It has been yet another inspiring week in photography, with photographers and writers from all genres creating great content to share online with enthusiasts. In this weeks post, we find that Toad Hollow Photography has been searching all over for links to remarkable tutorials, unique features and great photography. We hope you enjoy checking all these links out as much as the Toad did in bringing you this weeks list.
TUTORIALS
How To Photograph People With The Sun Behind Them – shooting backlit portraits is something that most photographers avoid as much as possible for a variety of reasons. This terrific article posted right here on Light Stalking shows us how to use this scenario to our advantage and get consistent and great results.
Here Are 5 Great Portrait Photography Hacks You Wish You Had Known Sooner – Shutterbug hosts a terrific video tutorial that is under 6 minutes long that takes us through some great tips for portrait photography. The tutorial goes into good detail discussing the five key points covered, helping us take our portrait shots to the next proverbial level.
A Guide to Long Exposure Photography – long exposure photography techniques can produce quite stunning images but blending static objects against subjects in motion to create a sense of motion in a frame. This terrific guide talks about this technique, including gear suggestions, and is accompanied by a set of sample shots to show you what to expect if you try this yourself.
How to add lens-blurring effects using Photoshop – this tutorial takes us through several methods of creating lens-blur in Photoshop for your images. This effect can mimic a shallow depth-of-focus, and it also can be used as an artistic effect to create a specific look and feel with a photograph.
Shooting Water Droplet Refractions for Magical Macro Photos – shooting water drops in macro up close and tight can produce terrific images, sometimes bordering on the surreal. This fabulous tutorial shows us a bunch of tips and tricks on how to capture great shots in this genre.
Night Photography: Tips for Capturing Moon – this tutorial shows us how to use both compositing as well as in-camera techniques to capture stunning shots of the moon. Several great illustrative shots are included here for inspiration and reference.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Art of Lighting Porsche Racecars – we do a lot of automotive photography with our practice, so we are well versed in the challenges of shooting exotic cars. This article shares a set of extremely contemporary professional shots of various Porsche race cars. The shots are framed with anecdotal insights into how the shots were staged and captured.
Stian Klo Reveals the Stunning Color Palette of Northern Italy’s Autumn Landscapes – the Italian landscape creates the perfect canvas for Stian Klo to use in creating awesome landscape themed photographs. There are several different styles and settings included in this series to showcase the incredible natural beauty of this region.
Must Watch: The Best Action Sports Video of All Time – when I visited this article, I initially thought to myself that these were some pretty wild accolades and endorsements testifying about the inherent interest found in this short film. I was wrong. Abundantly wrong. For people who love incredible action set against epic backdrops, you simply have to see this video.
A Black and White Thunderstorm Time-Lapse That's as Ominous as It Is Magnificent – the raw power and fury of nature is a thing to behold, especially when seen through the lens of world-famous Mike Olbinski who is quite well known for his work chasing storms. This video presentation from him is produced as a black-and-white to highly accent the drama of the scenes filmed.
GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY
Cubs at Play – we head back to the wilds of Alaska with Ron Niebrugge in this post that features a heartwarming shot of a pair of Grizzly Bear cubs at play. They are quite intent in their focus on the matter at hand, which is trying to playfully establish a pecking order in their sibling rivalry. Very, very cute, indeed.
Chemin de Feuilles – this autumn themed shot from Andre Villeneuve shows a low perspective as we look across a wood plank walking path out into a lush forested setting that is lightly draped in fog. The colors from the fall leaves add a great touch of tonal warmth to this landscape photograph.
Unknown River, Eastern Iceland – this terrific landscape shot from Paul Miller shares a scene of a winding river in Iceland as beautiful colors in the sky dance overhead. Paul’s timing for this shot is perfect as we find the scene enhanced by a golden strip of light that runs over the surface of the river for a beautiful finishing touch.
Autumn Stories – a dramatic mountain overlooks the landscape scene captured and shared here by Adnan Bubalo. The mountain itself has some snow on it from the winter, and the river flows fast from the runoff to add a touch of motion into the still frame.
