Single-Serving Photo

I don’t think there is a single digital photographer who hasn’t, at one time or another, looked at a histogram (much like the one below) and thought What the fuzz is this thing trying to tell me? If that describes you, or if you just want to know more about this ubiquitous and curious graph, you’ve come to the right place.

Today I will unclothe the common histogram and show you not only how to read it, but also how you can use it to strengthen your work. (more…)

Most (if not all) digital SLR cameras have a variety of “modes” that they can be operated in, such as Av, Tv, Portrait, and so on. To the novice it may seem as though some of the modes are redundant, and certainly to some degree that is true, but they all have their uses. Today I will attempt to demystify these modes and explain how to use them most effectively for the greatest creative impact. (more…)

In one of my previous posts I mentioned the “focal length reciprocal rule” and it occurred to me that not all of my readers may know what that is. Rather than find someone else’s article about it (of which I’m sure there are many) and link to it, I thought I’d just write my own.

The goal of the rule (which is more of a guideline than a rule, actually) is to give you an idea of whether a photograph will come out blurry if you’re holding the camera in your hand. It is a somewhat simple formula to determine how various camera settings combine to compensate for camera shake. I use the rule constantly while I’m out shooting because I don’t like to bring a tripod to most places and there’s no use bringing home a whole CF card filled with blurry photographs.

Not only will I explain what this reciprocal rule is, but I’ll give you real examples of how to use it in the field. (more…)

In the last chapter of my Automated Workflow series, I showed you how to use some neat scripting tricks to apply watermarks to your photos automatically. In this chapter, I’m going to talk about naming and organizing photos and show you how to set up some scripts to make things easier for you.

You have a bunch of pretty photos; shouldn’t they have pretty names? (more…)

Do you find yourself performing the same mundane tasks over and over? Exporting photos, sorting them, watermarking them, renaming the files, applying metadata, uploading them, etc., etc. These kinds of tasks are simply ripe for automation. Make the computer do all the work, that’s my mantra.

In this series of articles, I will discuss the down and dirty mechanics of how I’ve automated a good deal of my workflow. I’ll probably continue to add chapters to this series as I figure out new methods, but hopefully you can start saving time right off the bat with some of these tips!

Today’s topic is exporting and watermarking. (more…)