. Just bring your common sense (and maybe a cup of coffee) and you'll be fine.

How the Guide is Organized
The Digital SLR Guide helps you find the best digital SLR camera using a simple 4-step process.

1. Why Sunsets - For millions of years, relentlessly, the sun rises and the sun sets. Still, after seeing the sun sets for hundreds of times, we are still touched every single time. The sight of the life-giving sun, saying farewell, leaving us with the dark night, always catches us. The sunset doesn't end when the great disk goes down in the sky, we can keep on shooting until the last of the twilights is gone into the night.

2. Guiding Rules - Firstly, the sky is what it is all about; this is why we must try and not over expose them. The sun is just as important, so we would like to give it some emphasis. Lastly, just the sunset by itself it not that interesting, this is why the frame should be enriched with other elements.

3. Light Metering - I hope you know the basics of light metering, and if not, this is a good time to learn a bit about it. As you know metering is a very important aspect of the photo. Having a bit of under-exposure, will allow you to get live and vivid colors of the setting sun. There are two ways to achieve correct exposure when shooting the sun:
A. Spot Meter - Set your camera on the spot metering mode, select a location about 30 degrees off the sun and take your meter. (Of course, you can meter from anywhere else in the sky and get different results, don't be afraid to experiment).
B. Negative Exposure Compensation - when feeling lazy, you can set your camera for negative compensation of 2/3 to 2 stops, depending on the situation.

4. Focal Length - There are two ways to use focal length to our advantage in a sunset picture:
A. Long focal length (140mm and up) - This type of lens will allow us to see the sun as a big disk. This way the sun is given a great emphasis in the picture. You can use shades to create a unique/romantic look.

B. Short focal length - a wide lens - this will enable you to get the sky with a wide angle, and to capture the gradient from sunset to night. It will make for a very interesting picture, and the sun will look very small.
The following picture is a panorama of two pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Weather - The most interesting sunsets are those where light clouds and haze are in the sky. The haze will make a very dramatic sky. The sunlight coming through the clouds will create deep reds and purples, which will help you create a strong scene.

6. Silhouettes - silhouettes are created when we try to keep the picture metering with a strong back light source, thus creating under exposure for front objects. You can use the sunlight (or sunlight residues) for back light.

7. Focus - We are trying to lock the focus on the sky, which have no contrast at all. If we leave the camera on automatic focus, the sensor will have difficulties locking. This is why you have to set the camera on manual focus and set the focus distance to infinity. If you don't do so, the camera, might not be able to lock the focus, and you will end up with a blurred picture.

8. Aperture - You might want to try and set the aperture to the smallest aperture possible - This will result in a big depth of field and help avoid a "sun-smear". When setting the aperture to its smallest values can also result with a nice effect of making the sun look like a star.

9. White-Balance (WB) - Mostly it is best to keep the WB settings at auto. I have learned that usually that will result in a nice well balanced image. Sometimes, I set the WB to Flash. WHY? For creativity ;). This will result in strong reds, and a nice sunset mood.

10. Long Exposure - After the sun sets, and the light is low, we can expose another weapon - the long exposure. Where the scene has moving objects, like people, we can end up with quite and interesting frame. Setting long exposure, when the sea is in the frame, will create a smooth/misty surface, depending on the amount of waves. Sometimes, when the sun has just set, the light is still too strong, you can use an ND filter to reduce the light brightness.

11. Composition - Well the basic rule is keep the sun up and the sea down. No, really now, is best to place the sun at one of the sides of the frame, rather than at the center, this will help you to create more interest in the frame. Also, try and place some other interesting objects in the frame, other then the sun.

12. Post Processing - This is our photo lab, where we can develop the pictures we took. What can we do here? We can for example select the sky and add some red using the curves tool, or select the water and add some blue tones.

13. Warning - Do not look directly at the sun, no matter what! Not with your bare eyes, and not through the eyepiece, it can cause irreversible damage to your eyes.

14. Summary - well, it turns out that sunset photography can be trickier than what you initially thought. If you can get the ingredients together, you can end up with a very nice frame. Just keep in mind that it is very easy to turn a sunset photo into a cliche. There are no magic tricks here - keep your eyes open and look for a scene you did not see anywhere before, a scene that will make the watcher say wow.

