Create Great iPhone Photos

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Create Great iPhone Photos is a new title from No Starch Press. Written by technology guru Allan Hoffman, this 224-page book covers a number of photography apps, and explores topics like producing panoramas, HDR imaging, and general post-processing on the iPhone itself. The book can be pre-ordered from O’Reilly at a price of $29.95.

Press Release

Create Great iPhone Photos—New from No Starch Press

Master the World’s Most Versatile Camera, One Shot at a Time

San Francisco, CA, January 19, 2011—The iPhone is one of the world’s most customizable cameras. More than just a camera, it can be turned into a digital darkroom, photo-editing suite, and photoblogging tool all rolled into one. Unfortunately, most users aren’t aware of their iPhone’s potential, or they haven’t taken the time to explore it beyond point-and-shoot snapshots.

In Create Great iPhone Photos (No Starch Press, January 2011, 224 pp., 9781593272852), technology guru Allan Hoffman’s accessible how-to advice shows both casual iPhone users and serious photographers how to master the amazing world of iPhone photography. From cropping and retouching to creating comics and psychedelic art, Create Great iPhone Photos shows which apps to use and how to use them.

“The iPhone camera isn’t just for taking quick snapshots,” said Hoffman. “You can create panoramic images, generate sketches from photos like those from a graphic novel, or enhance your photos with retro frames and effects. You essentially have Photoshop® right in your pocket.”

Using step by step examples and illustrative color photographs, Create Great iPhone Photos covers all of the best and most innovative photography apps. Readers learn how to:

·      Produce stunning panoramas, vintage-style photo booth strips, and super-saturated Polaroid-style photos with a hip, 1970s look

·      Unlock the secret power of the iPhone’s camera with burst mode, high dynamic range (HDR) effects, exposure and focus controls, and more

·      Find and install the best iPhone apps for cropping images, adjusting contrast and exposure, and editing photos to achieve eye-popping results

·      Publish and share images right from the iPhone, without the need for memory cards, cables, or complex desktop photo-editing tools

With the help of the techniques found in Create Great iPhone Photos, amateur and experienced photographers alike will learn how to transform dull, mediocre snapshots into artful, professional-grade digital photographs.

About the Author

For the past 15 years, Allan Hoffman has been the technology columnist for The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper, where he writes about Internet culture and trends, the iPhone, and digital photography. His work has appeared in Newsday, the New York Times, Wired.com, and many other magazines and newspapers. He maintains a photoblog at http://www.whatiseenow.com and spent much of his teenage years in his high school’s darkroom.

View the original article here

7 Tips For Great Low Angle Shots

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Copyright By Socceraholic

Low angle shots give us a different view on the world. Most of our lives are spent well above ground level and by the time we are teenagers we rarely spend much time down low any more. Yet there is a whole world down there!! Plus the forced perspective brings a boring, everyday scene into new light when done right. So what are some tips on taking great low angle shots?

(NOTE: While low angle photography can technically include shots simply looking up at tall items, I am intent on highlighting the reverse, dropping your camera down low to force perspective.)

Ignore Your Viewfinder

The first step in low angle is accepting you will not be able to look through your viewfinder most of the time. A lot of shots require the camera in such an angle that only the smallest of frogs could take a peek. If your camera has a flipout view screen, you will be thanking your lucky stars. If not, get used to having to go by sense of feel on this one.

Learn Your Angle

Low angle shots work best with a wider lens. Something in the 10-22mm range for 1.6 crop factor cameras works quite well. Fisheye lenses can also be handy. This is not to say a zoom doesn’t do the job if you can lay on your belly and frame things. It is just much harder to crop the image right in the filed of view that it will be with a wider zoom. Although three is no reason you can’t have it both ways and opt for something like a 18-200mm zoom which will allow for a lot of room to play.

