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IMPROVE YOUR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

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TIPS FOR MINIMALISUM IN PHOTOGRAPHY

NOVEMBER 2020 | ISSUE 2 COPYRIGHT SLEEKLENS.COM © 2020 CONTENTS

1. THE BLUE : HOW TO USE THIS TIME TO SHOOT THE CITY AT

3. BLACK FRIDAY 2020 SALE!

4. 6 EASY WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

7. VIDEO COURSE | HDR PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE

8. FREE TUTORIALS

9. TIPS TO CONSIDER FOR MINIMALISUM IN PHOTOGRAPHY

SPONSORS The : How to Use This Time to Shoot the City at Night by Lisa Row

While most people have heard of the golden hour for How to plan your blue hour photography photography – roughly an hour after sunrise and an hour before – few people utilize the blue hour to take session? amazing cityscape photographs. 1. Know when the blue hour occurs The time you have to capture your shots will vary on where in Cities are the ideal places to take breathtaking photographs the world you are and what time of year it is. But don’t worry, and there is no better place to take advantage of the beauty there are plenty of websites dedicated to providing you with this of the blue hour than in a bustling city. In this post, you’ll learn information, such as this one. what this underused hour is and how to take advantage of it. 2. Plan your location As time is of the essence, it’s essential to plan ahead to capture When is the blue hour? the best images. First, think about where you are going to shoot. The blue hour occurs the hour before sunrise and the hour after Is it a busy spot and are there any obstructions? sunset. As the sets below the , before things get too dark and we venture into the night, the takes on a blue hue This can be checked using google maps if you can’t get to the that can make for some spectacular images. spot easily, but doing some actual reconnaissance is the best way to ensure you know exactly what you will encounter when you The blue hour is created by the atmospheric scattering effect. come to take your shots. During this time, the Sun is far enough below the horizon that the atmosphere scatters short-wave blue light, giving a Go out in the to choose your spot to give yourself plenty wonderful spectrum of blue hues. of time to get set up.

It’s important to be quick to take photos at this time, however, 3. Keep to a single location as even though it’s referred to as the blue “hour”, the time Keep each blue hour photography session to a single location. between sundown and the darkness of night can be as little as You don’t have time to travel a great distance, so it may take twenty minutes, giving you precious little time to get the optimal several to get all the shots you want. Waiting to get them shot, unlike normal night photography sessions. This makes right over several sessions is more important than rushing around. planning your use of this time vital. 1 The best settings for blue hour photography in the city Blue hour photography gives you more flexibility with what settings you can use. And the settings will be dictated by the type of shot you are going for.

F-Settings 2. Arrive early When photographing cityscapes, you’ll want to keep the It’s best to arrive early, scout out the best place for taking pictures foreground and background sharp. This will mean that you and get the optimal setup prior to the blue hour, rather than need to alter your f-settings. Starting at f-8 and working up is a rushing around in a limited timeframe. good place to begin. Be patient as well. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you have As you go up, you will find your shutter speed begins to slow some great pictures just after sunset – you’ll be able to capture an down and that is where you will start to capture the light trails interesting range of pictures right up until nightfall. of traffic. 3. Lock your mirror Shutter Speed When you take a picture, a small mirror flips in the camera. At If you want to have objects such as people and traffic clear slow shutter speeds, the camera can pick up the movement and and sharp, you will need to use faster shutter speed. This could cause a blurred image. By locking the camera in the settings or mean setting your shutter speed to 1/200 of a second or higher changing the camera mode to live mode (which flips and locks if you want to get that freezeframe image. the mirror) you can avoid this mistake.

