That 3 seconds is not enough time to fully appreciate the image or the story you might be trying to tell.

Shadows make your mind wander and think about the other things the image could be trying to tell or show.

Take the time to play with your lighting setups and experiment with light and shadows, its not always about blasting the subject it is about telling the story with the lights you have and can afford. © Black Diamond  

”A free collection of 32 and 64-bit RAW image decoders for Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Windows Vista introduced a modern and extensible imaging framework called Windows Imaging Component (WIC). The operating system comes with built-in support for several common image formats including jpeg, bmp, png, gif, tiff and HD Photo. WIC makes it possible for 3rd parties to add first-class support for image formats to Windows, complete with thumbnails in Explorer, preview and slideshow support in Photo Gallery / Photo Viewer and metadata search integration.

The FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack provides such platform support for additional formatsand turns Windows Explorer into a raw viewer, through read-only image decoders, simultaneously available in both 32 and 64-bit flavor for Win7, Vista and XP SP3. The codec pack contains 32-bit and 64-bit NEF and 64-bit CR2 codecs, along with 64-bit DNG and a lot more!

WIC-enabled image viewers such as Windows Live™ Photo Gallery, Windows 7′s Media Center and our own FastPictureViewer Professional "automagically" gain the ability to open and view new image formats, play slideshows etc, so does all .NET 3.x and WPF-based applications.

Unconvinced? Since the initial release last September we got tens of thousands of codec packs successfully deployed and thousands of websites pointing at us from all around the world, evenmicrosoft.com points to this page from their Codec Download Page, check it out!

Download the FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack 1.67 (Standalone)
Version 1.67 (Feb 16, 2010) is a minor maintenance release (to keep codecs in sync with FastPictureViewer Professional).

Version 1.66 (Feb 06, 2010) adds support for Sinar CaptureShop (*.cs1) files and Mamiya ZD (*.mef) files.

Version 1.65 (Jan 19, 2010) adds partial support for old Canon EOS 1D and 1Ds files (no metadata).

Version 1.64 (Dec 26, 2009) adds support for Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon PowerShot S90, Fuji FinePix S200EXR and Pentax K-x.”

See my latest post on Photofocus.com – Click the image above or this link:

http://photofocus.com/2010/01/08/glamour-photography-that-sounds-expensive-2/

** This is a great way to learn metering and see how others do it **

“I am very excited to announce the release of Lighting 301: Metering, the newest DVD in my educational series. It is a very good DVD packed full of very, very important info. In my opinion this is one of the most important in the series, because proper light metering can make a huge difference in your photography.

I will teach you powerful metering techniques to create full, dynamic range imagery. Take control of the light in your photography!

Order it now in my online store.
http://www.markdaughn.com/store.html

Mark Daughn “

Check it out on there site at: CLICK HERE – and thanks again to Scott for giving me a chance to post on photofocus.com

Glamour Photography, It’s all about Tone and Rapport….

2009 July 16

tags: glamour

Guest Post & Photos by Brent Burzycki Follow Brent on Twitter

I began my career in the glamour photo marketplace about four years ago and since then I have learned much, dispelled many more rumors than truths and also learned that in the end there is only one really happy person if you do your job correctly.

Let us start with the only person that will ever truly be happy with your work, that is your model. One of my rules when I shoot glamour is that if I cannot make the model happy with the images we shoot then I have failed as a photographer. My job as a glamour photography is to make an image that shows that model in their best most sensual or sexy light possible. You can accomplish this in many ways and those ways are based on how you implement and plan your shoot, what your subject matter is or simply what the client you are shooting for actually requires.

With those criteria in place it comes down to using your skills as a photographer and as a human being. Let’s be frank about it – you as a glamour photographer are asking your model to be incredibly intimate with the camera, and to play into a mood and feeling that they might not be fully comfortable doing with their significant other let alone a complete stranger as you could easily be in most shoot scenarios. This is where your rapport with the model becomes so very important, and without it you will never get the results you are looking for in your shoot.

Rapport is a very interesting topic I can talk for hours about so I will try to just summarize my thoughts and feel free to contact me if you have points you would like to add. My attitude when shooting any living human subject is that I treat them as I would want to be treated. That said it is very important to note that there are very important guidelines to not cross, one of them being touching. The rule for most photographers is that there is no touching of the model allowed without explicit consent of the model. I have this rule for a simple reason, for most people touch is equal to trust and trust needs to be earned and you cannot earn trust when you have only known a person for less than a short interview at the beginning of a shoot. The flip side of this is making the mistake of breaking a models trust; this could easily ruin your career as a glamour photographer. You will find it is truly amazing how the internet can ruin you forever when your model leaves the shoot, hops onto Facebook and Twitter and tells all her model friends that you are a creepy untrustworthy photographer. Thank you for playing, your career is done.

