Account aggregates thematically similar Instagram travel pics

Platforms like Instagram reward users who post specific kinds of content, in some cases leading to travel largely for the photo op. Insta Repeat examines how stylistic themes have emerged in the genre of of Instagram travel photos by aggregating shots that are similar in theme, location, and type of person.

What's always interesting to me is that behind many of these photos is an "Instagram boyfriend," the generic term for any spouse, friend, or intimate companion who documents the life of an Instagram influencer.

• Insta Repeat (Instagram)

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Performer plays flute from wrong end

Is it even possible to play a flute from the wrong end? I suspect Milli Vanillism here.

From the YouTube description:

A woman played a cucurbit flute from the wrong end during the Mid-Autumn Festival performance.

The funny clip, shot in Qiqihar City in Heilongjiang Province on September 23, shows the woman named Yang Shurong playing the cucurbit flute upside-down while performing the pop song ‘Moonlight Over the Lotus Pond’ with several others (playing correctly) on stage.

The male performer standing beside her tries to help her turn the cucurbit flute around but she refuses.

According to reports, Yang was the organizer of the performance.

Reportedly Yang was playing that way because staff had passed the cucurbit flute to her backward, and she did not want to affect the performance by turning it around.

Yang held the flute in the incorrect position for the rest of the performance.

She has since been temporarily banned from future performances, reports said.

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Pulp Testimony: Beautiful mashup between Samuel L. Jackson and Brett Kavanaugh

This is very satisfying.

pic.twitter.com/lZDRtMTD2Z

— C H I L I (@heyitschili) September 28, 2018

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Feminist Frequency Radio's Anita Sarkeesian tells us her favorite tools

Our guest on the Cool Tools podcast this week is Anita Sarkeesian. Anita is a media critic and the host of Feminist Frequency Radio. She has a new book called History vs Women, which she wrote with Ebony Adams.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | Download MP3 | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

Calendly

"You know when you're trying to schedule a time to meet with someone, and you do 20 back and forth emails to find the date and time that works for everybody? It is the most annoying thing especially for those of us who are just in meetings all the time. So earlier this year, I found this app called Calend

ly and what it is, is you just send a link and then the other person finds the time on your calendar and just automatically schedules it. It's like heaven. The way it works is you put in your calendar constraints. So, if you want to have availability open from nine to five, Monday through Friday, you do that. You can also change it and be like, 'Oh, I'm not available from one to five or whatever might be.' It's very customizable, and then it only shows the other people the dates and times that you are available. It's awesome. ... I think there's premium versions where you can have more people, but in my experience I'm just using it one-to-one. So, it definitely works that way. I've also seen people use it who work in a customer service scenario where they're scheduling meetings to introduce new clients to their product or what have you, and so they set it up and then they're just like, 'Here, pick your time that works.’ I've seen people use it for events. So, if you're at a conference and you're scheduling a bunch of meetings, you can use it that way for that week to make sure that everyone can just schedule in and it's not all these back and forths.”

Instant Pot

“The Instant Pot is a slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooker. It's a multi-tool thing in your kitchen that lets you cook kind of everything. It is remarkable. I actually had the instant pot sitting in my house for a couple of years and never used it, and I finally pulled it out earlier this year, and I don't know why I waited so long. You can make so much with it so quickly. You can sauté in it. You can do roasts in it. You can make soups. I boil eggs in it. I make the most perfect soft-boiled eggs every time. I love it. .. You could put 20 eggs in it and it will be absolutely perfect every time, because it's the exact same pressure and there's no juggling when did the water start boiling and all of that stuff. I come from a family where my mother has every single kitchen gadget known to humankind. I somehow end up with all of these kitchen gadgets, and this is a one-stop shop. You don't need a rice cooker, and a pressure cooker, and a slow cooker, and all of these different things because it literally does everything. I actually just heard from a friend who for some reason her building isn't going to have gas for a while. So, she's switching to the instant pot as her primary tool for cooking. I'm seeing more and more cookbooks coming out. I just got one that was this 25 Affordable Easy Instant Pot Recipes. So, this is becoming kind of a craze and a thing that people are using. We're seeing more and more experimentation and more and more options of how to use it."

Packing Cubes

"I am a little bit neurotically obsessed with packing efficiency. I will sometimes go through YouTube rabbit holes of the best way to pack things. It's kind of a problem but also I travel so much, and I hate checking in luggage. I don't like to bring a lot of stuff, so I am constantly looking for more efficient ways of bringing the least amount of things especially when I'm going on month long multi-city trips. So, packing cubes are one of the things that I started introducing into my travels. They're basically like little bags, and instead of just folding your clothes up and throwing it in the suitcase, you fold your clothes up and you stick them in these little bags, and it lets you pack in more, more efficiently. …You can make them sit in whatever ways, which is this nice tidy collection. So, if you do have to pack a little bit more and don't want it sort of popping out everywhere, these bags help contain it. I particularly like a brand or rather a style, and the brand that I use is Eagle Creek. They're a little more stable and structured in size as opposed to once that are more flimsy. You can pack them, you can just fold your clothes as you would and stuff them in or you can roll your clothes. There are lots of different ways to use them."