This will require going as low as f-4 or maybe lower. You may 4. Don’t be afraid to experiment also need to adjust and raise your ISO to properly capture the Because blue hour photography allows you to capture unique image. images, try out different angles, and try to look beyond the obvious image. Zoom in and zoom out as this can give some There are plenty of settings that can be played to capture surreal images as well as playing with shutter speeds to get light the shot you want but determining what shot that is will be trails. necessary. Postproduction techniques As you don’t have a lot of time to play around with your All types of photographs can benefit from some postproduction, settings, giving yourself several sessions over different blue whether you like to do that or not. This can be as simple as will help you get a great shot. adjusting the lines of the image or cropping it to highlight certain parts or can be as extensive as altering the saturation, contrast, or Tips for the best shots retouching parts of the image to get the best picture. 1. A tripod is key One vital piece of equipment to take is a tripod. You’ll struggle The minimum that you should do is to make sure the image is to hold the camera steady enough for long enough to capture straight and that there are no blemishes in the photo. After this, images at slow shutter speeds. This will lead to camera shake the amount of postproduction is down to you, but subtlety is in the images. the key. Too much alteration and the image can appear fake, especially on top of the unusual hues the blue hour provides. A remote shutter release can also complement the tripod and reduce the chance of camera shake. Ultimately, blue hour photography is easier to shoot as you don’t need to deal with harsh lighting and shadows, so there shouldn’t be the need for too much editing. A minimal approach is key. 2 BLACK FRIDAY SALE

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www.SLEEKLENS.com 3 6 EASY WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY by Michael Moodie

4 Capturing beautiful and visually pleasing scenery can be one of the most enjoyable moments as a photographer who’s a favorite genre of photography is landscape photography. However, as someone who enjoys doing lifestyle photography, I can almost share the same appreciation and enjoyable moments as well. When it comes to landscape photography, there is so much you can do or capture with what’s in front of you. Mother nature is pretty much your muse and how you’d like to capture her is completely up to you in regards to how you see her with your creative eye. However, there are ways we can improve how we capture our muse which I will share in this article. Some of these simple and easy tips will help to improve how you capture landscapes and should open your creative eye to a different perspective. Let’s dive in. A Point Of Interest One of the first steps in the right direction to improve your landscape photography is to include a point of interest when composing your shot. Usually, you find a lot of photographers capture shots of the horizon or basic scenery shot but there is no actual point of interest to grab your attention within the frame. Your point of interest can be pretty much anything such as a tree or even fence but adding one can help to make your landscape images a lot better.

The aim is to be unique and not your cliche landscape photographer because I assure you someone has probably taken a similar landscape shot as you have. Mother nature is your muse and it is your duty to show a new perspective of her that will help to make her even more interesting and beautiful. Change your perspective and let your creativity speak through your images. Simplicity There is beauty in simplicity and as a true minimalist, I had to share this point as well. It’s often given that you don’t clutter your frame with other elements that don’t add value to your shot but you can sometimes push that envelope a little further. Try to eliminate as many distractions as possible to place emphasis on not only the point of interest within your shot but on the scenery itself as well. Distractions in landscape photography can be anything such as telephone wires, lampposts, and other elements as well. Eliminating these things will help to improve your landscape photography drastically. Timing Timing plays an important role in almost every genre of photography that is done outdoors. However, it plays a very significant role when it comes to landscape photography. The timing of your landscape shots can pretty much dictate how a lot of your shots will look. For example, if you were to capture shots at sunrise as opposed to capturing shots at midday then you will see a clear and undeniable different in the mood of your shot. Use time as a tool to get the shots you desire or what will work best for the mood you are trying to evoke through your shots.

5 Eye On The Prize Take some time to clear your mind before you take your camera out and focus on what it is you are looking to get out of the shots you’ll be taking or even the landscape in front of you. Take into careful consideration if you are looking to have so your shot out of focus or have an edge to edge sharpness or how you’d like to compose your frame. Having a clear vision of what you’re looking to achieve will help you achieve that goal even faster. Knowing what you want can help you to produce not only stunning landscape images but some legendary ones as well.

Low ISO Try to always shoot at a low ISO when capturing landscape shots and compensate for it by adjusting your other settings such as your aperture and your shutter speed. The reason for this is because shooting at a low ISO helps to reduce the amount of grain in your image which can sometimes be annoying. I usually recommend staying between 100-400 when it comes to your ISO value but if you can keep it as low as possible at 100 then that would be perfect and help to improve the quality of your landscape shot as well. A lot of people also like to print landscape shots as they make good images to frame and hang on walls. Shooting at a low ISO will also help to improve image quality for it to be printed as well. Polarizing Filter Accessories such as polarizing filter can be very useful when taking landscape shots. If you’ve not already used one or have one, you should look into getting one for the lens you use when doing landscape photography. The polarizing filter essential helps to enhance the color and contrast in your images while reducing glare at the same time. A polarizing filter, when used at the right time, can be very helpful but also keep in mind it’s just for particular settings. If the scene in front of you has a body of water, sky, rich colors and reflections then you will find this filter helpful.

