Using midday sunlight

We went to Knott's Berry Farm and the midday sun was shining harshly.  Most photographers dislike such lighting conditions for good reason.  When the sun is shining directly on your subject as toplight or frontlight, colors are washed out, subjects have harsh, unflattering shadows on their faces and are often squinting, and the contrast becomes too high.  However, sometimes such lighting conditions can be turned to your advantage.

Technique 1: use the sun as rim light.

This technique can work if the sun is even slightly at an angle. For example, the picture below was taken at 2pm.  Spend noontime having lunch instead :)
0. (optional) Switch to RAW. This technique results in high contrast images.  For almost all cameras, RAW will give you more room for adjustment in postprocessing.

1. Find a sunlit area that is near a shaded area.
2. Position your subject in the sunlit area.
3. Use the sun as rim light by turning your subject away from the sun.  Position yourself toward where the subject's shadow is pointed (or off to the side, if you prefer a sidelight as opposed to backlight).
4. Create subject background separation by using the shaded area as a background.  This step is the key to making the best use of this technique.
5. Add fill with a reflector or flash if necessary.  Don't use too much flash.

Sample with sun as rim light (on-camera flash as fill, i-TTL BL at 0 FEC):

Sample with sun as side light:

This is what happens when you miss Step 4: Notice that in the subject's right arm, the rim light blends with the sunlit background.

Technique 2: Soft light from bounced sunlight
This is a bit different from just placing the subject in the shade (which results in safe but flat, even light all over the subject).  Here, you're taking advantage of the strong sunlight, which is bright enough to bounce off from the concrete to softly illuminate the subject.

1. Find a sunlit area that is near a shaded area.
2. Position the subject in the shaded area but close to the sunlit area.
3. Have the subject face the sunlit area.  The subject will be illuminated by the light bouncing in from the sunlit area such as the sunlit concrete.
4. Add fill if necessary.

Sample (I added fill from the on-camera flash bounced into carousel's ceiling on camera right i-TTL BL, 0 FEC):

One more thing I got reminded of this weekend is that for family photography, lighting is not a substitute for capturing the moment, which is still the key.  Safe, boring light (on-camera flash bounced from the wall on camera left) and dull composition but priceless expression:

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A Road Map for Family Photographers

Last updated: Sept. 26, 2009.

To help family photographers, to help keep posts organized, and for me to keep track of areas where I need improvement, I put together a possible roadmap of skills for a family photographer.  The roadmap is not scientific – it’s based only on how I am gradually building upon my meager skills, and as I learn more, I'll continue to add to it.

Because of how it’s constructed, I’m hoping this roadmap is a more natural progression and helps filter what is most relevant to you based on your current development.  For example, if you’re still learning about exposure (Technique 1), explaining why smooth highlight roll-offs are important (Lighting 9) would be unhelpful and just potentially confusing.

For each skill, I categorized the skill as related to composition, lighting, postprocessing, or general technique.  I described the issue that usually leads to discovery of the missing skill.  I listed some resources for learning that skill.  Finally, I indicated what I think are the keys to improving that skill and tools that may help.   

I hope that if you reach a plateau in your development, you can use this roadmap to break through your rut by identifying areas where you may need improvement, finding the resources to improve, and putting what you learned into practice until it becomes a skill. And if you're aware of a skill, resource, tool, or key concept, pls. email or leave a comment so I can add it to this roadmap.

Category               Issue

Lighting 1               Unskilled use of popup flash results in deer-in-headlights look.

Composition 1        Boring pictures of subject.

Composition 2        Wanting portraits with “blurry backgrounds.”

Technique 1            Exposure - basics.

Lighting 2               Harsh and unflattering shadows on subjects.

Technique 2            Turning snapshots into photos.

Lighting 3               Direction of light - basics.

Postprocessing 1    Underexposed or overexposed photos, unnatural color casts, no opportunity to retake the shot.

Composition 3        Backgrounds.

Lighting 4               Desire to improve the lighting of subjects.

Lighting 5             Light quality, direction, color.

Technique 4            Sharpness

Lighting 6               Ratio of ambient and flash, controlling flash exposure.

Postprocessing 2    Polished, “professional-looking” photos

Lighting 7               Increase understanding and control of light on the subject.

Lighting 8               Search for photos with amazing natural-looking light.  Ambient light revisited.

