How to store your digital images is an issue that faces every digital photographer at some stage. In this post ChristinaNichole Photography shares some tips on how to do it.

I once met a very talented photographer at a digital photography class. The topic of discussion was digital image organization. Of all the students attending this class, she was extremely distraught. When asked if she needed assistance, her response was, “I never knew how to organize my pictures before, so I kept them all in one file. Where do I start?!?

Not the best-case scenario.

Though not an overwhelmingly fascinating subject, without a doubt digital storage and file handling is one of the most important lessons a photographer can learn. In the digital age, when we have opportunity to store hundreds of thousands of images on one laptop or hard drive, things can get pretty complicated to go back and try to find “that one picture of Aunt Helen at Johnny’s 6^th birthday party”. Especially if you don’t have an established workflow and file handling system.

Organizing your images will be one of the most time intensive and equally time saving tasks you can perform as a photographer. You don’t want to spend hours looking for that one picture if you can simply search your catalogue for it by a single keyword or date.

Various photo organizing programs can assist you in your organizing. You can customize this organization with most programs if you import directly into the program. This list of programs would include Picasa by Google, Aperture by Apple, and Lightroom2 by Adobe. Though these programs will help you exponentially, it’s helpful to begin with these general starting points:

1. Upload your images using a unique file naming system. This way, each image has a unique name in your catalogue. This makes for super fast retrieval later on and no worries on 2 images having the same name! You have a few options with file naming, just choose a system that works well for you, and don’t change it. I find the following works best for me: Date, day, initials, image number: [2008-10-20_CND_0001.jpg]
2. Upload your images into dated folders. For example, if I have two shoots on the 20^th of November, I upload all of my images into that date [11-20-2008]. In my organizing program, I will then make separate collections for each shoot – all still in that single folder. [Folder >11-20-2008> Folder > Harmon Shoot]. Retrieval becomes a matter of less than 2 minutes.
3. Once you have uploaded your images, go through and rate each image. It sounds like a pain, but once you get used to your system the rating goes by fairly fast. The rating options defer from program to program, but in Lightroom2, I rate my images on a 0 to 5 scale. Images rated 0 – 1 gets trashed. Images rated 2 get stored and major time is spent on editing them later. Images rated 3-5 are the ones I edit immediately and are happy with showing them to clients right away.
4. If you can, it is really smart to keyword your images. In image programs like Portfolio – dedicated to massive amounts of photo storage – and Lightroom2 also, each keyword will be kept in a collection of its own. If I have just finished a portrait shoot, I will keyword something like this: Client, location, type of images, expression [smiling, laughing etc], on location, in studio…etc. If my client is a mother who wants any other pictures of her graduating son that are smiling, I don’t scroll through all my images to find those smile pictures. I simply go to my “smiling” keywords of that client and viola!

Organizing your images is a photographer’s lifesaver that cannot be stressed enough! If you are a beginner, take some time to figure out what system will work best for you. Whether putting together a family photo book, or going back to make prints for a client from last year, or even archiving your images, image organization will save you time and energy in the future.

Original post by Darren

If you’ve ever seen images like the one at right and wondered how they are created, this post from Peter Carey helps explain the steps needed to produce your own star trail images.

Creating star trail images is a fun technique that can deliver a wide range of results depending on location, foreground objects and number of visible stars.  While the technique can be relatively simple, proper setup and then proper post-processing are essential.  To get started, let’s look at the equipment and tools needed for a normal star trail image:

• Digital Camera, with or without Bulb mode
• Tripod
• Remote shutter release with timer (optional, but it helps)
• Open view of the sky
• A lack of city lights
• Image stacking software
• Patience and warm clothes if you don’t live in the Tropics

Any camera will work for creating images while it should be noted cameras with exposure length control (shutter priority, manual or bulb modes) work best.  The remote shutter release unit is best used to reduce camera shake from pressing the shutter release button as it is used off camera (some are even cordless).  If the remote has a timer function it is golden for use with this type of photography.  A good timer will allow for setting of the shutter speed, number of shots and interval between shots.  This is the best unattended setup if you wish to wait some place warm while your camera takes care of the pictures.  Image stacking software allows for the overlay of multiple images while combining the details.  A few options will be discussed at the end of this post as well as in the comments section.

Photo by Sam Meztli

1. Location, Location, Location

Finding a location away from city lights is an important consideration.  As the stacking software will combine light areas of the picture, it’s best to have as dark of a sky as possible.  As you can see from the examples in this post, a lot of images are taken in deserts, as is the example at top(Arches National Park, Utah, USA).  Once a good location is established check the foreground for interesting subject matter.  A shot of just the sky, while cool for a few shots, looses its luster without an Earthbound object to anchor the action.  Mountains, trees, mesas, even people or buildings can be used to add some interest to the shot.  Make sure your tripod is set on firm ground and not in a location it’ll be bumped or walked in front of.

If you wish to get the circle effect in the photo up top, just point your camera toward the North Star or the Southern Cross depending on your hemisphere.

