I know that everyone loves Lightroom presets and who doesn’t love free presets! I am always on the hunt for great presets to share with everyone and today have a nice group of Black and White presets. Since the topic so far this week has been around black and white film here are 6 presets that I use that replicate certain films. Download link is at the bottom of the page, enjoy! Also check out our post awhile back with some really cool artistic presets for Lightroom here: Free Lightroom Presets

Original Image

T-Max 100

T-Max 100 auto

Tri-X

T-Max 400 auto

High Contrast Black and White

Kodak CN film

Enjoy these Free presets, Download here: Black and White Film Presets – DigitalPhotoBuzz.com

This Post is Sponsored by AppEzzy – iPhone and iPad apps. Follow them on Twitter or Facebook

Yesterday’s post (Film vs. Digital for the Analog Junkie/ Traveling Photographer) got me thinking a little bit about my background and a few discussions I have had with some newer photographers at my workshops. I sometimes find it strange when I talk to photographers who have learned in this digital age and have never shot with film. Some people don’t really even know how film works, and it just amazes me because of how fast the switch to digital happened. I know it will be more and more common each for people to learn 100% in the digital workflow since digital has really taken the leap as the primary source of shooting for 99% of professionals out there. I don’t even know many camera stores that carry that many film cameras any longer.

So today just a quick question to get to know you all and what your experience with film is. If you can answer the one question below that would be awesome:

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

Debating the Merits of Film vs. Digital for the Analog Junkie/ Traveling Photographer

A guest post by Crystal Street author of Storytelling from an Independent Traveler.

Are you an analog junkie at heart?

If you answer yes to any of the follow questions, then you have analog roots. And for a traveling photographer, this connection to the nostalgic self can produce hours of mind-numbing debate.

• Do you have stacks of binders filled with negative sleeves that are spilling off your shelves and oozing contact sheets onto the floor?

• Does your wardrobe contain a drawer full of clothes splattered with dark yellow fixer stains?

• When you enter a building with an actual wet darkroom and you catch a whiff of fixer, does your nose go straight into the air to inhale the chemical goodness like a hound-dog tracking the sent of a rabbit on the loose?

• Do you remember the first time you saw an image appear on a white sheet of paper in a tray of developer and thinking, “damn, that might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen”? And knowing at that moment that you were hooked- addicted to this dark cave, its aromatic chemicals and shadows of red light.

• Do you sit in the parking lot of your local photo lab and pull out each individual roll of freshly processed film, hold it up to the sun and try to interpret the negatives and determine if what you actually captured on film represents the image burned into your memory?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have also engaged in the debate of film versus digital as your means of capturing an image. And, if you also are blessed with the affliction of insatiable curiosity for foreign lands, you’ve probably pulled your hair out at one point trying to decide what medium to take along for the journey.

I’m going to look at the philosophical reasons for choosing film over digital- or vice versa and then dive into a few practicalities.

The Art of the Negative

If you are still reading this, then the odds are strong that you have shot a roll of film at some point in time. And hopefully, you’ve also worked with that film in the darkroom to create your prints. Capturing a moment from the camera, processing the negative and creating a print in a wet darkroom encompasses the entire process of picture making- in the traditional sense of the craft. Throughout this process, you are directly connected to your work- to your creation. You visualize the image prior to shooting, you capture the moment in a sequential order of 36 frames, you bring that image to life on a transparent strip of film and you then create a print using light, chemicals and vision. At no point does the image physically leave your person (unless you have a lab help a little with the processing).

In shooting film, you have 36 frames in a roll to translate your interpretation of the physical world into an image, or a series of images, that supports your vision. You must be deliberate- you have a finite number of shots to tell your story. You must visualize, plan, wait and act instinctively once the elements present themselves before your lens. You truly become part of the moment you are documenting and at no time can you stop and check your work. The image exists only in your mind for days, or sometimes weeks, until that image is processed.

And when the roll is processed and you are sitting with your contact sheet or light table and loupe, you are editing a sequence of images, a chronological documentation of time. You see the moment unfold and all the supporting elements leading up to the pinnacle moment are included in your edit. You see the whole picture, the entire story. You relive the moment as it unfolded and can better choose the proper images to convey the actual event or story being told.

