When I began this article, I set out to prove that RAW was king and JPEG was for the naive. While I still think shooting in RAW mode is the best strategy for overall image quality and creative control, I did learn a new way to improve JPEG images using Adobe RAW processing techniques and exposure compensation. In this article, I compare RAW and JPEG by running them through the same processing techniques. The results are startling. For this post I'm making the grand assumption that you are using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Raw. If you don't have those two programs and have splurged on a Digital SLR and corresponding kit, you should seriously re-evaluate where you are spending your photography dollar. Like it or not, Photoshop will give you far more control over your final image than any other piece of hardware you can buy. If you don't believe me, download a trial version here and see for yourself. Exposure Compensation: RAW vs JPEG I started off with an underexposed image that I shot last month on the Oregon coast. The image was composed on a Canon 5d with a 17-40L lens and was shot from the balcony of our hotel. Now ...

  Last October I was faced with one of my toughest challenges as a consumer - I was getting married and I needed to hire the photographer.  My now wife knew this would be an impossible task and was not going to touch it with a 10 foot pole - no, this one was mine.  Here's how I went about hiring my photographer, the steps I took, and what I feel is important to know when hiring your own wedding (or any event) photographer. The Process of Hiring a Photographer Figure out what you want in a Photographer - My process started with a long period of procrastination.  Periodically I would scan local photographer's websites, but was often underwhelmed by the stock poses and overwhelmed by the "packages."  Not that it put my wife's mind at ease, but all this waiting and perusing allowed me to get clear on what I wanted in a wedding photographer. To me, wedding photography is all about image quality, style and story-telling.  Our venue was not the traditional pew lined isle of a church, but rather a pecan grove in central Phoenix.  Liz and I both love the outdoors, so it just made sense to make that a ...

I have long been a pursuer of the ancients.  Maybe because these relics of the past add complexity and rhythm to the landscape.  Be they old cars dissolving into the ground, a half collapsed hotel, or a sagging barn; my camera inevitably drifts towards the past. They gage our past and our progress, and serving as reminders of where we've come from.  They provide endless textures, muted colors, and forms that defy convention.   These modern day monuments tell stories of an ever mobile society carried on the winds of change.  So in honor of these weather beaten-buildings and bullet ridden jalopies, I present the Decayed Earth Project.    

If you're like me and enjoy the shallow depth of field and graceful lines of macro photography you have undoubtedly explored ways to extend your macro capabilities.  My quest to improve my macro work started out as a quest to gain Tilt and Shift capabilities on my Canon Digital SLR. While that goal has remain elusive, I have improved my macro capabilities in the process.   Enter the macro bellows.  Similar to a large format view camera, the bellows attachment give you the ability to increase the distance between the sensor/film plane and your choice of optics. None of the lenses that I had for my camera did a particularly great job with the macro, so adding extension tube, while an option, would not be a complete solution for my dilemma.  One of the primary purposes for the macro bellows was to duplicate slides.  A secondary attachment to hold a slide or film negative would be mounted in front of the lens and the bellows  would allow for the focusing on the image.  Snap a picture, and now you have a duplicate.  Keep in mind that these were popular in the days before drum scanners and other digital reproduction solutions.  But with the duplicator attachment removed, the bellows ...