Archive for the ‘Photography Tips’ Category
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Sometimes it's easy to pick the winners—they just jump out at you, like this image did when I first saw it on my screen. But usually editing is a more difficult task.
First of all, thanks to everyone who commented on my post from last Friday. Your participation is such a vital part of this blog, and makes it more fun for me, and everyone else.
Of the three dogwood images I posted, “C” was clearly the favorite. But there were some strong votes for A and B as well. Just another example of how subjective photography is!
It’s also an example of how difficult it can be to edit your work. When I ask students to bring a portfolio of ten images to a workshop, they often tell me how hard it was to narrow it down to such a small selection. Many have never had to do that before.
But editing—and I mean this in the traditional sense of selecting images, rather than processing or developing them—is one of the most important aspects of photography.
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Tags: landscape photography, Michael Frye, photo editing, photography, Photography Tips
Posted in Photography Tips | 19 Comments »
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Autumn Sunrise, Half Dome and the Merced River
How do you give your photographs impact? How do you convey the grandeur of the landscape in a small, two-dimensional image? You have to find your focus. I’m not talking about turning the ring on your lens—I’m talking about focusing your composition on the essentials and finding a strong design.
My latest article in Outdoor Photographer magazine discusses exactly how to do that. Titled Find Your Focus, it shows you how to communicate your vision by simplifying, finding focal points, creating depth, and looking for patterns. The article is scheduled for the May issue, due out next month, but it’s already on the OutdoorPhotographer.com website—a sneak preview. I hope you enjoy the article!
Tags: composition, landscape photography, Michael Frye, Photography Tips
Posted in Announcements, Photography Tips | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Lightroom has grown up. I’ve made 30×40 inch prints from this image using only Lightroom (except for the final print sharpening). Yet Photoshop can still do things that Lightroom can’t.
“Should I get Lightroom or Photoshop?” This is a question I get asked a lot, usually by people who own Photoshop Elements and are thinking of upgrading to either Lightroom or the full version of Photoshop.
Six years ago this was an easy decision, because Lightroom didn’t exist. If you wanted to upgrade from Elements, the full version of Photoshop was the only real choice. But then Apple launched Aperture, Adobe countered with Lightroom, Nikon and Canon upgraded their software, and a host of other companies added even more options.
For now I’m going to keep this simple and just talk about Lightroom and Photoshop—mainly because these are the two most popular choices, but also because they’re the two applications I’m most familiar with, and they’re natural choices for people wishing to graduate from Adobe’s other photo-editing program, Elements.
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Posted in Digital Darkroom, Photography Tips | 8 Comments »
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Understanding how to read a histogram is the best way to judge exposure in high-contrast scenes like this.
With this post I’m introducing a new series on this blog. Every month or so I’ll be writing about photography basics like exposure, depth of field, camera settings, or the fundamentals of light and composition. I want to keep the content here relevant for all landscape photographers, not just advanced ones, and help everyone learn to make better, more expressive images.
So I’m starting with perhaps the most fundamental aspect of digital photography: reading histograms.
With film, exposure always involves some guesswork—you can never be sure you made the correct exposure until you develop the film. But with digital cameras you can tell immediately whether the right amount of light reached the sensor by looking at a histogram. This ability to instantly evaluate exposure is a game changer—the single biggest advantage of digital photography over film.
But many photographers are still guessing about exposure because they’re unable to decipher the histogram’s cryptic messages. Instead they judge exposure by how bright the image looks on their camera’s LCD screen. But while those little screens are extremely useful for many things, evaluating exposure isn’t one of them. There are too many variables: screen quality (usually bad), the LCD brightness setting in the camera, and the amount of ambient light.
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Tags: basics, digital photography, exposure, histograms, landscape photography, Michael Frye, Photography Tips
Posted in Digital Photography Basics, Photography Tips | 10 Comments »
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 3: A Special Problem from Michael Frye on Vimeo.
Here’s the third part of my video series on white balance, where I present solutions to a common problem in landscape photographs—finding the right white balance when mixing low-angle sunlight with blue sky.
If you haven’t seen them already, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.
To see this video clearly, be sure that “HD” is on (the letters “HD” should be white instead of gray; if not, click on them), and click the “expand” icon just to the right of “HD.”
