ON-LINE PHOTO INSTRUCTION-- with critiques of your work
My new 4-week courses begin again on Wednesday, June 3. The 8-week courses are finishing up from the beginning of April and will begin again the first week in July. I have a new 4 week course in Stock Photography that might interest you. As a professional photographer, the best thing I ever did was join a stock photo agency.
Betterphoto.com, the company for whom I teach these on-line courses, is going back to a quarterly schedule. Starting this year, the 8-week courses will repeat every quarter, not every month. The next series of 8-week courses therefore will start on Wednesday, April 8.
Do you want to make money in photography? Want to feel more confident in exposure? Interested in learning more about Photoshop (like putting fireworks in the sky or removing lens flare). Are you insecure about your compositional skills?
I teach several 8-week and 4-week courses on-line. The way the courses work is this. Every Wednesday, you receive a lesson that consists of text and photos, explaining various principles in photography, marketing your work, digital manipulation, or whatever subject you are studying. At the end of each lesson there is an assignment, and you have plenty of time to take pictures and upload them for my critique. You can use photos you did specifically for the assignment or images that you have taken previously.
On-line photo courses are like virtual classrooms but not in real time. Other students can see your pictures, read my critiques, and comment on your work. Similarly, you can comment on the pictures of other students. It is a unique and wonderful learning experience.
One of the great things about these on-line courses is that students participate from all over the world. In a single lesson's uploads, you may see pictures from Bryce Canyon or Brazil, or from Singapore or South Carolina. It's a very stimulating environment, and it will help you become the photographer or digital artist that you would like to be.
On the Betterphoto.com website, you can read the lesson outline of each course and see sample photos. In addition, you can also access the courses I teach drectly by going to my website, jimzuckerman.com, and clicking on the link 'On-line Photo Courses'. at the top of the home page.
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I will be traveling in Eastern Europe to plan a Heart of Eastern Europe photo tour there next year. I will be there from May 27 to June 30, so if you order a DVD from
me during that time, I won't be able to send it to you until I return at the end of the month. If you want it immediately, you can order it from Amazon.com.
I will be available by email, and I will continue critiquing the work of my on-line students. I should have Internet throughout most or all of the trip.
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Workshop in Detroit, Michigan
I will be giving a photo workshop at the Midwest Photography Workshops in Farmington Hills, Michigan on July 25 and 26, 2009. This is a two day event. One day will be on making money in Stock Photography, and the next day will be on turning your photos into paintings using Corel Painter and Photoshop. Please contact Bryce at 248 471-7299 for more information. |
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SUCCESSFUL OUTDOOR PICTURES OF CHILDREN -- 3 EASY STEPS
There are three simple things you can do to immediately improve your pictures of kids. In my on-line courses where I critique hundreds of pictures every week, I see dozens of images of children and too often they exhibit the same mistakes. In the two or three minutes it takes you to read this article, you will be able to put into practice these fundamental steps that will make a huge difference in your outdoor portraits.
Study the portrait of the young girl above. The three important techniques I used to shoot this are:
#1. SOFT LIGHTING. I avoided direct sunlight so there are no unwanted highlights or shadows on the girl's face. In addition, because the light wasn't bright she isn't squinting. Her eyes are relaxed and therefore we can appreciate them more. I chose this time of day to shoot specifically to use the flattering light on her face and to avoid the harsh contrast that results from direct sunlight.
#2 OUT OF FOCUS BACKGROUND. Notice that the background is not just a little out of focus; it is completely blurred. The only way to do this is to use a large lens aperture and -- very important -- a telephoto lens. I used a 200mm lens here. In addition, the girl moved away from the background so she was far enough to insure the trees would be so out of focus there would be no definition in them at all.
#3 EYE-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE. Instead of standing at an adult height and shooting downward on the young girl, I shot from a kneeling position. This created a much more intimate and compelling image.
These three principles apply to virtually all situations anywhere in the world. I used the same lens and the same technique with the young baseball player who was hit by a pitched ball as well as the small village girl from India (below). Notice how the background in these pictures do not
intrude on the subjects or interfere with them in any way. Backgrounds are actually underrated. They have a tremendous influence on all your pictures.
Does this mean that this is the only way to take a good picture? No, it
doesn't. Sunrise and
 sunset lighting can be very
attractive, although you then have highlights and shadows to deal with (such as a girl's long hair casting a shadow on her face). The photo at the top of this newsletter was taken in middle-afternoon light, and it's an adorable shot but it doesn't have the classic qualities that pictures do when taken in soft and evenly dispersed lighting. (This is my niece Jamie when she was five years old. She is now 23 and getting married in November).
Let me reiterate that it's very important that the background be the same tone as the subject or darker.
This directs all of the attention on the child's face. You can see in the portrait of the young Herero girl from Namibia, the out of focus ocean behind her is slightly lighter than her skin tone plus it is a bright blue. Both of those factors tend to pull our eyes away from her face. This isn't ideal. I still like the image very much, but a more muted background would have been the best case scenario.
