SHORT AND SWEET 2.
1. Night photography in urban locations can be greatly
enhanced when you include traffic abstractions. Long exposures capture streaks of light, and that embellishes any city scene. I typically use 8 to 10 second exposures. Take a few test shots to determine the f/stop and ISO. Light meter readings can be inaccurate at night.
You can get a star effect when shooting at the sun by using a wide angle lens and a small lens aperture. For this shot of tulips in Holland, I used a 14mm wide angle lens and an aperture of f/22. I didn’’t use a filter. The smaller the lens aperture, the more defined the star burst is.
3. Flood is one of my favorite plugins for Photoshop.
4.
Create realistic watery reflections even in the desert where there is no water at all. This model was posing in Death Valley, California, and she was surrounded by sand dunes. Using Flood, I created a reflection and made her look like she was standing on an island.
Photographing black and white subjects is tricky when it comes to exposure. The black areas can cause the resulting images to be too light, thereby possibly blowing the highlights. Watch the histogram to make sure it is not spiking on the right side. That’s the ultimate barameter to insuring detail hasn’t been lost. §
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