When you want to have a print made of one of your pictures, you want to be confident you are sending it to the right place. If you are like me, that means the best quality for the best price – and usually that means a trade-off is to be made. I conducted a test… Continue reading Testing the Online Photo Labs (Video)
Photography Articles
Understanding and Using ISO to Get Great Photos
The best way to understand ISO is with a little background . . . ISO in the Film Days Do you remember when you used to buy a roll of camera film and they would have different “speeds” of film for you to choose from? The “slow” stuff was labeled “100” and was to be… Continue reading Understanding and Using ISO to Get Great Photos
Understanding Aperture & Depth of Field
For beginners, perhaps the best way to dramatically improve your photos is to master depth of field. For example, you can isolate a subject by blurring out the background, which really makes your subject “pop.” Or you can set a wide depth of field to make the whole picture as sharp as possible. There are… Continue reading Understanding Aperture & Depth of Field
Mastering Shutter Speed
If you are going to elevate your photography above the level of snapshots, one of the three things you need to master is shutter speed. This article will show you how to do that. There are two parts to shutter speed; a boring part and a fun part. The boring part is that a lot of times, you just want… Continue reading Mastering Shutter Speed
The Easy 5 Step Program for Beginning Flash Photography
When you are just starting out with photography the whole flash thing can just seems like a complete mystery. Sometimes the flash pops up, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes is lights things up, sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes it creates a harsh glare. When I was starting out, I always felt like I was doing something wrong, but the whole thing seemed too… Continue reading The Easy 5 Step Program for Beginning Flash Photography
Understanding Camera Modes
Here we will quickly go through the modes on the mode dial on your camera. We’ll talk about them in the order of least control to most control by the photographer. Auto Mode: This mode is known among snooty photographers as “Idiot Mode.” When you use this mode, you essentially turn your camera into a point… Continue reading Understanding Camera Modes
A Basic Lightroom Edit (Video)
If you are new to Lightroom or photo editing software in general, please check out this video. It will show you how easy it is to use.
Moving Water with a Super-Fast Shutter Speed
Here is another example for you to use in your own photography. This photo is a shot of my daughter taken in my pool. It has a really cool water effect created by a super-fast shutter speed. Try this and I guarantee you will get a lot of great comments. The Settings I Used Here are the settings… Continue reading Moving Water with a Super-Fast Shutter Speed
Controlling Exposure
In the last post, I walked you through how a camera exposes a picture. In this post, I will go through the three controls of exposure: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. The graphic immediately below should give you the gist of it, and there is more explanation below. Once you know how each of them… Continue reading Controlling Exposure
Understanding Exposure: How your Camera Works
Exposure affects much more than just how light or dark your photo is, although it certainly affects that. The same controls that determine exposure levels also largely control whether the background will be blurred out or in focus. They also control how much “noise” is in the picture. And they also determine whether the action will be frozen or… Continue reading Understanding Exposure: How your Camera Works
Mastering Your Camera’s Exposure Controls (Video)
As you may have seen, there are a lot of articles here on the exposure process. I start with an article on the exposure process generally, and then get into the specifics of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. There is even an article with some specific scenarios to walk through using these exposure controls. In… Continue reading Mastering Your Camera’s Exposure Controls (Video)
Westminster Bridge: Streaking Lights
This photo was taken on Westminster Bridge in London. You’ve probably seen plenty of these, and I have too, but I never get tired of them. You can do these sorts of shots anywhere. Since it is nighttime you don’t have to hope for the perfect light. You just set up with a good background and then… Continue reading Westminster Bridge: Streaking Lights
Introducing: The Histogram
You have probably seen a chart like the ones below before. These charts may appear on your camera LCD after you have taken a photo, like the one on the left. If you have done any post-processing at all it is commonly displayed there as well. The chart to the right was displayed in Photoshop. You may have ignored… Continue reading Introducing: The Histogram
5 Steps to Taking Sharp Photos (or at least avoiding blurry ones)
Everyone struggles with taking sharp pictures. It is universal in photography. Many beginners are trying to just avoid blurry pictures. But as people progress with photography, while blurry pictures are typically no longer a problem, the quest for sharper pictures continues.
The First Thing to Look at When Buying a Digital Camera
No, it is not the number of megapixels. Although that is important. Camera manufacturers have long understood that people look at megapixels first, and they have occasionally been guilty of cramming a bunch of megapixels in a camera without regard to other factors, including the one I want to talk about. The result was cameras with lots of… Continue reading The First Thing to Look at When Buying a Digital Camera