44 essential digital camera tips and tricks Our collection of top digital camera tips and essential photography advice will have you improving your photos in no time. Culled from experts and photographers who have been taking pictures for quite some time, they all agree that these 44 camera tips are essential knowledge for honing your craft. So feast your eyes below, check out some of our best photography tips on everything from setting up your digital camera to honing your photo composition, and by the end you will learn the secrets and shortcuts to getting high-quality pictures every time. Digital Camera Tips: 01 Always reset camera settings There are few things worse than taking what you think is a stunning picture, only to find your camera’s ISO and saturation were cranked right up from a previous shoot and you’ve missed the moment. Avoid this by checking – and resetting – all of your settings before moving from one picture-taking opportunity to the next (find out The right way to set up your camera).
7 Funky Photography Tricks and Ideas to Try Out Looking for a new photo concept to try your hand at? The Cooperative of Photography just released this short video with 7 different photo tricks and ideas you can do the next time you’re in search of ideas. #1. Levitation #2. Freelensing #3. #4. #5. #6. #7. Canon vs Nikon: the DSLR comparison you've been waiting for! Canon vs Nikon: which DSLR system is best? A question that has frustrated many of the world’s greatest philosophers and may even have troubled the UN… Our in-depth comparison examines each system’s cameras, lenses, key features and much more. Who makes the best DSLRs, Canon or Nikon? It’s the impossible question. If it wasn’t, one of these giants of the camera industry would be out of business by now. The fact is, Canon and Nikon offer some of the best cameras, lenses, flash systems and accessories – and they have done for years. Whichever line you choose, you’re investing in an extensive, well-supported system that caters for everyone, from beginners to experts, from wedding photographers to wildlife pros. Has that stopped forums descending into flame wars over whether Canon or Nikon is best? In fact, it’s quite common to find photographers swapping systems, moving from Canon to Nikon or from Nikon to Canon. Back in the real world, the majority of us can’t afford to dance between systems.
Best camera settings for sunsets (free photography cheat sheet) The key to choosing the best camera settings for sunsets is to make sure you capture the sunset’s colours as they are, not how the camera ‘thinks’ they should be. You might also need to adjust the exposure settings to suit the conditions, too, because in extreme lighting situations the camera might not interpret the scene in the way you expect. In our photography cheat sheet below we’ve provided some of the best camera settings for sunsets. Use these as a starting point and then let your creativity take over! Image by Chris Rutter It’s hard to resist the colours at sunset, but watch your exposure to make the most of them. Exposing for the sky gives you the best colours, but the foreground will become very dark. Best camera settings for sunsets Click on the infographic to see the larger version, or drag and drop to your desktop to download. Exposure mode Manual Focus mode Manual Shutter speed 1/30sec or longer Aperture f/16 ISO 100 or lower Lens 18-24mm Drive mode Single-shot White balance Daylight
Macro Photography Hints and Tips from a Self-Taught Beginner | Dave Wilson Photography I love macro photography and, specifically, shooting pictures of bugs and insects. When you get really close to these creatures, they are even more alien than you would imagine and this makes them absolutely fascinating to me. Getting good pictures of them can, however, be extremely tricky so in this tutorial I will attempt to offer some advice to help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made while trying to figure this out. In most other areas of photography that I enjoy, I have read books or other tutorials on the subject but, for some reason, I avoided pretty much all information on macro photography and figured things out for myself. This means that I probably hit a lot more pitfalls than I should have and it also means that I may differ from the conventional wisdom but this stuff works for me so hopefully it will be helpful to others too. If any real expert reads this and wants to correct anything, please let me know! What do we mean by “Macro”? Getting close to your subject
8 Awesome YouTube Tutorials Every Photographer Should See Jimmy Mcintyre is a travel photographer, educator, and 500px ISO contributor. His photos have been published in local and national magazines, including the BBC. His online courses on digital blending and post-processing can be found on his official website. The Internet is awash in photography tutorials, some of which can truly revolutionize your photography. In this article I’ve collected some of the best YouTube video tutorials of the last 12 months, and put them in one convenient place. 1. I’ve shamelessly included two of my own tutorials here that I believe are of great value to all Photoshop users. After learning Luminosity Masks, you will no longer need HDR software! If you’d like to follow along with your own images, you can download my free Luminosity Mask actions (and access a wealth of Digital Blending articles and tutorials): Free Luminosity Mask actions 2. 5 Photoshop Blend Modes That Can Change An Image Within Seconds 3. 4. 5. 7 DIY Photography Tips Using Household Objects 6.
Hints & Tips for Composing a Perfect Photo - Tuts+ Photo & Video Article Composition can simply be defined as how elements are arranged in a photo. You can choose to stand far away or move close up. You decide what type of lens to use. The basic skills of composition can be learned and practiced, and this tutorial is meant to add some tools to your arsenal, because compositional elements are just that, tools. Each one of these sections is a little trick that can apply to different situations. The phrase "rule of thirds" is thrown around a lot in photography, and I have heard at least five different versions of the rule. One, make a tic-tac-toe board over your photo. Two, divide your photo into thirds horizontally and vertically (same as above), your subject should be in 1/3 of the frame either horizontally or vertically, not both. So basically, it's generally a good idea to keep your subject out of the middle of the frame. When shooting photos, it is often like being on a treasure hunt. The eye naturally follows lines. A camera operates differently.
Long Exposure Tutorial: Learn to Capture Silky Smooth Motion Shots Tomer Razabi is a passionate freelance landscape photographer and owner of an adventure and nature expeditions company. Tomer guides photography expeditions in Israel and around the world. 500px: Tomer Razabi Facebook page: Tomer Razabi Photography Website: www.TomeRazabi.com Shooting long exposure photos creates unique, eye catching and irresistible landscape images. Long exposure is a well known technique that has been used since the early days of photography. I divide it into two main effects: Movement Emphasis and Movement Smoothing. Movement Emphasis Shooting long exposure when there is something that moves in a specific direction in the frame like a waterfall, clouds or waves makes it smear uniformly in that specific direction. How do you choose the right shutter speed for the effect? If the element is constantly moving like a water fall, a river, or clouds you will get smoother and stronger emphasis of the movement the longer you expose. Movement Smoothing This is pretty simple.