Browsing all posts in Digital Photography.

Expose for the Sky

A reader recently asked, “I’ve read a lot of photography articles where they say to “expose for the background” or “meter for the subject”, then “recompose and shoot”. When I do that, it still doesn’t work! My camera just adjusts the exposure for whatever I’m focusing on. For instance, if I want to take a [...]

Three Items of Equipment No Photographer Should Be Without

By Steve Russell The title of this article begs for part of the answer to be camera and lens but then I wouldn’t have anything to write about or I’d have to title the article Five Items… In other words, I’m going to assume that the camera and lens is a given and not count [...]

Zone Focus Explained

Zone focus is a technique that allows the photographer to essentially “set and forget” the aperture and focus. When used correctly it adds speed and convenience to your shooting experience, especially in situations when fast-moving subjects outpace auto-focus capabilities. Zone focus is also known as “f/8 and be there,” a term that was coined by [...]

BMP Greatest Hits: Beating the Intimidation Factor

I had a post all ready to go today, but things didn’t work out according to plan. Hey, it happens sometimes, right? So rather than not post, I thought I would re-run one of Beyond Megapixels Greatest Hits from December of 2010: Beating the Intimidation Factor In my recent article, Six Tips for Finding a [...]

Quality Gear That Won’t Break The Bank

I often get requests from folks to recommend photography gear – cameras, lenses, accessories – that won’t “break the bank”. You don’t need the most expensive, latest and greatest wizzy-bang gadget for GREAT photography! You just need great working knowledge of photographic principles, and practice practice practice. There is no such thing as “making due” [...]

Light Meter Basics

One of the most essential items of gear that a photographer must have in his or her arsenal is a light meter (even though Steve didn’t mention it in his last article, and yes I jump at the chance to tease him). Some would argue that the light meter is just as important as the [...]

The Buzz on the new 5D Mark III and 600EX-RT

I hope in the very near future to get my hands on an actual Canon EOS 5D Mark III, which is selling for a whopping $3,500.00 for JUST the body (available for pre-orders, it’s expected to officially release sometime in April 2012) . From what I hear, it’s worth every penny: – 22.3 megapixel full [...]

10 Personal Photography Project Ideas

By Steve Russell If you take photography classes or attend photography school like the New York Institute of Photography or the New York Film Academy, you will be assigned photography projects. An example of one from the syllabus of the New York Film Academy is: Conceptualize, shoot, edit, and print a cohesive, conceptually unified fine [...]

Bit Depth vs. Dynamic Range in Layman’s Terms

Hi friends! A reader recently sent me an e-mail asking me to explain the difference between bit depth and dynamic range, so I thought I would post the explanation here for everyone’s benefit. Bit Depth A bit is defined as the smallest unit of data. It’s binary – it can be either 1 or 0, [...]

Curves Explained

In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, you can use the Tone Curve panel to adjust the tone and contrast of your photographs. In the Develop module, scroll down to the Tone Curve panel: When you shoot in RAW and import to Lightroom, Lightroom automatically applies a “medium” amount of contrast to your photo. To quickly adjust [...]