Tag: Camera Technique
Article: Master White Balance For Better Color
White balance and the digital camera are like the engine in a car for many people. As long as it works, they don't worry about it, and for many users, automatic white balance works just fine. But if you want the optimum color and consistency from...
Article: Trade Tricks: Make A Great Portrait
Portraiture can be one of the most difficult, yet also one of the most rewarding challenges as a photographer. Unlike photographing an inanimate object, when you're shooting a portrait, you first have to put the subject at ease. Whether it's a...
Article: August 20, 2007 HelpLine
Q) I've been playing around with the macro feature on my compact digital camera. I have some nice shots, but now I'm trying to work with a flash. All of the shots I have so far are pretty disappointing. The right...
Article: July 23, 2007 HelpLine
Q) When I bump up the ISO setting in my camera, am I changing its sensitivity? If it does, couldn't I just leave it there and adjust my aperture or shutter speed? ...
Article: July 2, 2007 HelpLine
Q) I'm shooting RAW and my friends tell me to ignore white balance because I can fix it on the computer. Is that right?
Article: D-SLRs: Entry-Level, Midrange, Pro
Digital SLRs are the most versatile cameras, and for many photographers, the best choices. There are three basic categories of D-SLRs: entry-level, midrange and pro. These aren't exclusive categories—there are working pros who use midrange models,...
Article: Make Your Best Prints Ever
One of the great joys resulting from the change to digital compared to shooting film is the ability to get great photo prints optimized for the subject and photographer. Everyone who used to try to get a good, custom print from a slide or negative...
Article: Choosing The Right Digital Camera For You
The more megapixels an image contains, and the less it's compressed, the more space it takes up on a memory card. So if you shoot RAW 10-megapixel images, you'll need high-capacity memory cards: at least 1 GB (gigabyte); a 2 GB or 4 GB card is even...
Article: Ultimate Travel Photography
Beryl Markham begins West with the Night, her wonderful and enthralling book about her adventures as a bush pilot in East Africa in the mid-1930s, with the question, "How is it possible to bring order to memory?"
Article: 10 Tips For Better Night Photography
Night photography is one of those aspects of photography that always gets attention. People love to see night scenes—that mysterious mix of ambient light and city lights. The challenge is to compose them well.
Article: Black & White With A Digital Camera
At its best, black-and-white photography is a true art form, as a glance at the works of its many masters demonstrates. Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, John Sexton, Robert Werling and William Garnett are some of my favorites, but there are many others....
Article: The Color Of Light
White balance is one of the new features we've had to learn to make the most of in digital photography. It's often seen as yet another technical hurdle photographers have to leap over in order to get a good image. Learn how to set it "right," and...
Article: Getting The Most From D-SLR Camera Systems
When you buy a compact digital camera, you buy a camera. But when you buy a digital SLR, you buy into a whole camera system. That SLR body accepts a wide range of lenses, flash units, viewfinder attachments, optional power sources and other...
Article: Fundamentals: Autofocus In Digital Cameras
There are two basic types of AF systems in wide use in digital cameras today. All of the D-SLRs use passive phase-detection AF, while most consumer models use passive contrast-based AF. "Passive" means the camera doesn't send a ranging beam out to...
Article: Studio-Quality Lighting Made Easy
At some point in time, many photographers decide to try their hand at portrait or studio work. After disappointing results with their camera's built-in flash, they begin to look into studio lighting solutions. Although the proper...
Article: Destination Anywhere
Photographers love to travel and bring back images from the places they visit. This is part of the heritage of traditional photography. We love to see what our world looks like, even if we can't visit every location ourselves.
Article: How-To Fundamentals: Image-Stabilization Options
I admit it: I'm an addict; I'm hooked on image-stabilized shooting. Once you try it, you can't go back. Fortunately, for me—and all photographers who shoot handheld—there now are a number of "fixes" available: Canon, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Nikon,...
Article: 10 Top Digital Camera Shooting Tips
While everyone knows Photoshop is a marvelous imaging tool for photographers, in some minds it has been transformed into a magic wand, with powers beyond imagination—you don't have to shoot the image perfectly initially because you can always fix i...
Article: Plane Fixes
Layers provide the best way of isolating and controlling an image in Photoshop or any other image-processing program. Using layers effectively requires some practice, as does any craft. With use, plus trial-and-error experimentation, you'll...
Article: Global Digital Explorer
The day had been a long and painful one for Jeff Hall. It had started with the amateur photographer full of anticipation because he and his traveling companions were going to have the opportunity to visit a Berber camp in Morocco. An ethnic group...
Article: Trade Tricks: Street Life
One of my own favorite photographs happened by chance. My wife and I were leaving a movie theater, exiting into a street that had been nearly empty only a few hours before. Now, there were several thousands cheering and dancing around in...
Article: Fill Your Frame With Story
Having started my career assisting two professional photojournalists, I quickly realized that powerful images could be created by using a wide-angle lens. Photojournalists love using this type of lens because of its ability to capture a subject...
Article: Trade Tricks: Hot, Cool And Continuous
Stop wondering. While strobes throw out a short burst of light, continuous lights provide a constant output that allows you to see where your light is going. You don't have to constantly check your image via LCD screen or computer monitor to make sure...
Article: Back To School
So you want to learn more about photography or perhaps hone the skills you've already acquired. This is great news! It demonstrates your passion for the craft and a yearning for knowledge and creativity. With a variety of photography workshop...
Article: Better Travel Photos Made Easy
Before most of us have visited a particular location, whether exotic, foreign or domestic, usually we've seen it first in photographs. The images themselves sometimes inspired us to go, and in many cases, they gave us ideas about what to see and...
Article: Choosing A Camera For...
We may share a passion for photography, but we don't all shoot the same subjects or like to work in the same way. Camera manufacturers understand this, and as most digital cameras now have ample resolution for excellent output, manufacturers are...
Article: Seeing In Black & White
Black-and-white images always have held a special place in photography. Although color photographs comprise the majority of the images that are created and printed, a monochromatic print produces a much different reaction than does a color version...
Article: Trade Tricks: Got A Light?
Although the best light of the day is often that of early morning or late afternoon, the duration of such light is very short. More often than not, you're shooting the majority of your images during midday when the light is harsh and contrasty. This...
Article: Trade Tricks: The Selective Focus Technique
One of the challenges we face as photographers is making the subject stand out from its surroundings. An effective way to do this is to use the selective focus technique, which allows us to choose one part of the image to be sharp and in focus...
Article: A Flash In The Night
To create exciting images at night, a flash is an indispensable tool. Stunning results are possible by simply using a camera's built-in or auxiliary flash unit. Yet there's so much more that you can do with a flash beyond merely turning it on....
