WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Winter can offer some really great pictures but it is very difficult shooting them and could be very challenging.With our tips we want to help you through the process.
1.Dress warmly-The mos important thing is to keep your self warm because you could stay many ours in very low temperatures freezing your self to death.You have to be very careful especially for the head because it is the primary source of heat loss so I advice you to use wool pull-down hat that covers your ears.And you can use chemical hand warmers,they are very practical.
2.Protect your camera-If you want to shoot during snow fall you have to protect your camera because the snow on it can freeze it and block it so you may use a commercial rain cover.Another important thing is not to warm your camera as it can create condensation and damage it.
3.Careful with batteries-I advice you to take some extra batteries with you and keep them in a warm place,lets say in your coat pocket,as the cold can zap out energy from your batteries.
4.Watch your breath-don't release it in front of the view finder as you can create vapor which instantly becomes a film of ice and becomes unusuable for a long period of time.And also careful and do not warm your lenses as it can be

very problematic and even loose all day without shooting.
5.Tripod-Always carry your tripod but careful with it as it can also be damaged by cold temperatures and snow.Maybe you would want to keep is legs all together,push them slowly to the snow and then spread them so you can protect them from damages.
6.Exposure-Is the most important thing you have to learn to shoot in cold winter.Because you often have big surface with snow which is very white your camera meter sees it as overexposed and tends to make it a medium gray tone which we don't want.The way to avoid this is to overexpose the meter reading(but be sure to meter just snow ) depending upon the lighting conditions,let say ,+1.5 to +2 for sunny midday condition or if lighting is more subdued:Early morning or late day,or heavy overcast you have to go to +1/2 to +1.If you are using an automatic point and shoot camera and you have an exposure lock button,you can compensate by filling the frame of the view finder with a Darker area and depress the exposure lock button.The camera meter will overexpose the scene upon the dark area that you metered.You can shoot a photo with this procedure and another exposed automatically and choose whose the best.Careful so that the metered scene is not to dark.If your camera has a spot meter function sometimes shown as a rectangle with a center dot use it to pre-focus on a non-white object and then shoot.This will help you a lot.
7.Remember you have to shoot in Raw so you can change some things after and make your photos better.

FIREWORKS PHOTOGRAPHY

Firework can offer a great view and we all want to have some memories of them,but capturing them in a photograph can be a little bit difficult and needs a lot of practice.Here are some tips to help you throw this process.
1.USE A TRIPOD-and must be a good one if you want to do the best.It would be very helpful to use a remote cable so you avoid all the camera shaking caused by your finger,if not you have to work without it and try to do the best or use your camera timing by setting it 1 sec.
2.CHOOSE THE RIGHT SPOT-It's very important to be in the best position.And also could be great if you enter in your frame some important object like a palace or a bridge.Having water in the foreground could create a beautiful reflection of the firework and is also great.But you have to avoid crowded places so you will not take shoulders or heads of people.Stay in a high place let say a high palace or somewhere else where you can be alone.
3.CAREFUL WITH THE WEATHER-The most import factor is the wind that can spread the smoke and damages your shoots.so you should be extra careful and avoid taking it on the frame.
4.SHUTTER SPEED-you have to use a shutter speed between 1-4 sec,not less that doesn't give the effect you want and not more because it will just cause a washed out image.But in some cameras you can use a preset option called bulb or just use night mode.
5.APERTURE PRIORITY-The best values are between f8 and f16.If You narrow it more than f16 you image will not me sharp enough.
6.ISO-You have to use ISO at 100 because if it higher it will introduce noise to you photo.
7.TURN OFF FLASH LIGHT-as it want help you with distance photos,on the contrary it will cause damages.
8.SHOOT A LOT-in order for you to get the best picture you have to take a lot shoots so I advice you to take a high capacity memory card and extra batteries,you may need them.
9.FRAME-Some would prefer a vertical shoot but this is not important,it depends on what do you want to include on the frame.
10.HAVE FUN

BLUE SKY EFFECT

1-Shoot with a blue sky-this means that in order fort you to
obtain blue sky on your photos you should have a blue sky,doesn't matter if its a little pale because you can fix it easely,but in order for you to improve an overcast sky you must go throw a lot of trouble.In this article we will talk about adjusting your existing blue sky.How to make it a deep blue.

