Decoding Your Photo’s Histogram

Photo editing software seems to be getting more and more complicated these days, and sadly, that scares away lots of people who want to use it. I’ve found that understanding the principles and reasoning behind editing tools is tremendously helpful when you’re trying to learn a new software program, and that’s what I’m hoping to accomplish with today’s blog!

Shopping For Your First Digital Camera? Here Are A Few Tips!

Whether you are shopping for a better way to take family photos, or you are wanting to take your photography hobby to the next level, there are a few things you should know before making a purchase. It’s a little bit more complicated than saying you want to take pretty pictures and you have X amount of money to spend. A digital camera (or DSLR) is an investment, and making the right choice will bring you years of enjoyment and creative play. So, as you shop around, here are a few questions to ask yourself.

Fun With Photoshop Smart Brush: Vintage Processing

Out of the hundred of fantastic tools available in Adobe Photoshop, there are a handful that are purely artistic; and while these may not make the cut for a professional’s gallery, they can be an exciting addition to your photo editing repertoire. Using certain filters and actions can make your photos look interestingly vintage in just one sweep of the brush. Whether you want to mimic the gorgeous characteristic blues of a cyanotype, or harness the faded yellows of an antique print, the Smart Brush tool can help you out.

Are You Making These 3 ISO Mistakes?

When a photographer makes the courageous leap away from the “auto” setting on their camera, they have to keep a dozen things in mind every time they compose a shot. Shooting in manual mode allows for individual control of shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focus point (among other things), and often takes a while to get the hang of. One must master the concepts and execution of all the technological aspects of digital photography, but once that happens the quality of work can improve exponentially.

Of the main pieces that go into making a digital image is the ISO, which represents your camera’s sensitivity to light. It has a direct correlation, meaning that a low ISO reflects a low sensitivity and a high ISO indicates a high sensitivity.

Creative Photo Editing: Antiquing

Last time, we explored the steps needed to achieve the effect of the famous Holga camera of the 1980’s and, if you remember, it is quite a hefty tutorial! So this week, we’re going to learn a very simple and highly applicable technique that only takes three steps: the antiquing (or aging) process. Our slick and modern digital photography may excel in capturing sharpness, detail, and color balance, but there is a growing movement to revert back to some of the images of old. Everything vintage, antique, and rustic is making a serious comeback, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t add this technique to your photo-editing arsenal!