Are cliché photographs classic like one of Shakespeare’s plays or are they annoying? Elements from Shakespeare’s work show up in many movies and books. It can be said that William Shakespeare’s themes pop up in photography. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but a picture of a rose would not be that unique. Sunsets, doors, babies galore, that which is popular do you adore? 

In photography, like any other art field, original ideas can be hard to come by. Often times newbies like myself tend to take pictures of what is popular and easily available.  Trees, doors, and fruit are fairly easy to come across and photograph. I really have no problem with cliche photographs, though I try to avoid them myself. A lot of beautiful pictures are of things that have been used thousands of times. I have taken quite a few photographs of old worn out themes as I am sure you have too. I even have the dreaded photographer picture; the self portrait where the photographer is shown taking a picture in a mirror.  

One is not going to get popular shooting pictures that people have seen thousands of times. However, to some, reused ideas and themes are classic, and therefore “allowed” to be used over and over. Shakespeare’s themes are used quite a bit (in writing and art)and no one seems to mind the cliché of the stories. So I ask you: are cliché photographs classic, or do they make the photographer lazy?   

Popularity: 8% [?]

How do you decide when to turn a picture black and white? Maybe you just keep all of your pictures in color. For me there are a few things I look at before I determine which way to go on a particular photograph or set. 

I rely heavily on opinions in deciding whether to change from color or not. I was having a conversation with someone the other day and he asked why I turned photographs from an event black and white. My response was fairly odd, I didn’t like the color of the grass. I always look at whether all the colors play well together. If for some reason I think the colors are off (even after doing some slight adjustments) the picture gets turned black and white. This is really the ultimate thing with me. If all the colors are really strange together (such as bright red and a pale blue), I can’t stand it. In my mind turning the pictures black and white took away the weird color of the grass, and made them better. However to the person I spoke to, the change did nothing to add to the pictures, just stripped them of color. I went through all 500+ pictures I took of the event to find the ones I turned black and white so that I could upload them to flickr in color as well. With the second look through I still thought the grass was an odd color of green, yet not as bad as I originally thought. There were some pictures that definitely worked best in color, and some that there wasn’t much color to them in the first place so black and white was just fine. I still feel the black and white ones are the best of the set, and really in the end it is up to the photographer to decide what they believe works. You can always change your mind.  

Do you like seeing all the colors or would you rather have no color at all?   

Maybe I should have started out saying, I just finished a semester of photography classes where I was not allowed to turn in color photographs, and I learned very quickly to like black and white. I really do like black and white pictures. To me the void of color gives photographs a classic look, when done right. I especially love portraits in black and white.  

How do you determine when to turn your photographs black and white? Do you like working with black and white photography? 

Popularity: 10% [?]

When I first started my photography courses I shunned the point and shoot camera. I thought that since I wanted to be a professional photographer I couldn’t be a “slacker” and use one. I felt frazzled. The easy to use point and shoot camera is what got me into photography in the first place, now I had this big honkin DSLR camera that I didn’t know what I was doing with. I looked down on the point and shot camera. Feeling trapped and uncreative, tapped down by technicalities I rethought my views of the simple camera. The more I thought about it the more I felt I NEEDED one. The idea was to fill the void I had because I did not feel that taking my DSLR everywhere was feasible and I wanted to take pictures all the time. I know there are people that take their DSLR cameras with them every place, I’m just not one of them–at least not yet. I wanted a camera that I could take anywhere and everywhere, fit in my pocket kinda deal. I wanted to go back to my original carefree days of pointing the camera and shooting what I thought was a fairly decent picture. I got a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120 about a month ago and feel more like a photographer now than I have since starting a photography major.  

With my point and shoot I can fit it in my pocket and take it with me EVERYWHERE. I don’t have to worry about a gigantic lens getting messed up, or change lenses for that matter. Something interesting happen–I can whip out my point and shoot and take that picture! Doesn’t matter with a point and shoot whether everything is perfect, just turn it on and shoot, that’s what it was made for after all :) Point and shoot cameras can help with DSLR cameras too. I do a lot of test shots with the point and shoot before taking out the DSLR, it shows me an idea of what I’ll get through the DSLR. Heck maybe the point and shoot picture comes out better, ya never know. 

   This was taken with my point and shoot and I’m pretty happy with it.I had my Nikon with me at the event this was taken,but all I had on it was my telephoto lens. I wanted a certain picture thatwith a telephoto lens I was not going to get.So I brought out the point and shoot and got the shot I wanted :)     

So did you have the problem I had when you started using a DSLR camera? Is a point and shoot included in your camera kit? :) 

Popularity: 11% [?]

An issue that often confounds photographers is the amount of compensation they should pay a model upon the sale of a stock photograph. It’s a situation that arises when you want to shoot a spec shot, but, you don’t have the financial resources to pay for the model’s time.

Most models, especially friends, are happy to work with you in exchange for prints. Adding the incentive of sharing some of the profit from the stock sale of the image is good business and usually makes it easier to get a signature on a model release. It also enhances your reputation, and, puts you in a better position to solicit more modeling favors in the future.

The best and easiest way to calculate fair compensation for a model who poses in spec image for you is the 25/10 rule. For every 2500.00 dollars you make with the image, allocate ten percent to your model. So if you have an image that yields a 750.00 stock sale, keep all the money for yourself. But, as soon as that image accumulates 2500.00 in total sales, write your model a check for 250.00.