A guide to architectural photography (or how to photograph buildings)

Shooting
The key to good architectural photography is to point the camera straight at the subject. You don't want to shoot as an angle. That's about it-- if you shoot straight, 95% of the job is done. No special lens is required. Shooting straight requires:

1. Ideal shooting position is halfway between the top and bottom of the building (or area of the building). This, of course, requires a ladder, or shooting from the building across the street. Horizontal position is obviously directly opposite the middle of the building, which is often helpfully marked with a door or window. A ladder isn't necessary if you have a Tilt/Shift lens (24mm" works well in many situations), but these lenses are expensive, and aren't available for all lines of SLRs (Canon has a good one, but it's P44,000+). TS lenses straighten the converging lines effect that you get if you shoot up at the building from the sidewalk across the street-- you can do a lot of the same thing in Photoshop (see editing step.)

2. Hold the camera with the image plane (back of the camera) exactly parallel to the building. This is tricky and takes some practice. On a positive note, you don't have to hold it perfectly still, because the building is happy to sit still for you.

3. Often, a picture is a bit more exciting if someone is walking by, or if there is an object to grab the eye in front of the building. In the picture illustrating this step, the lamp-post adds a little something extra. If you're going for something in the foreground, make sure to use a smallish F-stop to keep the depth of field deep (F8 or above usually works fine from across the street). This way everything will be in focus.

4. Avoid any distracting elements-- that include:
-- lampposts (almost never look good unless they are at the edges, and then only if they are distinctive)
-- cars (death to most photographs because they destroy that "what year is it?" quality, and tend to block the front of buildings)
-- strange things in the background or foreground, like wires or satellite dishes

5. A word on lighting: buildings always look best an hour before sunset or an hour after dawn, and generally look better on slightly cloudy days. Bright light, particularly in the afternoon, will cast harsh shadows that make buildings look bad. Avoid shooting at noon at all costs. Avoid any shot where you can see clearly delineated shadows, unless they really work.

Editing
Once you've taken your picture, you'll need to do three things: crop, color, and sharpen.

1. Crop: A good photo of a building puts the building in a prominent spot in the image (not necessarily the center, but that's where I like it), and keeps the lines straight. Your best tool in this effort is perspective crop in Photoshop. That's the normal cropping tool, but with that little checkbox for "perspective crop" in the toolbar checked. Once you check it, you can drag the four crop lines at skewed angles. The trick is to line each line up with the right side of the building (top line with top of building, left with left side of building, etc.) You also want to maintain the basic dimensions of the picture, and you can't pull the lines too far off 90 degree angles without some major distortion. It's a bit tricky, but practice makes perfect.

1a. Re-crop-- sometimes the Perspective crop screws up the dimensions of the image. If you want to, you can recrop the image to 4.5x3, 4x3, 1x1, etc.

2. Color-- here, I like to use Photoshop's curves (slight s-curve to increase contrast, or rounded middle to brighten midtones, depending on the situation.) You can also use levels, selective color, or hue/saturation, but most pros I use stick to curves. Another option is to use unsharp mask.

3. Sharpen-- best to always resize to your final dimensions before sharpening (for instance, I put up 800x600 on my website, so I resize to 800x600 before I do anything else.) Then, if you can, view actual pixels (100% magnification.) Then apply your favorite sharpening method. I use unsharp mask, or lab sharpening (you can look both of those up on photo sites.)

4. Final prep: sometimes you'll want to add a bit of hue/saturation to bump up the colors a bit more, or tool slightly with the contrast, but basically you are done. Save and go home!

Many new photographers have a hard time keeping that horizon straight and will end up with tilted images. Here are some quick tips to help you end up with straight pictures

1. Use your eyes: Well this might seems just too obvious, but it is true, the first thing you have to do is to look. Many new photographers are so excited about taking the picture that they just don’t pay attention whether the picture looks tilted or not. So first thing to do before going any further is to incorporate it into your reflex system. So set it as an assignment for yourself, and teach yourself to think about whether the picture looks tilted into your viewfinder or not and very quickly this will just become automatic.

