For more on how to shoot black and white photography, check out our in-depth guide Black and White Photography: what you need to know for perfect mono pictures

1. File format

For the best-quality mono conversions shoot in RAW. RAW files not only capture more data that JPEGs, but they can also withstand more fundamental mono image-editing techniques, such as dodging and burning.

What’s more, you get to fine-tune the sharpening, contrast, saturation and white balance in your photo editing software instead of fixing these in-camera.

2. Black and white mode

If (like most DSLRs) your camera has a creative black and white mode, try switching it on while shooting RAW. This gives you a handy mono LCD preview that you can refer to in the field, while keeping all your RAW colour data intact.

If you shoot JPEG, avoid Mono mode because it reduces image quality and limits your editing options.

That material could be a chemical emulsion coated onto film or a glass plate, but these days it’s much more likely to be a digital chip, such as the sensor at the heart of your digital camera.

The word ‘exposure’ is used in more than one sense. ‘An exposure’ is almost synonymous with ‘a photo’ – early photographers would talk about making an exposure, while more recently a roll of 35mm film would allow 24 or 36 exposures.

However, the word is now used more often in relation to the vital business of making sure the right amount of light reaches the sensor for each image. We talk about exposure metering, about getting the exposure right and about shots being under- or overexposed.

Do you view your memory card as half empty or half full? Don’t let poorly exposed pictures get you down.

In our photography cheat sheet below we aim to explain some photography basics in a different way. Someone very clever on our team had the idea of comparing exposure to the act of filling a cup with water.

Drag and drop this graphic on to your desktop and start getting better exposures today!

READ MORE

15 common photography questions from beginners (and how to solve them)
Master your camera’s autofocus: which AF points to use and when to use them
Famous Photographers: 100 things we wish we knew starting out
3 exposure techniques every beginner must know (and when you should use them)

To create a sense of speed and movement, you’ll need to use relatively slow shutter speeds  of about 1/60 to 1/90 seconds. Meanwhile, keeping the cars sharp while blurring the background requires good panning technique. To do this, spread your feet fairly wide apart, standing at right angles to the point you want to shoot. Then swivel your hips, rather than your shoulders, following the car as it moves and carry on panning for as long as possible, even after releasing the shutter.

Another neat trick is to set your drive mode to Continuous and fire a burst of shots so you stand more chance of getting 
one or two sharp images from 
a sequence. Even with the best technique and plenty of practice, the majority of panned shots using slow shutter speeds are likely to be unusable, so stock up on memory cards and shoot as many pictures as you can to be sure of some keepers.

Step 1: Use Shutter Priority
Switch to Shutter Priority mode and dial in a shutter speed of about 1/60 sec, checking that the aperture is within range of the lens. You may need a Neutral Density filter if the sun is very bright.

Step 2: Image stabilisation
Many lenses feature manually selectable or automatically detected panning modes. Image stabilisation technology applies anti-shake in the opposite plane to the direction of your movement.

Step 3: Pre-focus
Continuous autofocus will often be too slow 
to track fast-moving targets coming towards you. Switch to single focus and pre-focus on the piece of track into which the cars are moving.

Why should you learn how to use manual focus (MF or M), especially with all the amazing advances in autofocus (AF or A) technology? Well, there’ll be times when all the AF points in the world won’t help you get sharp shots. Often, activating MF is the only way of beating the dreaded blur.

Macro photographers often use manual focus to dictate their focus point. So do low-light shooters and photographers working in tricky situations, such as shooting through glass, or perhaps focusing on a distant horizon on a misty morning, when autofocus may struggle to get a lock. Sports photographers benefit from pre-focusing in manual focus, especially if they can predict exactly where the action is going to take place.

So don’t ignore the little AF/MF (or A/M) switch on your lens barrel, and remember that when the focusing gets tough, using manual focus might just get you going.

How to use manual focus

Step 1: Flick the switch
Locate the AF/MF switch and move it from AF (autofocus) to MF (manual focus). The switch might be in different locations depending on the camera system and lens you’re using, but typically, it will be somewhere on the lens barrel.

Step 2: Do the twist
To manually focus a lens, you simply twist the focus ring. You’ll be able to see when the image is sharp through the viewfinder. You might have to twist the focus ring back and forth, moving through and beyond your chosen point of focus until you see that focus is spot on.

Step 3:: Get some help
Different shooting situations will call for different focusing techniques. In really low light – when you’re shooting at night, for example – try using the distance numbers on the lens to judge your subject’s distance from the lens. Most lenses will have this feature.