In Contrast- the Digital File

With digital, the image itself exists as an individual file. We often trash the images which fail to live up to our expectations and pull images out of sequential order in the process of shooting or later in post production. One of my biggest challenges in making the conversion to digital (dragged kicking and screaming by what my clients needed 6 years ago) was the belief that the actual image doesn’t exist, it’s merely digital data on a computer chip. I know, there are valid contradictions to this theory, but this is my perception of digital.

But for someone that is used to capturing the image on a transparent surface within the camera- the capturing of digital images took a long time to trust and embrace. What I’ve found over the years of shooting digital, is that my tendency is to check the image in camera constantly while shooting (also called “chimping” by some photographers).

Yes, this has advantages. I can ensure that my shots are exposed and composed properly, which is particularly valuable when shooting for commercial clients. But, for my own artistic purposes, this removes me from the moment I’m documenting by instantly setting me in the past while I “chimp” and miss the symphony of moments before me.

Thus, the Eternal Debate

Travel, for many independent nomads, is an artistic and spiritual adventure. We travel not because we need a vacation or to escape reality, but because we are drawn to the unknown through curiosity and the idea of new people and experiences. Travel allows us to tap into the creative soul, that inner being that crawls out from its hiding place once all the regular mundane moments of daily life are left behind and we enter a new world.

So, when heading to such creative heights, the obvious choice for certain analog travelers is to take film along for the ride. Right?

Enter the Technical Dilemmas.

As an independent traveler, the weight of the baggage is the most important element of your choice of gear. And no, you CAN NOT check your camera or computer equipment. Period. It will get stolen. End of discussion.

If photography is more than just a hobby for you, the debate between equipment is torturous. You must feed the internal analog artist while still satisfying the professional side which pays the bills with digital images. Add multimedia production into the mix and you’re talking about 40-50 pounds of gear. Sigh.

Not to mention the logistical aspects of working with film on the road; preventing theft and thus losing all your unprocessed images, keeping the film canisters free of debris and away from excessive heat, keeping your film organized and rationing your film when supplies run low. Or worse running out of film and having to buy film from the local photo shop in the developing world- where the film is older than the child in the remote village that you’re trying to capture in an image. Truly, traveling with film in this day and age is an act of love! Love for the film and love of the process. All obstacles aside, I cherish my film images from remote lands, more so than most of my digital images.

So, here are a few questions to ask yourself when you are debating the merits of lugging film AND digital on your next adventure.

• Are you expected to work with your camera equipment on the road? If yes, digital must be your emphasis.

• Will you need full Adobe Suites capabilities while traveling or will a net-book with Lightroom suffice?

• Can you shoot entirely on film for this trip and ensure that your exposed film will make it home safely?

• Will there be access to major cities that might have film and processing options to help alleviate some of the burden of carry all of that exposed film around as you travel?

• Can you use a hybrid point and shoot camera- a Canon G11 or Lumix GF1 for all your digital work and simply use a hard drive storage device and focus on 35 mm photography? This will allow you to leave the computer at home and add more film.

• Or should you take the full digital studio and merely take the Holga or a Diana to satisfy your analog needs while traveling?

No right answer exists for this debate, but knowing the purpose of your travel images and their final destination can help you choose the right format for your artistic endeavors. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, so knowing your artistic preferences and any professional obligations while traveling will also help you decide which format to embrace.

Regardless of your choice, the most important aspect of this entire debate is that you remain true to your methods of capturing an image and that you actually have a camera- any camera- to preserve your adventures and interactions to share with the world.

Crystal publishes a blog about storytelling, living simple, entrepreneurship and travel at Storytelling from an Independent Traveler. She is a documentary photographer, multimedia producer and writer and you can find her on Twitter or learn more about her work here.

Here are some of Crystals images for you to enjoy:

My dinner hosts in Madaba, Jordan play with their mother’s camera trying to imitate the crazy American photographer joining them for dinner. This shot was taken with my Canon 1V with a 28/ 1.8 USM lens- my standard film photo kit. I also worked with a digital set up as I was working on a documentary project in Palestine for a month on this journey.