Composition 4        Controlling color.

Lighting 9               Tonality, tonal range, dynamic range.

Technique 3            Capturing the moment.

Technique 4            Borrowing from other photographic genres (e.g., landscape)

Lighting 1

Issue: Unskilled use of popup flash results in deer-in-headlights look.

Keys: Turning off flash. Awareness of noise. Signal / noise ratio.

Composition 1

Issue: Boring pictures of subject.

Keys: Rule of thirds. Filling the frame. Perspective. Patterns. Leading lines. Appropriate use of focal length.

Composition 2

Issue: Wanting portraits with “blurry backgrounds.”

Resources: cambridgeincolour depth of field tutorial.

Key: Understanding factors in controlling depth of field (aperture, focal length, distance of camera to subject, sensor size)

Tools: Camera with controllable aperture, Lens with normal to tele focal length.

Technique 1

Exposure - basics.

Resources: Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure. planetneil exposure metering tutorial;  Bahman Farzad’s simplified zone system.  Ken Rockwell’s zone system article. SimCam

Keys: Aperture x shutter speed x ISO = exposure. 18% grey. Exposure compensation. PASM. Understanding metering.

Tools: Search for a DSLR or camera with PASM.

Lighting 2

Issue: Harsh and unflattering shadows on subjects.

Resources: planetneil.com flash tutorial; Neil van Niekerk's On-Camera Flash

Keys: Understanding quality of light (hard vs. soft) is determined by apparent size of light vs. size of subject; bouncing flash.

Tools: External flash with bounce and swivel; light modifiers.

Technique 2

Issue: Turning snapshots into photos.

Resources: Ken Rockwell article on Artistic Synthesis

Keys: Previsualization. Taking a picture (passive) vs. making a photo (active).

Lighting 3

Direction of light - basics.

Resources: planetneil.com flash tutorial; Neil van Niekerk's On-Camera Flash

Keys: Awareness of and control of light direction (e.g. by correctly positioning subject and camera; bouncing flash from intended direction of light)

Tools: on-camera external flash with bounce and swivel.

Postprocessing 1

Issues: Underexposed or overexposed photos, unnatural color casts, no opportunity to retake the shot.

Keys: Adjust white balance, exposure, fill light, contrast, saturation, color temperature

Tools: postprocessing software such as Photoshop, Picnik.com, Picasa, Paintshop Pro

Composition 3

Backgrounds.

Key: Background and foreground elements (e.g., natural frames), eliminating distracting elements (e.g. removing trash or moving the subject to an area without trash).

Lighting 4

Issue: Desire to improve the lighting of subjects.

Resources: Allison Earnest’s Sculpting with Light

Keys: Roles of light in portraiture (key, fill, background, rim, hair); Portrait lighting styles (broad, short, Rembrandt, loop, butterfly)

Lighting 5

Light quality, direction, color.

Resources: Fil Hunter’s Light: Science and Magic.  Strobist.com Lighting 101, Lighting 102.

Keys: Shadows, chiaroscuro, family of angles.

Tools: Using flash off-camera, gobos, snoots, grids.  Studio equipment (lightstand, umbrellas, softboxes).

Technique 3

Sharpness

Resources: ?

Keys: appropriate shutter speeds, appropriate aperture, awareness of front and back focus

Tools: sharper lenses (see photozone.de lens reviews), lenses with VR, remote shutter, tripod, flash.

Lighting 6

Ratio of ambient and flash, controlling flash exposure.

Resources: Strobist.com Lighting 101, Lighting 102;  planetneil.com; CLS practical guide; Flash photography with Canon EOS Cameras; TTL FAQ

Keys: Understanding how TTL and manual mode differ, how to control each.

Tools: external flash.

Postprocessing 2

Polished, “professional-looking” photos

Resources: ?

Keys: selective adjustment (e.g. with layers), retouching techniques? adjusting tone curve?

Tools: ?

Lighting 7

Increase understanding and control of light on the subject.

Resources: Dean Collins’ theory of 3d contrast.

Keys: Awareness of specular, specular-to-diffuse transfer, diffuse, diffuse-to-shadow transfer, shadow, and how each is controlled.

Lighting 8

Search for photos with amazing natural-looking light.  Ambient light revisited.

Resources: Bob Krist’s Secrets of lighting on location. James Beltz's video on seeing the light.