Step 4:  Review your shots
To double-check that your shots are pin-sharp, use your D-SLR’s LCD screen for a close look. All you need to do is zoom in and navigate to the specific area you focused on. This way you should get a good idea of whether your image is sharp. If it’s not, just refocus and shoot again.

When taking a light reading you want to find a midtone somewhere in the scene, or even just out of the frame. This could be light-coloured foliage, or even a Caucasian face. However, sometimes there won’t be anything around that’s the right tone for you to take a light reading. In these instances, using grey card can help you achieve perfect tones.

The traditional method of using grey card has stood the test of time. Hold your grey card in front of a subject and take a light reading from it. Sounds simple enough, right? Only there’s a little more finesse to using grey card. Below is our step-by-step guide to taking a light reading with grey card.

How to take a light reading using grey card

Step 1: Do your whites look grey?
Shoot a white subject against a white background, and your camera’s metering system will invariably give you an image that looks too dark.

Step 2: Get out the grey card
To solve this, you need to put a grey card (or something similar) where the subject is, so that it fills as much of the frame as possible.

Step 3: Lock on the target
The next step is to press the AEL (or *) button on the back of your camera so that you can take an exposure reading from the grey card.

Step 4: Back to the main feature
Now you need to remove the grey card, recompose the scene and take the picture of your white object – the whites should now look bright and clean!

Step 5: If you grey card isn’t big enough
If you are unable to fill the frame with the grey card, you may need to change your camera’s metering mode, which is located in the shooting menu.

Step 6: Spot treatment
Using spot metering means that the grey card need only occupy the very central part of the frame when you use the exposure lock.

Most cameras and lenses will give you years of problem-free use, so long as you look after them. Read our top tips to ensure your kit stays clean and safe.

Carrying

Modern SLRs are reasonably robust, but ‘consumer’ models don’t have the battleship build quality of professional cameras. If you were to drop a camera with a plastic body onto a hard surface, it would probably break. Fit the neck strap that came with your camera, and – most crucially – use it.

Temperature

Excessive heat can cause lasting damage to your camera, so it’s a good idea not to leave it in direct sunlight. At the other end of the scale, condensation can quickly form when bringing a camera from the outdoors into a warm room. One way round this problem is to seal the camera in a plastic bag before bringing it inside (so that condensation forms on the bag instead) and let it warm up naturally.

Camera cleaning

Take care when cleaning LCDs and viewfinders. Use a blower brush first to gently remove dust, lint and other small particles, then rub everything down with a microfibre cleaning cloth. Make a point of cleaning your camera with a slightly damp cloth after every trip to the coast, because salty sea spray can be corrosive.

Lens cleaning

Be especially careful when cleaning the front and rear glass elements of lenses. Use a blower brush first to dislodge and remove any particles that could scratch the elements when subsequently using a cloth. Consider a specialist implement, such as the lens-cleaning pens sold by Hama (among others).

Sensor cleaning

To check if your sensor has any dust spots, zoom the lens to its telephoto end, focus on infinity and take a few frames of a clear blue sky or a sheet of white paper at a small aperture, then zoom in on the images to check for dark blobs. To remove them, you’ll need to take off the lens and expose the camera’s sensor (charge the camera battery fully first, then head to the set-up menu and find the sensor cleaning function). Initially, try blowing the dust off the sensor with a blower. Don’t touch the sensor with the tip of the blower, and keep the lens opening facing downwards to prevent dust from landing on it. When you’re done, switch the camera off and refit the lens.

Cleaning kits are effective, but you should use them with care

Changing lenses

Many photographers are paranoid about changing lenses, but that’s one of the main attractions of SLR photography! There are some precautions you should take though. Switch the camera off to remove any static charge from the sensor, which can attract dust. Shield the camera from the wind and weather, and make sure you have the replacement lens ready. Finally, keep the camera’s lens opening pointing downwards.

Back to: Essential accessories

Digital Camera Tips: 01 Always reset camera settings

There are few things worse than taking what you think is a stunning picture, only to find your camera’s ISO and saturation were cranked right up from a previous shoot and you’ve missed the moment. Avoid this by checking – and resetting – all of your settings before moving from one picture-taking opportunity to the next (find out The right way to set up your camera).

Digital Camera Tips: 02 Format, not erase

Formatting your memory card wipes it clean and rewrites any pertinent camera information. Erasing your images does not. So always format your cards to minimise the risk of any data corruption.

Digital Camera Tips: 03 Update your firmware

Firmware is the in-camera software used for processing images, setting a whole range of parameters and even controlling what features are available to you. Check your camera manufacturer’s website to ensure your digital camera’s firmware is as up to date as possible.

