Digital Photography

With careful use of flash, you can make your photo looks natural as though no flash had been used, instate it will enhance the photo further reducing contrast and yet looking very natural.

It has been a dream of all photographers to look for the balance in lighting whenever they photograph a subject and most of the time the quality of available light isnt always perfect. I will share my experience in making use of flash wisely I am able to enhance my photo rather than by just using the available ambient light. Continue reading »

Tags: fill, Flash, strobe, Studio

Taming the beast “contrast” is often a photographer’s biggest challenge. As the photographer, your task is usually to decide what’s most important and then compromise on the exposure accordingly, based on the various elements in your scene. Here’s a typical situation: you’re by a lake. It’s late evening and the sun is setting. The warm sunlight is coming off the water and at an extremely low angle. Your subject is bathed in beautiful warm light but one side of her face is in heavy shadow. Your camera meter suggests 1/250 sec at f8 at ISO 100. You whip out your trusty digital SLR and you shoot your picture hopefully you’re shooting on manual. This is the best mode to shoot if you want to master your digital SLR. Manual mode allows you to see the metadata of each picture you take so that you can troubleshoot when things go wrong. Automatic, aperture, shutter and program tells you nothing if things go wrong so you won’t be able to learn how to correct your picture-taking mistakes. You look at your efforts and you see the picture above. One side of her face is underexposed, but the other side looks perfect at least on the little LCD monitor. Continue reading »

Tags: contrast, Lighting

Creative photography tricks are great for adding that professional look to your photos. Once you learn how to do a few of these tricks, you’ll see a great improvement in your photos.

Learning how to stop action is a great skill you’ll use over and over again in your photography.

There are just a few ways to do this – only one if you are using a simple point-and-shoot camera.

This first method works for both the DSLR user and the point-and-shoot. Match your movement to your subject. This is called PANNING. Panning is where you physically attempt to move your body to keep your subject in the viewfinder as it moves by. This is done in a smooth fashion, never jerky. Continue reading »

Tags: blur, panning, Shutter Speed

Are you afraid to get started with photographic studio lights? Are you not sure what to buy, how to set them, where to place them and how to use them? Then this article is for you!

First of all, you must decide what types of lights to purchase. There are two basic types: Tungsten or Strobes. Tungsten lights are continuous photofloods, which tend to generate a lot of heat. Strobes are flash units. I personally use strobes and really like them. More specifically, I use the Alien Bees B800′s. I love these lights and find them really easy to use. Your strobes will come with something called a “modeling light.” This modeling light is there to allow you to see where your light will be. It goes off when you fire the strobe, and comes on again a second later, letting you know that the strobes are ready to be fired again. The modeling light gives off very little heat compared to the tungsten lights. Continue reading »

Tags: Lighting, Studio

Never use direct flash. Never use the built in flash on your camera apart from one type of effect called catchlight…see “catchlights”. Use an add on flash and at the very least you can bounce it off a wall behind you, the ceiling or even a side wall. Simple, very diffuse and natural. This one tip alone can change make your photography look professional.

Watch your sync Due to the design of a DSLR, the shutter and flash synchronisation have limitations which mean that most cameras will only sync up to 1/250, and some are at 1/180. The only time you start to notice this issue is when you are outdoors and having to balance daylight with your flash. So make sure your shutter speed is set below your sync speed. Continue reading »

Tags: Flash, strobe

“Bigger is better” is just as much of a myth in the realm of flash diffusers as it is in other areas. For an on-camera diffuser to not produce undesirable harsh shadow, it would need to be not just big but large to the point of being unwieldy and impractical.

There are many different light modifiers for strobes on the market today and every photographer has their favourite, a lot depends on the king of photographs you are taking and the kind of results you hope to achieve. Continue reading »

Tags: Diffuser, Flash, Light Modifier, strobe

Everyone knows that a flash is used when it’s too dark, but did you know that a great time to use it is in broad daylight too? A very effective fashion look can be acheived by underexposing the background and filling the subject with light from a small flash. It can take a lot of experimentation but once you have the right settings you can concentrate on the composition. Continue reading »

Tags: Fashion, Flash, strobe

Proud parents (or grandparents, god-parents or simply someone who loves babies) or crave photographing babies the way Anne Geddes manages to capture their various moods to make them look anything from cutesy to absolutely angelic to positively precious and innocently mischievous? You sure are in the right place to pick up some cues from professionals –right here! Continue reading »

Tags: baby, child

Portrait photography? No problem! Just find a pretty girl, buy a flashgun, take her picture and hey presto you have a portrait. Butis it any good?

