ReadyPhotoSite Blog

15 Ultimate HDR Photography Tutorials

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:12:07 +0000

HDR, or High Dynamic Range photography becomes more and more popular among modern photographers. New tools and techniques are appearing and even some new camera models contain built-in HDR functionality. Indeed, with this technique it’s possible to create a quite unconventional, surreal and impressive image. However, as any other photographic genre, it takes some serious effort and experience to create really remarkable HDR images.

In this post we’ve selected some useful and interesting tutorials and how-to’s covering various aspects of HDR photography. Beginners can use this collection as their starter kit and experienced photographers can find some new gimmicks and inspiration to master their pictures.

HDR photography can become a real spice in your photo portfolio. By the way, don’t forget that on ReadyPhotoSite you can find beautiful and manageable flash photo websites to showcase your art on the web. So enjoy the round-up and come back on RPS for more!

Stuck in Customs HDR Tutorial

This tutorial is made by a renowned HDR photographer and the guy behind the popular travel photography blog Stuck in Customs, Trey Ratcliff. It’s considered to be one of the most comprehensive guides on HDR. By the way, you can read a quite interesting interview with Trey Ratcliff on ReadyPhotoSite.

Merging HDR in Photoshop CS3/CS4

High Dynamic Range Imaging was originally used in 3D and now it’s a poplar photographic technique. Learn how to create nice HDR photos in Photoshop CS3 or CS 4 by reading this tutorial.

HDR Tutorial Guide Thing for Photomatix

A very informative and detailed tutorial written by another key figure of modern landscape photography and photoblogging, Pete Carr.

The High Dynamic Range (HDR) Landscape Photography Tutorial

In this tutorial Royce Howland walks you through the basics of High Dynamic Range Photography and also explains the entire process of applying this technique to your photographs.

HDR Photography Tutorial

This detailed HDR tutorial is geared at budding photogs and demonstrates how to create HDR photos from single or multiple images with different exposures.

HDR Tutorial - The Whole Process from Photography to Tone Mapping

A thorough walkthrough, showing you how to make HDR from shooting a picture to editing in using specific software.

How to Create HDR Photos

This site is dedicated to all aspects of the HDR photography and offers a variety of materials to follow.

HDR Photo Tutorial: Using Photomatix Pro in Lightroom

Learn how to use Lightroom plugin in Photomatix Pro for the best results in your HDR photography projects.

HDR Photography Using Photomatix Pro

Learn how to turn a dull faded image into an eye-popping HDR photo with Photomatix Pro. A very informative and well-written tutorial.

HDR Photography Tutorial

A nice HDR photography tutorial for those who better perceive information through video format.

HDR/Photomatix Tutorial

Here’s another take on HDR photography technique published in a popular web design and art journal Abduzeedo.

HDR Photos with the GIMP

GIMP editor appears to give enough tools and options for creating and processing high quality HDR images.

HDR Photography Tutorial by Jip van Bodegom

Here you can find a few interesting HDR photo techniques based on the experience of photographer Jip van Bodegom.

Realistic HDR Photography Photoshop Tutorial

Get to know how to create a realistic-looking HDR picture in Photoshop by means of exposure blending through layers and masks.

The Ultimate Guide to HDR Photography

Some basic HDR photography theory and also a list of useful resources and references can be found on this post.

A Helpful Set of Action Photography Tutorials

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:42:47 +0000

Who doesn’t love action? Sometimes we all need a dose of extreme to better feel the taste of life. However, the dose may differ for every person: some people take up extreme sports to shake up, while for others it’s enough to be passive watchers and feel the emotions of action from an outsider’s viewpoint. Good action photography can inspire some rapid heartbeat too.

Today we’d like to suggest you over 10 useful tutorials dedicated to action photography. Whether you are going to shoot your children at the school stadium or feel that professional sports photography is your calling, the following list might come you in handy.

So enjoy the tutorial selection, learn new techniques and then come back to ReadyPhotoSite for awesome flash photo websites to showcase your photography.

8 Tips for Taking Sports Photos Like a Pro

The title of this tutorial is pretty descriptive, use this post to master your action photography skills.