Image by jpstanley

2. Settings

With your camera firmly in place it’s time to check exposure settings before shooting.  In- camera metering is not going to like how things are set up and most settings will need to manually set.  If your camera can not focus in such darkness you’ll need to manually set focus either on a close by object or just off of your lens’ infinity setting.  This depends on how close to subjects the camera is set.  Having subjects further away allows for a larger aperture  and better light gathering at shorter shutter speeds, which has its advantages explained in a moment.

Next set the ISO around 200, but experiment as with all settings suggested here.  This depends largely on the amount of light and camera being used.  If the ISO is too high and the in camera noise reduction less than optimal you can experience a large amount of camera noise that will interfere with the star trails.  At best, it means more time in post processing removing the noise.

Shutter speed can be set as low (or high, depending on your point of view) as 1 second or the shutter held open for minutes at a time.  I’ve found my camera gets increased sensor noise on longer shots.  For me, shots in pitch black over 30 seconds will show ‘hot spots’ on the sensor; colored points that repeat in the same location picture after picture.  I’ve found optimal shutter lengths to be between 10 and 30 seconds, but some cameras work well with the shutter open for one or two minutes.  Aperture should be as open as you can stand it based on placement of subjects and required depth of field.

3. Modus Operandi

This is where the patience and warm clothes come in.  And a remote shutter release if you have one.  As the Earth is always moving and those stars keep walking across the sky, you’ll want to keep your shutter releases as close to the end of the last shot as possible.  Large breaks will cause blank spots in the trails.  This effect can actually be used to your advantage if you become real creative, just make sure it’s intentional.  Keep shooting until you have as many images as you desire.  As a point of reference, the image at the top of this post is a combination of shots over the course of 57 minutes.

If you have an item in the foreground, there are light painting techniques that can be used to highlight them.  Only one frame is needed because of the stacking method.  For more on painting with light, check out DPS’s post Tips on How To Light Paint.  A lot of fun can be had adding effects to the foreground.

Photo by Fishtail@Taipei

4. Putting It All Together

Now it’s time to let a computer take over.  Kind of.  The program I’ve found great success with is TawbaWare’s Image Stacker.  It is by no means the end all be all, however I have found it very simple to use with great results.  Astrophotographers have even more advanced tools they can suggest depending on needs.  A quick Google search can provide other options as well.

The premise here is the program will take your batch of photos and then add them all together to render the final image.  Anything reflecting light in all images in the batch will show as especially bright in the final image.  Individual starts, when moving across black sky, will combine to create the lines that are so captivating.  You may also average all the images of just use the brightest pixel from the batch to create an image.  Each pass creates a different view of the same batch of photos, so experiment (have I mentioned that before? )  Image Stacker will produce a jpg, bmp or tif file in the location of your choice.  Those proficient in Photoshop can also stack images, but the technique is a best left for another post.

And that’s it!  It really can be that simple and most importantly it’s usually a lot of fun.  Ok, there can be some frustrations as well…..planes flying across the field of view, people shining flashlights toward the camera wondering what you’re doing, small animals bumping the tripod unbeknownst to you.  But the results are worth the effort so give it a try and post a link here with your successes!

Image by motionblur

Peter is an avid photographer currently traveling through South America and Japan who enjoys travel, portraiture and wildlife photography. A travel related blog of his past and current shenanigans can be found at The Carey Adventures.  He also hosts a Photo of the Day RSS feed found here.

Original post by Peter Carey

Now that the US elections have been run and won - I thought it’d be interesting to post some links to some pages that captured Barack Obama’s campaign photographically.

The three links that follow are quite varied in terms of their approach. The first is Obama’s Flickr account with photos by an unnamed photographer/s traveling with the Obama camp (with some very behind the scenes shots).The shots may not be as high a quality as the other links but they tell a fascinating story.

The 2nd and 3rd links are to collections of images by journalists on the road with Obama for at least part of his campaign. They contain some great insights as well as some wonderful imagery.

Barack Obama’s Photostream - including some very behind the scenes shot of election night.

Callie Shell - a great series of shots by Callie from the campaign trail

Scout Tufankjian - another fantastic collection of photos of the Obama campaign

I’m sure there are plenty of other links out there to both photography of Obama’s campaign and John McCains. Feel free to post links to election photography related pages below.

Update: Here’s another great collection of shots of Obama during his campaign from Boston.com

Original post by Darren

My first love in photography when I first got my trusty old Minolta SLR as a teenager was landscapes. There’s something about getting out in nature with the challenge of capturing some of the amazing beauty that you see. Perhaps it fits with my personality type - but I loved the quietness and stillness of waiting for the perfect moment for the shot, scoping out an area for the best vantage point and then seeing the way that the light changed a scene over a few hours.

While I don’t get as much time as I’d like for Landscape Photography these days - I thought I’d jot down a few of the lessons that I learned in my early years of doing it. I’d love to hear your own Landscape Photography tips in comments below.

Landscape Photography Tips

1. Maximize your Depth of Field

While there may be times that you want to get a little more creative and experiment with narrow depth of fields in your Landscape Photography - the normal approach is to ensure that as much of your scene is in focus as possible. The simplest way to do this is to choose a small Aperture setting (a large number) as the smaller your aperture the greater the depth of field in your shots.

