How to Photograph Jewelry

Here is another excellent article by Mike Panic over at Lightstalking

“In a previous article we covered what every beginner needs to know about product photography, a primer to this article.  Photographing jewelry is perhaps one of the more advanced and frankly frustrating disciplines one can try to master.  The practical uses can be applied to many aspects, both for fun and extra income.  This article should help you grasp a better understanding of how to create inspiring photography.

Why photography jewelry?  There’s a list of reasons, some more obvious like setting up an Etsy or eBay shop to sell items or being hired by a local jewelry store to provide photos for their website.  A less obvious reason would be to create a list of detailed photos for your home owners’ insurance, something most people overlook.  Another reason is for the sheer pleasure in taking on a challenge and successfully doing it.”

Click Here: How to Photograph Jewelry

How to Photograph the Moon

Mike Panic over at the Lightstalking site has written a useful article about photographing the moon, apparently “This weekend is “Super Moon” where the moon is the closest to earth it has been in 18 years. And it’s a full moon too! Great time to get out and do some lunar photography.”

Photo by penguinbush

“For centuries the moon as captivated people, given direction and provided hours of enjoyment and wonderment.  Being the brightest object in the night sky, it’s something photographers of all levels can shoot, however it does take planning and preparation to accomplish.

The moon is bright, but it isn’t bright enough to simply snap a photo.  It is an object that’s lit with sunlight, so nearly every aspect of preparing the shot is the same.  To achieve a nicely exposed photo, one where the moon doesn’t appear flat nor like an out of place object.  To accomplish this, let’s first look at the basic gear you’ll need.”

Click Here: How to Photograph the Moon (With 10 Great Examples)

Focus Stacking in Photoshop: How to Get Pin Sharp Macro Shots

This article by Mike Panic  is on Lightstalking

“The HDR trend has come and, for many, gone, but what came of it is the easy-to-digest concept that creating one photograph may actually require several images, then blend them together.  For HDR photography it’s the need of multiple exposures to compensate for what a digital sensor cannot do on it’s own – properly expose both highlights and lowlights in an wide range photograph without sacrifice.  With the same concept, focus stacking is also possible.

Like HDR, focus stacking comprises of two main components;  series of photos of the same subject and some creative post processing.  That’s about where the similarity ends. 

focus stack by SFB579, on Flickr

Click Here: Focus Stacking in Photoshop: How to Get Pin Sharp Macro Shots

What Every Beginner Needs to Know About Product Photography

From Mike Panic at Lightstalking

“Photography is more than just sunsets, memories of vacations, family gatherings and weddings – it’s actually in our life every single day.  Product photography ranges the gamut from cereal boxes and billboards, to the photos you see on Amazon and every other online retailer.  Someone takes those photos, and those photos require a lot of work.  Not only is it a fun profession to do, the techniques are also something that almost everyone can benefit from and apply to their own photography, even if it’s not product photography.  From listing better photos on eBay and Craigslist to broadening your existing skill set, these techniques will help round out what you already know.

Starting out, one of the most crucial things every product photographer needs to get a full grasp of is that the photography is secondary, the product comes first!  A perfect product shot will entice someone to want that item, whatever it is, so it needs to properly display what it is and convey it’s message.

Gear will vary based on what the product is, but the important thing to note is that you can start with almost any digital camera, even some of the higher end point and shoots, those which have hotshoes.  Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in a professional’s studio:”….MORE

diy product photography setup by MinimalistPhotography101.com, on Flickr

Click Here: What Every Beginner Needs to Know About Product Photography

Family Photography – tips on getting the best family portraits

By Mike Panic over at Lightstalking

“Family portraits that may be hanging in your grandparents house probably don’t look very fun, but you still enjoy them because they are photos of your loved ones.  It seems that having a formal family photo taken every year or every few years comes into vogue as soon as it goes out and right now the trend is on the uprising.  Shooting family photos don’t have to be so static and boring, like what you have seen in old albums or on the walls of your relatives homes.  Here’s some tips to ensure you don’t make catastrophic mistakes shooting families.”..…MORE

Photo by: morgan.cauch

Click Here: Do You Make These Catastrophic Mistakes in Family Photography?

5 Lessons That Model Shooting Teaches You

These little nuggets of advice are all true and part of what I teach on our Portrait Photography course starting tonight

From the Lightstalkers down-under By Mike Panic

“Working with models can be rewarding and frustrating, often all at the same time.  For many photographers shooting falls more into documenting, even if you are composing the shot.  If you think about it, wedding, engagement, family, landscapes, birding, photojournalism, and even macro photography are all ways to document what you see.  Working with a model is vastly different, and can truly change how you approach photography and people.  Over the last decade I’ve worked with countless people in the studio and on location for shoots, here’s the lessons I’ve learned.”..….MORE

Photo by: ZOBEL

The 8 Basic Things Every Photographer Should Know How to do in Photoshop

As  Mike Panic says in this article on Lightstalking, PS is a program that can confuse and irritate because of the scope of it’s options. These 8 basics are some that you should know about. I think some consideration of density controls like levels and colour controls like colour balance would be the 2 that would make it up to 10 basic things.

“Despite the name, Photoshop was created more for graphic designers, not photographers, but photographers looking to airbrush their digital files quickly adopted it as their go-to piece of software.  By the time v7 came out, specific tools, plugins and actions were being created for photographers and Photoshop could handle the RAW, or unprocessed files from digital cameras.

Anyone who’s opened up Photoshop knows it’s not exactly a straight forward application – it does take some knowledge to be proficient in it and productive.  All that aside, here’s a few tips that all photographers should know how to do in Photoshop.”

Click Here: The 8 Basic Things Every Photographer Should Know How to do in Photoshop