Ansel Adams – Oak Tree

So what is enthusiasm, is it what you can achieve through hard work? When I though for a while I concluded that enthusiasm is something which you have it or not. You want to b a good photographer, but in photography there are different sub-branches. Like someone want to be a awesome landscape photographer on the other hand someone else wants to concentrate on portraits, while the third guy love street photography. If you have enthusiasm in one kind of photography you should follow your dream instead of imitating someone else who is famous. There is no harm in imitating but imitation without a zeal does not last long.

Lets assume you want to be a landscape photographer but you do not want to go near the nature or you does not like to hike or some specific reason you does not want to wake up so early in the morning to see those golden moments for landscape photography. Just because you love nice landscape images does not mean that you should also do the same. Instead you can be the guy who may be a better fashion photographer or street photographer.

How you know what you like?

This is the biggest challenge in any art. To know what you really like takes time and effort. You need to try different things to conclude what really you want. As a beginner you should try out everything. You think you like portrait photography, try it out. There are two version of your answer after photography sessions, either you like it or not. If you like it try some more, read on the specific topic, do some workshops, ask fellow photographers what they think about your work. You need to be completely involved in the thing what you are doing. Superficial learning and superficial photography are not good for anyone.

Is learning by Imitation not good?

Learning by imitation is good, but if you have enthusiasm in that genre or type of photography. If you love landscape photography you must check work by Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell or Edward Weston. All these photographers are great in landscape photography. But if you ask Ansel Adams to do some portrait work he may succeed but in the end of the day he will say please ask me to do some landscapes from next time. That’s the beauty about enthusiasm, you learn by reading, watching even hearing. But all you can do if you have some love for the genre. Otherwise as I mentioned earlier it will have a short life.

If I love certain genre means I can not do other things?

If you portrait photography, you still can do landscapes or even macro photography, but as someone said you should be master of one before trying many things. Otherwise it will be like asking a great poet to write a biography. May be he will succeed but it may not be his best work. In each kind of art this fundamental thing is true. You need to be master of one thing

What about commercial aspect?

Some genre of photographs have more commercial value then other, but that is the end part of story. No one ever in art or photography did something great just to make it commercially successful. All the famous photographers are famous because they love what they were doing. No one created an image thinking that it will add tons of money to his bank account. So try to create great images first and money and fame will follow you after that.

What do you think? What is most important while you choose photography as a hobby or profession?

The post What Is Most Important in Photography? appeared first on Digital Photography College.

If you ever tried photographing butterflies in the nearby butterflies’ house or in your backyard, you already have experienced that those are one the most challenging subject to deal with. Butterflies are very active, they have this tendency to fly away when you are about to press the trigger.

Macro Photography Gears

Macro Lens With Better Focal Length

Before you will start these beautiful insects it is always advisable to buy a macro lens with a focal length 90 mm or up-word. There are many options available to buy macro lens.

For Canon dSLR owner Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens is a good value for money lens. Similarly Nikon dSLR owners can have Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro.

Extension Tubes

Extension tubes help to increase the magnification distance without affecting the image quality. They sit between the camera body and the lens.

The only problem with extension tubes is sometime they may incur a degree of light loss.

Try to buy extension tube supporting autofocus. The most popular extension tubes come in 12 mm, 25 mm or 36 mm.

Close-up Filters

Close-up filters screw up on the front of the lens and act like magnifying glass. These are some of the most inexpensive filters. They come in strength range of +1, +2, +3 or +4. The higher the numbers better the magnification.

There are some serious side effects of close-up filters, like soft edge sharpness, ghosting and chromatic aberration.

Get Some Ideas About Butterflies

Before you start shooting butterflies it is better to know their types and what type of butterflies are seen in your area. As butterflies numbers are in a decline it may happen you have to drive some distance to reach their habitat.

When to Photograph Butterflies?

The easiest time to find butterflies is during the day. But the day time is the most difficult to photograph them as butterflies tend to very active during the day time.

Instead it is good to photograph them in the early morning or during the evening when they are less active.

