Review Digital Camera World 07-26-2013

Digital Camera World

Reportage wedding photography: pro tips for achieving a modern look Jul 25th 2013, 23:01, by jmeyer In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post, one of the UK’s top wedding photographers, Brett Harkness, shares his best tips for shooting reportage wedding photography. Meet our professional photographer Manchester-based Brett Harkness is one of the UK's top wedding and portrait photographers. He's been taking pictures for more than 20 years, and shoots around 15 big weddings a year. Brett runs wedding portrait workshops, and has produced two wedding photography training DVDs. For more information, and to see Brett's portfolio, visit www.brettharknessphotography.com. Meet our apprentice Yasmine Ellis is a Fire Services Teacher from Devizes in Wiltshire, and she's been taking pictures for 15 years. Yasmine has already shot a few  weddings, and she wants to improve her skills with a view to one day becoming a professional wedding photographer. Technique Assessment Yasmine has a good eye for a shot, but she needed a few pointers to help her get the best from her 5D Mark II P is for Professional! "I often joke that the P shooting setting is for Professional!" says Brett. "I shoot mostly in Program mode for weddings, then adjust my exposure compensation up or down to brighten or darken shots. I find that P mode and the Evaluative metering mode work well together to deliver good exposures. I'll only switch to Aperture Priority mode when using my 50mm lens, as then I want to boss the aperture, and Manual mode for shooting with flash."   JPEGs vs Raw "I prefer to shoot JPEGs rather than Raws, which may be controversial," says Brett. "I find high-res JPEGs are perfect for clients, and it's a lot quicker from shoot to album: I want to minimise the time I spend in front of the computer editing images. However, I know what I'm doing so I'm confident I'll get good shots that won't need much work. I got Yasmine to shoot in Raw+JPEG mode, so she had the Raw file if needed to correct exposures." PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice PAGE 2: Reportage wedding photography tips for during the shoot PAGE 3: Our professional photographer’s final advice for reportage wedding photography PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear PAGE 5: Shot of the Day READ MORE Wedding photo ideas: how to shoot a wedding classically and creatively 12 wedding shots every bride wants (and how to get them) Wedding photography tips: 10 steps to pro-quality pictures Bridal photography tips: best camera settings to preserve highlights in the wedding dress Free wedding photography cheat sheet 4 Photoshop Elements tricks to make an average landscape stunning Jul 25th 2013, 10:00, by jmeyer Want to add impact to your otherwise average landscape image? Thanks to a few simple Photoshop Elements tricks you don’t have to keep wasting photos. In this Photoshop Elements tutorial we explain 4 ways you can use Curves and the Gradient tool to make your landscapes stand out. Your digital camera can produce landscape shots with wonderful colours and contrast. But even if you get all your camera settings spot-on, you'll sometimes find that images lack punch, especially if the contrast is strong and the camera overexposes shadows or underexposes highlights as a result. Take our landscape image for example: it looks flat and dull, and certainly doesn't do the dramatic subject justice. Fortunately, there are lots of ways in which you can boost colour and contrast in Elements. One of the most effective tools for doing this is Adjust Colour Curves, which enables you to improve contrast by lightening or darkening particular parts of the tonal range. You can, for example, lighten just the highlights in a shot that contains lots of dark tones, or darken only the shadows in an image that's predominantly bright. Photoshop Elements Tricks for Landscapes: 01 Adjust Color Curves Open the start image in Elements, and go to Enhance > Adjust Colour > Adjust Colour Curves. Start by selecting Increase Midtones from the Style Options. For more precise adjustments you can use the Highlights, Midtone Brightness, Contrast and Shadows sliders: in this case, drag all the sliders a little way to the right to boost the colours and contrast. PAGE 1 – Photoshop Elements Tricks for Landscapes: Adjust Color Curves PAGE 2 – Photoshop Elements Tricks for Landscapes: Make the blue bluer PAGE 3 – Photoshop Elements Tricks for Landscapes: Draw a gradient PAGE 4 – Photoshop Elements Tricks for Landscapes: Boost contrast READ MORE 14 photo editing tricks and tips every landscape photographer must know 34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try once Crop photos the right way: classic mistakes and how to avoid them Adobe Lightroom: what every photographer needs to know about the ‘alternative Photoshop’

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