This is the second entry in what I hope will become an occasional feature dissecting how some of my photos - and those of the Cheapshooter community - were taken. These photo dissections will highlight how a photo concept is developed technically on a limited budget and will be geared for more advanced photographers. Cheapshooter’s first photo dissection was dubbed “Held Hostage“.

The concept: As fall continues, I have more and more assignments to shoot. The bulk of these are boring as all hell - I shot a street sign yesterday, for example - but occasionally an opportunity to be a bit more creative comes down the line. After an earlier photo assignment fell through, I had to rush to put together a portrait of a member of a student skateboarding club. Daylight was fading quickly, so I knew I would need to break out the flashes for a night session.

The equipment: It’s been a bad week for me, equipment wise. One of my budget radio triggers has been on the fritz, so I was limited to one flash. My Canon 40D is already in the shop, so I broke out the trusty Digital Rebel XT. Light was provided by a Canon 430 EX, a silver umbrella and a stand. I wanted a wider perspective for this photo and my flash would provide plenty of light, so I utilized the 18-55mm kit lens, which works surprisingly well in situations like this.

See how it all came together after the jump.

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Note from Dan: I’ve always been impressed with Nuno Correia’s smoke photography over at Photoassignment.net, many examples of which he’s shared with Cheapshooter readers. I asked him to write a tutorial on how he approaches smoke photography, and he gladly obliged. Thanks to Nuno for this great post - I’m excited to try his methods out for myself.

Smoke photography can free your imagination: its like looking for familiar figures in the clouds. The minimalism found in a thin line of smoke and the complexity of its little swirls is fascinating.

You don’t need top notch hardware to capture smoke photos; a point-and-shoot digital camera works just fine. See how after the jump.

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If you aren’t using Firefox yet, you should. Not only is Firefox more secure than other popular browsers like Internet Explorer, but also has a strong developer community creating extensions to make your browser do more. And as a result, there’s a plethora of plugins to turn your simple browser window into a photo sharing, displaying, browsing and uploading station.

Check them out after the jump.

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Note: This is the first of four articles exploring four different kinds of natural light you can use in your photography.

Ever been told not to shoot into the light? Forget it.

Backlighting is one of those effects that looks difficult and expensive but isn’t all that tough to achieve. With a little knowledge even a budget-bound beginner is able to make use of this cool effect.

Here’s the quick version: A backlit image is an image in which a light source is behind the main subject. This offers the potential for several interesting effects. If the back light is weak and other light sources are strong, the back light simply acts as a hair light or a rim light to separate the subject from its background. If the back light is the primary light in an image, it can be so strong that the subject becomes just a silhouette.

See exactly how it all works after the jump.

Photo by Pensiero on Flickr.

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There were some great comment’s on yesterday’s article about knowing your rights as a photographer, some of which were quite scary. Greg Banville commented that the sheet regarding photographer’s rights has helped him out of a sticky situation before, while Jessica had a strange encounter of her own:

I stopped when I saw an ambulance and some cops in an area and a large crowd.

I had my camera with me and went to take some pictures. After only snapping one picture a gentleman came and talked to me and told me I couldn’t take photos. I told him I was a reporter, this was a public place and I was in my rights to take photos.

He and a group of people who were the woman’s friends surrounded me and I started to feel threatened. Though I knew I was in the right I didn’t want it to turn into a confrontation, so I backed off and told them I was leaving.

In terms of what rights photographers have in other countries, there is this handy collection of links to local information.