brunogallant

<p>Republic of Quebec? As far as I know, we are still a province of Canada.</p>

<p>Actually, moving through Afghanistan and the region, it is a wise thing to carry an inexpensive camera. This just proves again that gear means nothing. I am actually sick of seeing this portrait everywhere, but this is all to the credit of McCurry to have shot such a powerful image.</p>

<p>phlearn.com is the best in my opinion. Just registering on their website gives you a free one hour high quality tutorial. Aaron Nace has a quiet non-threatening charisma and infinite enthusiasm that makes the material easy to follow and remember. My 2 cents.</p>

<p>720px too, it seems, thanks Lex for the link. I find that even in 2048px, with HQ clicked, it's not that much. Facebook is not really the best place to showcase images, but I have a page anyway, because the social interaction is key.</p>

<p>Resize your images to 960px or 2048px when you post to Facebook. Any other size will get modified by their engine and crunch your quality. Google for <em>facebook 960px</em> to get their support page explaining this.</p>

<p>I agree with you Tom that moon light is as harsh as the sun, for the reasons you mention. But the perception of the viewer is that moon light is softer. Looking objectively at your photo, it looks like an underexposed image under sunlight conditions (which it is not). Softening the light, and seeing the stars, will be perceived more clearly like a night time image.<br> For the same reason we use a skylight filter to remove the blue cast on images because of the sky, but the blue cast is there for real, if you look for it, it is just that our brains compensate and (kind of) remove it from the processed image in our mind. My 2 cents.</p>

<p>Sarah, if the test frame without flash is black, then ambient light cannot affect your final image. For color balancing, I have my subject hold this:<br> http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/651253-REG/X_Rite_MSCCPP_ColorChecker_Passport.html<br> With Lightroom, it is a great combination. </p>

<p>Oops, the max flash sync speed I am talking about are those of my Nikons. I was not making a blanket statement.</p>

<p>When I use my own lighting, I will usually try to kill the ambient light by shooting at the max flash sync speed, which is 1/250 of a seconds, and a high f/stop. You can shoot a test shot without your flash(es) to make sure that the frame is black. At that point you are in control of the light, whatever is overhead.<br> Of course if your flash was to fill only, and you were using ambient light from a window, or the room itself, for example, then the only way out is to gel your flash like Sarah Fox said. </p>