The Gender Knot: Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy by Allan G. Johnson

"This is a book that I always have. Once I read it for the first time, I was like, 'This is foundational and instrumental to my feminism, to my activism work,' and the reason I love it so much is because it takes these very big concepts of systems of oppression. In this case specifically, talking about patriarchy and distills it down into very easy to understand language. It takes it out of the theoretical academic realm and explains it in ways that's really easy for folks to understand, and I found it to be so instrumental in my understanding, or the early days of understanding feminism that I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to get a better sense of what is patriarchy. What are systems of oppression? How do they affect you? How do they affect our world, and what do we do about it? .. It doesn't make it any simpler. It just makes it more accessible. It uses language that we can understand. It makes it more available to more people instead of keeping it trapped in these academic spaces."

Also mentioned:

History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that THEY Don’t Want You To Know

"We profiled 25 women who have been erased from history. The book actually came out of a series that we did at Feminist Frequency called the Ordinary Women where we told the stories of five women that we thought were very interesting and that we wanted other people to learn about. So, with History Vs. Women, we obviously got to tell more stories and dive in a little deeper. I think one of the things that this book does is we're trying to root the fact that women have been written out of history and the erasure of women's experiences, women's lives, women's contributions to our contemporary time and the way women are treated today. So, we write in the book about why you should care about these women. Why you should care about these forgotten stories and how it affects us today and in the future. It was really important to us to be intersectional in the way that we approach the women that we chose. It is intergenerational, so we tried to do a very wide span of history, and we tried to look globally as we could."

We have hired professional editors to help create our weekly podcasts and video reviews. So far, Cool Tools listeners have pledged $383 a month. Please consider supporting us on Patreon. We have great rewards for people who contribute! – MF

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Modern Monetary Theory: why government spending isn't like household checkbooks

You know the drill: someone proposes something utterly commonsense, that has been done all over the world (say, universal healthcare) and the next thing you know, someone's shown up to shout "Who will pay for it?!"

Or, more toxically, a discussion of immigration or refugees or asylum seekers ends up being derailed by the state's inability to pay for basic services for the people in the country today -- how can we afford immigrants?

Or, worst of all, someone tells you that they voted for a shambling pile of human garbage because he's promised to "fix the debt" and to do less would be immoral, burdening the generations to come (see also: the fucking Democrats buying into this).

Governments aren't households, and governments borrowing money in a currency that they themselves issue isn't the same thing as you getting a bank loan. For more than a century, there has been a group of economists who've pointed this out: called "chartalists," then "neo-chartalists" and now, "modern monetary theorists" and they know exactly how to fund universal healthcare.

Modern Monetary Theory is the key to the economic prescriptions of Bernie Sanders and it underpins the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's an idea that is having something of a moment!

This week's Planet Money podcast does an excellent job of describing MMT in terms that are literally designed to be understood by an eight-year-old (so I was able to follow along, too!).

Once you've given that a listen, try The Nation's potted history of MMT and the groundswell of support for it.

And remember: governments are not businesses, CEOs make shitty presidents, and government debt is not a bank-loan.

To a layperson, MMT can seem dizzyingly complex, but at its core is the belief that most of us have the economy backward. Conventional wisdom holds that the government taxes individuals and companies in order to fund its own spending. But the government—which is ultimately the source of all dollars, taxed or untaxed—pays or spends first and taxes later. When it funds programs, it literally spends money into existence, injecting cash into the economy. Taxes exist in order to control inflation by reducing the money supply, and to ensure that dollars, as the only currency accepted for tax payments, remain in demand.

It follows that currency-issuing governments could (and, depending on how you lean politically, should) spend as much as they need to in order to guarantee full employment and other social goods. MMT’s adherents like to point out that the federal government never “runs out” of money to fund the military, but routinely invokes budget constraints to justify defunding social programs. Money, in other words, isn’t a scarce commodity like silver or gold. “To people who’ve worked in financial markets, who work at the Fed, this isn’t controversial at all,” says Galbraith, who, while not an adherent, can certainly be described as “MMT-friendly.”

