Wow, it’s been a while since I gave up a serving of Saturday Link Lovin’. Lots of craziness over the last month: I went to Colorado, came home and shot sessions like crazy, then had a fire at home. But I’m back with another helping of the best portrait related articles for the week. Scratch that, I’ll go back a little ways to bring you up to speed.

• Challenge: Portraiture styles - Photocritic gives you a little inspiration to help break out of your normal portrait style. Like anyone else, I find myself getting stuck in a style once in a while and need a little nudge to break free.
• at night, drag and hang low - FlashFlavor’s Matt Adcock talks a little about using slow shutter speeds creatively combined with small kisses of flash. A good read, especially if you shoot weddings.
• Quick Tip: Pay Attention To Your Background - While not strictly portrait related, this article from Epic Edits has advice that should definitely be heeded by portrait people.
• Halloween Photography Tips - With Halloween coming up, you have to get your tips. Digital Photography School has you covered.

Reader Photo Highlights

The Sublime Light Flickr photo pool is getting rather popular. There are way too many great photos for me to highlight here, so I’m going to have to just pick a few. If you haven’t joined in yet, get crackin!

Ah yes, another week has flown by and it’s Saturday again, which means it’s time for another round of cool stuff I found on the webernet this week. I thought I’d do something a little bit different this week and branch out a tad. So this weeks links aren’t 100% directly related to portrait photography, but still good reads.

• You don’t need a freakin light meter! - Is any explanation necessary?
• How to Create Glamour Model Photography - There are some really great tips in here for those of you who might want to dip your toes into glamour photography. There are also some great tips for everyone else in here too, even if glamour isn’t your thing.
• 11 Free Photo Editors At Your Choice - Let’s face it, Photoshop is expensive. So here are some really great alternatives for those of you who want to spend more on your camera than on the software.
• Get Down Low to Frame Out Ugly Backgrounds - I live in Austin, so there are no ugly backgrounds to be found. Yeah right, ugly backgrounds can be found anywhere. Here’s a technique for getting rid of it without any post processing work.
• Overcoming Shyness in Photographing People - For most people, photographing strangers on the street is a nerve wracking experience. Read this article and you might feel a little better about it.
• 5 Things Photographers Should Do When Confronted by Police - Many photographers have been confronted by police for simply taking pictures. It’s happened to me and I can tell you from personal experience that these tips are sure fire winners.

Reader Photo Highlights

Wow, the Sublime Light Flickr photo pool really went nuts this week. There are way too many great photos for me to highlight here this week, so I’m going to have to just pick a few. If you haven’t joined in yet, get crackin!

I have something to admit. While I’m not too shabby with all the camera gear technically, I’m not a very creative person. I’ve nicknamed the creative half of my brain “my wife” because, well, my wife is the creative half of our little photography duo. I can balance ambient flash and light all day long, but I’m no visionary.

So when I see web sites that are chock full of inspiring photographs, I really perk up. I recently discovered the Portrait Photos web site and quickly realized that I simply must pass this one on to you all. If you’re looking for inspiration for your own portrait adventures, you should definitely check it out. It is full of thousands of portrait photos, the quality of which are very high.

Of course let’s not forget about the Sublime Light Flickr photo pool. Amazing photos are posted there every day, and you’re sure to find some inspiration there. Then you can turn around and share the love back with the community by posting your own photos!

Got a favorite source of inspiration you’d like to share? Leave a comment and let us all know where you draw your inspiration from. I know I’d like to see it.

Well it’s been another great week here at Sublime Light. I told you about my first impressions of Canon’s “Nifty fifty” 50mm prime f/1.8 lens and pumped out another installment of the ever popular Portrait Lighting For Beginners series: Profile Lighting.

Great Articles This Week

Here are some of the great people photography related articles I ran across this week.

• Buy One, Get Two Free - Strobist offers up a “How it was done” article on an absolutely amazing beach portrait taken at sunset. This is a must see.
• I’ve Got A Hotstick - FlashFlavor’s Matt Adcock shows you how he took a really awesome shot by attaching his Canon 5D to a painter’s pole and holding it up above the crowd at a wedding. To add that little bit of Flash Flavor, he also had an assistant highlighting the shot with a red gelled strobe. Pretty cool stuff.
• How To Improve Your Photos By Ignoring Them - Goldengod’s Andrew Ferguson takes a look at how letting your photos sit for a few days before choosing keepers or rejects can really affect what you consider to be your best work.