A villager on the island of Sangihe, Indonesia plays the drum during an ancient ritual. This was taken with my Canon 1V, 28 mm 1.8 USM. I was hired as a multimedia assistant for a project for Junior Achievement and took only film as my means of visual documentation.

Maoist commanders pose for a picture in a remote village in Nepal during a demonstration. I took both film and digital on this journey as I was working on a grant funded project and an internship with Nepal Human Rights News Website. I had to purchase film in Nepal and the colors had shifted due to the age of the film or the processing in country- or both. I was on the road for 2 months, in India and Nepal and used up my film halfway through the trip. This was my first overseas journey with both mediums.

A group of worshipers gathers outside of the Holy Church of the Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This shot was taken with a Holga and I love the antique effect this $20 dollar camera gave the shot.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

I know most new Lightroom users love the Presets that come installed with Lightroom. Adobe ships LIghtroom with 18 different Presets that are a collection of some basic editing Presets like Black and White, Sepia and are actually quite useful. But for those of you who want to have some unique Lightroom Presets there are a few options; you can either create your own (visit our article on creating your own Lightroom Presets) or download/buy Lightroom Presets online (also check out our list of some great free lightroom presets)

Today I want to write a quick overview of how to import Lightroom Presets if you have downloaded them from a website. But first for those of you who don’t know what presets really are here is a overview of Lightroom Presets. Lightroom is a non-destructive way of editing, what that basically means is that you are not making changes to the photo as you go along, instead you are entering in a bunch of instructions that Lightroom shows on a preview of the image (i.e. Exposure +20, Contrast +35, etc…) When you go to save the image Lightroom takes all of these edits and applies them to the image when saving them. Since you are basically creating a list of instructions to the program on things to apply to the image recreating that same exact look is simple with Presets. A Preset just takes a snapshot of all of the changes you entered in for a specific shot and gives you a way with one click to apply all of those same exact changes to your image.

So if you do find some amazing presets online and want to add them to your Preset library how do you go about that? Here is a quick guide:

That’s it, now sit back and enjoy your new preset

Also if you have a lot of presets in Lightroom and want to keep them organized, you can add new folders through that same pop up menu and drag and drop actions into folders. We will be posting some more free Lightroom actions soon that you can download so check back soon, or add your email at the top of our site to be notified of each new post so you don’t miss anything.

Venice, what an inspirational place to visit and photograph. Venice is one place that I think is just truly magical. It is one of the most photographed destinations but for a good reason, there is just so much beauty in Venice. The buildings, narrow passageways, the mix of water and buildings all coming together as one. It’s one place that as an artist you can explore and explore time and time again and continue to find new inspiration. I can walk around some of the alleyways in Venice and just get lost in them, walking around like a kid again going through a maze. Here are some amazing images I have found from Venice, take a quick break today, let your mind dream and be inspired.

Santa Maria de la Salute see from il ponte d’al Academia, originally uploaded by gbatistini.

, originally uploaded by brianchapman.

venice gondalas, originally uploaded by CONOR LEDWITH AKA THE FINCH.

Venice Rialto ( please view large ), originally uploaded by janusz l.

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo (Venice), originally uploaded by Eric Rousset.

Venezia, originally uploaded by imago2007 (on Flickr break).

Bella Venezia XI, originally uploaded by Giorgos~.

Venice – La gondola, originally uploaded by TheStoryBehind (back from Istanbul).

Ducale, originally uploaded by J.T.R..

Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, originally uploaded by valerius25.

Venice Grand Canal at Night, originally uploaded by ChrisAnton.

from artscapes iPad wallpaper app

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

Guest Post by Alessandro Festa http://www.alfweb.com

I’m a foodie, there is no doubt about that. I love food; I love to eat, cook, look at, touch, and smell food. But I’m a photographer too so I’m constantly have the urge to hear that “click” sound of the shutter and “freeze” something with my camera. As a photographer and a foodie these loves have taken me through a incredible journey where other than eating and tasting food I, at some point in my life, started to make photographs to inspire others to taste that delicious food I was tasting myself.

