Help Portrait is a movement of photographers who are using their time, equipment and expertise to give back to those who are less fortunate…
As recently posted on Scott Kelby’s blog, here is a video of Jeremy Cowart explaining what Help Portrait is all about.
I just signed up today and looking forward to December 12th!.
Here is my favorite quote from Jeremy:
“We don’t want to see your photos. This isn’t about you, or me, or portfolios, or lighting. This is about giving pictures, not taking them. It’s about exposure, opening yourself up, laughing, connecting, sharing and most of all serving for the pure sake of serving. It’s about helping people see the beauty of who they are and what they already have…”
When using flash as the main light source, sometimes I was ending up with an overexposed subject and dark background. A couple of weeks ago, I tried a technique called “dragging the shutter” which comes very handy to get the background better exposed or include more ambient light.
Normally, I shoot at 1/60-1/125 of a second with flash. But when I want more ambient light in a photograph, I drag my shutter down to around 1/15 of a second (the value depends on the available ambient light). By keeping the shutter open that fraction of a second longer, the camera is able to pick up more ambient light from the background, producing warmer photos with more detail. (more…)
A couple of weeks ago, my wife asked me if I can photograph water drops for the cover of her Ph.D. thesis. First, I thought it might be very difficult without a proper equipment. After reading a couple of articles about photographing water drops I decided to give it a try.
There are also lots of electronic circuits and expensive gadgets on the market for high speed photography. Some of them claim that it is extremely difficult or even impossible to achieve this kind of high speed photography with standard photographic equipment. How difficult do you think it could be to photography water drops without an electronic devices? (more…)
There are dozens of websites discussing white balance. There are so many products out there to help correct white balance, but which one to choose? After reading several reviews, I finally decided to test two of the most popular gray cards; WhiBal G6 Pocket Kit from www.rawworkflow.com and Premium Digital Grey Kard from www.digitalimageflow.com.
Click to Enlarge
WhiBal G6 Pocket Kit cost me $29.95 (no shipping cost to The Netherlands). The kit includes WhiBal Pocket Gray Card, quick-release lanyard, table stand, and lightweight carry case. The card is made of extruded cellular PVC; a sturdy foam-like material. It is slightly thinner than a CompactFlash card and about the size of a business card.
Premium Digital Grey Kard is $ 20.99. However, it cost me $22.98 with the shipping. The package includes set of three color balance cards (grey, white, black) and lanyard with detachable clip and safety release. The cards are made of PVC plastic, each the size of a credit card. (more…)
