Use Textures To Transform Your Photos Into Fine Art
By Nitsa Malik– The fastest way to add a new dimension to a picture is to open your photo editor and insert an additional layer which contains texture on top of your original photo. Textures are usually a photograph or a scan of another image, such as peeling paint, distressed or scratched surface and even vintage paper. These textures can be added on top of your own photo and merged with it by changing the blend modes and opacity...
Make Spectacular Reflection-Free Framed Prints
By Al Warfield– After you’ve gone to the effort of taking the perfect shot, making the perfect print, and choosing the perfect frame, why spoil your image by framing it under glass where a myriad of reflections will wreck its beauty? It’s easy to eliminate reflections on framed prints made with Red River Matte and Fine Art Matte papers; you’ll also have the added advantage of displaying an image as large as the frame size instead of a...
Print Greeting and Note Cards for Profit. Part 2
by Christine Pentecost— Receiving a card in the mail will always eclipse one sent electronically—not only because it shows the recipient you really spent some time picking it out just for them, but also that you wanted to write a personal note of your own and not rely on some clever or flowery language that was written to cover all bases. Your thoughts really do count. Now let’s go into what customers like to buy when it comes to...
Print Greeting and Note Cards for Profit. Part 1
By Christine Pentecost— The greeting and note card business is booming despite the ease of sending digital cards. Hallmark’s slogan sums up the difference between the two. An emailed card is a half-hearted gesture, but “when you care to send the very best” only a paper card will do. It shows you’ve taken the time to give your recipient a warm and personal feeling when they open the envelope. About 12 years ago, I decided to...
New Photo Project Book Really Delivers!
By Albert Chi— Despite its quirky title, this new photo book by Chris Gatcum will introduce you to a plethora of projects, allowing you to achieve creative mastery of the digital photography medium…stuff you’ve always wanted to do but never quite figured out how. The subtitle of the book is “52 weekly projects to make you a better photographer” but don’t mistake this for the usual run-of-the-mill book of its kind; it’s way better. The...
Back To Basics: Quick ‘n Easy Print Framing!
By Peter E. Randall— Based on nearly sixty years of experience, I believe there are two major elements to photography. The first part is the making of an image, whether on film, digital or smartphone. The other aspect is what to do with it. Today, internet programs such as Instagram or Facebook appear to be the prime destinations for digital images. This may be momentarily satisfying, but it does nothing for the long-term appreciation...
Your Scanner Invites You to Create Exquisite Images
by Janet Dwyer— Often people who see my exhibition prints are floored by the larger than life detail, then stunned when told my ‘camera’ is a scanner. Scanners create some unique effects due to their myopic vision, wrap around quality of lighting, and moving lens. The lens records and lights the objects from several different points of view as it travels past them. In the early 2000s I connected my first Epson scanner to a computer...
Asus 24″ Monitor: Perfect Color for Perfect Prints
By Arthur H. Bleich— You may own cameras and software worth thousands of dollars, but that won’t result in good prints unless you’re able to view your images accurately on your monitor. The 24” Asus PA248QV allows you to do just that; in fact, it out-performs many monitors costing a lot more than its modest price of $219—which includes free shipping. Don’t take my word for it; over 80% of more than 750 reviews from those...
How Two of My Images Grew Into a 55-foot-wide Mural
By Christine Pentecost— Do you ever see something you want to take a photo of, “some day”? Something, maybe, you see all the time and plan to eventually get around to taking pictures of it? A unique lonely tree in an open field? Poppies waving in the breeze? A neat old building? A beautiful mountain range? And then, the unimaginable happens: the tree falls down, the field of poppies get crushed in a hail storm, that neat old building...
Documenting Maine’s Penobscot River Wilderness. Part 2
By Zac Durant— The first half of my trip was leisurely paced down the West Branch of the Penobscot and I had time to enjoy and photograph much of the river’s wildlife including an industrious beaver who simply ignored me, an inquisitive moose, and low flying eagles that soared by. And then there was the peculiar jack rabbit who paddled out in the shallows and hopped onto a protruding rock. As I approached, he seemed unconcerned by my...
