Digital cameras are sophisticated, but they’re not foolproof. Flash photography, for instance, is a minefield of exposure errors. Outdoor portrait photography can end up looking like irradiated over-flashed zombies or sullen under-flashed silhouettes. Using flash compensation to help balance the light flashed onto a subject and blend it perfectly with the background is a must for natural-looking pictures.
Do you struggle with preserving valuable highlight and shadow detail when shooting high-contrast photos? Follow the camera tips inside and learn how to use your camera’s lighting controls to balance exposure and preserve both highlight and shadow detail in your high-contrast photos.
Have you ever felt that photos viewed straight out of the camera look and feel a little flat, and lacking in emotion? Here, we’ll show you one of our favourite still life photography ideas: how to capture a stunning and simple still life using just natural light. Then we’ll combine it with a texture before converting it to black and white – quickly transforming your shot from ordinary to extraordinary.
Taking sharp pictures of a moving target can be a real challenge for photographers of all levels of abilities. In our latest guide of advanced camera tips and expert advice we answer some of the common questions about how to use autofocus with moving subjects and explain how to choose and use the right AF mode.
Your digital camera does a lot more work to turn what you see in the viewfinder into a finished image than you probably give it credit for. Understanding a little of what goes on deep inside your digital camera’s circuitry will help you understand some of the many options that you have to play with. Our latest photography cheat sheet illustrates the sophisticated process your camera goes through to transform captured light into an image on your screen.
Taking your flashgun off the top of your camera and using it to light your subject more creatively is one of the best ways to improve your flash photography, but it’s often seen as complicated, expensive and a bit daunting. However, the availability of cheap wireless triggers and the instant review on your camera mean that it’s never been cheaper or easier to experiment with off-camera flash. In this tutorial we’ll show you a really easy way to set up off-camera flash to achieve perfect results from your flash photography.
Find out how to set up your Nikon DSLR for high-speed sync using Auto FP so that your flashgun works regardless of what shutter speed you’ve set.
When Apple released its new tablet earlier this year, many photographers’ eyes widened at the 2048×1536 screen resolution of the new iPad. Pictures could suddenly be viewed in much better quality than previous generations – at a resolution of 3.1 megapixels – higher than most computer monitors. Here we show you how to download photos to iPad in just 4 easy steps.
Flat, grey skies are a common difficulty when the sky in your scene is much brighter than the land beneath, especially towards the beginning and end of the day. The classic solution is to use a graduated Neutral Density (ND) filter. However, they can be fiddly to set up, especially when using lenses in which the front element rotates. Follow our Photoshop Elements tip’s three steps below and you’ll find a much easier way to transform your dull, grey skies into a darker blue.
Focus is usually achieved by half-pressing the shutter-release button, but it’s also possible to customise most SLRs so that a button on the back of the camera – usually marked AF-ON or * – activates autofocus instead. This function, often used by professional photographers, is called ‘back button focus’.
