The Digital Photography Show #77: Better Low-Light Pictures and Our New Photo Contest! (38Mb, 55 mins)

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December 11, 2007: Welcome to the seventy-seventh episode of The Digital Photography Show!

Listener Brian called us on our Skype voicemail last week with a question about the best ways to photograph a low-light wedding reception. On today’s show, we surprise him by calling him back with one of the top wedding photographers in the world on the line – David Jay.

David’s a great guy and he gives Brian excellent and practical advice on what equipment to bring to the reception, and how to use it. David even gives Brian a free copy of his plug-in modules for Abobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. You can check them out, along with David’s other software offerings, here.

We’re just kicking off our latest photo contest, “Spotlight on Giving.” The prize will be a wonderful Wacom tablet. Thanks, Wacom!

Here are the rules for DPS Photo Contest #7:

Title: A Spotlight on Giving

Theme: A subject demonstrating the act of giving.

Technique: Add a vignette to your image. A vignette can draw the viewers eye to the subject of your photo.

You can achieve a vignette by:

• Darkening around the subject, highlighting it. This works because the eye is generally drawn to the lightest object in a photo. (You can also do a reverse vignette, which lightens the area around your subject, although it’s rarely done, and rarely done well).
• Adding a selective blur around the subject, so it’s the sharpest thing in your photo.

1. Email jpg images to dpscontest@gmail.com.
2. The image must be in jpg format, and no more than 800 pixels on its widest side.
3. You may only enter three photographs.
4. If more than three photographs are entered, the first three received shall be entered.
5. The photo must be one that you created.
6. Please include the original exif info within the image.
7. Rename the image file with the photographers first and last name (so we know its yours).
8. If you are inclined to title your image (titles are optional):
   1. Append the title after the photographers name of the image file name.
   2. Example file name: MichaelStein_ElbowStuckInEar.jpg
9. Only one image per entrant can be eligible as a finalist.
10. Please provide us permission to post the image on our Phanfare site.
11. Photos will be accepted through Friday, 19 January, 2008.

Enjoy Being Creative!

We’re also are giving away a free year’s membership to xTrain. xTrain is a great resource for learning skills that will enhance your photography and your photo-processing skills. Send the answer to the question we ask about the coupon code to us at TheDigitalPhotographyShow@gmail.com. The cut-off date is January 1, 2008. We’ll pick a correct answer at random.

You can get a 15% off discount on any xTrain course or membership plan by using the code you’ll find here.

If you want to buy DXO Optics Pro, remember the 20% discount they are only offering to listeners of this show. Try the program for free, and when you’re ready to buy, use the code DXODPS.

We’d love to hear what you thought of the show either here on the blog or at TheDigitalPhotographyShow@gmail.com.

We also appreciate the sponsorship of Wacom (www.wacom.com) and Lensbabies (www.lensbabies.com), two great products for when you want to get creative with your photography.

Wanna participate in the show?

• Send us an email at TheDigitalPhotographyShow@gmail.com.
• Leave a comment at www.TheDigitalPhotographyShow.com
• Call in a voice mail to US 301-637-7767
• Join the listener-run (thanks Laurel and Frank!) Flickr group Friends of The Digital Photography Show at http://flickr.com/groups/thedps.

Thanks for joining us here and hope you enjoy this week’s show. Now, go out, picture giving and put a spotlight on it!

Scott

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.