Browsing all posts in "Aperture".

Monthly Photo Challenge – December

The Monthly Challenge for December is bokeh. There is one thing about this challenge that make it a little more than just bokeh. For this challenge the bokeh must be of either light or snow as shown in the images included with the article. What Bokeh is: Bokeh is the out of focus portion of [...]

Understanding Light in Photography – Beginner Level

The word “photography” comes from the Greek, photos – light – and graphos – writing, delineation, or painting. In other words, photography is light painting. As humans, we don’t see color, we see light. The retina of our eyes contains two types of photoreceptors (light receptors) called rods and cones. The rods are more sensitive [...]

What Photoshop Product Should I Buy First?

Recently, a Beyond Megapixels reader emailed us the question, “I’m new to photography and was wondering what Photoshop I should buy first?” I responded to the email and got to thinking that this would make a good article. Comparing image processing software is a lot like comparing other things that are mostly opinion driven. – [...]

Depth-of-Field In Depth

For the beginning photographer, especially when using a DSLR, depth-of-field can make absolutely no sense. For the accomplished photographer it’s an invaluable tool for creating the desired result when photographing landscapes, portraits, wildlife, etc. In its simplest form, depth-of-field is the area, or depth of area, in front of the lens that will be in [...]

Beach Photography Exposure

One of the great things about photography in the summer is there are so many mid-tones – greens, blues, reds, etc. – that getting the right exposure becomes less of a challenge. Just point the camera at something that is mid-tone with the light falling on it the same way it’s falling on your subject, [...]

Photography 101: Fixed Aperture Explained

A reader recently sent me an e-mail, asking me to explain how fixed aperture lenses work. She was suffering under the misconception that a fixed aperture on a lens means that’s the only aperture that lens is capable of shooting. Apertures tend to be a subject that can be confusing to a beginning photographer. Primarily, [...]

Back to Basics: Exposure Explained

Exposure is one of the first, and one of the most confusing, concepts that a budding photographer learns. All of the numbers, abbreviations, settings and relationships can be overwhelming at first. Here is a simple guide to help clarify things. The Exposure Triangle: The three elements of exposure – commonly referred to as “The Exposure [...]

Photograph The Moon — March 19, 2011

Whether you’ve photographed the moon numerous times or have just thought about doing it, Saturday evening, March 19, 2011, is a must do evening. On that evening the moon will be at its perigee (closest to the Earth) and according to one article I read it will appear 14% larger than normal. This event, the [...]

Review – Lensbaby Composer

I’ve been interested in the Lensbaby line of products for quite some time. I think the concept is quite neat – they are a collection of lenses that posses very specific “sweet spot” focus points surrounded by graduated blurring, that can be manipulated in fascinating ways to provide very interesting perspectives. Lensbaby provides three lens [...]

SOOC Challenge

This weekend I challenge you to share your “straight out of camera”, or “SOOC” shots. Sometimes we all need a little motivation to get back down to basics. We sometimes tend to allow our post-processing skills make up for less than perfect shots. We think, “Well, the exposure isn’t quite right, but I’ll fix that [...]