So what makes the difference. Well, a number of things do; the model, the background, the pose, the camera, the space, the camera, the lens and the light. But take away light and you have NOTHING! Continue reading »

Tags: Flashgun, Lighting, Studio

Below is a mix of some of my photographs ranging from Istanbul travel pics to cars,landscapes and abstracts.

Kiz Kulesi

Tags: Abstract, Travel

There’s a lot of tosh written about decent studio portraits always requiring five lights. Yes, sure most of us use them from time to time, but it is altogether more satisfying to see how few we really do require to nail all the required elements.

We have been experimenting with one light for quite a while. Perhaps an obvious choice for low-key lighting. We will often use a single side facing main light with a black panel between it and the white backgorund to achieve some quite pleasing results. Add a reflector on the other side of the subject to brighten up those really dark shadows, and it starts to look good. Continue reading »

Tags: strobe, strobist, Studio

Wildlife photography requires a combination of camera skills, timing and patience. One essential aspect is often forgotten: knowing how to use the light to get the best results from your wildlife photos.

To take a top-class wildlife photograph, you need to know your animal; where to find it, how to approach it without scaring it away, and how to know the precise moment to press the button to capture the character of the subject. Often a wildlife photographer will spend hours trying to get a good shot. What a shame, then, if all that effort is wasted by taking your photo in bad light.

As a nature photographer, I have learned that the ideal light for a photo can vary depending on the subject. Landscape photos are usually best photographed in sunny weather, early in the morning or late in the afternoon when the contrast is low and the light is soft and colouful. On the hand, rainforest photography is usually best in the middle of the day, in cloudy weather to eliminate extremes of light and shade. To understand the best lighting for wildlife photography, you can take a lesson from both landscape and rainforest photography. Continue reading »

Tags: Nature, Wildlife

Andrew Goodall asked:

Wildlife photography can inspire photographers of almost any experience level. You don’t need a fancy camera or years of training; anyone with a camera can capture great wildlife images.

For an inexperienced photographer, it is easy to be disappointed with the quality of your results. You see the great photography that can be found in galleries, on calendars and postcards, and wonder why you are not getting the same results.

These days, unfortunately, our first tendency is to blame the camera, assuming that the professionals have much better cameras than yours. Even worse, many people even assume the images are not genuine photos at all; they must have been enhanced or even manufactured on a computer.

The truth is, you don’t need an expensive camera or to be an expert with software to produce good wildlife photos. Don’t forget, great wildlife photography existed long before digital cameras arrived on the scene. In fact, you don’t even need special techniques to take better wildlife photos. There are some simple things you can do that can help you take better wildlife photos no matter what sort of camera you have, or how expert you are in photography.

Here are some simple, low-tech tips for better wildlife photography.

Wildlife Photography Tip #1. Context Matters. A wildlife photo looks best if it is taken in a natural setting, or at least looks that way. You should always consider the background in a wildlife photo. If it is obvious your photo was taken in a zoo, for example, the connection with nature is broken and the background spoils the shot.

Just why is it that some people, when they find a small animal like a frog, a beetle or a lizard…feel the need to pick it up? A photo of an animal in your hand is just the same as the zoo photo – it destroys the illusion of nature that you wanted to capture in the first place. If you can photograph your subject in a natural setting, with the colours of nature in the background, your photo will be much more attractive.

Wildlife Photography Tip #2. If The Background Is Distracting, Get Rid Of It. Sometimes a great subject is found in a terrible setting, and there is nothing you can do to change that. You can, however, minimize the distraction of an unfortunate background, and you don’t need a computer to do it.

Simply get as close to the subject as possible and zoom in with your largest lens. This reduces the depth of field so much that only your subject should be in focus. If any of the background is visible, it will be so far out of focus it won’t be a problem.

