Top 12 For 2012: My Top Viewed Technique Tuesday Posts, …Way Cool Stuff!

Good Morning Everybody,

Hey gang, I’m back at it this week coming to you with some exciting tutorials that you guys and girls ranked as your favorites during 2012.  Total DPT video loads for 2012 worldwide amounted to over 1,000,000 - WOW!!

I checked in with Vimeo, where all my videos are currently residing, and did a quick tally of the numbers associated with all the 2012 videos.  From those calculations, today’s post lists my TOP 12 videos for 2012.  I’ve also listed some notes with each video to give you a quick peek as to each one’s content.  There is some really good information in the listing, you might have missed, so I hope you enjoy giving a peek.  ENJOY!  -David

Here we go…

1. Give Me A Show Of Hands: [link]

Good portraiture is not all just smiles and pretty faces. It's about making the client look the best they can. And, that means right on down to the details. Those details include, in addition to so many other aspects, how the client's hands look in the image. It's our job to make them look flattering and pleasing in our images.

Most photographers pay NO attention to such things, but artists in the past had to be sensitive to the finer points of the portraits they painted as they were painting for the royal court. If those in the royal court looked bad, heads would roll.

Why not hit the LINK above and enjoy the presentation.

 

2. Exciting Event Lighting: [link]

I'm pretty excited about today's post because I want to review with you some new lighting techniques that we just instituted at a recent wedding. I've mentioned that several times that the new high ISO cameras offer us all kinds of easy, efficient lighting opportunities when photographing our events. That’s what I want to talk about today. And, I have to tell you, after this past Saturday's shoot, I am more stoked than ever to make these lighting changes to all my upcoming events.

The bottom line is this – this weekend everything went as smooth as silk and we captured some great images. Why not hit the LINK button above and I'll share with you the lighting techniques that I’ll be using from this point forward on all of our events.

3. Lightroom 4 Breaths New Life Into DOA Images! [link]

I've selected two horribly under exposed images and two horribly over exposed images, let's call them my Lazarus images. I'm going to see if I can save them in Lightroom 4.

Remember, I'm NOT trying to make a "silk purse" out of a "sow's ear" - OK, yes I am. All joking aside, I'm not trying to make a visual masterpiece out of these 4 images. I'm only trying to get them to a sell-able condition for, as example, the bride's wedding album.

Why not hit the LINK tab above and enjoy the show.

 

4. Lightroom 4 - Never Miss A Shot Again! [link]

Lightroom 4 is introducing some very cool new features. Much better integration with video is one of those features. The other is the new Book module which let's you design albums and picture books effortlessly.

But, it's understanding how these two features can work together that open up a whole slew of new possibilities for the wedding/portrait photographer. Hit the LINK button above on this video to see what I mean.

5. Fast, Easy Event Lighting - Part 2: [link]

Two weeks ago I posted a lighting centric Technique Tuesday. It was a big favorite among our DigitalProTalk readers. Because of a new high ISO cameras I was able to change up my lighting techniques at a recent wedding reception. The new lighting technique gives me a tremendous amount of versatility and ease in capturing the reception candids.

I received a few comments and emails from several of our DigitalProTalk readers asking me how I would change up the lighting set up in a smaller space. Well folks, that's exactly what happened this past weekend. I was working in a much smaller space and didn't have the benefit of second-story balconies in which to place my lights.

The cool thing this weekend was that my technique was exactly the same as two weeks ago. I chose to use one eight-foot light stand and one taller, 12 foot light stand. I attached my Quantum T5d flash heads to the light stands with each powered by the Quantum Turbo 3 power packs.

Because of the high ISO capabilities of my Canon 5D Mark III, I was able to use ISO 1600 for all of these candids. This allowed me to set the power on my Quantum strobes to only 1/16th power. At 1/16 power I was getting nearly instant recycle time from my strobes for the fast paced wedding reception.

Why not follow along with me on my video tutorial, LINK above. I walk you through exactly how I set everything up, how I covered the various locations on the dance floor, and got a great coverage at this past weekend's event.

 

6. Stylized Image Enhancement: [link]

I've been saying for months that we photographers have two tremendous resources at our disposal when it comes to creating great images. First off, we have the best digital cameras ever that let us capture the image like never before.