Nikola Olic: Dominates Tall Buildings With A Single Lens!
By Albert Chi— Nikola Olic is a lover of photography– a quintessential “amateur” in the classical sense of the word. He’s free to exercise his artistic vision any way he chooses without restraints of time or client demands. “I was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia,” says Olic, now 47, “and came to the U.S. at 17 as an exchange student to study computer science and engineering.” He was assigned to the University of Texas, Arlington...
Sloooooow Down For More Creative Images
By Albert Chi— Most photographers dread shooting when poor light levels require slow shutter speeds for proper exposure. Chances are pictures will end up blurred due to camera shake, subject motion, or both. And to compensate, you can only up the ISO so much before running into noise and artifacts. Here are some ways to make slow shutter speeds work for you. In fact, even when you have enough light to use faster speeds, shooting with...
Pros Tell How To “Get The Photos Others Can’t ->”
By Michael Freeman— When you know in advance that a situation forbids photography, you first need to have a very good reason to flout authority, and then you need to plan how to shoot surreptitiously. This is the serious end of investigative photojournalism, and while you’re not likely to be facing the same challenges as Hazel Thompson, there are plenty of valuable lessons to be learned from her remarkable shoot of kids locked up in...
Photojournalist With Soul: Carl Juste
by Arthur H. Bleich— Red River Ppaper Pro Carl Juste has a personal intensity that permeates every photograph he makes. His images speak in a way words cannot, making an immediate connection with the viewer. He is a master visual communicator. Juste, 56, was just two years old when his family was forced to flee Haiti to escape political persecution. They settled in Brooklyn, NY, and spent ten years there until they moved to...
Thank Essential Workers With A Personalized Card
By Albert Chi— More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since the year began so it’s easy to understand why the Sympathy and Get Well card slots in store card racks are bare. But Thank You cards are also in short supply at many locations as grateful survivors and their families snatch them up to send to medical staff and others who’ve gone above and beyond to save patients. Yet, there’s a whole cadre of essential...
Nina Katchadourian: Photo Artistry at 36,000 Feet
By Arthur H. Bleich— It’s 2011. On a jumbo jet 36,000 feet over the Pacific headed for New Zealand, night has fallen, the cabin lights are dimmed and most of the passengers have dozed off. Nina Katchadourian slips quietly out of her aisle seat, cellphone in hand, and makes her way down the aisle to one of the lavatories. She’s on a mission in conjunction with a project she’s titled “Seat Assignment” and tonight...
Here comes the sun…and Solarcan’s ready to grab it!
By Albert Chi— Many strange-looking cameras have been produced but Solarcan may be the weirdest, yet. And, certainly, what it’s made to do gives it a leg up on all the others. Basically, it’s a pinhole camera with a twist (curved to be more exact), made to record the transit of the Sun, for a day, a week, a month—even a year or more. The image it produces shows how, as the seasons change, the sun takes a different path across the sky...
Texture, Deckle and Float Your Flower Images!
By Christine Pentecost— Living in Montana, where the winters are long, I decided to give myself a photographic challenge, so I could enjoy my flowers year round. I wanted to photograph fresh bouquets of flowers, but in a way that I could have unique backgrounds, which could easily be changed. I also wanted a new way to present them at the many shows I exhibit at. Here’s an overview of three techniques to make your flower...
Keeping The Faith: Empty Sky Project
By Steve Simon— Faith is an element of my photography that continues to surface in my work, not only in the stories I choose to pursue, but also in my philosophy and approach to shooting. What happened to me with my project Empty Sky: The Pilgrimage to Ground Zero was an exercise in faith and belief in my work, and a great example of what can happen when you put your work out there. The story dates back to just after 9/11. I decided...
Miyako Koumura: Capturing Japan’s Flowers For Posterity
By Arthur H. Bleich— It’s midnight in a small town west of Tokyo and almost everyone’s asleep except for Miyako Koumura who’s loading her photo equipment into an old, silver-gray Honda Fit (her economical and reliable companion, she calls it), preparing to set out for Chuzenji Lake in Nikko National Park, about a three-hour drive north. By the time she arrives the sky has begun to lighten and, after parking her car,...
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