NOV 1 LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY Today, we are talking about tips for low light photography. As the Northern Hemisphere heads into darker and darker days, taking photos can be a daunting task. Here are some tips for taking photos in low light conditions: #1 DO NOT BE AFRAID OF USING A HIGH ISO ISO is a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo. As you increase your ISO number , your photos will grow progressively brighter. In a previous era where we had film, the ISO was the type of film (based on the size and number of light absorbing crystals)....higher ISO for lower light....but higher ISO can add graininess. #2. USE A REALLY LARGE APERTURE In photography, the “pupil” of your lens is called aperture. You can shrink or enlarge the size of the aperture to allow more or less light to reach your camera sensor #3. LOWER YOUR SHUTTER SPEED Shutter speed in photography is the amount of time (or rate of speed) your shutter stays open when capturing an image. At lower speeds, the shutter stays open longer to capture more light. #4. USE A TRIPOD At low light settings, your camera is more susceptible to "camera shake"...or the movements you cause when holding the camera. A tripod will help to stabilize your camera to avoid the effects of camera shake. If you don't have a tripod, try leaning on something for stabilization. NOV 9 BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS Today, we are talking about tips for converting photos to black and white. Any photo can be converted to Black and White, but not all work as well in monochrome. Here are some tips for choosing the right photo to convert to Black and White and how to convert it. #1. THE PHOTO As I said above, any photo *can* be turned black and white, but not all should be. Black and white photography is more about expressing emotions than just removing the color. The photos that work the best are ones with a lot of contrast - areas of extreme dark and light will give the greatest emotional response. Repeating lines are another great idea for converting to black and white. #2. THE BACKGROUND AND/OR AN OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF COLOR Sometimes a photo in color just doesn't show the emotion or message we want to convey because the background is distracting, the lighting isn't the best, or there's an overwhelming amount of bright color that takes the eye away from the actual scene/memory #3. 50 SHADES OF GRAY You don't have to think of a black and white photo in terms of a black and white object....sure...a zebra is black and white, but the most stunning black and white conversions are full of colors...each of those colors will be a different shade of gray. Lots of different grays can be used to draw the eye to a subject and direct the motion or emotion of the overall image. Play around with the color sliders too to change the colors to add more contrast to them as a shade of gray. #4. ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY DESATURATE This is the most important tip....do NOT just desaturate your photo. Don't be afraid to increase the contrast, make your whites whiter and your blacks blacker. Try to avoid a "muddy" look by playing around with a more dramatic look. Try using the dodge and burn tools to really highlight the extremes. Simple desaturate (blah) vs proper BW conversion (Yeahhhhh) #5 MOOD LIGHTING You can change the mood of a photo by adding a hazy layer. ooooh....an ultra rare photo of me. CLICK HERE FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE TECHNIQUE SLOW SCRAP