ON-LINE PHOTO INSTRUCTION-- with detailed critiques of your work
My new 4-week and 8-week courses begin again next week on Wednesday, July 7. To improve your compositional skills, for example, click here to check out the outline course to see if you feel this material is exactly what you need.
I have a new photoshop course called Photoshop: Thinking Outside the
Box.
You can click here to see the outline of the course. It is very different from my other Photoshop courses in the types of techniques I demonstrate (include 3-D), and it's a heck of a lot of fun.
Do you want to make money in photography? Want to feel more confident in using natural light outdoors? Interested in learning more about Photoshop (like putting fireworks in the sky or removing lens flare). Are you insecure about your exposure skills?
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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SHOOTING FIREWORKS
HAPPY JULY 4TH. Besides enjoying a family barbecue, fireworks, and time off from work, take a few moments today to profoundly appreciate the gifts our country has provided us, and at the same time we should salute the men and women in the military who are the greatest force the world has ever seen for bringing and maintaining freedom to hundreds of millions people.
Photographing fireworks is quite easy. All you need is a tripod. You should focus manually on infinity and set the exposure mode to manual as well. Don't use autoexposure. I recommend using a daylight white balance. The exposure setting I used for the fireworks background in the above photo (this is a composite, of course) was 1. 6 seconds at f/8. I did not use a cable release or the self-timer in the camera -- I simply pushed the shutter button on the camera to take the shot.
A good lens choice would be something in the range of 24 - 105mm, or even 18-55mm. This gives you compositional choices, and depending on your distance from the fireworks, you can adjust the focal length to fill a significant part of the frame with all the color.
Once you have a collection of fireworks bursts, you may want to be creative with them in terms of combining them with other images. The American flag above is an example, as is the skyline of Philadelphia below.
The secret to pasting fireworks into the twilight or night sky of a cityscape or architecture scene is to use the blend mode 'lighten' in Photoshop. In the layers palette there is a submenu that begins with the word normal. Pull that down and you will see the word lighten. This makes the black sky around the fireworks disappear, and you are left with the background image with the fireworks bursts like you see in the Philadephia skyline. It's miraculous when you see how easy it is.
I did the same thing with the Tower Bridge in London. Notice how there is no telltale evidence of the original black sky behind the fireworks. There was no need to meticulously cut out the fireworks (which would actually be impossible). The blend mode did all the work for me.
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Being Creative with SmokeI had some fun with photographing smoke last week. I bought some incense and set it up in front of a black background. Using only a single flash placed off-camera to the side, I was able to capture some intriguing abstractions. Every second the form of the smoke changes, and that's
 part of the fun. Notice how important the black background was in making the form of the smoke so clearly visible. I used a piece of black velvet for this. Also note how effective the sidelighting is in helping to define the shape and the contours of the smoke. I used a Pocket Wizard to trigger the off-camera flash, and for the exposure I simply used the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to tell me if the image was too light or too dark. I then altered the light output from the flash using the flash exposure compensation feature.
Ok, so that was fun, but now what? I took this a few steps further and altered the color of the smoke by making a duplicate layer in Photoshop (Command/Ctrl J) and then applying the gradient tool to lay down a rainbow of color. When the gradient tool is selected, in the tool bar you can select
various multi-colored patterns that become the gradient (see below).
After the
color was placed on the duplicate layer, I used the 'overlay' blend mode
(found in the submenu within the layers palette as soon above in the fireworks article) to merge the color
with the smoke.
 To create the image at right, I simply mirrored the colorful smoke and then cut and paste the model from Venice, Italy into the background.
If you are not involved as yet in cutting and pasting images together in Photoshop or Elements, I strongly encourage you to try your hand at it. It's very rewarding, a lot of fun, and it's always a surprise what you can come up with.
My favorite composite with smoke thus far is the image below. I again used a blend mode to make the smoke look like it's wrapped around the model's body, and then of course I used the Flood plug-in filter (made by flamingpear.com) to add the realistic reflection.
