We've really enjoyed another action packed week in the wide world of photography, with writers and artists from all genres publishing photos and blog posts from all corners of the world. In this week's list we find that Toad Hollow Photography has been searching in all corners of the internet for links to tutorials, special features and great photography to share here with everyone, featuring some of the best work in the field of photography. We really hope you enjoy checking out these links as much as the Toad did in bringing this week's list to you.
TUTORIALS
An Incredibly Useful Beginner’s Photoshop Tutorial – for those looking to get started in using Photoshop as a post-production tool for photography, all the options and methods can be quite daunting. A bit of the mystery is always in the notion of where to start with it all, and this terrific tutorial takes you through the rudimentary tools built-into Photoshop with bite sized video segments that give you visual feedback as each one is used.
Complete Lightroom and Photoshop Portrait Retouching Tutorial – for those who enjoy or need to do extensive retouching, particularly with portraits, this is a 20 minute video tutorial that takes you through many steps that create amazing results. Being able to watch in real-time as the various steps are used is a very helpful and quick way to learn how to bring these techniques to your own workflow.
Hard light vs soft light. What's the difference and how do you do it? – this is a great video tutorial, one that takes you through the differences between hard and soft lighting, a phrase that describes the quality not the luminescence of light. Each of these types of light has great application potential in imagery, and being able to see the differences between the two in the video format really helps bring the concepts to life.
How to Crop, Rotate, and Enhance Your Images in Apple Photos – this brief video tutorial takes you through some of the basics that are found in Apple Photos, an app that I believe comes with most Apple computers. This easy-to-follow guide takes you through cropping, straightening and using a set of built-in filters to quickly and easily enhance your photographs.
Food for Digital Thought: Dealing with Distortion Part I | Food for Digital Thought: Dealing with Distortion Part II – commercial photographer Joe Baraban shares some great insight into the concept of distortion in photography, specifically the distortion found in pictures that have a building as the prime subject. In some cases distortion is not necessarily a bad thing, as shown in the two photos Joe submits along with these articles.
Automotive photography: Learn the secrets from professionals – photographing cars can be a challenging and rewarding type of photography for professionals and newcomers alike. This primer article discusses three different aspects of shooting vehicles and is a great starting point to capturing that incredible auto image you have in your mind’s eye.
4 Easy Tips for Working with Surfers – capturing surfers can be an exciting adventure for both the athlete and the photographer working the session. This is a brief but great list of tips and tricks to help you get started in this particular genre of imagery.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Creating the Photograph: Jason Lanier’s “Snow Queen” – check out this great behind-the-scenes look at what went into the creation of a concept photo shoot. The pictures created are amazing, and when you learn about the environment and equipment used to create them, it becomes a learning experience for those of us interested in this type of photography.
The Northern Lights look even more magical from the air – the aurora borealis is an amazing natural phenomenon, creating a magical and ethereal setting for photographers to capture images that at times appear to come from another world entirely. This time-lapse video presentation was captured in a plane as the northern lights danced about wildly for quite some time.
Black and White Bangkok: The Street Photography of Jordan Stead – candid black-and-white street photography can be a very powerful medium, sharing perspectives of a busy city as people go about their lives completely unawares of the images being captured around them. The transformative nature of black-and-white accents this aspect of the work, and in this special feature we get to enjoy the streets of Bangkok with the myriad of people rushing about.
GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY
ELEGANCE – Dany Eid brings his photographic mastery to bear in making this amazing picture of the city of Dubai during the blue hour, just before sunset. Dany fuses five images into the panorama, creating a highly detailed study of this amazing and beautiful city under perfect lighting conditions.
Palouse Glow – Palouse, Washington – the often photographed Palouse region of the northwest area of the United States offers unparalleled views and vistas, often times showcasing breathtaking beauty as the natural light plays and dances off the rolling hills. This shot from Len Saltiel features the epic vista found here, with light from the golden hour creating a strong sense of depth and detail in a shot that takes on a highly abstract feel.
Highland – what an amazing shot, one that includes a pair of wooden buildings sitting under the watchful gaze of a very dramatic and rugged mountain range in the backdrop. A snow fall eddies around the buildings and the mountains, with a beautiful sliver of light crossing the mountains to juxtapose against the raging storm.
Reach for the Sky – infrared photography can reveal an otherworldly view of a particular spot as the spectrum explored in this technique utterly changes everything that is visible. Here we see a pair of terrific shots taken by Michael Criswell in infrared, and then processed as black-and-whites to really accent the inherent beauty and drama of the landscape.