Action Photography: Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

Another portion of useful tips and tricks on how to capture action and sports well. The post also includes some really good example of this photography genre.

Action Photography Tips

This is a quite interesting article covering some basics of action photography. It points out two main things necessary for taking good action photos: some basic action-shooting skills, and some knowledge of the subject activity.

Sport Photos: a how-to and tip guide from Photo.net

Learn how to take a cool action sports photo by reading a detailed articles written by the industry professional Rob Miracle.

Action Photography

In this video you can see a live process of sports photo shoot. It’s actually a video tutorials, so you can take advantage of the photographer’s comments and tips too.

Mastering Low-Light Sports and Action Photography

Sometimes you have no control over how a photo subject is lit. Learn how to handle such situation with the best result by reading this tutorial.

Photographing Sports and Action

From this post you can get to know the aspects of viewpoint and composition, focusing, depth of field, direction of lighting, etc. in terms of action photography.

Mastering Motosport Photography

The world of motosport is full of adrenaline, pure emotions and… perfect photography moments. Learn how to become a pro in shooting motosport action by reading this tutorial.

Sports Photography Series

Now comes a series of tutorials, which consists of 3 lessons. They cover various techniques and tips for action photographers.

Introduction to Sports Photography

This article will help you to get an idea about action photography, necessary gear lighting and all the settings.

Water Sport Photo Presentation

This is a post processing tutorial which walks you through the process of creating a cool flash presentation for water sport photos. Of course, it doesn’t limit you to water action pic, you can use this tutorial to create any flash photo presentation. The source files are available for download.

Beginners Guide to Sports Photography

In this tutorial you will learn the basics of shooting professional sport images - whether at your local high school or a professional sports stadium.

Winter Sports Photography Tutorial

A quite interesting video tutorial covering the principles and practical advice on how to shoot winter action sports.

20 Handy Photo Effect Tutorials for GIMP

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:47:36 +0000

GIMP is free and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux, which makes this image editor very popular among photographers, designers and graphic artists. It has a wide range of features and tools and its latest versions show that it’s actually a decent alternative to Photoshop. However, this open-source software may be rather difficult to get through for those get used to Adobe Photoshop.

In this post we would like to put more light on this editor and list some interesting and effective GIMP tutorials. Most of them cover nifty photo manipulation techniques and effects you might use to give a spice to your photography portfolio or online photo gallery.

Become a Real Na’Vi Using GIMP

This is a fun guide taking you through creating a Na’Vi character from a portrait photograph.

Make your photo look like a Hollywood movie

This tutorial takes you through the process of making a photo look more dramatic, like in a movie. A cool effect to learn, indeed.

Add HDR-like effect to a normal portrait picture

The HDR photography usually requires a tripod and a number of specific plugins and software at the image processing stage. However, in this tutorial you can read how to create an HDR imitating effect and apply it to a portrait picture.

GIMP Advanced Jigsaw Puzzle Effect

In this tutorial you can learn how to apply a cute jigsaw puzzle effect to images or photos with GIMP. The source files are available for download.

Really Basic Photo Editing With GIMP

This tutorial will give you some basic idea on how to get started with the GIMP.

Photo to Vector Art

A nice tutorial on how to convert a photo into vector art so that no one would guess it’s actually a photo. By learning this effect you’ll be able to diversify your photo portfolio with some unique artwork.

How to do a black and white partial color effect with the GIMP

Some of the best examples of selective coloring technique were showcased on our blog some time ago. This popular photo effect can be achieved with GIMP, too. Read the tutorial to learn how to do it.

Photo to Sketch

Another nice effect is explained in this post. It’s quite easy to convert a portrait picture into a sketch with the help of GIMP editor.

Speed Effect with The GIMP

Action photography requires ages to be mastered. Sometimes, an idea can’t wait for so long, this is when a tutorial showing you how to give speed to a static object in GIMP may come you in handy.

Retro Rrough Color Photo Effect

Retro has been a popular trend lately. Everyone is charmed by oldie portraits and wants to make the same pictures. Learn how to create a retro rough color effect in GIMP by reading this tutorial.

