Photoshop is one of those programs the modern photographer just cannot go without. It is the most powerful image editing software on the planet.

I know many people are looking for a good Photoshop courses or tutorials and that some people stay to far from major cities to attend a proper course.

I found Lynda.com's Photoshop courses and tutorials to be very good. I started using it for DreamWaver courses and then also tried some of the PhotoShop courses. There are hundreds of courses you can attend online.

Give Lynda a try, visit them at http://www.lynda.com

Sony and PhotoComment are hosting a competition for the best image that defines your 2009.

Here are the details of the competition: (also see http://www.photocomment.net/)

Sony and PhotoComment
2009 YEAR END PHOTO COMPETITION
We want your image that best defines your 2009
2009 is fast drawing to a close and with it memories of an exciting yet challenging year for us at PhotoComment and most likely you, our readers as well.

Before the year comes to a close for good we thought we would launch our first PhotoComment competition. Submit your image with a brief story of the moment that made your year to stand in line to win the grand prize.

Judging will look particularly at the emotion evoked by the image in relation to the theme and caption.

Closing Date: 15 December 2009

Send your entries to: competition2009@photocomment.net

Sony

Terms & Conditions Apply

I received an email from Ethan Fried inviting us to subscribe to the National Geographic International Photography Contest. This contest is also open for South African entries.

Here are the full details:

Attention all travelers and aspiring photographers — National Geographic wants your photographs. Readers of National Geographic around the world are invited to take part in the 2009 National Geographic International Photography Contest. Readers of the English-language edition in eight countries, as well as readers of 20 of the magazine’s international local-language editions, are eligible to participate. The international grand-prize winners will receive a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., a digital camera kit, and their winning entries will be published in all participating editions of National Geographic magazine. But act soon — the submission deadline is Oct 31, 2009. Full details can be found at http://www.ngphotocontest.com

Read more »

by Udo Kieslich, senior lecturer at the College of Digital Photography

Prepare an equipment checklist – this will help make sure you don’t forget essentials like tripod, lenses, extension tubes, batteries, filters, memory cards, flash, Lenspen, camera manual etc.

Leopard

Be prepared – always have your camera and lenses ready, and make sure all your equipment is working. The night before your game drive check / reset your camera settings (White Balance, ISO, exposure compensation, file size, quality setting). Make sure your equipment is clean and that the batteries are fully charged. Always have spare memory cards and ideally even a storage device to download your images onto. You can never predict when something amazing might happen.

Be patient – it is very difficult to speed up or slow down nature, and without patience you will struggle to get good results. You often need to remain very still for an extended period of time before the animal starts behaving naturally. Very occasionally you’ll capture something unique at your first sighting of the animal, but most of the time you just have to be patient.

Research the area you’ll be visiting – check the sunrise and sunset times so you can decide on the optimum locations for each time of the day.

Photograph normal behaviour – wildlife photography does not always have to be of spectacular animal behaviour. Just seeing normal animal behaviour in a natural environment can make a great photograph.

Read more »

The pupil of the eye becomes bigger or smaller in order to control the amount of light it allows through. When a person is standing in a dark room, the pupil of his eye will be large to allow more light to enter. The camera also has a mechanism which controls the amount of light moving through the lens – the aperture.

The aperture controls not only the amount of light moving through the lens but also the depth of field. The f-stop is the unit in which the opening of the lens is measured. The f-stop number is inversely proportional to the size of the lens opening. This means f22 is a very small lens opening, with a large depth of field, and f4.5 has a wide lens opening with a shallow depth of field. With a wide lens opening and shallow depth of field, more light will reach the film. Thus a large lens opening is more suitable for photography in bad lighting conditions, but unfortunately with a loss in depth of field. Also see illustrations below. The f-stop number is equivalent to the diameter of the opening of the lens relative to the diameter of the front lens unit. An f-stop of f16 will therefore be 1/16 (one sixteenth) of the diameter of the front lens unit.

Apperture size

Tip: If you have a SLR camera with removable lenses remove the lens from your camera. Hold it in a position to enable you to look through it from the back. Now turn the f-stop ring on the lens from side to side. You will see the opening of the lens changing as you turn the ring.

Read more »

The Shutter speed you use can have a huge influence on your photographs.

If you use a too slow shutter speed your photographs will be blurred. Some novice photographers think that their photographs are out of focus but sometimes they just used a too slow shutter speed and their photographs are blurred.

If you use an automatic camera it will normally either pops up the flash automatically or have a flashing indicator which warns you when the light is too low to take a photograph. If there is not enough light the camera will use a longer shutter speed in order to have enough light to record. This long shutter speed is what cause the blur effect since you cannot hold the camera still enough in your hands.

If you use a shutter speed of anything less than 1/60 of a second you must use a tripod or any other object to support your camera. The minimum hand held shutter speed also depends on the length of your lens. For up to 80mm you will get away with 1/60th of a second but if you use a longer lens you will need an even faster minimum shutter speed. Like when you use a 200mm lens it would be best to put your camera on a tripod for anything slower than 1/150th of a second.

You can also use a slow shutter speed to your advantage.

If you put your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to picture a waterfall or stream, you can create a soft effect of the water.

Soft Waterfall

With a fast shutter speed we can freeze the motion in a picture.

Freeze the motion

To freeze motion of a picture, the shutter speed must be fast enough. You will need a shutter speed of at least 1/250 to freeze the motion of a running person successfully.

Even if you are photographing flowers in the wind you need a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion and get a sharp picture.

We can also use  a slow shutter speed to enhance the feeling of motion in a picture. The picture on the left was taken at 1/60. The motion of the bike was followed as it moved pass. We call this “panning”. Read more »

By Carl Botha – Senior Lecturer at the College of Digital Photography

Tip 1: Simplify

One of the easiest and probably most effective ways of creating an eye-catching image is by ‘getting in closer’. By getting closer you eliminate a lot of unnecessary information making for a striking, simple yet powerful image.

Tip 2: See the light

Undoubtedly the most important ‘ingredient’ in any great photographic image is light and by better understanding and using light, you will find a marked improvement in your photography.

Consider that light has colour and start looking for it. Between about 10am and 3pm sunlight loses most of its colour becoming clean, white and boring. Natural light changes colour throughout the day, which is the reason why we prefer to make photos early in the morning or late in the afternoon, to capture the colour of the light. Early morning light has some wonderful pastels like peach, pink and sometimes a bit of magenta, whereas late afternoon light is rich in warm yellows and golden oranges. Often these colours can become the very reason for wanting to capture an image.

Tip 3: Make use of colour

We know that light has colour, but were also surrounded by colour. Think about how we use colour in our daily lives, how it is infused in our language to describe feelings. We have all heard about someone feeling blue or about seeing red when we get angry. Colours are very closely associated with moods and emotions. Try using colours that add emotion to your image. Some emotive colour associations :

Using colour and composition to create Impact

Blue – Feelings of melancholy, feeling blue, singing the blues and the ever popular ‘Blue Monday”

Red – Passion, stop signs and danger

Orange – The colour of fire and warmth

Green – Freshness, nature and fertility, often used in scenes with ‘zen like’ calmness

Yellow – The first colour we humans notice or see, very lively and almost grabs the eye

Brown – Earthy, nature and associated with wood and trees, very neutral

Grey – The most neutral colour, enhances colours used with it, feelings of dreariness or depression Read more »