No Mercy – monochromatic tones explore the rich textures and natural depth found in this remote landscape shot captured by Daniel Herr. Snow is everyone is this shot, with a group of brooding and dramatic clouds lingering overhead for the perfect finishing element to this picture.
Haboob over Organ Pipe – once you work past the odd name for this post and photograph by famed storm-chaser Mike Olbinski, you will find an amazing natural phenomenon captured in a still panoramic frame. This massive storm system created a stacked layer of storm clouds, resulting in a huge and fast moving dust storm working its way across the landscape, and here we find that Mike is ready to capture this incredible event.
Final Destination – it’s very hard to beat the visual romance buried in a great shot that focuses on a classic steam train making it’s way down the track, as evidenced in this stunning shot by Alexander Riek. The framing of vibrantly colored leaves from the autumn foliage adds a perfect splash of color to accent the joyous feel of this incredible photograph.
Grizzly Bear Nursing – this is something that is likely not often seen by people, a Grizzly Bear mom nursing her two cubs in a meadow in the heart of Alaska. These incredible creatures are as beautiful as they are baneful, and this epic photograph by Ron Niebrugge is a great way to bridge the gap between man and animal.
Rule the sand – a fast moving racecar makes its way across a barren sand-filled landscape in this amazing photograph from Red Bull Photography. The post-production technique used takes on a highly cinematic feel to it, accenting the raw artistic tension found in the car that exhibits a strong sense of speed in a still frame.
The Creator – urbex photography gives us all a chance to look through the folds of time and see a scene that visually describes the effects and ravages of years gone by. This shot comes to us from Urban Vagabond and features a long forgotten room with machinery full of rich textures and patina.
Large spiral staircase at Leica – Herbert A. Franke creates a striking abstract shot with this composition that features a white spiral staircase at the Leica headquarters building. Gentle flowing lines lead the viewer through the frame where lines and geometry are the true stars of the show.
along the Canola road – endless yellow fields of Canola plants cover this frame which also features a winding path through the field and a single person, the photographer Frank King, standing with a cell phone camera in-hand. In the far distance in the corner of the frame, the majestic Canadian Rockies stand sentry over this fabulous landscape.
Downtown Dubai – this is the second Dubai cityscape featured in this week’s list, and is no less remarkable for it. Daniel Cheong shares one of his unique elevated vertorama perspectives of the city during the blue hour, showcasing the incredibly dramatic and contemporary architecture that seems to rise out of the sand.
The Surfer – terrific artistic tension comes to our screens in this shot from Edith Levy that finds a shoreline by the ocean that creates a great leading line and a lone surfer making his way across the frame. The thick fog in the backdrop acts as a perfect scenic diffuser, helping to really bring the surfer out of the frame.
Across the River – old, classic architectural features of the buildings that line the river in the city of Dordrecht come to life on our screens in this wonderful photograph by Herman van den Berge. A muted reflection in the river’s waters add a perfect silky mirror for an added touch of interest to this picture.
Canoeing at Emerald Lake – rugged mountains cover the backdrop as an amazingly colored lake fills the foreground in this delightful landscape shot from Jim Nix. A family in a red canoe paddles their way across the scene, finishing the picture off just perfectly by creating an anchor in the picture.
blade runner in Moscow underground – those who love strong leading lines and dramatic vanishing points in images will love this photograph taken below ground in a subterranean facility by Roman Alyabev // Роман Алябьев. The repeating lines and colors draw the viewer straight into the frame in this shot, making for a memorable viewing experience for everyone.
Imperial Palace Gardens – Kyoto, Japan – the lush gardens in Japan are world-reknown for their natural and breathtaking beauty, painting the scene in a beautiful green palette with dashes of color everywhere from the flowers on display. Barbara Youngleson captures a wonderful shot of this setting that also features a small pond with still waters that cast a muted reflection.
Venice – Efemir Art captures a memorable image in the world-famous city of Venice in Italy, with a canal that creates a strong leading line into the frame where the old buildings create a strong sense of character. This is definitely one of those shots that reveals more as you spend time taking in the finer details, culminating in the realization that many of these buildings are hundreds and hundreds of years old.
Red Panda – Wayne Beauregard captures a wonderful, tight portrait of a Red Panda, revealing details in this gentle animals face and giving us all a glimpse into its spirit and personality. THe shallow depth-of-focus the Wayne used to create this piece does a perfect job of isolating the subject from its backdrop, helping make it stand out in the picture.
2 Comments
I’m *always* honoured to be included with such amazing photographers. Thank you!
Thanks for your visit and comments here Frank, we sure do appreciate it!