Macro for me!

I really enjoy taking close-up pictures of things, mainly flowers and butterflies. Up until now, I have only used magnification lenses to produce such close-up images. I never tried bellows or extension tubes. For the most part I am happy with what I have gotten so far. However, I finally broke down and bought a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras. The reviews for this lens are excellent and it is nearly $450 less than the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras and over $1000 less than their big brother Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM AutoFocus Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras. The price difference was a big motivator for me in getting this lens vs the others. 

I personally did not think the 60mm Canon lens would give me enough distance between me and butterflies (which one of my favorite subjects) so a minimum of 100mm is what I was looking for. More distance than that and the lenses were out of my price range. I have already taken some pictures with the new lens and I am quite excited about what I can really do with it. I will share some of those pictures a little later. 

For now, here is my macro set-up:

Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
Tripod: Vanguard Alta Pro 263AT Aluminum Alloy Tripod Legs with Multi-Angle Central Column System
Flash/Lighting:  Polaroid PL-MRL16 Digital Macro 16 LED Ring Light

Focusing Rail:  Cowboystudio Macro Focusing Rail Set with 4 Way, Fine Control and Camera Focusing Rail for Macro Photography 

Camera RAW for Beginners

I found this series of tutorials on Camera Raw at Phototuts+ which I am very excited about. Camera Raw comes with Photoshop but also with Photoshop Elements. Although the Photoshop Elements version does not have all the features of the Photoshop one. If you have the pared down version of ACR like I do, then not all of these tutorials will apply. However, I found them all to be very helpful.

Their description of this series is:

"The Phototuts+ Camera RAW Session focuses exclusively on teaching you how to become a complete Adobe Camera RAW ninja. We’re bringing together a series of video and written tutorials that will teach you everything you need to know about this fantastic piece of software!"

 So far they have 8 separate tutorials with the following topic:

• Histogram & White Balance
• Basic Adjustments
• Clarity, Vibrance, & Saturation
• Basic Adjustments in Action
• Tone Curve
• The Detail Tool
• Adjustments Brush - Part 1
• Adjustments Brush - Part 2

http://photo.tutsplus.com/sessions/camera-raw-for-beginners/

Deconstructing a Photograph Video by Mitchell Kanashkevich

This video was created by Prolific travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich. In this video he chose a photograph of his and talked about the background of the photo and the process of taking the photo in the first place. He describes how he chose his subject and waited for the proper lighting and most pleasing composition. After he explains how he took the photo, he goes over the post-processing steps he undertook. In this case, he used Lightroom for post-processing and this is where the video turns into a true tutorial. He shows you all the exact steps he took to take this photo from good to outstanding. I highly recommend it even if you don’t have Lightroom. Here is a link to his his blog where this tutorial exists but I have also embedded the video into this page for your convenience.

I would also recommend you take a look around his whole website. He has many beautiful, inspiring photos and an excellent and entertaining blog.