Pro Techniques

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Steve Bedell  |  Mar 01, 2011  | 

Most of us know about making outdoor portraits using the small fill flash on our cameras. But these photos have a “look” that tells everyone they were “made with flash.” They have a flat, often harsh look to them. A more sophisticated technique that can be accessed with many new cameras is the use of off-camera flash; you can even use multiple units controlled directly from the camera. I use...

Jack Neubart  |  Feb 01, 2011  | 

“My look is all about capturing a natural quality in the person I’m portraying,” Bil Zelman observes. “I find that strobe is very distracting for people.” That doesn’t mean that Zelman entirely shuns strobe. On the contrary, he’ll use it, but more often than not chooses available light to imbue the shot with the quality he’s after. As we’ll...

George Schaub  |  Feb 01, 2011  | 

Every digital image starts out as a color image, an RGB that, when shot in Raw format and loaded as a 16-bit file, contains millions of color and brightness codes. These codes, or pixel addresses, can be manipulated in many ways using presets or “manual” adjustments to create looks that range from “true” to highly stylistic interpretations of the content within the image.

Steve Bedell  |  Feb 01, 2011  | 

Eric Luden is a former executive at Ilford Photo, a noted commercial and fine art photographer, and the founder of Digital Silver Imaging, a New England lab that works exclusively in black and white. During the 1990s, he served as a consultant with Eastman Kodak’s black-and-white division before joining Ilford, where he worked for over 12 years. In 2006, he became the VP of North American...

Maynard Switzer  |  Jan 01, 2011  | 

Ten years ago, when I was primarily a fashion photographer, I did a shoot in Cuba. Normally I’d have used medium and long telephoto lenses, but because the narrow streets I was shooting on featured colorfully painted walls, I switched to a 35mm lens. With that lens I was able to show not only the models but also the background, which revealed a bit about the location. Equally important, I...

Lou Jacobs Jr.  |  Dec 01, 2010  | 

Photo Arts group members live in the Palm Springs, Redlands, and Joshua Tree areas of California, and we are very informal with no officers or rules at monthly meetings. We exchange critiques and chat about photography in many of its myriad forms. We also eat well.

Some members are experts in Photoshop and related programs, some are infrared fans, a few favor black and white, and...

Jack Neubart  |  Dec 01, 2010  | 

Berlin is a vibrant city, alive with a history, culture, and counterculture all its own. I didn’t expect to fall in love with it, but did. Interestingly, everywhere you turn in this metropolis you see huge derricks craning their necks in the midst of constructing yet another building. While many scenes may reflect this burgeoning vitality, there are countless views free of any construction...

Jack Neubart  |  Nov 01, 2010  | 

“I can trace my roots in photography back to when I was a student at the Ontario College of Art (Toronto),” Andrew Eccles recalls. “But there was one problem: back then, I found it intimidating to approach people with the camera, so I avoided photographing them.

“Then I came to New York and started studying magazines such as Rolling Stone, and, through a...

Jack Neubart  |  Oct 01, 2010  | 

“Most of the photo equipment that I use is rented,” says Atlanta, Georgia-based pro photographer David Stuart (www.davidstuart.net). “I don’t even own that much gear to begin with.”

For most of his assignments, Stuart prefers a Hasselblad H2 with a Phase One P 45+ back...

Jay McCabe  |  Oct 01, 2010  | 

I’ve shamelessly borrowed the title of E.B. White’s classic 1949 essay, and I’ve done it because my first views of Lindsay Silverman’s High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos of New York made me think of White, wandering the city, constantly re-examining its continuing spectacle in the hope that he could put it on paper.

Lindsay’s...

Steve Bedell  |  Oct 01, 2010  | 

I first met Eddie Tapp when I attended the Professional Photographers of America Judges Workshop in Atlanta in 1997. Flash forward to today when film is a niche in photography, and photographers around the world recognize Tapp as one of the premiere Photoshop/digital imaging experts in the world. He lectures and consults to individuals and corporations around the world and can be found presenting...

Roger W. Hicks  |  Sep 01, 2010  | 

The original reason for tripods was very simple. Exposures were so long that there was no alternative: no one could hold a camera still for many minutes at a time. The same remained true even when exposures dropped to a few minutes, and then to a few seconds. To this day, therefore, most people think of long exposures as the only reason for using a tripod. But there is a lot more to it than this.

Maynard Switzer  |  Sep 01, 2010  | 

In my last column I talked about fixers—the guide/translators who smooth the way and open the doors so I can get the photographs. They’re important when it comes to photographing people, especially when I don’t speak the language, which is most of the time. But while I don’t always have a fixer, I have my people skills.

The most...

Shutterbug Staff  |  Sep 01, 2010  | 

The Yale University Art Gallery and Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library announced the joint acquisition of the Lee Friedlander Archive and 2000 of the photographer’s master prints. With this acquisition, the Yale University Art Gallery becomes the largest holder of Friedlander’s work by any museum, and the Beinecke Library becomes home to the preliminary work and...

Jack Neubart  |  Aug 01, 2010  | 

Tony Arrasmith is a master at creating composite images.

His attention to detail is what draws clients to his Cincinnati studio. A long-time ASMP member, he operates Arrasmith & Associates (www.tonyarrasmith.com) in partnership with Sarah O’Dell, who manages the studio and coordinates projects. The studio has...

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