Digital Outback Photo have published a great step-by-step guide to improving the contrast of the midtones in your photographs.

“We often use S-Curves to enhance contrast. This is actually just fine if we don’t have any problem with darkened/blocked shadows or aggressive highlights. But often you want to improve the contrast without damaging the shadows and highlights.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Control Midtone Contrast

About Photography have published an interesting look at correcting lens distortion, both before taking a photograph and afterwards using computer software.

“Digital images can be corrected in various ways after the picture has been shot. Increasingly we can expect digital cameras to incorporate lens-specific algorithms to correct some of the lens faults. This will of course increase the desirability of lenses from the camera manufacturer, as those from the independents are unlikely to be catered for unless legislation for free competition forces the makers to do so.”

Website: About Photography - Correcting Lens Distortion

The elegant Design by Fire website has posted a guide to converting colour images to black and white, using a technique created by the photographer Greg Gorman (found via Still Journal):

“Gorman has gone digital in the past few years. Recently, he has been sharing his knowledge with many in the photography world. In this case, as you probably know, digital cameras capture light with red, green and blue sensors. It is impossible to shoot digital in black and white, like it is in film. Gorman had been lamenting this fact over dinner almost a year and a half ago, as most of his favorite work is in black and white. Rather than do nothing about it though, Gorman developed this conversion technique, which in all of my time working on Photoshop is easily the best I?ve seen for creating black and white photos.”

Website: Design by Fire - Santorini in black & white

The Canadian digital photography website Photoxels have published an excellent tutorial about the RAW file format.

“Some photographers have mistakenly thought that RAW allowed them to correct exposure errors. Well, to a limited extent, that is true.

However, a picture has to be correctly exposed, whether you are using RAW or not. You cannot take a grossly underexposed or overexposed picture in RAW, and expect to be able to “correct your mistakes.”“

Website: Photoxels - Understanding RAW File Format Tutorial

Bert P. Krages author of the “Legal Handbook for Photographers”, has published a 1-page PDF guide to what you can and cannot legally do as a photographer - well, at least in the USA anyway. Print a few copies out and carry them with you, just in case…

Now, does anyone know of a UK-specific version?

“The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take photographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take photographs. Absent a specific legal prohibition such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take photographs. Examples of places that are traditionally considered public are streets, sidewalks, and public parks.”

Thanks to Tom Longson for the link :-)

Website: The Photographer’s Right - A Downloadable Flyer

Website: Bert P. Krages - The Photographers Right (PDF file)

Website: infogargoyle - ACLU Bust Card for Photographers

Luminous Landscape have today published the first in a new series of advanced Photoshop techniques, written by Glenn E. Mitchell II.

“Clipped channels are serious. The enlarged view of the daylily in Figure 2 has a reddish cast from clipped red channel. The yellow tones are also not continuous. Posterization is evident as the eye moves from the edge toward the center of the flower.

Once a channel is clipped, the customary advice is that information is lost and little or nothing can be done about it.

This article presents a technique that can rescue many images: the use of a saturation mask. Saturation masks are grayscale images that transition from black for the least saturated colors to white for the most saturated colors. Saturation masks are perfect for restoring images with severe saturation problems, such as clipped channels.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Restore Those Clipped Channels

Digital Outback Photo have published a new Workflow Technique article which explains how to use 35mm tilt/shift lenses in conjunction with digital SLR cameras.

“Rise/Fall moves the center of lens, which alters the image so that it appears as though the camera was repositioned to a spot SEVERAL FEET in the direction the lens was shifted. The common use for this is in architecture. Any time the film plane is not perfectly perpendicular to the ground, for example angling up or pointed down, the resultant image will have some degree of perspective distortion. This is true for ALL lenses, regardless of focal length, but is more readily visible when wideangle lenses are used.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Using 35mm T/S lenses

Are you bored? Is your photography boring? Have you reached a creative dead-end? “Boring Photographs”, the latest article on the Petteri’s Pontifications website, considers what a boring photograph is and how to get out of a rut.

“In the beginning, photography is instinctual. Some are so talented that that’s all they’ll ever need; that, and practice. The rest of us will eventually start to work consciously on what we’re doing, whether it’s through attention to composition through “rules,” dissecting the work of photographers we admire, setting ourselves assignments (“one photo a day, every day, with one lens and one type of film; no more, no less”), joining camera clubs, or submitting our work to Photosig. All of this does exert a pull towards blandness. Most of us succumb to it at one point or another.”

Thanks to panchals for sending me the link.

Website: Petteri’s Pontifications - Boring Photographs

The Canadian digital photography website Photoxels have published an excellent tutorial about the White Balance feature, which is found on all but the cheapest of digital cameras.

“If you come from the world of films, you may remember using filters to correct for incandescent or fluorescent lighting. Most people don’t bother and their indoors pictures invariably come out with a yellow/orange or bluish cast. In the digital world, these correction filters are no longer necessary, replaced by a feature found in most—even the entry-level—digital cameras called, “White Balance.”

Website: Photoxels - White Balance Tutorial

Digital Photography Blog have produced a useful guide to histograms, rounding up 10 of the best resources on the Web.

“The Histogram is one of the most useful tools in Digital Photography yet it is one of the least understood and utilized. We’ve searched the web for ten of the best Histogram Tips and Tutorials to help us all to get the best possible exposure for our digital images. These tutorials focus upon both in camera histograms and histogram tools in imaging editing software.”

