This is a really great video. It features professional photographers discussing what it takes to make it as a professional photographer, or really just a success in general. If you want to become a professional photographer grab a pen and paper and take some notes. There is golden advice in these 15 minutes!

Someone has posted this lovely documentary about Henri Cartier Bresson. Bresson is undoubtedly one of the masters of photography and this revealing documentary is absolutely fascinating. He was a master of the decisive moment.

Also speaking of the decisive moment, this actually might just be an artifact of the past. Consider the notion that in the future your video camera will shoot such high resolution imagery that you could just record a long scene and then scroll back frame by frame to pick out the decisive moment! Kevin Kelly posted about this idea recently. He calls it the decisive hour. The main idea is that the distinction between cinema and stills is already gone.

Lightroom For Travel Photography

Here are more Tutorial videos from Julianne Kost:

Lightroom 4 — The Difference Between “Edit in Photoshop” and “Open as Smart Object”

In this episode of The Complete Picture Julieanne shows you the difference between opening a raw file as a pixel-based layer versus a Smart Object, and the advantages of both approaches.

Lightroom 4 — Exporting Images from Lightroom 4

In this episode of The Complete Picture Julieanne demonstrates the advantage of setting up presets in Lightroom to simultaneously export images to multiple file types, sizes, compression settings, etc. You might even find this method more powerful than Photoshop’s Image Processor!

Lightroom 4 — Toning Black and White Photographs in Lightroom 4

In this episode of The Complete Picture Julieanne explains the best way to add a color tone to an image using the Split Tone and Tone Curve panels and shows how to save presets to increase your productivity. Click here to download the presets discussed in the video. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.

Lightroom 4 — Converting Images to Black and White in Lightroom 4

In this episode of The Complete Picture Julieanne demonstrates the best way to convert images to Black and White as well as how to save presets to increase your productivity. Click here to download the presets discussed in the video. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.

Lightroom 4 — The Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4

In this episode of The Complete Picture discover the power of making selective adjustments like dodging and burning, color corrections and noise removal using the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.

Lightroom 4 — Quick Tip — Output From the Book Module to JPEG

In this Quick Tip Julieanne will show you how to output JPEG files from the Book Module in Lightroom 4.1.

Lightroom 4 — Quick Tip — The Painter Tool in Lightroom 4

In this Quick Tip Julieanne will show you a few of her favorite uses for the little-known Painter tool in Lightroom 4.

Lightroom 4 — Why Does the Photograph’s Preview Change in Lightroom and Bridge?

In this video tutorial Julieanne explains one of the great mysteries of Lightroom and Bridge — why Lightroom (or Bridge) displays a photograph one way and then changes the way it looks a moment later. It will all become clear with just a little information about how digital camera files are captured and displayed by different applications.

Lightroom 4 — Quick Tip — Creating 32-bit (HDR) Images in LR 4.1

In this Quick Tip Julieanne quickly demonstrates how to create a 32-bit file from multiple exposures in Photoshop and then, using the Develop module in Lightroom 4.1 refines the image’s color and tonality both globally and selectively — all while still working in 32-bit!

Lightroom 4 — Importing and Organizing Your Images

Discover the most efficient method for downloading images into Lightroom 4 and organizing them. Quickly import and manage your photo collection in a library that makes organizing, finding and editing your photos easy.

Lightroom 4 — Select, Rate and Prioritize Your Images

Find out which method of tagging images works best for the photography you do in order to simplify the creation of collections of images.

Lightroom 4 — Create Stunning Images

Learn how to create the highest quality photographs by learning how to crop, remove lens distortion, correct perspective, make global and local color and tonal corrections in the Lightroom 4 Develop module.

Lightroom 4 — Adding Special Effects

Discover the best way to convert images to black and white, as well as add tonal overlays, edge effects, selective coloring and film grain textures.

Lightroom 4 — Viewing Images on a Map

Discover how to use the new Lightroom 4 Map module to sort and manage your images based on location information.

