↓
 

Crescent Beach Photo Club

A view through the camera lens

Crescent Beach Photo Club
  • Welcome
    • Meeting times
    • Registration Form
    • Contact Us
    • Club Executive
    • Bylaws and Constitution
    • History
    • Click News Archive
    • Site Map
  • Calendar
    • Event List
    • Photo Walks
    • Crescent Beach Photo Club—dates and program for 2020:
    • CAPA Events-Info
  • Themes
    • My Photo, Your Edit Project Page
    • Current Themes 2020-2021
    • Theme Gallery
  • Competitions
    • CAPA CLUB Competitions
    • Black and White Print Challenge
    • Outside Competitions
    • Competition Results
    • Black and White Invitational High Scores
  • Image Gallery
    • Elizabeth Green
    • Derek Hayes
    • Geoff Hayes
    • Carol How
    • Lynne Kelman
    • Ron Kelman
    • Brian Kilpatrick
    • Hafeez Mian
    • Birt Nord
    • Norman Orr
    • Brian Palmer
    • Robert Ramsay
    • Mike Singleton
  • Flickr Group
  • Tips and Tutorials
    • Workshops-Tours
    • Tips
    • Tutorials
    • Photo Courses
    • Web Links
    • Software
    • Archived Tips
  • Items Of Interest
    • Test PAGE
  • For-Sale
    • Wanted
Home→Categories Archived Tips

Search

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 42 other subscribers

Upcoming Events

There are no upcoming events.

View Calendar
Add
  • Add to Timely Calendar
  • Add to Google
  • Add to Outlook
  • Add to Apple Calendar
  • Add to other calendar
  • Export to XML

Category Archives: Archived Tips

Simple Cheat Sheet for Exposure

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on February 12, 2017 by Brian KilpatrickFebruary 13, 2020

Here is a couple of versions of a “cheat sheet” that show the various items that make up Exposure in photography.  There are several versions of this sheet on the web but I tried to get the largest sized images.

 

 

Posted in Archived Tips

September 2016 – Photo Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on September 12, 2016 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

boundarybay_airshow28_cbpc

Welcome back to our camera club meetings.

I have included below some recent articles in a wide range of photography topics which may be of interest to you.

GENERAL

How To Be Different And Make Your Photography More Unique – When starting on the path of learning photography, it is common for some to already have an idea about what their work is supposed to look like. They admire and look at the work of photographers and want to be able to do similar work themselves. While this is an important part of the learning process, the best photographers all eventually go off in their own direction, and creatively it’s very important to think in this way. You want your work to ultimately be different. Here are some steps to help you figure out how to go against the grain and make your photography more unique. – READ MORE

Aperture: Get Creative – The primary purpose of the aperture setting is to regulate the amount of light that passes through the lens. Along with the shutter speed, it determines the quantity of light that reaches the camera’s sensor (or film) and forms a third of the ‘exposure triangle’. But, of more interest to most photographers is the creative potential of the aperture and shutter speed settings. I wrote about shutter speed a few weeks ago and today I’m going to explore some ways of making the most out of aperture. – READ MORE

Why Semi-Automatic Mode Is The Best For Choice For Wildlife – There is a mindset that a lot of photographers seem to have around anything but manual mode is cheating. Not only does this frustrate me as a statement, but it’s just bad advice, that hinders the photographic progress of others. I would argue that there’s no cheating in photography, and that using your camera in fully manual modes actually makes it harder to achieve the photo you’re looking for – so let’s take a look at why semi-automatic modes are a good choice for wildlife photography. – READ MORE

More Ways To Create Better Images Without Buying More Gear – Jay Maisel has to be one of the most interesting photographers alive today. He is 85 years old and he still makes a point of carrying his camera with him every day, everywhere he goes. I recently watched a few videos where Scott Kelby spent a few days with Jay, just wandering through the streets of New York and later, walking through Paris. – READ MORE

Now To Achieve Background Blur or Bokeh – If I show you two different portraits, one with a blurred background and one with a sharp background, you will automatically prefer the one with the creamy bokeh. Why? Because that’s just how it is. No, the bokeh effect is very flattering because it isolates the main subject by separating it from the background.

If you did not know, bokeh means blur in Japanese, and it is purely aesthetic.

