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

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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

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

I am excited to finally have the new PocketWizards in the studio (the PocketWizard MiniTT1 and Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 Transceiver) and am getting ready to do a series of articles on off camera flash and all the different ways you can use it to get great shots. One of the things I am looking forward to testing out is the TTL ability the PocketWizards have, for a wedding this can be a quick and easy way to get some nicely lit shots on the go without having to do much setup.

In the meantime to get you ready here is a great video I found on PocketWizards website showing these new units along with a canon 580 in action. More to come soon, if you haven’t signed up for our email alerts make sure to enter your email in the box near the top where it says “Sign up for our free photography tips & inspiration!”. That way all of our articles will be sent to your email so you don’t miss out on anything.

Also here are a few links for other lighting articles you might have missed in the past:

High Speed Sync and Flash photography
Off camera lighting for weddings
Creative lighting for first dance photos
Vivitar 285 HV Flash

The 4th of July is coming up quick, before you know it you will be out BBQ’ing, hanging out with friends and family and watching fireworks. Here are some quick tips on how to capture great firework shots as well as some image to help inspire. Although fireworks can be fairly easy to photograph there are a few tips that will help you make the best of your firework shots.

1) Find the best vantage point. Although fireworks on their own can be beautiful, when photographing them try and add some other visual elements into the shot. Look for the best angle where you can incorporate other visual elements like buildings, waterways or other items you can work into the composition. Try and focus on the entire shot not just what will be in the sky.

Fourth on Lake Austin, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

2) Get a sturdy tripod. A sturdy tripod can be key in capturing firework images. You might be shooting at exposures that are a few seconds or longer and having a strong tripod will help to ensure that there is no camera shake. There are lots of different manufactures for tripods and they come in all shapes and sizes. I always recommend going to a local camera store and trying some out before buying. Some things to look for aside from the overall strength of the tripod are how easy it is to setup/collapse and the head of the tripod. Make sure the controls of the head feel natural to you, since you will need to be making adjustments in a fast pace sometimes the head should have it’s controls in a place that feel comfortable to you. I have always preferred Manfrotto tripods with a ball head or their joystick heads. Here is one of the tripods I have used for weddings for years: Manfrotto Pro Tripod

3). Exposure. Even though you are shooting at night this is the one time you can leave your fast prime lenses at home. Fireworks are so bright that you should be shooting with an aperture anywhere from f/8 to f/11 at iso 100 for the clearest shot. For the shutter speed you can experiment with different shutter speeds but they should beat least long enough to capture one full burst. One of the easiest way to time the fireworks right is to use the Bulb mode in your camera. When you set the shutter speed to bulb the shutter will open when you click the shutter and stay open until you hit the shutter again. This way you can open the shutter right before the firework pops and then close it right after. Also try keeping it open for a few different fireworks to pop so you can capture multiple fireworks in one frame.

4) Shutter release. When you are shooting at very long exposures even with a tripod there are still chances of camera shake. Just the vibration from you clicking the shutter can shake the camera and create a slight blur in your image. There are different types of remote shutter releases that can help you make sure you get a clean shot.

Those are just a few tips to get you started, let me know if you have any great tips for photographing fireworks in the comments.

Here are a few more images to get you inspired. Have a fun and safe 4th of July everyone!

Friday Night Hilton Fireworks, originally uploaded by Ryan Eng.

Epcot – Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, originally uploaded by Matt Pasant.

Happy New Year 2010 to My Dear flickr Friends, originally uploaded by pattpoom.

Favourite Firework Blur My 1st Explore, originally uploaded by jrobertshaw.

Cinderella’s Castle, originally uploaded by Matt Pasant.

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Shooting a lot of wedding and portraits on location I am constantly battling the full day sun and trying to get creative with lighting during some of these harsh shooting conditions. One bummer about flash is that you normally end up shooting with a aperture that is f/8 or higher because of the shutter sync that most cameras have. Most SLR cameras have a shutter sync at around 1/200th of a second meaning that you have to shoot at 1/200 when using a flash. This means that during the daytime even when setting your ISO to 100 you are shooting with a very high aperture which might not let you create the shallow depth of field you would want for a portrait. Well there may finally be a solution to this problem! Pocketwizards new FlexTT5 system and Canon high speed sync. I saw these at the Pocketwizard booth this year at WPPI and didn’t have time to really look into them until recently, and have to say they do look pretty amazing. I have some on order right now through B&H so once they come in and I have some times to test them out i’ll post some extensive reviews here.

