I recently bought a house, so I was looking at loads of real estate pictures. Most are simply informative pictures, and most are made with a smartphone. Real estate pictures can be fun to make, however, and when done well they can help sell a house more quickly. HDR is a great tool to make good real estate photos, but if you let your imagination run away you can end up with a picture that belongs more on a movie poster than the MLS. Let me share a few ideas to help you make the most of your HDR's for real estate. Time of day As with all … [Read more...] about How to NOT ruin real estate HDR’s
polarizer
Five lighting tips in 90 seconds for photography and video
(Editor's note: Im delighted to welcome Marc Silber of Silber Studios to Photofocus. Marc's passion is photography and sharing the best tips he can find with other image makers.) Ever wanted to hear some of the lighting tips, tricks, and hacks from an Emmy-winning filmmaker? Well, here you go. Just click play... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJkSaMCyWa4 Fletch Murray has a long history in video production. From making short films to ABC documentaries to now running his own filmmaking bootcamps and even making tutorials for the Advancing … [Read more...] about Five lighting tips in 90 seconds for photography and video
What Are Lens Filters & Why Should You Use Them?
Some of the most-utilized items that photographers have are lens filters. These give photographers ways to control color, reflections, highlights and more. But what filters should you get, and when should you use them? UV Filters As a beginning photographer, I used UV filters on all my camera lenses. They gave me a way to protect my valuable lens glass from scratches, dust, dirt and pesky fingerprint smudges. It also meant that I wouldn't have to worry quite as much should I drop my lens while shooting, as it would protect the … [Read more...] about What Are Lens Filters & Why Should You Use Them?
Gear Review: NiSi Medium GND 100x150mm Filter
Editor's note: This is a guest Post by Ugo Cei. See his work right here. In recent times I haven’t been making much use of filters in my photography. I would occasionally use a polarizer and that’s all. As a consequence, when faced with landscape scenes with a lot of contrast, like when the sky is bright, but the ground is in shade, I would normally resort to bracketing and then merging the resulting shots to HDR or doing some kind of blending. Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filters When creating HDR photos, I always strive to produce … [Read more...] about Gear Review: NiSi Medium GND 100x150mm Filter
Tech Corner: Neutral Density Filters
Neutral Density Filters There are times when there’s just too much light! Sometimes it’s too much for our eyes, and we need sunglasses. Sometimes, it’s too much for our photography or cinematography. For these times, we can employ neutral density filtration, which is like sunglasses for cameras. Filtration normally suggests allowing some things to pass, and some others to be turned away or eliminated. Color filtration does this by allowing one or more colors to pass (the filter being transparent to those frequencies of light) and blocking … [Read more...] about Tech Corner: Neutral Density Filters
Tech Corner: Photographic Filters for the Digital Age
It was not that long ago when I, or anyone who photographed commercially, stacked quite a few filters in front of the lens to guarantee control over color and exposure in our photography. Well, we were shooting on…film! There was some remedial balancing with a color negative film-to-print capture, but there was no post-production correction at all for color transparency film. If you were shooting on Kodachrome in a 3400˚ K tungsten light environment, out came the 80A filter to make things right. CC (color correction filters) of every color in … [Read more...] about Tech Corner: Photographic Filters for the Digital Age
Product Review: Haida 150 Series Insert Filter and Holder System
Over the past couple of years, there has been a wave of super wide-angle telephoto lenses released on the market. Ideal for huge landscapes, vast night skies, or anything your wide-angle imagination conjures up. They offer big views, exceptional sharpness, and a whole realm of creative possibilities. My personal favorite is the Tamron 15-30mm, but, regardless of the brand, with super wides, their big beautiful front element projects out a distance from the lens body. This means that you can't use traditional threaded filters that screw on the … [Read more...] about Product Review: Haida 150 Series Insert Filter and Holder System
The Quick Tip: How to use a Polarizer
Recently I wrote an in depth article on circular polarizers, where and how they come in handy. To use a polarizer, screw the filter onto the front of your lens (using the right filter size, of course!). Once it is on, the front part of the filter opposite the threads will still be able to rotate freely. This is what you use to adjust the effect of the polarizer on your image. The best way to judge where the filter should be rotated to is to eyeball it. Look through the viewfinder and slowly spin the filter until you see a change in your … [Read more...] about The Quick Tip: How to use a Polarizer
How to Avoid Ugly Skies with Polarizers
Matt Kloskowski and Levi Sim talk about the benefits to shooting with circular polarizers and how to remove ugly, gradated skies in Photoshop. https://youtu.be/_V7VNYO9sGc … [Read more...] about How to Avoid Ugly Skies with Polarizers