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STRATEGY FOR PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITES
When you combine images, the first thing you have to consider is the lighting. The color, direction, and quality of the light must be the same for both images or else the picture won't look right. For example, you shouldn't put a picture of a person taken with a flash in front of a background shot at sunset. Similarly, an animal taken in the shade can't be combined with a background taken in mid-day sunlight. It will look like a poor attempt at being creative instead of a successful composite that was done flawlessly.
 Study the photo of the famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro at right. This original shot shows a dramatic ring around the sun, which was certainly unique, but my point here is that the direction of light is overhead. The light is skimming the surface of the statue. If I replaced the sky, the light in the new background would have to be coming from the same direction.
In fact, I have a large folder in my Photo LIbrary of nothing but skies. Rainbows, sunrises, sunsets, lightning, dark and brooding gray clouds, etc. I use these all the time in my composite work because, as I mentioned above in the article on photographing kids, the background is vital to the success of a picture.
I happened to have a shot taken from a commercial jet at 35,000 feet. The clouds were awesome on that flight (we were circumventing a storm) and I took a lot of images. Shooting through the double window isn't ideal, but there was obviously no choice. I selected an image where the sun was in a similar position when combined with the statue, and you can see below that the effect is quite believable.
Shooting a subject in front of pink clouds always gives you a silhouette if the sky is exposed correctly. Therefore, if you composite anything in the foreground it has to be very dark. Another way to look at it is if you already have a silhouette (like I did here -- the horse was originally photographed against a white sky and was very dark) then it must be combined with a sky that has the type of light commensurate with the lighting on the subject.
In the photo below, I combined a Samburu girl who was taken in the shade with a dark and threatening sky. Light from this kind of sky is soft and diffused -- exactly the lighting on the girl. Only by paying close attention to the light will your composites look correct.
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OCTOBER 3, 4, 2009
MAKING MONEY IN PHOTOGRAPY WORKSHOP
IN MY HOME
Photography has been a blessing to me for 40 years because I have been able to make a living with my passion. This has given me a wonderful sense of fulfillment. You can do the same thing.
I have been asked by many students if I would give a personal and interactive seminar in making money in photography, and I have finally decided to do it. It will be in my home on Oct 3 and 4. I can save you from making many of the same mistakes that I made in the early years of learning how to market my work. I will spend a lot of time
lucrative talking about the
 business of stock photography (yes, you can still make money in stock if you understand the business), and I will also explain how to get published in the vast magazine market, how to make sales in the calendar, note card, and poster markets, how to sell fine art prints in art fairs and galleries, and how to promote yourself on the Internet with a website.
 The photography business has changed a lot in the last few years, and it's vital to keep up with those changes. During the workshop, I will critique some of your images in the context of what makes a salable image. To be successful in photography, you have to work very hard, but if you love it, the truth is it's not work at all. After an intense weekend studying how to market your work, you will be inspired and excited.
The seminar fee includes two lunches and one wonderful dinner prepared by my wife, who is an excellent cook. I live in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, and if you are arriving by air I will pick you up at the airport and shuttle you back and forth from your hotel to my home. You need to bring nothing except photos for me to analyze from a marketing standpoint -- and your enthusiasm for photography and for getting paid for what you love to do.
 If you are interested, contact me at photos@jimzuckerman.com. I will send you an outline of the seminar as well as a list of hotels 8 - 10 minutes from my home.
The airport that you will fly into is Nashville, Tennessee (BNA).
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COOL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS IN PHOTOSHOP
The spacebar -- turns any tool into the hand tool
Press only the 'V' key -- selects the move tool
Press only the 'S' key -- selects the clone tool
Press only the 'W' key -- selects the magic wand tool
Command/Ctrl T -- brings up free transform box around a selection or a layer so you can resize or rotate
Press space bar and command key on a Mac or space bar and Ctrl key on a PC -- turns any tool into the magnifier tool
Copyright symbol on a Mac: Command key + 'g' key
Copyright symbol on a PC: Hold down Alt key and type 0169 on key pad
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SKY BACKGROUNDS
As I mentioned above, the sky can make or break a picture. This is why I have a folder in my Photo Library that consists of nothing but skies -- storm clouds, sunsets, pastel pink skies, blue skies with puffy white clouds, rainbows, etc. I use these images all the time to improve -- and sometimes to save -- my original photographs where the weather and the lighting wasn't cooperating.
The photo below is of a megalithic tomb (about 5000 years old) in Ireland. The original sky was white, and it was boring and detracting to the landscape. The dark, gray clouds replaced the original boring sky and that made all the difference.
The photo of the lovely village was taken in Colmar, France on my Heart of Europe photo tour last year. The original twilight sky was not bad -- it was the typical deep blue of twilight -- but it was devoid of clouds. What you see here is a composite with clouds taken from elsewhere, and with this simple change the photo is much, much better.
 In your travels, always watch the sky.
Photograph it often and keep a file of these images for future use. If you don't know how to cut and paste a sky into another image, this is what I teach in my on-line Photoshop course [Photoshop: Creative Techniques] and in my home Photoshop workshop.
