Photography Tips (Page 38)

In Oct. 1978, the cover of National Geographic showed a self portrait of a gorilla using a camera. I’m serious, you can look it up if you would like. The cover shot was a self portrait, taken by a gorilla, and by the standards of the day it was actually pretty good!

Each year 100 million Americans also take some pretty good photos. OK, admittedly not all of them are that good . . . but with auto focus and extremely high mega pixels it is fairly safe to say that more people are taking better pictures than ever before. So the obvious question is where does that leave us “serious” photographers?

For many years photographers have used depth of field control as a tool to focus viewers' attention within their work. It seems recently we have forgotten how to use this incredibly effective technique. Learn how to use this properly and your photography will take on a new dimension.

One of the most common accessories that most photographers own is a tripod. There are a number of reasons why tripods are so popular, for some types of photography they are virtually indispensable. In this article we cover the benefits and disadvantages of using a tripod.

I am a newbie purchasing a DSLR camera, which one should I choose?

This is the most frequent question asked by people wanting to move up from their small digital cameras to a digital SLR camera.

Whether you are have a point and shoot or a DSLR camera, you'd want to take some 'wow' photos home from a trip. You'd also want the photos to remind you of how glad you went where you went in the first place. In the past, I had my moments when I thought, "…why didn't I see and cut out that awful lamp post at the side?" And so I grew a little wiser as I took more photos. Here are 10 tips for grabbing your shots on the road:

One of best pieces of advice for anybody undertaking wedding photography for the first time is: be prepared. Sit down with the couple well before the event and agree a list of shots, for example locations where you'll shoot just the couple and all the various groupings of family and friends. If possible, visit the locations in advance with the couple. Even if professionals don't need to do this, as an amateur it's worth leaving as little to chance as possible.

United in Love by WTL photos on flickr (licensed CC-BY-ND)

High angle photography is probably not a technique you'll use very often, but it can come in handy for certain types of shot. It requires you to get up above your subject, and then shoot down on them. Depending on the location, you might be able to get up on a table or chair, or you might have to bring a step ladder with you.

When photographing a subject it's all too easy to just take photos at normal standing height. However getting down low and taking some low angle shots can bring a new dynamic to your photographs.

The Canon 7D has a unique feature that I really appreciate; it will let you shoot photos as both a JPEG and RAW image with a single push of the button.  Doing so means pictures are taking up much more room on your storage card but it's worth the extra space.  On some camera models that would also mean slower write times to the storage card, but the 7D has two internal computers to handle that chore so write speed is not an issue.