Thursday, March 3, 2011

High Five Photo Tips_#!_February 2011

High Five Photo Tips

JMP Top Five Monthly tips for February are:

watefall vertical
Yosemite Waterfall
1.  Shoot more verticals.  Snapshots are usually horizontal but verticals will often help you redirect the eye to what you want the viewer to see.
2. Convert to B&W or sepia if depth, shape and textures play a bigger role in a scene than color. You can make a virtual copy in Lightroom to explore LR variation or use Nik Silver Efex Pro for another great way to convert to B&W. An update, version 2, to be released soon.
3. If unable to get sharp images due to movement, such as wind or water that you cannot control, go with it and use the motion creatively.
aquarium fish
Fish in Motion - Maui Aquarium
4. Try shooting silhouettes in the sunset on Aperture Priority using minus 1 to minus 2 exposure compensation to allow the silhouetted object to go to black while preserving your sunset.
5. Look at your histogram to learn to feel where highlights and shadows fall in your image and what you can accept - then adjust your exposure from there. Generally, you want a curve shifted more to the right (with digital vs film) while avoiding the blinkies except for acceptable specular highlights.
bird silhouette
Photo montage with silhouette of bird with rannunculus