Finally, I experimented with the plug-in Flexify 2 (also made by flamingpear.com) and abstracted the colorful smoke into a wild, surrealistic shape. Then I placed stars (which are actually glitter sprinkled on black velvet) and a NASA photo of the Earth into the center of this would-be nebula.
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Self Critique
This picture is successful for two reasons. First, the background is beautiful. The original sky was solid blue, which was OK but nothing spectacular. I feel this sky helps make this photo more compelling, dramatic, and beautiful.
Second, the graphic formation of the U.S. Thunderbirds F/16 jets looks great. I centered the planes to underscore their symmetry, and then
I spent a lot of time preserving the smoke trails from the planes in the new background.
This picture is a good example of what I teach my online students with every critique I write for them -- that artistic, bold, or beautiful graphic design and great lighting are the keys to creating successful photographs and successful photographic composites. This can't be emphasized enough.
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PHOTO TOUR to NAMIBIA
October 17 - 31, 2010
Namibia is one of the world's great travel destinations. Nowhere else on Earth can you photograph such spectacular orange sand dunes -- the largest in the world -- and then have close encounters with cheetahs, lions, and leopards (and I mean really close!). We visit two organizations that rehabilitate injured cats as well as protect them from being killed by local farmers. The most remarkable image of a leopard I've ever taken was shot at one of these facilities (see the image at the top of this newsletter).
The
photography is unparalleled because unlike everywhere else in Africa,
you can actually shoot predators from a low position -- on the ground -- for
intimate and compelling portraits unobtainable when shooting from a
vehicle. The intimate shot of a caracal, above, is an example.
Photographing the primitive Himba people is also an amazing experience. It's like going back in time thousands of years to the stone age. It's a warm and friendly experience, and the images you get will be amazing.
 If this trip inspires you, here is
a link (click here) to my website where you can read the itinerary and get pricing information. Visit the photo gallery there for more images. This will be one of the most memorable photo tours you've ever taken. Let me know if you have any questions. My direct email is: photos@jimzuckerman.com.
The photo above of a Namaqua chameleon is one of the unique creatures seen in the Namib desert. It is remarkable how close you can get to it.
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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my HOME
Sat. & Sun., July 17, 18, 2010
Photoshop is a photographer's best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In this personal and 'homey' environment, I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many cool techniques that you won't believe what you'll be able to do.
Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you've already taken.
A lot of people, once they learn what the tools and commands do, still need help in deciding what images to work with, what composites look good, and how to be artistic within Photoshop. This is one of the main things I address in this workshop.
I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I'll give you my address and you can find it on Mapquest. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.
Contact me if
you would like to participate. All you need is a laptop. If you don't
have one, I have two laptops (they are Macs) I can loan out.
photos@jimzuckerman.com
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MY SEMI-ANNUAL FROG & REPTILE WORKSHOP
September 18, 19, 2010
This is the third year I've conducted a workshop to photograph exotic poison dart frogs (they are not poisonous in captivity) and reptiles. The workshop is held in St. Louis, Missouri, and everyone who has participated has come away with truly remarkable images. It's hard not to -- it's like shooting sitting ducks, but in this case it's sitting frogs, geckos, chameleons, snakes, a juvenile alligator, and more. There are about 50 species of creatures, and the natural backgrounds I set up make the pictures look like they were taken in the wild.
This workshop is really about flash because that's what is required to get the pictures you see here. I give a half hour presentation on using flash for macro photography, and then the rest of the time is spent shooting. The best pictures are taken with either a ring flash or a twin-flash macro setup. If you don't have your own, I have units to loan out for both Nikon and Canon. I explain everything you need to know about exposure, eliminating any unwanted reflections from eyes and shiny amphibian bodies, and I help you get the best macro images ever.
The price of the workshop is $895. This includes the workshop itself and does not include the transportation to St. Louis or lodging/meals. The hotel we use is 5 minutes from the airport, and they have a free shuttle service. On Saturday evening, we drive down to the Gateway Arch to photograph this spectacular structure in the evening light.
Here is a link (click here) to my website with more photos. If this workshop interests you, contact me by email (photos@jimzuckerman.com) and I'll tell you how to sign up.
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