Creating a Diorama Effect

Diorama as a photographic effect is better known as tilt-shift. You might have seen many Photoshop tutorials related to tilt-shift technique, here is one that is referred to GIMP.

Authentic Vintage Effect

This tutorial is available in both video and text formats. It explains how to give an authentic vintage look to a picture. The author also claims that this effect tends to work best with photos with vivid colors (sky, grass, etc).

How to create a dreamy photo effect in Gimp

A nice photo manipulation effect any portrait photographer should have in their arsenal.

Create a 3D photo effect with the GIMP

Needless to say, 3D is a one of the major trends in the modern art and design. In confirmation of this, here is a tutorial on how to create a 3D photo effect in GIMP.

How to do skin care with GIMP

When shooting people it’s crucial to know how to do skin retouch. Since the digital photography appeared people don’t want to miss the chance to look nearly perfect on pictures. Here is some useful info on how to do skin care with GIMP.

Using curves to improve night shots

If you are obsessed with taking picture of night city life, you’ll probably like this tutorial. It shows how to use curves in GIMP photo editor to improve your night shots.

GIMP tutorial: Pop Art

Learn how to “warholize” your photography by watching this tutorial.

GIMP tutorial - Sun breaking through clouds effect

Improve your landscape image by adding a sun break-through effect to it.

Smart Sharpening

Sharpening is among the basic and most important tools to learn while mastering any image editor. Learn how to cope with sharpening in GIMP for better people photography.

Cloning in GIMP - advanced photo manipulation

Here comes a well-done detailed tutorial that explains how to delete annoying backgrounds from the picture by means of cloning.

15 Excellent Photo Manipulation Tutorials

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:16:38 +0000

Using achievements of modern technology photographers can literally create wonders of art. Up-to-date photographic gear enables to make pure realistic pictures, while Photoshop is a powerful tool for creating images that are out-of-the-world. Besides, it often happens that a photo itself, both digital and film, can’t fully convey the photographer’s impression of the moment he captured. This is where Photoshop can do a geat job too.

In this post we showcase 15 amazing photo manipulation tutorials for Photoshop, which you will surely appreciate if you have a certain amount of skills around this image editor. The photography effects and manipulations explained in these tutorials will, undoubtedly, become an adornment of your photography website or online photo album.

Water Effect Photo Montage

Create dynamic distortion effects

Create a Realistic Space Landscape Photo Manipulation

Dark and Eerie Photo Manipulation Scene

How to Make a melting Camera Scene

Landscape Photomanipulation Tutorial

How to Create a Severed Arm in Photoshop

Create Frozen Liquid Effects

How to create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene

How to Create a Flaming Photo Manipulation

How to Create a Fantasy Photo Manipulation

Dazzling Dance Photo Manipulation

Create a Floating Island Scene Similar to James Cameron’s Avatar

Apple in Disguise Photo Manipulation

Alienize: Transform a Person into an Alien

15 Teenage Photographers Whose Works Will Strike You

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:17:46 +0000

They say, age has nothing to do with talent. This statement is well illustrated in our today’s collection. Below you can see the works of 15 teenage photographers. The photo screenshots are clickable and lead to photographers’ personal websites. If you look closer at the pictures of these young people, you’ll notice that each teen photographer has a unique style, which combines the creativity of a young aspiring soul and amazingly mature technique. Perhaps, it’s this wonderful mix that brought some of these young artists to awards and success on the Web, or maybe it’s just everything about talent…

One thing we noticed while preparing this post is that many teenage photographers, even those awarded by various organizations, such as The Digital Camera Young Photographer of the Year or RSPCA Young Photographer Awards, don’t have a personal photo portfolio, or even a public photo gallery on Flickr. This is definitely a loss, as photographers with no decent spot in the Internet considerably narrow their viewer audience. however, we are sure that once they come across ReadyPhotoSite , they’ll not be website-less anymore.

