Photography Tips (Page 42)

While many people enjoy taking photos of the sunset, often they will pack up and go home after the sun has disappeared below the horizon. But by doing this you miss out on all the great photos can be taken during twilight - after the sun has set, but before it gets dark.

Crematorium by Sergio Tudela Romero on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

The magic of twilight is that it is dark enough to allow you to capture the lights of a city at night, and light streaks from moving vehicles. However, it is still bright enough to give a beautiful blue tone to the sky, and let you capture photos with a shutter speed measured in seconds rather than minutes.

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Portrait photography tips for making people look their best

When you are photographing someone for a portrait photo, you generally want to capture them at their best and minimize any flaws. Of course, you can touch up portraits in Photoshop, but this can be time consuming, so it's much easier to get it right in camera.

Xue Haowen Headshots by Jonathan Kos-Read on flickr (licensed CC-BY-ND)

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In the good old days of film photography the only way to achieve many effects on your photos was with the use of specialized glass (or plastic) filters, fitted to the front (or in some cases slotted into the rear) of camera lenses prior to taking the photo. Fortunately in the modern digital world some of these filters are still used and while many of the old effects can be reproduced in a digital darkroom, others still require the photographer to do the work prior to post processing.

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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)

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When photographing architecture, it is common to try and photograph the whole building, or maybe a whole room. However, focusing on the smaller details of a building can also make for great photos.

Good subjects for architectural detail shots include items like the decorated bases of columns, pedestals, elaborate door frames, and balustrades.

greece09-2323 by Tinnytintin on flickr (licensed CC-BY-ND)

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At the zoo photography tips will hopefully give you the opportunity of taking better shots of wild animals that otherwise would not be possible unless one was to travel to Africa, South America or any of the exotic places where zoo animals come from.

Just try and take it !! (EXPLORE) by Steve Wilson on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

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Choosing what photography gear to take on holiday with you can be a difficult job. You will likely need to make some trade-offs between bringing the equipment to get the best photo for each situation you may come across, to just bringing enough gear to produce good results in most situations.

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If you are interested in purchasing a macro lens, you have probably noticed that there are a range of focal lengths available, ranging from about 60mm to 200mm. So why would you choose a long focal length macro lens over a short focal length, or vice versa?

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) Butterfly by David Kennard Photography - taken with a 100mm macro lens

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