ON-LINE PHOTO INSTRUCTION-- with detailed critiques of your work
My new 4-week and 8-week courses begin again at Betterphoto.com on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012.
To improve your compositional skills, for example, click HERE to check out the outline of the Developing Your Creative Artistic Vision course to see if you feel this subject matter 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 this unique course that will introduce some intriguing techniques that you've probably not tried before -- like 3D, making a sketch, and more. It is very different from my other Photoshop courses, and it's 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.
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SHOOTING SUGGESTIONS: EXPAND YOUR THINKING?
Sometimes photographers tell me that they are at a loss as to what to shoot. They run out of ideas, and they ask me for some advice about finding interesting, beautiful, or compelling subjects. I have dealt with this myself for years. I lived in the Los Angeles area for most of my life (I escaped eight years ago), and many times I found myself uninspired by my environment to say the least. I had to think outside the box to find great subjects.
I thought I would offer some suggestions to you in this regard. All of these ideas my not be feasible for you, depending where you live, but many of them will definitely be possible for you to pursue if you are so inclined. At the very least, this list of subjects will get you thinking about what might appeal to you and what you might want to seek out in your area of the country or the world.
1. Classic car shows that feature street rods, classics, horseless carriages (vehicles prior to 1915), or custom motorcycles. Look for a Concourse d' Elegance near you. These are my favorite car events because they are usually held on grass (making it easy to replace the background, like in the photo below). Google 'Concourse d'Elegance'.
 2. Indian pow wows. These events are held all over the U.S. and Canada. They are all listed on various websites. Just Google 'Indian pow wows'.
3. Civil war battle reenactments. This is the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, and the battle reenactments for the next few years will be huge. Probably the biggest will be Gettysburg in July, 2013.
4. Join a reptile club to meet people who have exotic pets. Contact a local university or natural history museum and ask the biology staff if they know of clubs in your area.
5. Join a rock and mineral club to meet people with great collections of unique specimens for macro photography.
6. Go to a store or warehouse that sells slabs of marble. Do macro photography of the patterns in the marble such as the 'raintree marble' below.
 7. Visit a butterfly house, the zoo, or an aviary for close encounters with exotic species.
8. Buy beautiful subjects online from ebay. For example, exotic feathers (below), sea shells, fossils, animal skeletons, dinosaur models (for composite work in Photoshop), and model airplanes or ships. Most of these items are not expensive, and you can produce some beautiful images with them.
9. Shoot portraits or flowers behind textured glass. The photo below is my sister when she was 15. Glass companies usually have small pieces of various kinds of textured glass, i.e. remnants. This was one of my first 'special effects', and I was very proud of it in 1969. I still like it.
 10. Shoot flowers or leaves in ice. Place your subjects in Tupperware filled with water, and then put the container in the freezer. A few hours later you will have a cool subject to shoot. Run hot water over the ice for a few seconds so the block of ice cracks. This makes it look more like you photographed it in a frozen stream.
 11. Shoot dilapidated barns, junker cars, tractors, abandoned buildings, and ghost towns.
12. Photograph puppies and/or kittens. Ask a local vet if he or she can put you in touch with people who have new litters, or put a free ad in Craig's List to find them. Local shelters may let you photograph their pups or kittens to help get them adopted. I find that 6 to 7 weeks is the best age. The Chow puppies below belonged to a friend of my son's.
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SELF-CRITIQUE
What is wrong with this picture?
This is my dog Rexie when he was 7 weeks old. Like any proud parent, I love this picture because it's adorable, I have a sweet bond with my dog, and he was so small that he had to listen to what I said (he's now 125 pounds and has a mind of his own!). Photographically, though, the problem is the background. My wife's turquoise shirt and her legs are very distracting to the puppy, and the large dark thing on the wall on the left side is extremely distracting as well. Also, the door frame on the right isn't good. Pronounced graphic lines that are not part of the subject are almost always bad because they draw the eye away from the subject itself. Never underestimate the power of a background to make or break a picture. The background is just as important as the subject in making an image successful.
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Successful Twilight Pictures
I do a lot of twilight photography because the color combination of cobalt blue and yellow is beautiful. I think this is the most beautiful time to photograph cities and architecture. I chose the photo above for this month's issue and to illustrate my thoughts on shooting at this time of evening because this is Gdansk, Poland which is the place where World War II began with an aerial bombardment by German planes. September 1 marks the 73rd anniversary.