Now that you are used to think about getting straight pictures let us learn some techniques to get a higher success percentage
2. Use your viewfinder: One very easy trick is to level your horizon on the top or bottom of your viewfinder

3. Use your focus points: This is the technique I use the most, I prefer it to the viewfinder technique because the later keeps me with a blind spot in my picture that I cannot see. So I just align the horizon of my picture to the row of focus points.

4. Make use of the tripod: Most tripods have a bubble level that can be very useful to get a straight picture so why not just use it. Just for info, the bubble level indicates that the camera is straight when the bubble is inside the black circle, just like shown in the picture.

5. Get a hot shoe bubble level: The problem in the bubble level of the tripod is that your tripod might only a level for the base but not the head, so in such a case you can buy a hot shoe two axis Bubble Level

6. In the digital dark room: I was actually hesitating in writing this point since we agreed in point 1. that the first step should be to get the picture straight in camera, however in the path leading to straight horizon pictures you might have some misses. And if you like the picture there is no reason to delete it just because it is tilted, straightening the horizon in the digital dark room is very easy. Use Adobe Photoshop.

1. Own The Frame

How many good shots had to be cropped just to get half a person out of the frame? Element on the border of the frame tent to draw attention. They may compete with the subject of your picture. And if the edges are cluttered with half of people or faces, your picture will look random. Clearing the edges of the frame is called owning the frame.

Just before you click the shutter, take a quick eye-tour on the edges of your view finder. Check - are there half people there? If you see anything you don't like, you can recompose, zoom in or out. Take a decision - what's in shot and what's out.

2. Parallel Your Parallels

Do you have any parallel lines in the frame? Are they parallel when you are watching them through the view finder? Make sure that parallel lines in the real world stays parallel in the final image. There are two common reasons for un-paralleling lines. The first is lens distortion - a hard one to over come. You can usually zoom in to reduce some of this effect, but not eliminate it completely. The second reason is the angle at which you shoot. Sometimes a quick adjustment on the angle can re-parallel the lines. A pleasing effect to the eye.

3. Avoid Horizon Spillage

This one is a common beach images killer. When the horizon is tilted, the balance in the image is disturbed. The general concept holds for any image with strong lines as part of the composition: horizon, window, cabinets and wall edges. Since the brain is used to seeing those lines horizontal (or vertical), it tends to prefer images that have horizontal lines as well. Some cameras can display horizontal lines on the view finder. This is a handy feature to turn on. If you don't have this feature in your camera, you can align the horizon on two of the focus dots in the viewfinder as well. (OK, Photoshop came to the rescue here)

4. Verify your ISO -

Whenever it gets a little dark we bump the ISO. The real trick here is
to remember to punch it back down when the light gets better. It is hard to catch this one since the camera will still let you take a picture. The LCD will not show the high ISO, the only warning is a "weird" exposure decisions made by the camera. So, what's the deal? Higher ISO means more digital noise. If you missed your ISO, you will not see it on the LCD. Most likely you will only notice it on the screen at home.

Luckily you can always use free software to remove the noise from the shot. However this takes time and the results are never as good as shooting low ISO in the first place.

5. Verify camera modes

Very often we set the camera mode to match a specific shot we are taking: Manual focus for a macro shot, Manual exposure and white balance for a panorama, or set the camera on auto pilot when we let someone else (like my what-are-all-those-knobs sister) take a shot for us.

Manual focus can be misleading, is the focus is set somewhere in the vicinity of your subject, it is hard to detect through the view finder. The way to overcome this hurdle is to set your camera to beep when it focuses. Now you'll get into a habit: no beep, no focus! You will look for the beep before every shot.

Since camera modes are the choice of the photographer, most cameras will assume that you made an artistic choice and will not give indication on those settings. So make sure: Your camera is set to exposure mode of your choice.

1. Body inspection: Let’s take out the most obvious thing first, inspect throughly the body for any trace of damage or abuse. Minor scratches are normal and should worry you a lot, more pronounced scratches aren’t harmful either but they are story telling about the history of the camera.

2. Auto Focus accuracy: Use a lens you already know to be focusing fine and test the auto focus accuracy of the digital camera by taking some “real life” pictures of well contrasted and well lit objects using the central focus point with the lens set to its widest aperture, download the pictures to your computer and check for front/back focus. Also make sure to check that all other focus points are working, no need to test them for accuracy.

