I taught a quick iPhoneography class, earlier this month, at the Williamsburg Contemporary Art Center. Why was I teaching iPhoneography? Because photographer Chase Jarvis is right. The best camera really is the one you have with you. Whether you’re traveling or hanging around your home town, your mobile phone is usually with you, even when you’ve left your DSLR at home. So, it’s a really good idea to figure out how to use it!
One of the attendees quickly noticed that she was taking multiple photos instead of just one. She asked how to turn that feature off.
Since I’ve had the same problem in the past, I thought I’d write a quick post about Burst Mode: what it is, how to use it, how to avoid it, and what on earth to do when you find that your phone is full of multiple shots of the exact same scene.
First of all, what is Burst Mode and how do you use it?
If you follow photography on the web, you’ll find stories about photoshopping on a regular basis. Is it the same as processing, editing, or compositing? Or is there a difference? The answer, in a word, is yes… They are different. But, it’s not that simple!
This is the first of a four-part series about this complicated question.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: photoshopping. According to Merriam-Webster, to photoshop is “to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)”. The important part to note is the intent to deceive. (By the way, the elephant in the photo is not photoshopped. He really was grazing in the wild in Sabi Sabi, South Africa. I don’t photoshop my photos.)
Examples of photoshopped images abound. For years, models have been photoshopped to appear extraordinarily thin. Read more →
Vervet Mama and Baby at Lake Naivasha, in the Rift Valley in Kenya, taken with intention and my Canon 5D Mark IV, just before she decided to enter my room and have a look around… Can you guess what f/stop number I chose to blur the background. Click on the photo to see a larger version. (Photo details at the end of the blog post.)
I love my iPhone camera! Ever since Apple introduced the iPhone 4s in 2011, with it’s improved camera and technology, I’ve been hooked on the convenience and quality. Before that, when I traveled, I carried a small digital Canon Elph point-and-shoot camera, set to auto mode, to grab photos quickly. Now, I didn’t need to carry an extra camera. I had the perfect tool to feed my “shoot and run” habit. Read more →
Napoleon, the French Bulldog, posing for a portrait in autumn leaves. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
It’s almost December. Do you send out Christmas or holiday cards? Have you ordered them yet? (True confession… I have not… 😩)
I thought I’d share some tips for getting a good shot of your dog for your card. These portraits can also be printed and framed. You don’t have to use them for cards!
Click HERE to see a larger version of the finished photo.
There are some important photography software updates to report this week. And, since I like to turn things inside out, I’ll pass along some advice on how to rename your Lightroom catalog, so that the name will make sense to you after you do your updating!
This week, Adobe announced changes to some of their products. The oddest change is that they have renamed our good old Lightroom CC or Lightroom CC 2015 or however you remember it… to Lightroom Classic CC. Just to confuse you even more, they have also renamed Lightroom Mobile, the version of LR that used to work only on your smart phone or tablet. It’s now Lightroom CC, and it also works on your computer.
You’ll find the new changes when you update your apps.
If you’re still using Lightroom 6, nothing has changed for you. That’s less confusing, but it does say that they are pretty much finished supporting that software. It’s probably time to update to the subscription-based Creative Cloud version of Lightroom. 😩
Here’s how I’m proceeding with these developments. Read more →
A skyline view from our room at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Christ Church Cathedral is below.
Have you ever been offered an upgrade when you checked into a hotel? I’m not talking about the upgrades that come with membership in the hotel chain’s frequent visitor program. I’m talking about the upgrades that have no reason to happen at all.
Did it make you feel special in some way? How exciting! Wow! Why me? Thanks so much!
Was the room as great as you thought it would be? Read more →
A photo of me in a Masai village in Tanzania this winter, taken by my friend, Dan Longacre. I was holding three cameras…
Sometimes, it’s what you carry. Sometimes, it’s what you do. Either way, if you’re a photographer, you need to team to support you.
Skip and I were grabbing a bite to eat between golf lessons on Sunday and talking about what we’d learned from the first lesson. I noted that I needed to move my left shoulder more, but it really didn’t want to move… Then, I said, “But that’s not a problem. I’ll just tell Darin, and he’ll help me correct that. After all, I have a great team!” Read more →
Slide to the left to see the difference between a photo shot in JPG and one shot in RAW and edited in Lightroom CC. Scenes like this are what Slow Travel is all about.
Click here to see a larger version of the finished photo.
Sometimes, your iPhone can be your DSLR’s best friend. And, better yet, it can make your travel easier, too!
Skip and I like to indulge in something we call Slow Travel. When we’re going on a trip that has no time contract, we like to pad the dates and slow down a bit.
In July, we were invited to a party in Cleveland, Ohio. We had nothing planned for the days just before or after the party, so we decided to drive there from Virginia, instead of flying. Then, Skip set about designing a road trip that would spend most of the time on state and U.S. highways, rather than interstates.
Back in the old days… before the 1950s… these were the roads you drove to go places in the United States. They could be slow, Read more →
My camera is never far away!
I’m so glad you’ve found my blog, where I share two of my life’s passions, travel and photography. Why did I name it Inside Out? I love to figure out how things work and then share what I learn. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it and, perhaps, learn a thing or two that you didn’t know before.
If you’re hoping to see more of my photos, I’m now posting on Instagram every day. You can find my page by clicking here. Hope you’ll follow me!
Let me know what you think in the Comments.
Caroline Maryan
7 Quick Tips for Keeping Your Camera Safe
It’s National Safety Month, here in the USA. What better time to share 7 quick tips to keep your camera safe! If you’d like to see larger versions of the photos, just click on them.
Capturing your dog’s expression is lots of fun, but you might get nose prints, or, worse yet, scratches, on your lens!
1. Use a UV or Protector Lens Filter on all of your lenses: Cameras today are really computers, and, just like your laptop, sooner or later, they will become obsolete. Your lenses, on the other hand, should last for many years! A good place to start protecting your lens is with a UV or Protector filter. (Be sure to buy the correct size for your lens’ diameter.) Either type of filter will work. You screw it onto your lens and leave it there. Its purpose is simply to protect the glass from scratches, dirt and nose prints… If it does get scratched, it’s a lot cheaper to replace than the lens would be! The one time you will want to remove it is when you are going to be adding additional filters, like Neutral Density Filters. Leaving on too many filters can lead to vignetting.
Recent Comments