This week, Jeremy Gray taught us how watercraft can help you capture better wildlife photos, while I talked about what to do as photographers during the Coronavirus pandemic. Lauri Novak walked us through a few must-dos when it comes to mobile photography and Matt Seuss taught us about sky replacement. Finally, Michele Grenier showed how to make an Instagram grid with Photoshop.
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Working photographers, it’s time to prepare and re-evaluate - A lot of us are stuck at home, with no photoshoots and no clients to keep us busy. While it might not seem like it, between the stimulus package, small business loans and grants we’re trying to receive, some work needs to be done. Work to prepare you for the future. Work to prepare you for if and when another wave hits. In a LensRentals survey last week, 20 percent of photographers stated they’re planning to look for new careers. And I expect that number to grow. Whether you’re struggling to make ends meet or you have a plan, there’s a few things you can continue to work on right now to make sure you’re staying creative, and that you’re prepared the instant your clients’ businesses start to open again. Update your contracts I never thought I’d have to add a “pandemic” clause to my contracts, but here I am, working with my legal adviser on just that. It’s important to have this ready as soon as possible, because when you are booked, you’ll ultimately be asked about this. For me, I’m asking my clients to put forth a 50% deposit through the remainder of 2020 — and if their photoshoot is canceled, I’ll apply it to a future photoshoot unless they request otherwise. Look back on past jobs and budget Even with things uncertain as they are now, it’s important to look at your past year and see what jobs you had. Do you anticipate those happening again? If so, reach out to your clients and offer to book them in advance with a deposit. If need be, offer a discount to get the income flowing your way. And be sure to have that contract finalized! Get creative, collect deposits and offer gift cards In the short term, think of how you can creatively get some income flowing your way. I regularly get emails from restaurants in my area asking me to buy gift cards. You can do that, too. And when you do book a job, make sure you’re collecting a deposit. Outside of that, I’ve had some success in selling prints through my Shootproof gallery. This is typically what I use for client galleries, but it works great as a print platform as well. While a lot of print labs are closed, some like Bay Photo are still in operation. In a week, I sold $300 worth of prints to clients, family and friends. Think of other genres When things start to open up again, you might have to take some jobs you usually wouldn’t take. It’s important to know what you’re willing to take, and what you aren’t. For me, I’m going to be pushing individual portraits more than I did before coronavirus. At the same time, I’m still very much against photographing weddings. Know what you’re willing to do. Expand your horizons, and hopefully, you’ll get some new leads because of it. Still uncertain? For a lot of us, it will be slow going at first. It’s why you need to re-evaluate. Maybe it’s necessary to pick up a part-time job to make ends meet in the short term. Despite that, don’t hang up your camera. Instead, think back to when you first got interested in photography. You probably took as many pictures as you could. Why not get back into that mindset?
Bring new life into your scenes with sky replacement - (Editor’s Note: We welcome this guest post from Matt Suess. Matt, an Olympus Educator, has been a full-time professional photographer for over 30 years, the first 17 as a photojournalist. Since 2006 Matt has been a full-time fine art photographer and educator offering field workshops, online training, one-on-one instruction and more. He is currently based in Bozeman, Montana. Learn more about Matt at mattsuess.com.) How many photos have you taken on a typical blue sky day that could be improved by either replacing the entire sky or by simply adding some clouds to your original sky? Let’s face it, often we find ourselves out there photographing when the light isn’t 100% perfect, and when we don’t have the absolute perfect sky either. Maybe you are a real estate or architectural photographer and have dozens of houses or buildings on your shot list and just can’t wait for the perfect sky for you to photograph them under. Or you traveled thousands of miles to your dream photography destination, only to have nothing but cloudless blue skies for most of your trip. It’s not like you live nearby and can just return whenever the sky cooperates. If I just described your situation, then you might want to consider replacing those boring skies and breathe new life into them. Luminar 4 for sky replacement Luminar 4 has two tools in it that are perfect for sky replacement, allowing you to quickly and accurately replace or even augment your skies. Here we have a simple real estate photo with a boring blue sky. How much can we improve the image by replacing that sky with some interesting clouds? Prepping the image What I do prior to any sky replacement is some quick edits to improve the look of the original photo. In the before/after screenshot above, you can see improved shadow detail, color and contrast. I used three tools, all in the Essentials tab. Using the Light tool, I changed the color profile to Adobe Standard and brightened my shadows. Using AI Enhance with the AI Accent slider helped even more by bringing out more shadow detail while improving color and contrast. Lastly, I used the Color tool to slightly increase Saturation and Vibrance. Working with layers to replace a sky Next up is sky replacement. But before I do that I like to