Digital Photography Tips, Tricks and Techniques

Did you know that you can do almost all your photo editing within Adobe Lightroom 4, without going into Photoshop? Plus, you have all the tools you need to create same-day slideshows and web galleries all within Lightroom. We all know that shooting in RAW format will give you the best quality images, but the real advantage of shooting in RAW is that you can easily and quickly polish them up to give your clients 110%. Imagine that you got EVERYTHING right in-camera, your exposure is spot-on, your colors are…

If you’ve bought a DSLR (digital SLR) hoping to take almost professional-looking pictures indoors, you’re halfway there. Just remember NOT to use the built-in flash that comes with your DSLR. You might have also heard that a speedlight (external flash unit) will improve your pictures dramatically. Again, you’re halfway there. The other half of the story is how you use these tools. They are not miracle machines, because you need to be able to use them correctly to get professional-looking results. Indoor flash techniques (Swivel) To start with, use a…

It’s worth noting the difference between flash exposure and ambient light exposure, as this will help you develop versatility in your speedlight portraits, letting you create a wide range of portraits, from dramatically lit portraits to those that appear to be taken with natural light (but are actually achieved with speedlights when the available light is simply just not there). As described in my SimpleSLR Portrait Lighting Guide, there are 5 factors that affect flash exposure when using speedlights: Flash Power Flash-to-Subject Distance Aperture ISO Shutter Speed. This last factor…

Not everyone can afford, or need, the most expensive kit when it comes to lighting. As a matter of fact, small and portable lighting kits make a photographer’s work even more efficient. Here’s a selection of tools to help you assemble your lighting kit even with the smallest of budgets. Speedlights Speedlights are portable alternatives to heavy and bulky studio lights. You’ll get the most precise control when shooting in Manual mode on your speedlights. Sure, using TTL with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System is easier, but it has line-of-sight limitations….

Photographing people is challenging because of the infinite myriad of expressions, shapes and nuances in a human face. On a wedding day, I photograph the couple, their families and friends, trying to catch the perfect shot that embodies that specific moment in time. Sometimes the expression on the face is what makes the photo work perfectly. Other times it’s the dynamics of the people and objects surrounding the subject. I often work in ‘stealth mode’, as described by one of the brides whose wedding I photographed. Remaining as inconspicuous as…

Beach weddings are a joy to photograph, especially if it’s at a luxury resort with a beautiful beach front. Add little details like flower petals on the sand, elegantly landscaped walkways, breathtaking turquoise ocean water as a backdrop, and you’ve got a recipe for a very photogenic wedding! Natural Light for Portraits The ideal type of outdoor light for a beach wedding is soft overcast light. This ensures there are no harsh shadows cast on the faces of the people you are photographing. If harsh sunlight is unavoidable, aim to…

The Nikon creative lighting system is a wireless lighting system that enables a photographer to control multiple speedlights wirelessly from where he/she is standing. The requirements for this type of wireless triggering system to work is line of sight. This means that the speedlight units need to be able to see each other. More precisely, the infra-red receiver port on the remote or slave speedlight needs to be able to pick up the signal coming from the master or commander speedlight mounted on your Nikon DSLR. The purpose of having…

Post-processing techniques in Adobe Photoshop can be used to enhance portraits after they have been taken. Here are some fairly simple yet effective Adobe Photo shop tips that you can apply to your own pictures. Lens Vignetting Vignetting is the darkening of the corners of an image. This can be an effective way to bring the viewer’s focus to the center of the image, where the subject is. Traditionally photographers used a snoot or grid to light the center part of the background where the subject appears, rendering the corners…

Most of us would have taken photos where the blue sky in our photo isn’t as blue as we had hoped. Perhaps it was a hazy day, or the photo was taken with the sun shining in the wrong direction (see my article on light ratios for landscapes). Or we might want a different background to appear behind an object that we have photographed. Here’s where Adobe Photoshop comes to the rescue. There are a few selection tools in Photoshop we can use to pick out exactly what we need….