Reader Photo Highlights

Here were some of the really great photos that were added to the Sublime Light Flickr photo pool this week. As usual, we got some fantastic shots. If you haven’t joined in the fun yet, what are you waiting for?

There was some photography article hotness around the web this week, and I’m bringing it to you here in my Saturday Link Lovin’. Bon apetit.

• Ironically, Good Verbal Communication = Success in Photography - This one is actually from last week, but it’s a good one anyway. Chase Jarvis talks about why you need to be a good communicator if you want to make those people photos happen.
• It’s That Time of Year: Football Preview Shots - It seems there’s always something good each week from Strobist’s David Hobby. This week see a video of Mark Cornelison do some shots of football players leading up to the season.
• LightSource Photography Podcast: Roman Salicki - Celebrity headshot photographer Roman Salicki discusses a variety of portrait topics including lighting, backgrounds, lenses, and more. You may not be into podcasts, but there’s lots to be had in this 46 minute episode.

Reader Photo Highlights

One thing I would also like to start doing on Saturdays from now on is to highlight just a few of the awesome photos posted to the Sublime Light Flickr photo pool during the week. If you haven’t yet joined in, you should definitely check it out.

Here are some of the articles from around the web that I found particularly interesting this week.

• How to bypass the Portrait Mode on Your Digital Camera and Get Great Portraits - From Digital Photography School. I never use the portrait mode on my camera for a few reasons, one of them being that you can’t shoot in RAW on my Canon 20D. DPS gives you some good advice to set up a portrait shot by going into your camera’s “creative”modes.
• PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: Blown Away - Brian Auer over at the Epic Edits blog is starting a new project with the topic being overexposure. But the project needs reader input to succeed, so check it out!
• Canon 40D Reviews and Resource Page - From Photography Bay. Just in case you’ve been stranded in a cave and survived on bugs and water from cacti for the last couple months, the Canon 40D has been announced and will be on shelves very soon. Get all the skinny on this very cool new camera.
• Nikon D300 Officially Announced - Also from Photography Bay. I don’t want to leave any of you Nikon die-hards out in the cold. They’ve got their answer to the Canon 40D. Let the battle of the SLRs heat up!
• Portrait Inspiration - From PopPhoto Flash. Snag a tip on getting yourself out of that lighting rut.

Some of the coolest photography articles from around the web this week. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

• Digital Photography School breaks all the rules with “Experiment with Different Framings with Portraits“
• Photography Tip tells you the “Best Apertures for Sharpness“
• Strobist strikes near and dear to my portrait heart with “Using Specular Reflections as a Background Element“
• If you read the recent article here on Ethics and Best Practices in Photo Retouching, you’ll likely enjoy “Hollywood Glamour, Contemporary Style” from The Online Photographer. The article takes you to a professional photo retoucher that has an amazing collection of before and after shots of retouched celebrity photos.

Some of the coolest photography related articles from around the web this week:

• This Will Literally Make You Want To Throw Up - From Strobist, a short video clip of wedding photographer Mike Larson who throws his multi-thousand dollar SLR 20 feet into the air to get an awesome bird’s eye view of the wedding party.
• Hold Your Camera On An Angle - This is something that is getting more and more popular these days. Digital Photography School tells you about breaking the “keep the horizon level” rule.
• Making Your Own Muslin Background - From Instructables, learn how to make your own muslin background to save money. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this myself for many months now and have been planning to do an article on it. If you try it, let me know how it goes in the comments!

I ran across some really cool stuff this week while taking a break from moving Sublime Light to the new host. Enjoy!

• DIY small flash water-proof housing - Strobist’s David Hobby brings you a really cool do-it-yourself solution for taking a SpeedLight into wet conditions, even underwater. Talk about opening up new opportunities for photographs.
• Happy Customers - Going Pro as a Photographer - Darren Rowse over at Digital Photography School hosts pro photographer Laura Novak to talk a little about what it means to turn any client into your next advertisement.
• Going to the Moo-vies - Photocritic introduces you to the coolest new printer around. They have some of the most awesome little products I’ve seen in a long time. Check it out!
• Making Coloring Pages From Your Photos - This is an awesome tutorial for anyone with kids. Coloring books are cool, but how awesome would it be to color a picture of yourself?! fototiller shows you the three easy steps to doing it in Photoshop.