Student Showcase

Over then next few weeks I plan to showcase some student work. These are students that have excelled in the application of photographic techniques and deserve a "pat on the back." from me as their teacher, and from you as their audience.

Students come to my program with different skill levels; each starting at a different spot in the ciriculum. However, everyone eventually goes through the same process of learing.

Applying photographic principles and techniques like "depth of field" control and "composition" can be a tedious learning process as it involves nearly all of the knowledge of cameras/camera operation/settings/lens choice and so on. I'd like to share a couple of outstanding images.

The above image was part of an assignment in composition. It clearly demonstrates usage of some compostional techniques we studied in our lessons. It is nicely composed and arranged using the design elements we learned through the program. Being a better "photographic artist" can be learned through practice and knowledge. Composition is a big part of the program, and we spend a fair amount of time learing the design elements and applying them.
Great job "N.T"

This image was part of assignment on "depth of field" control. Along with deomonstrating excellent DOF - shallow in this case - there is excellent composition and design exhibited in this image.

Each of the above samples shows perfect exposure / correct equipment choices / proper selection of settings (f-stop & shutter speeds) and great all around execution photographically. Excellent work "T.B."

I'll pass any comments on to each photographer when you post.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to my hard working students!

Jeff

Image Quality

Recently, I've had a lot of questions concerning "Image Quality" and different file types of images - jpg / tiff / raw. Here's the techinical lowdown on this topic - taken from one of the tutorials I've written as part of my online photography course.

Maintaining Image Quality - the story on jpgs
For those of you who shoot only jpgs digitally here's a word of caution. First of all we must understand some technical features of image files. ALL jpgs compress when saved every time. The image eliminates un-needed information every time we re-save it to a drive. So, by default a jpg is designmed to loose quality. If you are going to retouch or color correct a jpg, save it as a tiff first, do your retouching on the tiff and then save it back to a jpg again. Tiff files, inherently do not compress and loose information when retouched and re-saved. This is why Tiffs are bigger files than jpgs; they retain ALL the information.

If you do this religiously your jpgs will retain quality. If you don't do this and continually open / retouch / re-save a jpg eventually you'll notice the image quality has been

compromised and has deteriorated. You will not necessarily notice this on your computer screen since digital files retain way to much information for most screens to capture and reproduce, but you will notice it if you try to print it large or provide that image to magazine or publication.

I hope this helps in this controversial topic. These facts are not my opinions. This is technical data that is true of all digital files.

Jeff

Photo Course Testimonials

Last month I ask some of my previous students to write a short testimonial for me to post on the web. Both of these have completed the 8 Segment Course.

Here are a couple of them -

"I finished my course with Jeff about 2 months ago and I'm already booking some photo work. I've learned how to talk to potential customers and how to price my photography. I'm a lot more confident in the whole aspect of taking photographs now, and I thank this class for that. I've learned so much but still refer to the PDF booklet of information that I got from Jeff. All I can say is "thanks!"
Gerald P / Austin, TX

"I just finished the Online Photography Class, and I have to say that it was awesome. I'm not going to say it was easy, Jeff is tough and made me learn the information, but I'm glad he did. There were so many things about photography that I didn't understand and it showed in my work. After a few months of work I'm a lot more confident and my portraits are great. I love all the different tricks I learned to control the way my photographs look. Thanks, I'm a happy, satisfied student."
Thomas G / Sedona, AZ


I am really proud of what some of them have accomplished in the course. Both of these people were "average" when they started and now they are producing images that are awesome. It's amazing to me to watch them through the learning process and improve their skills and their confidence. Gerald has started doing location portraiture as a sideline business to his "real" job and Thomas is starting to shoot stock as he travels during his retirement. Both are excited and motivated about the new prospects they now have in reaching artisitic and financial goals.

Good work to both of you! Keep it up.

Should I take Photography Classes?

This is a question I see on all the major sites in the "question & answer" areas. Oh Yahoo questions there are always nurmerous posts about this topic. Well, here's my take on it...and even though I'm an instructor (roushphotoonline.com) I'll try to give an unbiased opinion.
Through the years I've taught students at many different skill levels, lots of amatuers and a fair amount of "wanna be pros". The thing that is common among all of them is the their lack of knowledge. It's not that they can't expose properly, it's not that they can't operate the camera. Knowing how to use all the components that are available and how to apply them to different shooting situations, different lighting environments, and effectively delivering a message in a visual format is where the "lack of knowledge" becomes evident. Most studentes look at a pro photographers photos and say "I want to do that!". Well, to DO "that" it takes a very complete understanding of lens choice, speed choice, Depth of Field choice, and then be able put this together in a properly and powerfully composed visual layout and design that impacts the viewer.
That's where most photographs fail. When I critique portfolios, and I critique hundreds, it's always the same ... the same reasons and problems in the execution.
So, yes, photography classes will enlighten you to things you might not know you need to do, or need to think about when doing photography.

Take Better Photographs

There is always a question from someone during a photo lesson about simply "taking better pictures". I talked yesterday about the shooting formula I use religiously to help maintain a higher standard of imagery. The formula is as follows:
Concept / Sketch / Plan / Execute
If you start to follow this simple structure as you develop ideas and stategies for your photography you'll find yourself taking better photographs in no time.
CONCEPT - develop your ideas before even getting your camera out of the bag. Think about what you are shooting, subject placement, composition, message, and all the other elements of artistic development.
SKETCH - Force yourself to draw your idea. This forces us to truly think about our image in a visual format and makes us think about the composition and all the possible variations.
PLAN - make a list of all the things you'll need with you produce your idea. Props, equipment, help, etc.
EXECUTE - If you done all the above three steps correctly you'll be able to shoot with ease. Part of taking great photographs is being able to think clearly and be focused on an idea when you shoot, not being pre-occupied with details.

Moral to the Story - to be a great photographic artist you need to be able to think like an artist as you shoot, not be thinking about solving problems that come with the shoot. When you find yourself having to stop shooting to go get something your forgot or to change your idea because you didn't think about a certain situation being a problem you pretty much going to fail photographically. Do your homework before, be ready, prepare yourself mentally, physically, and visually for your endeavor.

Jeff
http://www.roushphotoonline.com

Digital Photography Tips

Today we start our question and answer blog posts. I have a number of posts to put up so watch our blog over the next few days.

There are two basic types of photographs photographers capture.
One is simple coverage of an event or recording a scrapbook type series of photographs of somthing like a vacation. It's perfectly fine to do "snapshots" for things like this.

The second thing we might photograph is something for ourselves to keep, or print, hang up at home, or to put in a portfolio that is representative of our work. In this case a good "rule of thumb" to follow is my shooting formula. The formula is as follows:
Conceptualize / Sketch / Plan / Execute. I'll talk more of these in the next post, so for now develop your own understanding of what they mean.

We cover this concept thoroughly in the Online Classes.

http://www.roushphotoonline.com/

Jeff

ONLINE Courses now taking enrollment

Our online photography courses are finally ready for enrollment, in fact, a few have enrolled already and are doing awesome. I've added some new features and courses to the roster after getting a little feedback from a few students.
Also, for the rest of this month all classes are sale priced!! -- part of the grand opening of the new site.

If you have any interest please let me know fast. We can only handle so many students at one time and space is becoming limited as each day passes. I'll gladly hold a spot for anyone that shows enough interest.

Jeff