Lightroom 4 — Moving Between Lightroom 4 and Photoshop

Learn how to take a single image or multiple images for editing seamlessly between Lightroom and Photoshop. Also, see how to use Photoshop tools like Photomerge, HDR pro, and the export dialog in Lightroom for exporting multiple files.

Lightroom 4 — Book Module Basics

In the first tutorial of a three-part series Julieanne provides a complete overview of the bookmaking process using the new Lightroom 4 Book module.

Lightroom 4 — Publish a Slideshow

Learn how to create, render and publish a slideshow with music by sequencing your images to tell the perfect story.

Lightroom 4 — Print the Perfect Image

Learn how to use the Print module to bring your images into the spotlight and share with clients, friends or family. Also, see the new tools for making custom contact sheets and print packages.

Lightroom 4 — Share Images Online

Learn to use the Web module to publish to the popular online photo sharing sites with Lightroom’s new Publish Services option in the Library module.

Lightroom 4 — Working with DSLR Video

Master the new features for editing, adjusting, rendering, and sharing video clips in Lightroom 4.

Here are some screenshots:

Buy it on Amazon.

See Also: Free Adobe Tutorial videos.

photo by CourtneyCarmody

The Icon Photography School is pleased to announce that we are now accepting Bitcoin thanks to CoinBase. For now it’s for one time payments only and in the future we hope to enable recurring payments. We believe this cryptographic digital currency needs as much support as it can get. So here we are supporting it! If you’re not familiar with BitCoin you should check it out.

Sign up for the Icon Photography School using Bitcoin below (%20 off for BitCoin users)

Sign up for the Icon Photography School Gold Package:

Sign up for the Icon Photography School Silver Package:

Sign up for the Icon Photography School Bronze Package:

Just be sure to notify us when you have submitted your Bitcoin payment.

I’ll just put this here:

You could try learn your camera’s manual by reading it, just be aware that you may actually die of boredom. So what is the fast way to learn a camera manual? Put it near your toilet! That’s right leave it near your toilet and you will pick up a thing or two every time you take care of business. When there is nothing to read your camera’s manual will save you. You’ll learn all about the DSLR you own and don’t know how to use.

So um yeah that’s that.

photo by zachd1_618

The Ultimate Gift Guide for Photographers

Grab some milk and cookies and enjoy this list of the best photography gifts of the year. This carefully curated list will suit every budget. From the quirky and fun to the expensive and pro. This guide has it all.

#1 Photography School Gift Certificate.

I would be remiss if I didn’t list this as number 1 on the list. Obviously I have a massive bias here but giving someone the gift of learning photography is one of the best things you can give them. You’re basically giving someone the ability to produce high quality photographs for the rest of their lives. When people’s houses burn down what do they grab? Their loved ones, their pets, and their photos! Photography is hugely important to people and giving this gift to them would essentially mean they get to have a lifetime of great photographs.

#2 BackBlaze Gift Certificate

I have a Backblaze Review over here but suffice it so say it’s the best online backup solution for photographers. Head over here to gift the gift of unlimited online backups. Backblaze Gift certificates come in any denomination. How awesome would it be if you saved your friends’ photo collection from disaster? You’d be total BFFs!

#3 Rad Flickr T-Shirts

Flickr just released a bunch of totally rad t-shirts.

#4 Gift a Flickr Pro Account (includes 50 free prints)

Speaking of Flickr. Any self respecting photographer these days should have a flickr pro account. Maybe you know someone who doesn’t have one and really should. It’s only $24.95 for a 1 year pro account. That’s only like $2 a month.

#4 Amazon Photography Gift Card

You can pretty much buy any photography equipment known to man on Amazon so with this photography gift card you’ll make your photog friends’ holiday season. The chimping will never cease!

#5 Amazon Gift Card With Your Own Photo On It

Even better this gift card from Amazon allows you to upload your own photo and have it on the actual gift card. If you’re a photographer this also makes a great gift for clients because you can put the photo you shot for them right on the card!

#6 Kindle PreLoaded with Photography Books

This is probably one of the best things you could ever give to a photographer. A kindle chalk full of photo books! It’s simple just buy them a Kindle as a gift and then use the “buy as a gift” option on a bunch of photography books.