The decisions about how to issue, lend, and spend money come down to politics, values, and convention, whether the goal is reducing inequality or boosting entrepreneurship. Inflation, MMT’s proponents contend, can be controlled through taxation, and only becomes a problem at full employment—and we’re a long way off from that, particularly if we include people who have given up looking for jobs or aren’t working as much as they’d like to among the officially “unemployed.” The point is that, once you shake off notions of artificial scarcity, MMT’s possibilities are endless. The state can guarantee a job to anyone who wants one, lowering unemployment and competing with the private sector for workers, raising standards and wages across the board.

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Support abortion access with 'Broadway Acts For Women' and 'A is For'

Kavanaugh got you pissed off about the future of Roe v. Wade? Support this awesome event, and this awesome nonprofit.—The Editors.

In 2012, A is For was launched as a response to the ever-escalating legislative attacks on access to safe reproductive healthcare. I'm proud to be one of the co-founders and its vice president.

One of our most successful events is our annual Broadway Acts for Women show at 54 Below in New York City.

Each year, and in the only event of its kind, Broadway performers who support access to reproductive health care show up to sing something they’ve never rehearsed, while the audience bids for a fantastic prize AND the chance to choose the song.

It's a madcap night of music and mayhem featuring some of Broadway's biggest stars. This year's show takes place this Sunday, September 30th and our lineup is absolutely amazing.

Hosted by A is For's president Martha Plimpton and Saturday Night Live's Cecily Strong, our performers include Sara Bareilles, Deborah Cox, Brandon Victor Dixon, Ariana DeBose, Judy Kuhn, Lesli Margherita, Bonnie Milligan, Jeremy Kushnier, Rashida Olayiwola, and Jessica Vosk.

Our auction host for this year is comedian Amanda Duarte, and this year's beneficiaries are National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Access Reproductive Care, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.

Abortion rights in this country are in serious jeopardy.

We've seen what Republicans are willing to sacrifice in order to overturn Roe v. Wade.

And life without Roe would be a nightmare for women.

If you're in the New York area, come join us Sunday night. There are a few tickets left for what's guaranteed to be a sellout. And if you can't make it but would like to support A is For's work (fully tax deductible!), please visit our website.

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LAX is cool with weed

Los Angeles International Airport announced its policy regarding pot - you can carry it and fly with it. If the TSA finds your stash, they might turn you over to the local fuzz, but since marijuana is legal in California, they won't bust you.

LAX Marijuana Policy

While federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana (inclusive of federal airspace,) California’s passage of proposition 64, effective January 1, 2018, allows for individuals 21 years of age or older to possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption. In accordance with Proposition 64, the Los Angeles Airport Police Department will allow passengers to travel through LAX with up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana. However, passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel.

Image: PO11/Shutterstock

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An astronomer's beautiful pastel drawings of the cosmos from the 19th century

In the late 19th century, artist/astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827-1895) painted thousands of stunning works illustrating the beauty and science of the known planets, comets, and celestial phenomena. The Huntington Library near Los Angeles holds 15 of Trouvelot's chromolithographs that were published in 1882 in two portfolios, the Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings:

Initially, the Astronomical Drawings portfolios were sold to astronomy libraries and observatories as reference tools, but as early 20th-century advances in photographic technology allowed for more accurate and detailed depictions of the stars, planets, and phenomena, Trouvelot’s prints were discarded or sold to collectors.

Radiant Beauty: E. L. Trouvelot’s Astronomical Drawings (The Huntington)

See more at Graphicine: "ETIENNE TROUVELOT – ASTRONOMICAL DRAWINGS" (Thanks Anotherone!)

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Kavanaugh's weeping, shouting, and blaming is classic DARVO behavior

Churlish Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh put on quite a show yesterday.

He yelled, he gnashed his teeth, he blamed the Clintons and liberals, he warned that the world would end, he got choked up recalling his days as an untouchable prep-school beer guzzler, and he told demonstrable whoppers. There's an acronym that sums up his petulant, aggressive behavior: DARVO. It stands for "Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender."

From University of Oregon psychology professor Jennifer J. Freyd:

The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim -- or the whistle blower -- into an alleged offender. This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of "falsely accused" and attacks the accuser's credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.

Institutional DARVO occurs when the DARVO is committed by an institution (or with institutional complicity) as when police charge rape victims with lying. Institutional DARVO is a pernicious form of institutional betrayal.

Here's a Daily Kos article, "Kavanaugh's opening remarks are a master class in a common sexual abuser defense tactic", that shows how Kavanaugh used the DARVO strategy to win over the judiciary committee.

“YOU’LL BE SORRY, PEE-WEE HERMAN!” pic.twitter.com/Hys99RKS7F

— Christopher Cooper (@ARTofCOOP) September 27, 2018

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Hank Green Explores the Dark Side of Internet Fame, With Robots

The YouTube star's debut novel caused him to grapple with the dehumanizing nature of celebrity.

