ON-LINE PHOTO INSTRUCTION-- with critiques of your work
My new 4-week and 8-week courses began again on Wednesday, July 1. It's still not too late to sign up. 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?
albino ferret
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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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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The Visual Power of Ultra Wide Angle Lenses
I just got back from shooting for five weeks in Europe with my wife and son. We traveled to eleven countries and drove about 5000 miles looking for great images. I do a lot of on-line research before I go, looking for outstanding places, monuments, elevated panoramas, and so on. This makes my trip a lot more efficient in terms of coming home with a tremendous quantity of strong images.
One of the ways in which I dramatize subjects, whether I'm shooting architecture, people, landscapes, or anything else, is to use ultra wide angle lenses. I consider 'ultra wide' to be focal lengths in the 10mm to 16mm range for less-than-full-frame sensor cameras (remember that for Nikon and Canon cameras you have to multiply the focal length by 1.5x and 1.6x, respectively, to determine the real focal length of the lens), and for full frame cameras focal lengths 20mm or less is ultra wide.
When I shot film, I used the Mamiya RZ 67 and Mamiya 7 cameras for 25 years because I loved the quality of medium format (6 x 7cm) transparencies. However, these cameras don't offer ultra wide angle lenses, and I was frustrated by that. Now that I have returned to Canon, the tools available to me are truly exciting. For example, I now have the 14mm wide angle as well as the 15mm fisheye. The picture below of my wife in the famous pool at the Gellert Hotel in Budapest, Hungary was taken with the 14mm.
This is a straight image except for the sky. Instead of an overexposed glass ceiling showing a white sky, I inserted storm clouds. Look at what's going on in this picture visually, though. There are five important aspects I want to point out:
1. The depth of field is extensive even though I used a large lens aperture (f/5.6).
2. My wife's form is distorted. In this case, her arms seem longer than they really are.
3. My wife is disproportionately large compared to the background
4. The sense of depth is tremendous
5. There is a dynamic sense of elongation where the other side of the pool seems much further than it appears in reality
I maintain that photography is less about capturing what you see than turning what you see into art. This is a prime example.
Another example of how dynamic an ultra wide angle lens is can be seen in the twilight shot of the Old Town in Prague. I placed the famous astronomical clock very close to the camera position and look how huge it seems in relation to the background. This scene was obviously distorted, but distortion isn't necessarily a pejorative. In this case, I think it adds a unique and visually arresting interpretation of a subject that has been photographed millions of times.
The closer you place the foreground to a wide angle lens, the more distortion you'll get. Sometimes this isn't what you want; in other instances, it produces amazing images that you'll love. In the extreme, you can create outrageous pictures that will crack people up, especially if the subjects happen to be funny anyway -- like cows (I don't know what it is about cows, but they make people laugh). The photo below was taken in Austria a couple of weeks ago as I was looking for a vantage point to shoot a village nestled at the base of the Alps. Cows are curious, and this one walked up to me to investigate. I photographed it through a barbed wire fence by placing my 14mm lens about three inches from the animal's nose.
The picture at the top of this newsletter was taken with my 15mm fisheye. I cropped it somewhat to fit better in the layout, but the point I'd like to make here is that when you shoot something that is already round, like this stunning spiral staircase in the Monastery of Melk, Austria, it doesn't look distorted at all. You can't make something that is round more round.
In the photo of the Budapest opera house interior at right, notice how large the column appears in the foreground. This is another 14mm shot. Using a lens like this is a way to design your images in a dramatic way. It does not duplicate what you see with your eyes at all, but it's a valid and intriguing way to photograph many subjects. When tripods are allowed (like here), you have the luxury of being able to close the lens down for maximum depth of field. Even though ultra wide angle lenses have tremendous depth of field, when foreground objects are placed very close to the camera position, the distant background won't be as sharp as you'd like if you use a large aperture like f/2.8 or f/4. Hence, in a situation like this, I used f/16.
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STRATEGY FOR PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITES
I discussed in the last newsletter (June, 2009) how important lighting is when you put pictures together in Photoshop. I wanted to show you another example of my thinking in this matter. The photo of Spis Castle below was taken in Slovakia, and the weather was very drab. It was lightly raining, and although I like the simplicity of the composition and the rich green, I thought some embellishment would make it a lot more exciting -- and salable.
A few days after this picture was taken, I found an incredible field of red European poppies and, fortunately, the day was overcast. I had seen fields of poppies lit by direct sunlight, but I knew I couldn't use that type of lighting for the castle shot. You can't combine a sunny foreground with a background taken in soft and even lighting. The diffused light on the field of flowers was perfect to mesh with the castle taken in the rain, and you can see in the composite below that the lighting looks correct. I added a stormy sky because this, also, looks like it belongs here.