Understand Aperture and Depth Of Field

A low angle shot is going to have objects near and far. That is part of its appeal, being able to show the perspective by including foreground objects. This means you will need to understand your camera and lens combination’s sweet spot for aperture. Cranking the f-stop up as high as it will go does not insure perfect depth of of field front to back. Each lens has positive and negative aspects this approach and it is best to learn where your lens performs best, then use that setting (via a Aperture Priority mode). Even better, some cameras have a Depth Of Field mode, which will do its darndest to hold as much of the image in focus as it can, by correlating both aperture and focus points.

Keep It All Level

When you bring the camera close to the ground or other low object, take an extra second to insure your camera is level. This will save time in front of the computer realigning everything. It may not seem like a big deal at the time, but if you want to use this technique again and again, it’s best to learn leveling early. It can be a huge time saver in the long run.

The good news is, if you can’t get it perfect, there always is the computer to make it nice and level. I simply prefer to get it right in the camera the first time around, even if it means a lot of trial and error to learn.

Preventing Blown Out Skies

It may be a sunny day and all your shots are coming out well. A nice balance of light and the exposure seems to be spot on…until you go for a low shot. The foreground is dark and the sky is not that well defined. What’s happening?

If your low angle shot is including a lot of sky, and it is a bright day, you will need to compensate or, possibly, accept the limits of the scene in front of you. Shooting up and near the sun will make your camera squint with all its might, just like you would if you were laying on the ground looking partially into the sun. To compensate, take a pick between the dark and the light and go for it. If you want a lot of sky or cloud to be defined, underexpose. If the foreground is too precious to you to let go, overexpose and accept that the sky will be blown out. But at least you can capture the aspect that is most important to you.

Positioning Objects In The Frame

Imagine the scene from down low before taking the shot. Just like eye level photographs, frame the scene to include something of interest. Maybe it’s just a rock, or an apple or anything. This is a chance to make the mundane appear huge by perspective. Because of the angle, nearby objects will be exaggerated in their size. Play around with it.

Shoot, Review, Repeat

This is where digital is a boon to the photographer. While I’m not a fan of reviewing every shot on a camera’s view screen, learning from your mistakes has never been easier than with the digital revolution. Use it! Take a shot and see what can be changed, either with exposure or composition, and try, try again until the shot you want is captured.

Just don’t forget to delete the dozens of attempts that failed before you get home to download.

Low angle photography can be a fun way to spice things up in your picture taking world. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see the world from another point of view!

Post from: Digital Photography School

View the original article here

7 Tips For Great Low Angle Shots

Copyright By Socceraholic

Low angle shots give us a different view on the world. Most of our lives are spent well above ground level and by the time we are teenagers we rarely spend much time down low any more. Yet there is a whole world down there!! Plus the forced perspective brings a boring, everyday scene into new light when done right. So what are some tips on taking great low angle shots?

The first step in low angle is accepting you will not be able to look through your viewfinder most of the time. A lot of shots require the camera in such an angle that only the smallest of frogs could take a peek. If your camera has a flipout view screen, you will be thanking your lucky stars. If not, get used to having to go by sense of feel on this one.

Low angle shots work best with a wider lens. Something in the 10-22mm range for 1.6 crop factor cameras works quite well. Fisheye lenses can also be handy. This is not to say a zoom doesn’t do the job if you can lay on your belly and frame things. It is just much harder to crop the image right in the filed of view that it will be with a wider zoom. Although three is no reason you can’t have it both ways and opt for something like a 18-200mm zoom which will allow for a lot of room to play.

A low angle shot is going to have objects near and far. That is part of its appeal, being able to show the perspective by including foreground objects. This means you will need to understand your camera and lens combination’s sweet spot for aperture. Cranking the f-stop up as high as it will go does not insure perfect depth of of field front to back. Each lens has positive and negative aspects this approach and it is best to learn where your lens performs best, then use that setting (via a Aperture Priority mode). Even better, some cameras have a Depth Of Field mode, which will do its darndest to hold as much of the image in focus as it can, by correlating both aperture and focus points.