The same rule applies at the high end as well. If you sell an image for 11,000.00 write your model a check for 1,000.00 which takes into account the first four occurrences of 2500.00 - but does not include the additional 1000.00 which is considered part of the 5th iteration of the 2500.00 mark.

Every time that I present a check to a model I get a million thanks. Even if the amount is only 250.00, the models truly appreciate the consideration. But more than anything else, having a reputation as a photographer that takes care of their talent is worth a hundred times more than the ten percent check you write.

Popularity: 36% [?]

These are the funniest photoshop tutorials ever This one is all about removing objects, a traditional use for the package.

Informative and humorous. Just be aware, NSFW language contained therein

The first tutorial on distortion, warp and layer effects is here

Popularity: 15% [?]

A while ago, probably over a year ago now, I had a go at time lapse photography using the bundled Canon software. It didn’t turn out too bad for a first attempt but since then I moved over to using a Mac and can not try it again in the same way. Enter Photojojo who have written up an excellent guide to Time-Lapse Photography

read our guide on the ins and outs of time-lapse and start churning out your very own time-lapse videos from your photos.

1. Choose your subject.
2. Figure everything out.
3. Shoot your still photographs.
4. Edit your photos in Photoshop (Optional).
5. Assemble all your photos together into a video.
6. Edit your video – add titles, music, and all that jazz.

All seems a lot more complicated than using the Canon software but, hey, I am willing to give it another try

Check out the full tutorial here.

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s that time of year again when we go out and try to snap the pretty Christmas lights without turning out a blurry, grainy mess. Luckily we now have the intarwebs to send us wisdom down its festive tubes!

Check out this 5min Video on How to Photograph Christmas Lights

Popularity: 14% [?]

I have been trying to figure out where my “photography mojo” went. For months now I have hardly picked up the camera. Why was I so enthusiastic then all of a sudden my gear was gathering dust.

After thinking long and hard (at some incredible strain to my single brain cell), I believe it must be the following answers. See if you recognize any in your own photography habits:

• Flickr as Competition - The beginning of the end must have been the curse of “Flickr Interesting”, my photographs were not interesting so I thought they were “bad”.
• Perfectionism - I became so obsessed with each capture being the best I could make it. Rather than take a “bad” shot I took no shots.
• Commercialism - Rather than enjoying photography as a hobby I decided to try to earn money from it. Each shot was judged on if it would sell rather than how pleasing it would be to my self. In the end, I didn’t take time to go out and take salable shots so didn’t take any shots.
• Peer pressure - The more I hung out with professional photographers and “critique” groups on Flickr the more I feared uploading my photographs in case people would judge me. What use are pictures that nobody sees?
• Internet Freaks - Due to horrible messages planted on family photographs I had to make a great deal private but it also made me feel weird about taking any more. My number one photography topic is of course my daughter but I didn’t like to share them.

What is the solution? I am going to go back to taking photographs for me. Enjoying the process. I get pleasure out of snaps and the memories they bring. What I do now is not art and not for sale. People can have their opinions but I am not going to let those opinions take priority.

I’m taking my hobby back

Popularity: 12% [?]

One of my main uses of Flickr, outside of the obvious, is whiling away hours going on virtual vacations

Yes, I am one of those people who searches around for pictures of mountains and beaches instead of working. Slap my wrist, I am a very naughty boy.

Photopreneur though says this can be a good and worthwhile thing! Check out their article Location Scouting With Flickr

Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly what to expect before you packed your camera for a shoot?

You could know what sort of filters you’d need, what sort of lenses to bring and even what sort of techniques you’d be experimenting with at the location.

It would certainly be a lot better than driving for a couple of hours to a point on the map only to find when you get there that there’s just a couple of trees and a muddy field to photograph.

Flickr can tell you exactly what to expect.

This doesn’t just apply to professional photographers who are traveling on business, it could give vacation shooters a heads up before landing at a place they have never visited.

Check out the full article here.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Do you need to shoot in RAW format? That’s the question I want to ask today. Before we try to answer the question. let’s see what are the benefits of working with RAW format.

• Give you the ability of working with uncompressed files; contains all information from your sensor.
• More control in adjusting white balance, shadow/highlights, contrast, brightness, noise etc. due to the 12 bit information within the RAW file
• Useful in extreme conditions. Low/High contrast or low light scenes.
• Better image quality if you are competent in your photoshop skills

Now, you read all these and say, “Great, from now on, I will always shoot in RAW format.” Well, you could do that if you fulfill (at least for me) these 3 conditions.

1. Disk space - Not a major problems nowadays. The gigabytes per dollar ratio is dropping rapidly; affordable terabytes are coming in the next 2 years. But how much is too much? A typical RAW file is about 8 meg. Add to that, your converted tiff, psd and jpeg file, you will fill up your hard disk in super quick time. I find that I need to buy a new external hard disk every 6 months.
2. Time - Post processing takes time. If you have an inefficient workflow, you will take even more time. The thing about RAW is that you can’t batch process them as that would eliminate the advantages of the RAW process.
3. Post processing skills (PP) - To me this is the most important factor. Without good PP skills and experience to see a good photograph, no matter how you shift the scroll bar in your adjustment, you will not get a better photograph than your DSLR can automatically give you.

Now that I have lay out the case for you. Do you want to answer the question yourself?

Do you need to shoot in RAW format?

Popularity: 15% [?]