Indesign Calendar Template

New 2018 Photo Calendar Templates - Free

I have recently helped produce this new Adobe Indesign calendar template. It is a perfect DIY solution for making a photo calendar. Simply add your own photos and your are ready to print your own wall calendar. This free photo calendar template has a sophisticated and practical design template ideal for home, work or school use. Designs can be printed on paper or light coloured stock. You can find out more about it here at Abukoo

Indesign wall calendar template.

The calendar designs can be used in a variety of ways

Free 2018 printable monthly calendars

These Abukoo printable calendars have a beautiful minimalist feel. Best of all they are free to download and super stylish. These are definitely ideal for DIY projects or just a bit of fun if you want something nice to pin on the wall. The best part is you can reprint it again if you mess up writing in your birthday list. Check out Abukoo for the download.

The Modern Sunset

I generally have a love-hate relationship with sunset photography. I love experiencing them in real life, but I really don't like sunset photos. As a child I always remember seeing people marvel over a shot that had neon pink colourings with over saturated reds and yellows. Apparently this was a sure sign of a superior shot. As a designer I typically despise these scenes, I find the color palette tacky and unsophisticated. So while travelling in Hawaii I made a plan to rediscover sunset photography. I wanted something with warmth and atmosphere, but not a garish spectrum of 1980's colour. By using the final rays of light, subtle atmospheric tones and some careful adjustment in Lightroom - I think I found my happy place.

Using slow shutter speeds to create movement

How to use slow shutter speeds. 
As humans we are designed to always be moving, whether it's a twitch or a flat out sprint our bodies never stop. Recently I've been re-discovering the art of capturing movement with my camera. To be honest it's not really that easy - but, when you get the settings right there are some subtle and seductive qualities that are hard to beat. Shooting with movement definitely adds interest and can help describe the scene far more than a razor sharp image ever could. There's a few tips and ideas that seem to work for me:

1. Slow shutter speed setting: Typically anything under 1/30th sec will start to add movement
2. Anything under 1/30th sec will typically require a tripod.
3. Look for scenes that have isolated movement, images always look better when there is a combination of blurred movement and sharp elements
4. Try moving the camera and subject slowly in sync for a sharp subject and slightly streaked background
5. Try moving the camera and subject rapidly in sync for a sharp subject and very streaked background

Learn how to use a Canon or Nikon dslr camera

Camera Basics Summary

Aperture
The aperture is an adjustable hole in the lens which lets light into the camera. It can be adjusted to vary the amount of light on the camera sensor. A large aperture lets more light in, and small aperture reduces the amount of light.

Depth of Field
The aperture also controls the depth of field, in simple terms this refers to how much of the image stays sharp from the focus point. A large aperture will create a shallow depth of field (making the background blurry). A small aperture will create a large depth of field (keeping everything in focus).

Shutter Speed 
Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open allowing light on the camera sensor. This is sometimes called exposure time. A faster shutter speed will freeze action (1/250sec), a slow shutter will allow action to blur (1/15sec).

ISO Film Speed
ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera has to available light. Shooting with a low ISO will give you a high quality image with fine grain, to do this you’ll also need lots of light. Using a higher ISO means can take photos in low-light conditions, the trade-off is it will have more grain or “noise”.

Lens Selection
A wide-angle lens will take in more of the environment, this is ideal for landscapes, travel or interior shots. A longer telephoto lens magnifies the scene giving you a narrower viewing angle. Longer lenses also tend to make the depth-of-field more pronounced, this means the background elements will often be more blurry.

Lightroom Tutorial Basic Editing

Lightroom Tutorial | Basic Processing Tips & Tricks

Basic steps to editing this image in Lightroom.

1. Define the square crop
2. Increase vibrancy and saturation subtly
3. Add cool blue tones to both shadows and highlights
   using the split tone palette
4. Add light with a central radial gradient filter, also
   add a small amount of clarity to this filter.
5. Darken the sky with a vertical gradient filter
6. Add blue tones to the vertical gradient filter to help match the sky with the rest of the image.

Installing Lightroom Presets Video

10 Incredible Travel Photography Locations

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some of the best photography locations in the world. This post is dedicated to the ones that stopped me in my tracks.

1. 1. Venice, Italy

2. Bondi Beach, Australia

3. Santorini, Greece

4. Manhattan, New York

5. Tokyo, Japan

6. Lake Como, Italy

7. Great Ocean Road, Australia

8. Queenstown, New Zealand

9. Muriwai, New Zealand

10. Rarotonga, Cook Islands

I shoot all my images on a Nikon 800 and process them in Lightroom. For those wishing to purchase my Lightroom presets click the button below. More from Cuba Gallery

Installing Lightroom CC Presets

Installing your Presets is easy. I’ve listed the steps listed below. If you have purchased the Cuba Gallery Lightroom Preset Pack these instructions will also be included in your digital download.

1. First download the presets and unzip the files. Open either Lightroom 5, Lightroom 6 or Lightroom CC.
2. For Apple Mac users click on ‘Lightroom’ in the top menu, then select ‘Preferences’ from the drop down menu. For PC users click on ‘Edit’ in the menu and select ‘Preferences’. On the Preferences screen there will be six tabs at the top, click on the tab that says ‘Presets’. Now click on the button that says ‘Show Lightroom Presets Folder'.
3. In this window double click on the ‘Lightroom’ folder, then double click on the ‘Develop Presets’ folder. You can now copy your presets into the ‘Develop Presets’ folder. Finally restart Lightroom and the new presets will appear in ‘Develop’ mode in the left hand panel.

Lightroom Presets for iPhones: Posting on Instagram

There is a fantastically simple trick to using Cuba Gallery Presets in Lightroom Mobile.

Here are a few simple steps:

1. Create a collection of images with your favourite presets applied in the standard desktop version of Lightroom.

2. Using Adobe Creative Cloud sync images and collections between the desktop and mobile versions. 

3. Once you’ve synced up the images from your desktop you can copy and paste image settings onto new images

4. Now you can start posting on Instagram from your phone using Lightroom.

 

Travel Photography - Lightroom Before & After

Trialling my new Lightroom Presets - Great Ocean Road photography trip

Using the Lightroom Preset system - Desaturated Preset and Left Glow Preset

The photos below show how editing with the new Desaturate Preset combined with the Left Glow Preset add light and shape to the image. The combination of the two Lightroom Presets give a distinct level of flexibility and speed.  It is an incredibly quick way to bring an image to life.

Final image, with Desaturate Preset and Left Glow Preset.

Here is the image with just the Desaturated Preset, but without the Left Glow Preset.

Here is the original image