Most portrait photographers blur their backgrounds, and I certainly do it because when I take a picture of someone, I want the viewer to focus on the person’s face and not what’s going on behind them. – READ MORE

5 Ways To Keep Your Photography Talent Sharp – There are so many rewarding aspects in life, and one of them is growing in something you love, something that you’re good at. Not only do we feel a sense of accomplishment, but we feel larger on the inside. Whether you’re a professional photographer or an enthusiastic hobbyist with a knack for photography, improving your talent is a special thrill. On the flipside, there are few things more frustrating than that feeling of being stuck under a glass ceiling where you feel jaded, your work starts to feel dull, your passion begins to wane, and your creative juices dry up. We all plateau from time to time, and it’s important to get out of the rut quickly. So, how do you sharpen your photography talent? Here are five ways to get back on track. – READ MORE

COMPOSITION

7 Musts Of Great Composition In Photography – Speaking of musts, every discussion about photography and composition must begin here. Before you ever hoist your camera or touch your shutter, you should say to yourself, “This is a picture of a ____.” When you fill in the blank, be as specific as possible. The more specific you are, the better the picture you can take. This is one of the truisms of photography. To have a great picture, you must have a clear, unmistakable subject. – READ MORE

5 Ways To De-Clutter Your Composition – You’ve probably heard a number of “rules” of photography composition such as the rule of thirds, leading lines, and adding foreground interest. But there is one other simple guideline that you can apply to all of your compositions that will help raise the quality of your photos to a new level: de-clutter!

Simple compositions with only a few elements tend to have more impact than photos that include too much. – READ MORE

The Importance Of A Focal Point In Photo Composition – A focal point is the part of an image that draws the eye of a viewer to the most important part of the image or the area that you want to highlight. How you do this will make or break the final image. If you don’t know how to create this point then you will not achieve much in your photography. – READ MORE

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

5 Tips To Nail Focus In Your Landscape Photos – Focus is a topic that comes up often in my landscape workshops. How should I focus my camera? What do the different focus areas do and when should I use them? Where in the scene should I focus?

Here are 5 focusing tips to help you nail focus and get tack sharp landscape photos. – READ MORE

Tips For Doing More Spectacular Sunset Photography – The first thing I was told to do when I wanted to learn how to photograph landscapes and cityscapes, was to always shoot during the sunset. I have always asked myself why, but the answer is actually pretty easy. You get amazing colors in the sky, dramatic clouds, and soft light. – READ MORE

NATURE/WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

5 Tips For Better Wildlife Photos – Wildlife photography is a pursuit that can be challenging, frustrating, but ultimately rewarding to any photographer. The arrival of digital cameras has inspired a whole new generation of photographers to take an interest in wildlife photography. – READ MORE

FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

Why Off-Camera Flash Isn’t As Scary As You Think – The word alone has the potential to cause dread, even among experienced photographers, bringing to mind images of overexposed faces and red eyes. Because of this, many photographers avoid flash altogether, keeping a safe distance at all times. I think that’s too bad.

It’s a missed opportunity. Sure, flash may not always be applicable to your situation – but it’s very helpful to have another tool in your bag of tricks if and when it is needed. – READ MORE

Soft Box Lighting Techniques To Sculpt And Shape Your Model – Lighting setups tend to fall into two categories—simple and complicated—especially when it comes to multiple light setups. However, lighting plays a significant role in the overall outcome of your image, despite the complexity of your setup. In this helpful tutorial, professional photographer Wayne Johns shows how you can use softbox lighting controls to sculpt and shape your model: – READ MORE & VIEW VIDEO

Posted in Archived Tips

June 2016 – Photography Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on June 13, 2016 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

license_plates_web

For our June 2016 Photography Tips, I have included below some recent articles on various photography topics.

GENERAL

Why Is Black And White An Excellent Way To Start Photography – Black-and-white photography is the place to start if you’re serious about becoming a better photographer.

Go back to the dark ages before digital. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and the equivalent of Adobe Lightroom was a small piece of card on the end of a wire.

The first thing beginner photographers would learn is to shoot, develop, and print a roll of black-and-white film. We can go back to those roots today to solidify our skills. – READ MORE

How To Find Your Personal Photographic Style – Finding your personal photographic style is something of a holy grail to photographers, yet seldom an overnight occurrence. Nor would you want it to be, as developing a style that is uniquely yours is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of photography. For a lot of photographers, it is an ongoing, ever-evolving process, influenced by many factors. Some photographers find a single style that works for them, which they stick to and hone, while others might develop two or more dominant styles. – READ MORE

Why You May Be Failing To Reach Your Potential As A Photographer – There are a number of reasons why someone might not succeed at reaching their full potential, more than I can cover in this article, so please feel free to add to this list by telling us what obstacles get in your way. If you have solutions to someone else’s problem, feel free to offer up some advice, and help out a fellow photographer. – READ MORE

Seeing The World Through Clothslines – Padding through the tight cobblestone alleyways of Venice, it’s common to see clotheslines connecting one house to its neighbor. Drying machines are rarities in Italy, and women of these historic homes take great pride in the meticulous hanging of their families’ garments. There is a proper way to air-dry everything from linens and undergarments, and much can be learned about one’s neighbors simply by the skill and etiquette displayed during laundry day, when the fragrance of detergent commingles with that of the salty canal.