3. Sensor inspection: Shoot a defocused white wall at f/22 download the picture to your computer and check it at 100% for sensor scratches.
N.B.: Some dust spots are normal, they are often even found on brand new cameras.

4. Shutter inspection: Ideally speaking check the number of shutter actuations and compare it with the shutter life cycle of the camera you are planning to buy. If it is impossible to know the actual number of shutter actuations, inspect the shutter curtain visually for wear and damage.

5. Colors inspection: I know that colors can easily be fixed and that they are factors of a lot of things, but I have seen some DSLR which colors are really really bad, just take a couple of shots in daylight with White Balance set to Auto White Balance and check the the colors looks “normal” with no real pronounced color cast.

6. Buttons inspection: Check that none of the buttons “stick” and all work as they should.

7. Flash inspection:Check the pop-up flash (if any) and flash hot-shoe.

8. Dead Pixel inspection: Take a picture with the lens cap on. Shutter speed: 1 sec, ISO 100. Then use any dead pixel analyzer to know the number of dead pixels. Even though dead pixels are quite normal, if you get a large number of dead or hot pixels resulting from this test you might want to consider another DSLR.

9. Connection inspection: Make sure all the connection of the camera are working, you can connect it to a computer to download the pictures, that the TV out connector is working, and if you can also test the remote shutter release connection.

and last but not least...
10. Serial Number inspection: If you have no idea about the seller you might want to check the serial number of the camera you are about to buy against any Stolen Photography Equipment Registry like the one on Photo.net.

I’m a bit hesitant to add “10 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes & Bad Habits” to the blog as it speaks to things that are for most common sense. Regardless it’s fair to say that most everyone has made these mistakes even if we’re too proud to admit it. So for the experienced photographers I apologize in advance if these mistakes bring back bad memories or spur flashbacks. For those new to photography take note and learn from the mistakes of others:

 

10. Not Having A Second Battery
There are two things that can frustrate a photographer to no end while in the field, both will stop you from taking a single photo. Not having a spare memory card did not make the list, but not having a second battery did. Digital SLRs require power and not planning around this can be a tragic mistake. As most probably know colder temperatures will shorten the life of a battery. When in the field keep those batteries warm and always have a spare. In general, temperature aside, it’s best practice to always have a spare battery on hand. Choosing not to take a photo is far better than not having the option to when out of power.

 

9. Better Body Instead Of Better Lens

I guess it is just a human nature but every time a new camera is released we have all tendency to become green with envy and deep down we should know that we would be much better investing in a better lens than in a better camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Not Double Checking Your ISO Setting
One of the most painful experiences is taking photos and then realizing that you never set your ISO setting back from say 1600 to 100 between shoots. If you’re lucky your exposures will be fine and you’ll have more grain than normal. If you’re unlucky you’ll suffer exposure problems. Over time I’ve become so methodical in my approach when in the field that before shooting I’ll always verify my ISO setting. None-the-less there are always times that I get so caught up in the moment that I forget to do this.

 

 

 

7. Deleting Pictures Too Fast

You can’t trust your fingers. If you delete images straight from you camera, you will, at some point, delete an image you don’t want to erase. Call it clumsiness or plain bad luck - but whatever you call it, it will give you a headache. Yes, you can try to recover it when you get back to your computer, but in the meantime, you can’t use your memory card.

Your batteries are weak. That LCD at the back of your camera is a power hog, and the more time you spend reviewing, trimming, and deleting images, the less time you have to shoot. If you keep deleting images, before you know it, you’ll end up with an empty battery and an empty memory card.

You’re too slow. Even the best multi-taskers cannot shoot and review images at the same time. If you keep deleting images from your camera, you’re going to miss everything you want to shoot. At the end of the day, all your shots will be reminders of the ones that got away.

 

6. Not Reformatting Your CF Cards Between Use
This is so simple to do, yet so often overlooked. Over time a CF card can corrupt files if consistently erased versus reformatted after downloading ones images. Corrupt files translate to unreadable or irrecoverable photos. Reformatting unlike erasing will uncover damaged or unusable internal data sectors and not allow files to be written to the bad sectors on your CF card. Avoiding the prospect of corrupt files should be a priority and the solution is an easy one… reformat your card instead of erasing it.

