New book

Photo Nuts and Post is the third installation in the Photo Nuts series and it just launched!
Written by professional photographer, Neil Creek, it gives you the tools you need to make processing work for you. Even if you have experience in editing, you can always learn new tricks.
To celebrate, they are offering 33% off if you buy today -Click here to read more!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Using Colors Effectively in Photography

As with all photography you must always think before you shoot an image. Make sure you take  time to ponder what you intend to achieve. Color can be an important part of how a photo will turn out. Decide how you want to include color and how to use it. 

Using one color

Use this technique to achieve a bold photo. When you isolate a color, you create images that are bold and dramatic. Get closer to the subject to make the color the focal point. 

Color is as much a part of visual communication as composition or light – but you need to learn to see and understand it. 

In this photo, I wanted his blue shirt to be bold and stand out as the focal point of the photo.

         
                                                     (my submission for Blue Monday)

Be careful of light

Light can change the how look of a photo. A cloudy day can make colors more enriching, while morning light can give a warmer look. Be aware of light quality when deciding when you want to shoot.

Want to learn more about color? 

In Captivating Color, a gorgeous, 48-page ebook, by award-winning photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich shows you how to see color—and use it to create stunning photographs.

It’s a book that will show to how to use color to ignite your photographic creativity.
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Is Captivating Color for You?

Yes, if you want to:
  • create striking images that evoke strong emotions
  • capture photos that “speak” to the viewer
  • grasp the full potential of any photographic moment
  • master the use of color during the shoot
  • apply post-production techniques to create truly compelling images.
  Not only that – this eBook has 6 practical exercises to go away and DO to help you implement what you learn.

Order  for only 10.00!





Smiling Sally

*This post may contain affiliate links-it does not cost you anymore to purchase through my site.Thanks for helping support this photography community!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Lighting The Shot

It's that time for another fantastic ebook! 


When it comes to shooting stunning portraits, it's all about the lighting. the lighting is the  X factor in making your pictures pop.
For 25 years world-renowned Portrait Photographer Gina Milicia has used lighting techniques to create portraits with true richness and soul.
In her follow up to Portraits: Making the Shot , she shares all her lighting know-how so you can start taking portraits like a pro.

About the Author, Gina Milicia

Gina has been a professional photographer for more than 25 years.
She has photographed some of the world’s most powerful and famous people including royalty and heads of state, billionaires and a-list celebrities and been on location in some of the world’s most exotic places.
Gina is the master of capturing that ‘magical moment’ both in studio and on location.

In this eBook Gina shares her extensive knowledge and experience in an easy-to-follow way to help you fast-track your journey to capturing beautiful portraits.
Lighting_TOC

Is Portrait Lighting eBook for You?

Yes, if you:
  • want to communicate emotion more powerfully through every portrait
  • want to better harness the potential of light in your photos
  • want to learn the techniques pros use to capture stunning portrait photography
  • want to understand the right gear you’ll need to light up your shots

Ready to give your portraits that extra pop?

Order Portraits: Lighting The Shot and you’ll be able to instantly download the book.  It’s fully guaranteed for 2 months and you can either use PayPal or your Credit Card.

Buy the eBook for $19.99 above, or bundle Gina's 3 eBooks for $39.99  here..





Abstract Photography - Has photography come of age?

“Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold.” -W. Eugene Smith"

The invention of the camera liberated painting from its reportage role. Gone was the need to produce a likeness, detail the events of the story, painting was free to express emotions. True what had gone before contained an emotional content but now painting could experiment and through imaginative interpretation allow the emotional content to predominate.

 Freed from this constraint the painter was able to create a new language and explore the motivations of their art. As the 19th century evolved and throughout the 20th century painters from the impressionists through the cubists and expressionists to the minimalists could to use colour, line and form to go straight to the emotional content of their work. The representational aspect of the work become coincidental and was pushed to the point that it became akin to lying on the grass making shapes out of clouds.

Enjoyable as it may be it is secondary to the nature of clouds. The introduction of the digital darkroom has given this freedom to photographers. The range of tools to fix and enhance the camera’s capture when pushed to its extremes produces a range of fascinating effects. When added to the filters built into the better software, images can be produced that any comparison to the original photograph is purely coincidental. As photographers explore these tools and incorporate them into their photographs so their visual language will grow. The revolution of the medium with the development from black and white into color is taking its next step.


Now with the digital darkroom’s ever growing range of tools the only limitation is the photographer’s imagination. With the use of these tools, the skilled photographic artist can take the pop song and create, in visual terms, the lyric beauty of a baroque symphony or the down town jive of a jazz variation without a tree or a high rise in sight. Just the light captured by the camera and fine tuned into something completely different, something new that comes from the photographer. The photographer has been liberated like the painter before them by technology.

 Now photographs can explore the full range of human experience including those they have no words to express. Large statements will be accessible by the photographer not only in physical terms. Although like their painter counterparts, through an additional feature of the technology, the large canvas is becoming the order of the day. That this canvas can express feelings rather than just illustrate them denotes that the photography has become an adult in the arts.