When you bring the camera close to the ground or other low object, take an extra second to insure your camera is level. This will save time in front of the computer realigning everything. It may not seem like a big deal at the time, but if you want to use this technique again and again, it’s best to learn leveling early. It can be a huge time saver in the long run.
The good news is, if you can’t get it perfect, there always is the computer to make it nice and level. I simply prefer to get it right in the camera the first time around, even if it means a lot of trial and error to learn.

It may be a sunny day and all your shots are coming out well. A nice balance of light and the exposure seems to be spot on…until you go for a low shot. The foreground is dark and the sky is not that well defined. What’s happening?
If your low angle shot is including a lot of sky, and it is a bright day, you will need to compensate or, possibly, accept the limits of the scene in front of you. Shooting up and near the sun will make your camera squint with all its might, just like you would if you were laying on the ground looking partially into the sun. To compensate, take a pick between the dark and the light and go for it. If you want a lot of sky or cloud to be defined, underexpose. If the foreground is too precious to you to let go, overexpose and accept that the sky will be blown out. But at least you can capture the aspect that is most important to you.

Imagine the scene from down low before taking the shot. Just like eye level photographs, frame the scene to include something of interest. Maybe it’s just a rock, or an apple or anything. This is a chance to make the mundane appear huge by perspective. Because of the angle, nearby objects will be exaggerated in their size. Play around with it.

This is where digital is a boon to the photographer. While I’m not a fan of reviewing every shot on a camera’s view screen, learning from your mistakes has never been easier than with the digital revolution. Use it! Take a shot and see what can be changed, either with exposure or composition, and try, try again until the shot you want is captured.
Just don’t forget to delete the dozens of attempts that failed before you get home to download.

Low angle photography can be a fun way to spice things up in your picture taking world. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see the world from another point of view!

View the original article here

How to Photograph Your Christmas Dinner for Great Results

By Mike Panic on 23 Dec 2010 in Guides[ 5 Comments ]

Aside from being a once a year holiday, Christmas is a time of year when friends and family from out of town get together, exchange stories of what transpired in their lives for the year and eat some good food.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the one from out of town or hosting the dinner, capturing these moments shared over dinner, especially with those who you don’t see on a regular basis should be captured, and well.  Here’s how to get some great results.

Setting up your gear properly

For the most part, I’m suggesting you treat this event as you were a photojournalist.  Save the staged photos on the couch or in front of the fireplace for later in the evening.  Posed shots are fun but it’s the candid moments that are often most cherished.  Because of this, don’t use a flash.  Rather, choose a fast lens (one with a low f/stop number) and shoot at a higher ISO.

Alternatively, you could setup a tripod in the corner with a speedlight on it and trigger it with a radio transmitter / receiver, which is a little more complicated but our friends at Strobist wrote up a great how-to a few years ago in a similar situation.  Either no flash or off camera flash is acceptable but for best results, avoid on-camera or built-in flash.

For ease of mind, shoot in aperture priority mode as wide open as you can and just watch the shutter speed the camera picks.  As long as it’s faster than the focal length of your lens, your photos should be blur-free.  Example: shooting on a 50mm f/1.8 lens (commonly called a thrifty fifty and an essential part to any photographers tool bag) should have a shutter speed no slower than 1/60th of a second.  If you’re seeing anything slower, raise the ISO and try again.

Take the time to do a quick custom white balance too.  It will make a world of difference, and we’ve taught you how several times already.

Start in the kitchen

Photo By kthread

Christmas Dinner starts several hours before dinner, and if the opportunity is there to start earlier in the day with the preparation work, do so.  Many families split the duty of cooking as it’s a great time to bond, and likewise an excellent opportunity to start telling the story.  Think of shooting the whole day more like telling a story, as if you were going to put together a photo book (which is a great idea for family members).  Food is an integral part of our culture these days and a little extra work will yield some great results.

