Digital Photography Guide

Click on the picture to find out more about the photographer and how the picture was taken.

We kick things off on the DPNow.com Picture of the Day this week with a remarkably vibrant study of some pink geraniums showing evidence of recent rain.

If you would like the prospect of being chosen to featured on the DPNow POTD, register on our discussion forum, netting free gallery space, and the rest is up to you! And you can help us decide who gets featured in future by nominating your favourites from the DPNow gallery.

AKVIS Sketch has been updated to version 13.0. The program converts digital photos into amazing pencil sketches and watercolor, charcoal, and pastel drawings.

1. Editing On-the-Go

The iPad is never going to replace a desktop computer for photo editing. However, it does come in handy when you are looking to quickly edit a few pictures. I recently traveled home for the holidays. My parents wanted a picture for their Christmas card. I was able to quickly take a picture on my Canon 5d MarkII. Then I connected my camera directly into the iPad using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. The kit allowed me to download any of the pictures from my camera to my iPad. Apple makes this whole process very easy and seamless.

Once the pictures are on your iPad, there are lots of great apps you can use to edit your photos. I encourage you to download a number of apps and figure out which ones work best for you and your style.

Here are a few of my favorite iPad apps for photo editing:

• PS Express – Allows you to do basic editing like crop, contrast, sharpen, and add borders.
• Filterstorm – This is probably my favorite photo editing app. It allows for more advanced editing like adding text, canvas size, editing the curves, redeye, and it even allows for layers.
• PhotoFX – If you are looking to just add a quick effect (glamour, faded, film, etc.) to your picture, this is the app for you.

2. Client Viewing

The iPad has great screen resolution and a wide viewing angle (meaning you can have multiple people looking at it from different angles and they can all see the same thing). This makes the iPad perfect for client viewings!

Here are a few ways to display your images on the iPad for your clients:

• Built-In Photo Slideshow – Create an album with your client’s pictures on the iPad. Then, click the slideshow button – yes, it is that simple!
• Smugmug – Smugmug is an online image hosting service for photographers that allows photographers to sell their images. Since I use this service and my photos are already uploaded to Sumgmug this is my preferred way to display images. Smugmug also has a slideshow feature.

3. Accepting Payments

Say goodbye to the, “I don’t have any cash” excuse! The iPad allows you to take payments using tools like Square. It is free to get an account and a credit card reader from Square. They do charge a small fee to use the service, but in my mind, the convenience is with the price!

4. Handy Tools

Since the iPad connects to the internet, there are a lot of tools and apps you can use that relate to your business.

Here are a few tools that I use:

• White noise app – I love using the WhiteNoise Light app during my newborn sessions.
• Music – I use Pandora for all non-newborn sessions.
• Weather – You can check the weather and sunrise/sunset easily using The Weather Channel for iPad app.
• Appointments – Use the integrated calendar to say on top of all your bookings.
• Learning – You can subscribe to photography magazines, purchase photography books digitally, or just follow your favorite blogs.

5. Marketing

Where would your business be if you didn’t market it?!

The iPad has lots of tools to help photographers with marketing. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Twitter – The Twitter iPad app takes Twitter to the next level!
• Facebook – The Facebook iPad app allows you to quickly and easily add pictures and messages to your Facebook Fan page.
• Flickr – The Flickr iPad app lets you easily upload pictures to your Flickr account.
• WordPress – Update your blog in real time using the WordPress iPad app.

The iPad is so versatile I’m sure that there are more uses for the iPad in photography that I didn’t cover. Leave a comment below with your favorite use!

This blog post is brought to you by KristeenMarie Photography. Be sure to check her out on Facebook. Kristeen is an Indianapolis, IN Photographer who loves ice tea, the color purple, technology, and small children. She loves many things in life – though there are not many that she loves more than photography. She loves life and wants to capture every bit of it using her camera.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

5 Ways for Photographers to use an iPad to Jumpstart their Business

We’ve all heard it from clients before. “I don’t like formally posed pictures of myself. I always look so stiff. Can we get pictures without being formally set up?”

Fortunately for our clients – and for us – the world of formal portrait and people photography is now coming to a new era: Portrait Photojournalism.

Stiff, unrealistic, unnatural portraiture is no longer a Photographer’s only option.

A technique used by internationally acclaimed wedding photographers of Poser Image, Jim Garnier and Jerry Ghionis, Portrait Photojournalism combines the techniques of formal portraiture and photojournalism.

The Photographer will “set up the shot” by formally posing the subject[s], to include location, poses, etc. Then, in a seeming irrational move, the Photographer will either coach the subject through expressions by pulling out emotions through dialogue, or leave them to interact with one another.

