Notice the pink leaves towards the right are so blurry. The wide aperture has pushed them out of focus. Does it work for this shot? Or have they lost too much detail?

Learn to Control Your Bokeh, or Don't Always Use the Widest Aperture

Graesen Arnoff April 3, 2020

So you bought your first lens besides the one that came with your camera or maybe it’s not your first lens purchase. Either way, I’m betting you have a 50mm f/1.8 or a 30mm or 35mm with a similar aperture. It’s very common to buy a lens like these because they have a wide aperture, or low f-stop. Shooting at f/1.8, or even f/1.4 means lots of blurry backgrounds and the ability to shoot in the dark. That blurred background is often referred to as bokeh. If bokeh isn’t a new term for you, then go ahead and shout it with me - BOKEH!

This photo was captured in my suburban neighborhood. The camera was set on a tripod for a long exposure to capture the tail lights of a car passing. The narrow aperture of the lens produced the light rays from the street lights.

Stuck at Home? Test Your Photography With Photo Contests

Graesen Arnoff March 24, 2020

The world is still learning to deal with COVID-19 and many places are enacting various levels of lock down or quarantine. Obviously, this can make it difficult to get out and take pictures. I’ve written about some ideas for photographing at home, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not for everyone. Instead of shooting new photos, why not put your existing images to work? I’m talking about submitting to photo contests.

Self portrait shot with Low Key Lighting.

What to Photograph When You're Stuck Inside - Self Portraits

Graesen Arnoff March 19, 2020

Still stuck at home, wondering what you can photograph? Self portraits are great practice to photograph and not as difficult to do as you think. The biggest challenge is how to make it look more like a portrait and less like a selfie. The good thing about self portraits is that you only need a camera. Having a tripod, remote, and some lighting will help but aren’t necessary. Keep reading for some tips to shooting self portraits while you’re stuck at home during the current pandemic.

What to Photograph When You're Stuck Inside - Macro

Graesen Arnoff March 18, 2020

With COVID-19 keeping people quarantined, encouraging people to stay inside, or to act in social distancing, it could be a challenge to feed your creative itch. One big question you might have is “what can I photograph if I’m stuck inside?” There are tons of options photograph at home or near your home. One o those things is macro photography. The best thing is you don’t need to spend a lot of money for macro

Google AdSense Auto Ads Reminder

Graesen Arnoff October 28, 2019

Today, October 28th, 2019, Google has changed how Auto Ads works with AdSense. Before today, you needed to insert a script into the header of every page you wanted Auto Ads to appear on. Today, they will work on any page that has existing AdSense ads

[Off Topic] PS4 Remote Play for Android Error 88001003

Graesen Arnoff October 8, 2019

Sony just released the Playstation 4 Remote Play app for any Android phone.. However, if you’re rooted like me, launching the app will give you the error 88001003. There’s no official documentation to what this error means, but many root users, like myself, have figured out what this error is and resolving it is fairly easy.

[Gallery] Last Cruise Night for Tinley Park, IL in 2019

Graesen Arnoff August 28, 2019

Last night was the final Cruise Night of 2019 in Tinley Park, IL. Since my 4 year old loves cars, I thought the family should go see these classic beauties one last time. I brought my camera to capture some of these classic cars, but I was limited to what I could snap when my son would allow me to. That meant I had to snap in between him running from car to car, asking me to pick him up to see the inside, when he wasn’t in the shot (but I did get some with him next to or inside the cars too), or when he wasn’t yelling at me not to take pictures.

As you browse through the gallery, you’ll see the before and after images so you can see the transformation of my shots. If you like seeing the before and after shots, let me know and I’ll continue to do this with future work.

Editing with DxO Photolab - Moon Rise Over a Lake

Graesen Arnoff August 26, 2019

View this post on Instagram

Moonrise over the lake after a storm. Shot on the Canon M5 with the Canon 15-45mm. Edited with #dxolabs Photolab and PhotoMirage. #landscapephotography #nightscape #weatherphotos

A post shared by Graesen Arnoff (@gk1984) on Aug 24, 2019 at 7:44am PDT

I wanted to create more YouTube content. Among that content is how to edit with DxO Photolab. There are a ton of tutorials for using Adobe Lightroom, but not many using DxO’s software. I want to help change that and grow my skills in building an online presence. Above is the photo which I discuss how to edit in DxO Photolab. Below is the video taking you step by step through my process.

Using DxO Photolab (formerly DxO Optics Pro) to edit a moon rise over a lake after a storm rolled through. This shows the importance of shooting in RAW to recover some of the details in an otherwise dark scene.

I won’t recreate the steps I went through in the video. However, I do want to stress that this video does show how much can be done with a RAW file. The unedited photo, shown in the beginning of the video, shows an almost black image in which just the moon is visible. I boosted the shadows, some exposure, and used some local adjustments to restore details in the clouds and water.

Editing with DxO Photolab - First Edition

Graesen Arnoff July 17, 2019

Learn how I edited one of my most popular photos using DxO Photolab. See where the photo started and what steps I took to transform it into the colorful photo of the lighthouse on the water. If you want to see more, let me know.