Digital Camera Tips: 04 Charge your batteries

Don’t assume your camera’s battery is fully charged – make sure it is. Charge it before you go out so you’re certain there’s enough life in it, and invest in a spare battery if you regularly find yourself shooting beyond its capacity.

Digital Camera Tips: 05 Set the image size

Most times you’ll be shooting at the highest resolution your camera offers, regardless of what it is you’re photographing. But do you always need to? Sometimes a smaller image size might be all you need, and reducing the resolution not only means more images will fit on a memory card, but you can achieve a faster shooting rate, too. If sports photography is your thing, reducing the resolution will help you avoid delays as your camera clears its buffer.

Digital Camera Tips: 06 File format: RAW, JPEG or both?

If you intend to do any manipulation or retouching, shooting RAW is often the best solution thanks to its increased bit depth. However, RAW files are larger, so take longer for the camera to deal with, and you also need to process them before they can be printed.

JPEG files, on the other hand, are processed in-camera at the time of shooting, so you can print or share them immediately, and you’ll find that you can shoot a much longer burst of consecutive frames at a much quicker rate. Providing you don’t want to make too many radical changes to an image after you’ve taken it, you may find you can’t tell the difference between a JPEG file and a RAW one.

For the ultimate in choice, though, and when speed isn’t important, why not shoot both? Most digital cameras give you this option, and you can then decide what you want to do when you’re back at your computer. Just make sure you pack an extra memory card.

Digital Camera Tips: 07 Experiment with settings

When they’re not working on an assignment, professional photographers spend a lot of time testing. This could be testing a new lens to determine which aperture or focal length it performs best at; testing the ISO and white balance to see which options give the very best results; or even testing the dynamic range so you know the sensor’s limitations. You can do exactly the same with your SLR, so you know precisely where its strengths and weaknesses lie. This isn’t about looking for perfect shots – just experimenting with your kit to understand it better, or trying out new techniques that you can employ at a later date.

Digital Camera Tips: 08 Don’t skimp on a tripod

A good tripod is worth its weight in gold, so don’t be tempted by budget options. Pay £20 and it won’t last you long, or do its job properly. Dig deep for a decent tripod and it will give you many years of service, making it a sensible long-term investment (read these essential 4 tips for sharper shots when using a tripod). And don’t forget to take your tripod with you, either!

Digital Camera Tips: 09 Hand-held or tripod mounted?

The simple act of setting up your camera on a tripod will slow you down, and this can be enough to make you concentrate a little harder on what it is you’re photographing and what you hope to achieve. At the same time, locking your camera down for every shot you take can reduce your spontaneity, so don’t be afraid to mix it up from time to time. If you religiously use a tripod, set out without it and see what happens, and if you normally travel without one, take it with you to see how slowing yourself down affects the results you get.

Digital Camera Tips: 10 Impromptu camera supports

You don’t necessarily need a tripod to hold your camera steady – supporting it against a wall or tree will help you avoid camera shake, and a beanbag (or just a bag of rice) can also give you a more stable shooting platform.

Digital Camera Tips: 11 Straighten up

The word horizon is found in the word horizontal, and that’s precisely what it should be. If your digital camera’s got an in-camera level, use it. If not, invest just a few pounds in a hotshoe-mounted spirit bubble. It will save you hours correcting your shots in Photoshop later. A number of DSLRs have a grid that can be activated and superimposed over a Live View image on the rear LCD screen, making getting level horizons a breeze. Alternatively, use the autofocus points across the centre of the viewfinder to do the same.

Digital Camera Tips: 12 Double-check your kit

It might sound obvious, but check your camera bag if you’re going to be shooting away from home. You may have your camera, lenses and tripod, but if you use a quick-release tripod head, is the base-plate attached to the camera or the tripod? Have you got the right diameter adaptor ring if you use Cokin or Lee system filters (see ND Grad Filters: what every photographer should know)? It’s these small things that are more likely to scupper a trip than the major elements of your kit.

Digital Camera Tips: 13 Autofocus or manual focus?

It’s all too easy to become over-reliant on your camera’s autofocus, and there are some situations where focusing manually is definitely a better option – pre-focusing to photograph a fast-moving subject on a race track, or focusing precisely for a detailed macro shot, for example (learn How to use manual focus).

Digital Camera Tips: 14 Which AF point(s) should you use?

Digital SLRs may have a bewildering number of AF points to choose from, but for the majority of shots you only need one – the central one. Place this over your subject, half-press the shutter release to lock the focus, and then simply recompose the shot.

