Good in-camera exposure is essential to a great image and also cuts down on processing time & effort.   Here’s a little tip I learned early on in my photography journey that has helped me greatly using my histogram to guide me.

“Expose to the right” is an expression that you may have heard before, but my experience has been that most folks don’t understand what it means or how how to do it.

In simple terms what this means is that in order for you get the absolute best image quality your digital camera sensor can produce you should be slightly over-exposing your images. I know this does not sound like good advice, but bear with me for a minute, there is a very good technical reason for this.

The imaging sensor in your digital camera is composed of millions of little light sensors (as many as your camera has Mega pixels), and each of these sensors measures the intensity of the light that falls upon it, the camera then takes these millions of measuring points to create an image. However these sensors are not equally as good as measuring light at all levels, actually they are magnitudes more sensitive near the highlights than they are near the dark areas.

Read more …

Ever wanted to play with macro photography but didn’t have the budget to buy a dedicated macro lens?

Jim from ProPhotolife shows us a trick in the video below using two lenses that you might have in your camera bag already to achieve 1:1 magnification.

quick video 4, extreme macro photography trick from Jim Talkington on Vimeo.

If you’re interested in trying out this technique, you’ll also see in the video that Jim refers to a reversing ring which can purchased easily & inexpensively, that will allow you to use this technique without needing to manually hold the lenses together with your spare hand.

Have fun – and don’t forget to share your results in our comments section below.

Microsoft has brought to users a new free add-in, Pro Photo Shoot, for its Microsoft Outlook (Version 2003 and 2007). Pro Photo Shoot is a unique management tool to allow shutterbugs to add a list of photographic equipment to any outlook appointment and organize their events more efficiently. Users especially photographers can keep their digital records for all their photographic equipment complete with serial numbers via this new add-in.

The developer Lead at Microsoft, Todd Newman highlighted that “Pro Photo Shoot is a Microsoft Office Outlook add-in that is designed to help photographers keep track of the little stuff. When you’re first planning a photo shoot—perhaps while you’re on the phone with your customer—you can bring up a dialog with a list of the equipment you own and then check off what you want to bring with you. The list is stored in the body of the appointment so when you print the appointment record the list is right there with all the other details.”

Photographers can download the free add-in ProPhotoShoot from Microsoft via the link here. There are two versions of this free add in designed for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 respectively. Both are compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Once you have downloaded and installed this free management tool, you need to customize it by adding in your photo equipments, e.g. lens, camera, battery, backdrop, etc. The program is pretty user friendly and useful for photographers.

Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot supports Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and
2007 running on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

There are some really simple and easy things that you can do to improve your digital photography. Follow these few small things and watch your digital photos come to life. (by Stan Pontiere)

1. Locate your subject off center in your photo. Nothing is more boring than static composition. By having your subject off the center of you picture, you will create a more interesting photo.

2. Eliminate distracting elements. Sometimes it is as simple as picking up a piece of trash in the foreground. Other times you may have to change your camera angle to eliminate distracting elements in your shot. The most common distraction that I see is having a tree or telephone pole growing out of the subjects head.

3. Stop shooting everything from eye-level. This is another thing that makes pictures boring. You can always climb a ladder and get a bird’s eye view or on the ground and get a bugs eye view. You can also turn the camera on it’s side and create a vertical rather than the horizontal view that is so common. By trying different angles, you may create a much more interesting photo.

4. Use flash in the sunlight. If your subject is in deep shadow, you can use your flash to fill-in those dark areas and bring out detail. It is a simple technique that professional photographers use all of the time to create a balance between the highlights and the deep shadow areas. It will give your photos a professional touch. Sometimes the pros will carry a whiteboard or a reflective umbrella to create the same effect. The advantage of a reflector is that you have more control over the amount of fill light that you are using.

5. Back in the day, I was a newsphotographer and we had a saying-film is cheap. Well, with digital cameras, memory is even cheaper. Take lots and lots of pictures. Photograph your subject from every possible angle and then keep shooting some more. You can never be sure when you have gotten just the right angle and just the right expression on your subject’s face. The thing that makes this really easy today is that you can immediately review your photographs and delete any that are less than perfect. You don’t have to worry about the cost of film so shoot away and give yourself a chance at making a really great photograph.