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Speed-Listening and the Trouble With 'Podfasters'

Podcasting is an art, every choice subtle and intentional. When you blow through an episode, you’re gutting the experience of its hard-won nuance and cadence.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Abstract Flower Photography

Abstract flower photography can stop you in your tracks. But unfortunately, when it comes to abstract flower photography, you probably don’t know where to start. What equipment do you need? What techniques do you use?

The world of abstract flower photography can seem distant and difficult.

Actually, it is no harder than any other genre of photography. It can be a lot more rewarding, though. You just need to know how to get started.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the fundamentals of abstract flower photography. You’ll learn about the required equipment, as well as several key techniques for getting powerful abstract images. When you finish, you’ll be ready to go out and start applying these tips immediately.

Sound good? Read on.

What is abstract flower photography?

I’m going to define abstract flower photography simply as this – photographing flowers in a way that the viewer doesn’t immediately see the flower.

That is, an abstract floral focuses not so much on the flower itself, but on parts of the flower: the curve of the petals, the color of the flower center, the play of light on the stamens.

To do powerful abstract flower photography, you have to stop thinking in terms of flowers, and start thinking in terms of shape, color, and light. This isn’t complicated. It’s easy to do, once you get the hang of it. The tips I share below will help you to do just that, so keep reading.

Equipment

To get beautiful abstract flower images, you need two things: a camera and a macro lens.

The type of camera doesn’t matter. These days, essentially all cameras are capable of capturing stunning images. In abstract flower photography, it’s the lens that counts.

So what lens do you need?

Any sort of macro lens will do. I’ve taken excellent abstract flower images with cheap, sub-300 dollar lenses. I’ve also used my much more expensive Canon 100mm f/2.8L lens.

The thing is, abstract flower photography isn’t really about sharpness and perfectly rendered detail. It’s about composition, light and color.

A tip worth mentioning is that the shorter the focal length of a macro lens, the closer you need to be to your subject to get life-size images. So, for instance, 60mm macro lenses can be a problem when you’re trying to get a close-up of a rose and you keep casting your shadow on the petals by accident.

You may have also heard that for abstract flower photography you need a tripod.

I would disagree. I don’t use a tripod for abstract flower photography, myself because I find that it’s too limiting. I need to explore the flower through the lens, change my composition, take a few photographs, and change my composition again. You can’t do that with a tripod.

Have you got your camera and a macro lens? If so, you’re ready for the bulk of this tutorial on quick and easy tips for stunning abstract flower photography.

Tip 1: Shoot on cloudy days

If you’ve done natural light macro photography before, you’ll know that you can get beautiful macro photographs at a few different times of the day. First, when it’s cloudy. Second, during the golden hours: just after sunrise and just before sunset.

I photographed this tulip on a cloudy spring day.

For abstract photography, I recommend that you only shoot on cloudy days.

On cloudy days, the light is even, resulting in colorful, deeply saturated images. And in abstract photography, color is key. In fact, out of all the images featured in this article, all but one were taken on a cloudy day.

Once you become a more experienced abstract flower photographer, you can start to experiment with other types of light. But until then, stick to cloudy days. Your results will speak for themselves.

Tip 2: Get close. Really, really close!

In abstract flower photography, you cannot just take a snapshot of your subject. Your goal must be to show the viewer something new, something unexpected.

The way to do this is to get close. Really, really close.

As I said above, you must think in terms of shapes, color, and light. The way to start is to magnify your subject.

Take that macro lens and crank it up to its highest magnification setting (which should be 1:1, if you have a true macro lens). Then get close to a flower. Look through the viewfinder of your camera, and just move the lens around.

What do you see?

You probably won’t immediately notice a stunning composition. I spend a lot of time looking through my lens without taking any pictures. There’s a lot of experimentation involved, and that’s okay. Which brings us to Tip 3…

Tip 3: Use a shallow depth of field

The depth of field is the amount of an image that is actually in focus.

Images with only a small amount of the subject in focus have a shallow depth of field. Images with a large amount of the subject in focus have a deep depth of field.

Depth of field is controlled by your camera’s aperture setting, also known as an f-stop. A low f-stop (f/1.4 to f/5.6) gives you a nice, shallow depth of field.

On most cameras, you will be able to choose your f-stop. For abstract flower photography, I usually keep it in the f/2.8-3.5 range but feel free to experiment a bit depending on your creative vision. Just keep that depth of field nice and shallow.

Why do I recommend having so little of the image in focus?

In abstract photography, you must photograph flowers so that the viewer doesn’t immediately see the flower. You must work in terms of light, color, and shapes.

