I used to agonize about which lens to use when shooting infrared to avoid the dreaded hotspot. This is what I’ve learned about how to tame them. — Since moving to an all ACR/Lr workflow for processing my infrared images, I’ve learned that the radial filter tool can be immensely helpful in taming, if not removing entirely, hotspots which impact the color, saturation exposure or contrast of an image shot with a lens with less than ideal coatings…

While there’s an art to shooting black and white photos, you may have shot some already and didn’t realize it. Let’s find the gems! — Once you know what to look for in a great black and white photo, you may feel compelled to seek out subject matter to snap. But more likely than not, you’ve already got some great ones in your library disguised as color photos just waiting to be teased out. All…

Just what makes a digital photo black and white? Technically, all digital photography starts out as black and white. There’s no such thing as a color sensor. Color photography happens by capturing monochrome image information after it passes through red, green and blue colored filters. These filters are part of the CFA (Color Filter Array) that’s printed on top…

With advances in digital photography, taking black and white photos in black and white has become increasingly unpopular. Let’s revive the art. — Most photographers practicing the art of black and white photography will recommend that you shoot in color first, and process the images to monochrome because it gives you more options. …

It may seem counterintuitive to be concerned with white balance in black and white photography. Read on to learn why it’s not. — Back in the early days of photography, all black and white film was “orthochromatic”, meaning sensitive to blue and green, but not red light. This is the reason that blue skies were generally pale, and these areas would overexpose more easily. …

It’s something you’ve likely already seen in use, but weren’t sure what to call it. Now you do. — The Orton Effect was created in the eighties by Michael Orton, a Canadian landscape photographer. It was very popular when film was in its prime, and remains a favorite effect today for adding an ethereal, dreamy look to landscapes. Michael took two (sometimes three) slides of the same subject and…

Photographic lighting can be both intuitive and learned. Here’s a case of the latter. — So you’re shooting a portrait with a key and a fill light, and when you take your first test shot the background is way too bright. What should you do? Try moving the key light closer. Closer? Yes, closer. Light has a unique behavior, and understanding how it behaves can…

These two closely related genres of photography are often confused with one another, but together they form a genre all their own. — Many photographers, including myself, have particular fetishes when it comes to photography. For some strange reason, I find manhole covers and overhead power lines fascinating. Quite possibly it’s because I associate them with geometric forms. But I generally shoot them from a distance, often in context with their surroundings. I…

One of my wife’s (and my) favorite photographic works is this image of Magnolia leaves by Cherie Lester. It has inspired me. My wife purchased a hand-colored monochrome print by Cherie Lester at a craft fair, but also admired this work which she found online. I have been smitten with…