But what it is Food Photography and how can you take professional looking pictures even without having a professional set-up? Well, let me explain briefly what “food photography” is: it’s a specialization of commercial photography, where the ultimate goal is producing attractive photographs of food for use in magazines, packaging, cookbooks, etc… basically is a collaborative effort that, at least, require three “roles”:

• Someone who cooks
• Someone who can setup the food in the right position
• Someone who can shot the picture

This means, in the professional world, that we’re speaking of a chef, a food stylist and a photographer. When we are speaking about magazines or other professional food photos, they might have art directors, professional lights and many other expensive gear, but is it possible to make “professional looking” pictures if you don’t have all of these?
The answer is YES and here it is a simple way to achieve great results without spending a penny. Or at least just a few bucks. Now, since we are speaking about food let start with:

“Recipe for a perfect food photo at home”.
Ingredients:
• A “chef”: someone who may prepare what you will shoot
• A Window or a light source (better if you may shot in natural light you may do this even in the backyard garden)
• A table
• A couple of white (or coloured) piece of paper (like the drawing paper A2 format)
• A camera with manual focus
• Lens (I’ll use a 100mm f 2.8)
• A tripod

We will take something like this:

Not so yummy isn't it?

And at the end we’ll have something like this:

Now if you got everything in the list, let’s start:
1. Prepare the meal, I’ll got for a simple “pasta with zucchini and saffron”, you may choose whatever you want, I suggest to go with something you know very well, so that you may focus on the picture, colors and the way to present the food. While your “personal chef” is cooking start to prepare the setup.
2. Light: light is a fundamental step in this process, I’ll simply use natural light with a little trick. The best would be to use two light sources: one on the side of the setup and one behind you. But if you do not have 2 windows in this specific position (I don’t) we will choose for the one at side.
3. Position the table so that you have enough space to place the tripod in front of it and to manage the food quickly, I use a handmade table with wheels so that I may rotate it based on where is my main source (the sun).
4. Place something at the end of the table to help you to create a setup, as you may see in the picture below I use the door window. Create a long paper sheet using the adhesive tape (I use a special one made for drawing paper) and attach it to the table and to the backend support. Basically the idea is to obtain something like this:

5. Now what you got is a perfect “homemade” setup for your food pictures. The light that comes from your side will give a lovely natural touch to the food but it will be not enough for you.
6. MIRROR LIGHT: if you look at the professional pictures, you’ll notice that they always add a second light source that comes opposite to the main source, but how to do it at home if you’re using natural light? Simple! Take a third drawing paper and simply ask your “assistant/chef” to stand with it at less than few inches from the food, exactly on the opposite side of the main source of light, since the sheet will reflect the light you’ll have a simple, but efficient second light source, isn’t it simple?!

Using a third drawing paper to add a second light source

on the left natural light without reflective material, on the right with the reflective material

EXTRA TIP: I use to hang out at a famous Swedish furniture store and found these (picture) kitchen apparels that work great when you desire to add special light flashes on the food.

7. PREPARE THE CAMERA AND THE TRIPOD: Now setup the camera with a good lens, I use a 100mm at f2.8, shoot with the lower ISO possible (I use 50 on my Canon 5D, but 100 is okay) in order to reduce the noise on pictures, RAW mode ABSOLUTELY so to avoid jpeg artifacts, manual focus for the lenses, food photography require accurancy but autofocus would limit your ability to decide what to show and what to blur to give that extra touch that will make your picture absolutely great.

8. Be aware that pictures are normally shot in vertical so that are suitable for magazines, so your tripod should be stable enough to sustain your camera in that position, personally I use to shot with long exposing time (around 1/6-1/10) so absence of vibrations are important.
9. Now your “assistant chef” will be ready with the food, what you have to decide is the way to present, if you want colors in it or not and if you’ll shoot “close on details” or presenting the whole thing. I use to have a simple rule: place something of the same color of the food under the plate and leave everything else white. You’ll ask why? Well so that your eye will focus immediately on food and using the color and the absence of details out of it.
10. So the food is on the table, look through the camera, adjust details, think at what you’re looking, wait do not shot immediately take you time to think and adjust the plate.