Digital Camera Tips: 15 Buying lenses

A bad lens will always be a bad lens, no matter what DSLR you attach it to. So before you decide that you’ve ‘outgrown’ your SLR and need a ‘better’ one, ask yourself if investing in a new lens might be a better option instead? A few extra pixels and smarter features might sound enticing, but a faster maximum aperture and higher optical quality could go much further in helping you take better pictures with the camera you already have (discover How to find your lens’ sweet spot).

Digital Camera Tips: 16 Manual lenses

There are thousands of lenses left over from the days of 35mm film, and as many digital SLRs are ‘backwards compatible’ (most notably Nikon and Pentax) they can still be used in the digital age. Moreover, as many of them are dirt-cheap it’s a great way of expanding your focal length repertoire. But there is a downside. Some lenses perform better than others, and the only real way of weeding out the good from the bad is to give them a go. In general, zoom lenses and wide-angle focal lengths tend to be the worst performers. In addition, there is the need to focus manually, and in-camera exposure metering can be unpredictable and unreliable. That said, there are some cracking manual focus lenses out there, and in certain situations they can actually outperform contemporary low-cost zooms in terms of sharpness (Read more: Your lens markings explained).

Digital Camera Tips: 17 Focal length

Wide-angle lenses can give the impression of increased distance between near and distant elements, while telephoto focal lengths appear to compress perspective. Consider this when you’re framing a shot and position yourself to use the focal length that’s best for the image, rather than simply choosing a focal length that fits everything in.

Digital Camera Tips: 18 Use the hyperfocal distance

If you want to maximise the depth of field in your shot at a given focal length, then focus manually at the hyperfocal distance; the point at which everything from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity will appear sharp (Read our quick guide for calculating hyperfocal distance in 6 steps).

Digital Camera Tips: 19 Check the frame edges

The majority of viewfinders (find out How to use a viewfinder) don’t provide you with 100% coverage, so it’s easy for unwanted elements to creep into a shot. The only way to be certain is to check your camera’s LCD screen once the shot is taken. If there’s anything untoward in the frame, simply adjust your composition and shoot again.

Digital Camera Tips: 20 Shoot more than you need

Even with static subjects, consider shooting a burst of frames using your camera’s continuous shooting mode. Subtle variations in the light as clouds move across a landscape, or a portrait subject changing expression, are both examples of a ‘perfect moment’ that could be missed with just a single shot, so shoot a burst and pick the best frame later.

Digital Camera Tips: 21 Preset exposure modes

‘Serious’ photographers may frown upon them, but your DSLR’s preset modes shouldn’t be disregarded entirely, especially for candids. ‘Landscape’ mode will typically set a small aperture and boost saturation, while ‘Portrait’ mode combines a wide aperture with more muted colours. Both can be used beyond their intended purpose – it’s just a question of understanding what the preset parameters are and exploiting them creatively (Read more: Your exposure modes exposed).

Digital Camera Tips: 22 Don’t forget Program Shift

Grossly underrated, your camera’s Program (P) mode effectively gives both aperture and shutter speed priority in one semi-automated package. If you want a wide aperture, simply ‘shift’ the Program to get it. You want a slower shutter speed? Then shift in the opposite direction.

Digital Camera Tips: 23 Which is best – Aperture or Shutter Priority?

In a nutshell, the aperture controls the depth of field in an image and the shutter speed controls how movement is recorded. Not sure which shooting mode to go for? Decide which of those two things you want to keep most control over in your shot and that’s the priority option to go for.

Digital Camera Tips: 24 Determine your camera’s dynamic range

Unless you know the dynamic range of your sensor, you won’t know when a scene exceeds it and you’ll lose highlight or shadow detail. There are numerous ways of measuring dynamic range, but as DxO labs has tested many digital cameras, you could always use their figures as a guide. Visit www.dxomark.com to see how your camera measures up.

Digital Camera Tips: 25 Try bracketing

You may be able to adjust the exposure of an image in your editing software, but lightening an under-exposed shot will exaggerate any noise, while over-exposed highlights are impossible to recover. If you’re in any doubt, bracket your shots to be sure you’ve got one that’s correctly exposed – even if you choose to shoot RAW files.

Digital Camera Tips: 26 Read the histogram

While your DSLR’s LCD screen will give you a guide to how well an image has been exposed, it shouldn’t be relied on. In bright light, images will appear darker than they actually are, while looking at the screen at night will make images appear bright, even if they’re actually slightly under-exposed (learn How to read a histogram). The histogram is the only way to accurately assess an exposure on your camera, and the main thing to avoid at the time of shooting is clipping the highlights and, less serious, the shadows. If the histogram hits the right edge of the scale, consider reducing the exposure and shooting again.