Wildlife Photography Tip #3. Unusual Behaviour Makes Unique Photographs. Be patient when taking your wildlife photos. Photography competitions around the world are loades with photos that are perfectly exposed, but completely dull and uninteresting. The shots that stand out are the ones where the subject does something out of the ordinary. I am not talking about tap-dancing in a tutu; all it takes is a yawn, a wink, an interesting turn of the head, a head tucked under a wing…simple things that will set your photo apart from millions of others.

Animals sometimes turn up in unexpected locations which can also add interest to a photo. A kangaroo in the grass is not so unique, but find one on the beach and you have a photo on your hands.

Wildlife Photography Tip #4. The Eyes Are The Key To A Successful Photo. Above all when shooting your wildlife photos, concentrate your attention on the eyes. This is the feature that creates a personal connection between the subject and the viewer. If the eyes are out of focus or lost in shadow, the connection is lost. On the other hand, if the subject is mostly out of focus, or even hidden behind a bush, you can still get a great photo…as long as the eyes are sharp and well captured.

So there you have four easy tips that can add character to your wildlife photography. Note that none of them require special equipment or complex techniques. Like so much of nature photography, a good image is not about technology; it is about timing, patience, and your sensitivity to the subject. Happy Snapping!

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Tags: Nature, Wildlife

Abhishek Agarwal asked:

Underwater photography is something fascinating that has been enabled by technology in the not so distant past. In the years gone by, it was only the divers who ever got to actually see the underwater world. However thanks to underwater photographers, we are now able to get a glimpse of the deep seas right from the comfort of our homes – through television and in print media, also on the internet. It is true that any form of photography requires a certain amount of skill. Underwater photography on the other hand needs one to be a proficient diver as well as a good photographer.

As far as general wild life photography is concerned, photographers can work from a distance and photograph their subjects. But where underwater photography needs to be done, they need to get up close to the subject. This is simply because water refracts or bends light rays. Observe this phenomenon by putting your hand into a bucket of water. The closer you bring it to the surface of water the clearer it appears to be. So, the less the light needs to travel through the water, the less is the distortion. This is why underwater photographers have to get as close to their subjects as possible.

In the underwater world, it is not as simple a philosophy as survival of the fittest through speed. Most fish choose camouflage as the solution to predators. This is why you need to be skilled at spotting your fish when you are an underwater photographer. So, this is an added quality that you need to have to shoot underwater photographs successfully. Not only do you need to be a good diver, and a good photographer but also a good marine biologists. Where this is not always possible, photographers dive alongside biologists to get the best pictures. And then, some marine animals die if you as much as touch them, so it requires a certain amount of knowledge in any case, to dive responsibly.

The gear

You could get a housing for your regular camera to shoot underwater. This is nothing but a plastic, water tight container for your camera that allows all of the functions to still be accessible from the outside. Or else, you could use underwater cameras specially designed for the purpose. Photographers who shoot only underwater photography prefer to use underwater cameras, while those who shoot underwater only at times may use the underwater housing with their regular cameras. You can also attach an underwater strobe flash unit where you are shooting deep into the ocean. On the shallow areas, sunlight is enough to light the underwater world.

Underwater photographers tend to try and shoot their subjects from under them, since they hide into the backgrounds. Also, the sunlight from top can create interesting background hues.

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Tags: scuba, Underwater

We present some useful and practical tips from been there, done that professional photographers who have taken to practicing their art underwater for a reason, whatever the season and bring you these handy hints to excel in a specialized segment of nature photography, here! Take a look

The nature of underwater photography has undergone a vast sea-change (and there truly is no pun on that) in the last 3 decades: while the mid eighties saw photographers taking to the waters with video and still camera lenses covered with plastic to prevent seepage entering and spoiling their sensitive parts, the nineties saw the development of water-resistant lenses and later water-proof cameras that enabled one to capture moving shots of sea-creatures and underwater life along with flash-enabled lighting. Moving to the year 2000 and beyond, there were lots of improvements in the field of science and technology, which yielded great results for the field of Digital photography; for the whole new burgeoning world of amateur and hobby photographers who were also keen on sea-diving and other water related sports, this meant being able to take photos in hitherto unexplored places and in a candid manner! Continue reading »

Tags: Photography, scuba, Underwater