For anyone running Windows who feels lost about what to do with images that are too dark or crooked or need a bit of cropping, Google Picasa is a great free tool to get started with. Even thought I use Adobe products for many things, I still use Picasa on a regular basis. Some of [...]
Distracting backgrounds are Distracting. Busy backgrounds are Busy. If you ware trying to create a nice portrait or still-life image, then you want to makes sure that the background is not distracting from the main subject of the image. Sometimes this means changing lighting or adding a background, but many times it can mean just [...]
I am simply going to post 3 images. Two of them will have the subject near rule-of-thirds placement, and one will be dead-center. You decide: center or “rule of thirds”??? Jason
One look that I’ve been wanting to produce for a while was a reflection of an object, with a relevant background. Normally reflections are created in studio settings with white reflective tile boards, but I wanted do to this differently. I picked up a reflective black floor tile at the local hardware store. (probably Lowes) [...]
Have you ever been out taking pictures, and then many days later look at it and discover a fatal flaw? By that time, it’s usually too late to re-take the picture. I have been looking back through my many thousands of images (tens of thousands…) and looking for eye-pleasing nature pictures for a slide-show. I’ll [...]
Repeating patterns are nice, but they can be plain and boring. What people really like to see is a repeating pattern with one element that is different or askew. The part that is different will draw your eye to it. I was looking for interesting pictures in a friend’s flower garden, and this fern caught [...]
What is the “rule of thirds” and does it really make a difference in the way a picture looks? Let’s compare 2 pictures to find out. First one, point at a flower, put it in the middle: Straightforward, simple, pretty plain. Now, let’s try a flower where rule of thirds is applied and compare: This [...]
Sometimes you find a great looking flower or scene, but one thing is just in your way or out of place. MOVE IT! it’s ok to move an element in a scene, especially if you can do it non-destructively. I found this scene in a friend’s garden, and thought, lovely flowers but that small one [...]
Lighting is key. Always. Especially in macros and close-up pictures. This simple tip applies to ALL camera types, but mostly to close-up pictures less than 12 inches wide. When you get in close and take pictures of flowers that don’t face “up” towards the sky, their face will usually be shrouded in shadow. This can [...]
When you look at some scenes, you don’t always immediately see anything worth photographing. However, frequently, when you analyze a situation and look closely, you might find a clue! In this post, I’m going to give an example of taking an ordinary situation with “good directional lighting” towards evening and finding a picture or two [...]