Digital Camera Tips: 27 Expose for the highlights

It’s far easier to recover detail in areas of shadow than it is to disguise burnt-out highlights, so when the contrast is high, expose to preserve the highlight detail.

Digital Camera Tips: 28 Spot the midtone

While your camera’s Pattern metering mode (aka Matrix or Evaluative) will deal with most scenes, a Partial or Spot metering pattern can also be invaluable when you’re shooting in mostly bright or mostly dark situations, when you can use it to take a reading from a nearby midtone, such as a pavement or grass.

Digital Camera Tips: 29 Assess the contrast

As well as enabling you to take a precise meter reading, you can use your camera’s Spot meter to determine the contrast in a scene. Take one reading for the brightest highlight area, and another for the deepest shadow to determine how many stops separate the two readings. If this exceeds your camera’s dynamic range, you’ll have to accept some clipping in the shadows, highlights, or both, or consider shooting a bracketed sequence for an HDR (High Dynamic Range) shot (find out how to Make HDR images from 2 exposures).

Digital Camera Tips: 30 Shoot for HDR

To determine the exposure range for an HDR image, take Spot meter readings from the highlights and the shadows in the scene, with the camera set to Aperture Priority. Switch to Manual, set the aperture, and use your Spot readings as the start and end points of your HDR sequence. Adjust the shutter speed a stop at a time until you have covered the exposure range. The exposures can then be combined in software such as Photomatix. (Want to see how it’s done? Take a look at 21 great examples of HDR photography.)

Digital Camera Tips: 31 Use an ND grad filter to balance exposures

You can banish featureless skies from your landscape shots by using a graduated ND (neutral density) filter to balance the exposure between the sky and land. It’s best to have a set of ND grads with different transitions so you’re prepared for a variety of conditions. Alternatively, make two exposures – one for the sky and one for the foreground – and then blend them in your photo-editing software (see ND grad filters: what every photographer should know).

Digital Camera Tips: 32 Use a solid ND filter to extend exposure times

Solid ND (neutral density) filters are great if you want to extend your shutter speed, but they can be used to control the aperture as well. A three-stop ND filter would allow you to open the aperture by three stops to get a shallow depth of field, even in bright conditions.

Digital Camera Tips: 33 Polarisers

The effect of a polarising filter is impossible to recreate digitally, which makes it the number one filter choice for outdoor photographers looking to cut down reflections or intensify blue skies. Don’t skimp on price, or you’ll be skimping on quality.

Digital Camera Tips: 34 Black & white: in-camera or in-computer?

Unless you know that you definitely want to print black-and-white images from your memory card, it’s best to shoot in colour and then convert to mono later in your image-editing software – it will offer a lot more control than your camera. If you decide to shoot black-and-white JPEGs, don’t forget about in-camera filters: red, orange and yellow filters can all add drama to boring skies, while an orange filter will reduce the appearance of freckles and blemishes in portraits.

Digital Camera Tips: 35 Use a white balance preset

Because they’re processed in-camera, you’ll want to get the colour right for JPEG files at the time of shooting. So use your camera’s preset options (Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, etc) instead of relying on the auto option to get it right. Although Auto White Balance is often considered a little ‘basic’, if you’re shooting RAW files there’s no reason to choose anything else – you can set the white balance when you process your images.

Digital Camera Tips: 36 White balance bracketing

If you’re shooting JPEG images and your camera allows it, try activating white balance bracketing. JPEG files take up minimal space on your memory card and it could save you hours on your computer spent correcting a slight unwanted colour cast.

Digital Camera Tips: 37 Using the wrong white balance

Deliberately setting the wrong white balance can add an overall colour cast to your images – blue if you shoot in daylight with a Tungsten white balance, and a warm orange if you shoot under tungsten lighting with a Daylight white balance. During sunsets, an auto white balance setting can try and correct for the overall warm tone, which is exactly what you’re trying to capture. ‘Trick’ your camera by using the Cloudy preset, which is designed to warm up cool scenes.

Digital Camera Tips: 38 Shoot a colour target

If you want your colours to be consistent from shot to shot, include a colour target in the first frame of a sequence. When it comes to processing, set the grey point (and black and white points) using the target reference frame, and your software will match the subsequent batch of images.

Digital Camera Tips: 39 Fill-in flash

Fill-in flash is great for lifting shadows, but it can also be used to create quite dramatic images. Use your camera’s Exposure Compensation to reduce the overall exposure by 1/2 a stop, and then increase the Flash Exposure Compensation to +1/2 to balance the exposure. (Some cameras enable you to adjust the exposure for the ambient light without affecting the flash exposure, and in this case you wouldn’t need to dial in +1/2 for the flash.) The result is a flash-dominated shot where a well-lit subject stands out against a subtly darkened background.

