We look forward to it all year long and now Christmas is just a few short days away. Each year brings new precious memories, and as photographers, we enjoy preserving those memorable moments as best we can in photo. Our skills, techniques, and vision improve year over year, and I felt that these 8 tips would help to provide a solid base for capturing some great images this Christmas.

White Balance

Christmastime is one of the trickiest times for white balance control. If you’re outdoors shooting snowy landscapes, all of that white snow can play tricks with your camera’s metering and white balance. The best bet is to set a custom white balance as soon as you go outside to shoot. Alternatively, you can shoot in RAW and adjust the white balance in post process. We also have some great tips for snow shooting and white balance control in our December 2011 Edition of the PhotographyBB Magazine (Vol. 47).

If you’re not going to be braving the cold, there will be plenty of indoor moments to capture also. Take care to set your camera’s white balance based on the indoor lighting so that your images don’t come out looking too warm (although a little is nice this time of year).

Capture Moments, Not Faces!

It’s not always about getting everyone to sit still and pose with a big smile. Memorable moments are all about creative spontaneity. One way to capture such photos is to shoot the Christmas Day action without your subjects knowing. Try photographing your children from the back as they open a present. Look for ways to capture the festivities while purposefully not including faces. It can be challenging, but the results are worth it.

You’re on Candid Camera

As with the previous tip, make photos of your family/friends that are not posed. This time, look for expressions of wonder, excitement, laughter… In the beginning it can be difficult with everyone being aware of the camera, so keep shooting throughout the day. People become less aware and you’ll be able to grab some great shots of natural moments and pure expressions. Posed photos of loved ones are great, but candid shots that capture reality in a frame can be timeless. Shooting in burst mode with a fast lens is ideal in these situations.

Blur is Good, Bokeh is Better

We all love beautiful bokeh, but Christmastime has to be one of the best times of year to experiment. Throw your camera out of focus and aim for those Christmas lights. Indoor or out, a whole new world of creative opportunity opens when you bypass detail for shapes and colours. Set your camera/lens on manual focus and have a ball. This works great on lights, but try it out with some of your candid shots of people too.

Don’t be Too Flashy

When shooting indoors at Christmastime, flash can be a tricky thing to use. Too much flash and you’ll overpower any lights from your tree, and without a flash your portraits may wind up looking too dark. If you are shooting with a flash unit, aim it up towards the ceiling or facing a wall at a low power, and use the bounced light instead of directly flashing your subjects. You can also try using rear-curtain sync mode to capture some ambient light from the room. If you are shooting with a point-n-shoot camera, try using the “indoor” or “night mode” presets to work the flash while still grabbing some of the ambient room lighting. If the flash is too harsh, you can hold a small piece of tissue in front of it to diffuse the light further.

In many cases, simply increasing the ISO to around 800 will be enough to shoot without a flash. Flash is good for any posed family shots, while you’ll want to stay flash-less for those candid photos as it is less distracting, and produces more natural looking images. Again, in both cases (flash or no-flash), remember to set your white balance!

Creative Apertures

This is one of the coolest little tricks I’ve learned over the years. Craft stores sell hole-punchers in different shapes (such as hearts, stars, etc…). Get a thick piece of black construction paper, and punch out a shaped hole. Next, open your camera’s aperture as wide as it can go (shoot in Aperture Priority mode for this), while holding your punched out card over your lens. This allows light to enter through the shape you cut out, and the resulting bokeh takes on that shape. It’s a cool effect that can add some kick to those light-filled backgrounds.

On the subject of apertures… Shooting in Aperture Priority mode is a good bet on Christmas Day, so that you can keep adjusting as necessary. Wide apertures (such as f/2.8) are good for single subjects and even those up-close, detail shots. When shooting images with depth, such as a dinner table shot with family seated, you can close down the aperture to f/8 or even f/11 to widen the depth of field and keep everyone’s face (and all that delicious food) nice and sharp.

It’s All About the Details

There are plenty of great photo opportunities to be found in the details of Christmas Day. Get up close and personal with decorations, wrapping paper, and let’s not forget – food! Our loved-ones (and ourselves) work hard to put up decorations, strategically place ornaments, and cook that amazing food. It’s all about the details, so look for things like patterns, repetition, and textures. A few detail shots will add interest and life to your Christmas photo collection this year.