By using a shallow depth of field, you emphasize those elements and take the focus off the flower itself. You shift the focus to the shape of the flower, the color of it, and the light falling on the flower.

This is what I focus on in my final tip.

Tip 4: Look at the shape of the flower

As I mentioned above, it’s essential that you think about light, color, and shape.

Out of these three elements, I think that shape is most important in abstract flower photography. This is because flowers have naturally interesting shapes: sinuous curves, perfect circles, radiating lines.

The photographs are there. You just have to find them.

For instance, flowers tend to have such beautiful, soft petals. You can use these to your advantage in your photography. Think about the petals, not as parts of a flower, but as twisting lines. Try to see these shapes moving about through the flower.

Carefully set up a composition that uses these lines. Keep it simple—one or two lines is all you need.

Only once you’ve composed deliberately, keeping the shape of the flower at the forefront of your mind, should you take the image.

Conclusion

Capturing beautiful abstract photographs can be an intensely rewarding experience.

Make sure you have the right equipment. Then, if you shoot on cloudy days, get super close, use a shallow depth of field and, above all, think in terms of the flower’s shape, you’ll be well on your way to taking stunning abstract flower photographs.

Have any more tips for abstract flower photography? Share them in the comments!

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Abstract Flower Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Batteries and Backups: How to Shoot Off the Grid

Road trips, and other “off the grid” travel adventures are a time for slowing down, for finding the unexpected, and for reconnecting with the world around you. Unfortunately, for us photographers, they can also be a time of anxiety and frustration. How can you keep your camera charged so it’s always ready when inspiration strikes? How can you handle batteries and backups of your photos so they aren’t lost in the mix before you return home?

As a consummate road-tripper and photographer, I’ve spent many years fine-tuning how to keep my camera charged, and my photos safe, for weeks of off the grid travel. Here are some tips to help you do the same.

Charging 101

Many cameras, from point and shoots to DSLRs, are powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Li-ion batteries are small, lightweight, rechargeable batteries that can tolerate hundreds of charge and discharge cycles.

They are recharged by an external charger, which comes with your camera when you purchase it. That charger plugs into a wall via a two-prong plug and feeds off your house’s Alternating Current power (also called AC power).

Here’s where charging off the grid gets tricky. Unless you’re staying nightly in a hotel room, two-prong AC plugs (and the charging capacity to power them) are hard to come by. In order to keep your camera battery charged, you will need to adapt.

Essential Charging Gear

Start out by purchasing a universal Li-ion battery charger. Universal chargers can hold almost any kind of small Li-ion battery, and come with a two-prong plug as well as a 12-volt Direct Current (DC) adapter. This adapter is cylindrical and fits into your car’s 12-volt port (traditionally called a “Cigarette Lighter” charger).

If you plan to drive for long distances each day and are only looking to recharge a camera battery, this may be all you need. If you plan to charge other devices—tablets, phones, and laptops—or won’t be driving, you’ll need a power bank.

Power Banks

Power banks are essentially big batteries. They receive a charge, either from a wall outlet or an alternative source like solar panels, and hold onto that charge until you need it. Power banks vary greatly in size, weight, and capacity.

Small USB power banks are perfect for powering cell phones and tablets. Depending on their capacity, they can recharge a phone or tablet anywhere from two to eight times.

Though they are harder to find, some small power banks also have a two- or three-prong port for plugging in a Li-ion camera battery charger. For quick trips where a little backup is needed, these power banks are just right.

If a little backup isn’t what you’re looking for, it’s time to call in the big guns. Portable power stations range in size from 150 to 1250 watts and are designed to be a full-service power solution. Power stations offer three-prong ports for AC power, multiple USB ports, and a 12-volt port.

They can charge camera batteries, laptops, tablets, and cell phones with ease (charging capacity varies by model).

Portable power stations are relatively large, as well as heavy. To illustrate, they are great at a campsite but too bulky to hike comfortably into the backcountry. These power stations are recharged by plugging them into a wall outlet, or by connecting them to solar panels and allowing them to charge for 8-12 hours.

If you’re looking for serious charging power, or plan to be off the grid for long stretches, a portable power station is a wise investment.

Note: Portable power stations cannot be brought on airplanes, though smaller USB power banks often can.

Photo Backups

Is there anything worse than returning from travel and finding your image files are corrupted or missing? A savvy photographer will avoid this scenario by doing daily backups of their images.

Backing up images online to the cloud is an option if you have fast, reliable Wi-Fi at your disposal. Set the backup to happen overnight, and you’ll wake up knowing your images are safe.

Fast Wi-Fi is hard to find. Hotel and coffee shop connections are often sluggish, so always be prepared with another backup plan. If you’re traveling with a laptop you can either back up the images directly to the computer or carry a rugged external hard drive. If the images are critical, such as a wedding gallery or a shoot for a client, back up the images to two different locations.