Take Off – Steve Palmer captures a great shot of a bird in flight with its mirrored reflection in the still waters adding a significant element to the composition. Steve finishes this shot off as a black-and-white to bring all of the artistic tension out of the frame.
London Fog – a thick fog covers the city of London as Vulture Labs uses the ambience to create a very moody and ethereal feeling shot. This picture uses the Westminster Bridge as a leading line that leads us deep into the fog, processed as a black-and-white to accent the natural drama of the scene.
Two-For-One Theatre, USA – Obsidian Urbex Photography delivers a compelling set of shots that illuminate the remains of a stacked theatre in the United States that today is in a serious state of disrepair and neglect from years of weathering. The rich tapestry of patina and worn out details in the two attached theatres create a visual canvas that leaves us all wondering what these places looked like during their busy times.
Watergate – this shot combines so many stunning elements that it’s difficult to describe. This shot comes from the studio of Brett Gasser and features a long exposure scene that focuses on a Thames Barrier Gate just as the sun sets, creating a mystical look in the silky waters as a pastel sky adds excellent color and tone.
National Elk Reserve Sunrise – Jackson, Wyoming – photographs like this reveal the true beauty that can be found in a sunrise that paints the entire sky in glorious color. Len Saltiel’s serendipitous timing coming across this scene proves the point that luck favors the prepared.
Enjoy The Silence – Daniel Cheong captures breathtaking colors in the sky as the sun sets, using a wooden boat in the foreground as an anchor into the shot. The movement in the clouds frames the sharp details in the weathered boat that sits on the shore, finishing off the shot with a fabulous flourish.
Fort Duquesne Bridge – Michael Criswell captures and shares a dramatic skyline shot of the city of Pittsburgh, complete with a great iron bridge as a leading line that guides us into the frame where the architecture of the city makes itself known. The colors and crisp details in this shot make it one of those pictures that jumps out of the monitor at the viewer.
I'm on my way! – a strong helical staircase forms the foundation for this highly contrasted black-and-white shot from Christophe Staelens. As we look down the center of the stairs, we see a person making their way up, which adds a fabulous finishing feature to the photograph.
Moorings – there is something inherently romantic about wood row boats, particularly when loosely moored in shallow waters as we find here. The depth of the water creates shadows from the floating boats above, adding a great finishing touch to the composition.
검은댕기해오라기 – this is definitely one of those shots that required perfect timing to capture, and the results are simply amazing. Ahn. b. k captures a shot of a bird with its wings spread open as it is in mid-flight and just about to catch a fish that is on its way down a waterfall. The shallow depth-of-focus isolates the bird and the fish from the backdrop to help make it all stand out.
Blue hour in London – Jim Nix looks down the Westminster Bridge of London towards the world-iconic Big Ben clock. The blue sky from the last vestiges of light of the day creates a perfect curtain to frame the beautiful old architecture of the city.
Good Morning, NYC – a gorgeous sunrise covers the sky in vibrant, rich colors as the sun begins to peek up over the buildings of New York City on a new day. The sunburst from the sun creates a strong feeling of joy in us as we view this shot and imagine an active city awakening with the hope for what the new day brings.
Green Monster – this is one of those shots that you have to see to believe, and even then your eyes will be feeding something into your mind that defies traditional logic. Famed storm-chaser Mike Olbinski shares this shot of a massive supercell storm that has one side draped in a rich green color from the apparent hailstorm occurring under it, while the other side is covered in beautiful colors from the pending sunset.
Jump – what is better than an adorable squirrel? How about one in motion as it leaps through the air heading out for a fresh new adventure? This awesome shot from Stefano Ronchi was captured with a super shallow depth-of-focus helping to make sure the spirit and character of the tiny airborne squirrel is the main star in this photograph.
City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia – Edith Levy shares a small set of photos of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, all carefully processed to be highly sympathetic to the subjects being photographed. The buildings in these shots are extremely modern looking, and Edith’s composition and processing brings out all the fine details in the structures.
Monsoon Magic – the power and fury of a lightning storm in Arizona comes to life on our screens in this great shot from Roger Hill. You can see sheets of rain pummeling the landscape below as tendrils from the electrical bolts drive into the ground during a raging storm, making for a very dramatic picture.