Having grown accustomed to the (often wasteful) use of machine driers, American tourists to foreign countries are astonished by the colorful arrays of drying clothing. Indeed, there is a genuine artistry to the ways in which faraway residents care for their clothing. In Italy, laundry, called bucato, is particularly meaningful in the older cities, where wisdom is passed down from one generation to the next, usually by women. – READ MORE

How To Create Gorgeous Flower Images Using A Flashlight And A Reflector – In this tutorial, I’m going to share with you some simple and inexpensive ways to create beautiful flower images. You will learn to add light by using a flashlight and a reflector. If you add in some imagination and patience, you will soon be creating gorgeous flower images of your own.

In addition, you will gain insight about seeing light, and how and recreate it on your own. – READ MORE

100 Best Photographs Without Photoshop – Nature and humankind are both great artists, and when they join forces, amazing masterpieces can be produced.Today Bright Side has collected for you works in which the combined efforts of mother nature and photographic artists have captured magic moments showing the wondrous diversity of modern life and the natural world. – CHECK OUT THESE AMAZING PHOTOS HERE

COMPOSITION

5 Tips To Improve Your Background And Make The Subject Stand Out More – If you are looking for a quick, simple, hassle-free way to make your images pop more and stand out, this is the article for you!

You don’t have to be a Photoshop genius – in fact, this may help you spend less time in Photoshop. These simple tips can elevate the photos you take. If there was one element in many images I see that could greatly improve it, it would have to be this: backgrounds. An ugly or distracting background can easily reduce the impact of even the best subjects. A clean, un-distracting background will help improve your images and make your subjects stand out even more. The best past is, you wont even have to spend a cent to do this. – READ MORE

How To Improve The Impact Of Your Urban Images Using Lines – If you are struggling with getting your photos of cities and architecture to pop out, chances are that you are underestimating the power of lines in your images. Lines help you structure your images in ways that lead your viewers to look at different parts of the picture, and create interest in both your main objects and the surroundings. – READ MORE

5 Creative Compositions Tips From Huntington Witherill – Our new video is about mastering the art of visualization, and no one does it quite as uniquely as photographer Huntington Witherill. Witherill’s approach to composition is one he models after some of the greatest photographers of all time. He quotes Edward Weston when he describes visualization as “the strongest way of seeing.” As you’ll see in this video, his imaginative composition is inspired by photographer Minor White, who said “photograph things for what they are, and for what else they are.” This video is sure to get you creative composition juices flowing. – READ MORE

How To Photograph Modes Of Transportation – As a landscape photographer, shooting planes, trains, automobiles and other modes of transportation is not something I do very often! But I find that tackling new subjects and breaking out of my comfort zone is always beneficial and I think you will too. You’re bound to learn something!

For this theme, you are not limited to just planes, trains and automobiles; use your imagination to discover all kinds of vehicles, as long as they are (or at one time were) capable of taking you from point A to point B. This can be on the road or off of it, in the sky or on the water. They can be still or in motion, near or far. As long as it can carry people, it counts! – READ MORE

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Tips For Taking Family Photographs – Family portraits fall into three main categories: traditional family portraits, candid family portraits, and lifestyle family portraits. Most families have had their picture taken, but few have had a chance to have their portrait shot, because of the difference between the two. One is a quick snap, with little attention given to the technical aspects of the image; the other has more consideration given to how the final result should look.

It’s often said that a good portrait captures the personality of the subject(s), and that’s true, but what it also does is record the subject(s) in a way that’s different from other pictures they’ve had taken of themselves. By using a couple of simple techniques – anyone can move from the realm of ‘snapshots’ to discovering how to deliver distinctive family portraits. – READ MORE

5 Travel Street Portraying Photography Tips – Capturing an authentic image of someone on the street is not a very easy thing to do. To really capture their soul—an honest moment of someone looking straight into the camera and revealing themselves—that’s magic. Photographer Kenna Klosterman uses travel street portraiture to really connect with a culture and its people while she’s traveling. Here are her top five tips to connect with strangers and take better street portraits: – READ MORE

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

10 Expert Tips For Taking Photographs – Surrounded by the beauty of nature, many photographers experience a longing to capture those stunning vistas, towering mountains and waterfalls, decorated valleys, and quiet pools, alive with light and color. Unfortunately, after photographing landscapes, many photographers often experience a startling sense of defeat when the images turn out to be shapeless, emotionless and otherwise amateur in post-processing.