#7 SanDisk 64GB Flash Drive

If there is anything that can save a photographer it’s a good quality USB stick. USB is practically universal so a photographer can use these to give photos to clients or make prints. They are one of the most useful little tools in a photographers camera bag.

#8 F-Stop Watch

This is exactly what ever hardcore nerd photographer needs a watch that they probably won’t wear. It’s pretty cheap but more fun than anything.

#8 B&H Gift Cards

B&H is one of the greatest single photography stores on the planet. It could actually be the largest photography store on earth but I’m not really sure. All I know is that if you take a look at this super secret link it will show you photography products with discounts, free shipping, and are in stock right now.

#9 Lens Mugs

This is another stocking stuff style gift. It’s mostly just funny and not very practical or useful. Hopefully they don’t confuse their real lenses for coffee mugs when you buy this for them.

#10 Visible Dust Sensor Cleaning Kits

Visible Dust Cleaning Kits are the best tool for this type of thing. They are great for cleaning sensors with dust on them and pretty much every pro photographer uses these to clean their sensors these days. A must have for the serious photographer.

#11 Wacom Tablet

Anyone who takes their photoshop seriously knows how important these things are. Any serious photographer or photoshop wiz will be impressed with your knowledge and will love long time if you buy them one of these.

Apparently I was really ambitious when I gave this article a grandiose title. I think I’ll go shoot some photos instead of finding more stuff for you to buy. Here’s the thing, I’m actually doing you a favor! You don’t have to buy as much stuff! I’ll continue updating this list over time.

See also: The Most Popular Photography Gifts of the Year.

Icon Photography School Store

Backblaze is the best online backup solution for photographers for a number of reasons.

Backblaze is like the Flickr of backup solutions in that it is unlimited and kind of awesome. Well, Flickr used to be awesome but you get the idea. It’s cloud based and it’s unlimited. So no matter how many huge RAW files you have, you can back them up to the cloud. Think about that for a minute. You can relax knowing that all of your master files are stored safely in the cloud.

It’s just a small application that runs in the menu bar of your mac and it runs silently in the background. The application continuously sends your data to the cloud. The software also throttles uploads so that it doesn’t consume all your bandwidth when you need it.

The beauty of the system is that alongside the unlimited backups they incorporate sneakernet to get your files back to you. What is sneakernet? Sneakernet is a method for transferring computer files by physically couriering removable media like a hard drive. That’s exactly what backblaze does.

If you need to restore a huge backup they will just send you a hard drive. That way you don’t have wait to download a Terabyte of files. On an average connection that could take weeks. Of course you can also download individual files if you need to recover just one specific file or folder. Whatever the case they’ve got you covered.

Here are a few screenshots of Backblaze running on a Mac. It also works on Windows but most photographers these days are running on OSX. You can click on the screenshots to enlarge them.

Backblaze Control panel on the mac.

Backblaze desktop settings on the mac.

Backblaze performance settings on the mac.

Backblaze backup schedule settings on the mac.

Backblaze file exclusions on the mac.

Backblaze desktop security settings on the mac.

Backblaze backup report on the mac.

Backblaze web interface for file recovery and download.

Having already backed up 1 Terabye of RAW images to Backblaze, I can safely say that it is a great service and you won’t regret it.

Imagine if you we’re one those unlucky folks who we’re caught up the path of Hurricane Sandy. How would you feel if you lost your image libraries? It would be devastating. That’s a huge reason that online backups are a good idea. You house could burn down and your media would still be safe on a server in the cloud. It should go without saying that the ideal solution would be a combination of both local backups and cloud based backups.

Go and ahead and check out Backblaze!

The exact resolution of these new Twitter Header images is 520×260 pixels. Although Twitter recommends 1252×626 pixels they downsize the images and the final resolution is 520×260.

For fun I made a couple of these Twitter headers for you. Feel free to use them. Please say hello if you use one of these! Here they are:

Right click and save one of the images above to your desktop.

