ON-LINE PHOTO INSTRUCTION-- with detailed critiques of your work
My new 4-week on-line photo courses began again on Wednesday, September 2. It's 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.
The next series of 8-week courses will start on Wednesday, Oct 7, 2009.
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 or exposure skills?
Architectural detail,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
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 directly 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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NOTICE
I am leading a photo
tour to Namibia this
month, and if I am
slow to responding
to an email you may
send me, it's only
because my Internet
access is limited.
I am leaving the U.S.
on Sept. 9 and I return on Sept. 27. I will share my favorite photos with you in the next issue of this newsletter. It's hard to go to Namibia and not come back with incredible pictures.
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PHOTOGRAPHING HUMMINGBIRDS
Birds have captivated wildlife photographers from the beginning, but no group of birds are more intriguing than hummingbirds. It's not difficult at all to photograph them when you see them in the garden hovering above a flower, but unless you do it right your efforts will only result in mediocre pictures. The challenge, though, is two fold: First, you want the tiny birds to fill a significant part of the frame, and second, you want the birds to be sharp. Blurred wings are fine for snapshooters, but for serious photographers nothing less than tack-sharp wings will do.
The wings of hummingbirds beat about 200 times per second. The range of shutter speeds that we normally use for fast moving subjects is between 1/250 to 1/1000 of a second. This is too slow to freeze the wings. 1/2000 and 1/4000 of a second are not even fast enough to get sharp pictures and to real the detail in individual feathers. Some cameras go up to 1/8000, but even if this were fast enough the get tack sharp pictures of hummers, the light would be so reduced that you would be forced to shoot with a large lens aperture and a high ISO -- neither of which are ideal solutions.
 The technique that works is to use flash. However, it's not straightforward at all. The typical 'flash duration' -- the length of time that the flash tube is actually illuminated during an exposure -- is about 1/1000th of a second when used on manual. However, when the power output of the flash unit is reduced to 1/16th power, the flash duration becomes about 1/16,000th of a second. This is definitely fast enough to freeze the wings of hummingbirds as you can see in these photos.
Note this interesting fact: The light from the flash does not vary in terms of intensity. It varies based on the length of time it is lit. That's why the flash duration becomes so short. The output was reduced and the only way this can be accomplished is to reduce the flash duration.
The setup I used consisted of four elements:
1. Four flash units (I used the Canon 430EX Speedlites). Two flashes are placed in front of the setup, one on either side. One flash is used as a backlight to give a little separation between the subjects and the background, and one flash is placed to illuminate the background. Metal stands support the flash units.
2. A 24 x 36 inch photographic print of out of focus foliage is placed in the background. I have several different prints that can easily be changed. The large prints are simply clamped to a piece of foam core or Styrofoam.
3. A wireless transmitted sits on top of the camera to trigger the strobes. This can be the Canon ST-E2 (which also works with Nikon) or the Pocket Wizard.
4. An appropriate flower is clamped to a support like a metal stand, the back of a chair, or anything that will work. The same sugar water that is used in feeders is placed into the flower so the hummingbirds hover above the flower, drinking.
At 1/16th power (all the flash units are set to the same power output), the recycle time is very brief -- about 1/2 second. That means I could shoot quite quickly to take several shots each time a bird came to feed. It's impossible to ascertain whether or not the wings are in an attractive position when I snapped the shutter, so I had to take a lot of pictures to get a winner.
To vary the exposure for each flash, I simply moved the flash unit closer or farther away. Three or four inches makes a significant change in exposure. In this way, I could adjust the lighting ratio based on what I saw on the LCD monitor.
If you would like to get shots just like these, I have organized an 11-day photo workshop to photograph hummingbirds in different locations in Costa Rica as well as to shoot the country's most active volcano, Mt. Arenal. We will also get to photograph captive exotic snakes and frogs in natural environments.
This workshop is limited to nine people. There will be three different setups. Here is a link to the itinerary and pricing as well as additional photos that you can expect to take on the trip:
COSTA RICA PHOTO WORKSHOP, MAY 1 - 11, 2010
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SELF CRITIQUE
This masked tree frog is one of the animals that the Snake Zoo in Costa Rica has, and it was photographed outside in diffused daylight -- the ideal type of lighting for macro work. I like the body position very much, especially the way that one leg is suspended in mid-air. The orange flower looks good, but I do feel that a little more contrast between the frog and the flower would have been nice. In other words, had that flower been crimson red or magenta, the frog would have stood out more.
