Discover Digital Photography

Extreme macro photographs show super close-up views of items, revealing details that cannot be seen by the naked eye, and opening up a new world of subjects.

Standard macro lenses 'only' go to 1:1 or 1:2 magnification. Extreme macro refers to images taken at magnifications greater than 1:1. To get these images requires more than just a standard macro lens, but the equipment doesn't necessarily have to be expensive.

In this article I'll look at some of the options available if you want to be able to capture extreme macro photos. And I'll also cover how to deal with some of the issues that come up when shooting at such high magnifications.

Focus peaking is a form of manual focusing aid found on most modern Interchangeable Lens Cameras, and some compact cameras as well. It works by overlaying a colored outline around (or over) the areas of the image that are in sharp focus, making it easy to see what part of the image is in focus.

While focus peaking has been available on video cameras for quite a long time, it is only in recent years that it has made its way over to still cameras. Although the addition of focus peaking to still cameras came about because the introduction of decent video capabilities to these cameras, focus peaking is actually very useful for still photography as well.

Along with Portrait Photography, Landscape Photography is one of the most popular forms of photography. Capturing images that do the great outdoors justice can be difficult, but so long as you're willing to put a little work in, it's certainly not too difficult.

In this article I'll share five tips that will hopefully help you understand more about what it is that really makes a great landscape photo.

Knolling photography involves capturing images of objects grouped together and arranged neatly, either parallel or at right angles to one another. The look of the resulting image can be quite clean and clinical - as opposed to a jumble of items, everything is neatly laid out.

The technique is very useful whenever you want to photograph a group of items, with each item clearly identifiable. Knolling is often used for sharing an image of the contents of a bag. But, of course, it can be used for other things too, such as the ingredients for a meal, clothes that form an outfit, a small book collection, or just a collection of related items you think would work well for a knolling photo.

In this article I'll share a bit of the history of knolling photography, and some tips for creating great knolling photographs yourself.

A prime lens is a lens with a single fixed focal length - it cannot be zoomed. Prime lenses appeal to photographers for a number of reasons. Depending on the lens, it might offer some combination of a large maximum aperture, small size, excellent build quality, better image quality, or lower price, compared to a zoom lens. In this article we'll look at some tips for using a prime lens, and how to deal with some potential issues you may come across.

Shooting in low light situations can cause a number of problems such as autofocus issues, high levels of image noise, and blurry photos. However, unless you resolve to only photograph outdoors when it's sunny, you'll sometimes have to shoot in low light and deal with these issues.

While these problems can be a pain, they can all be minimized to a certain extent, so you don't need to worry about them so much. There are a load of great photo opportunities that can only be had in low light situations (such as shooting at night), so it's worth learning the tricks for getting great photos in low light.

The vast majority of us greatly prefer bright sunny days to dull overcast days. And the majority of people would likely think that sunny weather is better for photography than dreary overcast weather.

While that is correct in some cases, for many types of photography, overcast and cloudy weather is actually preferable to sunny. In this article I'll go over why overcast weather can be useful for better photos, some of the problems it can cause, and how to work around these issues.

It happens to everyone. Sometimes you just don't have the motivation to pick up your camera and go out and shoot. Or maybe the motivation is partly there, but you just can't seem to get a good photo. All your shots are looking staid, boring, and lacking that creative oomph.

Don't worry, creative block is something that everyone experiences. It's perfectly normal. What matters is how you deal with it - do you give up or work through the difficult period? In this article I'll share some tips that will hopefully help you work through your block and get your creative juices flowing again.

Selective focus is a very useful technique for drawing the viewer's attention to a certain area of an image. Typically, though not always, the area you want to draw attention to will be the subject of the photo. By having the subject in sharp focus, but the rest of the image blurry, the eye is naturally drawn towards the sharp area of the image.

Selective focus can be achieved in-camera but can also be added to an image later using image editing software. In this article we'll look at both techniques.

Reflectors are often used in natural light portrait photography, where they can act as an additional light source. But they can be used for much more than that. In this article we'll look at what reflectors are, some of the different types, and the various ways they can help you get better photos.