Beware the Background

When shooting indoors on Christmas Day, it’s important to be aware of the background whether you are shooting posed or candid shots. Backgrounds can be especially busy at this time of year, especially with all of the lights, decorations, wrapping paper, or even people (if there are many around). Great photos are ones that draw the eyes of your viewer to a particular subject (or point-of-interest). You can minimize distracting backgrounds and isolate your subjects by shooting with a wide aperture to play with the depth of field.

I hope you find these tips helpful to your Christmas Day shooting. As always, Happy Photographing. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Gear is Good, Vision is Better. When David duChemin released “Within the Frame”, he went from world-renowned humanitarian photographer, to best-selling photography author almost overnight. The reason – his mantra: Gear is Good, Vision is Better. Today, “The DUCHEMIN” releases Vision is Better 2: Free the Mind, Free the Camera. Again. which is a follow up to the first in the series on lessons learned in life, the hows / whys, and the craft of photography. The first Vision Is Better is one of Craft & Vision’s best selling eBooks, and this one is sure to surpass the previous. Want to talk exceptional value? This eBook is a gargantuan 95 page spreads of pure insight and brilliant imagery from the man himself. 

Let’s be clear about one thing… This is not a how-to photography book, yet the teachings in here will absolutely elevate the way you perform with your camera, and yes, even the way you look at the world. A quote from David reads, “What can I say? After flogging the concept of vision for a few years now, I still remain unrepentant about my overuse of the world.” And why not? This is precisely what separates the great from the good. Learning how to see differently, interpret differently, relate differently, and create differently are exactly what great vision is all about. When you arm yourself with a strong vision straight from the heart, your gear matters less, and your photography becomes better.

Here’s what you’ll gain from this eBook:

• Lessons on doing what you love, inspiration, originality, and more
• Isolated By Light: Why LOW Dynamic Range images can be more effective than HDR.
• Buy the Tickets: A (very) brief but insightful economics lesson on gear vs opportunity
• Filters and the Creative Process
• When to break the “rules” and when to follow them
• Art and Risk

Hey, there’s a discount!

Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru Dec 21st, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: VIB4 or us the code VIB20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST Nov. 19th, 2011).

Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: VIB4)

You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: Vision is Better 2: Free the Mind, Free the Camera. Again.

Happy Photographing folks!

What could be more exciting than the news of a brand new Craft & Vision eBook? How about one for FREE! Craft & Vision: 11 Ways to Improve Your Photography has just been released as a free download. You can get your copy right now at: http://www.photographybb.com/free-ebook

We’ve all seen the hundreds of “__ Ways to Improve Your Photography” blog posts, which sometimes contains useful information, but often lacks substance. This eBook goes light years beyond the usual. We’re not talking about cheap camera tricks or techniques. Craft & Vision is written as a compilation of articles from some of the world’s most renowned photographers, such as David duChemin (who incidentally, is also the book’s editor). There’s no recycled material or excerpts from previous eBooks – it’s all original material packed into meaty 69 pages. Stunning imagery. Exceptional techniques. No catch.

If you were to take a week to seriously practice each one of the “11 ways”, by the end you will experience a quantum leap in your proficiency and growth as a photographer.

Here’s just some of what you’ll gain from this eBook:

• Make your images more dynamic (and what that means)
• Learn how to direct and lead your viewer’s eye through your image
• Refine your composition
• Make (much) stronger portraits
• The two fundamentally different ways to approach exposures, and which is right for you

Click to view larger, additional page samples.

Download the ebook here: Craft & Vision: 11 Ways to Improve Your Photography

While you’re at it, spread the free eBook love and pass this review on to your friends and colleagues. Enjoy!

Of all the key ingredients to great photography, composition is the single most important facet to building compelling imagery.  Beyond Thirds: A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition introduces the so-called traditional compositional rules, and then blows right past them. Andrew S. Gibson examines things like the Rule of Thirds, and shows us why it works in some cases, and why we should consider throwing it right out the window in others.

This quote pretty much sums up everything you’ll learn in this eBook, and why it is so important to creating great photographs: “There is no such thing as ‘correct’ composition, just bad composition, good composition, and inspired composition.”

Here’s what you’ll gain from this eBook:

• A refreshing and suspicious view of the Rule of Thirds
• Moving beyond the Rule of Thirds
• Creating great images by achieving “compositional balance”
• Compositions with multiple focal points
• Composition for different frame sizes, aspect ratios, and cropping.

Hey, there’s a discount!

Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru Nov 19th, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: BT4 or us the code BT20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST Nov. 19th, 2011).

Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: BT4)

You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: Beyond Thirds: A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition

Happy Photographing folks!