Website: Digital Photography Blog - Histograms Tips

Digital Outback Photo’s latest article is a useful guide to understanding and using the histogram on your digital camera, including color channel clipping and the “expose to the right” rule.

“In the field the main difference using a film or a digital camera is the LCD on the back of the digital camera giving you the ability to evaluate an image right after exposure. So you might think that watching your pictures on that small LCD is a main benefit going digital. Ok, if you try hard you can check sharpness by zooming into the image. The main advantage of this LCD for me is actually to check the exposure of my last photo.”

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Watch your Histogram

Photo.net’s latest article looks at the RAW, JPEG and TIFF file formats, explaining what they are and when to use them.

“There seems to be a lot of confusion among some new digital camera owners about exactly what the difference is between RAW, JPEG and TIFF files. This article is intended to be a very basic guide to these file types and how they are related in a typical digital camera.”

Website: Photo.net - RAW, JPEG and TIFF

Michael Reichmann’s latest article over on his Luminous Landscape website is an excellent introduction to a subject that confuses a lot of digital photographers (myself included): printer colour management.

“The leading cause of confusion, anxiety and martial disharmony among photographers concerns printer settings. “What the hell are the correct settings for the dozens of buttons and dialogs in both the image editing program and printer driver?” This is the the most common question that I’m asked at seminars, and by e-mail (though usually somewhat more politely than this). But it does mirror the frustration that most people feel when confronted with the seemingly endless setting choices available.

Here then is a simplified and concise description of how to set your printing software to give the most reliable and accurate colour results. It is based on using Photoshop and an Epson printer, but should be comprehensible with most other programs and printers.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Understanding Printer Colour Management: A Brief Tutorial on Printer Settings

Roger Cavanagh has published a great article by CJ Morgan simply called “On Composition”, which discusses 5 techniques that can be used to improve your photographs:

“Let me suggest five different ways to both strengthen our photographic observational skills and improve our image making. These are: “kill the clutter”, “think graphic design”, “dark on light and light on dark”, “be mindful of relationships” and “shoot not objects, but rather appearances”.”

Website: Roger Cavanagh - On Composition

The latest article over at Luminous Landscape is called “Symmetry”, an essay on patterns in the way we see…

“Below are three photographs taken in January, February and March of 2004 respectively. None of them were done with any conscious intent. In each case I simply saw a composition that caught my eye, and photographed it. It wasn’t until viewing a print of the third photograph that I realized the similarity with the others taken just weeks prior. Putting the three prints up on my desk, side by side, I shook my head at the curious symmetry. This simply isn’t a style of shooting that I had done before, and I have no idea where it came from.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Symmetry

Does your digital camera offer a RAW file format, but you have no idea what it does or what advantages it offers? Take a look at Michael Reichmann’s latest article on the Luminous Landscape website, which explains what a RAW file is and the pros and cons.

“Something to consider is that every digital camera is indeed always shooting in raw mode. But, if we choose to save the file as a JPG we are committing to the raw conversion program that is built into the camera. If we allow the file to be saved in raw format though we have the opportunity to do the conversion on a more sophisticated platform, and to do so again and again if there’s any benefit to this in future. In other words, the decision is ? do you want to do the raw file conversion now in the camera, or later on your computer?”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Understanding Raw Files

Luminous Landscape have published a new article by Dutch photographer Stefan Heijdendael called “From Digital to Analog, and Back”, which explores a minimalist approach to developing your photographic skills.

“So here’s some free advice from a novice in the digital arena to novices in the field of photography. And of course it is Hans who brought me to this advice. Restrict yourself. Forget about tweaking, and try to get the most perfect frozen moment in time, which will serve as a good base for a print. How? If you don?t want to spend a lot of money, go to a second hand photo store and go look for a basic single lens reflex. There are thousands for sale, and they cost little.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - From Digital to Analog, and Back

Digital Outback Photo have been busy over the weekend publishing no less than 6 new articles:

- “RAW FAQ” started
- Advanced Dust Healing Technique
- Almost halo free sharpening with Simple Sharpening
- Canon 1D Mark II Noise Check
- Note on DxO Optics Pro
- Kodak SLR/c, Canon 1Ds & Canon 1D Mk II Comparison Photos

Website: Digital Outback Photo

In his latest article Michael Reichmann shares his experience of photographing a bullfight in southern Spain:

“Bullfighting is a traditional sport in many parts of Spain, as well as in Mexico and other parts of the world. Its historical roots are an the province of Andelucia and its heart is in Seville. I attended my first bullfight there last week, and in Death in the Afternoon describe photographing a bullfight as well provide a small portfolio. If you’re squeamish or have objections to bullfighting, you are under no obligation to view this page.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Death in the Afternoon

“How to determine the best exposure for a specific photograph with film and digital capture” is the sixth part of Alain Briot’s Aesthetics and Photography series over on the Luminous Landscape website.

“Exposure. The word contains a certain notion of risk and a certain amount of irremediable commitment. Once the exposure has been set on a camera and the subsequent photograph taken there is no way to physically change this exposure. You are done, set and have to live with the consequences. Hopefully the exposure is ?right on? and the photograph holds details everywhere.

But what if the photograph does not hold detail everywhere? What if your calculated exposure isn?t absolutely, 100% correct? What if your calculations were off, what if you made a mistake! Then what? Is there a way out, a way back to a great image despite the fact you could have done better in the field exposure-wise?”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Aesthetics and Photography Part 6