Bio: Alessandro Festa (http://www.alfweb.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/alefesta) is a semi-professional photographer specialized in food and travel photography.
He lives in Turin, Italy but is available for work at every part of the globe.
He’s twitter page is at http://twitter.com/thetorinoagent

Today we are celebrating our 200th post! I actually really can’t believe it, in less than a year 200 different tutorials, new articles, contests, photo marketing pieces have been posted on this site. First off thanks to all our awesome readers, without your support and encouragement I wouldn’t keep putting in all of the effort I do with this site. It really has taken on a life of it’s own so far and I look forward to better and better things to come! Today I am going to do something different and highlight some different articles we have posted, for those of you new here you have probably missed most of these but even for the people here since day 1 it will be a good refresher. So a little trip down memory lane…

Our first post – I started this site out as a way to share some common questions people ask me and wanted to share a recent photo and talk a little about how the photo came to be from the creative angle and technical. Our first post was a sunset shot with off camera light. At first I wanted to have a shot of the week here and explain the technical details but as things grew that became more of a monthly feature. For those of you that liked that though I will be bringing it back very shortly so stay tuned!
Off Camera Light and Sunset

A post I enjoyed writing the most – This is hard for me to only choose one post, there is a lot of enjoyment I get from sharing my passion with others. And I always look forward to sitting down at my computer and writing about something I love. One post that comes to mind and mainly because I think it’s an important topic for artists is a post on pricing

Pricing your photography

A post which had a great discussion – This is a easy one, a piece I wrote about Pro photographers vs. Weekend warriors. This was a fun discussion, lots of great comments and some still trickle in.
Are you a Pro Photographer?

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – I don’t get the time to read many other blogs any more, my schedule is just packed and if I do rarely have any free time I spend it hanging with my family. But there is a post from awhile back that always sticks in my mind. I don’t really wish I wrote it but it’s awesome and deserves to be viewed for anyone that missed it. I have always loved the lighting work of Zack Arias and he had a very though provoking post last year, you just have to check it out for yourself…
Dope, Soap and Hope

Most helpful post – Here are a few posts that get good traffic and feedback are:

Free Lightroom Presets
Using brushes in Lightroom
iPad review for photography

Most popular post – What started out as just surfing the net one night looking for some really amazing long exposure images turned into a collection of photos that people really loved. Even though this was posted last year the traffic on this one post stands out from the rest.
10 Great examples of long exposure photography

A post that you wish more people had read – I love shooting at night and always get some creative shots with off camera light at nighttime during a wedding. There are always tons of questions people have about setting up lighting off camera so I have written a few articles about this. This one didn’t get much traffic but I still like the article, so its alright
Night photography at weddings

Thanks again everyone for your comments, input and feedback along the way. I am looking forward to contributing many more great articles and information about an art that we all love and hope that we can all continue to inspire each other!

– Mark

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

For anyone getting started in lightroom 3 here is a really great video tutorial that Julieanne Kost put together. She covers a lot of basics on making global and local color and tonal corrections to your images and also the new noise reduction abilities of Lightroom 3 which is a pretty amazing tool compared to Lightroom 2. Check out our comparison of noise reduction from Lightroom 3 here: Lightroom 2 vs 3 noise reduction . Even for those Lightroom 3 pros out there there are some great little shortcuts and nuggets you can get from this video. I learned that you can actually drag right on the histogram to make changes, after using Lightroom for awhile I never knew that!

Drumroll please….. The winner of our last photo contest for the best family portrait is, “So happy together” by Virginia Page Photography! Congrats Virginia! You are the winner of a 30 page 10×10 Hard Cover photo book from Black River Imaging!

There were a ton of great shots, you can check out all of the images here: Your Best Family Portrait Photo Contest. And since there were so many great shots I wanted to pick out and share my favorite (and give some reasons why I think it’s deserving) and some other honorable mentions.