Histograms are like road maps. You need them in order to see where you’re going. Without them, you’re just guessing. Ok, I suppose with some experience you can get a pretty accurate guess. But if you’re a perfectionist like me, you’d feel way more comfortable if you knew you nailed the shot with the perfect exposure. Shooting RAW does give the photographer more latitude in making exposure errors, but lets not use that as an excuse for sloppy exposure judgement. When we shoot in RAW format, we should be even…

This was taken from a series of portraits done recently. Both images below were shot with the couple standing in EXACTLY the same spot, using the setting sun as a light source. What I want to point out is the direction of the sun in each of the images. Image 1 was taken with the light source (the sun) at a 90 degree angle to the camera, resulting in a side lighting that highlights contours, texture and shape. See how the texture on the tree is brought out. Depending on…

A panoramic photo actually mimics the field of vision of our human eyes. It usually manages to show more detail than a photo with a typical aspect ratio like 3:2 (from a DSLR) or 4:3 (from a compact digital camera). Perhaps that is why we usually take a longer look at panoramic pictures, or perhaps it just reminds us of a place we have been, or would like to visit. Before the age of digital photography, panoramic images were taken with a special film camera, like the Horseman SW617 which…

When taking a portrait photo, light ratios determine the look and mood of our portraits. A light ratio is the difference between the amount of light coming from one source, in relation to another light source. Usually in portrait photography, we work with two light sources, namely natural light and artificial light. Natural light comes from the sun, while artificial light can come from any other light source, eg. speedlights, studio strobes, street lamps, chandeliers, and so on. Note that the term ‘available light’ is commonly used to refer to…

Photographers would have come across this issue at one point in their shooting experience. When taking pictures of a bride and groom, sometimes one of them is not as sharp as the other. Unless your intention is to create a shot where for example the bride is sharp and the groom is considerably out-of-focus, you will very likely want both of them to be sharp. A slightly out-of-focus groom will appear like an error. Use a Smaller Aperture To the horror of those who love pictures with shallow depth-of-field, it…

Before I start this article, I’d like to share one of my sources of inspiration. I watch cartoons to learn about lighting and composition. By that I mean semi-photorealistic cartoons from Dreamworks like Madagascar, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda and so on. Very often, these cartoons can teach us a lot about positioning of light sources, using complementary or opposing light temperatures to create a desired look, and using lighting to isolate a subject to create a desired mood. Because they are created using CGI (computer generated imagery) they often…

Taking group photos may be a seemingly simple task, but here are some pointers to differentiate your group photos from the rest. Choose a longer focal length For starters, use a longer focal length to avoid distortion. Using the longer end of your zoom lens for group photos may not sound like a practical approach, but if you have the room for it, zoom in to a longer focal length that still enables you to include everyone in the picture. You can also step back a little in order to do…

Landscape photography relies a lot on good lighting. Let me rephrase that… it relies on great lighting. Great lighting can be found if you know where to look, and when. Understanding the balance of light, or light ratio, between foreground and background areas will put you on the road to better landscape photography. The background usually means the sky, and the foreground is usually the subject of the photograph, eg. a hill, building or lake. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume the subject is a hill. Pay attention to…

Ever had trouble deciding whether a picture that you’ve just taken is properly exposed? Beginners may struggle with this because there are several different areas within a picture that are of varying brightness. This leads to an ‘evaluative’ or ‘matrix’ metering decision, which means they may opt for the middle ground, resulting in a less-than-ideal exposure. It is easy to make the mistake of overexposing a low-key portrait because of the predominantly dark background. Or underexposing a high-key portrait because of the predominantly light background. When I photograph people, the…

It may be hard to believe, but you can take very nice landscape photography even with the most basic equipment. You don’t need the latest and greatest ultra-wide lenses (although that does help create a unique perspective) or the fastest lens with a f1.2 aperture. Landscape photography generally benefits from a deep depth of field, and ironically the type of camera with inherently deep depth of field are compact point and shoot digital cameras! DSLRs have shallower depth of field, hence they lends themselves to creating shots with nice bokeh…