When traveling without a laptop, invest in a portable backup device like a Gnarbox. These small drives have an SD card slot and will copy and store all of the card’s images. Again, if the shoot is extra-important, be sure to back up the images to at least two locations.

Conclusion

Keeping your camera and other devices charged while on the road can be a challenge, but is made easier with a few pieces of essential gear designed to meet your charging needs. Together with regular backups, you can take images off the grid with ease and peace of mind.

The post Batteries and Backups: How to Shoot Off the Grid appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Fall Colors

Fall is upon us in the northern parts of the world. So it’s time to take advantage of it and get out there to capture some of that color for the weekly photography challenge.

Even if you live in the southern hemisphere, challenge yourself to find some similar colors (yellow, orange and red) to create some fall-like images.

Need some help? Try these dPS articles:

• 3 Tips to Help You Take Better Autumn Photos
• 7 Ways to Take Advantage of Autumn in Your Portrait Photography
• Tips for Using Color in Your Photography
• Add Motion to Your Fall Photography to Help it Stand Out

Weekly Photography Challenge – Fall Colors

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Fall Colors appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Take Better Concert Photos

COOPH has released a 4-minute video with photographer Michael Agel, decoding the mystery behind shooting great concert photos. Concerts and gigs typically feature challenging, but also very unique, lighting situations.

This can make for incredible images, but if you don’t know exactly how to handle the drastic lighting changes and colors then it could go very wrong for you!

Better concert photos

“Photography, for me, is painting with light,” says Agel. “You have to look where there is interesting light, and create a good image.”

Agel is also a big advocate of putting down the camera and building rapport with the musicians you are shooting. This will help you to create better shots, but also avoid potentially disastrous situations (such as standing in front of a confetti cannon that’s about to go off!

Staying invisible will help you to nail those perfect shots; knowing when and how to choose your moments is paramount. You don’t want to get in between the singer and the crowd, and it’s key things like this that will make for a much smoother shoot – and hopefully get you booked again!

Check out the full video above to hear from Agel himself and see more of his work.

More reading

For more on concert photography check out these dPS articles:

• 11 Ideas for More Unique Concert Photos
• Tips for Doing Concert Photography like a Pro
• 5 Tips for Better Concert Photography in Low Light Conditions
• Concert Photography 101: Cameras and Lenses for Beginners
• 10 Must-Have Camera Settings for Concert Photography
• Anatomy of a Concert Photography Shoot

The post How to Take Better Concert Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Find Your Photos in the Lightroom Catalog Using Filters

You’ve likely had this problem if you’ve been using Lightroom for any length of time. Can you relate? You go to your Lightroom catalog to find that amazing picture you took of the sunset in Maui last summer and scroll through thousands of previews in the filmstrip, but you can’t find your photos.

But was it before the weekend you went camping with your family? Or was it around the time you photographed your sister’s baby shower? You have thousands of images and can’t find what you’re looking for, and everything is a mess.

Sound familiar?

Luckily, with a little bit of organization and know-how, it’s really easy to find your images in Lightroom.

One of Lightroom’s biggest strengths is the ability it gives you to organize and archive your photos.

You can find your photos by:

• Using the Library Filter Bar
• Using Collections
• Using keyword tags

You can also customize the Library Filter bar and use Library Filter presets.

So without further ado, let’s look at some of the ways we can sort and find photos in Lightroom.

Lightroom Grid View

Sort Order

The most basic way of locating your photos is to scroll through Grid view. If you know the filename or approximate capture date, you can sort the photos into a specific order.

The Sort options are on the Toolbar in Grid view under View Menu > Sort.

By default, I have mine set to Capture Time, which sorts my photos from the oldest to the newest.

• Added Order sorts the photos according to the time of import, with the most recent imports first. The Previous/Current Import collection is set to Added Order by default.
• Edit Time sorts your pictures according to how recently they were edited, including both Develop and metadata edits.
• Edit Count sort photos according to how frequently you’ve edited that photo.
• Rating groups photos by their star rating, from highest to lowest.
• Pick sorts photos by their flags; flagged photos are first, followed by the unflagged photos, and then the rejected photos.
• Label Text groups the photos alphabetically according to their label text.
• Label Color sorts the photos by their label color, regardless of label text.
• File Name sorts the photos by just that.
• File Extension sorts the photos by their file extension, such as JPG, TIFF, PSD, etc.
• File Type groups the photos by their file type, such as PSD, Video, or JPEG.

Scrolling through photos is impractical unless you have a small number of photos, which is usually not the case. Filtering hides the photos that don’t meet the criteria that you choose.

