Photography Links to Bring you Up to Speed
With so much exciting stuff going on in the field of photography these days, it's hard to keep on top of what's been going on – especially those with less time than they'd like!
So it's great to have a weekly list of tutorials, special features and great photography to enjoy, all hand-curated by Toad Hollow Photography.
This week's list features a very wide variety of subjects and topics, with something here for everyone to peruse and enjoy. We truly hope you like checking out these links as much as the Toad did himself in bringing this list to you.
Photography Tutorials
How to Shoot a City in Unimaginable Ways – Essential Tips for Epic Cityscapes! – this great article is hosted right here on Light Stalking, and it takes us through a series of tips and tricks that can be used to capture stunning cityscape images. Sample shots are included, giving you visual feedback on the concepts covered and helping to unlock your own creative talents as you go about exploring the city.
Two Easy Ways to Change Colors in Photoshop – this brief tutorial goes through a single method of replacing color in an image using Adobe Photoshop. With so many different ways of doing things in this powerful post-production suite, it’s always nice to learn a quick and easy way to do certain things, letting you focus valuable time in other areas of your practice.
10 Powerful Features of Photoshop Photographers Need to Know – check out this 30-minute video tutorial that covers 10 lesser known Photoshop techniques that are extremely powerful for post-production in photography. Sample shots are included throughout the presentation, allowing you to see the effect the various technique has as the video progresses along.
A Simple, Straight-forward Tutorial On Achieving That Black And White Film look In Photoshop – just over 4 minutes long, this video tutorial takes you through steps to create a black-and-white image that has a distinctive film look. The results are quite compelling and are well worth the time invested in watching this presentation.
Photoshop in 60 Seconds: Photoshop Actions and How to Use Them – learn how to use Photoshop actions in about 60 seconds here, allowing you to utilize a series of steps that are applied repeatedly, saving a lot of time in post production. Anything that saves us time during editing is a welcome addition to our workflow, creating a certain level of consistency that can help to facilitate a personal style.
Creating Retro Style Photos in Photoshop – everything old is new again in this brief tutorial that covers key concepts in creating vintage feeling photographs that look like they were taken many years ago. The key ideas covered in this tutorial will get you started down the road to create your own images that have this distinctive look.
Special Features
Dreamlike Photos of Burning Man by Victor Habchy – the annual Burning Man event held in the desert every year provides an unreal series of photography opportunities, mostly with a flavor of the mystical and mysterious. This terrific series of photographs captures the essence of the event, showcasing the wide variety of otherworldly things you can expect to see each year.
Christian Schmidt: The Majesty of Roads Cutting Through Breathtaking Scenery – roads can be a very powerful compositional tool when shooting landscapes, creating leading lines and adding a sense of context and scale to the scene. This special feature showcases a set of photos that take advantage of this effect, creating lasting pictures that pull the viewer in as lines guide you through the frame and outward into vanishing points full of drama.
Eerie Photos of America’s Abandoned Asylums – this special feature shares a collection of extremely haunting images, freezing forever in time the long used buildings and facilities that housed and treated thousands of patients over the years. A common thread crosses all the buildings featured in this set, a sense of brooding drama and a forlorn hopelessness, all cast in the architectural details that comprise the structures captured in these frames.
Totem Poles – the totem poles found in my own hometown of Duncan, BC are the primary subject in this short photo-essay from local photographer Joseph de Lange. People are known to come from all corners of the globe to see these amazing carvings in person, with each pole telling it’s own unique story and sharing a bit of the heritage of the first nations people who have lived here for thousands of years.
More Great Photography Links
Cryogenic City V – Daniel Cheong shares another of his incredible creations, taken from an elevated perspective overlooking the opulent city of Dubai far below. In this shot, a thin veil of a fog lingers over the cityscape, diffusing the color palette of lights from the buildings and traffic down below.
More Aspens – Michael Criswell brings his unique style to bear in this great set of autumn themed shots that features a grove of vibrantly colored aspen trees. Michael uses the natural formations of the tree clusters to create strong leading lines, utilizing the perfect element to draw the viewer into the frame.
Winter days well spent – a frozen landscape complete with snow covered mountains and the reflections from a still lake comes to life on our screens in this incredible image by Johannes Hulsch. The inclusion of a lone person standing near the shore of the waters adds a great element of artistic tension, drawing us into the picture where a sense of serenity and wonder awaits.
Super Yacht MOGAMBO – lifestyles of the rich and famous come to us in this stellar shot of a $125M+ super yacht from photographer Barry Turner. One look at this boat has you yearning for a life on-board with a drink in one hand and your sunglasses in the other as you survey the world going about its business around you.