Tips for Photography

It may happen that you need to search a bit to find butterflies. Butterflies are less active on tall grass or on vegetations. After you located butterflies, move to your position slow. A slight bad move will make the butterfly fly away.

Most of the time use aider aperture to make the background out of focus so that you will get a sharp butterfly image. Sometime it is useful to use a flash to fill light. But natural light is best for most occasions.

Shooting butterflies is sometimes frustrating but will some practice and lot of patience you can take great butterfly images.

The post How to Photograph Butterflies appeared first on Digital Photography College.

These are some simple steps which will help you to take amazing photographs during rainy days.

Composition: Key to every photograph

Like any other type of photography, composition is the essential part when plan to do some rain photography. When you see a subject or a landscape just imagine for a moment how the same will look like when there will be rain. This pre-visualization will help to compose the image correctly.

Rule of third is best for many images and rain photography is no difference. But in many cases you can break the golden rule and make your own. 80/20 is also a great composition technique.

It is same as rule of third; the only difference is that give 80% to the main part and 20% to other parts. This composition is very useful when doing reflection photography. In this case your main subject is reflation and in the rest 20% real world object can be covered.

Color: Grey is not the only color

When it rains the basic color you can see in an image is grey. Then is grey the only color you are going to photograph in the rain? Not really.

Try to see other things which can give you a good color source. Like in a busy street on a rainy day you can capture the bright colors of the umbrellas. The most vibrant color to capture is red. So if you see any red umbrella or something which is red try to add that in your composition.

Camera and lens, what do you need?

If you are going to photograph during rain you need to have a clear plan in your head. You should know what your subject is and what type of images you are going to capture.

What is it like this?

The most challenging job in rain photography is keeping your camera and lens out of water. So try not to change your lens during the whole session. Water drops may damage your lens or your camera sensor.

The other simple trick to keep your camera and lens dry is just use an umbrella. Along with that keep some cloths to dry your equipment when required.

There are also some commercial rain photography gears available.

Carry a raincoat for your camera. I know there are different types of rain covers for camera gears available in the market. But the real problem starts when it actually stars to rain. So buy something which can completely protect your camera and lenses against rains and storm.

One of the product which is very good for this purpose is [amazon_link id="B000EY65UG" target="_blank" ]Vortex Media Storm Jacket Cover for an SLR Camera[/amazon_link]. And the best part, it is not expensive.

Security: Be safe

Coastal area photography when it rains is challenging. It I always better to inform someone where you are going. This simple step can keep you away from many unexpected circumstances.

The post Rain Photography Tips: How to Photograph When It Rains appeared first on Digital Photography College.

Tip 1: Close ups

Make sure to photograph all small but important subjects. For example you should take some good photographs of the wedding ring. Place the wedding ring with a good background. In this case the swallow depth of the field with blurred background gives more importance to the ring.

How to achieve this

To achieve this kind of photographs

1. Put your dSLR camera settings to aperture priority mode.
2. Use a low f-number (Example F 2.8). This will help in creating a shadow depth of the field.
3. Set your metering mode to spot metering. This will help in focusing a single point on the subject.
4. Change your focus point to your main subject. In this case the ring. Most of the dSLR provide this functionality. Check your camera manual for this option.

Tip 2: Photograph the wedding ceremony

Most important thing in a wedding day is the wedding ceremony. The biggest challenge here is that many ceremonies happen inside a church where the light is not so great. Another issue is that you cannot use the flash during wedding ceremony.

To tackle these kinds of situation make sure that you use very high ISO settings. But do not set the ISO to too high. This will add a lot of digital noise to the resulting images.

Tip 3: Take some outdoor portraits

Taking portraits is one of the best parts of wedding photography. When the wedding ceremony is over you can take photographs of the bride and the groom while coming out of the church. To achieve this set the camera to burst mode so that you can capture fast moving subjects.

Take some group shots and nice portraits, but make sure that your composition is good. Bad compositions just kill a good image.