Don’t neglect the others

Photo By WarzauWynn

Step out from the kitchen and interact with everyone else, chances are you’ll see some beautiful moments and you want to be there to capture them.  From the guys out back trading stories to the children running around and playing, these events all contribute to the actual dinner-day and celebration.

Attention to details

Photo By ian.crowther

The details can help further tell your story, like this photo of the Turkey, which is now at the proper temperature.  Likewise, the place settings, which often take a lot of time to setup should be shown too, and it’s a great opportunity to get a macro lens out.

Photo By kevindooley

Yes, a little more on the artsy side, but still a great addition to telling the story.

Time to eat

Photo By Turkinator

Photo By dane brian

Get a picture of the room (with or without your family, or both!), your plate of food, then enjoy.  Just because you’re the family shutterbug doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the time with your family and friends.  Put the camera down, eat some food and relax.

Get the last few shots

Photo By saturnairjam

Usually at the end of dinner everyone is stuffed, not feeling photogenic and are looking for an after dinner drink.  That’s when shots like the above one will appear, capture them then join everyone with your feet up on the couch and enjoy the company of everyone else.

Treating the day like a photojournalist would, rather than pushing for the cheesy posed shots will, in the end, probably give you more fun with everyone and capture everyone how they really are.  Don’t forget the best part of Christmas dinner, next day leftovers!

Tags: christmas

View the original article here

How to Photograph Your Christmas Dinner for Great Results

By Mike Panic on 23 Dec 2010 in Guides[ 4 Comments ]

Aside from being a once a year holiday, Christmas is a time of year when friends and family from out of town get together, exchange stories of what transpired in their lives for the year and eat some good food.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the one from out of town or hosting the dinner, capturing these moments shared over dinner, especially with those who you don’t see on a regular basis should be captured, and well.  Here’s how to get some great results.

Setting up your gear properly

For the most part, I’m suggesting you treat this event as you were a photojournalist.  Save the staged photos on the couch or in front of the fireplace for later in the evening.  Posed shots are fun but it’s the candid moments that are often most cherished.  Because of this, don’t use a flash.  Rather, choose a fast lens (one with a low f/stop number) and shoot at a higher ISO.

Alternatively, you could setup a tripod in the corner with a speedlight on it and trigger it with a radio transmitter / receiver, which is a little more complicated but our friends at Strobist wrote up a great how-to a few years ago in a similar situation.  Either no flash or off camera flash is acceptable but for best results, avoid on-camera or built-in flash.

For ease of mind, shoot in aperture priority mode as wide open as you can and just watch the shutter speed the camera picks.  As long as it’s faster than the focal length of your lens, your photos should be blur-free.  Example: shooting on a 50mm f/1.8 lens (commonly called a thrifty fifty and an essential part to any photographers tool bag) should have a shutter speed no slower than 1/60th of a second.  If you’re seeing anything slower, raise the ISO and try again.

Take the time to do a quick custom white balance too.  It will make a world of difference, and we’ve taught you how several times already.

Start in the kitchen

Photo By kthread

Christmas Dinner starts several hours before dinner, and if the opportunity is there to start earlier in the day with the preparation work, do so.  Many families split the duty of cooking as it’s a great time to bond, and likewise an excellent opportunity to start telling the story.  Think of shooting the whole day more like telling a story, as if you were going to put together a photo book (which is a great idea for family members).  Food is an integral part of our culture these days and a little extra work will yield some great results.

Don’t neglect the others

Photo By WarzauWynn

Step out from the kitchen and interact with everyone else, chances are you’ll see some beautiful moments and you want to be there to capture them.  From the guys out back trading stories to the children running around and playing, these events all contribute to the actual dinner-day and celebration.

Attention to details

Photo By ian.crowther

The details can help further tell your story, like this photo of the Turkey, which is now at the proper temperature.  Likewise, the place settings, which often take a lot of time to setup should be shown too, and it’s a great opportunity to get a macro lens out.

Photo By kevindooley

Yes, a little more on the artsy side, but still a great addition to telling the story.

