Reed Hoffmann’s Photography Blog
Controlling Autofocus
Recently I went to one of my nephew’s track meets to shoot some photos of him competing in pole vault. Not only did that give me a chance to get some nice photos of Jeffrey, but it let me work on some good/bad examples of different photo techniques. And that, of course, led me to […]
When Things Go Wrong
Most of what I do these days is teach photography. Which means I often find myself in front of a bunch of people, doing a demo where I hope everything goes right. Occasionally, though, things go wrong, and that’s when life gets interesting. A few weeks ago I was doing a lighting demonstration on stage. […]
Senior Portrait
Last week I shot some high school senior portraits for a friend’s daughter. As always, the three words “Subject, Light, Background” ruled what I did during the shoot. I already had my subject, so I needed to find good backgrounds and think about how I would use the light. We met at a nearby park […]
Cloud Storage
As internet connections have gotten faster, I’ve started relying more and more on the cloud to store and synchronize data. Dropbox has been my main tool for that, but thanks to a great offer from Box, I’m starting to use them too. Most people are using the cloud (storage on the internet that someone else […]
The Year of the Ultraportable
There’s a lot of talk about 2012 being the year of the ultraportable computer, and that’s good news for us photographers. Two years ago I had an assignment to follow a group of disabled vets climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. I needed to be able to download, check my images and back-up the photos shot […]
Subject, Light, Background
Every workshop I teach, I preach “Subject, Light, Background.” Remembering those three simple words – thinking about them – will almost always improve your pictures. And they often help each other, so working on one can usually improve the others. Recently I was teaching a class in Philadelphia and had a chance to do a […]
Take Time to Organize
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions, but there’s one thing I do every year at this time. So if someone asks what my resolution is, I always say, “I’m going to get organized.” For me that means every January I go through my images from the past year and pick out my favorites. One […]
Off-Camera Flash
I was on the road teaching a workshop last week, and part of it involved giving a little how-to on the basics of off-camera flash. The group was amazed at how easy it is. That’s true now, but it wasn’t always that way. Back in the old days (pre-2004), getting the flash away from the […]
Long Exposures at Night
How to Photograph Holiday Lights
Every holiday season the Country Club plaza in Kansas City is decorated in lights. It’s a beautiful scene, and well worth the visit if you’re in town. Light displays like this are a lot of fun to photograph, if you know a few simple tips to get the photos you want. Any time you’re shooting […]