Digital Camera Tips: 40 Get the flash off-camera

Getting your flash away from your camera will transform your portraits, especially if you use a dedicated flash that can be controlled wirelessly by the camera, and reflectors to reduce any harsh shadows.

Digital Camera Tips: 41 High speed flash

The duration of a flash is much shorter than your DSLR’s exposure times, which allows it to ‘freeze’ high-speed events. Water drops are the easiest place to start, and all you need is a dark room, a flash, and a whole heap of patience. Follow this guide to amazing water drop photography to take your first steps in high speed flash.

Digital Camera Tips: 42 Shooting video on your DSLR

Video-enabled DSLRs that use a CMOS sensor utilise a ‘rolling shutter’, which can cause some peculiar artefacts when you shoot video (find out How to set up your DSLR for shooting video). A rolling shutter exposes each individual frame in a video sequence in rows, starting at the top and working down – similar to the way a scanner scans a document. If the camera doesn’t move while this is happening, there’s no problem, but if you’re panning – particularly horizontally – vertical lines in a single frame can become distorted. Handholding the camera and using telephoto lenses can exacerbate the effect, so use a tripod and/or wider-angle focal lengths. Cameras with a CCD sensor are unaffected as they use a ‘global shutter’ that exposes each frame in its entirety – just like shooting stills.

Digital Camera Tips: 43 Choosing video frame rates

Most SLRs that let you shoot video offer a range of frame rates. In the UK, the television standard is PAL, which operates at 25 frames per second (fps). This is the rate you should consider as ‘standard’ for your video if you intend to show it on a TV. However, if your camera lets you, you can also shoot at 50fps to create a slow-motion effect – when it’s played back at a rate of 25fps it will effectively be seen at ‘half speed’, so a second of recorded footage will play for two seconds on screen. The other frame rate to consider is 24fps, the standard rate for film (as opposed to video). Although a single frame per second difference doesn’t sound much, it is enough to give your footage a ‘cine look’ that is favoured by many pro film and video makers.

Digital Camera Tips: 44 Changing lenses

So much has been said about ‘dust bunnies’ (small particles of dust that can land on your camera’s sensor and cause dots in images) that many photographers seem paranoid about changing lenses – but that’s one of the main attractions of DSLR photography! There are some simple precautions to take though. Always switch the camera off when changing lenses, as this removes any static charge from the sensor which can attract dust particles. Shield the camera from the wind and weather and make sure you have the replacement lens ready to fit. Finally, keep the camera’s lens opening pointing downwards when changing lenses, to minimise the risk of anything falling into it.

READ MORE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

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Famous Photographers: 225 tips to inspire you
The 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography (and how to break them)
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Whether you choose to shoot your family hatchback or a precious vintage vehicle, photographing cars is all about creating images that make them look their absolute best.

You might just want to capture a picture of your pride and joy to hang on your living room wall, but if you’re thinking about selling your car you’ll need to make it look super smart.

Nobody’s going to want a buy a car that looks like a pile of junk, so photographing it in an idyllic setting and lighting it well can be the difference between making a sale or not.

Simply by using a reflector to shine light back onto your vehicle or a polarising filter to eliminate reflections on the paintwork, you can transform your shots from average to amazing.

Another way of adding interest and drama is to tilt the camera. Creating wacky perspectives, and capturing lines from the bonnet, side panels and grill will make your car look more impressive.

Zoning in on these areas with a wide-angle lens can distort the perspective for a powerful effect. Or, to capture the detail on show in the chrome or the dashboard area, try using a macro lens.

Perspective tricks

Using a wide-angle lens is fine for close-up shots, but be careful if you use one to shoot the car as a whole. A wide-angle can distort the perspective so much that the car could appear much larger than it actually is.

Keep it in proportion and even consider using a standard lens such as a 50mm, or a telephoto like a 70-200mm, and shoot from a distance. This not only throws the background out of focus and makes the car stand out, but will also keep the car in perspective.

Get in close

Don’t forget to shoot the smaller details. This blue Ford Mustang was bursting with colour and crying out for us to shoot its finer details with a macro lens.

Try honing in on interesting details like the badge on the bonnet, the shiny chrome handles and alloy wheels and any interesting switches and knobs on the dashboard.

Here, shooting on a bright sunny day was great for crisp shots – but we also had to deal with lots of reflections on the car’s bodywork. By holding a large, collapsible diffuser below the reflective surface – the chromed number plate on the right, for instance – the reflections of the gravel were instantly removed and left a perfectly detailed shot without distractions.