For example, you may only want to view the photos that you have applied 5 stars to, as I do to all of the images I have finalized editing and exported to a folder.

The Library Filter Bar

The Library Filter bar at the top of the Grid View in the Library Module offers three main ways to find your photos by using the Text filter, the Attribute Filter, or the Metadata filter.

The bar appears in the middle of the grid of your images in the Library Module (circled below). You cannot see it unless you are in Grid View.

If you don’t see it, go up to View and choose Show Filter Bar or hit backslash ( \ ) on your keyboard.

Also, choose where you want to search. If you are searching all of your photographs in the Catalog, be sure to click on All Photographs under Catalog in the left-hand panel under Navigator.

All Photographs

Text Filter

The Text Filter allows you to search through the catalog or a selection of photos using a certain text search field.

There are several search options, such as keywords, metadata, as well as IPTC or EXIF information. EXIF information includes the camera make, model, serial number and software.

Any searchable plug-in field includes searchable metadata fields created by third-party plug-ins.

For example, I can use Any Searchable Field to search for files that have a certain number in them. Or I can search for all my images that have a certain keyword.

If I search for “culinary”, it will search for all of the keywords, captions, file paths, folders, virtual copies etc., for that word. I include the word culinary in all of my food photography. So by using filters, I can find all my food images quickly in Lightroom.

Attribute

Lightroom gives you the option to filter your photos by flag status, edit staus, star rating, color label, or copy.

In the screenshot below, you can see that I searched for all of my photographs that I have rated as 5 stars. I give 5 stars to images upon export, when I have finished editing them. I assign them a color label as well. For example, red means that I have submitted the images to my stock portfolios.

You can also search your virtual copies and videos using Attribute, within the icons on the far right of the panel.

The middle icon is for Virtual Copy, while the far right icon is for Video.

Click again on Attribute if you no longer want to see the Attribute Bar.

Metadata

Inputting metadata after each shoot can be a lot of work, but doing so makes it easy to locate your photos at a later date.

Your camera automatically embeds some metadata or any you’ve added manually say when you’ve set up Lightroom for tethered capture.

When you’re editing in Lightroom, it’s a good idea to put some keywords in the Keyword panel in the Library Module. This is something you need to do if you’re licensing your work for stock photography, but I recommend doing it regardless so that you can more easily search your photos.

For example, if you have input the word “strawberries” in your keyword metadata, you can find all the images that contain strawberries.

When you click on Metadata in the Library Filter bar, you can search using a wide range of criteria, including file type, and camera and exposure information. You can even find images you have not assigned your copyright status.

Lightroom also gives you the option to add more than one type of search criteria at a time.

For example, when I searched for images of strawberries, I also searched for shots taken with my Canon 5D Mark III, using my 24-70mm lens, as well as any shot with my 100mm macro. I also searched for flagged images, as I only wanted to see my top picks, not every single image of strawberries.

Note that if you want to search two types of photos, such as portraits and landscapes, be sure to choose them both in the first panel on the left. If you put it in the next panel, Lightroom will look for images that are both landscapes and portraits, rather than images that are landscapes or portraits.

Click on the first keyword then hold down the Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) key to select the second keyword. You can select multiple choices from the same column this way.

If you would like to do a different search or cancel that search, simply click on None in the Library Filter bar. When you do another search, Lightroom will remember the criteria you input for your last search.

To reset this, click on All, which is the first choice in the Filter panel.

Conclusion

As you can see, you can find your photos in Lightroom in various ways by using a plethora of criteria.

This is exciting news if you have been scrolling endlessly through your images to locate what you’re looking for, or you need a more organized approach to your workflow.

The post How to Find Your Photos in the Lightroom Catalog Using Filters appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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5 Tips for Photographing Handheld Without a Tripod

Are you frustrated by the inconvenience of a tripod and you prefer shooting handheld? Do you want to take sharp images, but without having to lug around such a large piece of equipment?

Fortunately, it is possible to get stunning images, even images in low light, without using a tripod. In fact, tripods often limit your flexibility.

I rarely use a tripod, myself. While I do appreciate the added stability a tripod provides, I find myself struggling to compose images. I prefer the ability to quickly flow from composition to composition. I also like to shoot from angles that tripods struggle to cover. Hence, I have a lot of experience in photographing handheld.

In this article, I discuss various ways you can shoot without a tripod while still getting sharp images. I will show you how, with very little work, you can take your handheld photography to the next level.

1. Stabilize Your Body Against an Object

I’ll start with the least technical tip for shooting handheld, that is to become a human tripod!

By this, I mean that you should seek to stabilize your body and arms against an object. I find that the ground is an excellent choice (after all, it’s reliably present).

