Without light, there is no photography. So it’s no wonder that when it comes to editing, most people dive into the light first. However, light and color are tied to the hip when it comes to editing in Lightroom. Where in Photoshop you have different blend modes, such as luminosity, that helps decouple these two elements of the image, in Lightroom where one goes, the other isn’t far behind. So understanding these two parallel concepts on their own as well as how they interact is vital to your ability to create …
Lightroom for Landscapes – Controlling Light
Without light, there is no photography. So it’s no wonder that when it comes to editing, I first start with the light. The human eye can see at least twice the dynamic range as your camera’s sensor, even the best cameras out there no where near the human eye in this regard. Add in a slight misjudgment of exposure settings that need to be corrected, or simply artistic style decisions that you wish to make, being able to successfully edit your RAW files in Lightroom for light correction is the …
Landscapes 301 – Ultra-wide Compositions
The ultra wide lens is the single most effective tool in the Landscape photographer’s kit to bring a huge swath of earth and sky into a single image. It is also one of the most difficult to use effectively, as it is not forgiving of poor composition skills, demanding more out of the photographer with every shot. Get it right and you’ll be rewarded with a dramatic sweeping view that pulls the viewer in from the near by blade of grass and throw them all the way to the tallest …
Off the Deep End – How I started Deep Sky Astrophotography
My progression in photography started with a desire to spend more time outdoors, in the fresh air of nature and away from a computer screen. After a couple years of exploring the natural landscapes under the light of our nearest star – the sun, I began to explore and work some in the field of wide field astrophotography landscapes, capturing the natural world under the wide open night skies. Experimenting with different focal lengths ranging from the ultra-wide 14mm all the way to 50mm primes on my full frame Canon …
Photoshop Fundamentals – Understanding Layers
Making the jump from Lightroom to Photoshop can be an intimidating proposition. Much like that first time you switched the camera from Auto all the way to that frightening ‘M’, suddenly you had more tools to work with than you knew what to do with. No longer was the camera handling everything behind the scenes and making the majority of the decisions for you; now you had to know the correlation between Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO to make the image you wanted. While Lightroom isn’t exactly the ‘Auto’ of …
Landscapes 201 – Composition
There are two things that need to come together to achieve a striking Landscape photo. The first, and ultimately most important is the light. But coming in at a very close second is composition. You can have the most glorious light filling the scene in front of you, but without a strong composition it is simply just that – light. It won’t engage the viewer beyond the color, and no amount of editing will fix a bad composition that wasn’t thoroughly considered and thought about while in the field. Composition …
Fischer Photography – Winter 2019 Updates
2019 is starting off with a bang at Fischer Photography as both the website and portfolio are getting compete revamps that are finally starting to come to completion. I’ve been working on several new series of articles for the Learning Center – from new information on Lightroom, Photoshop, Landscape photography and more. All-new ‘Show and Tell’ articles takes you behind the shot and processing of some of my favorite photos taken over the past year. I am also working on getting up to date on my Travel Log series, updating …
Dodge/Burn with Photoshop Blend Modes
When most photographers think of Dodging and Burning they immediately think of portrait retouching. Adjusting the contouring of the face and other body features to sculpt the lights and shadows. However, the technique can be used on almost any photo where objects need to take on an increased depth through the addition of contrast. While global and even localized contrast can be used to bring punch and detail, it can not reshape or refocus the light like a little bit of dodging and burning can do. Regardless if it’s a …
Photo Backup – Local Storage Options
Looking to improve your photography storage and backup solution? Start Here – Photo Backup Strategies It only takes one frantic heart stopping moment when your hard drive fails to wish you’d been more prepared. Especially if it’s at 3am after an all night editing blitz to get a client’s set finished for delivery the next day. I’ve heard enough of these horror stories to know it can and will happen – usually at the most inopportune time. Most of the time, a photo can only be captured once. You only have the …
Show & Tell: Downpour
Leaving Dallas on a Sunday evening, pointing my truck to the western sky I headed out to Montague for what was planned to be an astrophotography shoot. The skies were clear, the winds were light, nearly ideal weather for shooting the night sky. However once I passed through Denton and left the DFW metroplex a light gray shadow appeared on the horizon. By the time I was approaching Montague the gray shadow was now an ominous monster of a storm. The original plan was to meet up with a few …
The Plight of the 50mm Lens
Go ask almost any forum filled with Photographers “What is the first lens to buy after the kit lens?”, and the answer is often ’50mm’, ‘Nifty Fifty’ and so on. The 50mm has no shortage of fans. Simply Google ‘Why every photographer should own a 50mm’ and you’ll get dozens of articles from some of the biggest photography websites around. However, go back into those same forums you started at, and ask ‘What’s your least used lens’, and amazingly, the 50mm also gets mentioned a fair bit. And this got me …
Landscapes 101 – Beyond the pretty snapshot
Every photography site out there seems to have one, the “How to improve your Landscape Photography” article. Usually they have 5, or 10, or even 12 bullet points that cover the same general set of tips to taking better landscape photos. And this is mine. Why should you read it? Well, for starters, you’re already here, so you might as well. Additionally, I’m not so far removed from ‘before I knew these tips’ that I’ll assume you already know why they are important. I’m going to take the time to say …
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