Jim Zuckerman’s
PH OTO I N S I G HTS
July 2019
Interior HDR Panos Impossible metering scenarios Fractals Photo tours Student showcase Ask Jim 1
4. HDR Panoramas 11. Impossible metering scenarios 18. Fractals 20. Ebooks 27. What’s wrong with this picture? 30. Short and Sweet 31. Ask Jim 32. Photo tours 34. Student showcase 40. Back issues 43. Subject index for Photo Insights 2
On the cover: 5- year old little girl participating in the Jember Fashion Carnival, Jember, Indonesia. This page: Wildflowers on the east coast of Scotland.
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erhaps the most difficult concept to grasp in photography for beginners -- even intermediate shooters -- is that cameras and lenses do not capture what we see with our eyes. Sometimes pictures come close to what we see, but it’s never the same. Often, there is a huge disconnect between our built-in vision and how manmade optics interpret a scene. Consider, for example, that we never see shallow depth of field with our eyes. Out of focus backgrounds are a manmade optical construct mostly with long lenses. Telephoto lenses also compress elements in a scene. We never see this. Wide angle lenses elongate perspective, push distant elements seemingly further away, and make foregrounds disproportionately large when compared to the background. We see none of this with our eyes. A normal lens (50mm in the full frame digital format) comes closest to our vision, but unless it is used at f/22 or f/32 for complete depth of field, it looks like a poor attempt to mimic human sight. And don’t forget, lenses don’t have peripheral vision and capture only twodimensional imagery. We see in 3D. In assessing a subject or scene for picture taking, you can’t try to ‘capture what you see.’ That will never work and you’ll always be disappointed with the photographs. Instead, you have to previsualize how the pictures will turn out based on how your lenses interpret the subjects. The phrase I use is ‘think as the lens sees.’ When you can imagine in your mind how a wide angle lens renders a scene and, at the same time, visualize what a telephoto does before you look through the lens, your photography will take a quantum leap forward. Jim Zuckerman photos@jimzuckerman.com www.jimzuckerman.com
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Great Ceilings &
HDR PANORAMAS I
want to share an amazing technique with you. It is the most unique way to capture spectacular ceilings in cavernous rooms such as in cathedrals, theaters, and palaces, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking. When we think of a panorama image composite where several frames have been digitally stitched together, it usually involves a horizontal image. This technique is typically used for landscapes as in the picture of the Grand Tetons, below. For this picture, I turned the camera 90 degrees and took 7 frames with a vertical (i.e. portrait) orientation. This approach makes it easier for the software to combine the images that comprise the final panorama. Interiors You can use the same technique with a slight
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modification for large interior spaces. Study the picture on the next page. This is an 8-frame panorama of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. I started with capturing the alter as you can see in the bottom of the frame, and it covers almost 180 degrees. The top of the frame is the entrance into the cathedral which originally was behind me as I faced the alter. I didn’t continue all the way down to the floor because there were too many tourists in the way. For each of the 8 frames, or panels, I held the camera horizontally (i.e. landscape orientation). In addition, each panel consists of a 7-frame HDR composite. Because of the extreme contrast between the very bright stained glass windows and the dark shadows in so many recesses within the huge room, the only way to reveal all the beautiful and artistic detail was to use the
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HDR technique. Most cathedrals either overtly prohibit -- or definitely frown upon -- the use of tripods, so that left me with only one option: Hand hold the camera during each 7-frame bracketed sequence of pictures. Camera settings A handheld HDR sequence in a dark interior requires forethought to render a sharp image. 1. The aperture must be the largest available on the lens to let in as much light as possible. Depth of field is not a consideration. 2. A wide angle lens must be used, and the wider the better. Not only does a wide lens encompass more of the beautiful architecture, but it also minimizes apparent movement from handholding the camera. 3. Use manual exposure mode so the exposure doesn’t vary according to discrepancies of light in the room. 4. Take test shots, varying the shutter and the ISO, until you determine what settings produce a good exposure. Raise the ISO until the shutter speed is fast enough to hand hold the camera. For example, 1/60 at f/4 or 1/45 at f/2.8. The wider the lens, the slower shutter you can use. 5. Decide how many frames you want to have in the HDR sequence. More contrast in the scene means you need more frames. If you use only 3 frames, I would use 2-f/stop increments between frames. For 5 or 7 frame sequences, I use one f/stop increments between frames. 6. Determine the slowest shutter speed needed in the sequence of frames. For example, if you use a 5-frame sequence, that means two frames lighter than the mid-exposure shot and two 6
