PWH3.COM – Page 3 – New York City Photographer

Why Did I Buy An E-Bike?

2020 can definitely be described as a year of change. There are so many things that we took for granted that we can no longer do anymore, or have had to alter to fit the new reality of daily life. We have all had to learn to adapt.

Like many New Yorkers, part of that adaptation has been finding ways to avoid mass transit. Nobody here wants to be packed into a crowded bus or subway car anymore if we can help it.

Because of this, New York City has seen an explosion in bicycle usage. I personally have never seen so many people riding bicycles around town as I have seen this summer in NYC. A significant and growing number of these bikes are electric bicycles or “e-bikes”. E-bikes have batteries and motors and can usually reach top speeds of about 20 miles per hour (32 kph).

The New Normal – New York City During the Coronavirus Lull

And yes, it’s a lull. Or at least I believe it’s a lull, since I also believe that virus cases will eventually spike in the city again. As of this writing (August 22, 2020) the COVID-19 case numbers inside New York City are extremely low. According to the New York City Department of Health website, we’re averaging under 200 cases per week in the whole city, and have been this way for a while.

Quick Tip For Photographing Stunning Sunset or Sunrise Skies

Many beginner photographers struggle with the issue of capturing detail in the sky. Whether it’s a sunrise, a sunset, or just an interesting cloud pattern that you want to capture, many times you will point your camera at the heavens and just end up with a bland, white sky.

The reason this is happening is because your camera is exposing the shot for the whole scene and not just the sky. Your camera wants to give you an evenly exposed photograph where everything is balanced. Usually this means that the camera will try to overexpose your shot to capture detail in the darker parts of your photo such as any ground, trees or buildings that may be included in the frame. Because of this, the sky in your shot will often be overexposed or “blown out”.

To fix this problem, what you need to do is force your camera to expose for the sky and only the sky. You can do that with exposure compensation.

Coronavirus and life in NYC – What’s it like?

NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 27, 2020 – The novel coronavirus, which leads to the illness known as COVID-19, has hit New York City harder than the rest of the country. Of course, New York City will one day no longer be the hardest hit area: cases are expected to surge in other parts of the United States in the coming weeks. Many of these other places did not take the disease seriously, or simply have not prepared, apparently for political and economic reasons.

But at the time of this writing, there are 25,573 confirmed COVID-19 cases inside New York City, and 366 deaths from the disease, making the city the epicenter of the pandemic in the USA. Even as I write this, these numbers are no longer correct; any published source, including the New York City Department of Health website where I got the numbers from, is out of date immediately. That is how fast this virus is spreading and how quickly the deaths are increasing.

Why I Still Like Micro Four Thirds

A few years ago, when the Micro Four Thirds system was introduced, it was rather revolutionary: it offered small mirrorless cameras paired with equally small high-quality lenses, giving photographers image quality that came pretty close to consumer-level DSLRs in an easier-to-carry package.

Basic Tips for Night Photography

Photographing at night isn’t easy. For a lot of photographers just starting out with night photography, it can be a frustrating experience filled with photos that come out either too dark due to underexposure or very blurry due to camera shake.

But as you can see, most of my photos are taken at night and I feel I consistently get pretty good results. Here are some of my tips for shooting at night.

Beginner Question – What is “Bokeh”?

Let’s cut to the chase – you wanted a “real camera” (which for most people means a DSLR) because you wanted to take photos with a blurry background. You were tired of your cell phone images where everything was flat and in focus, and you wanted to produce gorgeous images where your subject was sharp but the background was blurred.

You might have heard the term “bokeh” used alongside images with a blurred background. On Instagram, photos with a blurred background often have tags such as #bokeh or #bokehlicious on them.

But what exactly does “bokeh” mean?

Quick Tip for Sharpening RAW Files Accurately

There’s a simple but little-known trick in Photoshop and Lightroom that will help you sharpen your RAW photos more accurately. This trick works with any version of Photoshop or Lightroom.

To perform this trick, you’ll need to be in the Detail section of the menu, which looks like two little triangles. You’ll see all of the Sharpening sliders there. Set the Amount to 100 as a starting point.

RAW Photo Editing For Total Beginners

Many new photographers find the idea of shooting in RAW to be intimidating because RAW files must be edited. Without editing, RAW photos usually look flat and dull since no post-processing has been applied to them by the camera. This is quite different from JPEGs, which always have color correction applied to them.

This guide is aimed at beginners. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to get great results from your RAW files in just a few minutes.

The original RAW image is flat and dull – just like my personality!

I always recommend shooting in RAW. The RAW files contain much more information than JPEGs, and give you more leeway when editing. You can brighten an image or correct the colors much more easily in RAW, without degrading the quality.

My simple technique here works with any RAW file from any camera. It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting RAW with a Micro Four Thirds camera, an APS-C camera or a full-frame camera. These are the basic steps I use to process all my RAW images, regardless of the camera.

In this example I am using Adobe Camera RAW inside Photoshop, but this will also work with Adobe Lightroom since the menus are basically the same. Any version of Photoshop or Lightroom will do.

Photographing the Flatiron Building

Everyone seems to love the Flatiron Building. A lot of tourists have told me that it’s their favorite building in New York City. The relatively short height of the building, its unique shape, and the detail of the architecture make it very interesting to photograph.

Exit the subway at 23rd street and look up — it’s the Flatiron Building!

The Flatiron Building is located at 175 Fifth Avenue, which is very close to 23rd street in Manhattan. If you want to visit it, take the R or W train to the 23rd street station. You can use any subway exit and you’ll automatically be in a great position to take a picture of the Flatiron Building, since all of the station’s exits will leave you across the street from it.