Tip 4: Take photos of family members, guests and children

To make the event flow continues in your photography make sure to take photographs of the guests and family members.

All the time during a wedding photography session you should keep it in mind not to disturb other with your camera work. Also try to avoid flash in your photography.

Keep an eye on the children in the event. You may get some great photographs.

Tip 5: Editing is the king

Apart from taking great photos, another important part is to post process the images. It takes significant amount of time and lot of effort to edit an image correctly.

Make sure that you use the right tools, for example you can use Adobe Photoshop Element. Photoshop is one of the best tools to do your post processing and the basic version of Adobe Photoshop is not expensive. You can buy Adobe Photoshop Element 10 at 63$ from Amazon.

Along with Photoshop you can use several other plugins to make the process fast. For example Nik Software Cokor Efex Pro and Topaz Adjust do a great job.

What do you think about this article? Add your comments and suggestions at the comment section.

The post 5 Easy Tips for Better Wedding Photography appeared first on Digital Photography College.

LensTagger is a free but useful Lightroom plugin which can save your money and time.  LensTagger is similar to ExifTool without those complicated command prompts headache.

LensTagger helps in adding EXIF information like aperture and focal length using a graphical interface. To use LensTagger you need to have ExifTool installed but all the complicated command line headache are taken care by the LensTagger tool itself.

To start the plugin after installation you just have to start LensTagger from -> Plug-In Extras -> LensTagger

Then use the tool to add lens name, Focal length, maximum aperture and F-stop and then just have to press the “Run Command” button. That’s it the plugin will then do all the background processing to add all EXIF information.  The interface is very clean and easy to understand.

If you are still in doubt check this link to get all the explanations on how to use the plugin. The best part of LensTagger plugin is that it is free and not like other expensive tools like PowerExif. The other big issue with many other paid options is that those are not compatible with Mac OS. If your only requirement is to add EXIF data for your manual lenses then LensTagger is the best free option available.

Download LensTagger from the official site.

Download ExifTool from here.

The post LensTagger Lightroom Plugin Adds Missing EXIF Data for Manual Lenses appeared first on Digital Photography College.

We have collected several excellent examples of black and white landscape photograps for your inspiration.

The post 28 Black And White Landscape Photography Examples appeared first on Digital Photography College.

