Browsing all posts in "photography 101".

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 [...]

Beginner Tips for Better Photography

This is the first in a three-part series on improving your photography at every level of ability. This “beginner” article will be followed by “intermediate” and “advanced” articles over the next couple of weeks. ———- Congratulations! You’ve purchased your first digital camera and are ready to jump right in. Maybe you’re a little intimidated by [...]

Back to Basics: Five Tips to Freeze Action and Motion

Freezing action or motion in a photograph results in an image in which the subject and the background are “frozen”, sharp and in-focus. This is accomplished by using a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action, while using an aperture that is both tight enough to keep the entire scene in focus, but wide [...]

Auto Focus Microadjustments

I just spent a few hours over the weekend performing auto-focus micro-adjustments for three of my lenses. Not the MOST fun I’ve ever had with my camera, but a necessary activity for achieving correctly focused images. Auto-focus micro-adjustments are sometimes necessary to calibrate the focus points of the lens/camera combination. Some lens/camera combinations tend to [...]

Three Simple Tips to INSTANTLY Improve Your Photography

Would you like to see instant improvement in your photography? Here are three simple things that you can do RIGHT NOW that will make a big difference! One – Turn on your viewfinder composition grid. If you’re having a hard time keeping your horizons straight, if you tend to misalign your subjects, or if you’d [...]

The 5 P’s of Photography

If you’ve served in the military or spent very much time around someone who has, you’ve probably heard of the five P’s. If you have heard of them, the ones for photography are somewhat different. They are Planning, Preparation, Patience, Perseverance, and Photoshop. How much time do you need to capture an image? Unless you’re [...]

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 [...]

Five SOOC Tips

Hello friends! I was just e-mailing with Steve Russell, our regularly featured guest writer, about his weekend photography shoot. He was lamenting the fact that he had over 500 shots to post-process after a photo-heavy day. I, too, find it sometimes wearying to conceive of hours of post-processing after a long day of shooting. I [...]

Back to Basics: ISO Explained

The term “ISO”, when used in photography, refers to the speed rating of film. “ISO” stands for “International Organization for Standardization”, and this organization is responsible for defining standards for many, many industries and disciplines. With respect to photography, the film speed ISO rating system was created to standardize the quality of film throughout the [...]