Michelle K Wood Photography

 What is Color Space? If you've browsed the Photo Shooting settings menu of your dslr, you've likely seen a setting for Color Space. Unless you have some super-special video camera, you'll see two choices, sRGB, the factory default setting on most dslrs, and Adobe. In my Nikons, the designation is visible in the file name. sRGB Color Space is saved as DSC_nnnn (the underscore in the middle) while Adobe Color Space is saved as _DSCnnnn (underscore at the beginning). unless, of course, you have changed the file name designation yourself. (I did alter my file name settings so that the file names on my D3200 are DSC and my Z50's file names are ZSC. My purpose for this is so that I can combine photos from both cameras into one folder and tell at a glance which camera they came from. File name makes no difference in editing processes.) Why the Color Space you choose is important. Most monitors and screens display only the spectrum of the sRGB color space. Wh

Most of us, myself included, put our photographs in a frame with glass and hang them in a desired location without much thought for what happens to them once they're on the wall beyond our pleasure in seeing them there. One of my landscapes matted in black. To keep your beautiful, precious photos safe while on display, here's some very useful advice from a friend of mine who works on photo restoration: Hang your photo in a place where sunlight will not directly fall on it. Sunlight can damage the photo, and wash-out or even change the colors on the photo. Also there is the possibility of water damage due to condensation inside the frame if the environment experiences wide temperature swings, or if the photo is in direct sunlight. Never let the glass touch the photo directly, always use a mat between the photo and the glass even if it's just a small one. When the photo touches the glass for a long period of time, there's the danger of damage. The emulsion, the t

 It may seem like a funny question. Landscape orientation, in which your photo is wider than it is tall, is for landscapes, right? Portrait orientation in which your photo is taller than it is wide, is for, well, portraits and people! I invite you to try new things! Especially if there is a particular landmark feature you're trying to highlight in your composition. Honestly, I thought everyone did this but I'm learning it's rare that photographers turn their cameras on the side and take landscape photos in portrait orientation. Here are two photos of the same landscape, one in landscape orientation and one in portrait. Check them out and see what you think! If it looks like something fun to play with, try it next time you're out! Composition tip: The way to get that sapphire colored water, actually it's ice in these photos...not editing in post! It's in the timing: be on location in the late afternoon or evening, take the photo when the sun is behind you and

Warm-up exercises are a great practice to add to any regular routine or task you do! Photography Yoga? No, just my grandson wishing I'd hurry up taking floral macros so we could continue our walk!  I hadn’t thought about this until seeing a recent article for artists that suggested drawing circles, squares, triangles, wavy shapes and straight lines as warm-up exercises. This is not only for the eye, but the fingers and wrists as well as mental coordination. It makes so much sense, and yet unless you’re a football player or an opera singer, probably no one has ever made the ‘warm up’ suggestion to you. What does this mean for photographers? We need to get creative. I shoot nature and conservation photos, figuring out what kind of warm up goes with that just took a bit of observation. I’m up and down a lot, getting close to small plants and insects on the ground, so some knee-flexing is a good warm up for me. Stretches that loosen up my shoulders are beneficial since I’m swing

Great photos take great planning. Not necessarily elaborate or complicated, but definitely great attention to detail. Here are some tips for planning three popular styles of photography, closeups, landscapes, and portraits. Closeups – bokeh. The whole point behind a closeup is the attention to the detail of your subject. You can emphasize that by creating a nice background blur so the background does not draw attention away from your subject. Be close to your subject and use a low f-stop (wide-open aperture) to create nice bokeh/blur. The other thing you can do with a closeup is to fill the frame with the subject so you don't have to worry about background at all. Landscape – leading lines. Landscapes are an opportunity to take the viewer on an adventure, to explore all the nooks and crannies laid out before them. Try for an anchoring detail in the foreground and leading lines to extend through the adventure. Landscapes typically don't want bokeh/blur, so use a high f-stop

You will find the most beautiful, kindest, gentlest light for your landscape photos during the Golden Hour or the Blue Hour.  Golden Hour is the 90 minutes just after sunrise and just before sunset . The light is soft and gives a lovely hue to your landscapes, and especially portraits of people taken outside.  Blue Hour , technically known as Civil Twilight, is the 45 minutes just before sunrise and just after sunset . This is just before the sun peeks over the horizon and just after the setting sun sinks below the horizon. It offers a very dim, sometimes spooky or eerie light to your landscapes. It is not suitable for people portraits unless you want the blue-ish background and have some fill light to use on your subject, or if you are doing some zombie photos! As shutter speeds will be slow due to low light conditions, you will probably want to use a tripod to steady your camera.  To plan ahead, especially if you're traveling, you'll want to determine the exact times of day