1000 photography links, tutorials, photographers, new camera reviews – posts

Would you believe that in the last 20 months we have made 1,000 posts about photography, wow seems like it was only a few weeks ago we dipped our toes into the world of blogging. Urged on by our favourite music blogger The Recommender to get stuck in, to share our knowledge and passion about photography; to spread the word and to bring the best photographs, photographers, tutorials, camera reviews, information about exhibitions and the wonder of the world of photography to those who care, you. Since October 2010 we have had over 120,000 views, our highest day was 957, I guess we must be doing something right some of the time.

©Steve McCurry – this is probably The Great Steve’s most famous picture but you should go and see his other work start here

We have had a look at our stats and rather encouragingly find that there is as much interest from you in the fantastic photographers we have brought to your attention as there is in cameras and tutorials. A good healthy mix we think.

Here is a list of the top 12 posts the highest has got over 6,000 views

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/top-10-compact-cameras-2011/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/light-painting/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/photographer-nan-goldins-best-shots-from-the-guardian/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/duane-michals-sequences/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/best-superzoom-bridge-cameras-2011/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/15-digital-point-and-shoot-cameras-used-by-pro-photographers/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/nikon-d800-review/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/cecil-beaton-photographer/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/steve-mccurry-london-exhibition-07092011-24092011/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/20-free-photography-ebooks/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/9-crazy-cross-eye-3d-photography-images-and-how-to-make-them/

http://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/google-photography-prize-winner-viktor-johansson/

The top aggregated photographer, that is the most views across all the posts we have made is Steve McCurry this link should get you to all the articles where we have mentioned Steve

The interesting thing we have found is how many of you are interested in the less obvious photographers, Duane Michals comes top for visits to a single post, Cecil Beaton, Nan Goldin and Dorothea Lange all feature heavily, I am sure you never thought you would see those 4 names in the same sentence.

Top camera before and after it’s release was the Nikon D800

The most viewed tutorial was on Light Painting

Our most favourite sources for finding the best photography on the web, and in no particular order are:

Lightstalking, fantastic for tutorials, tips, ideas, features

Digital-Photo-School similar to Lightstalking and also from Australia

Cambridge In Colour for the most sophisticated and intelligent tutorials

The Denver Post for some of the best photojournalism around

The Atlantic, same as The Denver Post, fantastic images from around the world

The British Journal of Photography, just the most complete magazine for photographers

The Pixelated Image blog, David DuChemin is just the man, what a photographer an eye with soul

Photo Tuts for Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials

DP Review, where you find out about cameras, the best review site

Steve’s Digicams, as DP Review a great place to find out about cameras

Tripwire Magazine, we like this for general articles on photography

Magnum, the world’s most famous photo agency, we love this bit Magnum In Motion

Photography Served, a place for finding new photographers with great work

Photography Now, such a beautiful site showcasing the works of the masters of photography

There are undoubtedly lots more we could include here but if you are a regular to our site you will know who we love as inspiration and as a source of great articles.

We have had such great response to the articles we post, the sharing is the thing, finding what is wonderful and putting it out there. We greatly appreciate hearing from you and would welcome more ‘finds’ from you, would consider articles or portfolios you may wish to share with the thousands of like minded people we reach. Here is to the next 1000 posts

Keith Barnes, Oxford School of Photography

Does That Little Flip Up Diffuser Actually Help?

From The Digital Photo School over in Australia comes the answer to an often asked question in class.

“Not all flashes have these two items that cover the flash head and pull straight out, but if yours does and you’ve always wondered, here is your answer.”

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/does-that-little-flip-up-diffuser-actually-help#ixzz1kkeh2MN2

7 Deadly Mistakes You Might Be Making On Your Photography Website

Digital Photography School brings you this advice

“Google tells us that there are almost one million photography websites on the web right now. This is bad news for you. The good news is that most of these websites suck. Photographers keep making the same mistakes over and over again, never getting the best out of their websites.

This post will show you what are these deadly mistakes and how you can fix them in order to get ahead of your competition.”

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/7-deadly-mistakes-you-might-be-making-on-your-photography-website#ixzz1Y9igpGa5

Here’s mine

What Everybody Ought to Know About Posing for Portraits

Portraiture is a very popular area of photography, assuming you have family or friends… you probably like taking pictures of them, you get something and so do they. There are many technical issues to consider but the thing that causes most photographers problems is how to help their subjects pose.