create a new Stamped Layer, as seen above. Click on the Layers tab, then the + icon and choose Create New Stamped Layer. When you create a new stamped layer, that new layer is created with all the previous adjustments applied into a new layer (it even merges any other layers you may have below). Think of it as a merged copy of everything you have done till this point. You then have a new fresh layer to continue editing, as of your sliders are reset again on this new layer. Had I not created a new stamped layer, once I replace the sky the settings I did before with the AI Accent slider will end up effecting that replaced sky, usually in a negative way. You may find your new sky is too contrasty and possibly with some halos, as the original adjustments you did before are applied to the new sky. But by creating a new stamped layer before sky replacement will prevent this as your sky is brought in without any enhancement. The settings I used in the AI Sky Replacement tool are above, using a sky from my Blue Sky Clouds Kit 1. Almost all the settings were at the default, with the exception of the Atmospheric Haze slider, which I increased to add more haze and make the results more believable. I recommend always taking a look at this slider when doing your own sky replacements. I also lowered the Sky Exposure to better match my sky to my foreground. If I noticed any errors where Luminar didn’t do a great job completely removing the original sky I would take a look at the Sky Global, Close Gaps and Sky Local sliders. I used the AI Enhance Tool again, but only used the AI Sky Enhancer slider to add just a little more punch to my sky. Adding a little AI Sky Enhancer to this image was the final touch for this photo. Enhancing a sunrise Let’s take a look at a landscape photo photographed at sunrise in Zion National Park, UT. Above is the before/after of my initial edits. I used the Light and AI Enhance Tools similar to how I showed earlier. After getting the base image looking good, it was time for a New Stamped Layer for the sky replacement. Using a sky from my Desert Sunset Kit, you’ll notice I made some slight adjustments to the Horizon Position (to adjust the placement of the sky), the Relight Scene (very slight adjustment to better balance the new sky and foreground), as well as slight adjustments to Sky Temperature and Sky Exposure. Yes, I did use a sunset photo at sunrise, but could you even tell? I believe the end results show a more dramatic scene than the original. I yearly lead workshops in Zion in the fall and have occasionally seen sunrises and sunsets like this. But for most people visiting for only a few days, if the weather isn’t perfect you’ll be seeing the sky we had here in the original. So why not replace the sky and create something even better than what you saw? Adding dimension through clouds Let’s take a look at one last photo. Sometimes you really like your sky but just need to add a few clouds to it, like with this photo of a sunflower against a bright blue sky. If only it had some clouds — what a difference they could make! Here I used Luminar 4’s AI Augmented Sky tool which is perfect for adding just clouds or even other objects. In fact, Luminar 4 comes with some clouds along with other
Making an Instagram grid with Photoshop - Ever wonder how people were making an Instagram grid photo piece on Instagram? Using Photoshop, you can create 1×3, 2×3, 3×3 and other multiple format layouts. Here’s how to get started. 1. Resize your photo to an exact ratio The first step is to resize perfectly your photo. This will allow you to precisely place a guide. A single-row grid on Instagram — which means one picture high by three pictures wide — is a 3:1 ratio. A two-row high grid is 3:2. A three-row high grid (which creates a huge square) is 3:3. Tip: The grid can’t be larger than three pictures — this is Instagram’s maximum width. I suggest picking a height that is equal to or less than four in order to make your image entirely visible without having to scroll your feed. 2. Create a New Guide Layout in Photoshop Go to Photoshop‘s View menu and click on New Guide Layout … Get rid of all the Margins values (if there are any) and fill only the Columns and Rows numbers. To create a 3:1 grid, enter 3 under the Columns Number and 1 under the Rows Number. This creates three perfect squares. To create a 3:2 grid, enter 3 under the Columns Number and 2 under the Rows Number. This creates six perfect squares. To create a 3:3 grid, enter 3 under the Columns Number and 3 under the Rows Number. This creates nine perfect squares. To simplify the process, be sure to save this guide layout as a preset to have it ready for a future purpose. 3. Save the photo as grid pieces Pick the crop tool and enter a 1:1 (Square) ratio. For more convenience, make sure the Snap tool is enabled (you can find it under View > Snap). The Delete Cropped Pixels box should be unchecked, otherwise this will permanently delete the rest of your photo. Crop and save each square separately, following the Guide Layout. Each one of them corresponds to a frame in your Instagram grid. The correct order is from right to left, starting at the bottom right frame and finishing at the top left one. Tip: To avoid mistakes uploading on Instagram, try numbering your files in order. Upload the grid’s pieces of your photo to Instagram Start with the bottom right one (numbered as “1”), keep uploading all your files in numerical order. Once done, double-check your grid on your Instagram account to make sure everything is perfectly laid out. And there you have it — a very cool Instagram grid photo on feed made with Photoshop! I’ve been using this technique for my sports photography for the last year or so and I’ve got great comments on my account. I hope this will help you showcase your amazing work as well!
