When Should I Upgrade My Kit Lens
Upgrade your lens or camera? It is a costly exercise just to buy a nice camera and lens combination in the first place. Apart from deciding which camera to buy and which kit lens combination to purchase at the same time, there is always the thought at the back of the brain that one day, […]
What Does SOOC Mean
SOOC is an abbreviation of the photography term “Straight Out Of Camera”, simply meaning that an image can be good enough to print straight from the camera without further processing. Unfortunately there is a much deeper meaning behind that term than this simple explanation. What this term really implies is that the owner of the […]
What is the Best Macro Lens for Canon Cameras
Macro photography is one of the most enjoyable genres and at times one of the most frustrating. Having the right macro lens for your style of macro photography can help you overcome the frustrating part more easily. It’s fair to say that the best macro lens for you is the one that you can afford at […]
Do Professional Photographers Use Aperture Priority?
The quick answer to this question is yes they do. It is actually the reasoning behind using aperture priority that, for most professional photographers, prompts them to use this mode at all. Portrait and wedding photographers, in particular, choose to use aperture priority mode for the ease to control depth of field. Most professionals are […]
Why Are Snow Photos Blue?
You may have noticed that all subjects, especially light ones like snow, pick up a color cast from surrounding light. This is the reason why photos of snow taken in daylight under a blue sky often have a blue tinge. One of the simplest ways to avoid the blue tinge and correct this is to […]
How to Keep Detail In Highlights
If a photograph is overexposed there will be no detail in highlights. An overexposed image is harder to save (if at all) than an underexposed shot. If highlights are blown out at the time of exposure, they will not hold any detail that is recoverable in post processing. There is usually nothing you can do […]
Pixel Peeping – Why You Shouldn’t Do It
What is pixel peeping? Below is the answer to a question I receive many times a week. The Question: “I keep getting frustrated when I blow my images up to 1:1 and see they are not as sharp as I’d like” Sound familiar? This is a question I receive often from beginners who are misinterpreting […]
Quick Fix Common Exposure Problems
Each week we receive emails from beginners with exposure problems, saying their images are either too dark or completely washed out. Ninety nine percent of the time “Exposure Bias” is to blame. The quickest fix for this problem of course is to reset your camera back to factory default settings (check manual guide). This will […]
Advantages of a Telephoto Lens
Telephoto lens, such as a 70-200 mm, not only makes your main subject appear much larger in the frame. A telephoto lens also helps foreground and background elements appear much closer together. Or rather compresses the foreground and background together. Take the giraffe image below for example. This image was taken at Taronga Zoo in […]
How to Edit Macro Photographs
I am quite often asked how I edit macro photographs? What editing or post production work do I make on my macro images? Most of these types of questions come from those who use the same camera and macro lens as I own. Although the post production tips listed below will assist all macro photographers […]
Zoo Photography Tips
Over the last couple of years, my partner and I have visited numerous zoos and taken hundreds of photographs of zoo animals. Although the photographs during these years were taken with different DSLR camera’s, including a Nikon D40, Canon 400D, Canon 5D and a Canon 5D Mark 11, the basic techniques for photographing zoo animals […]
Slow Motion Waterfall Photography
Everyone loves slow motion waterfall photography. A popular flickr search is slow motion water images, that look as though they are posters instead of digital photographs. A beginner photographer may also think the blurred water motion is a result of Photoshop effects. However as you’ll soon discover, the slow motion blurring of the water is […]