1. one should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind. – dorothea lange
2. your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees. -paul strand
3. while there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see. -dorothea lange
4. as i have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. i see something special and show it to the camera. a picture is produced. the moment is held until someone sees it. then it is theirs. – sam abell
5. my portraits are more about me than they are about the people i photograph. -richard avedon
6. when i say i want to photograph someone, what it really means is that i’d like to know them. anyone i know i photograph. -annie leibovitz
7. you don’t take a photograph. you ask, quietly, to borrow it. -author unknown
8. there are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. -ansel adams
9. one photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photos out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photos out of focus are a style. -author unknown
10. every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, i assume that it isn’t a very interesting photograph. if it were, they would have more to say. -author unknown
11. i never have taken a picture i’ve intended. they’re always better or worse. -diane arbus
12. it can be a trap of the photographer to think that his or her best pictures were the ones that were hardest to get. -timothy allen
13. i am an amateur and i intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. -andre kertesz
14. i take photographs with love, so i try to make them art objects. but i make them for myself first and foremost–that is important. -jacques-henri lartigue
15. a great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. -ansel adams
16. i think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, i don’t find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges. -william albert allard
17. a ming vase can be well-designed and well-made and is beautiful for that reason alone. i don’t think this can be true for photography. unless there is something a little incomplete and a little strange, it will simply look like a copy of something pretty. we won’t take an interest in it. -john loengard
18. when words become unclear, i shall focus with photographs. when images become inadequate, i shall be content with silence. -ansel adams
19. i’m not a particularly verbose person. i think that’s why i like taking pictures… they speak for themselves. -jeb dickerson
20. look, i’m not an intellectual…i just take pictures. -helmut newton
21. the camera can photograph thought. -dirk bogarde
22. whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts. -walker evans
23. photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. it is a major force in explaining man to man. -edward steichen
24. some photographers take reality…and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation. -ansel adams
25. above all, i craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes. -henri cartier-bresson
26. a good snapshot stops a moment from running away. -eudora welty
27. a photograph must be more interesting than the thing photographed. -gary winogran
28. beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. -matt hardy
29. buying a nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. it makes you a nikon owner. -author unknown
30. no place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film. -robert adams
31. there will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. and, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. don’t be bitter because you can’t record it. sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is! -degriff
32. at forty-two i decided to become a photographer because it offered a means of creative thought and action. i didn’t rationalize this, i just felt it intuitively and followed my intuition, which i have never regretted. -wynn bullock
33. If I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography. – Edward Weston
34. There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept. -Ansel Adams
35. You don’t take a photograph, you make it. -Ansel Adams
36. Of course it’s all luck. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
37. Notebook. No photographer should be without one! -Ansel Adams
38. It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are. – Paul Caponigro
39. I shutter to think how many people are underexposed and lacking depth in this field. – Rick Steves,
40. Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic. -Edward Weston
41. Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter. – Ansel Adams
42. If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. -Robert Capa
43. There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. -Ansel Adams
44. Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
45. For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It’s that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom. – John Sexton
46. I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do – that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse. – Diane Arbus
47. I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style. – Ken Burns
48. In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. – Alfred Stieglitz
49. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Henry David Thoreau
50. If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. – Robert Capa
51. There are two people in every photograph: the photographer and the viewer. – Ansel Adams
52. You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams
53. Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop. – Ansel Adams
54. If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera. – Lewis Hine
55. I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them. -Diane Arbus
56. Amateurs worry about equipment, Professionals worry about time, Masters worry about light. – Anonymous
57. Owning a DSLR does not make you a photographer. It makes you a DSLR owner. – Anonymous
58. I always thought good photos were like good jokes. If you have to explain it, it just isn’t that good. – Anonymous
59. If I saw something in my viewfinder that looked familiar to me, I would do something to shake it up. – Garry Winogrand
60. I take photographs to see what something looks like as a photograph. – Garry Winogrand
61. Photographers mistake the emotion they feel while taking the photo as a judgment that the photograph is good – Garry Winogrand
62. Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest. – Lisette Model
63. Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. – Elliott Erwitt
64. Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow. – Imogen Cunningham
65. If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. – Jim Richardson
66. Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph – Andre Kertesz
67. When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls! – Ted Grant
68. In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it. – Emile Zola
69. If I knew how to take a good photograph, I’d do it every time. – Robert Doisneau
70. I have to be as much diplomat as a photographer. – Alfred Eisenstaedt
71. Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase. – Percy W. Harris
72. A good photographer must love life more than he does photography. – Joel Strasser
73. If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment. – Linda McCartney
74. Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like. – David Alan Harvey
75. Of course it’s all luck. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
76. My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person. – Andy Warhol
77. Photography, like alcohol, should only be allowed to those who can do without it. – Walter Sickert
78. A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it. – Edward Steichen
79. The camera’s only job is to get out of the way of making photographs. – Ken Rockwell
80. It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are. – Paul Caponigro
81. A picture is worth a thousand words; a slide show is both. – Anonymous
82. The brilliancy and sharpness of some of them are highly remarkable. – Anonymous
83. Photography teaches that how well you see has nothing to do with how well you see. – Anonymous
84. Once photography enters your bloodstream, it’s like a disease. – Anonymous
85. The only reason to do your own processing is quality. – Anonymous
86. Never show a customer two prints of different density. He will ask you to print a third with a density between the two. – Anonymous
87. A photograph can be as striking and as haunting as a great painting or a fine poem. – Anonymous
88. The ultimate photographic camera will imprint a scene directly into a person’s memory. – Anonymous
89. It’s not the camera, but who’s behind the camera. – Anonymous
90. Putting the camera in their faces is always the hardest. But you just have to do it. – Anonymous
91. The difference between the amateur and the professional is that the professional looks it up. – Anonymous
92. Jesus opened my eyes, as the camera opened my heart to see all of the beauty this world has to behold. – Anonymous
93. When people ask what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes. – Anonymous
94. What is the most important element of photojournalism: Light? Moment? Composition? You are wrong. – It’s magic. – Anonymous
95. Success is what happens when 10,000 hours of preparation meet with one moment of opportunity. – Anonymous
96. It is best that a photographer not simply take a picture. A photographer has a responsibility to share a visual experience with others by every possible means. – Anonymous
97. A tear contains an ocean. A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a person’s life that reveal greater truths. – Anonymous
98. A camera is a hollow tube that allows free-flowing, inward and outward expressions of love between a photographer and a subject. – Anonymous
99. You know what a camera is? A mirror with memory. – Anonymous
100. Sports are a lot like photography. If you don’t focus, all you will get is the negative. – Anonymous
101. A good photograph will make an uncommonly good image of common subjects. – Anonymous