A diffuser is also a great tool for stopping the bright sun from hitting the area of the car you’re shooting. Simply get someone to help you out by holding it high and blocking the rays of sun from over-powering your shot.

Placing the car in the shade will give a more subtle and soft light to work with. If you don’t have a circular white diffuser, a simple white sheet of card will do the trick.

A polarising lens filter can also be a useful piece of kit when shooting cars. Rotating the circular filter will cut out any glare or horrible reflections, removing images of clouds or trees from the paintwork.

The bigger picture

So you’ve captured some cracking detail shots of the car as a whole – now try something different. To get an impressive and dramatic shot of your car within a landscape, it’s important to get a sense of perspective.

Here we used a wide-angle lens to squeeze as much of the car’s surroundings into the frame as possible.

The yellow TR6 looked right at home placed in a countryside setting, the summer sun hitting the car and the crisp blue sky helping to give the overall image a vibrant glow – with the yellow of the car blending in well with the green grass and the blue sky. The dirt track gives a great perspective and leads the eye in.

By using a large silver reflector we were also able to bounce some light onto the side of the car that was in shadow. This location was perfect. Being right at the top of a hill meant that we could use the fantastic expanse of sky as a dramatic backdrop. This also gave us the opportunity to use a graduated filter on our lens to further enhance the sky.

Graduated filters will give your shots a Top Gear feel. With a burst of colour dominating the frame and bleeding into the car in the foreground, the shot has instant impact and real wow factor.

I experimented with a selection of blue, yellow and tobacco-coloured grads to see which one was most suitable.

The yellow was just too much for the overall scene.

The blue was good but not quite natural enough.

The tobacco coloured grad was perfect – blending well with the other colours in the frame and giving the sky a stormy feel, yet keeping the bright sunshine on the car and the foreground.

Tilt your camera

Try tilting your camera to a funky angle for a completely different and more dynamic image. Your horizon will now be skewed, so you’ll need to move your graduated filter too so that it’s still parallel with the horizon.

If you’re shooting a convertible, why not try framing the distant horizon through the windscreen, which will make it stand out more against the sky in the background.

By using my 70-200mm lens at f/2.8 and shooting from close to the ground I could throw the foreground out of focus, leaving just a block of colour instead of distracting detail.

Selling your car? Read this!

Even if it’s just for a little classified ad, a great car shot will lure buyers. Give your car a good clean and a polish, wait for a sunny day and take it out into the countryside to find the perfect setting.

Shooting this Mini with a 70-200mm lens on a wide aperture of f/4 has thrown the background and foreground out of focus. With trees in the background and vibrant dandelions in the foreground, the frame is filled with colour.

Don’t forget the close-up shots too. If the car has nice features, a prospective buyer could be won over if you add some detail images. This Mini had the Union Jack painted on the back of each of the wing mirrors.

The basics of racing shots

To breathe more life and energy into your car images, try catching a car in action – perhaps by photographing your car as someone else drives it past you.

Alternatively, a classic car show at a race circuit will normally have some kind of competitive event or procession.

Even beginners can get great shots with the panning technique – set a slow shutter speed such as 1/50 sec and shoot as the cars race past you. Remember to continue the motion by swinging your hips from right to left (or vice versa depending on the direction of travel), moving the camera to follow the movement as you press the shutter.

This will freeze the movement of the car but blur the track and background, giving your shots a dynamic, professional-looking finish.

Your camera histogram is a much more accurate way of judging whether a shot needs a bit more, or less, exposure. But it’s not just used for judging exposure: the shape and position of the histogram’s graph can also tell you about the contrast of the lighting in a scene. Below we’ve tackled some of the frequently asked questions about histograms to get you started using these helpful graphs to avoid poor exposures.

What is a histogram?

What is a histogram and why do I need to use one?

In short, the histogram is a type of graph that you can call up on your digital camera’s rear LCD in order to judge the tonal distribution of the images you take. The histogram offers a way of plotting the exposure of a digital image; by looking at the graph, you can see whether a shot is too bright or too dark.

The histogram’s horizontal axis shows pixel brightness, ranging from pure black on the left to pure white on the right, with the full range of mid-tones in between. Its vertical axis shows the number of pixels at a particular brightness level.

How do I view the camera histogram?

You usually look at the histogram after you have taken the picture, when reviewing the shot on screen. Look at your instruction manual to find out how you get this graph shown on the LCD (and to check your digital camera has this facility).

On Canon DSLRs, for instance, press the Play button, then use the Info or Disp button to call up this display option. On Nikon DSLRs you can use the up arrow on the joypad during playback to toggle through the display options.