Mike Bailey Gates

Eleanor Hardwick

Sarah Rose Smiley

Arriele Nadel

Nick Leonard

Olivia Bee

Chrissie White

Vasilisa Forbes

Daniyel Lowden

Dave Alexander

Renita Hatcher

Tadas Slajus

Tjeerd Visser

Ted Winder

Eloise Adler

Top 10 DIY Photography Projects to Make Your Life Easier

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:04:39 +0000

Setting up a personal photo studio may be a challenging task today: professional gear is rather expensive and the selection of available devices and gadgets is so large and diverse that can confuse even an experienced photographer, not to mention a beginner. As a matter of fact, the entire history of mankind shows that material things have never been an ultimate barrier against human artistic aspiration. Quite the contrary - an artist that couldn’t afford canvas, brushes or colors, got nothing but to find another way to express his vision and this is how we believe new art directions and genres appeared.

In this post, however, we don’t suggest you to initiate a new artistic style just because you don’t have enough money to by a studio lighting kit (go on if you dare, though!). Instead, we offer you ten super accessible photography Do-It-Yourself projects you might find useful. Of course, there are tons of websites entirely dedicated to DIY experience, but below you can see a selection of tips and techniques that are, in our opinion, the most interesting, effective and cheap in implementation.

If you have experience in constructing photography related things with your own hands, or know some life-hacks for photographers, don’t forget to share them in comments! Enjoy the round-up and join in the discussion!

Fast photo sensor

Give ‘Em a Spin

Extremely simple product photography setup

DIY Photography Reflector 3 in 1

DIY Macro Lighting Led Ring

The Origami Studio

Paparazzi Helmet (+ 9 more cool DIY Photography Tips)

Putting Together a Budget Lighting DIY System

Macro (”close-up”) photography with an iPhone

DIY Boom Arm Reflector Holder

Bonus

When it comes to building a professional online photo portfolio, ReadyPhotoSite is the best DIY technique for you. Having no skills in coding, programming and web design and having no enough budgets to hire a design studio, you still can create a fancy flash photo website with ReadyPhotoSite. No more words needed, just try it yourself!

New ReadyPhotoSite Theme is Now Available!

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:03:45 +0000

We are glad to inform our ReadyPhotoSite photographers community that we have launched a new Ready Photo Site theme - Clear Vision- that you can preview and buy here.

The theme is available in ecommerce and premium package worth $199 and $250 accordingly. The list of functionality includes:

General settings editor
Menu editor
Metadata Manager
Text pages builder
Contact page editor
News block editor
Events calendar
Mp3 tracks editor
Unlimited photo galleries
Unlimited video galleries
Slideshow creator
Password protected galleries
Paypal integrated shopping cart

The premium package includes the skin .fla file that allows to make the layout/color/fonts changes not available from the admin area.

If you are an existing client of ReadyPhotoSite you can exchange your own theme for new one for $50 only!
Email us at info at readyphotosite.com, message me on twitter or Facebook. Have a great day and talk to you soon!

15 Useful Cheat Sheets for Photographers

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:45:21 +0000

Using the resources of the modern Web you can easily learn any aspect of photography and grow from a budding amateur into a full-fledged professional. However, the amount of information floating in the Internet is enormous and one may easily get lost in numerous tutorials, guides and reviews. Besides, the technology evolves by leaps and bounds and several photographic gear products are being launched every month, not to mention an ever growing army of photo gadgets.

The cheat sheet format is really helpful when you need to get to know some specific photography issue or just need to refresh your memory on some question. Whether you are a beginner photographer or a seasoned pro, there will be moments when you need to quickly fill the gap in your knowledge - here is when a compact cheat sheet in your camera bag will come in handy.

This post is a collection of 15 useful photography cheat sheets covering various industry related aspects including the usage of gear and photographic software.

By the way, if you need a cheat sheet on how to create a beautiful and effective flash photo website, we’ve a pretty compact and simple one for you. It can be formulated in just three simple words - Ready Photo Site.

Did we miss any helpful cheat sheet for photographers? Share the resources you use in comments!

