With so much going on in photography these days, it's hard to keep up with all the interesting pictures and posts being created and shared online. Thankfully here we find that Toad Hollow Photography has been searching non-stop in all known corners of the internet for links to tutorials, special features and great photography to share with everyone. This weeks list covers a very wide variety of topics and themes, and we sincerely hope you enjoy checking these links out as much as the Toad did in bringing this list to you.
TUTORIALS
Composition Tool: Line of Sight and How to Use It – some of the best tips and tricks on photography are found right here on Light Stalking. This article discusses the compositional element known as line of sight and shows us how to fully take advantage of the concept to create great shots that draw a viewer in.
How to Shoot and Edit Twilight Photos for Real Estate – learning how master real estate photography is a challenge in and of itself. This tutorial shows us in easy to follow steps how best to create compelling twilight shots of homes by compositing a few key frames along with a sky replacement.
How to Create the Droste Effect in Photoshop – this video tutorial shows us how to create an interesting effect known as the Droste Effect in Photoshop. This effect is basically where a frame in the picture holds a copy of the overall picture, which in turn has a frame in it that holds a copy of the picture, and on and on.
Take your photo's colours to the next level with split toning – split toning is used quite a bit these days as a technique that creates a unique look and feel by color management. This short video tutorial shows us how to start down the path of mastery in terms of this process.
New to Lightroom? Try These Simple Photo Editing Tips & Tricks and Get up to Speed in a Hurry – knowing how and where to start when you are just getting started with Lightroom can seem daunting at first. This short video tutorial does a great job of shedding some light on how to roll up your sleeves and get started on a new journey in photography that will be wonderfully fulfilling as practice gives way to great results.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Poetic Black and White Photography Series – this series of great black-and-white shots features a selection of shots from the portfolio of a noted candid street photographer. Combining the human element with moody outdoor conditions lends itself perfectly to this style and medium of photography, with this collection representing a great cross-sample of the artistic tension found in great examples of the genre.
Photographer Captures Magical Beauty of Looking Up in the Middle of a Forest – the forests of the world reveal different vignettes, depending on the time of year and the weather at the time. This set of shots focuses on wide and straight-upward views of forest canopies, revealing a unique look at a world most people only give passing interest to.
The incredible overall winners of the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards – photography awards are a great way to see what contemporary photographers are capturing and producing world-wide today. This series features some fabulous shots that were included in this particular annual photography competition.
Can you tell what these images are? Super-close-up pictures reveal everyday items in a completely different light – join in on this fun visual cat-and-mouse hunt as a series of macro shots are revealed and the key to the subjects are shown at the end of the article. How many of these items can you guess without peeking at the key? I personally didn’t get any.
Beautiful Macro Flower Photography by Silvia Kobelova – check out this beautiful selection of images that features various flowers captured close-up in a variety of lighting conditions. These unique views of nature’s wonders can only be fully appreciated in photographs like the ones presented here.
GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY
Summer morning in Torres Del Paine – South America is home to one of the world’s most amazing places in Patagonia. Tobias Hägg shares a great landscape shot from this region that showcases its amazing natural beauty in the form of dramatic mountain ranges framed by lush vegetation.
Camel on the Move in Jordan Desert – humor can be a very strong element in photography, with some frames telling a story in a glance that cannot be expressed otherwise. This shot features a fast-moving truck in the desert with a very unconcerned passenger in the bed as the vehicle whizzes its way across the sandy landscape. This shot is guaranteed to make you chuckle.
Fairy Mountains – glorious light streams in through an opening in the dramatic clouds that cover the sky in this great shot from Misha Reme. This landscape shot focuses on the rolling mountains that create leading lines to guide us through the picture where layers of hills create a strong sense of both scale and dimension.
Le Mont-Saint-Michel (balade nocturne dans le village) – Mathias Lucas delivers a terrific set of shots that feature golden hour views of a tiny community in France. This variety of shots covers wide angles, as well as some great vignettes, coming together as a collection that shares a visual story of the character filled town.
Sea water ocean wave – Vitaliy Sokol was set up to capture this amazing shot of a curling wave the moment before it breaks, framing the abstract shape of the mountain of moving water against the colorful sky in the backdrop. The leading edge of this amazing wave creates a perfect leading line into the photograph where additional elements can be seen.
