Do You Primarily Shoot with Zoom or Prime Lenses?

Time for another dPS poll. This one is for DSLR users (which is the vast majority of our readers) and revolves around the type of lenses being used in our community.

Do You Primarily Shoot with Zoom or Prime Lenses?

A quick recap for those not familiar with prime lenses – in short they’re a fixed focal length lens. Of course a zoom lens is one which you can…. well…. zoom. It is generally named with the range of its zoom.

For me ..read more

DIY Photography Project: How to Make Custom Bokeh Shapes

One effecct that many of our readers experiment is creating custom Bokeh shapes. It’s a fun DIY little project for a rainy day – this video tells you how to do it.

The video is by Lucas Ridley.

Further Reading on this topic: Aperture Mask – the Many Faces of Bokeh.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

DIY Photography Project: How to Make Custom Bokeh Shapes

New Accounting Requirements for American Photographers

Professional and semi-professional American photographers might soon face a new set of administrative and accounting requirements that could bury them in tax paperwork – unless they act now. As part of the new healthcare reform legislation approved by the U.S. Congress this year, business owners must now report to the IRS on an income tax return any amount over $600 they paid to a company or individual and also submit a 1099 form to that company/individual as well.

In simple terms ..read more

My Camera and I: Weekly Photography Challenge

Image by GiselaGiardino

Your challenge this weekend is to take and share a photo of you with your camera.

Yep – it’s self portrait time – but we want to not only see you (or part of you – you can have some anonymity if you prefer) but also your prize and joy – your camera (whatever it might be).

To take it you might need to set yourself up in front of a mirror (although I’m sure those of you with two ..read more

13 Fun Self Portrait Mirror Shots

It’s perhaps a little cliche – but we’ve all done it. A camera, a photographer in front of a mirror. Here’s 10 shots that caught our eye today with photographers, their cameras in front of mirrors (PS: this is the theme of the next weekly photography challenge – so get your thinking caps on and polish up those mirrros).

Image by G|o®g|O

Image by Chapendra

Image by Lawrence Whittemore

Image by andres.thor

Image by byfer

Image by Janine

Image by Eugenia

Image by Josh Liba

Image by (davide)

Image by ..read more

The Digital Female Nude [Book Review]

Female nude photography has always intrigued me, particularly how a sense of trust is created between photographer and model.

What I find even more intriguing is how, as Australian photographer Peter Adams does in the majority of this book’s pictures, is how he convinces a model to pose outdoors in and on often forbidding — and uncomfortable natural landforms. Rocks, trees, seashore etc.

Adams pictures are never boring, never salacious and frequently with a touch of humour invested in them. His lighting ..read more

Packing your Bags for a Photo Shoot

You know I write everything from experience. No point in figuring things out and not passing on the info! So here is a list of simple things to remember (or in my case, forget) when packing up your bags for a photo shoot or wedding:

Choose your bag. I have a girly camera bag (from Jo Totes) and a big Lowepro Roller. I use them for different types of work. For example, I bring the roller fully packed with everything ..read more

This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (22-28 Aug ‘10)

Weekly Assignment

This week we got up close with some creepy crawlies in our Bugs or Insects assignment. I have to admit, sometimes it wasn’t too nice looking through the assignment, but there were some amazing details captured. And who realized that bugs were so colorful? Our winners this week were separated by only 1 point, so let me start out by saying well done. The winner though was pedro96’s Fly. This one had some great colours, and the details in ..read more

Your Favorite Subject: Weekend Photography Challenge

Image by Éole

This week your photographic challenge is to photograph your ‘favorite subject’ and share the image with us.

Most photographers that I talk to have a subject that they just keep coming back to – whether it be a person, a landscape location, pet or some other kind of subject matter (I have one friend who just loves to photograph shoes and another who likes taking photos of himself jumping on beds…. yep…. beds).

So this weekend you’re invited to go ..read more

How Would You Approach Photographing a Model?

Image by Paul Cox

This question arrived in our inbox from a regular reader – Sammy – and I thought it might make an interesting community workshop where you, the readers of dPS, have a go at giving some good tips on how to approach the situation of working with a model for the first time.

Dear dPS. I have long wanted to work in a studio environment with a professional model to test my portrait skills (my kids are completely sick ..read more

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