Naming and Describing Photos – A New Idea

The Dreaded Photo Title and Description

I should have better titles for my photos but I absolutely hate trying to come up with a catchy name for a photo. I often just name a photo whatever it looks like, for example “Shore Birds” for a photo that shows a bunch of birds on the shore. The description also follows the same form – just describing what it is that is in the photo.

This is not very good.

I would like to have better titles and descriptions because this could potentially excite prospective buyers into buying my photos. But, coming up with titles is difficult and I needed a way to do this.

Below: An Example of a Bland Description from My Instagram Account @larslentzphotography

A bright green tree #frog hiding in the garage door.

A photo posted by Lars Lentz (@larslentzphotography) on Sep 1, 2014 at 9:50am PDT

I looked at what other photographers are doing for their titles and descriptions, and they fall into one of two different categories:

1. Weak – Titles and descriptions are just like I’ve already described and are not very exciting at all.
2. Over-the-Top – Crazy descriptions and fantasy-sounding titles that really don’t make me want to buy or even take the photographer seriously.

These are both bad, and clearly a better system is needed to describe and title photos.

Essential Photo Post-Processing Programs

I believe strongly that there are a few photo editing software programs that are absolutely essential to any photographer:

Getting the Correct Color in Lightroom and DxO Optics Pro

DxO Optics Pro and Adobe Lightroom

When used together, DxO Optics Pro and Adobe Lightroom work very well. However, I noticed an issue in my workflow and it was the color of the images. The greens and reds were noticeably stronger in DxO Optics Pro than in Lightroom, for the exact same photo. Here’s what I found out was the problem…

Care What YOU Think

Who can't be happy on a beach?

A photo posted by Lars Lentz (@larslentzphotography) on Jun 27, 2014 at 11:34am PDT

The Caring Trap

As a photographer, you probably care a lot about what other people think of your photos. Right? This is not a bad thing. The opinions of others is often the only way you’ll get the feedback you need to help you progress in the quality of your photography. But, don’t take it too far, or you’ll fall into a nasty trap. 

Winter = Cold = Clarity!

 Winter, Cold Weather, and Clarity

For clarity in your photos, the cold of winter is one of the best times available! You will consistently get sharper, cleaner-looking outdoor photos in winter than at any other time of the year. Why?

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 21,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Photography Book Reviews

I’ve read several photography books and here are my short reviews on some of them. I am mostly a landscape, nature, and travel photographer, so I have read more of these types of books than others, but there are books in here for any photographer that I would recommend!

Native ISO and Noise

ISO Settings In Your Camera

ISO settings can drastically affect your photos and you should know where to set the ISO in every circumstance.

Your goal as a photographer is to both get the shot and to have an acceptably low-noise photo as a result. High ISO levels result in higher noise levels in your photos. The best ISO level for the least amount of noise is your camera’s “native ISO.” Native ISO (also known as “Base ISO”) refers to the ISO level that is where the camera sensor’s “fullest” light level corresponds to the same level of fully exposed film. The details are unimportant, but it is important to know the following:

Choosing a Metering Mode

Matrix/Evaluative, Center-Weighted, Partial, Spot.

Confusing.

Which metering mode is the right one to use?

The answer is not simple. I’m primarily an outdoor photographer and that demands a lot of care in selecting the metering mode – more than for any other type of photography because the subject is changing all the time. I’ve used all of the metering modes at one time or another, but what would I recommend keeping your camera on all of the time?

What Type of Photographer are You?

OnOne Perfect Photo Suite – Removing People from a Beach

Removing People from a Beach

This is a short video that shows some of the capabilities of OnOne Perfect Photo Suite. In this video, I show how to remove people (and a dog) from a beach photo very easily (and almost magically) using OnOne Perfect Photo.

A Photo Critique

Here is a photo (small version above) that I posted to Nature Photographer’s Network. Click the photo or the link [here] to visit the page. It will be up for about a month after this post. There you will see the helpful critiques you can get on your photos if you post them there. I would highly recommend it, but also remember to take the criticism with care – it is not all helpful. Here are some of the critiques so far…

Easy Night Sky Photography

How to Take Great Night Photos

What a lot of people don’t know is that it is relatively inexpensive and easy to take great night photos. The Milky Way, stars, and Moon are all within your reach. You can get some extremely cool-looking photos of them without a lot of effort. Here’s how…

B+H Photo Video

B&H Photo Video is my recommended vendor for any photography equipment. They are based in New York and have the best sales, selection, and customer service that I have experienced.

Photo Artifacts in Stock Photography Submissions

“Artifacts”

If you’ve ever submitted a photo to a stock photo site such as iStockphoto, Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, or any of the stock and microstock photo sites, then you may have heard from them that “your photo has artifacts.” But what are these “artifacts” they speak of? And, more importantly, how can you get rid of them?

Some Guidelines (from my experience)