PopPhoto Flash

Tip of the Day: Photographing Grass

It can take some imagination to get great shots of grass, but there are many ways to experiment with it in your photographs. 

• Experiment with different times of the day to change the lighting in your photos. To emphasize texture, use front-lighting. Back-lighting will bring out shape. 

• Move in close and experiment with angles. 

• Use expanses of grass as a backdrop for shots of other subjects. 

For more tips, check out Creative Grass Photography at AmateurSnapper.com.

Tip of the Day: Light Painting

Using a flashlight to paint your images during long exposures can leave you with shots full of depth and mystery. Allison Earnest recommends starting with a 15-second exposure at f/5.6 and turning on noise reduction. 

Let your camera focus before turning off all of the lights and firing the shutter. Use a flashlight (Earnest recommends INOVA) to quickly paint over your subjects. Keep the flashlight moving while turning it on and off in short bursts. 

For a detailed guide, check out Earnest's article, Painting with Light, at Imagininginfo.com, or her book, Sculpting with Light.

Tip of the Day: Photographing Car Light Trails

• When choosing your location, consider the different effects that color will have on your shot-- cars coming toward you will produce white light trails, cars moving away will give you red light trails. 

• Plan your exposure time so that passing cars have enough time to pass completely through your frame. 

• Experiment with exposure times. Longer exposures will allow for more trails but they'll look more faded.

For more tips, check out Photographing Car Light Trails at AmateurSnapper.com.

Photo by yeraze at flickr.com.

Tip of the Day: Candlelight Photography

In addition to the obvious, like using a tripod and turning off your flash, Digital-Photography-School.com's 15 Tips for Great Candlelight Photography offers many tips, such as: 

• Try overexposing slightly from what your camera suggests, as candles within your frame will tell your camera to underexpose. 

• Having white walls or a white tablecloth nearby will help reflect the low light onto your subject. 

• If you have a choice of lenses, choose the fastest one so you can use a larger aperture and let more light into your image. 

For more, check out 15 Tips for Great Candlelight Photography by Darren Rowse.

Tip of the Day: Photographing Clouds

• A graduated neutral density filter will help you avoid over-exposing clouds.

• A circular polarizing filter will bring up contrasts within clouds.

• Give interesting and dramatic clouds the top two-thirds of your frame. 

• Scarce or small clouds will look better taking up the top third.

For more tips, check out How to Photograph Clouds: Using the Sky to Enhance your Landscape Images by Paul Lightfoot at Suite101.com.

Tip of the Day: Improve your photos with classical art

James Delaney at Unfocusedbrain.com has a Photoshop tutorial that will help you use old paintings to adjust the color in your photos.

By using an image of an old painting as a destination photo and going to Image>Adjustments>Match Color, you can load colors from your favorite painting onto your photo. 

For a step-by-step guide, check out Improve your photography with classical art at Unfocusedbrain.com.

Photos from Unfocusedbrain.com.

Tip of the Day: Shooting Wildlife

• Wake up very, very early.

• Don't hesitate to get into awkward positions in pursuit of your shot. Climb into a tree if you must.

• Be original. Taking standard wildlife photos is great, but try to catch something new and different.

For more tips on photographing wildlife, check out WildlifeExtra.com.

Tip of the Day: "Orton Imagery"

Darwin Wiggett at Nature Photographers.net has some tips for making your images look like Michael Orton's impressionistic, dreamy photos.

• Open your image in Photoshop and make a duplicate of it.

• Go to Image>Apply Image.

• Select the "screen" blending mode and set the opacity to 100%.

• Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to blur the image, but don't get carried away! (Wiggett suggests a radius setting of 15-50 pixels.)

• Drag the blurry image on top of the original image.

• Go to Layers and change the blending mode to "multiply."

• Flatten the image.

Tip of the Day: Photographing Sculptures

AmateurSnapper.com has some tips for getting great sculpture photos: 

• Spend time taking in the sculpture's details before you start shooting. 

• Try to put your own spin on things to avoid ending up with photos that are simply snapshots of someone else's work. 

• Try to get a plain and clutter-free background. If it's not possible, use a shallow depth of field to blur the background.

Tip of the Day: The Business of Photography

If you’ve thought about becoming a photographer full time consider whether you would enjoy photography as much if you had to deal with all of the business nightmares that come with being a small business owner. Most of your time is not spent behind the camera but doing all the tedious paperwork and phone calls that goes with the business world. Photojojo has compiled one of the best comprehensive lists of pros and cons of making the leap into photography as a business.  One of the biggest differences between photography as a hobby and as a business should be obvious but is often overlooked; you suddenly have a client who has ideas of their own of what makes a good photograph. 

—Melissa Macatee
Contributing Blogger