How to Use Light to Create Beautiful Images

Using Light

You may have heard that light is one of the most important factors in creating beautiful images. In fact, it is. Beautiful light makes beautiful images.

To create really impressive images, you need to know what to look for when evaluating light. There are actually four aspects of light that need to be evaluated. Furthermore, these aspects of light need to be properly matched to the subject matter being photographed.

The Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography will teach you the four aspects of light so that you can select the best light for any subject matter that you select.

How to Use Composition to Create Striking Images

Using Composition

Once you have beautiful light, the next step is to compose the image. The proper composition for an image can mean the difference between an unimpressive snapshot and a professional, stunning image.

When photographers think of composition, many of them immediately think of the rule of thirds. This rule, as well as other similar rules, is covered in the Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography. However, great composition involves far more than these simple rules. For instance, do you know:

• The most important characteristic of a strong image
• Five ways to strengthen the composition of an image
• How to strengthen an image by using the art of subtraction

The Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography covers all these aspects of composition.

How to Use Color to Create Superb Images

Using Color

One of the most powerful tools in photography is color. Color grabs people's attention. However, there is more to using color than just finding a bold color and photographing the color. For instance, did you know:

The Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography covers these aspects of color and how they can be used to add impact to images.

How to Use Workflow to Dramatically Enhance Images

Capturing images is just the start. To create truly impressive images, the images must be properly edited. To craft the highest quality images, a photographer must be able to use both a raw converter and an image editing program. Thus, the Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography covers both raw workflow (Camera Raw) and image editing program workflow (Photoshop):

• The basic Camera Raw adjustments
• The basic Photoshop CS5 tools
• The strengths and weaknesses of raw converters vs. image editing programs
• The seven rules to improve workflow quality
• How to properly sharpen an image

In addition, to give an example of how Camera Raw and Photoshop can be used together to produce a high quality image, the Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography takes an image, step-by-step, through a beginning-to-end workflow.

Image before Workflow

Image after Workflow

How to Use Color Management to Create Images with Accurate Color

Using Color Management

It is one thing to get an image to look great on your monitor. It is an entirely different matter to get a print of the image to look like what you saw on the screen. In fact, many photographers discover that the colors in the print do not match the colors they saw when they took the image or the colors they saw on the monitor. This is where the science of color management comes into play. Color management ensures, as much as technically possible, that the colors in an image come out accurate. Did you know:

• Color management has two functions
• If not set up properly, Photoshop can convert your images to another color space and possibly change the colors in the process without informing you
• Unless you use the correct Photoshop viewing capability, the image on your monitor will look different than the print

The Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography covers the various steps of color management. The guide explains the color management options in detail for those photographers that want to know the particulars and shows sample menus, that will work well for many photographers, for those photographers that want to set up the color management as quickly as possible.

How to Use Camera Equipment to Capture Amazing Images

Using the Equipment

Of course, the camera equipment is an important part of capturing amazing images. As such, the Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Digital Photography covers the factors to consider when evaluating cameras, optics, and tripods. In addition, the guide covers using the equipment, including:

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