In this video, award-winning landscape photographer Antony Spencer shares 10 tips for landscape photographers looking to hone their craft and produce high quality work—including some composition advice to help infuse photographs with shape and feeling: – READ MORE

Using Sun In Your Images – Including the sun in your photos can be a creative way to capture different lighting in your images. But, the sun can also be a bit overpowering. Like any good composition, think about how and when to add the sun for the most effective impact.

Early morning or late afternoon, when fog rolls in, is a great time to add the sun. It will create a moody, silhouetted feeling much like what was captured in the image of the Atchafalaya Basin swamp below. The fog filters the sun reducing its bright hot spot to a manageable exposure. – READ MORE

Posted in Archived Tips

May 2016 – Photography Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on May 28, 2016 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

dolls_web_Header

For this month’s Photography Tips webpage, we have included some of the most recent articles under the following categories:

GENERAL

The Ultimate Guide For Mastering Light In Your Photography – In photography, if you do everything ‘by the book’ and lack some experience, you’d think that selective focus is what makes the eye focus on the subject, and that light is used to make everything look nice and beautiful.

While that is partially true, both light and focus play the exact opposite roles as well. Beginner photographers often don’t realize that light is everything. Light is beauty, light is focus, and light by itself can make or break a photo. – READ MORE

How To Photograph Weather – Welcome to another instalment of “Great Subjects”! Today we’ll discuss how to photograph weather and make the most of snow, rain, fog, clouds, wind and even sun.

Outdoor photography is highly dependent on the weather, which can often be a little bit unpredictable. Depending on where you live you might be enjoying sunshine on the snowy streets, enduring a storm, sloshing through rain puddles, or basking in the heat of the desert.

Every great landscape photographer needs to know how to make the best of any type of weather. After all, photography is less about the subject itself, and more about the light it’s seen in. – READ MORE

Photographic Standard: How To Critique Your Own Photos – It has been that said the most difficult thing for man to do is to judge his or her creative work, objectively. Be honest, can you tell when your work seems to be missing something? More importantly do you know what it is that’s missing? You can only improve your photos if you set a high photo standard to compare yourself against.

When Time-Life selected 250 photos for the Great Photographers volume of their Time-Life Photography series; they chose 68 photographers out of thousands. Those editors defined “great” photographers based on three main factors. – READ MORE

5 Steps To Increase The Sharpness Of Your Photographs – Somewhat of an obvious point, but a very important one nonetheless. If your lenses and/or filters have dust or debris on them, however small and unnoticeable to the naked eye, it can create ugly soft spots on your photograph. There have been countless times I was in such a hurry to go shoot, I didn’t check the glass to see if it needed a good cleaning. This especially holds true if the lens I am using has been sitting on my shelf for a while, collecting dust. Even if the lens has been wrapped up in a pouch with a cap on top, it can still accumulate dust on the outer element. – READ MORE

The Dutch Angle: Tilting The Camera To Dramatic Effect – The Dutch Angle (or Dutch Tilt) is a technique that involves tilting your camera to one side, resulting in a frame that isn’t level. Jacob T. Swinney of Fandor created this 3-minute compilation video showing the technique being used in a large number of movies.

We see slight tilts of 5 degrees all the way up to huge tilts of 90 degrees. The Dutch Tilt “can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc…” – READ MORE

Landscape Photography

Beginner’s Guide To Better Landscape Photography – If you’re new to photography, you most likely get a little confused when it comes to keeping all the jargon, camera settings, and composition rules straight. We’ve all been there. And those of us who are visual learners will appreciate this helpful landscape photography infographic below, which clearly illustrates all the basics. – READ MORE

5 Tips For Beginner Nature Photographers – Candace Dyar (formerly Candace Bartlett) is not a household name in landscape photography circles and if you were to see her images you would question, why not? After visiting Candace’s website, we were so impressed that we decided to invite her to an interview for our InFocus Magazine. Naturally the question we asked was how can someone just getting started in landscape photography capture stunning images like the ones she has. Here is what she had to say:

Since beginning my photographic journey roughly six years ago, I have absorbed a great wealth of information along the way that has helped me to evolve and advance my abilities both in the field and in the realm of post processing. While some tips can seem very basic and mundane, they may also prove to be extremely helpful in the long run. Here are the first five out of ten tips I have compiled for aspiring landscape and nature photographers who are just getting their feet wet and want to eventually take their photography to the next level. – READ MORE

Five More Tips For Beginner Nature Photographers – I have compiled for aspiring landscape and nature photographers who are just getting their feet wet and want to eventually take their photography to the next level. While it was difficult for me to narrow it down to ten tips, I tried my best to provide as much helpful information as possible.