Spiral – Andy Hooker (LensScaper) grabs a great shot looking down of a spiral staircase with really interesting angles and lines. This composition lends itself to a natural leading line, ending in a terrific vanishing point at the bottom of the stairs for an added touch of artistic tension.
Elements #6 – you just can’t beat nature for the drama it can create in storm events, as we see in this fabulous photograph that captures a lighthouse as it is being pounded by relentless waves. Marco Nuno Faria does a great job with both the timing of this shot to create maximum impact, as well as with the composition that includes a pair of hovering birds for a touch of artistic tension.
In The Garden :: Blue Hydrangea – this trio of softly created shots features the beautiful Hydrangea flower and all its glorious blue hues, capturing in the serenity of a garden. Lisa Gordon uses a shallow depth-of-focus with these shots, coupled with her post-processing style, to deliver a stunning glimpse into the wonder of nature’s beauty.
Enter – Benny bulke does a great job of framing this composition that uses a tunnel as a frame for the person walking away from the camera. The shot is then processed as a black-and-white to accent the shapes and lines created by the repeating pattern in the structure.
Teachers Rules – Michael Criswell takes us into a hallway of a long-abandoned school in the heart of Detroit. This building looks to be long forgotten as years of weathering and the ravages of time have taken over, slowly returning the building to the very earth it came from.
Old fashioned – this shot from Christophe Staelens speaks to the changes we have seen in society in recent years with the advent of smartphones that vie for our attention at every moment of the day. In this black-and-white shot, we see a person standing on a platform waiting for a train, reading an old fashioned newspaper to help pass the time.
Disappearing Barns – The Palouse, Washington – old wooden barns in their rural setting are a wonderful compositional subject for those who love to photograph in such bucolic regions as the Palouse in the northwesterly region of the United States. This shot from Len Saltiel focuses on a barn that is full of rich patina from years of harsh weather, yet still stands today as a link to the past heritage of the area.
The old pier – a weathered old wooden pier, one that most of us would be reticent to traverse due to missing planks, creates a perfect textured leading line into the heart of the picture in this shot from Filipe Correia. A long exposure was used in this photograph, turning the waters of the picture into a silky texture that finds terrific harmony with the dramatic sky.
Nobility Auditorium, USA – you don’t usually see a structure like this that hasn’t seen use in countless years yet still remains in pretty good condition. This series from Obsidian Urbex Photography focuses on an old theatre that was apparently built in the early 1900s and was actively used until the latter part of the century, at which time it outlived its usefulness and has since been left to the memories of those who once enjoyed spending time here.
Pointe de Penmarc'h – I just love photographs like this that blend a myriad of elements together into a compelling composition. With this shot from Georg Scharf, we enjoy an upward looking view of a helical staircase the leads up to the top of a lighthouse. Wonderful architectural features are explored in this highly contrasted shot, culminating in a stellar vanishing point in the far distance.
Big Brown Bear Boar – who doesn’t love a massive, cuddly, furry big brown bear boar out in the wild, enjoying a rather nice rub on a particularly perfect scratching tree? This tight composition from Ron Niebrugge shows us one such bear as it loves its life in the Alaska wild as an unusual photographer appears to shower it with attention from his camera. Great spirit and personality here in this photograph.
Köln Germany – Gürcan Kadagan delivers a long exposure shot in this picture that includes some great key features, including beautiful colors in the sky against a dramatic pair of spires that look to be reaching to the very heavens. A bridge sits in the right part of the frame, acting as a leading line that crosses the silky river created by the exposure time used to capture this image.
The Misnamed Beauty – Laurie MacBride shares a great shot of an Evening primrose in the very early morning as its flower spreads wide to take in the coming day. The soft colors from the flower work perfectly with the green backdrop to help make this gorgeous flower pop right out of the composition at the viewer.
Wet – sometimes you encounter a shot that is so perfectly named, it fully describes what you are about to see, as we find here in this great wildlife shot from Tanja Brandt. Here we see a lone small owl perched on a tree limb, completely soaked from head to foot after braving a thick rainfall. The character captured in this frame is almost sublime, giving us a peek into the personality of this amazing little bird.