The post 101 Photography Quotes appeared first on Digital Photography College.

We have gathered some of his wonderful work.

The post Minimalism Photography By Photographer Andrey Belkov appeared first on Digital Photography College.

The guys at slrlounge used a Canon 5D Mark II and took the same photo in JPG and RAW in same lighting conditions. They also compared the correctly exposed images and badly exposed images.

Check here for the original article at slrlounge.

The post JPG vs RAW: Which One Is Better? appeared first on Digital Photography College.

Here are some of the Children Portrait Photography Tips which may help you in taking better kids photographs.

Be Patient

Working with children is always challenging. Kids of all age group are very unpredictable and they can change their mood because of no obvious reason. It does not matter what personality you have it may happen that children will respond to you or not. So the first and most important tip is to be patience. You have to take a different approach while you are taking photograph of different age groups. When taking children photos make the children comfortable and enjoy themselves during photo shoot. And doing so during the whole time you need a lot of patience.



Follow the Kids

When photographing kids it is always important to follow them this is because if you ask a kid to do something most of the time they do not do it naturally. Instead let them roam around, experience the environment and this will add lot of natural smile and activities to your photo shoot. One more important note that you should not say is “NO” to a kid during the photo shoot, this is because children does not like to listen to this word. Instead make the kid comfortable with you and the environment to get some amazing photographs.



Capture Emotions Not Just Smile

Photographing kids is not just capturing smiles. It is about capturing pieces of time when the kid is happy, surprised, and anxious or doing something which will be interesting to see after years. So it’s not only smiles which you should capture but whole bunch of different natural activities of the kids.



Locations

Instead of shooting your photographs inside you can choose a different, more kid’s friendly location for the photo-shoot. You can take them to a nearby park or to a zoo; some kids like to be their own room in that case you should plan accordingly. So before the photography session keep in mind about 3-4 probable locations where you may do the session.



Focus in Their Eyes

Make sure for most of your shots you should focus for eyes of the children. Turn on your spot focusing mode in your camera and choose eyes the focus point.



Get Down to Their Level

The best techniques of photography do not work with children. So instead of shooting at your own convenient position you have to get down to your knees and make the camera level with their eyes- this will give you better shots.

Sometimes you can make some exceptions to this and shoot directly above the kids and still you can get beautiful shots.



Carry Comfortable Gear

Photographing children is not an easy task and believe me it’s tiring. Most of the times during the photography session you will be on your feet coin various things. To make things little comfortable you can carry not so bulky lens and camera. Use some equipment which will allow you to move around more freely. Use simple and straight forward gears. No matter what camera you use you’ll need one with the least possible lag time between the pushing of the shutter button and the picture actually being taken.

The other important thing about photography gears is that make sure you put them in a better place during the photo session. Children may play with them.

These Children Portrait Photography Tips are just the beginning and there will be many more challenges and techniques you will learn during photographing children.

The post 7 Children Portrait Photography Tips appeared first on Digital Photography College.