Photography Tips & Tutorials1000 articles

When photographing landscapes, it is essential to have the correct meter setting activated to achieve proper exposure results. The meter setting on your camera helps you decide what combination of aperture and shutter speed to use in order to get a correctly exposed photograph. All cameras are different, but should have similar “on board” camera meters. I own a Nikon D700 and there are three meter settings: Spot, Center Weighted, and 3D Color Matrix. Let’s discuss all three and compare and contrast the benefits of each. I will then explain which meter setting I use all the time, and how to get the most out of each setting while in the field.

Knowing how to use contrast will help you create eye-catching images. Contrast is a tool that photographers use to direct viewer’s attention to their subject. There are two types: Tonal Contrast and Color Contrast. TC refers to the difference in tones from the lightest tone to the darkest tone, in other words, the difference in tones from white to gray to black. CC refers to the way colors interact with each other. Tones are normally described as high, normal or low. A high tone image mainly includes white and black with few or no middle grey tones. A normal tone image will have elements that are white, some that are black and many middle tones of grey.

Flowers are naturally beautiful, and easy to find in the warmer months of the year, and so make a great subject for a photo. This article covers the top tips to get great photos when photographing flowers in their natural surroundings. Generally when taking natural flower photos, you will want to take the photo at slightly above eye level with the flower, ensuring that the centre of the flower can be seen. This will mean crouching down, or for smaller flowers getting the camera right down at ground level. When photographing flowers at ground level you may need to flatten or remove blades of grass or leaves.

Should you use a softbox, or an umbrella? Even though they serve similar purposes, which is to provide a larger light source (thereby softer light), there are several key differences between a softbox and an umbrella. A softbox makes creating flattering portraits very easy. You can use it as a key light, fill light or even a hair light. It all depends on the lighting conditions at the location you are shooting. What the umbrella lacks in comparison to a softbox is control of light spill. When used indoors, an umbrella lights up a large part of the room, decreasing your control over how dark your background can be.

Having a website presence as part of your photography business is becoming increasingly important. It is always great to be able to hand out business cards that include a website address where potential clients can take a look at your portfolio. Starting the process to create a website may seem very daunting, but it is actually very easy these days. This blog post is specifically focused on how to create a flash-based website. Many photographers prefer flash style websites because they are usually more interactive and responsive to quick navigation through a large collection of photos.

When you hear the word workflow, you automatically think about the editing process. However, there is a workflow when it comes to taking photographs too. It’s the few simple things you think about while getting ready to take your photographs. These steps are in the order I think about my photographic workflow, but you can certainly do these in any order. This is simple workflow for photography. It helps you take the few moments you need to compose your scene carefully and also gives you the time to think about what and how you are going to be shooting. Next time you are out and about shooting, give it a try.

If you’ve bought a DSLR (digital SLR) hoping to take almost professional-looking pictures indoors, you’re halfway there. Just remember NOT to use the built-in flash that comes with your DSLR. You might have also heard that a speedlight (external flash unit) will improve your pictures dramatically. Again, you’re halfway there. The other half of the story is how you use these tools. They are not miracle machines, because you need to be able to use them correctly to get professional-looking results. To start with, use a speedlight with a tilt and swivel function. Not those that are fixed at a certain angle.

Taking photo’s of light trails may seem difficult, but it’s rather easier than expected, and is based on a lot of trial and error. Light trail photos are most common found with car headlights and tail lights, but you can also make light trails with stars (star trails) or any other light in motion. Light trails are basically long exposure shots that take place around moving sources of light. There isn’t much you will need to be able to take these shots, but a proper camera, and additional equipment can help, even though some is not needed. I will start to explain the basics. For a long exposure shot (the basis of this tutorial), you will need to adjust your exposure settings.

For the most part a photographer only needs a few software programs in order to have a fully functioning digital darkroom. While there are dozens of possibilities I have three software packages that I strongly recommend: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Tiffen’s Df/x. I suggest starting with Photoshop Lightroom ($299). Lightroom is both an image manipulation program and one of the best image file archive managers on the planet. In every instance Lightroom is where I begin the moment I have images that I need to move from a memory card onto my computer.

Many years ago I came across what is probably the best way to learn composition, and also the hardest one to actually use, even though the concept is very simple. You take one camera body, one lens, one roll of film, (or memory card) and you pick one subject to shoot. Then go out about town, or around the countryside, and fill that one roll with that one subject only, but take your time when doing it. Rushing things just leads to even more mistakes that may not have anything to do with composition, but will lead to confusion. You want to learn from “how” you did the shooting, and not because you were rushed to do it.