If you are passionate about landscape or nature photography, this is the most important skill that you should nurture and develop. Although it does not apply to all situations, attractive and high-quality landscape photos are frequently defined by the light in which they were taken. This involves looking around for appealing combinations of shadow, light, texture, and color. Keeping the sun in front of you creates silhouette scenes and can also provide a pleasing dramatic or burst type of effect, depending on the conditions and your composition. – READ MORE

5 Tips For Great Sunset Photos – Sunsets and sunrises are inspirational subjects for any photographer. In fact, a good sunset photo is often the reason people become interested in nature photography. You don’t need to have a great camera or professional training; almost anyone with a camera can take great sunset photos.

The great news is that good sunset photos are surprisingly easy to take. In my gallery, I don’t actually display many sunset photographs. You see, they are hard to sell, because almost everybody has a few great sunsets they have photographed themselves. Rather than buy mine, they are more likely to grab their camera and show me the picture they took the night before! – READ MORE

Macro Photography 

Micro-sculpture: Incredibly Detailed Macro Insect Photographs Reveal Their Beautiful And Bizarre Forms – These incredibly detailed images of jewel-like insects reveal the beautiful, surprising, and often downright bizarre sculptural forms of some of the tiniest creatures on Earth. And when they are printed at up to three metres across, these macro photographs allow the viewer to examine each insect’s unique evolutionary adaptations.

The breathtaking images, taken by British photographer Levon Biss, are being shown in an exhibition, titled Microsculpture and held at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford. On show in the museum’s main court, the largest of the photographic prints measures up to three metres across and virtually surrounds the visitor. Placed alongside the tiny insect specimens themselves, this transformation of scale reveals the array of sculptural forms visible at a microscopic level. – READ MORE

Portrait Photography

How To Capture Dramatic Hard Light Portraits With One Flash – For a lot of photographers, hard light isn’t the first choice when it comes to making portrait photos. There’s a lot of negativity around hard light, making photographers think long and hard before planning a shoot with this light.However, hard light isn’t always a bad thing. When you use it in a clever way, hard light can produce some really dramatic results. Pye Jirsa demonstrates:

“Hard light can be a little bit cumbersome to work with. You have very hard highlights, very deep shadows, not a lot of transition. So, you really have to work with the posing. But the cool thing about hard lighting is that it can really chisel out your subjects in scenes that are very complex.” – READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Archived Tips

April 2016 – Photo Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on April 15, 2016 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

Yellow_gate_sign_webFor this month, I have included some recent photography articles and videos on a wide range of topics.

Take some time to review the articles and videos to widen your knowledge in photography.  Only through continual experimenting will you increase your photographic abilities.

GENERAL

The 5 Elements That Can Help You Make A Great Photo – Often a great photo relies on a combination of factors coming together to produce the final result. On a few rare occasions, all of these elements present themselves in perfect harmony by chance. However, the majority of the time as a photographer, you have to research, plan, and put a lot of effort into capturing a photograph that has these elements in it. – READ MORE

COMPOSITION

10 Ideas To Instantly Improve Your Photography Composition – My photography training took place back in the early 90s, at an intense technical photo school in California. I love tech in all forms, and I love reading my camera manual. I love the precision and procedure of processing my own colour film, and I love learning the ever-advancing skills on photo software – I am a total tech nerd. But technical knowledge will only get you so far; it’s really the second part of the story in photography. Photography composition is the first part. – READ MORE

How To Improve Your Photos Using Micro-Composition – One of the most fundamental elements of photography is that of composition, or how your subject, foreground, background, light, and other elements work together to produce a complete picture. While understanding how this works is fundamental to mastering the art of photography, the underlying principles behind composition go much deeper than just getting all the big things right so they look good in the frame. Masters of the medium are able to balance many different techniques of composition at the same time ,and put them together to launch their work into the upper echelon, and one rung on that ladder is a concept known as micro-composition. – READ MORE

Photography Rules Are Made To Be Broken – As a beginner, wouldn’t it be nice if the whole thing could be explained with a simple set of rules that were easy to understand? Surely someone could just tell you what aperture to use in a given situation, or how to structure a composition to get the best results every time.

Photography is a lot like learning to drive. With a car, you need to know the road rules, and you need to know the basic skills of steering, accelerating, and braking. These can be learned easily with a bit of practice. But even when you have mastered the essentials, you still need to get to know your car, because each car is a little different. Then you need experience with night driving, wet-weather driving, off-road driving… – READ MORE

 

ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Beginner Tips For Shooting Action Photography -Digital camera owners who are not that experienced in taking photos often find it hard to capture the action scenes they so desire. With their subjects being mobile, they may not be aware of what to do with their camera to take the best action shots.