Keys: Noticing ambient light characteristics, supplementing or amplifying or simulating ambient light. Light motivation for flashes.

Composition 4

Controlling color.

Resources: ?

Keys: Postprocessing, proactive use of white balance, lens filters, flash gels, choice of film and film processing.  Use of color in composition.

Lighting 9

Tonality, tonal range, dynamic range.

Resources: ?

Keys: seeing in black and white? Dodging and burning.  Using a medium with smoother highlight roll-off.

Technique 4

Capturing the moment.

Resources: ?

Keys: Building rapport with, anticipating subjects?

Technique 5

Borrowing from other photographic genres (e.g., landscape)

Resources: ?

Keys: ?

Portable short light, rim light, or hair light

Using a short light and/or rim light is a very effective way to add drama, three-dimensionality, and subject-background separation to your image. Here's how to add a short or rim light (or if you wish, a hair light) to your candid family photos.

BACKLIGHT vs. SHORT LIGHT vs. RIM LIGHT vs. HAIR LIGHT
Many people use these terms interchangeably. To be clear, I'm using those terms in these ways:

• Backlight - a general term to describe any number of situations where there is light behind the subject.
• Short light - in portraiture, a short light is a main or key light that highlights the portion of the subject's face that is farther from the camera. (If the main light is illuminating primarily the portion of the subject closer to the camera, that's broad light.) If that sounds confusing, just look at the subject's ear closest to the camera. If that ear is lit, it's broad. If unlit, it's short.
  
• Rim light (aka "kicker") - A rim light is a highlight at the edge of the contours of the subject. Rim lights come from behind PLUS either above, to the side, or both above and to the side of the subject. Trying to add a rim light by adding a light just directly behind the subject is not effective.  Rim lights are usually gridded, snooted, or flagged to limit its light to just the contour of the subject and to avoid lens flare.  Rim lights are also generally exposed higher (1 stop or sometimes more) than the rest of the subject.
  
• Hair light - a light that puts a specular (shiny) highlight on the subject's hair. Usually come from above the subject. As with rim lights, usually gridded or flagged.

Sample of short light (note that the ear that is closer to the camera is not lit):

Samples of rim light and hair light.

THE CHALLENGE:  HOW CAN YOU ADD A SHORT LIGHT OR RIM LIGHT TO YOUR CANDID FAMILY PHOTOS?
Because of the direction they come from, adding a backlight, short light, rim light or hair light to a photo is not easy without setting up the shot using a lightstand or an assistant.

SOLUTION 1: AMBIENT LIGHT
Sometimes, ambient light is all you need. The subject can sometimes be positioned with the sun or other ambient light source as the rim light, as in this shot, where the sun was above and behind our toddler:


Note that in the shot above, I had problems with lens flare because I didn't shield the lens adequately from the sunlight.  I may also have had a cheapo UV filter which makes lens flare worse.  I tried to increase contrast in postprocessing to counteract the effect but didn't eliminate the lens flare completely.  I hope you learn from my mistake :) 

SOLUTION 2: USING A FLASH
When it's not possible to use the ambient light as a rim light, you can use a flash. I've been able to add a rim light and short light to my pictures without a set up by using a combination of off-camera flash (here, an SB-800) attached to a cheap tripod as a boom. Here are cheap shots (ha ha) of the device:

This tripod was $10 from a street vendor in Thailand. You can buy similar ones at Amazon and elsewhere. I attached the SB-800 to the AS-19 coldshoe, and in turn attached that to the tripod. Because I'm using CLS to trigger the SB-800, I positioned the SB-800 so that the CLS sensor (the little circular glass window on the right side of the SB-800) is facing forward, which allows it to sort of face the camera when angled as a short or rim light. This required turning the flash head to the side.  To avoid blocking the CLS sensor, I also decided to remove the extra battery pack (which allows faster recycling times).  In actual use, the tripod is completely folded (not spread out), and I raise the center column.

The key to making this boom work is to attach the flash to the tripod in a way that would allow the flash to be angled downward about 120 degrees from perpendicular. Angling the flash downward allows you to place the flash in the correct rim light position from your shooting position. As a bonus, you also gain the ability to use a short (as opposed to broad) light, which also looks dramatic and cinematic.