Dimitrios – the rusty hull and remains of a shipwreck from long ago dominates the composition in this ethereal image by nikos Bantouvakis. A long exposure coupled with distinctive colors create a sense of fast moving time against the forgotten skeleton of a ship that travelled the waters for years before coming to rest in this final spot.
Green stairs in abandoned swimming pool – the incredible effects of years of neglect and decay are showcased in this shot taken inside a long-abandoned building with a pool in it. Thick moss has overtaken the floors, adding texture and color to an otherwise devoid space.
Levitation – the Grey Headed Flying Fox is a creature I had never seen before I encountered pictures from Michael Cleary who captures shots of these incredible and elusive creatures in their natural habitat. In this shot, we have one of these flying foxes coming straight towards the camera as it’s wings beat gently on the waters, creating a great sense of natural drama.
Downy Woodpecker – a delightful woodpecker sits perched on the side of a tree, presumably poking at the soft wood looking for tasty morsels in this wonderful portrait shot by Wayne Beauregard. Terrific natural light graces this shot, highlighting the incredible colors and the personality of this bird as it enjoys life in its natural setting.
City vibes – Edoardo Lavagno’s shot features a strongly cinematic feel in the dominant colors used along with the shallow depth of field that delivers a great sense of artistic tension. The curb creates a perfect natural leading line that takes you into the frame where more questions are posed than answered.
Remains – Cook Bank, Rhyolite, Nevada – a wonderful sunburst brings color and emotion into this shot of an old long-abandoned financial institution in an abandoned town. Len Saltiel shares this great composition along with the story behind the town, framing the picture perfectly with the associated history.
Pasha Bulka Evacuation – an incredible sea-based rescue is captured in a single frame by Robert Downie as an incredible storm surged all around. Huge waves pounded the ship and it’s surroundings, resulting in an incredible story of man versus nature that eventually saw the ship salvaged and sent away for repairs before it went back into service again.
Gritty City – this shot of a busy street in New York features fast moving light trails and a perfect natural leading line from the roadway, shared here by Jim Nix. Jim captured three brackets with this photograph, merging them as a HDR to manage the dynamic range and create something that truly speaks to the urban feel of this great city.
Shine like a crazy diamond – Dany Eid takes advantage of perfect lighting conditions to capture this shot which exhibits both the dramatic architecture of the city of Dubai along with a mystical feel from the fog that covers the ground below. The golden light dances across the face of the buildings that are visible in this great photograph, highlighting the incredible details that compose these mighty structures.
The Hand – famous storm chaser Mike Olbinski shares a great shot of lightning captured during a dramatic storm this year. The tendrils of light making their way to earth take on a look of a hand from the heavens reaching down to the inhabitants of our tiny planet, lending to the overall natural drama found in this weather event.
Chasing the peak – a surreal snow covered landscape is captured by the iconic Red Bull Photography team as a lone explorer traverses the mountain peaks many miles away from any other civilization. As the sun beams in from behind the traveller, a sense of wonder is revealed in this incredible frame, showcasing the natural beauty that can only be found thousands of feet above sea level.
Hookah Shop – Bob Lussier shares a truly fascinating shot of a storefront with a handwritten Hookah Shop banner in the window, with a collection of assault rifles in the background. This dichotomy creates a strong sense of artistic tension in this piece, bringing the viewer into the frame where many questions are left unanswered.
Canterbury Cathedral Ceiling 2 – David Abbs captures a perfect composition looking straight up in the iconic cathedral, creating a true abstract created by incredible architecture from centuries past. The wonderful details in the fine work combine with textures from a bygone time, creating an image that at first glance is an abstract, yet as you spend time exploring it the years of history start to shine through.
City Of Gold – Brad Truxell’s shot of the Pittsburgh city skyline features warm golden tones from the morning’s sunrise, taking advantage of the power of a ND filter to turn the waters of the river into a silky texture that adds a sense of the dynamic to the composition. In the distance, the ever dramatic architecture of the city looms on the horizon, with a bridge-span frame left to create a perfect leading line.
City of Toronto – a dramatic storm lingers over the city of Toronto as Bryson Gibbons captures this shot from a moving airplane above the city skyline. Wonderful colors from the light trails of fast moving traffic adds a sense of motion to this shot that also features the dramatic architecture of this world-famous city.
Further Resources
- 17 Photos That Prove That You Can Capture Amazing Shots in Bad Weather by Photzy
- 5 Free Macro Photography E-Books to Help You Master the Craft by Ritesh Saini
- How an Award Winning Photo is Made, All 27 PS Blending Modes Explained, Useful Editing Skills and More! by Lightstalking