Indeed, it can be quite a challenge to engage in sports and action photography. Movements are fast and unpredictable, so you need to be quick in clicking your shutter. Whatever type of digital camera you have, you really need to take the extra effort to take clear pictures of people and animals in motion. It’s also best to learn the right techniques so you won’t get frustrated with your photos. – READ MORE

BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

Black & White Photography Techniques – Black and white photography is a rewarding and challenging field of artistic photography. Even people who don’t care about photography can find themselves drawn to a great black and white image. As a photographer, black and white can allow you to discover a whole new character in a familiar subject. For many digital photographers, black and white photography is nothing more than colour photography converted by software. It is a matter for your own judgement whether this is effective for your photographs. – READ MORE

 

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Portrait Cropping Guide – Framing your subject up for a portrait can sometimes be difficult. Should you get closer? Further? Cropping in close is particularly challenging because you don’t want to change it in such a way that it looks like your subject is missing limbs. A poorly cropped photo can make all the difference when it comes to portraits. To help you out, here’s a little cropping guide shown from Digital Camera World that shows where to crop and where not to crop. Green lines mean it’s a good place for the edge of the frame, red means it’s a bad place: – READ MORE

5 Secrets For Finding Great Indoor Portrait Locations – Not all photographers choose to have a dedicated indoor studio, but sometimes you need to shoot a session indoors. Maybe it’s freezing outside, and you don’t want to be out in that weather. Maybe you have a bride who wants bridals, but is worried about her dress getting dirty. Maybe you just want something fresh and a little quirky. Maybe the building has special meaning to you or the person you are photographing. – READ MORE

6 Portrait Lighting Patters Every Photographer Should Know – In classical portraiture there are several things you need to control and think about to make a flattering portrait of your subjects, including: lighting ratio, lighting pattern, facial view, and angle of view. I suggest you get to know these basics inside out, and as with most things, then you can break the rules. But if you can nail this one thing you’ll be well on your way to great people photos. In this article we’re going to look at lighting pattern: what is it, why it’s important, and how to use it. Perhaps in another future article, if you enjoy this one, I’ll talk about the other aspects of good portraiture. – READ MORE

 

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

5 Reasons To Use Flash To Improve Your Travel Photography – When it comes to travel photography, I am all in for carrying less. However, a good flash is always within reach in my everyday camera bag. I strongly believe that a flash helps to achieve much better results in a number of situations, and here are five reasons and examples – READ MORE

Posted in Archived Tips

December 2015 – Photo Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on December 14, 2015 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

Xmas_header_2For this month’s Photo Tips webpage, we have included the latest articles on a wide range of topics which our club members have expressed an interest in.

Specific articles and videos are under specific topics below:

CHRISTMAS PHOTO IDEAS

Tips For Taking Photos Indoors This Holiday Season – Find as much light as you can – you’d be surprised how much of a difference opening up the curtains, the blinds or a door (if the weather allows) can make on the amount of light available in the space where you’ll be taking photos. When possible shoot photos as close to one of these natural light sources as possible. – READ MORE

GENERAL

A Helpful Checklist To Use Before Photographing Anything – If you are reading this you probably find photography exciting, maybe even so exciting that from time to time you forget changing your camera settings according to the subject you’re shooting. You have probably already missed at least one amazing shot, just because you forgot to change the ISO or shutter speed. – READ MORE

Your Guide to Creating Unique Conceptual Photography – What is conceptual photography? Have you heard about it, but not been able to work out what it is? Who are the artists doing it? How can you do it? If you have asked yourself any of these questions, then read on and see if they can be answered for you.

Conceptual photography is a type of fine art photography. Like the latter, everyone you ask will give you a different definition. It is an art form that has been around for as long as people have been making art. It seems to be something that people have only started talking about in the last 10 years or so. – READ MORE

6 Tips for Using ISO Effectively With Your Camera – ISO has long been called the third corner of the exposure triangle, but was it really? In the film days you couldn’t even change your ISO, except by changing your film. In the early days of digital, you could change your ISO after each shot, which was a definite improvement. But, if you dared to increase the ISO, your picture would probably end up with a lot of digital noise in it. The reality is that most of us were confined to a very narrow range of ISO values when making our exposures.