Here is my formula for dynamic shots at twilight:
1. Shoot just before dark when the lights of the city can be seen brightly and the sky still has a cobalt blue color.
2. Use a tripod.
3. Use daylight white balance. This produces the golden tones seen in the architecture. If you use auto white balance, the golden tones are eliminated.
4. Use mirror-lock up to eliminate vibration.
5. Trigger the shutter with either the self-timer or a cable release. It can be wireless or mechanical. This also makes sure there is no vibration.
6. Use your LCD monitor to check the exposure. Light meters are less than trustworthy at night and in contrasty situations. If you aren't happy with the exposure as you see it on the LCD, use the exposure compensation feature built into your camera. You can adjust the exposure in 1/3 f/stop increments either plus or minus.
I strongly suggest that you turn off the 'blinkies' when you do night photography. Street lamps, office building windows, reflections, etc. will typically blow out (become solid white with no texture or detail) due to the extreme contrast. If you have flashing highlights on the LCD monitor, you will probably think your exposures are not accurate, but that may not be the case at all. Judge the exposures at twilight by how the picture looks on the LCD, not according to the blinkies or the histogram.
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PHOTOSHOP TIP
I photographed the young girl above during a Christmas parade in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and as you know, there is constant movement in festivals and parades and it's usually not possible to control the background behind the subjects you shoot. In this picture, I didn't want the orange costume in the background because it's extremely distracting (it pulls our eyes away from the girl), but I was shooting quickly as I jostled for position in the crowd and I wanted to quickly capture her smile.
As you can see in the image below, with the neon orange and green costume eliminated, the picture is vastly improved. I still don't like the fact that her hand has been cropped out on the right side, but like I said, I was shooting fast and in the brief instant I had to shoot, I missed seeing that.
I wanted to explain, though, how i made a precise selection of her arm such that when i cloned out the orange costume, I was able to maintain the perfect edge of the arm.
Here are the steps I used:
1. I selected the arm using the quick selection tool (this tool hides beneath the magic wand tool).
2. I then chose Select > modify > contract. In the dialog box, I selected one pixel. This shrunk the selection by just one pixel. Even though this is a very small amount, it's enough to eliminate any of the orange color that butts up against the edge of the arm.
3. Now I clicked Select > modify > feather, and in the dialog box chose one pixel.
4. Next, I chose Select > inverse. Now only the background around the arm was selected.
5. At this point, I could clone out the colorful costume, and because the arm was not part of the selection, it wasn't affected by the clone tool. The cloning was stopped at the edge of the arm, and because I feathered the edge slightly, the juncture between the arm and the background was natural looking.
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| eBOOKS
My new ebook on travel photography was published last month. It is packed full of a lot of important information you need when you travel as a photographer, and it has dozens of beautiful pictures that support the points I make in the text.
Click HERE to review all of my ebooks and to see the table of contents and sample pages.
Let me know by email (photos@jimzuckerman.com) what photographic subject you'd like my next ebook to cover. I'm debating between my favorite Photoshop techniques and home projects -- cool images you can create at home. If you have another idea, I'm open to any suggestions.
eBooks are great because they are much less expensive than conventional books, and you can carry them with you on an iPad, iPhone, or laptop. In addition, trees don't have to be cut down to make the paper for the books. The colors in the images are dazzling, too -- much more so than in a conventional print book because the photographs seen on a computer or an iPad are illuminated from behind. What a great time it is to be a photographer!
The ebook on composition has been quite successful because so many photographers struggle with this fundamental part of photography (and art). The toughest subject in photography to teach and to learn is composition simply because the world is what I call a compositional mess. It's hard to make artistic and visual sense out of all the elements we must deal with in taking great pictures. I think this ebook will help you sort that out. I give you concrete things you can look for to significantly improve your photographic compositions. The ebook is generously illustrated with lots of pictures that will inspire you to be a better photographer.
I'm proud of my other ebooks, too. I've had tons of wonderful compliments on them regarding the images, the clarity of the instruction, and how much people appreciate learning important creative concepts in the ebook format. 
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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my
HOME Sat. & Sun., Sept. 8 -9, 2012 (the next one is Jan 19, 20, 2013).
Photoshop is a photographer's best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and 'homey' environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using 'grunge' textures, modifying lighting, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won't believe what you'll be able to do.
Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. 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 in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com).
I will do my best to inspire you with all the great things Photoshop can do. All you need is a laptop. If you don't have one, I have two laptops (they are Macs) I can loan out.
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