It is also possible to attach an umbrella with an umbrella bracket, in which case the required angle for the flash would be the direct opposite.  Using an umbrella would be appropriate for short light or a side light, but not very effective for a rim light, which is usually hard not soft light.

Note: if you strictly want a rim light as opposed to a short light, you should zoom the flash to its maximum, or better yet, add a snoot or grid. Adding a flag is also possible but less convenient if you want to switch angles from time to time as I do. Rim lights are also traditionally set for a stronger flash exposure than the rest of the subject (e.g. + 1 stop).

An alternative to using a tripod is a monopod, or variations thereof such as the quikpod. Note: a traditional monopod is widest and strongest at the part where it connects to the camera, so may not be ideal as a boom. Lastolite also sells an extending handle but it's around $50. I also prefer to use a tripod for its sturdiness and because it can serve a dual purpose as a - what else - tripod.

IN PRACTICE

Here are some shots where I used the device to add a short light or a rim light.  In this shot, I used the tripod-boom to add a short light.  I held the boom with my right hand and raised the flash to the camera right, above, slightly behind, and to the side of the subject, while holding the camera with my left hand and pressing the shutter with my middle finger (whew!).

In this shot, my wife stood behind the concrete structure and patiently held the tripod-boom.  Remarkably, CLS still triggered the flash successfully.  I think it worked because the light from the pop-up flash bounced off the interior of the structure.  Shows that you don't always need line of sight to trigger CLS, even in daylight.

 

What the shot looks like without the flash:

As you can see, the rim light in the previous shot looks like it's from the sun but is actually all from the flash.  The setup shot gives an idea of where the flash was. In the actual shot, the flash was completely behind the concrete (though I cropped the shot so heavily that the flash would not be visible in the frame anyway).

For strobists and lighting fanatics, here's a shot for your amusement:

It's a short light from the 'sun' behind, above and to the side of the subject. ;)  Just kidding (a lighting pun... if you need to know...). The shot was actually taken in the shade.  The short light was all from the tripod boom.

Review of Neil van Niekerk’s On-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography

[Disclosure: I participate in Amazon's referral program. Clicking on the links below to Amazon may result in compensation to me.  However, I wrote this review as objectively as I could.]

SUMMARY

Neil van Niekerk's On-Camera Flash (paperback or Kindle) teaches how to improve the lighting in photos of people at events and other situations with little or no setup with the use of an on-camera external flash.   The majority of the techniques taught in the book rely on bouncing the flash, and controlling flash exposure via TTL. Note: the book presupposes the reader has a working knowledge of exposure.

SUBSTANCE

The technical quality of the information is excellent.  The author describes the techniques clearly and in detail.  The techniques he applies are logical and methodical, and he explains his thought processes very clearly.  In many cases, the book shows comparison images showing the effect of using flash and not using flash, which is helpful in illustrating the impact of using the flash.  The author is a master of the subject matter of the book, and he doesn’t appear to withhold any information or techniques within the scope of the subject matter.  From cover to cover, the book is filled with useful information and beautiful images.  There are no fillers, fluff, or lame jokes in the book

Particularly if you're just beginning photography or if your flash knowledge is limited, the author's primary technique of using bounce flash AND actively controlling the direction of the bounce flash can make a huge difference for your shots (as it did for me).  As a total novice in 2007, I took this group shot by applying the author's technique.  It is still one of my favorite shots.

Pentax K100D, Tamron 18-200, f/3.5, 1/100. AF540FGZ flash on TTL.

FORM

The book is well-organized and builds on concepts step-by-step.  The book begins with a discussion of lighting principles: quality, direction and color of light, and gives you an idea of what your lighting objectives generally should be.  The second part of the book discusses metering techniques, flash exposure (mostly TTL), and combining ambient and flash exposures.  That gets you to the point where you understand how to control the flash exposure relative to your ambient exposure.  The third part of the book discusses skillful use of on-camera flash to improve the lighting of your photos, primarily by using bounce flash as well as actively controlling the intensity, direction and color of the flash.  There is a fourth part that discusses very briefly what is possible with some techniques that fall outside of the book’s scope, namely wireless TTL and off-camera manual flash.

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

For family photographers, the techniques are very useful and practical.  With a few exceptions (disclosed), the author assumes that you’re taking photos solo, without assistants and without setting up equipment such as lightstands.  There are no impractical or ‘impossible’ shots.  The techniques can be used by almost any family photographer with a camera equipped with an external TTL flash, as long as the flash has bounce and swivel capability.