Photoshop CS5 All-In-One for Dummies

Flash Trigger Cheat Sheet for iPhone

Digital Photography All-in-one for Dummies

Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet Card

Canon EOS Rebel T1/i500D for Dummies

The Photographic Cheat Sheet by Gordon McKinney

Photoshop CS All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies

Lightroom 3.0 Shortcut Key Cheat Sheet

Nikon D5000 for Dummies

The Inverse Square Law Photography Cheat Sheet

Mommy’s Camera: Simple Photography Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet for Portrait Lighting

Black & White Cheat Sheet for Photoshop

Japanorama Flash Basics Cheat Sheet

Exposure Triangle Cheat Sheet by Glark

15 Tutorials and Articles to Read When Setting Up Your Online Portfolio

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:25:53 +0000

The importance of attractive and usable online portfolio has been repeatedly highlighted in our blog posts. The aspects of creating such a website are actually the guideline of our resource. Moreover, our goal is to give you some tips and advice on how to successfully maintain a professional photo website and make the most of it in terms of tough competition on the ever growing Web. With this to be said, today we present a handy round-up of online portfolio tutorials you can use while creating your own photography website or artistic gallery. The list consists of various kinds of articles, including exhaustive Photoshop tutorials and general tips on how to build an effective portfolio website.

Want to learn more on the topic? You may also like the following:

Online Portfolio Tutorials Round-Up

Build a Killer Online Portfolio in 9 Easy Steps

If you are a freelance designer, illustrator or photographer, a professional portfolio website is a must for you. This article covers nine tips on how to build a killer online portfolio.

Creating a Successful Online Portfolio

Learning some pitfalls and principles of effective portfolio site building, you will be fully armed while creating your own photography website.

Creating an Online Portfolio

This detailed tutorial shows how to build a portfolio web page with Photoshop and Dreamweaver and then promote it to potential employers and clients. The tutorial is available for viewing in the downloadable .pdf version.

How to Make an Online Photo Album

Trey Ratlcliff, a well-known HDR photographer and the guy behind popular travel blog Stuck in Customs shares his vision of effective photo website.

10 Solutions to Easily Create Your Online Portfolio

This post by well-known designer and blogger Chris Spooner covers 10 resources allowing you to build a public photo gallery or a portfolio of your works.

Creating an Online Photo Album with PHP and GD. Part 1

This tutorial, consisting of 4 parts, is geared at users with basic and advanced skills in website development. You can learn how to create a photo gallery using PHP, MySQL and GD.

Tips on Creating a Digital Photographer’s Portfolio

In this post you can find a few basic tips on how to create a nice Web showcase of your works.

Personal Portfolio Layout #2

This is a detailed guide on how to create a personal portfolio layout in Photoshop.

Online Photo Portfolio

Another Photoshop tutorial covering the process of creating a clean layout of a portfolio website.

How to Create an Online Photography Portfolio

This is a general overview of things to consider while making an online presentation of your work.

How to Create a Better Online Portfolio

An interesting and useful article discussing some essential principles of attractive and efficient personal portfolio website.

The Perfect Portfolio

Famous web designer Collis Ta’eed writes about important things to remember while brainstorming your portfolio site.

How to Make a Portfolio of Your Online Work with Protopage

This article walks you through how to make an HTML portfolio using the online tool known as Protopage.

12 Tips for Creating a Great Portfolio Site

Learn what features your online photo portfolio should include to get its job done well.

How to Set Up a Professional Looking Portfolio Website

This article is the first in a series that will take you through setting up a portfolio using WordPress. The entire series is quite interesting and exhaustive.

Bonus Tutorial

How to Create a Pro Photography Portfolio in One Step

This is the shortest tutorial in our list, basically it can be formulated with one sentence: to create an outstanding photography website quickly and easily, use Ready Photo Site flash CMS. Yep, once you read the tutorials and articles mentioned above, you may want to find a tool that will help you to implement your knowledge the best way. We’ve got the one for you - find everything you need in ReadyPhotoSite CMS. It’s geared specifically at artistic portfolio development, so even you have no skills in design and programming, you will be able to manage your personal portfolio site successfully.

