Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

kilter

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Small gifts for the photographer in your life

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Oxford Street has its Christmas lights up, which means that people are probably beginning to think about presents for Christmas, or Chanukah, or Eid, or Midwinter, or Yule. If you’ve been wracking your brains to find a little gift or two for photographer loved-ones, don’t worry, so have I. It did however occur to me that keeping my findings to myself would be rather selfish, and seeing as I rarely give presents I wouldn’t want to receive, possibly counter-productive, too. So here we have it, Daniela’s guide to sub-£20 photography-related gifts.

Level Cube

A diddy little spirit level that slots into a camera’s hotshoe will make sure that tripod set-ups aren’t off-kilter and wonky. No matter how carefully I think that I’ve arranged my tripod, I still have to straighten up things in Lightroom afterwards. This should help.

Roughly £5 (US$7) available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Lens cleaning kit

Grubby lenses are not the best when it comes to taking beautiful pictures. Which is why a kit containing all the lens cleaning essentials is useful. The ones that I’ve found on Amazon UK and Amazon US are slightly different, but they should do the job all the same!

About £5 from Amazon UK or US$7 from Amazon US.

Cufflinks

Now don’t tell me that cufflinks are just for men. They’re not. Plenty of women’s shirts are cufflink-friendly, too. I think that these are both cute and stylish.

Somewhere around £8 from Wheesh.

Pinhole Camera Kit

If you reckon the notion of building her or his own pinhole camera from scratch is a bit too much for your beloved photographer, you could always buy a kit instead.

£8.50 from Mensgiftshop.com (no, I have no idea why it should be a man’s giftshop, either.)

Make-it-yourself Canvas Kit

Granted, you can always go to somewhere like Photobox and have them print a canvas professionally, but there is something so very satisfying about doing it yourself.

£10 (US$16), or close enough, from Photofuse.

Coloured Filter Keyring

Eight different coloured filters, neatly hooked together on a keyring. Now your photographer-friend can have wickedly coloured flashes illuminating photographs, and no more crumpled gels lurking at the bottom of a camera bag. And seeing as they’re on a keyring, they can be clipped somewhere useful, too.

About £12 from Gadgets.co.uk or US$15 from Photojojo.

Camera Strap

I happened to find these awesome camera straps from Souldier when I was looking for guitar straps for my brother. The recycled seat belt straps start at roughly £12.50, but you can of course look through their entire collection and spend a bit more.

Starting at roughly US$20 (roughly £12.50) from Souldier.

Tiny monster tripod

These Digidude tripods are only suitable for compact cameras, but they are too cute to leave out. They’re tiny tripods that look like monsters.

Available from Gadgets.co.uk for about £15 each, or Quirky for US$20 each.

Reflector

There are lots of places out there selling lots of different reflectors. I happened to alight upon this £15 reversible number that’s 22 inches in diameter. You can of course buy them bigger, and spend a bit more.

£15 or thereabouts from Jessops in the UK, or US$17 from Amazon US.

Flickr Pro Account

If your favourite photographer doesn’t yet have a Flickr Pro account, it is super-easy to organise. You just follow the instructions.

$24.95 (roughly £15) from Flickr.

There. And they’re all available online, so you don’t have to brave the High Street for them, either!