6. Carry a tripod. Sometimes, you may want maximum depth of field (both the foreground and background in focus) this requires a very small aperature and often a very long exposure. If you don’t want the picture blurry, the tripod will save you. Also, if you are using a long zoom lens, camera shake is multiplied by the length of your zoom. In order to prevent blur, a tripod becomes an absolute necessity. It holds the camera firmly and your photos won’t suffer from camera shake.

Try these few tips out, they are ones that the pros use everyday and they are really simple things to do.

Problem: You imported an image from your digital camera and although the physical dimensions of the image are rather large, the resolution shows up as only 72 ppi. How can you get enough resolution to print this image? 

Solution: checkout this helpful tip that I found.

Nothing is more frustrating than the idea of investing both time and money into a project in which you don’t get the results you wanted. In photography this holds especially true as you are trying to capture the most important moments in your life. After weighing out the pros and cons of every single camera available on the market, making a potentially hefty investment and then the experiencing the excitement of that special event…to not get the photograph you desired can be disheartening. So what is the next step? Of course you turn to the overload of information on the internet to make your way through an endless array of advice on the perfect photo. The answer is right there already and easy. Simply editing the photos you have can produce an astonishingly high quality keepsake to cherish. Today the practice of enhancing digital photography has become almost standard from professional to amateur. With the correct software in place, just the smallest amount of know how create amazing results once the possibilities are realized.

With the Fourth of July coming up this week I’m sure there are many hopefuls who’ll be hoping to photograph their July 4th fireworks. This is one of those things that throws a lot of people when you only have a few minutes to capture that spectacular shot.  With the thousands of other digital shooters that share this pain we thought we’d offer some tips.

Because you’re going to need a slow enough shutter speed to capture the falling light trails you are going to need to shoot fireworks with your camera on a tripod.

Now this is when you’ll really benefit from using a cable release or remote, because you’ll need to see the direction of the fireworks to know when to push the shutter button—if you’re looking in the viewfinder it will be more of a hit or miss proposition … not to mention you’ll not get to fully enjoy the fireworks display too!

Ideally a 200mm or more zoom lens would be best so you can get in tight and capture just the fireworks themselves. If you want fireworks and the background then use a wider lens.

Here you’ll wanna set your camera to full Manual mode, because you just set two settings and you’re good to go:

1. Set the Shutter Speed to 4 seconds
2. Set the Aperture to f/11. Fire a test shot and look at the LCD monitor on the back of your camera to see if you like the results. If it overexposes, lower the shutter speed to 3 seconds, then take another shot and check the results again.
3. I would recommend a manual focus as well so that your autofocus doesnt keep trying to fix on a focal point each frame and slow down your shooting. Try to set your focus to infinity and leave it there, check mid show and make sure it hasn’t moved.

Here’s another couple of things to try …

1. If your camera has “Bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the shutter release button) you can try this.  Hold the shutter button down when the rocket bursts, then release when the light trails start to fade.
2. Or keep the shutter open in “bulb” mode but place a black card over the lens.  Slide it in front of the lens periodically while shutter stays open, so you can include blooms from several series in one shot.

(Most Canon and Nikon digital SLRs have bulb mode).

The rest is up to your imagination & timing — because now you’ve got the exposure and sharpness covered.

Hope you all get some great shots! I’d love to see your shots or comments below or post.

Here’s some more fireworks inspiration.

Some testimonials …

“Your guide to digital photography was a revelation to me! I now take great photos. The difference is amazing!”
– Jeremy Alan

“After reading your guide (just before my son’s wedding) more people requested copies of my photos than they did from the official photographer. You can’t believe how I felt”
– Elizabeth Williams

Finally . . . Learn how to work that darn digital camera like a pro

Looking for some tips for night time photography with your DSLR?

Here’s a video tutorial (7 minutes) with some handy tips – produced by Camera Labs. Enjoy.

Night Photography Tips for DSLR Users

What other tips would you add for DSLR users looking for some night photography advice?

© Original by john white photos
‘So what are you doing this Australia Day ?’

Here’s a really neat trick to try …

Posted on Flickr by the very talented South Australian photographer John White.

Just a bit of fun. 9 Friends with burning sticks from a campfire writing in the air.

Canon 5D
30 second exposure
f 2.8 at 16mm
ISO 1600

Post your attempts in the comments below … I’d love to see what you came up with.