Posts Tagged ‘Photography tips’ (Page 8)

Photographing inside a constricted space such as an oven or washing machine can give an unusual view that you don't normally see. I don't mean taking a photo from the outside looking into your oven or washing machine, but rather a photo taken from the inside, looking out.

Bulb mode is a special shooting mode that will let you take really long exposures. It allows you to keep the camera's shutter open for as long as you like (or until the camera's battery runs out). You're not likely to find it as feature of most point & shoot cameras, but it can be found on most more advanced cameras.

Most cameras that feature bulb mode allow up to 30 second exposure times in normal modes. This is more than enough for most situations. During the daytime a typical exposure time will be around 1/500s to 1/160s, a pretty quick shutter speed. But if you're out in the middle of nowhere at night, then a shutter speed of over 30 seconds may be necessary.

In the last two articles we've looked at how to use a shallow depth of field to blur the background using in-camera techniques, and how to replicate the effect using Photoshop or other image editing software. In this article I want to look at a couple of more advanced ways of blurring the background using image editing software.

We'll look at two specialist programs that can replicate the effect of a shallow depth of field, along with a large variety of other lens effects. First we have Lens Effects by Topaz Labs, then we have FocalPoint2 by onOne Software. We'll use the same two images used in the previous article so you can compare the results of each technique against each other.

In this article we'll look at how to use image editing software to blur the background of a photo while keeping the subject sharp. This is a good way to help draw viewer's attention to your subject, rather than the background.

Although it is best to achieve a blurred background in-camera (see previous article: How to take photos with a blurred background by using a shallow depth of field), this is not always possible. In this case we can use image editing software to simulate the effect of a shallow depth of field instead.

We've all seen beautiful photos where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred. These sorts of photos may seem difficult to create. But with an understanding of depth of field, you can make photos like this too.

In this article we'll look how you can achieve a shallow depth of field to create photos with a blurred background.

The Aggressive Black Drongo! by VinothChandar on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

People make great subjects for photos, but finding people that are happy to have their photo taken is not always easy. Even friends and family can often be camera-shy.

But there is a way you can get great photos of your friends and family. In fact, once they've seen the results, they will probably be asking you to take more photos of them in the future!

One of the best ways to improve your photography is through practice. But sometimes it can be difficult to motivate yourself without a specific subject to photograph in mind. This is where photography challenges can help.

My Most Treasured Gift by -Gep- on flickr (licensed CC-BY-ND)

Photography challenges will provide a theme or idea, and then you must try and take the best photo you can that satisfies that theme. You upload your best photo to the challenge, along with many other photographers. There is nearly always a specified time limit to the challenge that you must take and submit the photo within.

When the challenge is completed, some challenge groups will have a voting process where members can vote for whichever photo they like best.

There are some common perceptions of photography and how great photographs are captured that just aren't true. In this article I want to look at and debunk some of these myths.

When taking a photo, you need to decide which part(s) of the photo you want to emphasize, and which parts you don't want to emphasize. The use of focus is a great way to achieve this.

Whatever is in focus in the photo will stand out much more than the areas that are of focus. In this article I'll share a few pointers on where to place the focus in your photos to really emphasize your subject.

Texture is an important aspect of photography. It can give your photos more of a 3D look, and change the way the subject is perceived.

I don't mean the texture of the paper you print your photos on, but texture captured in the image. An old person can be photographed to highlight the texture of their wrinkled skin, or they can be photographed with flat lighting to hide this texture and make them look a bit younger.

baavla, the charmer by nandadevieast on flickr (licensed CC-BY)