Do keep in mind that smaller apertures mean less light is hitting your image sensor at any point in time so they will mean you need to compensate either by increasing your ISO or lengthening your shutter speed (or both).

PS: of course there are times when you can get some great results with a very shallow DOF in a landscape setting (see the picture of the double yellow line below).

2. Use a Tripod

As a result of the longer shutter speed that you may need to select to compensate for a small aperture you will need to find a way of ensuring your camera is completely still during the exposure. In fact even if you’re able to shoot at a fast shutter speed the practice of using a tripod can be beneficial to you. Also consider a cable or wireless shutter release mechanism for extra camera stillness.

Related Reading - Introduction to Tripods

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3. Look for a Focal Point

All shots need some sort of focal point to them and landscapes are no different - in fact landscape photographs without them end up looking rather empty and will leave your viewers eye wondering through the image with nowhere to rest (and they’ll generally move on quickly).

Focal points can take many forms in landscapes and could range from a building or structure, a striking tree, a boulder or rock formation, a silhouette etc.

Think not only about what the focal point is but where you place it. The rule of thirds might be useful here.

Related Reading - Focal Points in Photography

4. Think Foregrounds

One element that can set apart your landscape shots is to think carefully about the foreground of your shots and by placing points of interest in them. When you do this you give those viewing the shot a way into the image as well as creating a sense of depth in your shot.

Related Reading: Getting Foregrounds right in photography

5. Consider the Sky

Another element to consider is the sky in your landscape.

Most landscapes will either have a dominant foreground or sky - unless you have one or the other your shot can end up being fairly boring.

If you have a bland, boring sky - don’t let it dominate your shot and place the horizon in the upper third of your shot (however you’ll want to make sure your foreground is interesting). However if the sky is filled with drama and interesting cloud formations and colors - let it shine by placing the horizon lower.

Consider enhancing skies either in post production or with the use of filters (for example a polarizing filter can add color and contrast).

6. Lines

One of the questions to ask yourself as you take Landscape shots is ‘how am I leading the eye of those viewing this shot’? There are a number of ways of doing this (foregrounds is one) but one of the best ways into a shot is to provide viewers with lines that lead them into an image.

Lines give an image depth, scale and can be a point of interest in and of themselves by creating patterns in your shot.

Related Reading: lines in photography“>Using Lines in Photography (mini-series)

7. Capture Movement

When most people think about landscapes they think of calm, serene and passive environments - however landscapes are rarely completely still and to convey this movement in an image will add drama, mood and create a point of interest.

Examples - wind in trees, waves on a beach, water flowing over a waterfall, birds flying over head, moving clouds.

Capturing this movement generally means you need to look at a longer shutter speed (sometimes quite a few seconds). Of course this means more light hitting your sensor which will mean you need to either go for a small Aperture, use some sort of a filter or even shoot at the start or end of the day when there is less light.

8. Work with the Weather

A scene can change dramatically depending upon the weather at any given moment. As a result, choosing the right time to shoot is of real importance.

Many beginner photographers see a sunny day and think that it’s the best time to go out with their camera - however an overcast day that is threatening to rain might present you with a much better opportunity to create an image with real mood and ominous overtones. Look for storms, wind, mist, dramatic clouds, sun shining through dark skies, rainbows, sunsets and sunrises etc and work with these variations in the weather rather than just waiting for the next sunny blue sky day.

9. Work the Golden Hours

I chatted with one photographer recently who told me that he never shoots during the day - his only shooting times are around dawn and dusk - because that’s when the light is best and he find that landscapes come alive.

These ‘golden’ hours are great for landscapes for a number of reasons - none the least of which is the ‘golden’ light that it often presents us with. The other reason that I love these times is the angle of the light and how it can impact a scene - creating interesting patterns, dimensions and textures.

10. Think about Horizons

It’s an old tip but a good one - before you take a landscape shot always consider the horizon on two fronts.

• Is it straight? - while you can always straighten images later in post production it’s easier if you get it right in camera.
• Where is it compositionally? - a compositionally natural spot for a horizon is on one of the thirds lines in an image (either the top third or the bottom one) rather than completely in the middle. Of course rules are meant to be broken - but I find that unless it’s a very striking image that the rule of thirds usually works here.

Related Reading: Getting Horizons Horizontal

11. Change your Point of View

You drive up to the scenic lookout, get out of the car, grab your camera, turn it on, walk up to the barrier, raise the camera to your eye, rotate left and right a little, zoom a little and take your shot before getting back in the car to go to the next scenic lookout.

We’ve all done it - however this process doesn’t generally lead to the ‘wow’ shot that many of us are looking for.

Take a little more time with your shots - particularly in finding a more interesting point of view to shoot from. This might start with finding a different spot to shoot from than the scenic look out (wander down paths, look for new angles etc), could mean getting down onto the ground to shot from down low or finding a higher up vantage point to shoot from.

Explore the environment and experiment with different view points and you could find something truly unique.

Tags: Landscape Photography, Landscape Photography Tips, photography tips

Original post by Darren

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