We spend a whole session on this in our Portrait course, the next starts on 5th October if you are in Oxford and would like to be a better photographer. If you don’t live near Oxford you may find this post by Darren Rowse on his Digital Photo Schoolblog very useful. He has gathered together a  number of tips from around the web that will help you to pose your subjects better. The 9 different tips include subject areas like hands, power posing?, thighs, bums and other bits…Here is a link to Darren’s post

5 Ideas to Kick Start Your Photography Again

This useful little article by Darren Rowse over at Digital Photography School might be just what you need to get going again

“Last week I was speaking with an amateur photographer who told me that he’s been struggling for photographic inspiration and ideas lately.

He reflected that he felt like he’d become something of a lazy photographer and was in a bit of a rut – always photographing the same things in the same ways.

I shared a number of ideas from my own experiences of seeking photographic inspiration (some of which I’ll share below) but it struck me halfway through the conversation that a lot of the ideas I was suggesting was actually about him limiting himself in his photography in some way – in order to find inspiration.”...more

Are You in a Photography Rut? 11 Tips to Get Out of It

Every photographer hits a wall at one point or another. Here are a few tips to keep things fresh and new. These tips from digital photo school by Valerie Jardin are all valid. I recommend offering your services to a charity on our Intermediate Course

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/are-you-in-a-photography-rut-11-tips-to-get-out-of-it#ixzz1SCpx2SIm

12 Ways to Add Randomness and Creativity to Your Photography

Darren, over at Digital Photo School, has penned this tutorial about taking chances and adding some originality through randomness. This is a technique I recommend to students on our Intermediate Photography course as a way of exploring creative potential.

“One of the wonderful things about digital photography is the creativity that you can engage in once you’ve got your image on your computer and in Photoshop. All kinds of effects can be achieved to make your shots look any number of ways.

But what about in-camera techniques for more creative and artistic shots? Here are twelve fun in-camera hacks to experiment with to get more abstract and artistic shots”

Read more: 

More Flexible Lightroom to Photoshop Editing

If you work in Lightroom, at some stage you’ll probably want to take an image to Photoshop for some additional processing. How you send it to Photoshop will have an impact on the options available to you. One option in Lightroom is to take an image to Photoshop as a Smart Object and that has some advantages. Here’s how to do it and why you might consider using this feature....more

This tutorial is by Helen Bradley  a Lifestyle journalist who divides her time between the real and digital worlds, picking the best from both. You can view her site at helenbradley.com. She writes and produces video instruction for Photoshop and digital photography for magazines and online providers world wide. She has also written four books on photo crafts and blogs at Projectwoman.com. This tutorial is on Digital-Photo-School.com

Critique your pictures – see more clearly -make better images

One of the skills we try to teach on our courses is how to read a picture and how to critique, this means looking critically at an image and determining what it is about, how it is formed and how it could be better. We feel at OSP that this is a vital part of becoming a better photographer and on many of our courses we set up blog sites where the students upload work and discuss each others images. Sounds a bit scary but it is so valuable and everyone benefits. We call it learning to see.

Christina N Dickson writes about this process in this interesting article on The Digital Photo School site,

“There comes a point in your photographic development when all of your images seem “pretty good”. Whether you are a professional or an amateur, this is the place where you like what you create, and even if there are a few little things that you would change, you’re ok with the results.

There is no better feeling for an artist than to love and enjoy the art you create. This is a wonderful place to be – so long as it doesn’t keep you from progressing in your craft.

Art is something that is developed over time. It is grown. It is reborn. As you are deliberate in the art you create, your craft will go to new heights.

So how do you work on your skills as a photographer? How do you “evaluate” what you need to change? What techniques you need to work on? How do you learn see new artistic possibilities?”...more

This is a nice picture from the article but Christina finds ways of improving it, have a look and try to work out what you might have done differently and then read what she says

 

Street Photography for the Novice

When I was younger street photography was not a problem, even if people didn’t like having their pictures taken there was rarely a problem just a poor shot. These days everyone thinks they have rights, even though in a public space they don’t, which means try pointing your camera at people in the street and you will get some trouble. This article By Kimberly Gauthier on the Digital Photo School site is actually full of good suggestions.

“Street photography is a fantastic idea in theory, but when I first took a crack at taking pictures on the streets of Downtown Seattle, I got nothing. I walked around for an hour, spotting great photo ops, holding my camera tight against my chest, waiting for someone to either yell at me for taking their picture or steal my camera. It took a couple of years to get up the nerve to start taking pictures and now I always take my camera into the city. Here are 10 tips that helped me get over my street photography shyness.” ….more

Here are some images from the greatest street photographer