I debated in my mind what to do with the background. I took other shots of frogs in which I used out of focus foliage as the background (a distant tree) and it worked beautifully. However, I thought it would be a nice variation to use black. This is a diurnal frog, meaning it's active in the daylight hours. That means this picture doesn't look biologically correct because it implies this was taken at night. Still -- I like the graphic design of this, and the dark background forces all of our attention on the subject.
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OFF-CAMERA FLASH
Using a flash intimidates most photographers because it seems unpredictable. In that all-to-brief exposure, we can't study the lighting, the shadows, and the exposure. When we all shot film, flash photography was a major challenge. That's why many photographers (mostly pros) used Polaroid test prints to judge how the pictures were going to appear on slide or negative film. It was the only way to pre-view the results.
With digital, all that has changed. We can now assess flash pictures immediately (we don't even have to wait 60 seconds for the Polaroid film to develop). That means that there isn't any more insecurity about flash. You take a picture, judge the exposure on the LCD monitor, make adjustments to the angle of the light and the exposure, and then the next shots are perfect.
The rarely sighted pacas above were lured out of the jungle with food at one of the lodges in Costa RIca where I was staying to photograph the hummingbirds. I asked an assistant to hold the flash to the side and in back of the animals to get rim lighting so they would be separated from the darkness of the night. I used a wireless trigger to fire the flash, and I set my lens aperture on f/11 for a moderate amount of depth of field. The flash was set on manual. The first two attempts were overexposed, so I closed the lens down to f/16 and that turned out to be perfect.
 If you are limited to on-camera flash, you are missing a very creative aspect of photography. Another example of off-camera flash is the picture at right I took on my last photo workshop in Venice, Italy during carnival. Notice the dramatic lighting on the model and how different this is compared to the pasty look of on-camera flash that none of us like. The difference is like night and day.
There is really nothing to be intimidated about flash now. If you know how to increase and decrease exposure on the camera (exposure compensation feature) and how to do the same on the flash, that's all you need to know. After that, it's just a matter of finding the best angle of the light. This can be done by trial and error. And trust me -- even pros make a lot of errors in lighting before they find the right formula.
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Photo tour to Ireland
May 20 - 31, 2010
Ireland is such a beautiful place to visit and photograph, and I'm looking forward to taking another group there next year. The trip includes a wide range of photographic subjects such as castles, quaint villages, the rocky coastline, ancient megalithic tombs, intriguing landscapes, cathedrals, beautiful cemeteries, and fascinating ruins. Even when you are not shooting, Ireland is simply a delight to enjoy. The people are incredibly friendly and they always love interacting with Americans.
On all my photo tours, I spend a lot of time teaching. I go over composition, lighting, exposure, macro photography, the advantages of RAW versus JPEG, photographing people, landscapes, wildlife and more. I also talk a lot about Photoshop because it is such an integral part of our creative workflow now. On the trip, I work on some of my images on a laptop and then explain how I achieved the unique effects to give you a lot of food for thought when you go home and work on your own pictures.
If you have always wanted to go to Ireland, or if you've been there and you know how great it is and want to go back, drop me a note (photos@jimzuckerman.com). I'll send you the itinerary and all other pertinent information.
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2010 PHOTO TOURS
Carnival in Venice Feb. 8 - 14, 2010 (sold out)
Frog/reptile workshop, St. Louis February 27, 28, 2010
Frog workshop
Heart of Eastern Europe August 27 - Sept. 9, 2010
Costa Rica hummingbirds May 1 -11, 2010
Ireland May 20 - 31, 2010
Tanzania photo safari June 10 to 22, 2010 with Gorilla trek extension (June 6 to 11)
Namibia photo safari 2010 (dates to be announced in October)
Krakow, Poland
Ethiopia photo tour -- Jan. 17 - Feb. 5, 2011
Antarctica -- January 3 - 24, 2010
East Africa
For other photo tours, speaking engagements, and seminars that I will be giving, please click on this link: http://www.jimzuckermanworkshops.com/
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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.
Bled Castle, Slovenia. Heart of Eastern Europe photo tour
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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: www.jimzuckermanworkshop.com.
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