Here is how to change your Twitter Header photo:

1. Log In
2. Settings
3. Profile
4. Change Header

Visit the Twitter help page if you need more help with this.

If you would be cool if you would if you followed @PhotographyIcon and @thelastminute. Let us know if you use any of these.

If you want to make your own Twitter Headers here is a photoshop template I created. In fact you can use this template to align the background image and your Twitter avatar perfectly. In other words you can make your Avatar and your Twitter Header work together seamlessly.

Download Twitter Header Photoshop Template.

New Twitter headers will be added here int he future so check back later.

Example of camera shake:

(photo by itchys)

Notice how the image is just barely out of focus but it’s far enough out to ruin the image. The horror!

Why does camera shake happen?
When you take a photo there is a moment when the shutter is open and light hits your camera’s sensor or film. If the shutter is open for a long time and you move your camera while it’s open you will most likely get a blurry photo. While the shutter is open and you are holding the camera tiny movements in your hands and arms will make your image slightly blurry. In photography the shutter is very very fast so a long time in this context could even be less than a second.

There are a whole host of ways to avoid camera shake. Here are a few:

Shutter Speed
One method would be to shoot at a faster shutter speed. In some cases to achieve these higher shutter speeds you will have to shoot higher ISOs

Shoot at Higher ISOs
Obviously the side effect of this is that you’ll get more noise and grain in your image but I’ll take a noisy image that’s in focus over a blurry image any day of the week.

Use a Better Lens
Another option would be to shoot with a faster lens. If you shoot with a better lens you can get away with more. So if all things are equal you can capture more light with a better lens. As such you’ll have less camera shake.

Get a Better Camera
A camera with a high quality imaging sensor can almost always shoot sharper images in lower light. Before anything else gets written here I should note that ‘getting a better camera’ should almost NEVER be a solution to a problem in photography. I just needed something to fill out this list! In all seriousness though a better camera will help in this situation so get yourself a better camera.

Use A Tripod!
The most obvious solution is to just use a damn tripod! As a general rule you almost always get sharper images when you use a tripod. The tripod is a stable platform for your camera and it does not move and it will eliminate camera shake. Don’t have a tripod? Go buy a tripod.

Hold The Camera Steadier
When you don’t have a tripod or can’t use one just take a moment and control your breathing and concentrate on being still. Take a deep breath or two. Compose yourself if you will.

Make a Tripod
You don’t have to carry around your bulky tripod. You can just make your own tripod out of string!

Hold the Barrel
Support your camera by holding the barrel of your lens and putting your elbow on something like your knee or something solid.

Bring Your Elbows In
Bring your elbows in and rest them on your stomach/chest. That way you’ll be making a tripod between your two hands and your eye pressed against the viewfinder.

Make it Art!
Just like most artefacts and technical screw ups in photography you can make it into an art form. People have taken this artifact of photography and produced some very interesting images. It’s like the rule of thirds, you should really learn it before you start to break it as a rule.

Examples of camera shake (or motion blur) being used creatively:

photo by unukorno

photo by ninette_luz

To learn how to use motion and the blur effect creatively take a look at our article: How To Show Motion in Photography By Panning

Put Your Camera on a Stable Surface
You can really get away with anything that is stable and doesn’t move. Just be careful because cameras have been known to fall of things you might have thought we’re stable.

Lean On Me. And I’ll be your friend
Just like Bill Withers suggests, just lean on something. If there is a post or a tree or something right at the position you want to shoot from then lean on it. This essentially removes a great deal of the movement that is occurring in your body all the time

Get closer
Geting closer to your subject means you won’t have to zoom as much. The less you have to use your zoom, the less your lens will shake.

Stop Drop and Shoot!
If you can lie on the ground. The all but eliminates the movement of your body and will result in sharper images.

A Simple Rule
As a really rough mental guideline ensure that your shutter speed is never slower than half the focal lenght of your zoom lens. So if you’re shooting with a 300mm lens you don’t really want your shutter speed to drop below 150/sec. This is an very very rough tool but it helps you keep camera shake in mind.

Now get out there and shoot some razor sharp images.