Tomas Mendoza Photography

How do I shoot Quality pictures? Once the frame is properly Exposed in terms of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO Setting then the last element to consider is Composition.
At this stage it is you who controls and ultimately decides how the image will look after post-production. It is time to release your creativity and compose or organize the elements within the frame to convey the mood as you see fit. Keep in mind that Cameras don’t make pictures, People do.
We get to review and further discuss and practice composition techniques previously mentioned. We get to shoot practice shoots of the same subject from multiple angles and distances with ambient light, flash and using light modifiers

f6.3, 1/400 sec, ISO 100, 200mm, Overcast afternoon

f2.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 200, 75mm, Window lighting

An assumption we need to get out of the way is that in Digital Photography there is no Happily ever after. That’s right! Keep in mind that first you have a concept of a picture then you prepare and take the picture and finally you begin post-production
This last stage is as important (if not more) as the rest of the process. Post-Production covers pretty much everything we do with the picture once we release the shutter.
This is the Hardware and Software I use for Photography. On the hardware side: PC with Windows XP with dual P4 3.2 GHz CPU, 4GB of memory, Dell Flat LCD, Epson Printer and a bunch of External Maxtor One Touch Hard Drives. On the software: Photomechanic, Photoshop CS2, Fotofusion, Memories on TV, Genuine Fractuals, Panorama Maker, Tiffen DFX, JAlbum, Dreamweaver, Mcafee, Backup Exec, Nero and various recovery utilities.
Workflow has to be as systematic as possible so I use PhotoMechanic to ingest my pictures to the corresponding month/year. I do this every day or after I’m done with a ‘project’. I use Photoshop (and plug-ins) to edit pictures when needed making sure I keep the originals and work on copies ONLY. Most importantly, I have all my data on a separate Internal Hard Drive so if Windows get hosed I can re-install Windows and not loose a single picture. Also, I make backups to external Maxtor Hard Drives

Use a dedicated Drive and store by year

…then, store by month