What is a histogram showing me exactly?

The graph shows the brightness of all the pixels in the image. The brightness is plotted along the x-axis, or bottom line, and the number of pixels is plotted along the y-axis, or vertical line.

To keep things simple, the numbers and units are not shown on the graph. All you need to remember about your histogram is that the left-hand side shows the darkest tones, the right-hand side shows the brightest tones and the central part of the graph shows the midtones.

What shape should I aim for on my histogram?

The shape of the graph is highly dependent on what you are taking pictures of. If you are shooting snowy scenes, for example, the histogram should peak towards the right side of the graph because of all the bright tones.

For normal subjects, with an average distribution of different tones, the ideal graph rises gradually from the far left outside, peaks somewhere in the middle, then falls away gradually until it has fallen to zero at the far right-hand side, as you can see in the histogram inset below.

As evidenced in this shot of a red kite, the histogram should correspond with the tones of your scene; a dark scene should have a histogram with a bell shape on the left, a light scene should have a histogram with a bell shape on the right. For daylight scenes, try to expose the scene as far to the right of the graph as possible without clipping the highlights.

How can I tell if the exposure is wrong in my shot?

The telltale sign is if the graph is stacked up to the left or the right on your histogram. If there is a peak at the extreme left-hand side of the graph, this shows that there are lots of pixels that are recording as the darkest value black available. This suggests that your shot is probably under-exposed.

In this photo of a red kite in flight, too little light has reached the sensor, caused either by too fast a shutter speed or the aperture not being wide enough. This shot’s histogram is pushed all the way to the left, a situation known as ‘clipping’. If printed, the clipped areas will appear black, and all shadow detail will be lost.

Similarly, if the histogram looks as if it’s pushed hard to the right of the graph area, it’s likely that the shot is over-exposed.

This shot of the same red kite is overexposed, as too much light has reached the sensor. Notice how the histogram reveals that the tonal distribution is pushed all the way to the right, and that the highlights are ‘clipped’. In the printed shot, areas of the scene that should reveal detail will appear pure white, with no detail.

How do I change the shape of the graph?

The simplest way to do this is to take another picture of the same subject using a different amount of exposure. Take the shot with less light and the subsequent graph will have shifted to the left.

Shoot with more light, and the graph will move to the right. Use the +/- exposure compensation control to do this; a plus value moves the histogram to the right, a negative value shifts the graph left.

What if the histogram is stacked to the left and the right?

This shows you that the scene you are photographing has both very bright highlights and very dark shadows. It is a sign of a high-contrast scene where the camera is going to find it impossible to find an exposure that captures detail and tone in all parts of the scene.

Sometimes, you can get round the problem by changing the lighting (so you are not shooting into the sun, for instance, or by coming back later in the day), or by using an ND grad filter to reduce the brightness of the sky. If you have to shoot, it is usually best to adjust the exposure so the graph moves to the left, because it is easier to rescue the shadows than the highlights at the editing stage.

Is the histogram always right?

It’s the picture that counts, not the histogram – so look at the image too. The graph itself is based on the tones that would be captured by a JPEG, so if you are shooting raw your image will capture more detail in the shadows and highlights than the graph actually shows.

Photographing a live gig can be problematic, but with this month’s Digital Camera you’ll find out how to shoot like a pro at every occasion. But first up, we’ll give you 5 simple tips to avoid making easy mistakes that could cost you your shots.

1. Don’t assume you won’t be able to get close

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you won’t be able to get anywhere near the artist performing. Turning up early can help out a great deal, and you could always try to get hold of photographer’s pass too. It might not be easy to get hold of one of these, but a good way to get going is to shoot local bands to start off with and try to get your pictures published.

2. Don’t believe you’ll have ages to get your shot

You might only have a few snatched moments at the front with the artist, so you’ll need to make them count. Be prepared to shoot quickly and react to anything the artist does.

3. Don’t exclusively use flash

Stage lighting can provide a much more atmospheric look to a shot that can be easily washed out by using flash, even if it means you’ll have to be a bit steadier with your shooting.

4. Don’t bump up the ISO just to get the image

Sure a grainy image is better than no image, but a grainy image won’t stand you apart from the pros, and with many gigs using extensive lighting set ups you should be able to get away with lower ISOs.

5. Don’t give up shooting if you’re forced into the crowd

Just because you’re shooting from far back doesn’t mean your shots have to be duds. Make the most of the atmosphere and don’t forget you can get great shots with zoom lenses.

So now you know what not to do, to find out what you should be doing and to see more great pictures of Alice Cooper, pick up the February edition of Digital Camera, available in shops now.