Learning how to use off camera flash is a fantastic hobby (and skill) in itself. It’s actually quite easy to grasp the basics and start seeing results right away, and can lead you into years of practice where you learn to develop those basics into artful mastery. Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash picks up where Making Light left off and just keeps on going. Here we start getting into the good stuff – going beyond sync-speed, working with multiple flashes, using different modifiers, even going beyond the use of small flashes. The author also includes 10 case-studies, all loaded with helpful tips showing how each image was accomplished (my personal favourite way to learn). And like Piet’s other books, this one is BIG – 77 pages big!

Here’s what you’ll gain from this eBook:

• How to use high-speed sync flash for FAST shutter speeds and dreamy depths of field effects
• In-depth explorations of light modifiers and advanced triggering (great stuff here!)
• 10 case studies with examples of lighting setup and description of the process
• Options when you outgrow your “small” flash units
• 4 interviews discussing things like inspiration, business, creativity, and technique

Hey, there’s a discount!

Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru Oct 24th, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: MAKINGLIGHT4 or us the code MAKINGLIGHT20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST Aug 24th, 2011).

Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: MAKINGLIGHT4)

You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: Making Light 2

A Lighting Masterclass: Making Light Bundle (Limited Time Only)

If you haven’t yet purchased any of the Craft & Vision eBooks, then this is the perfect time to get in on the education. For a very limited time, you can basically get a masterclass on off-camera lighting by getting the Making Light Bundle – for only $8 The first Making Light is a great primer for anyone who is interested in using their hot-shoe flash to make truly dynamic images. You’ll learn about different options for triggering it remotely, where to place it, and how to balance your flash with the ambient lighting. Yes, it’s one of those topics which can be intimidating, but going through this book will provide you with a dramatic improvement in learning to master your flash.

There’s no product page for this bundle, you can only get it by adding it here.
Making Light Bundle: $8

Happy Photographing folks!

Learning to use camera flash, especially off-camera flash is one of those intimidating subjects for all photographers (including myself) when starting out. Why is there such a fear around getting to know our flash units the same way we use our cameras? Truth be told, it’s not that scary once you learn a few basics, and I do mean basics. Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash has got to be one of the most long overdue books on the subject, and it’s available today from our friends over at Craft & Vision!

This book is perfectly written for the photographer who’s wanted to learn more about shooting with their flash unit off-camera.

Here’s what you’ll gain from this eBook:

• Flash fundamentals and characteristics of light
• 7 easy steps for setting up your Canon or Nikon Flash unit, off-camera
• A failsafe 10 step approach for shooting spectacular pictures with off-camera flash
• How to eliminate those nasty shadows caused by your flash
• Learn all about the basic gear for great off-camera flash photos

Making Light is a great primer for anyone who is interested in using their hot-shoe flash to make truly dynamic images. The examples are easy to follow and put into practice immediately. If you have one hot-shoe flash already, this eBook will teach you how to work some photographic magic by taking it off your camera. You’ll learn about different options for triggering it remotely, where to place it, and how to balance your flash with the ambient lighting. Yes, it’s one of those topics which can be intimidating, but going through this book will provide you with a dramatic improvement in learning to master your flash.

Hey, there’s a discount!

Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru Aug 21st, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: LIGHT4 or us the code LIGHT20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST Aug 21st, 2011).

Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: LIGHT4)

You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: Making Light
Happy Photographing folks!

EXCITING NEWS: Today, the photography world has a brand new eBook from world humanitarian photographer, David duChemin. After a near-fatal accidental fall in Pisa, and over 6 months since his last best-selling eBook, David takes photographers to a whole new level with this latest release. Through his writing, David has helped photographers to understand and find their vision. A Deeper Frame: Creating Deeper Photographs & More Engaging Experiences marks the first in a new series of David duChemin eBooks on the expression of vision. The first topic in this new series is all about depth, and how to take a three dimensional world and turn it into a two dimensional photograph which pulls the view into the image – deeper.

Here’s what I love about this eBook:

There great thing about the craft of photography is that there is always room for evolution and growth. Pulling our viewers in and creating deeper images is a topic which is often taught through the obvious considerations such as the use of perspective, leading lines, and the framing of your shots… but this is David we’re talking about; and David goes deeper!