2-Shoot in Raw-always shoot in raw as you have more possibility to make changes on your picture without damaging it,for example you can change your color temperature,or exposure or you can use even presets to make your work look better in an easy way.But if this is not enough we will pass to the other tip that means working it with digital darkroom.
3-Photoshop-With the help of photoshop we can change sky color without using any polarising filter but still have a similar effect. Here we are not going to use hue end saturation layer but we are using something else that gives a close effect with the polarising filter.All we have to is go to IMAGE option on the top of your photoshop window and select ADJUSTMENT and then SELECTIVE COLOR.Inside the SELECTIVE COLOR change the color to blues.Now I advice you to change black bar but it all depends on the photo you want to adjust so you have to play will colors until you create the color of the sky you wanted.This is just a simple and fast way to change the blue of the sky and make it darker,for other cases like overcast sky,over exposed and other we will talk in other articles..

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

First we will give you some tips on how to shoot B&W photography than why a photo will be better if presented in B&W.

The tips to shoot in B&W are:

1.SHOOT IN COLOR-yes even if you want a B&W photography you should shoot in colors because you can turn it in B&W later very easily.IF you shoot in B&W you cant turn it back in colors,plus there is another problem that some cameras don't have an option in shooting B&W.

2.SHOOT IN RAW-like every other kind of photos you should shoot in because it gives you more freedom processing it after.Another great thing of shooting in raw is that you can shoot with B&W option so you can control how your subject looks in B&W and still have it in color when transfering it on your PC

3.USE LOW ISO-this is a very important factor,because a high ISO can give noise to your picture and when you transform it in B&W it can ruin your photo and could be hard or even impossible to remove all the noise.

4.SHOOT IN LOW CONT RAST SITUATION-you have to choose days with overcast sky,even that these pictures don't look good in colors they can be amazing in B&W.The over exposed sky in these situation is much easier to ignore and the viewer can be more focused on the subject.

5.COMPOSING-most of the tips given for other kind of photography van be applied in B&W.You have to be extra careful to shapes and texture.and you have to be careful with shadows and highlights.

Now this last tip takes as to the second part of the article,

and learn why we have to do B&W photography.

1.B&W photographys can express emotions sometimes better than color photography.So you can use it with portaits very well.They heighten the drama of your subject and lets your viewer focus better in you subject without the colors that can distract.Skin tones with B&W are better without blemishings,blotches...

2.Photos in B&W are more romantic that why more and more couples prefer their wedding photos in B&W.It makes the photos classic, timeless and therefor romantic.So you can shoot baby portrait,family portraits,wedding photographs

3.B&W can be beautiful in landscape photography,especially with an overcast sky.You have to try it both ways and choose which is better :color or B&W.It gives interesting texture, lines or patterns in nature giving it a poetic feeling.

4.You can use B&W photos and let just one color stand out so that the viewer can focus on what you tell him to.This could be a great way to present your picture.
At last after all B&W is great
because it creates images that are so personal and meaningful.So remember you have to practice and one day you will get your perfect picture.GOOD LUCK

FALL PHOTOGRAPHY

Now that the fall has come you have the chance to shoot breath- taking photos because of the great variety of colors it offers.With our tips we will help you doing the best picture ever.
1.Like every other landscape photography the best time for shooting is in the early morning or during the sunset.I would prefer during sunset cause of the golden glow it gives to the photo
2.It is better to shoot with an overcast sky because the diffusion of the light is better and you avoid bright sunny light that washes out your colors.But with an overcast sky you have to leave the sky out of the picture or it will be a disaster.
3.You can use a polarising filter as it help make colors more intense.Or you can under- expose by a half stop to intensify colors without a filter.
4.You have to use a tripod if you want sharp results.
5.Use the rule of thirds to frame your image. Imagine your viewfinder is divided into thirds vertically and horizontally. Compose the image so that the main subject is located at one of the intersections of the third lines.
6.Play with the white balance so you can warm up the colors temperature just a little.
7.The mos important thing of all,concentrate on your subject,what do you want to use as foreground and background.Try different position until you find the perfect one.Simplify you picture by letting out all distracting objects.
8.You have to search for contrast for example leaves in a bright blue sky cause they are very pretty
9.Remember you have to use all the tips above so you can take the best picture you can but than you have to develop it with digital darkroom like photoshop, lightroom,etc.I advice to shoot in Raw.You can use curves an levels for better contrast colors without damaging your photo.But this will be subject for another article.