Photography on the water from a kayak - When you want to get close to water birds, there’s no substitute for being out on the water. Personally, I use a kayak designed for fishing because it is a little wider and more stable. It has more open space around the sitting area too, which allows me to easily bring along and use my camera gear. I will be writing from the context of photographing from a kayak, but of course, small boats or canoes can work too. What are the advantages of photographing from a kayak? You can get closer to your subject When photographing water birds from the shore, you are severely limited in a few ways. You can’t simply get closer to your subject. Suppose you are photographing swimming ducks. If the ducks decide to swim away, you’re out of luck. Even if a bird merely changes direction, it may make capturing a nice shot from land impossible. The low shooting angle is great for wildlife The natural seated position in most kayaks is very low, which makes for an excellent perspective for wildlife photography on the water. With a larger water bird, such as a heron or loon, the natural shooting position from my kayak is close to level with the subject’s eyes. This offers a very good shooting angle. You can silently wait for your subject An advantage of something like a canoe or kayak is that you can move around on the water very quietly. With practice, you can paddle nearly silently on the water, which gives you the ability to get fairly close without disturbing wildlife. Alternatively, I sometimes find an area with a nice background and good light and simply wait for a subject to come toward me. A kayak is agile and maneuverable One of my favorite subjects to photograph is loons. They’re photogenic birds, for starters, but they’re also an exciting and interesting subject. They are incredible swimmers and can cover great distances while underwater. A kayak is a quick and maneuverable craft, which provides me a good opportunity to be in the right position when a loon breaches the water. Even performing a 180-degree rotation is quite easy in a kayak, which is not so with larger, heavier watercraft. Accessible gear I keep my gear in a waterproof bag between my knees in the kayak. When actively shooting, I leave the bag open. Bringing the camera up to shoot is very quick from this position. The wider bottom of a kayak designed for anglers makes it quite stable as well, which is good when changing direction to get in a better position to photograph a moving subject. Tips and tricks As is always the case with wildlife photography, respecting the animal is of utmost importance. It’s important to be aware of your surroundings and your location, especially if you are busy shooting from the kayak. You must be careful not to drift too close to a subject. When photographing from a kayak, it may be tempting to get closer than you should to your subject. When in doubt, it’s always best to be overly cautious. It’s also important to pay close attention to your subject and look for signs of distress, which may indicate that you are getting too close to a nesting area or that a potential predator has an animal on edge. As far as practical tips are concerned, it’s important to keep your gear dry. There may be some splash as you paddle, which can easily land on your camera and lens inside the kayak. I always bring some small towels to dab water off the gear, paying especially close attention to the area around the memory card and battery compartments. And of course, being safe on the water, in general, is important, so be sure to take proper precautions. I usually go out around sunrise, as this is the time when the water is most likely to be calm. While no weather forecast is 100 percent accurate or reliable, it’s particularly important to check for wind speed and direction. Depending upon the shape of the pond or lake and surrounding topography, certain wind directions may be favorable. Non-wildlife photography While I’ve been primarily discussing wildlife photography, a kayak is also useful for general landscape and nature photography. You can use your kayak to get different angles on interesting areas around a lake or pond. You can also use the kayak to get close to certain vegetation for close-up shots, such as water lilies. Any time you can get a different perspective on a subject, you introduce the opportunity for interesting images. Ultimately, one of the most useful tools in my wildlife photography kit is not a camera or lens, it’s my kayak. It has given me photographic opportunities I would otherwise not have had. It’s good exercise, too, which is a bonus. I think that it’s often the case that the difference between a good wildlife image and a great one is how much the subject fills the frame and which angle you were able to capture the shot from. When photographing water birds, using a kayak ticks both boxes.
Mobile Mondays: Keeping your phone ready for photography - The best camera to use is the one you have with you. You’ve heard it a million times, right? Treat your phone just like you treat your camera We keep our camera gear at the ready, don’t we? It’s cleaned, batteries are charged and it’s in our bag and ready to grab when we need it. Make sure you do the same with your phone. It’s in our pocket, purse, bag and gets set down on counters, tables and who knows where else. How clean does the lens stay? Take a look — I bet there are fingerprints or smudges on the lens of your phone camera. Keep the battery charged This has happened to me before. I’m at an event, concert or out with friends and my phone is on its last bit of charge. Then something happens and I miss the photo because my phone died. This is easy enough to avoid but for some reason, we just forget to charge our phones or think it’s charged, grab it and head out. Another easy fix is to carry a portable charger with you — they are small enough to put in your purse or pocket. Use a camera app Some of the camera apps that are available help you to control more when you’re shooting with your phone. They allow you to set ISO, aperture and shutter speed as you would in your camera. The Adobe Lightroom app allows you to take RAW photos directly from the app. Camera+, Cymera, Manual and VSCO are also highly ranked camera apps. Add editing apps to your phone There are so many options for editing images directly on your phone these days it makes it easy to edit and post on the go. Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed and VSCO are just a few, though there are plenty more you can check out. Keep some extra lenses for your phone on hand There are little lenses you can clip over your phone’s lens. They are fun to play with and add just a few more options for you to create with your phone camera. They range from a less expensive version for $25 to the olloclip which runs around $100. Wide-angle, fisheye, macro and zoom lenses are available. These are all just simple things you can do to make sure you’re always ready to get the shot with your phone. Quick links to download the apps above