Hope you find this helpful; I look forward to hearing your comments! And if you like the video, please share the link.
Tags: Adobe Camera Raw, digital darkroom, landscape photography, Lightroom, Michael Frye, Photoshop, white balance
Posted in Advanced Techniques, Digital Darkroom, Photography Tips, Video Tutorials | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 2: Shade from Michael Frye on Vimeo.
Here’s the second part of my video series on white balance. Today it’s all about shade—finding the perfect color temperature that brings out all the hues when there’s no sunlight in your photograph.
If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to Part 1. Still to come is Part 3, where I’ll present solutions to a common problem in landscape photographs—finding the right white balance when mixing low-angle sunlight with blue sky.
To see this video clearly, be sure that “HD” is on (the letters “HD” should be white instead of gray; if not, click on them), and click the “expand” icon just to the right of “HD.”
These videos are a great way to explain concepts like white balance, but if you want to put all the bits and pieces together and really master the digital darkroom, there’s still space available in my upcoming Photoshop and Digital Printing workshop, January 16-20.
Hope you find this video helpful, and I look forward to hearing your comments!
Tags: Adobe Camera Raw, digital darkroom, Lightroom, Michael Frye, photography, tuturials, Video, workflow
Posted in Digital Darkroom, Photography Tips, Video Tutorials | Leave a Comment »
Friday, December 17th, 2010
Lunar Eclipse Sequence, 1:23 a.m. to 4:49 a.m., August 28, 2007
Before getting to the topic at hand, I want to thank all of you for your support in launching my new eBook, Light & Land. The first day’s sales were amazing, off the charts, so thanks to all of you who bought a copy. And if you haven’t purchased it yet, there’s still time to get 20 percent off. See my last post for details.
So on to the eclipse… I was honored to have this lunar eclipse photo recently selected for the Natural World Exhibit at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins Colorado. By coincidence, there will be another full lunar eclipse Monday Night—an opportunity to try making your own eclipse photograph.
Now here in California there are lots of dire weather forecasts for the next few days, with predictions of five to ten feet of snow above 7000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, and five to ten inches of rain in the foothills and Yosemite Valley. Minor flooding is possible. So there’s a good chance that we won’t see Monday night’s eclipse at all. But you never know—all it takes is a small break in the clouds. And those of you in other parts of the world may have perfect weather for this event. To see where and when the eclipse will be visible (weather permitting), visit the NASA web site. (more…)
Tags: landscape photography, Michael Frye, Night Photography, Photography Tips
Posted in Advanced Techniques, Photography Tips | Leave a Comment »
Friday, December 10th, 2010
White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 1: Sunlight from Michael Frye on Vimeo.
My recent critique of Mark Wilburn’s dogwood photograph prompted a lively discussion about white balance, so this seemed like a good topic for a more in-depth treatment. I’ve created three videos on white balance for landscape photographs, and here’s part one, which looks at images with sunlight, including sunrises and sunsets. Part two will discuss photographs captured in the shade, and part three will present solutions to a common problem in landscape photographs—finding the right white balance when mixing low-angle sunlight with blue sky.
In all of these videos I discuss what I think is the key to setting color temperature—finding a good balance between warm and cool colors, and preserving the vibrance of all the individual hues.
To see this video clearly, be sure that “HD” is on (the letters “HD” should be white instead of gray; if not, click on them), and click the “expand” icon just to the right of “HD.” Once you’ve expanded you might want to turn Scaling off if you have a big monitor.
As I mentioned yesterday, my new eBook will discuss my entire workflow in depth. I’ll post more details soon.
Posted in Digital Darkroom, Photography Tips, Video Tutorials | 3 Comments »
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Lupine and reflections along the Tuolumne River
On Tuesday Claudia and I headed up to Tioga Pass. We planned to photograph flowers below Mt. Dana, but when we arrived at the pass the wind was gusting—not good for flower photography. After some indecision we drove toward White Wolf, but then Claudia remembered seeing some nice patches of lupine along the Tuolumne River near Lembert Dome two weeks ago, so we decided to stop and see if they were still blooming.
They were—in fact they were in great shape, and the wind was relatively calm. We found a spot with a thick patch of lupine in the foreground and Lembert Dome in the distance, and stayed until sunset taking photos. (more…)
Posted in Photography Tips | 4 Comments »
