Inexpensive Lens for Beginner (Canon User Only)

Click Review

If you'd like to buy telephoto lens to take portraits, perhaps you should take professional photographer's advise like below.

Professional Photographer says:
"Buy an inexpensive prime lens that stops down to at least f1.8 (like the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens). You can get one for under $100. A prime or fixed-focal length lens will be the quickest and best way to understand aperture. And a solid understanding of aperture is absolutely essential to taking good photos".

Just be patient and then saving accounts to buy very expensive lens if you'd like.
Hopefully, you're not wrong to buy what lens you dream of.

CoffeeShop - Free Actions and Tutorial - Great !!

Coincidentally, I found this through Flickr's forum and checked out there. Yes, this is very, very, very great to learn how to create actions because this owner made many tutorials about that. You can check out there whatever you want to know and then you will learn step by step. Me, too, still learn more and more. There are so many great tutorials, installing actions, template-Paper-Patterns, etc.

Click here

Cretead by Rita, Owner of Coffeeshop

BARISTA ACTION FOR PS AND PSE
1. Open the image you wish to process.

2. File then Duplicate (opens a copy of your file to work on so your original does not get altered, great to see Before/After)

3. LEVELS: Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Use your black eyedropper to click on something black to remove any color cast. You can also click on something white with the white eye dropper. If your photo looks worse, then reset and click somewhere else until you get the look you want. Then adjust Level's sliders to taste. I usually move the midpoint over to the left a bit to lighten the midtones.

4. DODGE/BURN: Add a new blank Layer above Levels and call it Dodge/Burn. Fill it with 50% gray and put the blending mode in Overlay or Softlight. Type B to get your brush tool and use a low opacity (10% or so) soft brush and paint over anything you want lightened. I usually paint over skin and eyes to brighten them a bit. Then, using a low opacity soft black brush, paint over anything you want darkened. I usually darken the background some, or you can use this method to paint a vignette around the edges of your photo. Increase the opacity to 25% or so if you are
doing a vignette. If you completely mess up, then just Edit then Fill Layer then 50% gray and it returns your layer back to the original setting, and repaint.

5. CONTRAST: Select Background, Ctrl-J to make a copy. Change the blending mode to Soft Light and move the opacity down to 25%.

6. SHARPEN: Select Background, Ctrl-J to make a copy. Run the Unsharp Mask over this layer to sharpen your image. I usually start with Amount 125%, Radius 1, Threshold 3. Put the blending mode into Luminosity. Adjust opacity as needed.

7. Color Saturation: Select the Dodge/Burn layer and add a new Hue/Saturation layer above it. Put the Saturation setting on 20 and change the blending mode to Color, Opacity 20%.

8. B&W/Muted Color: Now add a Gradient Map Adjustment layer on top. Make sure it is set to Black, foreground to transparent. This is a great way to turn your photo B&W. Now adjust the opacity of this layer to 0% to keep your photo color, 100% for B&W, or anywhere in between for muted colors. You can also make a B&W image with “colorized” parts. Just adjust the opacity to 100% (so your photo is B&W) and use a soft black brush (opacity of choice depending on how vivid you want the colored parts to be) and paint over anything you want in color.

9. Now you can adjust all of your layers to taste. The opacity's I gave you are just a starting point so don’t be afraid to change them.

10. Flatten your image and save! Rerun the action on this image once again to get a really vivid photo.


If you want to install BARISTA ACTION FOR PS AND PSE, you can check out blog of coffeeshop.

Enjoy experimenting with actions !!

Best Lenses For Travel Photography

Written by digital photography school blogger, Darren Rowse.

"As I’ve said above, when I travel these days I tend to take 2 lenses - one is a versatile zoom which will cover a range of focal lengths and the other is a light weight, small and fast prime lens (a prime lens is one with a fixed focal length. Prime lenses are traditionally good quality and faster than zooms). Of course the two lenses I talk about below are based upon my own budget, photographic style and preferences. I’ve added a few other alternatives into the mix which others might consider".

Special for CANON SHOOTER

1. Lens Canon EF 24 - 105 MM F/4 L IS

I list it here for a number of reasons:

• it’s image quality is renowned as one of the best zoom lenses going around. This is an ‘L’ series lens which is a ‘luxury’ or Pro level.

• focal length is wide and will cover a variety of situations and needs

• while f/4 isn’t super fast it will do you fine in many lighting situations - especially anything shot in daylight. It’s f/4 across all focal lengths so it is faster than the 18-55mm at full extension.

• this lens has Image Stabilization (IS) which will allow you to handhold shots at up to 2 stops faster than normal (this means in low light you can slow your shutter speed a couple of stops without suffering camera shake).

Of course for every positive there is a negative and this camera’s include:

• Weight/Size - this is not the lightest lens going around and by the end of a day of it hanging around your neck you’ll know about it

• Price - the weight it adds to your neck will be taken from your wallet - it’s not cheap

• Speed - as I say above, f/4 is ok, but it’s not the fastest option going around.

Alternatives to the 24-105mm f/4L IS

A couple of alternatives come to mind.

• Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM - in the same price league and with similar quality and weight, but faster (aperture of 2.8 across all focal lengths), without image stabilization, shorter zoom range. So if you’re shooting at low light a lot (especially moving objects which IS won’t freeze) and you don’t mind loosing the top end focal length it might be an option.

• Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM - this is a much more affordable option but you do sacrifice image quality (as you’d expect). It has a longer focal length, still has Image Stabilization and at 28mm is faster than the 24-105mm (but is slower at the other end of the zoom). It’s also a bit lighter and smaller. I’ve owned this lens for a while now and have usually included it in my kit when traveling. It’s images are not as good as my L series lenses but it’s a good general purpose lens.

2. Lens Canon 50 mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

Whereas my last suggestion was very expensive this one is at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of cost and is one of the most affordable lenses you’ll find in the Canon range when you consider the quality of the images it produces.

While this lens is not much to look at in terms of size, weight or even construction it is significantly faster than any of the other lenses mentioned above at f/1.8. This will allow you to shoot at quite low light levels, especially if you up your ISO (remember you get grain at higher ISO). I use this lens when I don’t want to lug the other one around with me (I leave it locked up at the hotel), especially at night.

The Positives for this lens are:

• Speed - f/1.8 is the fastest lens I’ve currently got in my collection. It’s great indoors especially when a flash is not allowed or appropriate.

• Weight/Size - you can fit it in your pocket easily and will hardly know it’s there - perfect for taking out at night or when you need to travel especially light

• Price - last time I looked on Amazon it was just over $100 USD

• Quality - while it’s no ‘L’ Series lens many argue that when you consider it’s price it’s one of the best quality lenses going around on a ‘dollar to quality ratio’.

• Focal length - although you’re limited to one focal length it is a useful one. I find it works well with portraits and in getting in nice and close for tightly framed shots of things in street-scapes etc.

On the downside of this lens:

• Focal length - it is a handy length for some shots but not having a zoom can be frustrating if you’re used to that. It’s also a little too long for landscapes (especially on non full frame cameras where it’s the equivalent of an 80mm lens.

• Build Quality - this lens can be a little hard to take seriously when you first pick it up because it’s so light that it feels like a toy. It’s quite ‘plasticy’. It is also a reasonably noisy lens and not the fastest at focussing in low light.

Alternatives to the 50mm f/1.8

The following lenses are alternatives to the 50mm f/1.8 in terms of their speed and size

• Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM - if the focal length is right but you’re a bit put off by the quality of the f/1.8 lens you might want to spend a bit more (actually it’s more than 4 times more) and get it’s faster big brother - the f/1.4 version. Once again it’s small, light and takes sharp pictures. Despite it being more expensive it’s still quite reasonably priced and is significantly better in terms of quality of build and image. While I love my f/1.8 I wish I’d spent a little more and got this one instead.

• Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM - worth considering also when using a non full frame camera is a wider angle lens like this 28mm one (equivalent of a 45mm lens). In many ways this one has a very similar feature list to the f/1.4 lens. It’s small, light, fast and not too expensive.

• Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM - go even wider angle with a 20mm lens. It’s not as small as either of the 50mm lenses but is still small enough and gets some very positive reviews.

--- Hopefully you don't get wrong to buy which lens you need for your trip ---

DSLR Canon Beginner

For you who are so newbie to DSLR Canon.

But you still don't understand how to adjust exposure (learn about aperture and shutter speed), it highly recommended you checking out here

It's very great instructions that you can learn step by step.

And
You can also check out Digital Photography Tips for Beginners,
click here

Well, happy exploring with your DSLR Canon and another DSLR cameras

Adobe Camera RAW - Using the HSL/Grayscale Tab

For Adobe Camera RAW user, who usually uses the basics tab to tweak white balance, improve specific areas of exposure and contrast, making your image to look more sharp, crisp, and vibrant when needed.



But how about the HSL / Grayscale Tab?
Well, this article that I found at Geoff Lawrence's website, might be helpful for all of you.

It actually written and submitted by Don Moughamian, as Geoff said on his website.

The Hues Tab
The first of our HSL tabs focuses on Hues (or regions of specific color). Moving one of the eight hue sliders can (if the hue is present in your image) shift that specific color region to a different but directly related hue. Again, you might decide to make an area of green more yellow-green or more blue-green. Or, maybe you wish to make a region of orange more red-orange or more yellow-orange.
..... You can click here for the further instructions.

The Saturation Tab
We will look at the Saturation tab. As mentioned in the previous section, saturation effects the purity of a specific region of color. Saturation controls are common in image editing software but very few products offer the level of control and non-destructive benefits of the HSL panel in Adobe Camera Raw.
.... You can click here for the more instructions.

The Lumincance Tab
Luminance refers to the lightness or perceived brightness of the colors we are targeting in the HSL panel. One more, you need to adjust only those sliders which have an effect in the Hue and Saturation tabs, and in many cases you may only need to adjust one or two of them.
..... You can click here.

Enjoy experimenting.