When judging an image there are so many things I look for but some of the top things are; composition, lighting, expression and creativity. Here are a few other great images that were entered in the contest that I wanted to acknowledge. My top pick is from Kelli Bramble with Sprout Photography http://sprout-photo.com/blog. Although there are a few things with the composition I would like to change overall I think this is a great moment captured and for a family portrait really shows something about the portrait. I am always big on adding personal elements from my clients into the shoot, I have always believed that a great portrait isn’t just a reflection of what the person looks like but also tells a story about this time in their life. That is where this image really does well, it tells a great story about this young family. I also love the colors (look at the color of the flower in her hair and how close that is to the background). I kept going back to this shot and think it’s a great moment captured. And my small critique on composition is that I would like to see just a sliver more of the dads face. Not his entire face but just a small sliver more to see a little bit of his expression. Move the camera to the right a little and maybe a little bit higher so the arm of the guitar isn’t in the way of the baby as much and I think that would help. Great image Kelli, I also have a gift certificate for you from Black River Imaging.

The perfect moment. This one comes from blue-skyphotography.com. With the expression of the dog, the baby and the little girl this is one of those moments that you can never create if you try. But if you are ready when it happens, these moments can make the best photos. Just priceless. I like the tone of the image, its very muted so you focus more on the expressions than the overall color of the scene. In this type of an environment there can be a lot of distractions so making the image black and white or a muted tone like this can help you to keep the focus on the subjects rather than some of the busyness of the environment. The cropping also works well to cut out some of the unnecessary background distractions.

I had to add this one here just for the fun and creative factor. This image was from Shannon L. Diaz – www.GDPhotographyCT.com It got a great laugh out of me when I first saw it and is a wonderfully creative collage of a family. Although the lighting is flat on them it actually very much mimics the lighting on the shot from the TV show.

Thanks to everyone who entered, look out for another contest coming up soon!

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

Today I am going to do a quick review of a new product Black River Imaging is offering and also chat about the importance of branding. I know a lot of you give (or sell) a CD of images to your clients. With the demand for CD’s from our clients its something you really have to offer in today’s digital age. I won’t get into the conversation about giving the CD or not in today’s post but want to talk for a minute about your image. We aren’t just in the photography business but really the image business and the image that we portray of ourself and the products we provide can be just as important as the work itself. I used to always tell people that when you sell a print you are not selling a 8×10 piece of paper. If you are there really is little value in that and you will probably be out of business soon. When I sell a 8×10 print I sell it at a certain cost because people are getting my expertise, they aren’t buying a piece of paper but a unique art piece that has actually been years in the making. All of my life experiences, schooling, workshops all make a difference in my work and that really is what people are buying.

So since we aren’t just selling products we also need to make sure that the presentation matches the brand of our business and shows our clients that they are buying a piece of art. If someone buys a CD of the images from you there are a lot of different ways you could deliver that to them. Throw the CD in a plain white envelope, a blank jewel case, a nice leather bound case, there are lots of options and we should all think about which option will match the brand of our business and the image we are trying to portray.

One new thing that has caught my attention lately is custom printed CD cases. I ordered a few of these recently from Black River Imaging and have to say they are a really great way to deliver your work. They offer a single or double CD case with an image printed that wraps around the cover and back of the case. This is a really great way to have your work stand out and make a big impact on your clients. Most of the time little things make a big impact on your clients. Another good thing about these is that you can design the photo to also include your own branding information, including things like your studio name on the spine of the CD holder and your logo on the back can be key to keeping your name in front of your clients at all times. I personally like to keep my branding on the back and don’t want it to take over the image but at the same time be large enough to notice it. Here is what I would normally do for a cover layout:

These CD holders wrap around the edge of the case so you have a totally seamless look to them and are coated with a semi-gloss coating so don’t attract any fingerprints or marks. After handling one for awhile, bending it and even throwing it around the studio it still looked brand new. The only bummer is these are just offered on photo paper, not canvas or other printing options. But if you are looking for something printed on a beautiful canvas to hold your prints they also offer print boxes. These also have a full wrap around image and are a very nice, custom way to present your images to your clients. One thing that I have offered in the past is a set of 100 printed 4×6 images in a nice keepsake box. For weddings or even portrait events my clients can pick their top 100 images and I have them custom printed, put the images in a custom box like this and you will make a definite impression on your clients. Here are a few images of the photo boxes and CD holders.

What do you use for CD holders or print boxes? Let us know in the comments below.

For more information on Black River Imaging check out their website at: http://www.blackriverimaging.com/