PRACTICAL HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging For Photographers

Jack Howard should be a familiar name to many of you photographers as he is the Editor of PopPhoto.com/Popular Photography & Imaging where he tests and reviews cameras, lenses, software and a multitude of camera gadgets. 

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Profile: Bret Taylor

Madbadcat’s Note: By his own admission, Brett Taylor is largely self-taught. I would tend to argue that,  as artists, we are all "largely self-taught", exploring new territory each time we approach a subject. His passion for painting may come from finding TEXTURE as a new addition to his visual vocabulary. Chek out the texture on this closeup of one of his paintings.

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Digital Infrared Photography by Cyrill Harnischmacher

 

One of my colleagues is an architectural photographer who shoots digital infrared images a great deal of the time.  Unfortunately, he lives several hundred miles from me and when we are together (which actually is seldom) we spend our time talking about our lives and clients–and lately, hurricanes (since we both live in areas that are affected by storms).  That means that we don’t spend a lot of time talking about infrared photography, which I would really like to do.  For me, that’s unfortunate because I am actually very interested in the “look” of the infrared photograph, and years ago in my film days I actually spent some time experimenting with black and white infrared film and the appropriate filters.  So the theory is not unknown to me, but the practical aspects of digital infrared photography is very new to me. Read more

Technique: One Version of Composite Art

Nature is the greatest teacher of mankind. In it we find ourselves revealed. To humbly read its lessons and thereby transform ones’ self is to give birth to the deeper soul. My montages are my meditations within this often fragile, yet persistent, living realm where our own impact is so palpable. Indeed, we are a part of nature itself, not separate from it, and our interaction within this world determines our own identity and substance. Hopefully my montages will trigger a realization of the importance of that powerful relationship. Read more

LAYERS: The Complete Guide To Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature

When I pick up a book to read it I have an almost overwhelming desire to know something about the person writing the book before I even flip the pages of that book.  I want a connection between that person and myself in order to justify committing myself to their momentary care. I look first at book forwards or introductions or at least the author’s brief inside the front cover.  This is true whether the book is a work of fiction or a technical manual.  Without this beginning I have a hard time relating myself to the author; I have this need to know something about them.

Some almost 50 years ago when I was a beginning college student I always avoided classes taught by "staff" or "to be announced" if there was an option, and when there was a name listed for a course I got out my college catalogue and looked up the faculty member teaching the course and tried to find out as much about them as possible before I committed myself and my hard-earned tuition money to their care.
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Creating a Web Comic with Comic Life

First, this article assumes you have content (even if it is only in your head) and ready to tackle the technical aspects of web comic creation.  In short, many artists still work traditionally by scanning their pencils and/or inked drawings and digitally coloring them in Photoshop.  However just as many create their work digitally either in Photoshop, Illustrator, or various 3D software programs.  The main rule for web comics is it needs to be developed quickly, in order to meet those daily, bi-weekly or weekly deadlines.  Which leads us to Comic Life Deluxe. Read more

Seven Key Techniques For Taking Your Images From Flat To Fantastic

I included the sub-title with the title because I think it makes the subject clearer. I think that describes why Scott Kelby’s book is not just another Photoshop book even if you don’t know who Scott Kelby actually is. If you don’t know, then I suggest you crank up GOOGLE and pick a couple of dozen of the 999,000 entries it says it pinged up for your perusal when you punch in his name. I’ll give you the summation—he knows Photoshop. He knows it very well! Read more

The Nikon D3

I was always an F kind of guy. My first Nikon pro camera was the original F - a 1971 black body FTN. It supplemented my FM2 and I had it until just a couple of years ago when I sold it to a close friend, who bought it with the understanding that I might occasionally need to fondle it… call it conjugal visits.

A few years later I found a really nice F2 that I still have… I skipped the F3 and F4 entirely Read more

EXPLORING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & GROUP THERAPY, TOGETHER

When I studied traditional photography over twenty years ago I did not see how much the art would shift for me in the way I executed it and what it meant for me.   I believed like many of us that the silver halide was a thing of exacting beauty that could never be replaced. Read more

Exposure & Lighting for Digital Photographers Only

I recently encountered a relatively new book by Michael Meadhra and Charlotte K. Lowrie entitled Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only published by Wiley Press in 2007.  Read more

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