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July 11, 12, 2009
PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP IN MY HOME
(a few spaces left)
The first weekend in May, I taught a Photoshop seminar in my home and the group thoroughly enjoyed it, and from what they told me, they learned a lot and enjoyed being in my home. They kept thanking my wife, too, for her wonderful cooking.
Photographers have never had such a remarkably creative tool to manipulate imagery, and knowing how to use Photoshop is one of the most exciting things you could ever learn in photography. I love working in Photoshop, and it's exciting for me to teach it. I know that learning this program can be intimidating, but it's not hard. Really. There is a lot to remember, but going over each action two or three times is what you need to imprint the information in your brain. I will walk you through many of the most important parts of Photoshop, and you won't believe what you'll be able to do with your pictures.
 The fee of $450 includes instruction from 9 to 5 on both days, two lunches and one wonderful dinner provided by my wife who is an amazing cook -- the workshop participants who enjoy this meal always want to extend the workshop so she can give them cooking lessons! I will provide a list of nearby hotels where you can stay. I will also shuttle you back and forth to my home as well as pick you up from the airport if you fly in.
Cut and paste and then a Photoshop plug-in
This workshop is for beginners who know nothing (or very little) about Photoshop, but it very quickly gets into intermediate and even advanced techniques. Photoshop can't be taught in a linear fashion, like math. It doesn't work like that. For example, you don't have to know how to use the clone tool -- a basic function of Photoshop -- to do layer masks. Similarly, you can learn how to add what looks like a studio background light using the gradient tool, but not understand how to set up short cuts in the Actions palette.
Example of using a blend mode
In the workshop, I will begin with the tools palette and explain how the most important tools can be used to make incredibly creative images. Even if you know what these tools do, you will learn ways of applying them to various photographic situations that will amaze you. I will then go into layers and layer masks, selections, replacing the sky, adding lighting effects, adding reflections, making silhouettes, an impressive list of awesome plug-ins (you can download many demo versions of plug-ins using your wireless capability because I have Wi Fi), the relationship between the cloning tool and the healing brush, cloning from one photo to another, and much more. By doing each of the techniques I discuss as I explain them, you will be able to remember the steps and then this wonderful knowledge will be incorporated into your work flow.
You will need to bring your own laptop computer, and this will make it easier for you to concentrate on the techniques rather than fiddling with someone else's computer. I will demonstrate more creative ideas in these two days than you can imagine.
If you are interested, contact me at photos@jimzuckerman.com. The airport that you will fly into is Nashville, Tennessee (BNA). Example of HDR
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2009 PHOTO TOURS
Turkey in Oct. -- a few spaces available
2010 PHOTO TOURS
Carnival in Venice -- Feb. 8 - 14 (4 spaces left)
Heart of Eastern Europe -- dates to be announced
Ireland -- May 20 - 31
Ethiopia exploratory -- dates to be announced
Antarctica -- January 3 - 24 (contact me for pricing and the itinerary)
Costa Rica for hummingbirds -- dates to be announced
I am also planning a trip to southern India and Mongolia. When those details are finalized I'll announce them.
The 5th century BC Greek ruins at Ephesus, Turkey
For other photo tours, speaking engagements, and seminars that I will be giving, please click on this link: http://www.jimzuckermanworkshops.com/
Ceiling of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul
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Missed a newsletter? You can see all of my past newsletters (starting with the February, 2008 issue) if you paste this link into your browser:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs031/1101654139463/archive/1102299763866.html
For AOL users have difficulty at times seeing the pictures in my newsletters, this feature is especially helpful.
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I now publish a blog on my website that you may find interesting and informative. On jimzuckerman.com, click the link at the top 'photo blog'. I post one or two blogs a week on various aspects of photography and Photoshop.
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Two New Photoshop DVDs announced
I'm proud of my first twoinstructional DVD on Photoshop. I have had a lot of positive feedback on both of them. Many people find my teaching style easy to understand, clear, and inspiring in terms of what they can do with their own pictures.
In the first DVD, learn how to use Photoshop's tools creatively and be a Photoshop Guru.
Whether you have been using Photoshop for years or just learning for
the first time, you will quickly discover new applications to create
stunning images. "Be a Photoshop Guru" introduces the most important
tools in Photoshop and then gives you very creative ways of applying
them for amazing results. This program doesn't just simply show what
the tools do, it shows you how to creatively use them in your photography.
(In the photo of the Korean model and the Japanese maple tree, there wasn't a beautiful tree behind the model in the original. I added that from
another image, and then I had to re-create the reflection. This is
explained in detail on the DVD in addition to many other very cool
techniques. The running time is 168 minutes).
In the second DVD, the one with the knights on the cover (they were photographed at a local Renaissance Faire and then combined with the foggy forest background -- and the sword was purchased on-line and cut and pasted into the picture), I share many of my favorite and most useful creative techniques with you. Photoshop is a photographer's best friend today. This DVD shows you that the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do with your images. Running time is 173 minutes.
You can purchase the DVD from Amazon.com or, if you would like an autographed copy from me, you can have that from purchasing it from me directly at a discounted price. Here is the sales page on my website: jimzuckermanworkshop.com.
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