Essential techniques for unique silhouette photography Why silhouette photography In this post we would like to show you all the essential techniques for silhouette photography so you can create very unique and awesome images. Now the first thing we hear from a lot of photographers is “silhouettes? I don’t do those tacky things!” However did you know there are different degrees of silhouette not to mention so many ways to create them and incorporate them into your work? Maybe you’re looking for an ‘in your face’ silhouette or maybe you’re looking for something a lot more subtle. We would l ..read more

From Raw to finished image In this post I will show you the photography editing steps I went through to turn a mundane image into something that brings me a lot of joy and is the image I pre-visualised. Let me show you how it was done When you are out photographing do you ever find yourself looking at the scene but visualising a result that doesn’t quite tally with what you see in front of your eyes. This was my experience when my son and I went photographing along the Jurassic coast. If you haven’t read the post about our photographic mini adventure you can find it here. In this ..read more

Although the title to this post is how to photograph like Steve McCurry, it should be subtitled “How to make an image in the Steve McCurry style”.  When it comes to colour travel journalism photography, there is one photographer who stands head and shoulders above all others, Steve McCurry. We would like to show you what makes his images so special and edit one of our own, in his style. Before and after Steve McCurry style edit Who is Steve McCurry. If you don’t know his name, you can be sure to know at the least one image by him. The National Geographic cover ‘Afghan girl’ is one of the ..read more

From Raw to finished image In this post I will show you the photography editing steps I went through to turn a mundane image into something that brings me a lot of joy and is the image I pre-visualised. Let me show you how it was done When you are out photographing do you ever find yourself looking at the scene but visualising a result that doesn’t quite tally with what you see in front of your eyes. This was my experience when my son and I went photographing along the Jurasic coast. If you haven’t read the post about our photographic mini adventure you can find it here. In this p ..read more

The joy of Darkroom Printing Darkroom printing of Black and White images used to be the main way most photographers created their work. It was a rite of passage and everyone who did it will probably have a host of stories to tell. I know I do, like the time we would create a wall of flames around an unsuspecting printing colleague….. Enough of that now. I’ll tell you the full story later in this post. This post is all about the basics of Black and White darkroom printing and then in the next few posts we will go into detailed tutorials of various techniques – some beginner and some adva ..read more

Finding the Jurassic coast To photograph the Jurassic coast where dinosaurs used to prowl, incredible plant-life grew, and the steamy swamps took the life of many an unwary creature, you would think we would need to travel to an exotic Island. Maybe somewhere where people had never set foot? Possibly near the tropics as we need the heat for the steam? Err no. The image you see here was photographed at a south of England (UK) seaside holiday town in full summer school holiday swing. The dark and brooding Jurassic coast photograph I wanted Where to go So a few weeks ago I (Tim) went ..read more

Notre Dame Tribute after fire The 15th April 2019 was a very sad day. Not just for Catholics, nor for Parisians, historians, theologists or tourists but for all of us. Europe has lost one of its most beautiful buildings. Ally and I love Notre Dame so as a Notre Dame tribute we would like to show you some of our memories, inside and outside this stunning spiritual place. Paris, our hearts go out to you.             The post Notre Dame Tribute After Fire appeared first on ImageExplorers ..read more

Editing in Camera Raw This is how we edited the steam train cab image of the Umgeni Steam Railway train from the before and after post.  The following screenshots show the process of editing in Camera Raw to finished photograph. The image was taken on a very wide angle lens. We bought a Voigtlander 15mm manual lens for our Sony A7r and A7 before we left for a South African trip. Have to be honest here. I (Tim) am a wide angle lens freak. I can’t get enough of them. If I could only have one lens ever, it would be a prime super wide. Not only that, I really like manual focus.  Ally, on the other ..read more

Before and after photographs Do you ever look at your images and wonder why they just don’t have the ‘pop’ that you see on other people’s shots. There are many reasons that this could be, but we have found that the main one is down to processing. We would like to show you some of our before and after photographs of the steam train we shot in South Africa. If you haven’t read the article yet, click here for these images and more. But I don’t want to manipulate my photographs We hear this all the time. “I don’t manipulate my images”, “I only show the ‘truth’”, “What I saw is what I show you” o ..read more

Black and White Beach Photography Black and white beach photography can be a really cathartic experience. Standing on the rocks hearing the crash of waves, feeling slight spray whilst watching the sun come down, can help the day’s worries just evaporate! After this blissful experience, you get home hoping for some gorgeous black and white masterpieces that you envisaged, but sometimes you end up with grey, lifeless images. Let us show you 5 techniques that we use to get around this problem, when doing black and white beach photography. These will ensure that every time you go down to the sea ..read more