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Bright skin, dark clothes, how to keep details on both

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This week, I have a pretty well-known tip for the manual HDR types out there.

Back in the days, landscape photographers used the shadow and highlight sliders in Photoshop to get the more details out of their files. This was kind of like making an HDR image before “HDR” existed.

In time, some started layering files with different “exposures” to bring the maximum detail out of a file.

While this is pretty common knowledge for a lot of adept Photoshop users, it’s not a particularly common technique for portrait photos.

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What it would look like if plumbers worked “for exposure”

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Clients can sometimes be… tricky. Okay, “tricky” is an understatement in some situations. They can be absolutely horrific. I’m sure you’ve been offered an “amazing opportunity” to work for exposure at least once in your career. Or maybe you’ve even had an offer you just couldn’t refuse, like working for socks or spray tan. I wonder if people would apply the same logic to other professions. Guys from Foil Arms and Hog wondered the same thing, so they have created a really funny video that shows what it would like if you ask a plumber to work for free.

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Participation is the key to starting a successful creative freelancer career

A few weeks ago, Chase Jarvis explained about “the other 50%“. Creating and sharing stuff is only half of what you need to do. The other 50% is the other stuff you do. The hard work that goes into making yourself known, that people rarely speak about. He told us what it is we need to do, but he didn’t go much into how we should go about doing it.

Naturally, it created a lot of questions. So, in this video, Chase answers those questions plainly and simply. Some of the answers may seem obvious if you’ve been doing this for a little while. For those that are completely new to setting up in photography as a business, though, it’s very valuable information.

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How to use your exposure settings for creative effect

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Whether you’re shooting photography or video, film or digital, exposure generally boils down to three elements in your camera. ISO, aperture and shutter speed. All three of these things will affect your exposure, how bright the image is. But each will also change how the final image appears on the camera. Aperture changes your depth of field. Shutter speed changes motion blur. ISO determines the amount of noise you get.

There are differences in how you might approach certain problems when it comes to shooting video vs stills, though. We may be limited by technical issues, such as flash sync speed for photography. Or the 180° shutter rule for video. So, in this video, filmmaker Caleb Pike talks us through what each does, and how we can use them to our advantage to get the results we want.

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3 facts about histogram you may not have known

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If you’re not sure whether you’ve achieved good exposure, using a histogram is the best way to check it. But there are some misconceptions about histogram you’ll hear from many photographers, even the most experienced ones. On the other hand, there are some facts few people knows or shares. In this video, Matt Granger refers to the three most common facts and misconceptions about histogram. Did you know them?

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Creating and sharing is just half of the work – Here’s the 50% that nobody talks about

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Using social media to promote our work and try to pick up clients is just the way things are today. Too many, though, aren’t seeing the return they’d been hoping for. They’re not seeing the interaction and community of their peers, and they don’t know why. They believe that simply creating it and posting it is all you need to do. Build it and they will come, right?

Well, not exactly. Photographer Chase Jarvis received this question recently. “How do I network? I put my stuff out there on social media, but no one is engaging. How do I build people into my community?” Questions on this theme are something he receives regularly. So, he finally weighed in with his thoughts on the matter. The short version? Do the work. You’ll only get out of it what you put in.

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5 Myths of Digital Photography

Myths and misconceptions persist because they’re either compelling or no one bothers to correct them. For photographers, many myths of digital photography arose when trying to draw imperfect analogies to film photography.

Given the complex physics behind digital imaging, it’s not totally surprising that some myths persist, but here are a few you might want to be aware of.

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A step-by-step guide to using the Waveform Monitor

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The waveform is video’s answer to the histogram. Like a histogram it shows the brightness levels throughout your image. Also like the histogram, it can be confusing to those new to video or colour correction. While the information displayed is essentially the same, how it displays it is very differently.

This video from Aputure walks you step by step through what exactly the waveform is and how to interpret it. Once you learn how it works, it lets you quickly and easily see under or overexposure as well as colour or white balance issues. And when you are used to it, you won’t want to shoot or edit without it.

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Learn how to read your histogram and nail exposure in just 2 minutes

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Histograms are handy things. They either confirm that you’ve nailed your exposure or let you instantly see if you need to adjust. But, they can be difficult for newer photographers to understand.

In this Two Minute Tips video, photographer David Bergman shows you everything you need to know about reading your histogram.

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What is the Sunny 16 Rule and does it still matter?

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Do people who take photos today still use the Sunny 16 Rule? Do they even know about the Sunny 16 Rule? I think it might be regarded as a little old-fashioned now. After all, it is firmly rooted in the days of film. If it isn’t being taught (and I’ve taken a quick flick through a selection of recently published photography basics books and can’t find a reference to it) that’s a shame, because I think it’s rather useful.

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