• Learn how optics and different lens characteristics affect depth in an image
• See how focus and depth of field more effectively lead your viewers through your photos
• Learn how to achieve depth through colour
• Discover how to create depth through light
• Learn how to tie all these together to create a deeper connection and evoke deeper emotions with your photos

While most of our focus has been about honing our craft and finding our vision, A Deeper Frame is the first of David’s eBooks to discuss ways in which you can actually express that vision. David shows us why we should want to create the feeling of depth in our photographs, and why depth is something that simply doesn’t appear in our photos naturally. He goes on to show us that simply creating depth shouldn’t be the goal, rather how to use depth to achieve the goal of expression – the experience of the viewer.

Deeper Discounts

With each eBook that Craft & Vision releases, there are always some pretty sweet discounts at launch, but this time there’s MORE. Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru July 2nd, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: DEEP4 or us the code DEEP20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST July 2nd, 2011).

But as I said, there’s MORE: Get 12 eBooks for $40. That’s about 34% off the already ridiculous price. That’s $3.33/book! Fill your shopping cart with 12 ebooks and use discount code DEEPER12 to get $20 off!

Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: DEEP4)

You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: A Deeper Frame
Happy Photographing folks!

Christmas is, without a doubt, one of the most fun times of the year for photographers. Family and friends gather together, the streets are aglow with lights and decorations, and some of you may even be lucky enough to have snow on the ground during this time of year. But… out of all of those glorious photographic opportunities, have any of you ever tried to photograph the elusive Santa Claus? If you want to catch Santa in the act of gift-giving this year, here are some things you need to know:

To deliver presents to all of the good boys and girls of the world, Santa must travel roughly 122 million kilometers on Christmas Eve. Given the time zone changes, that leaves him with approximately 31 hours to get the job done. That puts his speed in the neighbourhood of 1047 km per second. Factoring in the number of families who celebrate Christmas throughout the globe, and the number of kids who made the “Nice” vs “Naughty” list, that means Santa has to make 823 visits per second. This means he’s got about 1/1000th of a second to come down your chimney, put the gifts under your tree, grab some milk and cookies, and head back up to the reindeer.

How to Photograph Santa:

What does all this mean as a photographer? Well, he’ll be coming during the night, so your lighting is going to be low – you’ll want to use a wide aperture. Crank your Christmas tree lights up to their fullest intensity to add enough light. Your shutter speed will need to be at least 1/2000 sec since he’ll be moving about during his 1/1000th sec visit to your home. It’s all going to happen very quickly, so you may wish to have a shutter release cable and a tripod handy to avoid fatigue. Try not to blink if possible.

In all seriousness folks, myself and the whole team at PhotographyBB would like to thank you for choosing to spend a part of your day with us, reading our magazine, and participating in the forums. It’s YOU who makes this a great photographic community! I wish you all a fun, safe, warm, and very Merry Christmas!

The subject of backing up your digital photos has come up many times over the years. With changes in storage mediums, the ever increasing need to come up with a diligent backup strategy should be on every digital photography enthusiast’s mind. While backing up your images can seem like a time consuming task (and there are ways to automate a lot of it), it’s one of those things you will be so thankful you did should you ever experience data loss.

Part 1…

I’ve been asked the question of how I backup my photos, and while mine is not the only strategy, it works for me and for the most part I believe it works for protecting my data. As you’ve no doubt noticed from the title of this posting, there are going to be several parts in this mini-series. I thought I would start by sharing my backup strategy first; we’ll get into the how’s and why’s in future posts.

Before Your Begin – Organize Your Drive!

Before I jump into my step-by-step backup strategy, I should note that some preparation and organization was required. Prior to starting this “backup plan”, I created a folder on my hard drive called “Photos” – one folder for all of my finished images. Inside this folder are year folders (2010, 2009, 2008, etc…) and inside those are subfolders by date and shoot (eg. 2009-12-25-Christmas-Day). I also keep a “Plugins” and “Actions” folder inside my main Photos folder so that when I upgrade to new versions of Lightroom and Photoshop, my Plugins, Actions, and Presets are easy to reinstall and they are all in one place. I also create a folder on a completely separate hard drive which I called “Photo Imports Backup.” I basically use this folder to backup every photo upon import, which I’ll then clear at a later time.

The only other thing I do in the way of keeping organized, is that I make sure to shoot with a freshly formatted memory card each time, and subsequently I make sure to transfer all of the photos off that memory card after each shoot. This way I don’t end up with the odd image here or there which I am not sure if I had copied to the computer yet or not. A fresh card for each shoot, and a complete export of the images on that card after the shoot ensure that I don’t lose any precious photos.

