Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
A little more than 10 years ago I had a realization that would one day change my life forever. During an evening stroll in the local woods with my camera in hand, I became aware of just how much I love photography and what it means to me; it was at that moment I knew it would be a part of me for a long time to come.
There weren’t many online resources when I began investing time in learning how to better utilize my camera equipment. Neither was there too much buzz about it on Social Media.
Aerial photography gives us an entirely new perspective and a new view of the world around us. I always find it exciting to see this new perspective, and so does Australian photographer Leah Kennedy. So, she took her gear and flew over vast landscapes of Namibia in a helicopter or a small aircraft. She played with the aerial view in search of abstraction, and this has resulted in some fascinating, painting-like images.
I believe we all now and then are envious of others’ photography — their skills, the conditions they experienced, the epic locations they visit, the accolades they receive and so on. We can either let this emotion make our lives miserable or we can channel it into something positive where we strive to improve our own skills and develop our talent. In other words, we turn envy into inspiration and motivation. May the tremendously gifted photographers featured in this article inspire you just like they inspire me. Each of the photographers has written a few words about themselves.
It was in August 2013 that I by accident stumbled upon the red cabin and its surrounding lake. I assume the location has been photographed before my first attempts at capturing its inherent beauty and charm. Owing to the fact that the lake is a drinking water reservoir for a whole community I am very reluctant to disclose its exact location — also in the hope of protecting it from Instagram trophy hunters.
When you’re shooting landscapes, the biggest challenge is getting images clean and sharp from front to back. You’d think it’s quite simple. Focus on infinity and away you go right? Well, not so much. That often puts things in the foreground out of focus. So, how you can you get everything sharp?
In this video from NatureTTL, Ross Hoddinott walks us through various techniques to get maximum sharpness throughout your scene.
Well, this is new. Created by Germany-based landscape photographer Christian Möhrle, what we have here is Infrascapes. Made from around 20,000 images shot over the course of 4 months of his free time, this may just be the world’s first 8K infrared timelapse.
When you’re taking travel photos, you might want to carry as little gear as possible. It’s great to grab just your camera and one lens so you can walk around the destination without too much baggage. But when limiting yourself to a single lens, which lens should it be? For Julia Trotti, it’s a 35mm f/1.4. In this video, she gives you five reasons why this can be the only travel lens you’ll need.
Landscape photography by moonlight can provide a different way of producing wonderful and mesmerizing photographs in both color and black and white. The mood conveyed in moonlight photography can be quite different than in other lighting circumstances.
Photographing by moonlight has its own set of challenges. But with a few setting and technique adjustments to your normal shooting routine, it can produce outstanding results.
Most of us have our favorite location for taking photos, a place that inspires us more than the others. But have you ever photographed the same place, from the exact same spot, a few days in a row? In this interesting video, Norwegian photographer Oddbjørn Austevik has done just that. And the result shows you that you can get six different photos even if you photograph the exact same composition day after day.
Luminosity masks are one of my favourite things about editing images in Photoshop. They offer so much more power than you can get in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. Creating them, though, can often be a long winded affair. And a given set of actions to create them may not always work so well on any given image.
In this video, Photoshop wizard, Unmesh Dinda shows us a way to create luminosity masks very quickly and easily. It’s a method that also offers a lot more control over the “old way” of doing things, too. Unmesh does walk us through the old way, too, because it’s always good to know multiple methods. But it just goes to show how quickly the other process works.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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