Whether photography is a hobby for you, or a career, it's highly like that you take photos because you enjoy it. One of the enjoyable aspects of photography is trying out new techniques, and capturing images that show a different view of reality to that you see with your eyes.
In this article I'll share five techniques that are fun, creative, and can result in some great 'out of this world' photos.
Soft focus filters are used for reducing the local contrast in an image, and sometimes also for adding a kind of dreamy glow. The main use for this is in portrait photography - the filter reduces the appearance of fine detail such as skin pores, giving a smoothing effect.
The effect is not the same as just blurring an image. A good quality soft focus filter reduces the contrast of fine detail rather than blurring it away.
Soft focus effects were often used in Hollywood films in the 1950s for scenes with the leading actress. If you look closely when watching these films you can clearly see how the look of the image changes when a scene alternates between showing the male lead and the female lead.
Because of their heavy use in Hollywood, the look given by a soft focus filter is sometimes referred to as the 'Hollywood look'. In this article we'll look at several ways you can produce the same effect in your own photography.
Read the rest of this entry »Bokeh is a word used to describe the out of focus areas of a photo. It does not really mean how out of focus an area is, but rather how the out of focus areas are rendered.
A Cup of Bokeh, please? by Shermeee on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
You will find that some people are very particular about bokeh, while others aren't really bothered. Just like one person might love a particular photo, while another person might think it is nothing special, the bokeh characteristics of a photo can be quite subjective.
Camera lens reviews, particularly those in Japan, now often include photos with out of focus areas particularly so that viewers can judge the bokeh.
Read the rest of this entry »There are many 'rules' of photography (I prefer to think of them as guidelines) that we can follow in the effort for outstanding photos. But sometimes not following the rules can result in a more interesting and engaging photograph.
Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't bother learning the 'rules' of photography, or that you should ignore them completely. Rather, once you have learned the rules, and how they work, you will then know when to make a conscious decision to break a rule.
With that out of the way, let's look at some examples of where breaking the rules can work well.
Read the rest of this entry »At Christmas time many houses, shops, and town centers are decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. These can make for great photos at night. Because the lights are relatively dim (compared to sunlight), you will need to use a high ISO if shooting handheld, or preferably mount your camera on a tripod.
Merry Christmas from Denver, Colorado by Thad Roan - Bridgepix on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
Aperture is one of 3 settings, along with shutter speed and ISO, that can be used to affect the brightness (exposure) of an image. It also affects how much of the image is in focus (DoF), and how out of focus areas appear (bokeh). This article covers how the aperture setting affects exposure, DoF and bokeh, and what aperture settings to use for certain effects.
Read the rest of this entry »Motion zoom can be created by zooming in or out while taking a photo with a slow shutter speed. Using this technique you can take a mundane subject, and change it into a surreal and abstract photo.
You can start at your lens' widest focal length and then zoom in while taking the photo, or start at the longest focal length and then zoom out, each has a slightly different effect. You can try zooming in and out during one exposure for a combined effect as well.
Zoomblur by Andreas Levers on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