The book is less useful for some people:

• If you take only outdoor photos, many of the techniques will not be usable by you.  There is a chapter, however, on outdoor photos that does show some of the best techniques for photos outdoors.
• If you’re looking for edgy, artistic ideas, this book may have less to offer for you.  The images shown in the book, and the application of the techniques discussed, are geared toward producing event photos with mainstream appeal.  It is possible to use the techniques for bolder, more unique photos, but this book is not a source of those ideas.  On the other hand, the book can help strengthen the technical foundation for your artistic vision.
• If you have advanced lighting knowledge, I don’t think you’ll learn anything new.  I didn’t find anything groundbreaking in the book for advanced lighting.
• If you want to learn manual flash exposure, and have absolutely no interest in flash exposure via TTL, this book is less useful for you.  (As for Auto flash exposure, I believe many of the techniques can be applicable, but I have limited experience using flash on Auto mode, so can’t confirm that.)  In any case, you can still apply the book’s techniques on controlling light quality, direction and color.
• As implied by the title, if you have only a film camera, the techniques on controlling the intensity of the flash are less valuable because the book relies on many features of digital cameras to adjust flash exposure, such as the LCD preview screen, histograms, and the blinking highlights display.  You can still learn techniques on controlling light quality, direction and color.

What about longtime readers of planetneil.com (like me)?  To be honest, much of the information can be gained from a thorough reading of the author’s website (and perhaps nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com ).  However, the book still adds value even for those readers by saving time and presenting the information with greater detail, in a manner that helps solidify your flash knowledge.  The book puts it all together in way that is more understandable.  After reading the book, I also learned additional techniques for metering and exposure.  I also got value from reading the examples, thinking of how I would solve them, and comparing my solution to the author’s.

ANY CRITICISMS?

A couple of nits:

First, the author strongly advocates using manual exposure mode to control ambient exposure, and uses it exclusively throughout all examples.  The author’s techniques can still be used by less experienced photographers (like me) who are still slow to use manual and still rely on program, aperture priority and shutter priority, although I have to ‘translate’ the exposure techniques first (which on the other hand, should be fairly easily for the intended audience).

Another nit: in many of the comparison images between photos with and without flash, the author uses the exact same settings.  I think that is fine to show what portion was lit with ambient and with flash, but it is possible with a hasty glance to misinterpret the comparison images as “evidence” that ambient-only photos are vastly inferior, whereas in fact the ambient-only photos are often underexposed for sound reasons.  It would have been nicer to see a comparison against the best (or at least normal) results that can be achieved with existing light, and how flash improves upon that image.  Again, this is something I think the intended audience already should understand anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

CONCLUSION

On-Camera Flash is a practical, well-written instructional book on using an on-camera flash to improve lighting of your photos.  The techniques are highly usable in the field, and the author explains them clearly and in a straightforward manner.  For photographers who have previously shunned flash, particularly those who take shots indoors, the techniques can lead to a vast improvement in your photographs.  For flash novices, this book offers a clear path to take you to the level of a skilled flash user.  For more experienced photographers, the book helps fill out any gaps in your knowledge about on-camera flash techniques.  Highly recommended.

Bouncing Flash Outdoors in Daylight

It's not easy to get soft directional light outdoors in daylight, and arguably it's even harder for candid shots without setup. One solution is to bounce an on-camera flash into a reflector.

In the shot above, I got soft directional light in daylight by bouncing an on-camera flash (gelled with 1/4 CTO) into a handheld Lastolite 5-in-1 Mini 18" Trigrip reflector (using the white-surfaced reflector). The area was shaded, so it would have been possible to take a shot using just existing light, but not without blowing out the background (i.e. in the shot above, the flash brightened the subject and thus reduced the contrast between the bright background and the subject):

The soft directional light also makes the subject look more three-dimensional than in the image shot purely in existing light. Finally, with the flash, it was possible to use a faster shutter speed and/or lower ISO than with the existing light only.

COMPARED TO HANDHELD UMBRELLA

I think it's much easier to use a handheld umbrella because the reflector solution requires positioning the flash properly (a pain when switching between landscape and portrait shots) and requires more careful aiming of the flash and the reflector. IMHO, the umbrella is also less conspicuous and thus more spouse-friendly. On the other hand, sometimes all you want is a reflector (e.g. when you're shooting a video), which the umbrella can't be used for. The reflector solution also allows you to switch to using the flash on-camera.