frames darker. Slow shutter speeds produce the lighter frames. If the mid-exposure shot is, say, 1/60 at f/4, then the two lighter frames will be produced by shutter speeds of 1/30 and 1/15. Since 1/15th of a second is too slow to hand hold the camera, the ISO must be raised until that speed is faster. Even 1/30th of a second is very slow, but with an extreme wide angle, such as a 14mm or 16mm, you can get away with it and still end up with a sharp picture. With a 24mm lens, I would make the slowest shutter speed 1/60. So, if 1/15th of a second needs to be increased two f/stops to 1/60, the ISO needs to be raised two stops -- for example from 1600 to 6400, or from 800 to 3200. The noise issue is a concern, obviously, but there are two things in your favor. First, Neat Image software is super at reducing or eliminating noise without softening the image. Second, noise is random. When you composite together the frames that comprise the HDR sequence, noise is minimized simply by laying the images on top of each other. Using a high ISO in a dark cathedral is necessary if tripods are not allowed, but you can still produce a fine quality image. Finally, use the fastest frame rate available on your camera. This helps align the images and the software has a greater likelihood of superimposing all of the images perfectly with no ghosting. The technique To underscore the symmetry in cathedral interiors and other striking architectural wonders, you must stand dead-center left-to-right in the
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room. If you are off-center by even a small amount, lines will be skewed in a way that degrades the image. Next, spread your legs apart to give you a firm stance on the floor. Choose a starting point. This may or may not include the floor. Hold the camera in a horizontal orientation and compose the shot. Make sure that the center of the viewfinder is aligned with the center of the architecture. Hold your breath momentarily and squeeze the shutter gently to fire off the HDR bracketed exposures. Raise the camera such that the next composition overlaps the previous one by about 50%. Take the second HDR sequence. Repeat this process until you have photographed directly above you. At this point, turn 180 degrees so you now face the opposite direction in the room, reposition the camera so the next sequence approximately coincides with the last composition, and keep taking HDR sequences until you get to a point where you want to stop. Remember to overlap each group of shots by 50%. The total number of panels -- i.e. HDR bracketed photo groups -- should be 7 or 8. This really depends on the width of the lens you’re using and how much you overlap. Post-processing Putting all of these images together is a bit laborious, but it’s not as bad as you might imagine. First, put the HDR panels together. Each panel, or group of bracketed shots, will consist of 3, 5, or 7 images. Go through the procedure in Pho8
toshop, Photomatix, Aurora, or Nik Software to produce the HDR composites. You will end up with probably 7 or 8 images. Use the identical settings within the software to tweak the color, contrast, shadows, highlights, and clarity in each panel. Once this is done, go through the procedure to stitch these panels into the final panorama. Here is the stitching procedure: 1. Open Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. Browse the HDR images that need to be stitched and select them. 2. In the Adobe Camera Raw dialog box, choose Tools > Photoshop > photo merge. If you use Lightroom, right click and choose photo merge and then panorama. 3. Below you can see the dialog box that appears when using ACR. Select all of the photos for the panorama (red arrow) and make sure to click the box at the bottom: ‘Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas.’ (green arrow). This directs
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Photoshop to use content-aware technology to fill in gaps between the panels. Instead of cropping to eliminate places in the panorama image that don’t flow well, Photoshop fills them in now with (usually) seemless perfection. When you hit the OK button, the panorama stitched image is put together. You’ll see some ‘marching ants’ showing you where contentaware was used, so simply choose Select > deselect. The results What you end up with is nothing like what you see. The distortion in the columns, arches, ceiling, and windows is the software’s attempt to connect the lines and design of the panels
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that comprise the panorama. As you can see in the image below as well as in the other images in this article, the distortion is pretty wild. Nevertheless, the results are visually compelling and extremely unique. One thing to notice is that during the picture taking process, when you turn 180 degrees at the midpoint, the left and right sides of the architecture are switched. In the final stitched composite, though, the software senses this and makes the continuity flawless. Also, be aware of the detail you can see in the stained glass windows and in the shadow areas. This is due to the use of HDR. To reveal the beauty of these cavernous rooms, it is essential to combine HDR with the panorama perspective. §
Impossible Metering Scenarios T
here are a number of photographic situations in which a light meter -either hand held or built into your camera -- can’t be used to determine an accurate exposure. Meters work on the principle of being able to read or interpret a subject or scene with middle gray tones. The color isn’t important; a subject could be middle red, middle blue, or middle yellow. Light meters are designed to read middle tones and, based on that, give you the correct f/stop, shutter speed, and ISO combination for a properly exposed photograph.