Do you use high speed sync in your photography? Let us know what you think about it in the comments below or add a few links to your shots!

In the meantime check out this really informative video that pocketwizard created. They give you some very good information about high speed sync and how it works and explains it in a very easy to understand format.

Here is a amazon link for the 580 flash they used in this demo along with the pocketwizards, these are the best buys I found on the web:

Canon Speedlite 580EX II

PocketWizard MiniTT1

Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 Transceiver

Italy is one of those places of huge inspiration for me. I have been able to travel to Italy a few times and have so many great memories of the people, food, landscape, the list goes on and on. There is so much beauty and just a richness in the culture (and I don’t mean richness in terms of monetary but just in the history and depth of the cities) no wonder it has been a destination spot for artists for centuries. Here are some amazing images of Italy to help inspire you today!

Do you have a great shot of Italy to share? Leave a link in the comments below we would love to see it.

Cinque Terre – Liguria – Italy, originally uploaded by delmez92.

Cinque Terre – Liguria – Italy, originally uploaded by delmez92.

Brume in Toscana, originally uploaded by Massimo Pelagagge.

alba a settembre, originally uploaded by francesco sgroi.

Italy Roma, originally uploaded by Hans.Chen.

Piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti, panoramic hdr – Rome, Italy, originally uploaded by Paolo Margari.

leaning tower of pisa | torre di pisa | italia | italy – night hdr, originally uploaded by Paolo Margari.

i canali di bologna. emilia romagna, italia, italy, originally uploaded by Paolo Margari.

Cala Dogana, originally uploaded by Wagman_30.

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I have always said this site was created for you, our awesome readers. I want to share as much of my love and passion I have for photography with you all and help us all be better photographers. As questions come in from Twitter or Facebook I collect them and after I have a few will do a little Q and A post. Here are some great questions that recently came in, thanks everyone and keep them coming!

has anyone seen a good online guide to HDR photography? (from @full_view_media)
If you are into HDR photography there is one website that has some pretty amazing work and tutorials. Check out http://www.stuckincustoms.com/
It’s a website by Trey Ratcliff who is one of the leaders in HDR photography and has some really good articles and info about HDR photography. He also has a book out that you can find on Amazon that is a pretty comprehensive HDR guide (click on the book cover below to check it out)

effective marketing concepts when business is slow (from @PatrickBeard)
This is a great question. With the state of the economy right now I know a lot of photographers who are hurting. With the increase in competition, their business is down and their budgets are tight so they might not have the budget to market like they used to. There are a few things that in a tight economic situation that I would suggest:

.1) Make sure everyone you know understands what you stand for in one line. What I mean by this is all of your family/friends/past clients people in your immediate circle need to know more than just that you are a photographer. They need to know what your work stands for and be passionate about that. I think a good precursor to marketing is having a solid message and brand. So first take a step back and write down a few things that really separates your work from others. Then communicate that to everyone you know and get them to really believe it. Get together a Army of people that love the work you produce and can start to spread the word. Like I said this is really a precursor to marketing (any why I labeled this step .1, that wasn’t a typo

1) Contact all of your old clients. Sometimes a quick phone call can be the best way to get new business. Go through your entire client list one week and call every past client. See how they are doing, if they need another photoshoot and if they have any friends that need your services.

2) Build relationships. Photography is so much about relationships and relationships with many different types of client. You have your clients who you shoot for but you also have Vendor clients. I mainly shoot weddings so my clients are not only my brides but also the sales directors at the venues I work at. Invest time in those relationships. This week pop by one venue you have worked at before and bring them a coffee, take a few minutes to get to know them better and see what you can provide to them to make their venue look better. And if you don’t know what their coffee drink is, make it a point to find out and write that down in your address book. Spend true and honest time getting to know them just like you would with a friendship.

3) I’ll save 3 and on for later. With marketing I think its important to focus on a few things at a time. Trying to do too much at once dilutes your efforts so keep your efforts focused.

That’s all we have room for today, I still have some great questions that I will answer soon and if you have one remember to tweet it to me or leave a comment below.

Actually adding one more Question.