My Strategy

While mine is certainly not the only backup strategy, here’s the method I use. It works great for me and protects my data to the extent of my satisfaction:

1. Copy All to Backup Folder: After a photo shoot, I transfer all of my photos from the memory card into my “Photo Imports Backup” folder. Although the word “backup” in this folder title may imply that it’s a secondary copy, I start with this folder since the photos here will not be used in my processing workflow. They will simply sit here as a backup while I work on other copies of them in processing.
2. Import with Lightroom: My processing tool of choice is Adobe’s Lightroom. I load up Lightroom and “Import” the photos from my memory card into my main “Photos” folder, sorted into a new and appropriate subfolder, named by date and title of the shoot. These will serve as my working images for processing.
3. Delete the Junk! In Lightroom, I’ll go through each and every photo and delete the “junk” photos. Images that were blurry or had camera shake, poor composition, etc… Photos which I know I will never use get completely deleted right away. I don’t need them, and I’m not coming back to them!
4. Process the Keepers: With the images I know I’m going to keep, I’ll process them to my heart’s content, then if necessary, I’ll export copies of them as JPEGS into the same subfolder.
5. Backup to Portable: With all of my “keeper’s” processed and finished, I’ll manually copy that subfolder onto a portable hard drive which is organized similarly to the “Photos” folder on my computer.
6. Auto Backup AGAIN: On yet another portable drive (or you could use an external), I have my system set to run an automated backup of all of my important files (photos, documents, music, etc…). This is something that only needs to be setup once, and serves as redundant protection should your computer hard drive ever fail.
7. Format Memory Card: With all of the images backed up and safe, it’s time to wipe that memory card clean for the next shoot!
8. Delete from “Photo Imports Backup”: Now that I have several backed up copies of the images I am going to be keeping, I can delete the original backup of the memory card which I made in step one. I only keep those images during the processing period (which may span several days or weeks!), and clear them off the drive when processing and backups of the competed images are done.
9. Stash the Portable Drive: With my images backed up onto a portable drive, I stash it in a firebox in my home. You could keep one off site if you want to be extra cautious, but this gives me enough peace of mind.

What This Leaves Me With

Just to recap, now I am left with my fully processed images on my computer, a copy on my portable drive, and a backup on another drive. Short of printing them out, 3 digital copies in separate places is enough for my satisfaction that my data is going to be as safe as I can keep it!

Of course, there are additional ways to further protect your data such as remote backup services and off site storage. We’ll cover those options as this series continues, but for now, this is the method which I find effective for me. For those of you who are just getting started in digital photography, this may seem daunting or even overwhelming, however, the importance of some type of backup strategy in something you should give some serious thought to. Besides the people in your lives, can you think of anything else in your home which is so precious and irreplaceable?

I’d like to know what strategies you all currently use, please share with us in the comments section so we can all pick up some tips from your strategies!

Great job to all of our participants for our previous “Orange” assignment. All of the entries put us in the Autumn spirit with your brilliant orange shots! And now it’s time for the next photo assignment, one which I am sure you will all have fun and challenge yourselves with. Remember, with all photo assignments, the real key is to think creatively!

The Assignment Is…

Assignment #47 Theme: Transportation
Timeframe: Nov 2nd to Nov 17th, 2010
The challenge is to take a BRAND NEW showing the theme: Transportation
Entries are to be submitted here: Assignment #47: Transportation (PhotographyBB Forums)

This assignment is wide open to interpretation, as there are many ways to represent the theme of “transportation.” Push yourselves creatively and have fun shooting this one. We are all looking forward to seeing your entries! Before you submit your photo, please have a quick glance at the simple rules below.

Important (Please Read): With all of our photo assignments, the object (besides having fun) is to learn something new, even if that means learning how to see the world around you in a different way. Therefore, we only accept entries for new photos which have been taken during the assignment time frame (see above). You may submit up to 3 entries in total, and the top 3 photos will be selected and published (with image acknowledgments) in an upcoming issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine.

Click HERE to Submit Your Photo!

Why Should You Participate?

In our efforts to help photographers grow and improve, our photography assignments are designed to test and push your creative bounds to the limit. These photo assignments are intended to encourage our members to see the world in different ways, try new camera techniques, and photograph subject which you may normally shy away from. We feel that in doing this, you will ultimately find new challenges for yourself which will help us to all grow as photographers. Our photography assignments are open to everyone at all skill levels and are to be submitted through our assignments section in the PhotographyBB Forums. Membership is completely free and you can register in seconds, so feel free to join our community of photographers where we participate in assignments, share photos, and discuss photography all day long. We have a supportive and friendly community of photographers and beginners, and this is a great way to get to know one another. Have fun, and happy photographing!