Our modern DSLR cameras can shoot amazing video. This has been the biggest change in digital photography in the last 5 years—quality video is now possible with a modest investment in gear. But getting quality results requires some additional equipment, mainly in the form of a different tripod and some decent microphones. Today we’re going […]
My old boss and friend, National Geographic senior photo editor Kurt Mutchler, has a wonderful remembrance of Alexandra Boulat, a wonderful photographer who covered conflict all over the globe before dying of a brain aneurysm in 2007 at the age of 45…
Something happened on Monday, December 2, 2013 that I think merits notice: The Discerning Photographer passed the million page views mark! It’s actually pretty humbling to think that the content you have written has been read, or at least looked at, over a million times.
Picking the right photography Christmas presents can be really tough. Don’t have a clue what to get the photographer on your list? If they like to get out and shoot nature or landscapes, here are some photography Christmas presents that will work…
Does your camera have back-button autofocus? Is it an option on your DSLR to switch between shutter-driven autofocus and thumb-driven back button? If you grew up on shutter-driven autofocus and never bothered to relearn, you’re selling yourself short. Here’s why….
Here we see the full-width post option for the first time, with another photograph from my photography road trip this past weekend…
Going on a photography road trip: just the sound of it is exciting and a bit mysterious, isn’t it? Here’s my journal from two photo road trips from last weekend…
Here’s a photograph from my early morning shooting trip to the Mississippi Gulf coast over this past weekend. The light was very, very soft and the fog so thick I couldn’t make out the water…
My old boss and friend, National Geographic senior photo editor Kurt Mutchler, has a wonderful remembrance of Alexandra Boulat, a wonderful photographer who covered conflict all over the globe before dying of a brain aneurysm in 2007 at the age of 45…
Something happened on Monday, December 2, 2013 that I think merits notice: The Discerning Photographer passed the million page views mark! It’s actually pretty humbling to think that the content you have written has been read, or at least looked at, over a million times.
Boston.com’s The Big Picture blog has a great set of Instagram photographs by Associated Press White House photographer Charles Dharapak, a seasoned pro who has seen it all…
Does your camera have back-button autofocus? Is it an option on your DSLR to switch between shutter-driven autofocus and thumb-driven back button? If you grew up on shutter-driven autofocus and never bothered to relearn, you’re selling yourself short. Here’s why….
This morning I went out and made macro frost photographs, using my Canon EOS-1D X and 50mm macro lens. This is my favorite lens for all things that mostly tell their stories in the details…
Simply stated, “aperture” is the hole in your lens that allows light to pass through to your CCD (charge coupled device) during an actual digital camera exposure. The size of the hole has a big impact upon your photos. Here’s why you should care…
Picking the right photography Christmas presents can be really tough. Don’t have a clue what to get the photographer on your list? If they like to get out and shoot nature or landscapes, here are some photography Christmas presents that will work…
When you’re out shooting in windy and stormy weather, it can help tremendously to have a good tripod counterweight handy. Here’s an old and useful trick that works and won’t be extra weight for you to lug around…
The Canon G15 and Nikon Coolpix P7700 are both compact, non point-n-shoot digital cameras that offer a lot to like for the serious photo enthusiast. What follows is my hands-on, out-in-the-field comparison of these two machines, a non-technical look at how they operate and perform…
If you know that your final toned image will be in black and white, you need a Photoshop black and white toning workflow that gives you the most power and flexibility to make this happen. Photoshop Adjustment Layers is the best way to accomplish this…
Adobe has just announced a new deal that only runs through December 2: a monthly subscription to the latest version of Photoshop, plus their Lightroom editing product, 20 GB of online storage and a Behance website for $9.99 a month, at least for the first year…
This second, newer method is a way to burn and dodge that’s become available in the newer versions of Photoshop now on the market. It involves creating a layer to do the burning and dodging upon, thus leaving the original image information untouched…
Our modern DSLR cameras can shoot amazing video. This has been the biggest change in digital photography in the last 5 years—quality video is now possible with a modest investment in gear. But getting quality results requires some additional equipment, mainly in the form of a different tripod and some decent microphones. Today we’re going […]
Remember that post I wrote last week about all of the great video being done these days by newspaper photographers? One of the pieces I used as an example was the heartwarming story by my staff photographer at Nola.com and The Times-Picayune, Kathleen Flynn…
One of the big transformations that has taken place within newspaper photojournalism over the past 5 years has been the emergence of video…
You may have noticed a new look and feel to The Discerning Photographer recently. An awful process that started when the site was hacked a couple of months ago comes finally to resolution with this new rollout…
Studio lighting: where to start? It doesn’t have to be mysterious or complicated. It doesn’t have to be all about lighting diagrams and formulas. What follows is everything you really will ever need to know to shoot successfully with strobe lights…
How many really great photographs have you taken of your dog, your cat, your goldfish? For someone that ‘s around as much as they are, you’d think we would have better photos of them! Here’s how…
Backing up your photos–properly archiving everything–is something we all say we’re going to do. But how many of us consistently do it? My complacency on this issue recently turned into the nightmare of all nightmares, and I’m here to tell you about it: kids, don’t try this at home!
Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO: these building blocks of exposure are still in play here. But when your shutter speed is measured in minutes instead of fractions of a second, you have lots of time to think as your exposure is being made…
Understanding how to control your photograph’s background can be the difference between success and failure. This simple image of a banana plant flower is no exception…
Sometimes we just need to be inspired. Today is one of those days: here are some great links to material I’ve dug up online for you, all focused on landscape photography…
How to Light Absolutely Anything
Studio lighting: where to start? It doesn’t have to be mysterious or complicated. It doesn’t have to be all about lighting diagrams and formulas. What follows is everything you really will ever need to know to shoot successfully with strobe lights…
Photographers’ Light: The Magic Ingredient
Light: the magic ingredient that makes our photography possible. Without light, you don’t shoot pictures. So learning to really see light in all its nuances is a fundamental key to improving as a photographer. But what is it about light that you should learn to look at?
Black and White White Linen Night
I’ve been thinking a lot about black and white photography lately.
It’s what I started with: watching prints come up in a darkroom tray of developer, the images emerging like ghosts at first, then slowly taking on their true forms…
Strobe & Blur: How to Harness Motion Blur in Your Photographs
One of my favorite times of day to shoot is right after dusk, as the light fades. It’s a great time to play with long shutter speeds and a bit of strobe, just to freeze and focus something within your frame. But how do you control these effects? That’s the subject of this post!
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