Lighting is important, proper technical photo skills are important, but in the end when it comes to glamour the mood of the image is most important. Photos tell stories, mood evokes emotion and emotion will equal the viewer looking at your photo longer. Mood is created by achieving trust between the model and the photographer, having proper rapport with the model to achieve that mood that is desired and simply to be open and honest with the model about the shoot and the content of the shoot. If you follow those simple rules you will find your photography grow and your reputation in the industry to grow along with it.

** Thanks again to Scott for giving me a chance to post over at photofocus.com – Hopefully more posts to come.

Blogs of the Day – wordpress.com

July 17, 2009: Top Posts – Ranked 65th out of all blog posts!

Are you, or do you dream about being, a photographer … amateur, semi-pro, or pro?

Have you ever wondered what it takes to shoot stunning photographs of beautiful women, or perhaps just wanted to improve your current shooting abilities?

Ever wanted to attend a photo workshop from one of the top glamour photographers in the world, but just couldn’t afford it or coordinate an opportunity to do so?

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC2aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

Mystique photographer Mark Daughn is now revealing his secrets and techniques in a new series of instructional DVDs. These DVDs are perfect for all levels of photographers, from someone who just began or is about to, to practicing professionals.

For the past eleven years, photographer Mark Daughn has been creating the unique look and feel of the images in Mystique Magazine. In addition to Mystique, he has published pictorials in Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler, as well as many of the top women’s fashion magazines. And top clothing companies have paid him mega bucks to create national ad campaigns for them.

Mark got his start in fashion photography, which gives him a unique perspective on how he approaches glamour photography.

Students pay thousands of dollars to take private lessons from him, some even flying to the United States from Europe and Australia just to attend one of his workshops.

But Mark understands not everyone can afford to attend a private workshop, so he is now sharing his decades of experience in a new series of affordable glamour photography DVDs.

The first three DVDs in the series are now available. Take a look …

Disc 1:

Production 101: Producing a Successful Shoot Mark explains each step of a successful production, giving you all the information needed for you to produce your own shoot.

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC3aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

Disc 2:

Lighting 101: The Fundamentals

Mark will teach you the breakdown of lighting, giving you all the concepts and information that will allow you to build your own lighting from the ground up.

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC4aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

Disc 3:

Lighting 201: Ultimate Single Light Setup By the end of the lesson, you will master the single light setup.

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC5aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

Also available are a set of 40 lighting diagrams, either as 4×6 cards, or on DVD for easy transfer to a mobile device or computer.

Photo Tip Cards:

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC6aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

DVD with Photo Tip Cards:

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC7aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

If you are serious about wanting to know how to improve your photography skills, and wish to learn what to do to take the best possible image of a woman, then these DVDs are an investment that will pay for themselves over and over again.

Order yours today!

http://sirensmystique.c.topica.com/maam7XhabQDC2aQ8f1tbaeQCqs/

I have not been a major user of Presets for Lightroom and i have to say that was a point of contention with me and Lightroom. I have a pretty decent amount of experience with Photoshop and both actions and plug-in applications yet I never investigated the world of presets for lightroom.

That all said I was given an opportunity to test the latest set of soon to be released presets from www.CameraDojo.com – The latest set is for B&W work and really produces some great results. Here are a couple examples:

Now you say – Wait a minute that’s a color photo – Well here is where presets become very interesting… Much like those plug-in’s and actions in Photoshop, presets can be combined or stacked to deliver literally 1000’s of combinations and the beauty of Lightroom is the History palette actually lets you understand what you have done and allows for immediate undo’s if you mess up your masterpiece.

I have also (because of the kindness of Kerry Garrison of CameraDojo.com) been provided their other set of presets to test out. You should see more shots and testing and impressions posted about those in the next few weeks.

Highly recommended for those that want to more easily experiment in B&W work in Adobe Lightroom.

Please feel free to post up or email me with any questions.

Part of the PhotoAssistant Series: http://www.profotoassistant.com

Nice work from these guys to help all of us improve our studio work.

Shape Collage 2.1

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