Fireworks With fireworks, there are no middle tones for a meter to read. The sky is black and the bursts of fire are quite bright. In this instance, how do you determine the exposure? The answer is trial and error. Take a few test shots to determine the correct settings, then switch to manual exposure mode so those settings aren’t influenced by the night sky or the explosions. My settings for fireworks are 2 seconds, f/14, and 100 ISO. You can vary the length of the
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streaks by varying the shutter speed. The longer the shutter is open, the longer the streaks will be. Lightning Lightning is another impossible subject for a light meter to read. The eletrical burst is too brief and the contrast too extreme for meters. Again, trial and error is the only way to determine a correct exposure. When I shoot only the sky at night, as I did in the picture at right, the exposure I use is f/8 at 200 ISO. I open the shutter for 30 seconds and hope to get a lightning burst in that time. I continually use 30 second exposures until the storm passes. The length of time the shutter is open does not affect the exposure. If you include a landscape or cityscape in the
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composition, then the exposure settings must take into consideration these elements. I took
the picture on the previous page from the balcony of my B & B room in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with 30 seconds, f/16, and 200 ISO. Note with the smaller f/stop the sky is dark but the highlights in the cityscape aren’t overexposed. I first took some test shots of the city to make sure I didn’t blow the highlights of the illuminated buildings. Depending on atmospheric conditions and the distance of the lightning bolts from the shooting position, you may need to vary your settings. Study the initial pictures by looking at the LCD monitor . . . not the histogram. With lightning shots, the histogram is as uselss as the meter. The Milky Way Another impossible-to-expose-for situation is
the Milky Way. There are no middle tones in the night sky. After a few test shots, you will be able to determine the correct settings. The two main considerations, though, are: 1) the shutter speed shouldn’t be more than 20 seconds (if you are using a tripod) because the stars start to become streaks, and 2) the ISO shouldn’t be raised to crazy heights or the resulting images will be too noisy. 3200 ISO or less is ideal. My settings for the picture above of an old grain elevator in the Palouse region of Washington State were 20 seconds, f/2.8, and 2000 ISO. I used a 15mm focal length lens for the shot. White on white A white subject on a white background presents the same challenge for a meter -- there are no middle tones from which an accurate reading 13
MOROCCO PHOTO TOUR October 18 - 31, 2020 Exotic culture
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Camel train at sunset
Blue City
Great portraits
can be taken. The male snowy owl flying just inches above a snow field, below, is a perfect example. There is no way a meter could accurately read this scene. There are only two ways to correctly determine the accurate reading for a picture like this. 1) Use a handheld light meter and use incident mode. This reads the light falling on the scene, not the light bouncing off the snow. Reflected light is what in-camera meters use, and it is only accurate when the subject is middle toned. If most of the scene is very dark (like a night sky) or very light (like a snow field), reflected light is no longer dependable. 2) Switch to manual exposure mode and take take test shots of the scene. Determine which settings work best, then set the lens aperture and shutter speed along with the ISO you’ve
chosen. You can’t use the blanket rule that some instructors teach and overexpose by a certain amount -- such as 1-1/3 f/stops. This may or may not work, depending on how much of the scene is white and what exposure mode you’re using. Take the guesswork out of the equation and judge the exposure by what you see on the LCD screen and not the histogram. Shooting the sun The sun is so bright that a meter has no idea what to do with it. This is particularly true when using a long lens and the sun is huge in the frame as in the Kenyan landscape on the next page. Due to the brilliance of the light, the picture will automatically be very dark. To arrive at the correct exposure, use the exposure compensation feature built into every digital camera. My settings of the tree silhouette in Kenya were 1/1600, f/14, and 200 ISO. §
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POST-PROCESSING online course by Jim Zuckerman
Learn how to process your images to give them visual impact. You will be introduced to Photoshop techniques that go beyond what you see and even beyond what you can imagine. This four-week course is invaluable to making your pictures look as good as the photographs you envy! You will receive detailed critiques on the images you submit for every lesson. The great thing about online courses is that they can fit into any schedule. Life gets in the way at times, and Jim puts no limit on the time you can submit your work for his critiques. CLICK ON THIS PHOTO to read more about the course.