So, when shooting handheld, I often get down on the ground. I’ll lie on my stomach and press my elbows firmly against the soil. Then I can feel fairly confident when taking my image that things will remain sharp.

I stabilized my elbows against the ground in order to photograph this aster.

If you don’t want to get down on your stomach, that’s okay. You can also try out several other positions.

For instance, you can crouch down and put your elbows on your knees. Or you can tuck your elbows into your body.

You can also find some other object to stabilize yourself against. I sometimes use large rocks or fallen trees when shooting flowers. It pays to be creative.

2. Use Your Camera or Lens’s Built-In Image Stabilization

Does your camera or lens possess image stabilization technology? If so, switch it on!

You see, image stabilization technology is built in by clever camera manufacturers. It reduces (or eliminates) camera shake using image stabilization.

Image stabilization technology generally works in one of two ways. If it’s built into the camera, the sensor physically moves to counteract any camera shake that the camera has experienced. If it’s built into the lens, an optical element inside the lens is what moves.

Regardless, here’s the key takeaway: Image stabilization technology help to minimize or eliminate camera shake.

Without image stabilization, getting this urban abstract would have been very difficult.

The downside of image stabilization technology is that it’s expensive. Only some cameras and some lenses possess it, and they tend to be on the pricier side of things.

For those of us who dislike shooting with a tripod, however, image stabilization is a worthwhile investment.

3. Shoot with Shorter Lenses

An oft-cited rule in photography circles is this: you can handhold your lens at a shutter speed that is the reciprocal of the focal length (that is, 1/focal length).

This may sound complex, but it’s really not. To find an acceptably fast shutter speed, take the focal length and make it into a fraction with a one on top.

For instance, if you’re shooting with a 100mm lens, you can handhold at a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second or faster. When you’re shooting with a 400mm lens, you can handhold at a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second or faster. Finally, if you’re shooting with a 25mm lens, you can handhold at a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second.

Do you see the pattern? The longer the lens, the faster your shutter speed must be. Conversely, you can use a longer shutter speed when using a short lens.

I used a wide angle lens to capture this golden retriever in low light.

This is for a couple of reasons. First, long lenses tend to be bigger and heavier, causing more camera shake. Second, longer lenses magnify camera shake, resulting in blurrier pictures.

Therefore, if you don’t have a tripod to cut down on camera shake, you should use a lens that is more forgiving of the rule (based on the 1/focal length rule).

So if you’re shooting handheld, use shorter focal lengths for more success.

4. Shoot in Burst Mode

Another tip for photographing without a tripod is to shoot in burst mode (high-speed drive mode).

To activate burst mode, you simply have to set the camera to high-speed drive mode and hold down the shutter button. If you have a camera with this capability, you’ll hear the rapid-fire sound of images being taken.

Burst mode was essential for getting this early-morning shot of a White-Morph Reddish Egret.

This mode helps with handheld photography for two reasons.

First, when you jab the shutter button with your finger, it generates camera shake. When you use burst mode, however, you only press the shutter button at the beginning of your image sequence. This means that later photographs are taken with very little camera shake because the shutter button is not actually pressed just before the image is captured.

Second, when you shoot in burst mode, the mirror doesn’t cause extra vibrations. You see, many cameras (DSLRs) have mirrors in front of the sensor. When the shutter button is pressed, the mirror flips up, briefly exposing the sensor to light (to capture the image).

When the mirror flips up, this causes small vibrations throughout the camera, another form of camera shake. Yet when you activate burst mode, the mirror only flips up only at the beginning of the burst. The later shots aren’t affected by the vibrations caused by the mirror and as a consequence, they are sharper.

NOTE: This last point doesn’t apply to mirrorless cameras as they do not have a mirror, hence the name!

5. Use the self-timer

My final tip for photographing without a tripod is to use your camera’s self-timer.

The self-timer allows you to press the shutter button, and then it waits a specified number of seconds before the image is taken.

I love using the self-timer when photographing flowers.

This useful for the same reason cited above in favor of burst mode. It prevents the camera shake generated when you press the shutter button.

So, next time you’re out in the field and you’re struggling to get sharp images without a tripod, try using the self-timer to reduce your camera shake.

Conclusion

Many photographers think that tripods are a necessity, but this isn’t necessarily the case. There are methods that you can use to shoot without a tripod while still capturing stellar images.

• First, steady yourself by placing your elbows against the ground.
• Second, switch on your camera or lens’s image stabilization software.
• Third, shoot with shorter (e.g., wide-angle) lenses.
• Fourth, photograph using burst mode.
• Fifth, use your camera’s self-timer.

If you follow these tips, your tripod will become far less important, and you’ll take fantastic handheld images.

Have any more tips for photographing without a tripod? Please share them in the comments below.

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