The Digital Photo Guy

HDR Tools, Tips and Techniques in Three Hours

Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine, National Geographic contributer and author of over 30 photography books will present a 3-hour webinar covering the ins-and-outs of producing realistic nature HDR (high dynamic range) photographs.

Rob is a laid back, easy-going guy who has a knack for getting his point across in clear, simple English. His years of experience as an award winning photographer combined with his skill as an editor make it possible for him to cut through the clutter and reduce complex topics to easy-to-understand explanations. To learn more about this webinar and register, follow this link.

Black Rapid, Topaz Labs, MediaChance and Everimaging have donated door prizes for this webinar. In all, we have 18 gifts donated by four companies. Follow the link as we reveal all the cool door prizes you can win in Rob’s HDR webinar and Gloria Hopkins’ webinar on Composition.
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If It’s Not Composed, It’s Just a Snapshot

In the 2 weeks since I posted the announcement about Gloria Hopkins’ composition webinar, dozens of readers have clicked the link to Gloria’s site and read her article about turning a so-so photo into impactful art. This tells me many of you recognize the value of composition.

In the composite to the left, can you explain which is better and why? If you’re serious about photography, you need a grasp of what makes a photo compelling, impactful and/or aesthetically pleasing. The keys to excellence in photography are control, technique and composition. Here’s an article by Gloria that demonstrates her ability to organize, simplify and reduce complex concepts down to easy-to-grasp, mental maps that you can readily follow.

How many times have you wished you could ask an author what he or she meant by a certain phrase or passage? Hear Gloria explain compositional maps in her webinar. Webinars are like regular classrooms including questions, comments and answers on-the-fly. Don’t understand something? Just ask and Gloria will answer your specific question. It’s as if you’re in the room with Gloria.
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Another Reason to Avoid Auto Mode

Over New Years, my wife and I went to Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR to photograph burrowing owls and experience Slab City, an odd encampment of brand new, multi-hundred-thousand-dollar RVs parked next to decrepit trailers that will never move again. Slab City is also home to Leonard Knight and Salvation Mountain, a monument to one man’s single-minded pursuit to bring God’s love to humanity. Before you write it off as the efforts of a kook, click the link and check it out. Photos can’t do justice to Salvation Mountain, it really needs to be experienced.

As I said, photos just can’t do justice to the scale and scope of Salvation Mountain. I’ve photographed it in the soft light of early morning and late afternoon. I’ve been there in the middle of blazing southern California midday sun. I’ve crouched low, shooting up with an ultra-wide angle, I’ve stood on top of my RV with a 300mm telephoto to stack the foreground and background.

While I was trying to make “the definitive photo” of Salvation Mountain, my wife made the above photo with her Canon G11, an outstanding compact digital. At first glance, I really liked it and asked for the original to make some minor edits. Once I got it into Photoshop Elements, I was perplexed by the odd color cast. Notice how colors in the foreground have a cool color cast (blue-ish) while colors further up the mountain have a warm cast (orange-ish). Because this photo was made late in the afternoon, the entire mountain should have been bathed in a warm, orange-ish glow. Upon reflection, I realized she had the camera set to Auto Mode which caused the camera to automatically fire the flash due to low light. This also set  White Balance to Auto which, in turn, caused the foreground objects within the 10 to 15 foot range of the flash to be daylight balanced while the rest of the mountain is warm.
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Perfect Prints with Just One Test Print

How many test prints do you normally print before you either get the perfect print or just give up and settle for “good enough?” If you said none or one, you’re either blowing smoke or you’ve invested time, money and effort in a carefully calibrated and profiled system. Printing seems to be a perennial question among Photoshop Elements (PSE) users. Most of the time, the problem seems to be prints that are too light or too dark or have mismatched colors. Today’s Video Monday Morning Tip (VMMT) shows you a way to nail the print with just one test print. I learned about this technique from Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine. Unfortunately, his method no longer works with newer versions of PSE so I’ve reworked it. This method should work for any version after PSE v7.0.
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Score! Gloria Hopkins Webinar Class!

Gloria Hopkins, award winning artist, photographer and author will present a 3-hour webinar class covering her amazingly easy-to-understand concepts of composition and design. In just three short hours, your photos will improve dramatically and noticeably.

Composition is a complex topic because it means different things to different people under different circumstances. In an effort to simplify composition, many photography instructors leave out too much and make it even more mystifying. For example, many religiously follow the Rule of Thirds (RoT) and always try to place the center of interest in an RoT intersection. That can be as bad as never applying RoT. How many contort your brains to identify the Golden Mean? How many are so geeky as to actually understand how a Fibonacci spiral applies to your photographs? Gloria can reduce all that to basic concepts that anyone can understand and apply.

All my students know I hammer cropping as the single most useful technique in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Read this article by Gloria to see how she brings structure and clarity to HOW cropping can make a good photo even better. In the webinar, Gloria will use actual photographs and a technique she developed called “compositional maps” to guide you through the process of evaluating and enhancing photos. Not only will you learn how to compose photos, you’ll also learn how to evaluate photos so you can more quickly sort winners from losers. No more agonizing whether a photo is compositionally salvageable or a lost cause.

Now, obviously, this information is Gloria’s intellectual property (IP) meaning this is how she makes her living so she can’t just give it away anymore than I can give away photography classes. But, I’ve made it so everyone can afford to attend this webinar. Buy Gloria’s 146-page e-book Natural Design and I’ll deduct the entire amount from the cost of the webinar. All you have to do is send me a copy of the PayPal receipt and I’ll deduct $19.99 from the webinar fee. You have my word that this is the easiest, quickest way to improve your compositions.

What if you don’t want the e-book? I think that’s a mistake but some people just don’t learn as well through reading so here’s a different offer. Register for any one of my “hands-on” workshops over $100 and I’ll deduct the entire webinar fee ($49) from the workshop price (new registrations only.)

Still not satisfied? If you’re a former student, you’re always eligible for 10% or 20% discount depending on how many paid classes you’ve taken with me. A few of my students have reached an exalted “Frequent Learner” status where they qualify for 50% discounts on all webinars and workshops.

The registration page is HERE but please also check out Gloria’s website and order her book. During the webinar, you can ask her about things you don’t understand. There’s nothing like having the author explain her thought process when she wrote the book. If you have questions, post them in the Comments section because I’m sure there are others with the same questions.

Black Rapid, Topaz Labs, MediaChance and Everimaging have donated door prizes for this webinar. In all, we have 18 gifts donated by four companies. Follow this link to read about all the cool gifts we’re giving away during these webinars.