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F
FRACTALS
ractals are graphic representations of simple mathematical formulae. Patterns are repeated over and over, and the results -- with an infusion of color -- can be quite spectacular. Software programs are used to generate fractals. The designs you make are amazing, but if you want to delve deeper into the creative possibilities, you can bring the patterns and designs you’ve created -- like the one below -into Photoshop. Combine it with other photographs, tweak the color and contrast, distort it, mirror it, or modify it in any way you can think of. Some of the fractal software you’ll find online is free, and some programs require a mod-
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est payment. If you want to create hi res images of fractals, you’ll need to purchase a license for the software. I made all of the images in this article with Ultra Fractal 6 Creative Edition, and the price is currently $49 or 49 Euros in Europe (ultrafractal.com). To learn how to produce fractals, there are tutorial videos on youtube.com as well as an online manual. At first, it seems a bit daunting because all of the sliders and boxes to check seem foreign and don’t make sense compared to what you are used to selecting in Photoshop or Lightroom. Trial and error is the key. Sometime you’ll change a parameter and nothing happens, and sometimes there is a radical
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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Carnival in Venice Workshop Outrageous costumes in a medieval environment! Venice is great to visit and photograph any time, but during Carnival it’s magical. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world. Exotic masks, stunning colors, classic images.
Feb. 14 - 20, 2020
Snowy owls workshop Stunning pictures of snowy owls in flight. Up close and personal encounters with owls in the wild. Based near Toronto, Canada.
January 20-23, 2020
Photoshop Workshop The setting is in my home, and in this two day workshop you’ll learn enough to be truly dangerous in Photoshop! How to replace a sky, how to fix all kinds of photographic problems in your pictures, how to handle blown highlights, how to be incredibly creative . . . and more.
October 19 - 20, 2019
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Expand your photographic artistry with
eBooks
Click on any ebook to see inside
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eBooks continued Click on any ebook to see inside
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change in the fractal. I will get you started using the program, and then you will want to review the tutorials to go deeper into the software. Getting started When the program opens, go to File > new > fractal. You will see a dialog box shown at right. These are base fractal designs, and you simply choose one. The wild colors and amazing designs have yet to be introduced. After you’ve made a selection by double clicking it -- and over time you’ll want to experiment with all of them -- three controls become active. 1) The ‘I’ key allows you to infinitely zoom into the fractal. Hit it and you’ll zoom in a certain
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amount, then hit it again to zoom further, etc. 2) The ‘O’ key allows you to zoom out. 3) Holding the Command key on a Mac or the Control key on a PC allows you to drag the fractal in any direction you want. You’ll use these commands all the time.
When you select a fractal pattern, you’ll see the dialog box at right. Click the Outside tab indicated by the red arrow and then choose the tiny icon shown by the green arrow. Here is where the fun begins. In a new dialog box, you’ll be presented with many permutations of the fractal you’ve chosen. Pick one. Then, in the tool bar, select the gradient icon (cyan arrow, below). This opens up a dialog box shown on page 25. This is one way to manipulate the color of the fractal. The magenta arrow points to a slider that shifts the colors within the gradient chart. If you
want to introduce additional colors or change the color spectrum completely, use the various handles (blue arrow). These can be pulled and dragged just like the curves dialog box in Photoshop. 23
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computer, use the pulldown menu command Fractal > render to disc. In the dialog box that opens, choose the destination folder where the rendered image will be saved. I choose the tiff file format option to maintain the highest quality. Once you’ve saved the file, you can bring it into Photoshop and tweak the color gamut, go from positive to negative (Image > adjustments > invert), mirror the image (as I did in the picture below which consists of four identical images mirrored horizontally as well as vertically), apply various types of distortion, or combine the fractal with another image. Or, you can simply do nothing and let the fractals stand on their own as works of art. If you like abstracts, you’ll love working with fractals.§
In the Fractal Properties dialog box above, the width and height fields (green arrow) are very important. It is here that you determine the resolution of the fractal. The number you see in this example -- 3000 x 4500 pixels at 300 dpi -- produces a 38.6 megapixel image. A 4000 x 6000 pixel setting at 300 dpi produces a 68.7 megabyte image. In my own work, I like to keep the images uniformly at a 2:3 ratio (which is the same size that comes from a full frame digital camera), but there is no reason you have to do this. If you shoot a cropped sensor camera, the size ratio is 3:4. To render the image and have it saved in your 25
CUBA PHOTO TOUR October 22 - 31, 2019
Classic cars Great portraits Crumbling colonial architecture Fabulous color
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What’s wrong with this picture?
