Posts Tagged ‘creative photography’

When talking about getting the shots that others miss, I'm not talking about being prepared to capture once in a lifetime moments (though of course that's great if you can). Rather, I'm talking about seeing things in a different way to most people. Seeing the details that others miss, rather than just going for obvious clichéd shots.

In this article we'll look at a few techniques that can help you see and think in this way, helping you to produce great photos that stand out from the crowd.

Modern cameras offer a lot of semi-intelligent automation that makes it fairly easy to get a photo where the technical aspects (such as exposure and focus) are correct. But what they can't do (at least not on purpose) is to take a creative photo - that relies on you. In this article we'll look at some tips to help get you taking more creative and compelling images, and improving your photography skills.

Many cameras allow you to screw a filter onto the end of the lens to achieve a certain effect. For example, one of the most popular filters is the polarizing filter, used to reduce reflections and glare, and to enhance colors and contrast in landscape photography.

When you purchase a filter, you need to make sure that it comes with the correct size threads to screw onto your camera's lens. Different cameras and lenses have different filter thread sizes, and filters are also available in a wide range of different sizes.

The problem comes when you have a filter in one size, but your lens has a filter thread of a different size. This can easily happen when you upgrade from one camera to another, or if you buy more than one lens. To solve this, you can use stepping rings.

Pile of step up and step down rings

Photograms are very different images to standard photos. Traditionally they were created by placing objects on a sheet of photographic (light sensitive) paper. The paper is then exposed, which turns the paper black, except for where the objects are blocking the light.

Photogram by aresauburn™ on flickr (licensed CC-BY-SA)

Objects that are translucent let through some light, and so appear in shades of grey, while objects that are opaque appear as solid white.

The effect of a photogram image can be replicated using a digital camera to capture the image, with no photographic paper needed. You will need:

Photographers often think of low light situations as restricting their ability to take good photographs but nothing could be further from the truth. You see there are really two ways to view low light situations; you can seek to use them as a creative opportunity or see them as a restriction you need to overcome. Irrespective of how you personally view the situation there are lots of things you can do to ensure you can take great images in low light.