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In this course, you will learn how to shoot an HDR photo and how different programs like Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix handle creating the final images. You will also learn advanced techniques such as manual blending and simple Luminosity Masking in Photoshop to get even more control of your photos. Lastly, we will show you how to create a “fake” HDR image using one exposure and when is the best time to use this method.

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LUMINAR vs PHOTOSHOP In this video, we will take the same photo and see how Photoshop’s New Sky Replacement feature holds up to Luminar 4’s Sky Replacement.

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8 TIPS TO CONSIDER FOR MINIMALISM IN PHOTOGRAPHY by Michael Moodie

9 The idea of minimalism or becoming a minimalist has been a topic of conversation recently. This idea not only extends to photography but everyday life as well. Being a minimalist itself is a certain lifestyle that you adapt as you go along. The way you do everything such as traveling or even how you live changes to adjust to having less around you and only the necessities you need. Everyone can be a minimalist in their own way as we all live a different lifestyle and enjoy many different things. However, in today’s article, I will be sharing with you how we can apply this minimalistic lifestyle to our photography as well and create stunning minimalistic images. The concept of ‘less is more’ will become your new rule when composing shots in a minimalistic sense and begin your quest to becoming a great minimalist photographer. Let’s begin!

COMPOSITION One of the first tips to becoming a good minimalist photographer is learning how to compose your shots correctly. This does not necessarily mean that you were composing your shots incorrectly before but rather that you will be making a few changes to your style or habit in composition. Minimalism is all about simplicity and not cluttering your frame with too many elements that can be distracting to the viewer or yourself.

Don’t mistake simplicity for boring composition. Many people believe that having a minimalist approach to photography is boring and easy to do. However, this is where they’re completely wrong as composing shots in a minimalistic style take a lot more creativity that one thinks. You are no longer just bringing your camera up to your face to just snap a shot. You will find yourself carefully planning and considering what it is that will be in your frame and how you would like these things to be positioned within it. You will begin to ask yourself a series of questions before you even pull up your camera until you naturally start to see things as a true minimalist.

COLORS Colors also play a huge part in achieving a minimalist effect through your images. You generally want to look for bright or contrasting colors within your frame that will stand out once you add the right amount of contrast when editing. The colors don’t have to be extremely bright but bright enough that they all work well with each other. I usually recommend not having too many variations in color as this can also be distracting and take away from the simplicity of the image. It is also good to consider adding some texture to your shot to help improve the visual appeal of lines and other elements.

LINES AND PATTERNS Speaking of using lines to create visual appeal brings me to my next tip of using lines and patterns correctly. Once lines or patterns are used in the right way when composing a minimalistic shot it can really add an extra layer of creativity. However, remember to keep it simple and not use too much as it can go from minimalistic to confusing and chaotic very quickly.

NEGATIVE SPACE Using negative space to your advantage is a huge part of minimalistic photography as it helps with many things. One of those things is placing emphasis on the subject in your shot. A lot of negative space allows your subject to shine no matter what and enhances the isolation of that subject as well. When trying to achieve negative space, remember that this does not mean to angle your camera in a specific direction nor does it mean always following the rule of third. Achieving negative space allows less clutter to be in your image and more dramatic compositions.

10 EDITING Practicing minimalism in photography does not stop when you’ve put your camera back in your camera bag but it also extends to when you’re editing as well. A lot like how you’ve shot on camera, you want to keep your edits simple as well. I know as photographers we can sometimes get carried away wanting to improve everything in our shot to make it perfect but from time to time imperfection is perfection. Try to avoid highly saturating your images, adding too much contrast or doing intense color corrections. Keep these things to a minimum as much as possible to stay within the borders of a simplistic look. It always helps to add things such as grain to your shots because emulates a little bit of a film look which also adds to the style of minimalistic photography.

I truly hope some of these simple but useful tips have been a great help in assisting you to practice and become better and minimalism in photography. It’s always a pleasure to share these simple tips with you guys and I look forward to seeing you again.

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