Photography Tips (Page 5)

I recently came across the work of photographer Hiroshi Kamakura, and was intrigued by the unusual style of his photography. He has photographed ordinary everyday objects and scenes, using an old compact camera, then processed the resulting images to give a soft painted look to them.

Unfortunately, other than a few old articles on the web, I wasn't able to find out very much about Hiroshi Kamakura or the processing technique he uses. However, there are a couple of techniques that give similar results, which I'll share in this article.

While product photos on a plain white background can work very well for many uses, a black background with the product reflected below can give a more high-end, expensive, look to a product. Photographing the product on sheet of glossy black plexiglass / perspex / acrylic is a relatively cheap way to achieve this look.

A common effect used when photographing a product on black is a spotlight highlighting the product. The brightness of the area around the product compared to the darker edges of the image helps draw the viewer's eye towards the product.

While you might think this effect would be achieved by using a spotlight above or below the product, the technique actually relies on a reflection. In this article we'll look more at how to achieve this effect.

Almost all cameras sold today, whether a phone, compact, or ILC, feature a built-in flash. The few that don't (as well as many that do) often have a hot-shoe for adding a speedlight flash. And many photographers have one or more speedlight flashes they can use when the need arises.

But good use of flash isn't simply letting the camera pop up the flash whenever you're shooting in low light levels. In this article we'll look at seven mistakes people sometimes make regarding flash, and how avoiding these mistakes can help you get better photos.

We all make mistakes on a regular basis. And if no-one's ever told you that you're doing something wrong, you might continue making the same mistake over and over again without even realizing it's a mistake. In this article I'll cover five mistakes you might be making in your photography, explaining why they are problematic, how to avoid them, and how avoiding them can help you get better photos.

Confidence as a photographer is important. If you're not confident, you can be worrying about getting the shot and whether other people will like your photos, rather than concentrating on the creative process. Whereas if you're confident, then your photography will be more stress free and enjoyable, which often also results in better images.

In this article we'll look five ways to help boost your confidence as a photographer, to keep you enjoying photography and improving your skills.

Autofocus is a feature included on almost all cameras, and it has been that way for decades. We expect our cameras to be able to automatically focus on our subject quickly and accurately.

However, sometimes autofocus can fail. It might be that the camera just doesn't seem to want to focus at all. Or it might attempt to focus, but give up. Or it might tell you that it has focused, but the focus is actually somewhere else than where you wanted it.

In this article we'll look at ten reasons why autofocus may not work correctly, and what you can do to avoid / fix these problems.

A monopod is designed to be used as a way to help keep your camera steady. It takes most of the weight of your camera off your arms, while being easier to carry and move about with than a tripod. It's very good at what it's designed to do, but the humble monopod can also be pressed into a variety of other photographic uses.

In this tutorial we'll look at how you can create a replica 35mm transparency slide frame to add as a border around a photo. The process is pretty much the same in Photoshop CC, CS, or Photoshop Elements. I'll also cover how to add text to the frame, which allows you to add branding or information to the image without covering up any of the actual photo.

When photographing flowers there are two routes you can take. One is documenting the flower, where the photos show what the flower or parts of the flower look like. The other is to create an artistic image, one whose purpose is to evoke an emotional response rather than present an accurate portrayal of the flower.

Of course, a technical photo of a flower can still be artistic and create an emotional response to it. And an artistic photo may not create an emotional response in everyone who views it. Art is, after all, subjective. But the driving purpose behind the creation of the photograph is quite different.

In this article we'll be looking at flower photography from both points of view, but focusing more on the artistic side.

A film rebate border refers to the black border around each frame of film, which often contains the name of the type of film. If you were shooting film, to include this border as part of the image would mean scanning the film yourself. Film processing companies would only scan or print the actual image area of the film, and wouldn't include the border areas.

With digital though, we can quite easily add in a faux film rebate border ourselves. Adding a border can act as a nice way to frame the image. It can also be used for adding copyright and branding text, rather than putting a watermark over the image.

In this article I'll go over how you can create a medium format style film rebate border using Photoshop CC / CS. We'll create a flexible border that can be easily resized to accommodate images of different aspect ratios and dimensions. And I'll also cover using a scan of a real film frame, which can be an easier and more realistic (though less flexible) solution in many cases.

Image incorporates Film rebate by Graham Richardson (licensed CC-BY)