 

5. Not Cleaning Your Sensor
It’s easy to give in to laziness and not clean your sensor. Unfortunately the cost of being lazy in this way translates to the loss of data on each photograph. Sure you can use a clone or healing tool in Photoshop to remove spots, but you’re ultimately filling in gaps of data that your sensor was unable to record. Going into a shoot with a clean sensor will not only avoid this problem it will save you a lot of work during post-processing.

 

4. Shooting JPEG Versus RAW
Of all the setting changes that can go wrong, accidentily shooting JPEG versus RAW can be the most disasterous. RAW files, a digital negative if you will, provide a photographer the greatest latitude in post-process. RAW converters support nondestructive editing where by color temperature, exposure, contrast, etc. can be adjusted with out ever impacting the source file. JPEG files on the other hand do not afford such benefits. When I discover that I’ve made this mistake my stomach usually goes in my throat. For me if I’m not shooting RAW I might as well not be shooting.

 

3. Not Double Checking Your Gear Bag

It never happened to you? It sure did to me! I can’t remember how many times I went shooting just to notice later on that I forgot the CF cards at home. Just a few months ago I took a photography trip to Hong Kong and I totally forgot to pack the battery charger with me! So if you are as clumsy as I am, maybe you should trust your wife in packing things up for you.

 

 

 

2. I’ll Get This Straight Later

Let me first say that I have nothing against Photoshop or any other kind of photo retouching I even pointed out some times ago an easy way to correct tilted pictures in the digital dark room. However I believe that if you can get it right on the field it is better.

 

 

1. Blaming The Material

And, of course, on the TOP of the list “Blaming the material”! When we do not manage of getting a decent picture we go like “AH if only I had that lens!” but if someone looks at a nice pictures of ours and says “Wow you should have a nice camera!!!” We go crazy… Anyway, remember folks, it is always the photographer never the Camera.

A panorama – or panoramic photo – is usually made by stitching several pictures, taken with the same camera, into one. Although you can also achieve a panoramic effect with only one photo by simply cropping it aggressively – especially if you are using a wide angle lens – I will stick to the “multiple photos” approach as it offers more possibilities.

A panorama can in general be horizontal, vertical or even be a mosaic of pictures taken in both orientations. For this article I will assume you want to do a horizontal panorama, which means the final photo will have a width much greater than its height and photos will be taken from right to left (or left to right if you prefer but my camera only takes ine way). The technique can, as you will see, easily be adapted to do vertical panoramas.
Making a panoramic photo really only takes a couple of important steps.

The first step is taking the pictures;
The second is stitching them using your computer.

The more effort and attention you put in the first step, the easier the second step will be and the more realistic your final photo will look.

Taking the pictures at the exact place and time. Whether you are shooting inside or outside, and especially if you are planning to shoot a particular event such as a sunset, it is a good idea to arrive early at the location of you shot as a proper setup can take some time.

1.Camera Setup.

What follows is the most important tip of the whole article: Put your camera in all manual mode, including manual focus.
This will ensure all the sub pictures making up the final panorama will have the same exposure level (hence the same brightness/contrast) and the same depth of field. This will make the stitching a lot easier since you will not have to adjust the individual pictures for exposure and focus.

2. Do not use a polarizing filter unless you really have to.

When you are going to rotate the camera in order to take the pictures, the incidence of the light on the filter will change and this will result in different colors hues on each picture. This can make the stitching very painful.

3. Try to use a focal lens of 50mm or greater.

This means “zooming in” a little bit. Of course it also means you will have to take more pictures to cover the panorama, but it will result in more details in the end.

It is better to do this because, if you use a wide angle lens (or short focal length), there are changes that objects in the foreground will suffer from distortion, and you will be in trouble to stitch the pictures.

4. Use a tripod.

Set up your tripod so that your camera is perfectly horizontal. You can do this by hand, or use a spirit level if you have one. Top geek stuff: you can buy a mini spirit level that will adapt to the external flash slot (hot shoe) of your camera if it has one.