H
arsh sunlight, especially in a forest, is the worst kind of natural light you can have. As you can see in this picture of a snoozing jaguar in the Pantanal region of Brazil, the highlights are blown out and the pattern of dappled light is distracting. The branch in front of the cat on the left side of the frame isn’t ideal, but it’s the lighting that ruins this image. Can a shot like this be fixed in Photoshop? As you can see on the next page, I was able to completely eliminate all of the distracting, overexposed highlights. I was only able to do that because there are enough areas adjacent to the blown out areas from which I could clone. The most challenging place to deal with was the highlight on the nose. I covered it by cloning from the area just left (our left) of the jaguar’s nose. 27
All of the other highlights were covered over by middle toned, adjacent detail at 100% opacity. I used a brush with 25% hardness, and I varied the size of the brush depending on the size of the area on which I was working. Many times, blown highlights can’t be replaced so easily. Dappled lighting on a pure white egret, for example, is almost impossible to fix because of the feather detail. You can’t clone from one part of the bird to another since the direction and pattern of the feathers won’t match. Sometimes I clone from one picture to another. In the shot of the jaguar, had I not been able to clone out the overexposed spots on the cat’s nose, flank, or shoulder, I could have opened another picture of a jaguar taken in the same lighting and cloned from one image to another. This is why I don’t trash less-than-perfect photographs. I keep those RAW files in case I might have a use for them later in fixing challenging problems within Photoshop. § 28
New eBook! The definitive guide to photographing wildlife and birds Equipment
Birds in flight
Winter photography
Exposure
Much more
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SHORT AND SWEET 1. It is acceptable for backgrounds to fall off with re-
2. The ‘rule’ relating to a moving subject is that it
3. ‘Flood’ creates the most realistic reflections in Pho-
4.
spect to focus. Foregrounds should, ideally, be sharp. This isn’t always possible, especially in macro work, but you should strive for that. In this shot of an Amazon milk frog, I used f/32 and focused on the eyes, knowing the feet would be sharp.
toshop. It is made by flamingpear.com, and it’s only $35. There are now two versions, Flood and Flood 2. I have them both and use them all the time to create digital ponds and other bodies of water in my images. It’s the best $35 you’ll spend in post-processing.
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should appear to be moving into the frame. More specifically, it should be moving toward the center of the frame. This works all the time, but breaking this rule can work, also. Here a capped heron from Brazil is flying out of the frame, and this sets up visual tension.
You can paste fireworks into a night sky without making a tedious selection. Use the lasso tool to make a rough selection around the fireworks, including the dark sky, and paste that into a new background. In the blend mode submenu in the layers palette, choose the ‘lighten’ mode. The original sky disappears. §
ASK JIM
Every month, Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.
Q: Jim . . .I took this shot at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. I tried to find a different angle
than most people take. I want your opinion about the background. Are those vertical lines distracting? I’m asking because they bother me a little bit. Andrea Herman, Birmingham, Alabama
A: I agree with your feelings about the background. Strong graphic lines that are not part of the subject
itself are virtually always distracting. In this case, they draw our eyes away from the famous statue. If this were mine, I would replace the background so it is uniformly very dark or black with none of the graphic vertical lines showing at all. Then nothing will be competing for our attention. §
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Partial list of Photography Tours 2019 - 2021 RUSSIA Oct. 2019
CUBA Oct. 2019
CARNIVAL IN VENICE Feb. 2020
INDIA & HOLI FESTIVAL Mar. 2020
SPAIN/PORTUGAL Mar. 2020
HOLLAND/BELGIUM Apr. 2020
AUSTRIA/DOLOMITES May 2020
INDONESIA Summer 2020
MOROCCO Oct. 2020
POLAR BEARS Nov. 2020
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PERU NATURE Sept. 2020
ETHIOPIA Mar. 2021
For a complete list of all the photo tours/workshops Jim conducts, go to his website: www.jimzuckerman.com.