CAUTION

A cautionary note when using reflectors: sometimes, a subject can look fatter with a reflector, when the reflector is aimed upward (e.g. to brighten the eyes) but fills in too much of the shadow under the subject's jaw. Not good. Gather a sample pic of this at your own risk!

Inspiration from other photographers: Gill Maheu

I like to admire and study other photographers' work. One photographer whose work I admire (especially her family photographs) is Gill Maheu. Note: I don't know Ms. Maheu personally. I just stumbled upon her gallery a few years ago, and back then IIRC she was using a mere point-n-shoot (I believe the Panasonic FZ50) but her photos were consistently amazing. Based on her website, it appears she's since turned pro, and is now using disposable cameras. Kidding about that last part (at least AFAIK...). But for other photographers looking to improve their family photos, you ought to check out her gallery.

Dodging and burning family photos

What's dodging and burning?

Dodging and burning are the processes of lightening ("dodging") and darkening ("burning") the exposure of parts of a photo. The picture below illustrates the tremendous improvement in tonality and subject three-dimensionality that can be achieved with dodging and burning.

How do you do it?

There are many ways to dodge and burn, not just using the dodge and burn tools that come with many postprocessing software. Here's one way to do it in Picasa Premium to improve tonality.

1. Load the picture in Picasa, fix the basics first (white balance, saturation, exposure, crop, etc.), then click on the create tab.
Here's a sample picture:

2. Under the Create tab, click on Advanced, and click on Curves.

3. Darken the subject. If the background is too bright, darken it as well.

- Click on the middle of the curve and drag it slightly to the lower right. Observe the change in the picture as you do this. Drag it to the point where the shadows you want to create are the right shade.

- If you want to darken both the subject and the background you're done with this step. If you want to darken just the subject, go on by clicking on the paintbrush icon beside the fade slider.

- In the Effect Painting dialog box, click on "reverse effect" checkbox. The image will revert to its original.

- Paint the subject with the darker exposure. First, make sure the Effect tab is selected (because you're "painting in" the shadow effect). Choose an appropriate brush size, select 0 for hardness and 100% for strength. Now paint the subject.

- If you want to, you can change the darkness by adjusting the curve.

4. Add the highlights.

- In the Effect Painting dialog box, click on the "Original" tab (because you're "undoing" the shadow effect from step 3). Choose an appropriate brush size, select 0 for hardness and around 66-75% for strength. Now paint just the brightest highlights. Generally I find it more effective to click repeatedly than to drag the mouse. The effect is easier to control and looks more natural.

- Reduce the strength to 33% to 50% and paint the next brightest highlights.

- Reduce the strength to 25% and paint the least bright highlights.

- If you wish, you can readjust the contrast of the created shadow by adjusting the curve.
Here's an exaggerated sample:

5. Click Apply to finalize the curves adjustment. Save it. You're done.
Here's the result:

Test your understanding of the above process: if you started out with an underexposed photo, how would the process change?

If you start out with an underexposed picture, then you can skip step 3. In step 4, adjust the curve to the upper left until it's where you want the highlight shade to be. Click on the paintbrush icon, click on the reverse effect checkbox, select the "Effect" tab (because you're "painting in" the highlight effect). Paint progressively from brightest to least bright highlight.

If you started out with an overexposed photo, how would the process change?

One method would be to "paint in" the shadows. I find that to be difficult, because it's harder for me to imagine the correct shadow placement. Instead, I would either fix the exposure first, then proceed as normal, or use a similar process as normal, except:

- I would drag the curve deeper.

- I would darken both the subject and background.

- When "painting in" the highlight, instead of starting out with 66% strength for the brightest highlights, I would start out much lower, depending on how overexposed the picture was.

With Picnik Premium, you can modify the process above to "paint in" different effects. For example, in our toddler's birthday album, I made the aquarium much more vivid by applying the Velvia preset in the curves, and using it to paint just the aquarium.

From Maty's 2nd Birthday

Where do you learn more about dodging and burning?

I'm still very new to this myself. The classic reference is Ansel Adams' the Negative but I haven't even seen or read it.

Please share your results, techniques and resources by posting links in the comments! Thanks.