It is quite important that your camera is horizontal. If it is not you will get some unrecoverable distortions on the horizon line (if shooting outside), and you will loose some height on the final picture.

If you want to fine tune the setup, you can take an extra step to make sure your camera will rotate along the nodal point of this lens, or at least around the symmetry axis of the lens.

5. Be aware of the nodal point of your lens. (optional)

What is the nodal point of a lens you say? It’s the point, on the symmetry axis of the lens, that all the incoming light rays cross being sent to the focal plane. Rotating around this point will give you zero distortion. Rotating around a different point will create distortion – due to the parallax phenomenon. If the tripod mount crew on the camera is not even aligned with the lens axis you’ll need to buy a specialized tripod extension that will allow you to slide the camera horizontally so that the rotating axis of the tripod is in line with the nodal point.

Such devices are often called Panoramic Tripod Heads. The nodal point of your lens change when you zoom in and out. Finding it is a matter of trials and adjustments: try to locate two vertical objects, such as poles or light posts, one being close from the camera and the other being far away from it. Take two different shots by rotating the camera and compare the position of each object relative to the other. If the objects have moved away or toward each other from one shot to the other, you are not yet rotating around the nodal point. Finding the precise nodal point even with most regular lenses is often a matter of millimeter, but with a few tries you should get close enough.

Note that this step is optional. You will get perfectly decent results even if you skip it and rotate around a different point, especially if you are shooting outdoor landscape panorama. More distortion will show if you are shooting indoors, where the perspective lines may appear quite different from one shot to the other.

If you don’t have a tripod:

Hold the camera at the eye level and tuck your elbows close to your body to avoid moving the camera too much when you rotate. Try to keep the camera at the same level when rotating (the horizon line is a good marquee when you shoot outside). Rotate using your shoulders and waist, and try to rotate around the camera rather than rotating the camera itself. You’ll be closer from the nodal point this way.

Some of my friends here in multiply are into portrait photography. They spend a lot of time in studios and with their models. Here are some tips that can help you produce good-looking results. Reminder that these are not exactly rules, these are only guidelines to create your own technique and add what you have in mind. Cheers!

 

1. PHOTOSHOP

If you’re good with post-processing and manipulations, use it to your advantage. Get crazy with the adjustments, try some new Photoshop techniques, and maybe even a composite image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. TEXTURE

If texture is a big part of your subject, make it stand out and make it obvious. Match up the textures between your subject and your background. You might even try texturizing the entire photo for additional impact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. OVEREXPOSE

Blowing out the highlights or making a high-key image makes a nice soft portrait with kind of a light airy feeling. Another advantage of high-key photos is that the smaller details and defects are blown away, making the image look much smoother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. UNDEREXPOSE

A dominantly dark or low-key image will naturally draw your eyes to the lighter parts. These tend to have a grittier and harder look to them than the high-key images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. BACK-LIGHT

Hair lights up like crazy when it’s back-lit, so if hair is a big part of your subject make it stand out by placing your subject between you and a light source. You could also take this a little further and push the image to a silhouette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. POSING

Get crazy with the pose and positioning — extra points if it looks uncomfortable. Not only with the poses, but also with your own positioning — shoot from different angles to achieve different impacts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. CULTURE

Capture the local culture — what’s mundane to you is exotic to us. Culture is everywhere, even in your own town. Just image you’re visiting from a different country — what things would then seem more interesting to you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. REFLECTIONS

Make use of different surfaces to add that extra dimension — windows, mirrors, and water are all very good reflective surfaces that give a different result and texture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. SHADOWS

Make the shadow an important part of the image. Sometimes the shadow can even be more prominent than the actual subject casting the shadow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. GET CLOSE

There’s no rule against cropping out most of the subject’s face. This draws more attention to the parts that are left in the frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. (UN)FOCUS

Out-of-focus subjects can be more interesting than the in-focus subjects. It kind of adds some mystery to the image because you can’t quite make out who that person is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. MOVEMENT

Use movement to show action, even if it blurs out the subject entirely. In cases like this, think of the person as a means of creating the subject rather than being the actual subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. CAPTURE THE MOMENT

Catch somebody doing something they love, even if it’s not staged. Street photography is one of my favorite genres because it captures life as it happens — unstaged and unposed.