15+ Photography Gadgets You’ll Want Bad

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:52:34 +0000

As technology evolves, thousands of various gadgets and devices are appearing at the global market every day. The progress doesn’t pass by the photography industry and today there are lots of smart photography related tools and gizmos available at the online and offline stores. Some of them are really useful and become indispensible in professional photographer’s arsenal, while others are created to amuse and entertain people who enjoy snapping. In this post you can find a round-up of lovely photography gadgets and devices that are going to make your photography experience even more exciting.

Lowepro Photo Gloves

These warm gloves made of Lycra and special anti-moisture material will provide you a comfortable shoot in cold or rainy weather.

Belkin 15 in 1 Media Reader & Writer

The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer accommodates all popular types of media allowing you to drag and drop files to your computer from practically any device. If you are a geek photographer, you’ll love this gizmo for sure.

Opteka 3 Axis Level

This clever cube will especially appeal to landscape photographers and those who often use tripod in their work. 3 Axis bubble level for camera’s hot shoe will allow you to set up your camera level precisely.

Joby Gorillapod

Cute Joby Gorillapod gives you a possibility to take picture in the rockiest places and from the craziest angles. Flexible legs (magnetic in some models) allow you to foot the tripod firmly on any surface.

iPhone Telescope

Cell phones and iPhones have become quite popular photography mediums lately. Pimping your iPhone camera with this 6x zoom lens, you will be able to boost its capabilities and diversify your “mobilography”. Note that the lens is available only for iPhone 1^stgen. and cannot work for iPhone 3G/3GS.

Optech Rainsleeve

The purpose of this gadget is quite obvious. Having this cellophane tent in your bag you’ll be able to quickly put it on your camera and make awesome rain photographs.

Kaidan 360 One VR MK/II

At $750 Kaidan 360 lens for panoramic photography is definitely not a cheap lens, but if you are an architecture or interior photographer, you will be able to appreciate it at its true value.

Cloak Bag

This innovative shoot-through camera bag is the perfect gift for photo journalists and reportage photographers. With this bottomless bag you can feel like really agent 007 taking pictures without getting the camera out of the bag.

Underwater Mask Cameras Liquid Image

A digital camera built right in the underwater mask is a great way to take underwater pictures and enjoy the process of diving.

Lego Stop Animation Video Camera

With this charming Lego Stop Animation Video camera you won’t be left unnoticed.

Automatic Photo-Taking Camera Dock

This is the perfect gadget for paparazzi photography. This automatically Photo-Taking Camera dock can snap any subject you like with face detection technology and you can even set up the camera dock to tilt up the digital camera as far as 24 degrees or pan a full circle 360 degree to not miss a thing around. So it can do the entire paparazzi job without you being under suspicion.

Lens Calendar

This manually maneuvered camera lens calendar with dates running till 2038 could be a wonderful gift for an “already has everything” photographer. Although design of this lens is really cool and unique, the price of $2000 makes it less attractive, as well as the weight, which equals 4kg.

Portable Photo Studio

With portable photo studio you can take better still life photographs. Besides, consider this studio if you own an online shop - using it you can take better product pictures, thus, increase your sales.

Tomy Xiao digital camera with built-in printer

Tomy Xiao TIP-521 is a modern version of the oldie Polaroid camera. Although the pictures it produces are smaller than those printed by Polaroid, Tomy Xiao TIP-521 beats out Polaroid in size and quality.

Monsterpod

Monsterpod sticks to and peels right off just about anything. Not sure if it will hold a weighty professional gear, but if you own a compact digital camera you will be more than happy with this gizmo.

Spy Lens

The Super-Secret Spy Lens is an ultimate accessory for street photographers and those who are shy to capture people on camera. Having a secret cut-out on the side and a precision mirror assembly inside, this lens is going to help you shoot candid reportage photos you’ve dreamed of.

Canon Lens Mug

These cute camera lens coffee mugs were handled out for free by Canon at this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver. If you had no chance to get such a great souvenir in Vancouver, don’t get upset - Canon 70-200mm F4 lens mugs are available for purchase online.

Rolleiflex Mini Digital Camera

A 5 Mega Pixel camera with autofocus technology, the Rollei Mini allows you to shoot from a distance of 4 inches to infinity, saving each image to a Mini SD Card. Authentic Rolleiflex design is what makes this compact camera really special.