Photography tutorials index

About me:
I have been doing this stuff for several decades now. I started out doing line art (pen and ink illustrations) for magazines in 1988. I was doing my drawings from photos I had taken and eventually it dawned on me that I could sell the photographs if I took a little more time with the backgrounds and softened the lighting a little (you want harsh lighting for doing drawings). So I took a few photography classes, learned the basics of how a camera and lights work, learned how to use an enlarger, picked up a few advanced darkroom techniques, and discovered that I had found my niche. I won some awards, served as chairman of the Genre Writer's Association's Artist's Portfolio Critique and Commentary Board for five years, participated in a local college's mentor program and wound up teaching a few classes, won some more awards, did some magazine interviews, and got married. My wife didn't like my nudes, said it was a waste of time and insisted that I give up photography. I tried, became ill, was diagnosed with deep depression, and divorced her. I'm back.

1. How apertures and shutter speeds work together: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
2. Why you should very nearly always edit your photos: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
3. Diffraction; what is it and why is f/8 going to be sharpest: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
4. The effect of crop factor on depth of field and perspective: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
5. Art and the "rules" of composition: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
6. Creating focal points: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
7. Whether and when to use borders: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
8. Lens Filters: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
9. Lenses, and why all lenses have distortion: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
10. Fine Art Nudes: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
11. Shooting people for pleasure and profit: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
12. Documentary versus fine art photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
13. Common distractions that EVERY photographer has to overcome: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
14. Watermarks: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
15. Bottom weighting cut mats: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
16. Hand coloring photos: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou… 
17. The principal of dominance: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
18. Bracketing and selectivity: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
19. Critiques versus comments: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
20. Printing and mounting photos - archival properties: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
21. How to use complimentary colors: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
22. What to do when your meter craps out: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
23. Night and low light photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
24. Infrared photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
25. High and low key photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
26. The horrors of sunsets: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
27. Texture screening: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
28. Dodging and burning: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
29. Advanced darkroom techniques: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
30. The dreaded zone system: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
31. Circles of confusion and bokeh: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
32. About light: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
33. Combining negatives: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
34. Symmetry and balance: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
35. What is a focal point?: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
36. Megapixels, and how important are they: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
37. Hot lights and associated fairy tales: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
38. How to clean a lens: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
39. How light meters work: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
40. What's the best tripod?: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
41. What's the best camera?: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
42. Macro photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
43. Shooting lightning at night and fireworks: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
44. Shooting butterflies: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
45: how to hold a camera: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
46. How to read and use a histogram: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
47. Motion blurring: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
48. Inverse square law and setting up proportional fill lighting: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
49. Portraits: framing, shadows and catch lights: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
50. Color temperature and white balance: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
51. How a sharpening tool works: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
52. The Golden Hour: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
53. Reflectors: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
54. The ordeal of wedding photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
55. Urban Landscape Photography, Unboxed: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
56. How to develop b&w film: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
57. Previsualization: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
58. SLRs and DSLRs versus Rangefinders: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
59. Creative and icon shooting modes: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
60. Empty Magnification: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
61. The K.I.S.S. rule: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
62. Portrait lighting: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
63. When to upgrade your camera: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
64. Geometry and numbers: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
65. Long exposures: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
66. Portfolios: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
67. Pinhole photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
68. Photogams -- photography without a camera: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
69. Pinhead photography: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
70. Watermarks, signatures and security: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