But more than that, we have the best software available, too. Today's iterations of Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4 are the best ever and are necessary upgrades to make. Today it's not just about the hardware we use on the job, it's the software too that helps us finish that job the best we are able. The combination of both gives us an unbelievable amount of versatility in creating our finished images.

Even though I captured a great image in the camera, as you'll see in this tutorial, the brand new Lightroom 4 allowed me to push the image to an even more wonderful stylized result that the hardware could not so easily do by itself. But more that that, Lightroom 4 saves me a few more steps over to Photoshop making our post-production duties even that much easier and quicker.

Why not hit the LINK button above to see what I'm talking about.

 

7. Great B&W Conversion Techniques For Wedding Portraits: [link]

I really like the B&W look in my wedding portraits. There’s something about those soft shades of gray that let the viewer forget all about the color and place all their attention directly on the subject.

But converting those portrait images to B&W, although easy, demands a bit more tweaking to get the look I want. The adjustments I make are NOT your normal B&W adjustments either. I use some sliders in Lightroom that you may have never considered using for B&W enhancements.

The finished result is what counts. Let me walk you through two images that will show you how a beautiful B&W portrait can be produced in Lightroom 4. Simply hit the LINK button above.

 

8. Central Park Revisited – Three Lighting Tips To Make Your Lighting Exciting! [link]

Hey gang, I think I've got a very cool Technique Tuesday for you today. I reviewed all the images I did at my B&H Shootout last week and selected about 15 images I want to share with you today. The gist of today's program is to focus on three specific lighting techniques I demonstrated during my shoot out.

The point of all this is that too many photographers around the country, no, around the world are satisfied with ordinary lighting on their subjects. Folks, it comes down to this - put ordinary lighting on your subjects and you get ordinary results.

Let's change it up a bit – let’s put exciting lighting on our subjects and get some exciting results. That's the point of today's lesson - how to make your lighting exciting, easily and effortlessly, without breaking-the-bank with a ton of expensive gear. Why not hit the LINK button above and see what I'm talking about.

 

9. No Flash Pizzazz: [link]

In today’s lesson I’ll walk you through about two dozen images discussing why I think these images stand on their own without any use of extraneous additive lighting.

In this tutorial you’ll get a peek as to how I compose my images, what I’m seeing in the camera before pressing the shutter button, and how I utilize all the elements of the scene to capture exciting images without secondary light sources.

Hit the LINK button and enjoy the show.

 

10. Magical Sunsets - Using Photoshop's Content Aware Fill Tool To Add Impact To Your Sunset Photos: [link]

Check out this video and see how easy it can be to add a more dramatic look to your sunset wedding photographs. It's super easy and you get a great result.

 

11. The Only Wide Angle Lens You'll Ever Need! [link]

Using the Canon 8-15mm fisheye on my Canon 5D Mark III full frame body, I will show you can achieve a true rectilinearly corrected image with a “Field of View” that ranges from 150 degrees down to a still super-wide 133 degrees depending on the zoom setting of the lens.

I’ve spent a lot of today developing and organizing the data and the images for this post. Why not hit the LINK button above and enjoy one of my favorite Technique Tuesdays ever.

 

12. High Flying Party Photography: [link]

I'm always looking to create images that neither clients nor, photographers for that matter, see very often. I want my images to grab the viewer's attention immediately.

One way to grab the viewer's attention is with a dramatic change of "camera position". A shot taken from overhead fills the bill. We've all seen those overhead shots from the Goodyear blimp taken during a football game. But, to see them taken at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah is quite the treat.

So how can we capture those kinds of images at a party. Let me show you my very easy "Pole-Cam" technique that produces images that are both fun to take and excitingly different to view.

As a bonus with today's lesson, I'm throwing in a bit of multi-lighting reception coverage too. Enjoy! I think you'll get a kick out of this week's "High Flying Party photography" tutorial. Hit the LINK button above and enjoy the show.

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Hey gang, that’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy the walk back in time and get a kick out of re-visiting some of my Technique Tuesday audience favorites.

See ya’ soon,  David