Photography Tips (Page 17)

Something that you might come across when reading camera / lens reviews, or discussions, is talk about equivalent focal length and equivalent aperture. For example, a 50mm f/1.4 lens for a micro four thirds camera might be described as being a 100mm f/2.8 equivalent lens.

But what does this really mean? I have already discussed equivalent focal length in the article Photography Basics – Focal length, though I will cover it again very briefly in this article. But mostly I want to look at the idea of equivalent aperture, and how this relates to depth of field and the amount of light gathered.

Capturing your photos in RAW format allows you more control over the final image. You can bring back detail in areas that would otherwise appear bright white, or lighten up dark areas to reveal detail hidden in the shadows. You can change the white balance and adjust the contrast to suit the image.

While you can make adjustments to a certain extent with a JPEG image, the larger amount of data stored in a RAW image allows you to go further and achieve a better result.

Whether you should use a UV filter on your camera's lens or not is probably one of the most often discussed subjects among keen photographers. Some say that they use them all time as it helps protect the lens. Others say that they never use them as they degrade image quality. The truth actually lies somewhere in between these two conflicting points of view.

If you own an interchangeable lens camera and are looking at purchasing a new lens, you may wonder what all those different numbers and letters that form part of the lens name mean. Or you may just be wondering what they mean on your current lens / camera.

As well as purchasing postcards to post off while on holiday, many people also purchase postcards to take back home as a souvenir. But have you thought about creating postcards from your own photos? The process is enjoyable, and it's fun to see your own photos used on postcards.

Using off camera flash can be a great way to add dynamic lighting to your photos. It is particularly useful for portrait and product photography. But speedlight flashes are quite expensive. And if you have a compact camera with no hot-shoe you might think you can't use off camera flash at all.

DPI and PPI are both terms that people often mistakenly think relate to the image quality of a file. To add further to this confusion, PPI is often wrongly referred to as DPI, even by some imaging software. In this article I want to clear up this confusion.

We'll look at what DPI and PPI actually mean, how they relate to image resolution, and why you shouldn't really worry about either of them.

Most of us try to take good care of our camera, but there are plenty of ways people accidentally damage their photographic equipment. Many of these sound obvious, perhaps it is because they are obvious that they can be easily forgotten or overlooked, and end up in an expensive accident for your camera.

Horror! Camera Carcass by Orin Zebest on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

Strictly speaking, a Photo montage just means a composite photo created from two or more separate photos. In this article I want to look at a specific type of photo montage, known as panography, where multiple photos of a subject are combined into a single image.

The technique is similar to that used when capturing photos for a panoramic image. But rather than stitching the photographs together seamlessly as you would for a panorama, the images are often purposefully offset from one another, and no blending between the images is used.

London Eye Panography by Gary Nisbet on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

Image noise appears as blotches and speckles on your photos. It can appear distracting and reduce the clarity of a photo. In this article we'll look at what causes image noise, how to prevent it, and how to remove it from existing images.