Sri Lanka Photo Tour November 8 - 18, 2019
Great culture • Incredible temples • Wildlife • Village life • Landscapes
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Student Showcase Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one or more of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same places. Everyone gets great photographs on Jim’s trips.
Sally McGuire, Decatur, Illinois The Palouse photo tour, Iceland photo tour, and Photoshop workshop
© 2019 Sally McGuire
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Student Showcase, continued
© 2019 Sally McGuire
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Student Showcase, continued
© 2019 Sally McGuire
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Student Showcase, continued
© 2019 Sally McGuire
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RUSSIA PHOTO TOUR October 1 - 9, 2019
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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home
Sat. & Sun., October 19 - 20, 2019
Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, replacing backgrounds, using layer masks, blend modes, adding a moon, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand and can remember it. Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pulldown menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you
creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken. I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (airport code BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest or with a GPS. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel. Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §
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Subject index for past Photo Insight issues 1/3 focus law Jul. ‘15 3D sphere Mar. ‘16 90 degree finder Mar. ‘13 Abstracts in soap Feb. ‘15 Abstracts, Shooting Mar ‘19 Aerial photography Jun. ‘13 African safari May ‘16 Airplane windows Mar. ‘16 Alien landscapes Jan. ‘13 Anatomy of 8 photographs Jan. ‘16 Angled perspectives Jan. ‘19 Aperture vs. shutter speed May ‘14 Aperture priority Sept. ‘14 Aurora Borealis Apr. ‘17 Auto white balance Dec. ‘13 Autofocus, when it fails Apr. ‘15 Autofocus failure Aug. ‘15 Autofocus failure Jan. ‘17 Autofocus challenges Apr. ‘18 Auto ISO Nov ‘17 Autumn Foliage Sep. ‘18 Back button focus Oct. ‘18 Backgrounds, wild Nov. ‘12 Backgrounds, busy Apr. ‘13 Backlighting Apr. ‘16 Birds in flight Aug. ‘13 Birds in flight Jan. ‘14 Birefringence May ‘18 Birds in flight Mar. ‘16 Bird Photography Jun ‘19 Black velvet Mar. ‘14 Black and white conversions Mar. ‘17 Black and white solarization Sep. ‘17 Blown highlights Feb. ‘18 Blur, field Nov. ‘18 Blur technique Oct. ‘17 Bokeh Jun. ‘15 Butterfly photography Jul. ‘14 Camera setting priorities Jun. ‘17 Capturing lightning Jun. ‘13 Catchlights Jul. ‘16 Cheap flash stand Apr. ‘13 Children photography Jun. ‘14 Chromatic aberration May ‘13 Chrome Dec. ‘18 Cityscapes Aug. ‘14 Cityscapes May ‘16 Clone tool, fixing an issue Sep. ‘17 Composites and Light Dec. ‘17 Compositing images Apr. ‘19 Composition, different approach Jan. ‘15 Contrast vs. exposure Jul. ‘15 Creating a star field Jan. ‘14 Creating a Sketch Dec. ‘17 Creative blurs Jan. ‘14 Dawn photography Dawn photography Day for Night Dead center Dealing with smog
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Jan. ‘17 Feb. ‘17 Oct. ‘18 Jan. ‘13 Oct. ‘16
Decay photography Define Pattern Depth of field Depth of field and distance Drop shadows
