Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Camera and imaging software companies like to say that their products are “easy-to-use,” sometimes forgetting that part of trying to make that actually happen can create unrealistic expectations. But user errors can also be responsible for much of the frustration of capturing, enhancing and printing digital images. So here’s a few tips to minimize any user errors and help improve your photography at the same time:
- Read the manual. I know this will be difficult for some, especially those who prefer to hack their way through a camera’s multiple layers of menus because they used to own a Pentax K1000 but please do it anyway. As Monk used to say, “You’ll thank me later.”
Read a book. Most photo books are well written—even ones I don’t review here for the reasons I’ve written about before. But even the most basic or maybe a book with really great photographs can help getting you up to speed with improving how you make photographs.- Read a magazine. Not that there are any left (other than ones published by associations) but there are some excellent magazines from Great Britain that you can find at Barnes & Noble and outlets that sell foreign publications. Read all the articles in it, not just the ones with pretty pictures. I promise you’ll learn something new.
How I Made this Photo: The original photograph was made in Zion National Park using a Pentax K100D. Exposure was 1/90 sec at f/5.6 at ISO 400. I converted it to monochrome using Duotones by using the Image > Mode > Grayscale command found in Adobe Photoshop. When you select Image > Duotone you’ll see a dialog box showing the two colors that can be used. To use sets of colors that are guaranteed to work together, click the dialog’s Load button to get to Adobe’s Duotone Presets folder, To retain the subtle colors you just added, you will need to convert the Duotone file back to RGB and save the finished file in Photoshop’s native format (.PSD) other formats such as TIFF.
- Don’t assume because you have high scores in Gran Turismo, that you know computer basics. That thing on your desk with the cord (or maybe wireless) is a mouse not a card reader. Don’t laugh, I had a student at one of my Miami workshops who continuously tried to use his card reader as a mouse.
- Don’t buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment all at once and try to make them all work together. Take it one piece of gear at a time and don’t forget to practice.
- Don’t call your friend Renée all the time asking her where the Fade command in Photoshop is located or how to change a folder‘s name. (The latter question was an actual phone I once got.) You’re not the only person calling her for advice and she has a life. Find out the answers for yourself because…
- Don’t forget Google exists. I get lots of e-mail questions from readers where I don’t know the answer off the top of my head but can be answered by simply using Google. I don’t know everything about photography and neither does anyone else, no matter what some people’s on-line bios may state. Caveat: sometime the information on the Internet that Google links to may be wrong. I know it may be hard to accept but you can’t believe everything you read on the Web.
- Don’t get frustrated when something doesn’t work the way that you think it should. You may be wrong but you may also be right and the manufacturer is wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.
And don’t forget to shoot anytime that you can. Look for places to photograph that inspire you. You all know I love to photograph the gazebo in Parker, Colorado’s O’Brien Park but I find that the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, CO is also a fun place to shoot (even if you’re not a rail fan) and there’s always something new there to discover and photograph.
PS. I was going to add read a blog, like this one, to the list, but that sounded so self serving so I won’t.
My book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects is available from Amazon for $13.04 with used copies, as I write this, starting at around two bucks, for what is one of my personally favorite books. That’s cheaper than a Starbucks latte, so you should get one while you can.