Sound too simple? Don’t take my word for it. Organize your shoot with the following steps and you’ll find a technique that will revolutionize the way you take portraits – and your results.

1. Location. Location. Location.

Just as you would in a formal shoot, find a few locations that will facilitate the look and feel you want to achieve. This location should match the subjects personality, and be creatively stimulating [Read more about finding locations here].

2. Consider your Lighting

Watch your location for the kind and quality of available light. Is it harsh and contrasty, lending to a dramatic feel? Is it soft and subdued, more conducive to a nostalgic mood? If the available light isn’t sufficient to create the portrait you want, be sure to add light with a reflector, or an off/on camera flash [Read more about using flash in on-location photography here].

3. Set up your Scene

Place your subject within the context of your entire setting. Remember, you aren’t taking only mid and detail shots of your subject; with the photojournalism aspect, you are shooting to tell a story. The story of your subject will include their place and involvement in the scene, and the mood you are creating.

4. Pose your Subject

You don’t have to pose your subject in a complicated manner. At the least, pay attention to the placement of your subjects feet, knees, and shoulders. So long as you pose to achieve variance and levels of these joints, you will be set [More on posing here].

5. “Break” the Shot

Think everything is perfect? Now is the time to make it all natural. Tell your subject to “relax”. Allow them to settle into the pose by drawing them into conversation, or allow them to interact with one another. Achieve authentic expressions, natural posing, and artistic portraits by letting go the expectation of “perfection”. After all, nothing in life is perfect. The key to perfect portrait photojournalism is controlling which elements are broken.

6. Take the Shot

Watch for that “After moment” and “Spontaneous moment”. Oftentimes the most beautiful moments happen just after you take the camera away from your eye. Allow your subject to believe you are done with that set up, and take the shot that they are most natural and relaxed – pulling a hat down, tucking hair back, the cute shoulder shrug. You truly never know what you will be able to achieve.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Poser: Achieve Perfect Portrait Expression

A guest post by John Davenport

I, like many new photographers, would walk around shooting everything I saw without consciously thinking about the way it was framed or the settings on my camera. If you browse through the archives of my blog you’ll see a clear pattern of growth and learning in the images, but admittedly, I still have a long way to go!

For me it’s always been hard to slow down. I’ve always been the type of person that wanted results now, not later, and slowing down to think through a shot seemed like I’d be wasting time. Even after reading posts here on dPS like, these three stupidly simple reasons, it still took me a while to learn to slow down. For the first few months of my photography experience I handheld everything – it just took too long to set up the tripod.

Of course, I finally did get sick of those blurry images and I decided that the tripod was worth more than just a good walking stick after all. While, at first setting up the tripod did help me slow down and it certainly improved my image quality, it didn’t help me slow down to the point where I was thinking critically about the shot. I was still going too fast!

So What’s This Magical New Method?

While out on a typical photo walk I stumbled upon this awesome new technique when this crazy idea to pull out my iPhone and film my camera setup popped in my head. I decided to explain my thought process on the shot, and finally I ended up sharing that video with my small group of readers over on my blog. The result was the photo you see above and the video embedded below.

Okay, so it’s rough around the edges, but be kind, it’s my first video ever, and I am frozen!

The point here isn’t the quality of the video or even the fact that I’m recording it with the mindset to show my readers how I took the shot. The point I have is that recording a video like this is a good idea even if you’re not going to show it to anyone! It took me until when I got home that night to realize exactly why, but here are the reasons I came up with.

Three Benefits of Recording Your Shot

1. You’re Forced to Talk About It – When you’re out setting up the shot how often do you actually talk it through? I know we always say, “Think it through, frame it right, and double check your settings”, but a video forces you to talk through the shot and that’s a completely different experience.
2. You’ve got Evidence – After a typical shoot all you’re going to have is the memories and your photographs. A video will give you a clear view of how you set the camera up and even an insight into your thought process when you were shooting which is something that’d be hard to convey otherwise.
3. And of course Slow Methodical Set Up – Due to the added time it takes to record a video you’re without a doubt going to slow down and think about the shot from every possible angle, which should result in a better composed image.

Now I know recording a video is impossible for every single shot and I don’t expect anyone to do that, but personally I’m going to try to do this process at least once every week or two.

Can you think of any other benefits to recording your shot? Have you ever done something like this? I’d love to hear what you think.

John Davenport is an avid amateur photographer who posts daily photos on his blog Phogropathy. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter and his brand new Youtube Channel.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How I Stumbled Across an Amazing Way to Slow Down My Shooting Process