Sep. ‘15 Sep. ‘18 Aug. ‘16 Dec. ‘18 Apr. ‘19
eBook, how to make Jan. ‘13 Embedded in Ice Oct. 17 Energy saving bulbs Sep. ‘14 Exposing for the sun Sep. ‘16 Exposure, the sun Jul. ‘13 Exposure technique Sep. ‘13 Exposure, snow Jan. ‘14 Exposure triangle Nov. ‘14 Exposure, to the right Apr. ‘15 Exposure compensation Sep. ‘16 Extension tubes Dec. ‘13 Fill flash Sep. ‘13 Filter forge Feb. ‘13 Fireworks Jul. ‘13 Fisheye lenses May ‘13 Fisheye lenses Feb. ‘15 Flash backlighting May ‘15 Flash, balancing exposure Oct. ‘15 Flash, balancing off-camera Dec. ‘18 Flat art Sep. ‘16 Flowers May ‘15 Flowers in harsh light Jul. ‘16 Focus points Mar. ‘15 Focus stacking Mar. ‘17 Focusing in the dark Oct. ‘16 Foreign models Jun. ‘13 Fractals, generating Sep. ‘13 Fractals Jul. ‘19 Framing May ‘17 Freezing ultra action May ‘17 Fun with paint Oct. ‘16 Fundamental ingredients Apr. ‘13 Fundamentals That Make Great Photos Jan. ‘19 Garish imagery Great subjects Great ceilings & HDR Panos Green screen Grunge technique
Dec. ‘15 Apr. ‘15 Jul. ‘19 Mar. ‘13 Feb. ‘13
HDR, one photo Apr. ‘13 HDR at twilight May ‘13 HDR, realistic Jun. ‘15 HDR, hand held Dec. ‘16 HDR, hand held Nov ‘17 HDR, hand held Jul. ‘18 HDR panoramas Jun. ‘16 High wind Apr. ‘17 Highlights Apr. ‘14 Highlights, overexposed Feb. ‘15 Histograms, Why I Don’t Use Jun ‘19 Humidity Oct. ‘13 Hummingbird photography Apr. ‘13 Hyperfocal distance Jul. ‘13
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Image resizing Aug. ‘18 Implying motion Sept.‘14 Impossible DOF Feb. ‘16 Impossible DOF Jan. ‘17 Indestructible camera bag Dec. ‘14 Infrared photography Jul. ‘14 Interiors Oct. ‘15 iPad: Loading photos Aug.‘17 Jungle photography
Dec. ‘14
Kaleidoscopic images Jan. ‘15 Keystoning, correcting Aug. ‘15 L Bracket Feb. ‘18 Landscape photography Dec. ‘12 Landscape photography Apr. ‘14 Landscape photography Nov. ‘16 Light fall-off Feb. ‘14 Lighting a face Oct. ‘13 Liquify Feb. ‘18 Long lens portraits Oct. ‘18 Low light photography May ‘15 Macro flash Nov. ‘12 Macro flash Sep. ‘14 Macro flash Aug. ‘15 Macro trick May ‘19 Mannequin heads Apr. ‘16 Metering modes Nov. ‘16 Meter, How They Work Jul. ‘18 Meters, when they fail Dec. ‘16 Metering situations, Impossible Jul. ‘19 Middle gray Nov. ‘15 Mirrors Jan. ‘19 Model shoot Jan. ‘17 Moon glow Oct. ‘16 Mosaics Jun. ‘17 Museum photography Mar. ‘13 Negative space Neon edges on black Neutral Density filters Night photography Night Safaris Night to Twilight Noise reduction
Jan. ‘16 Aug. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Feb. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Dec. ‘17 Feb. ‘17
Optical infinity Organization of photos
Jun. ‘16 Mar. ‘18
Paint abstracts May ‘13 Painting with light Sep. ‘15 Panning motion Dec. ‘16 Pano-Mirrors with a twist Jan. ‘18 Parades Sep. ‘13 Photography to Art Dec. ‘17 Photography solutions Jan. ‘18 Photoshop, content Aware Nov. ‘12 Photoshop, sketch technique Apr. ‘13 Photoshop, replace background Apr. ‘13 Photoshop, actions palette Dec. ‘13 Photoshop, layer masks Feb. ‘13