Notice also how I used the natural slope of the foreground grass to insert the flowers. I had taken many shots of the poppies with various focal lengths to make sure I had an image that would fit nicely into a new environment. In this case, the field was taken with a 24mm lens -- the same lens I used for the castle.
I explain how to do this kind of composite work on my DVD titled 'Create Masterpieces in Photoshop'
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OCTOBER 3, 4, 2009
MAKING MONEY IN PHOTOGRAPY WORKSHOP
IN MY HOME
(3 spots left)
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 ($450) 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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July Photoshop Workshop in my home Postponed Due to Lightning Strike!
The July, 11, 12 Photoshop workshop in my home had to be postponed because during an intense thunderstorm my house was struck by lightning. It blew a hole in my roof and started a fire in the attic. I was in Europe at the time, but the quick action of a neighbor who heard the strike and then called 911 and the super-fast response of the volunteer fire department saved the house. There was still significant damage due to the fire itself and the water from the fire department's hoses, so I had to move to temporary housing until the home is repaired. The entire roof has to be removed and rebuilt, plus a lot of water logged drywall needs to be replaced. The electrical system as well as the heating/AC units were impacted, too. Fortunately, my office was untouched and all my images are safe.
I've postponed the July workshop until Dec. 12, 13.
Interestingly, before I left for Europe I unplugged my main computers, thinking to myself that there's always a possibility of lightning striking the house. Wow, little did I know!
If you are interested in having a hands-on experience with Photoshop and you can make the December date, let me know (photos@jimzuckerman.com). There are a couple of spots left. The price is $450 including one dinner and two lunches in my home prepared by my wife.
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GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTERS with a digital twist
Within Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop CS4 there is a remarkable feature that essentially replaces the need for graduated neutral density filters. These filters are designed to darken a bright sky to prevent it from becoming overexposed when the bottom portion of the image -- a landscape or cityscape -- is exposed correctly. A digital sensor (and film) can't handle extremes in contrast very well -- meaning that you can't get a good exposure when you have both very bright highlights and dark shadows in the same picture. Due to the limitations of what is called the 'dynamic range', which is essentially the ability to show detail, you have to choose which area of the picture will be property exposed: the highlights or the shadows. Our brain has no trouble seeing complete detail in a contrasty scene, but capturing it in a photo is challenging.
In CS4, there is a feature that allows you to darken the sky AS IF YOU HAD USED A GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER. See the two images below of Malbork Castle in Poland. The original shows that the sky turned out much too light when the castle was exposed correctly. In the bottom image, I applied an ND filter effect in Adobe Camera RAW, and now the photo is exactly what I would have wanted.
The screen capture below shows the dialog box with a red arrow pointing to the icon that gives you access to this feature. When you click on the icon, you can then drag the cursor down the thumbnail image of your photo until the reduced exposure is exactly what you want. With the sliders on the right, you can then tweak the exposure, contrast, etc. to your liking.
This feature is not available in Photoshop CS3, and you must shoot in RAW mode and not JPEG to be able to do this.
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August 15, 16
2 places left in my Frog/Reptile workshop
Come join me and a very small group of people (8 maximum) to photograph some of the world's most exotic, colorful, and exciting poison dart frogs and reptiles. The workshop is held in St. Louis, Missouri in a hotel conference room. I set up several shooting stations with natural backgrounds, and there are about 50 species that will keep you enthralled for the entire two days.
This workshop is all about macro photography and lighting, and I begin with a short talk about how to take the best macro shots of your life. I discuss flash techniques, exposure, depth of field, and Photoshop methods of handling unwanted reflections in the eyes of our subjects. Then for the next two days you will have access to frogs, chameleons, geckos, snakes, and other animals under a controlled but natural looking environment.
Some people may not have good flash equipment for this kind of work, and I have some equipment for both Canon and Nikon that you can borrow for the workshop.
The fee is $895, and if you are interested in this workshop drop me a note and I'll send you more details: photos@jimzuckerman.com.
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2009 PHOTO TOURS
Turkey, Oct. 9 - 21 -- two 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.
Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, along the Bosporus, Istanbul, Turkey
For other photo tours, speaking engagements, and seminars that I will be giving, please click on this link: http://www.jimzuckermanworkshops.com/
Medusa's head, Ancient cistern, Istanbul, Turkey
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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.
 Whirling Dervishes, Istanbul, Turkey
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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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