Times have changed though. Newer cameras offer a lot more flexibility when it comes to ISO. First of all, they are capable of taking pictures at higher ISOs. Cameras now will routinely shoot at ISO 25,600 (and higher), which was almost unheard of just five or six years ago. Secondly, when newer cameras do shoot at higher ISOs, they produce less digital noise. – READ MORE

COMPOSITION

Leading Lines: From Roads & Borders To Infinity – You may have seen these two photographs being shared around the Internet. They strike at something very profound in us, although we might not know exactly what it is. The Tuscan highway glows with lively warmth at a cool, meandering pace, while the Swedish/Norwegian border is cold and biting, but exhilarating. The images are completely different in tone and texture, yet we can all feel that they are the same—parallels of each other from flip sides of the European continent. They are both endless, stretching as far as the eye can see in either direction. They are the Yin and Yang, identical and opposite, adding up to the infinite. – READ MORE

Diagonal Leading Lines In Photography Composition – Of all the lines used in photography, diagonals are the most dynamic. You can use them to create a strong impression of movement or you can use them to create a tremendous sense of depth. All images are created with lines—some vertical, horizontal and others converging—but knowing how to place them affects the mood and composition of the final image. – READ MORE

How To Think Like A Pro – Improving your composition is one of the biggest challenges in photography, and sadly there isn’t a convenient button on your camera you can press to fix poor framing (although you can often turn on grids to help you adhere to the rule of thirds, etc). Composition and framing decisions take place before you press the shutter button, and although there is a certain amount you can fix in software through cropping, it’s best to get it as right in camera as you can. – READ MORE

FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

Outdoor Flash Photography Tips With Children & Pets – As we all know, photographing children can be very challenging. It is tough enough just to keep them in sharp focus. Who in their right mind would complicate the task even further by adding pets and flash lighting to the mix? You should! Adding the right amount of flash at the correct angle can turn an ordinary snapshot into a work of art. – READ MORE

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

Chip Phillips: 5 Tips For Photographing In Winter – I’ve done a lot of winter photography in the Canadian Rockies, the Tetons, and various mountains in my home state of Washington and it’s one of my favorite times to shoot. Ice and snow can convey so much drama and color, and create really beautiful and unusual opportunities for composition. It does, however, come with its own set of challenges. Here are some tips that I’ve found helpful along the way. – READ MORE AND VIEW HIS IMAGES

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Night Or Low Light Photography Tips -Twilight is a magical time. Just because the sun is down doesn’t mean you should put away your camera. When the sun sets, a different looking world exists for photographers. Colors don’t appear the way they do in daylight. Instead, colors display based on your camera’s white balance setting and how that setting matches the various light sources in your scene. – READ MORE

WILDLIFE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

How To Photograph Nature And Wildlife – Nature has the endless mine of wonders and beauty which we all want to capture. We often get amazed by the stunning nature or wildlife photographs in the popular travel or science magazines. So what is the secret of taking stunning nature photographs?

Well, as true for every form of art, photography is something which you need to master. Knowledge, practice, creativity and a good camera is what you need most of the time. Please be aware that this article is not meant for pros. This is targeted to help someone who has just got started or thinking of getting started. – READ MORE

Posted in Archived Tips

This Week’s Photography Tips

Crescent Beach Photo Club Posted on February 17, 2015 by Sheldon BolesFebruary 13, 2020

camera_web

 

For this week, I have included some of the most recent articles and videos on a wide range of photography topics.

These tips are grouped together under the following categories:

GENERAL

12 Photography Cheat Sheets That Will Change Your Life – We love photography cheat sheets; they offer an easy-to-understand visual explanation to aspects of photography that trouble many of us. Here we’ve listed 12 of our favourite photography cheat sheets – we’re pretty sure that they’ll change your life! [NOTE: click the links or the pictures to go to the full version] – READ MORE

6 Eye-Catching Photos And How They Can Help You Improve Your Photos – Each photographer has their own way of approaching a scene, choosing which settings on their camera will best reflect their vision, and then crafting the final image. You get to make this series of decisions each time you take a photo, and it’s a highly personal experience.

But you can still learn a lot by going behind the scenes of a photo, and hearing how the photographer made their own decisions. Whether you pick up a new tip for creating an interesting effect, a new way of looking at a scene, or simply the inspiration to go and shoot, it’s both informative, and a lot of fun too. – READ MORE

COMPOSITION

7 Tips To Great Photography Composition – Famous photojournalist Robert Capa was once quoted as saying “if your photos aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

Capa was partly right; framing can make or break, a photograph. In this video, in less than three minutes, nature and landscape photographer John Greengo walks you through his tried and true framing rules that can elevate your work from cluttered and confusing to clean and beautiful: – READ MORE AND VIEW VIDEO

Shoot For The Light – Improve Your Composition – Here is one of my most valuable tips. The one I will offer to someone who comes to me, complaining that after 20 years of taking photos they can’t get out of their usual compositions, and want to get into a new level of creativity.

