insights into photography
by Darren Rowse at Digital Phot School
“It’s just a few days until Christmas so I thought a quick tutorial on the topic of Christmas Photography might be appropriate. Hopefully this will give you some good Christmas photo ideas.
Here are 16 Christmas Photography tips and ideas to try that come to mind for digital camera owners wanting to capture the big day:”….MORE
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
While micro cameras are getting all the headlines, with their raw file and video capture abilities plus their interchangeable lenses, compacts still have their place as truly pocketable snap cameras. Kevin Carter reviews four of the best….more Author: Kevin Carter at The BJP
Perhaps because our Travel Photography Course starts next week, or maybe because in the summer I think of travel, not that I ever travel in the summer, I seem to be drawn to articles about travel photography. Did you see the fantastic images from the 2 posts yesterday from Steve McCurry and Jo Bendal?
Anyway here is another article on travel editorial photography from the Digital-Photo-School people
“If you’re ever given a travel assignment by a magazine – or hope to get one – you need to learn how to tell the story of a location. Flip through the pages of any of your favorite travel magazines and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. It’s all the elements that come together to show what tourists want to see – the places, people, food and culture of a location.” Read more
So often the term HDR sends me into a spasm of frustration, used well it can be a terrific aid to digital photography just have a look at CambridgeInColour.com to see what I mean. Dave Hill also uses HDR, not as CIC to make something look more realistic but to give the image a different quality whilst still managing to avoid the HDR overkill. David Hill, a well-known commercial photographer and artist uses HDR to good effect. The visual impact and distinctive post processing look of Dave Hill’s work is very strong, which has become to be known as “The Dave Hill Look”. His work doesn’t come from a 2 minute procedure in Photoshop. I think this is can not be done by simply using an action. It seems Dave spends hours on his photos to get that stunning result, there is just too much detail on every image, his lighting setup isn’t common, it’s specifically apply as a finishing touch for image. So without further ado, we present you with 18 Astonishing HDR Photography of David Hill. Btw, don’t forget to visit Dave Hill‘s site to see more of his work. There is more from this article here
“Inspiration is important for photographers, web and visual designers. It’s what gives you new ideas, shapes and influences your style, and energizes and increases your passion for visual art. And visual art that’s of a different medium from yours can be an even greater inspiration—like photography—since you’re getting a fresh outside perspective.”………..check out what magazines you can download here
Ed Verosky at About Photography has a gentle tilt towards shooting film, here he describes the experience in a reflective way
“It’s not uncommon to hear photographers talk about digital as something they really appreciate for its efficiencies. But when you bring film into the conversation, sometimes it’s like mentioning an old flame to someone stuck in a marriage of convenience. Some photographers just love film, even though they know they have to spend most of their lives with digital now.
Compared to digital photography, film can take on the allure of novelty, the tactile senses, and authenticity”.……..more
I am less convinced by the need to return to film, I spent 40 years of my life shooting, developing and printing film, black and white and colour, and everything in-between, yes there is an in-between. I think the appeal of film is the reduced number of decisions you have to make by comparison with digital and the need not to learn more stuff. But I love learning new stuff, digital saved me from a life of having been there, seen it, done it. I also love not smelling of fixer and having stained clothes. When I speak to young photography students and am told that their tutors insist they start off by learning about black and white film I wonder if the tutors are just too lazy to fully engage with digital, in the end for me the image is everything getting there is a journey and digital offers more opportunities to leave the highway and to explore. Having said all of that the majority of the best pictures ever taken were shot on black and white film, here are some
Irving Penn
Alfred Steiglitz
Richard Avedon
We run a Black and White Digital course starting 13th June, details are here
Caroline is a long time friend of the the Photographers Workshop in the past having used our darkrooms to hone her black and white printing skills. When we closed the darkrooms and converted completely to digital she bought a couple of enlargers and set up her own darkroom. She has an exhibition of black and white prints at The North Wall Gallery in north Oxford,
Caroline Seymour : Pilgrimage into the Body
Caroline Seymour presents a new series of work; in her own words, “a meditative exploration of the body: a pilgrimage to its many sites, which attempts to express the intimacy of experience of another human being.”
For those without access to a darkroom but still wishing to gain expertise in black and white photography we run a Black and White Digital photography course starting 13th June
Color management is a hot topic and perhaps the most complicated subject in all of digital photography. Everyone perceives and sees colors slightly differently. Even for a professional photographer to get the colors just right on a print made in their own office is no small feat with a custom profile and some fine-tuning of the image. Hence, it is no wonder that the switch to digital has been a little troublesome for many photographers and photo editors. Read more of this useful article with links to other sites that may help you understand how to improve your print output
Canon move ever onward, the new 600D is ready for release in March, here is the first review by the very well respected DP review site and there is more from the official Canon site here. It has new features such as the articulated monitor now a standard for new cameras and a whopping 18 megapixels, that will eat up your memory.
Ever since Canon introduced its original ‘Digital Rebel‘ back in August 2003 – famously the first ‘affordable’ digital SLR – the company has continually developed and refined its entry-level line with ever-more-frequent releases, adding in more and more features in the process. So true to form, almost precisely a year to the day after the launch of the Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D comes the next model, predictably named the Rebel T3i / EOS 600D. As usual the 550D remains in Canon’s range at a lower price point, with the newly-announced EOS 1100D slotting in beneath it to round off the company’s offerings to entry-level SLR users.
The new kid on the block can most succinctly be described as a 550D with an articulated screen, that also incorporates many of the beginner-friendly features we first saw on the more enthusiast-orientated EOS 60D. Perhaps most notable of these is ‘Basic+’, a simple, results-orientated approach to image adjustments in the scene-based’ exposure modes that allows the user to change the look of their images and control background blur without needing to know anything technical about how this all works. The 600D also gains multi-aspect ratio shooting plus the 60D’s ‘Creative Filters’, a range of effects than can be applied to images after shooting, including toy camera, fisheye and fake-miniature looks. Additionally it can now wirelessly control off-camera flashes, including the Speedlite 320EX and 270EX II announced alongside it.
Oxford School of Photography 