Time to eat

Photo By Turkinator

Photo By dane brian

Get a picture of the room (with or without your family, or both!), your plate of food, then enjoy.  Just because you’re the family shutterbug doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the time with your family and friends.  Put the camera down, eat some food and relax.

Get the last few shots

Photo By saturnairjam

Usually at the end of dinner everyone is stuffed, not feeling photogenic and are looking for an after dinner drink.  That’s when shots like the above one will appear, capture them then join everyone with your feet up on the couch and enjoy the company of everyone else.

Treating the day like a photojournalist would, rather than pushing for the cheesy posed shots will, in the end, probably give you more fun with everyone and capture everyone how they really are.  Don’t forget the best part of Christmas dinner, next day leftovers!

Tags: christmas

View the original article here

Great Guest Gifts to Spread Holiday Cheer Dandee

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Do you know what spreads holiday cheer faster than anything else on the planet? The giving of small unexpected gifts that instantly brighten someone's day — that's what! Here's a simple idea to make things a bit merrier with a small amount of effort that will yield lots of smiles! Want to see what's in the boxes?

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11 Great Camera Angles for Food Photography

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Choosing the best angle, when shooting food, comes from a good observation and an inner feeling. Before composing your image, try to enter into a visual meditation, move calmly around your subject and simply observe with your bare eyes. Just keep in mind that this meditation cannot be long-lasting, as you know that freshly prepared food will not continue to maintain that ?fresh look? for more than a few minutes.

Photographing food is very similar to photographing people in a sense that each person has her best side. Considering the variety of food out there, diverse cooking and presentation styles, the final results are endless. This array of unique subjects creates an opportunity for infinite camera angle choices.

What is the best angle? Here are my Top 10:

Angle 1: Head-on Zen:

The camera is completely centered to the subject. This created a very clean contemporary look and feel. Tip: Keep the props to the minimum.

Angle 2. From Above:

Camera is positioned directly above the subject and perfectly centered. This angle produces a very contemporary, graphic look.

Tips on overhead photography see Tips for Shooting Overhead.

Angle 3. Lost in Space:

For this shot, food was placed directly onto the white plexiglass surface, a soft box was positioned below the plexi. This created a seamless and shadow-less environment. When you do not have a point of reference (no horizon line, no plate, no sense of environment) you can shoot from most unusual angles and get away with it.

Angle 4. Tilt Towards:

Camera is tilted right, so the subject tilts counterclockwise and the dish is welcoming you in, motivating the spectator to indulge in image.

Angle 5. Tilt Away:

Camera is tilted left, so the subject tilts clockwise, pulling away from you, engaging the viewer the desire to follow.

Angle 6. Close up and personal

Don?t be afraid to get close to your subject. It won?t bite. Or will it? When you are shooting close ups, the point of reference loses its importance, so any camera angle will produce an appetizing image or not?

A



ngle 7. Above with Perspective:

The camera is positioned above the front of the subjectdd, then the camera is tilted up until the subject fills the frame. The photograph will maintain a graphic dynamic composition that will engaging the eye to scan the image from the foreground to the background.

Angle 8. Diagonal:

Turn you camera so the subject starts in one corner and ends in the opposite corner, breaking the space diagonally.

Angle 9. With respect to the Line:

When looking through the viewfinder align the edge of the frame to any line you see in your subject. In this case I chose to align three parallel lines (left and right edges of the slice). So I turned the camera until these 3 lines ware parallel to the vertical edge of the frame. This created a very monumental and unusual composition, granting unprecedented importance to this slice of a regular cheese cake.

Angle 10. Gentle tilt:

The camera was tilted just slightly to the left. Why? Because the human brain likes to scan things by section. If the camera had been leveled, then the middle wedge would create a horizontal line that would divide the composition in two sections and forcing the eye to travel away from the center. But in this case, I wanted the eye to flow freely though the whole image while stopping only at the focal point. So ?gentle tilt? solved the problem.