It may sound like something you have heard before. Yes, photography is all about light, and if there is a good light then there is a good photo. – READ MORE

Visualizing Your Masterpiece – This is probably the hardest part of my process to describe. Hiking in the highlands, I am privileged to have access to some amazing landscapes,; as I walk through them I am overwhelmed by options. This makes it hard to identify when I see a truly special scene, since it can be drowned out by choice. However, I can increase my awareness by asking myself a question every time I raise the viewfinder to my eye: “Why do I feed the need to photograph this scene?” It kicks starts a little bit of dialogue in my head. Once I’ve answered that question it naturally leads to others: – READ MORE

COURSE

Karen Kroeker has forwarded us the details on a forthcoming Miksang Institute workshop called “Opening The Good Eye:An Introduction to Contemplative Photography” check out the details on this workshop here.

LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY

7 Long Exposure Photography Tips – One of my favourite photographic techniques has to be the art of long exposure photography, it is the most relaxing creative process as it forces the photographer to sit, pause and consume the landscape. Following the release of The Long Exposure eBook I am regularly asked for tips on how to get the most from the process of capturing long exposure images. Away from the science and equipment here are seven simple tips that will help improve and your long exposure photography excursions. – READ MORE

37 Ethereal Almost Supernatural Long Exposure Photographs – Landscape photographers use a technique involving long exposures to create those milky smooth waterfalls, and misty images of coastlines. But what other ways are long exposures used?

Here are a few long exposure photographs that seem almost otherworldly or supernatural in their appearance for you to ponder and enjoy: – READ MORE

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

How To Photograph Anything: Best Camera Settings For Macro Photography – With the camera on a tripod and a static subject, you’ll have plenty of time to adjust your settings when shooting many close-up or macro subjects.

Using Manual exposure mode will give you complete control, but as the subject and camera are static, the aperture is more important than the shutter speed. Start by setting this to f/11. – READ MORE

Macro Photography Tips – Many of the images below have been taken with a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens, the settings can be reproduced with any real macro lens. You’ll aslo notice they were photographed with an entry level camera, demonstrating that anyone with a DSLR can shoot awesome macro photographs. – READ MORE

5 Tips For Getting Fresh Ideas For Macro Photography – Are you seeking some inspiration for getting creative with some new macro photographs? Perhaps you’ve grown tired of taking close-ups of typical macro subjects like flowers and insects. Help is on the way.

There is a whole world of macro photography available to you that doesn’t involve the typical subject matter so often associated with close-up photography. There are some amazing images of insects and flowers to enjoy on the web, but what about going in a different direction? – READ MORE

HDR PHOTOGRAPHY

Natural Looking HDR in Photoshop and Lightroom in 5 Easy Steps – HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography was developed out of necessity to overcome limitations of photography equipment, mostly in digital cameras’ sensors. From the beginning, the technology was intended to make photographs as close as possible to human experience by bridging the gap between what the human eye perceives, and what the digital camera can actually capture. – READ MORE 

Posted in Archived Tips

Latest Posts

  • January Theme: Black and White
    February 21, 2021
    Overall – Ron Kelman – Red Tailed Hawk […]
  • December Theme: Backlight
    January 21, 2021
    The merit awards are; Leo LeCouteur – Last Two […]
  • November Theme :Reflections
    January 19, 2021
    1-Llaesa North – Colour Wash2-Joy Hayes-Light […]
  • My Photo, Your Edit
    November 30, 2020
    Here are the latest files for My Photo, Your Edit Do […]
  • Show and Sale at the Gallery in Central Plaza – “Karen Kroeker – Fibre Art”
    November 29, 2020
    Runs for December “Karen Kroeker, a member of our CBPC […]

Club members can join our Facebook group

Members of the club can join our Facebook group if you are a Facebook user.

Go to this link on Facebook and request to join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CrescentBeachPhoto/

The Facebook group allows more complex posts if you have problems with an image, technique or other general questions.

Like the Flickr groups the membership is restricted but the photos and posts are visible to the public.

 

Info: Copy

Crescent Beach Photography Club meets in Crescent Beach, Surrey, British Columbia

Due to Covid concerns we will not be holding physical meetings at this time.


Follow the website for information about Photo Walks, Themes and Zoom Meetings.
 
Copyright © 2007 Crescent Beach Photography Club, British Columbia, Canada. All rights reserved. If you experience any problems with this site, please contact our webmaster. All images are copyright and cannot be used without the express written permission of the Crescent Beach Photography Club.
©2021 - Crescent Beach Photo Club - Weaver Xtreme Theme
↑