How do I take a grainy-film-like photograph like this?(from @TrekkieInHeels)

I have to agree with you this is a beautiful shot. It really has an amazing feel to it which I am sure comes from a few different things. First off I think the feeling of the image comes from the subject, you get a very dreamy feel from this shot because of the setting. Shooting underwater with the flow of the fabric in the water and the bubbles all really add to the feel of the image. The soft light that you have being underwater helps it out as well. The grainy-film-like feel that you are asking about is in part due to all of those things. Another thing to pay attention to is the color and saturation of the image. There is an underlaying greenish tint to the image as well as a lighter saturation compared to a normal shot. Here is a quick way that you can change the overall tone of the image:

1- Create a duplicate layer.
2- Go into Hue/Saturation adjustments and click colorize.
3- Slide the hue button over to get your desired tone and then slide your saturation level down a bit.
4- This will tone the entire image and you probably want some color to come through so then just adjust the
opacity of this new layer to be around 50% (this will vary on the look you are trying to get)
5- Add some noise in photoshop and your done!

And another way to get a dreamy and beautiful film like shot is…. Grab some film and have fun! I always recommend getting a Holga to have fun with and shooting some 120 film. The plastic lens of the holga creates images that are so nice and soft on the edges but still pretty sharp in the center. This is always a great way to get out of your comfort zone and have fun with a really inexpensive camera that can product some incredible shots.

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Ruth Wylie- Hollywood lighting., originally uploaded by FlyWheel Photography.

I know some photographers who think that some of the classic photography from years past is dated and boring. Photographers today want that ultra sexy, hot and contemporary shot that just knocks everyone’s socks off. But just like with anything we can always learn a lot from the past, and 50-60 years ago there was really some amazing images coming out of hollywood that also would fit the style of what clients are looking for today.

Hollywood lighting. One of the key characteristics that defined this style of Hollywood lighting was a very dramatic light with the main key light normally coming from high above the subject. This adds some shadow to the face which gives the person depth and also adds some extra drama to the image. The lighting for these types of images is generally not shot with flash units or strobes. Although you could use a flash to light, most photographers prefer a Fresnel Light which is a continuous light that can be focused. Being able to focus your light is really key for these types of shots, you want a very dramatic light that is coming in like a spotlight would be. So you need to be able to have your light be very targeted. With a strobe you can use a snoot or really anything handmade that you attach to the strobe unit to keep the light from spilling all over the image. Some black cardboard taped to all 4 sides of your flash can do a great job to create a very focused spotlight type of light. And although a Fresnel Light is still a pretty harsh light it does have a softer quality compared to strobes. In addition to the main light these types of images normally have a little bit of fill light to balance out the light and then one or two lights in the back to sometimes create a light effect on the background or to create a rim light around the subject.

If you are looking to learn more about this type of lighting one of the most classic books with lots of real world examples and how the lighting was done is:
Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots and How to Take Them

Check out this great video tutorial below showing a few hollywood inspired images along with a lighting diagram on how they were created.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

Congrats to Shannon, the winner of our Macro Contest! Here is her winning image along with some details about the shot and how she created it.

This is a photo of water droplets on the pappi of a dandelion. My husband accompanied me on my photo-adventure armed with a fine misting water bottle to recreate the look of “morning dew” by spraying the seeds lightly with the water before I took the shot.

I took this photo RAW at 1/160th, f 4.5, ISO 200 with my Canon 5DmkII. I used my Canon 100mm f1.8 macro lens for the shot. It was in deep shade and ended up being darker than I would have hoped. I should have probably increased the ISO, but didn’t think about it until post production. Instead, I ended up increasing the exposure of it in Adobe Lightroom 2. This accounts for the noise in the dark areas of the photo. I’m sorta bummed about it. I have several others from this set that aren’t noisy, but I liked the composition of this photo the best.

As I learned photography, growing up in Alaska, Utah, Washington, and living in Ohio – I discovered a fascination with macro shots, which inspired me to buy the lens I used for this shot a few years ago while attending the Art Institute of Seattle. I’m still learning some things and this was definitely a reminder to pay attention as I’m shooting to my settings!!

I was inspired to take this particular photo because I had been cooped up indoors for several days due to the rain. The sun came out this day and I just couldn’t help myself! I had to get out there with the camera!

Check our more of her work below:

Shannon Shackelford
www.shannonangel.com
www.shannonangel.com/blog
www.spiritedshannon.blogspot.com

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