71. More about film: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
72. Mind over matter: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
73. Film versus digital cameras: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
74. Professional versus amateur/hobbyist photography. fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
75. Model Release Form. fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
76. Exposure value and automatic exposure systems. fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
77. Compact versus DSLR cameras. fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
78. "American night," or how to shoot night photos during the day. fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
79. How to take sharp photos: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
80. Advanced darkroom techniques -- sabatier: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
81. Advanced darkroom technique -- double printing: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
82. What lens to use for what: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
83. Shooting classic landscapes: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
84. Wildlife and pets: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
85. Pre-editing photos: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
86. Portrait categories: fallisphoto.deviantart.com/jou…
87. Backdrops and backgrounds: www.deviantart.com/fallisphoto…
88. split contrast filtering: www.deviantart.com/fallisphoto…
89. Basic composition: www.deviantart.com/fallisphoto…
90. Mounting and framing prints: 
Mounting and Framing Photos and ArtworkOkay, you've taken a photo, developed the negative (if you were using film), and you've made a print that you're happy with; now what? Well, now it is time to mount and frame your print, in preparation for hanging and displaying it. First off, it is desirable to mount it in a standard size frame, which will make your life SO much easier and save you quite a bit of money. Custom framing (necessary for odd sizes) is outrageously expensive, but you can find inexpensive standard size frames nearly anywhere. Common sizes of standard size frames, here in the USA, are: 5x7 inches, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and 20x30 inches. No, you don't just buy a cheap frame and stick your photo in it. To properly display your photo, you are going to need a few things. You'll need a mounting board, some mat board, some rice paper (if you want to do an archival, or "museum" mount and frame) and some way of attaching everything in place (hopefully also archival, meaning it won't cause your print to deteriorate or be
91. Romance - soft focus and grain:
  Soft Focus and GrainHave you ever wanted to take a seriously romantic photo of your girlfriend, one that looks sexy and that really screams romance? Well, manipulating the grain and using soft focus can help you to do that. For soft focus, there are a number of things you can do, although one of them you shouldn't. First the one you shouldn't do: A long time ago, photographers who wanted this effect used to smear oil or petroleum jelly on their lenses. It was just a very thin coat, and they'd try to wipe it off as soon as they were done, but both of those things attacked the cements that hold their lens elements together. It was not a good idea if you valued your camera. Eventually, someone found that saliva would do pretty much the same thing, and it wouldn't harm those balsam cements. It did, however, promote fungus growth. Smearing stuff on your lens is not ever a good idea. That leaves us with the ones that are mostly in use today. One is to focus your lens with a very wide aperture, and let depth of field slightly blur parts of the photo. Another is to stretch some women's hosiery material over the lens. Another good one is to use a lens filter that is made just for this. Lee, Schneider (B+W), Hoya, TIffen and even Cokin make soft focus (or diffusion) filters for the soft focus effect. The good ones come in grades, for more or less of the effect. If you choose to use the hosiery method, use black hose. Colored hose will have an effect on the color in your photos. Sometimes that is desirable though. A warm colored piece of material (beige, for example) will give you a warmer photo and a colder colored piece of material, like blue, will give you a cooler hue in your photos. The more tightly you stretch the material over the lens, the less of the effect you will get. The following photo was taken with a 5mp camera, so it has a little grain too.,Using a wide aperture can be effective, in some cases, but one part of the photo will be sharp and the rest won't. The effect won't be evenly distributed. Another thing you can do is to manipulate the grain in the photo. The photo will be sharply focused, but with more grain, you will lose fine detail in things like the texture of fabrics and in hair. With really massive amounts of grain, you can make your photo look surreal and dreamy. The following photo is all grain manipulation.,Finally, you can use both methods (soft focus AND grain manipulation) in combination. To get an effect like I used in the cover photo for this journal entry. It took me several months to learn how to do this though. The following photo (that covor photo I mentioned) was taken with a 5mp camera with a wide aperture in low light, to get even fewer effective mp and that increased the grain a little.,
92. Vignetting: adding dark or light edges to a photo and why: 
  Vignetting: dark or light edges? Why?Vignetting was something that was popular in the 1800s, especially for landscapes. The edges of a photo were either dodged white of burned black. Burning means that you block the light from hitting the photosensitive paper with a piece of paper under the enlarger (a thing that projects the image onto that aforementioned sheet of photosensitive paper) with a big hole in the middle ("burning" only the middle part of the photo in while leaving the edges unexposed). If you do that, then the edges of the paper will be white. This is called vignetting. Dodging means that you instead use something to block the light from hitting the middle of the image (that has already been exposed to the image). The edges turn black and this is called reverse vignetting. Through common usage, both terms have come to be called vignetting. Vignetting has several purposes. It can isolate the photo from a non-complimentary background. It can provide contrast with a black or white mat. Most importantly, it draws the viewer into the middle of the photo, where you want his attention to go. I confess that I LOVE reverse vignetting (dark edges) for classic head-and-shoulders portraits. It seems to draw more attention to the person's face. You can do it heavily and it adds an air of mystery to a portrait, like the person is emerging from the shadows.,Or you can do it lightly, just a narrow edge that is slightly darkened, to simply highlight the portrait.,Both are very effective and add a little bit of visual attraction to your subject.