Conclusion:

Try to forget about the rule of thirds and everything you just learned, just move around your subject and really try to see it and when you see it, draw the camera to your eye and start framing. Keep your mind clear, no thinking. When you start getting a warm fuzzy feeling entering through your stomach and spreading to your chest, just push the button.

Angle 11: Can you post a shot with your best angle?

Further Reading on Food Photography

• Food Photography Techniques and Tips


• Food Photography – An Introduction


• 10 Tips for Mouth Watering Food Photography

Sasha Gitin is a New York based food and lifestyle photographer shooting for advertising and editorial industries. His commercial portfolio can be reviewed on sashagitin.com.

In addition, Sasha is a co-founder of an educational photography blog LearnMyShot.com where he shares photography tips and techniques.

Post from: Digital Photography School

View the original article here

11 Great Camera Angles for Food Photography

Choosing the best angle, when shooting food, comes from a good observation and an inner feeling. Before composing your image, try to enter into a visual meditation, move calmly around your subject and simply observe with your bare eyes. Just keep in mind that this meditation cannot be long-lasting, as you know that freshly prepared food will not continue to maintain that “fresh look” for more than a few minutes.

Photographing food is very similar to photographing people in a sense that each person has her best side. Considering the variety of food out there, diverse cooking and presentation styles, the final results are endless. This array of unique subjects creates an opportunity for infinite camera angle choices.

What is the best angle? Here are my Top 10:

The camera is completely centered to the subject. This created a very clean contemporary look and feel. Tip: Keep the props to the minimum.

Camera is positioned directly above the subject and perfectly centered. This angle produces a very contemporary, graphic look.

Tips on overhead photography see Tips for Shooting Overhead.

For this shot, food was placed directly onto the white plexiglass surface, a soft box was positioned below the plexi. This created a seamless and shadow-less environment. When you do not have a point of reference (no horizon line, no plate, no sense of environment) you can shoot from most unusual angles and get away with it.

Camera is tilted right, so the subject tilts counterclockwise and the dish is welcoming you in, motivating the spectator to indulge in image.

Camera is tilted left, so the subject tilts clockwise, pulling away from you, engaging the viewer the desire to follow.

Don’t be afraid to get close to your subject. It won’t bite. Or will it? When you are shooting close ups, the point of reference loses its importance, so any camera angle will produce an appetizing image or not?

The camera is positioned above the front of the subjectdd, then the camera is tilted up until the subject fills the frame. The photograph will maintain a graphic dynamic composition that will engaging the eye to scan the image from the foreground to the background.

Turn you camera so the subject starts in one corner and ends in the opposite corner, breaking the space diagonally.

When looking through the viewfinder align the edge of the frame to any line you see in your subject. In this case I chose to align three parallel lines (left and right edges of the slice). So I turned the camera until these 3 lines ware parallel to the vertical edge of the frame. This created a very monumental and unusual composition, granting unprecedented importance to this slice of a regular cheese cake.

The camera was tilted just slightly to the left. Why? Because the human brain likes to scan things by section. If the camera had been leveled, then the middle wedge would create a horizontal line that would divide the composition in two sections and forcing the eye to travel away from the center. But in this case, I wanted the eye to flow freely though the whole image while stopping only at the focal point. So “gentle tilt” solved the problem.

Try to forget about the rule of thirds and everything you just learned, just move around your subject and really try to see it and when you see it, draw the camera to your eye and start framing. Keep your mind clear, no thinking. When you start getting a warm fuzzy feeling entering through your stomach and spreading to your chest, just push the button.

Sasha Gitin is a New York based food and lifestyle photographer shooting for advertising and editorial industries. His commercial portfolio can be reviewed on sashagitin.com.

In addition, Sasha is a co-founder of an educational photography blog LearnMyShot.com where he shares photography tips and techniques.

Guest Contributor This post was written by a guest contributor to DPS. Please see their details in the post above. Become a Contributor: Check out Write for DPS page for details about how YOU can share your photography tips with the DPS community.

View the original article here