Archive for 2012 (Page 7)

In photography, it is important that the subject you are photographing is clearly conveyed to the viewer. In a portrait photo, you want the viewer to concentrate on the person, not the background. Going further, you probably want the focus to be on the face, and going further still, probably the eyes, or maybe the lips.

This is true not just for portrait photography, but for most types of photography. With landscape photography, there is normally a main point of focus in the image, for example a tree, the sunset, or maybe a river.

You can help focus your viewer's attention on the important part(s) of the photo by assigning the most important a higher visual weight. There are a number of different factors that are likely to affect how much attention a viewer pays to a particular part of an image.

If you are considering purchasing a camera that accepts interchangeable lenses, you need to be aware of compatibility issues. Buying a camera and lens and then finding they don't work properly together could be quite annoying.

It is also important to remember that when you buy into a camera that offers interchangeable lenses, you are buying into a system. So you need to consider carefully the range of lenses available in that system.

In this article we'll look at the different compatibility issues you might come across, and also how some cameras can be used with a wider range of lenses via adapters.

Taking excellent photographs is far more dependent on the skill of the photographer than on the type of gear used. Just because you have a good camera doesn't mean you'll get good photographs as some professional photographers have been known to shoot with disposable cameras.

One of the best things you can do to become a great photographer is to get a solid understanding of the technical elements and how they interact with each other. Composition, contrast, color balance, depth of field – all of these things combined are what make a photograph unique, and without an understanding of each you may find that your work suffers.

Froozen leaves by mpcevat on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

With that in mind, here is a comprehensive breakdown of one of these elements – Contrast.

Infrared (IR) photography allows you to turn a simple shot into an other-worldly scene. Plants and trees turn bright white, while skies and water darken considerably.

summertime blues by mugley on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

The sun puts out a lot of infrared light, as well as visible light. By using a camera that is sensitive to infrared and a filter that blocks the visible light, we end up with an infrared photo.

Setting up a home photography studio might sound expensive or like you'd need a lot of room, but actually it is something you can do yourself quite cheaply. The amount of space required for a studio area really depends on how large the subject you are photographing is.

aleksanian by Bolshakov on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

For a photographer, skills in family portraits are essential and are the bread and butter for many photographers. Looking at the history of photography, one of the first popular uses the camera was not for abstract art, or photographing the family pet, but for photographing people and their families.

Because of the expense and difficulty of each photo taken, they became masters at getting things right the first time and being able to fit in as many people as possible into the frame.

In order to hone in on the small things that make a difference in this classic and often overlooked form of photography, I have come up with my eight Family Portrait tips - five DO's and three DONT's.

In recent years, as technology has improved, more cameras are being released with Electronic Viewfinders (EVFs). In this article we'll look at the differences between EVFs and the traditional optical viewfinder, and the benefits and disadvantages of EVFs.

Taking pictures with your phone is great fun, as convenient as you can get, and you can share the shots with anybody in the world almost instantly. There are some things to remember though.

Cozy Sunset by ^riza^ on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

If you have a blurry photo, there is only so much you can do to remove (hide) the blur after the fact. Ideally, you want to be aware of what can cause blurry photos, and ensure you correct for this at the time of taking the photo.

In this article we'll look briefly at software methods for "fixing" blurry photos. Then we'll look at the main reasons why the photos come out blurred in the first place, and how to avoid getting blurry photos.

Although the auto exposure of modern cameras is pretty good, they doesn't always get it right. This is especially true if there is a large difference in brightness between your subject and the background.

For example, a person in a dimly lit room with the sun shining in through a window behind them. You'd probably end up with a photo where the person is a silhouette, but the window is exposed correctly. Great if this is what you wanted, but not so great if you were trying to capture the person's portrait.

IMG_0870.JPG by busbeytheelder on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

There are a few different things you can do to fix this. We'll first look at the camera settings etc. you can use to fix the problem on location. Then we'll look at options for fixing existing shots using image editing software.