Zone System: The Basics

January 25, 2013 By 11 Comments
Zone System Color & BW_2_CIUAN

Zone System: A Little History Lesson First, we will start with a little history lesson. The Zone System was developed by the well known photographers Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.  Ansel Adams was known for his black and white landscape photographs and Fred Archer was a portrait photographer of Hollywood. The purpose of the Zone System is to determine a framework or more systematic approach for determining exposure and development (in film) that can be replicated and also that represents the ...continue reading

Camera Lens Rental: Your Questions Answered

November 30, 2012 By 7 Comments
Camera lens rental questions answered

Camera lens rental may be something you should consider before buying your next lens or for your next photography outing. Is it affordable? It isn't as expensive as you might think in the whole realm of things. Well, photography related, that is. You can rent by the day, a weekend, a week, a month, depending on the company. Of course, the longer you rent a lens, the more it is going to cost. So one should think about how cost effective it is to buy the lens as opposed to renting for longer ...continue reading

Macro Photography: A Photographer’s Approach

October 26, 2012 By 9 Comments
20121024_Leaf Macro_0006_CIUAN

I think the best investment that I made photography wise, aside from my camera, is my macro lens. About 2 years ago, my husband bought me the Nikon 105mm f/2.8G as a gift. It is my favorite lens when photographing things just for fun. So, today, I'm going to talk a bit about how I approach macro photography. What is macro photography? First off, simply, macro is close up photography. Macro photography has been defined as an image that is life size or larger as it appears on the image sensor ...continue reading

My Personal Journey: Laurie Flickinger

September 28, 2012 By 6 Comments
DSC_0121 copy_650

Photography has always been an art that I have been interested in, but like a lot of photographers, I didn't attempt to really learn the craft until I had children. The first few times I took my oldest to have his picture taken, we went to the big in and out "studios" that are located at the mall or in department stores. When Ben turned one, I paid for a custom portrait session with a local photographer. The images were gorgeous and I thought, "I can do that!".   Shortly afterward, my point and ...continue reading

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Add Blur

August 24, 2012 By 4 Comments
ACR

Occasionally, I have found that an image can use a little help bringing more focus to the subjects. There are many ways to do this in photoshop such as vignettes, B&W conversions, dodging and burning, and selective coloring. Just kidding about the selective coloring :)  But, today I am going to show you how to add blur in post processing to bring focus to your subject in this photoshop tutorial. In the following image, the foreground is plenty blurred, but the trees above are much more ...continue reading

Back Button Focusing: Do you BBF?

July 27, 2012 By 38 Comments
BBF Nikon AF-On

It has been a couple of years now since I first discovered BBF or "Back Button Focusing". From what I hear it is really one of those things that you either LOVE or you HATE. For me, it was looooove! What is Back Button Focusing? The default focusing button for cameras is the shutter button. On DSLRs, we learn to press the shutter half way, focus, then completely press the button to release the shutter. BBF simply stands for Back Button Focus. This is a term that describes using a button on the ...continue reading

Photography Business: 7 Things Customers Look for in a Photographer

June 29, 2012 By 4 Comments
Garvey50_web

Disclaimer! I'm not a professional photographer, while at one point a few years ago I did consider opening a photography business. I realize now that I had no idea what I would have been getting myself into! I have learned so much since then, and realize I have so much more to learn. I am currently happy with photography as a hobby. If you are a hobbyist, and are thinking of taking your photography to the next level, here are a few points customers may be considering when looking for a ...continue reading

Sensor Cleaning: Is My Sensor Dirty?

May 29, 2012 By 5 Comments
Dirty Sensor Before

I love to learn new things. Especially things that make my life a little more simpler. So, today I'm going to share a tip that I have found helpful about sensor cleaning. Is My Sensor Dirty? Have you noticed little black spots in your images? If the spots show up in the same place on every image, regardless of the lens you are using, most likely you have dust or dirt on your sensor. No matter how careful you are with your equipment, it is bound to happen at some point or another. Dust and ...continue reading

How to use Kelvin for White Balance

April 26, 2012 By 18 Comments
Kelvin Light Graph

When I began shooting, white balance was the last thing on my mind. But as my technical skills improved, so did my eye for color.  It is really amazing how things seem to come together. During the second year of doing a Project 365, one of my goals for the year was white balance. I felt like I had tried every kind of white balance tool and method, and nothing was working consistently. Then, a friend, Megan Cieloha mentioned using Kelvin for white balance. Of course I had seen the Kelvin menu on ...continue reading

How to Meter Using the Sky

March 22, 2012 By 9 Comments
Maui, HI

When I began learning about photography, portraiture was just about the only type of photography on the brain. I wanted to take better pictures of my kids, so when I learned about metering, I learned to meter off of skin because in portraiture getting the correct exposure for skin is the most important.  But, when taking photographs of landscapes and macro, there isn't skin to meter from. So, how do you go about metering when you typically don't meter off of a gray card or skin? Meter Using ...continue reading