Photoshop, the clone tool May ‘13 Photoshop, soft foliage Oct. ‘13 Photoshop, mixer brush tool Sept. ‘14 Photoshop, b & w with color Jun. ‘14 Photoshop, drop shadows Jul. ‘14 Photoshop, creating texture Feb. ‘14 Photoshop, face mirrors Feb. ‘14 Photoshop, liquify Mar. ‘14 Photoshop, face mirrors Aug. ‘14 Photoshop, digital spotlight Sep. ‘14 Photoshop, enlarge eyes Nov. ‘14 Photoshop, darken the periphery Dec. ‘14 Photoshop, mirror images Dec. ‘14 Photoshop, beam of light Apr. ‘15 Photoshop, polar coordinates Mar. ‘15 Photoshop, chrome May ‘15 Photoshop, actions palette Nov. ‘15 Photoshop, cut and paste Nov. ‘15 Photoshop, geometrics Oct. ‘15 Photoshop, plugins Oct. ‘15 Photoshop, multiple selections Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, sharpening Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, Flood plugin Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, Desaturation Aug. ‘16 Photoshop, making a composite Aug. ‘16 Photoshop, place one element behind Aug. ‘18 Photoshop, the pen tool Feb. ‘16 Photoshop, canvas size Jan. ‘16 Photoshop, using the earth Jun. ‘16 Photoshop, define patterns May ‘16 Photoshop, paste into Nov. ‘16 Photoshop, b & w with color Feb. ‘17 Photoshop, open a closed door Apr. ‘17 Photoshop, palettes May ‘17 Portrait options Jan. ‘19 Portrait techniques Nov. ‘15 Portraits Mar. ‘13 Portraits, mixed lighting Aug. ‘14 Portraits, side lighting Sep. ‘17 Portraits, window light Mar. ‘15 Portraits, outdoors May ‘17 Post-processing checklist Dec. ‘13 Post-processing: Contrast Aug. ’17 Predictive Focus Sep. ‘18 Problem/solution Apr. ‘17 Problem with cruises Jan. ‘18 Protecting highlights Dec. ‘12 Puppies Jan. ‘15 Puppy photography Feb. ’18 Reflections Feb. ‘13 Safari May ‘13 Safari strategies Jul. ‘15 Seeing as the lens does Nov. ‘14 Selective filtering Mar. ‘18 Selective focus Jun. ‘15 Self-critiques Jul. ‘13 Self-critiques Oct. ‘13 Sensor cleaning Jun. ‘18 Sepia and dark contrast Jun. ‘15
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Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Shade May ‘14 Shady side Jun. ‘18 Shadows, Paying Attention to Mar. ‘18 Sharpness problems Mar. ‘14 Shooting through wire mesh Sept. ‘14 Silhouettes Jun. ‘13 Sketch, How to Make Jun ‘19 Snow exposure Nov ‘17 Soft light Jan. ‘13 Smart phone photography May ‘19 Stained glass Mar. ‘17 Star photography Jul. ‘16 Star photography and noise Jan. ‘18 Stock photography Sep. ‘14 Sunrise & sunset Jan. ‘19 Tamron 150-600mm Apr. ‘14 Ten reasons photos are not sharp Jan. ‘19 Texture, Adding Mar ‘19 Topaz AI Gigapixel Mar ‘19 Topaz glow Jan. ‘15 Topaz glow Sep. ‘17 Topaz Impression Sep. ‘15 Topaz Remask 5 Oct. ‘17 Topaz Simplify 4 Dec. ‘12 Topaz simplify 4 Jun. ‘14 Topaz Studio Apr. ‘18 Translucency & backlighting Nov. ‘18 Travel photography Feb. ‘13 Travel portraits Mar. ‘14 Travel tips Apr. ‘14 Travel photographer’s guide Jun. ‘17 Twilight photography in the rain Apr. ‘19 Tripods Mar. ‘18 Two subject sharp rule May ‘14 Ultra distortion
May ‘18
Warm fingers in winter Nov. ‘15 Water drop collisions May ‘18 What NOT to do in photography Apr. ‘18 White vignette Aug. ‘15 White balance Feb. ‘15 White balance, custom Mar. ‘16 Wide angle conundrum May ‘19 Wide angle lenses Mar. ‘13 Wide angle portraits Nov. ‘14 Wide angle lenses Jun. ‘17 Wide angle keystoning Nov ‘17 Wildlife photos with wide angles Mar. ‘15 Window light Dec. ‘15 Window light portraits Aug. ‘18 Window frames Feb. ‘16 Winter photography Dec. ‘12 Winter bones May ‘13 Winter photography Dec. ‘15 Winter photography Nov. ‘18 Wire Mesh, Shooting Through Jul. ‘18 Workflow May ‘13
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PHOTO INSIGHTS® published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved
The Kelpies, near Stirling, Scotland
© Jim Zuckerman 2019 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com snail mail address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014
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