Photographing Lightning with the Triggertrap

The most frequently requested feature on the Triggertrap is a deceptively simple question with a wickedly complicated answer: “Can the Triggertrap be used to photograph Lightning”. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this one, because it’s not as easy to answer as you’d think.

The problem is that cameras are not as fast as you would like. No matter how fast the Triggertrap reacts, an SLR camera has to do several things before it is ready to take a photo: Flip the mirror out of the way, and open a shutter curtain, among other things. These things don’t take a lot of time, I’ll grant you, but it’s not for nothing that “fast as lightning” is a pretty standard expression. Lightning is fast. Very, very fast.

The Triggertrap unversal camera trigger is also very, very fast – much faster than your camera, in fact. It can react in about 2 milliseconds, which makes it fast enough to use it as a slave flash trigger. However, only a flash reacts quickly enough to the Triggertrap; a camera will always have a delay. And I probably don’t have to mention that there’s no point in trying to trigger a flash in response to lightning: we have light a-plenty, but what we really want, is to get the camera to trigger.

Enter the Triggertrap: Taking luck out of the equation.

My standard method of taking photos of lightning is basically to dial in a long shutter speed (10 seconds, perhaps), and then just hold down the shutter button and cross my fingers. Eventually, you’re bound to get lucky, and get a beautiful lightning photograph.

Of course, the ‘spray and pray’ approach has its problems: There are short periods of time between exposures where you aren’t taking photos, and it’s sod’s law that that’s exactly when your lightning will strike. This gets more complicated as well if you are shooting in raw (and you should…), because depending on your shutter speed, you might find yourself running into problems with your buffer filling etc. Anyway, if we plot this approach on a graph, we get something like this:

Gaps. Gaps are bad.

So, how can you hedge your bets? Well, it’s simple: Use two cameras, and trigger them alternately. It’s pretty easy to do this using some electronics; set a timer, and make sure the cameras alternate:

No gaps! That's an improvement.

Of course, that still isn’t perfect; as we already discussed, cameras have tiny delays between shots, and if you trigger them electronically, there would in theory be no gaps. In practice, however, there are going to be times when one camera is closing its shutter, and the other one is still flipping up its mirror, and you’d still be missing your photographs. Useless!

The next logical step, then, is to make sure they overlap a little:

Ah! That's better!

Now, every milisecond of the thunderstorm would be captured; and we’d even have a tiny little bit of overlap for good measure. Fabulous.

Adapting the Triggertrap

“But Haje”, I hear you cry. “The Triggertrap only has one camera port, how are you going to get around that one?!”

Well, true, it does only have one camera port, but it does actually have two triggers built in: The Focus and the Shutter triggers. If we decide that we don’t need the ‘focus’ trigger (because we’ve pre-focused our cameras”, that frees up one of the triggers. All you’d have to do then is to create a cable that enables you to plug in two Triggertrap cables into the same Triggertrap. Easy:

By using 3.5mm sockets, you can continue to use the Triggertrap cables you already have; plug it directly into the Triggertrap to use it as normal, and plug it into the above-described gadget to split the signal so you can plug in two cameras.

The rest is all software

By overlapping the shots, you can guarantee to capture whatever is happening in the night sky; whether it's star-trails, a meteor shower, a lightning storm, or anything else you can think of!

The Triggetrap doesn’t have a Lightning mode built in, but it is fully Arduino compatible, and as soon as we get a final version of the software, we’ll open up our Github repository and open-source the code so you can hack it to your heart’s content.

Since we haven’t yet got a final version of the code, I’m not going to post my hacks here (yet! I’ll do it as a proper tutorial once we have a final release version of our source-code) – but you’ll be pleased to know that it didn’t take me very long to get a working version of the Triggertrap Lightning Trigger to work.

Now all I need is a lightning storm so I can test it properly…

Learn More

To learn more about the Triggertrap, check out Triggertrap.com. If you want one, try the Triggertrap Shop!

How much fun can you have with a giant water balloon?

If you think that the exploding water balloon thing has been done to death, no matter how awesome it looks in slow-motion, how about having a go at making a six foot version of one pop? And still filming your antics - you know, somersaults, jumping it on it from trees, that kinda thing - in slow-motion, obviously.

It's just what Gav and Dan, also known as the Slow Mo Guys, did over the summer. You can see for yourself the precise moment that the balloon gave up the ghost entirely, spewing its contents over their garden, and soaking them!

Now, it might be turning decidedly chilly here in London, but I'm still tempted to try this one. I wonder whom I can recruit to help me burst a giant water balloon? Hmmm.

Don’t Be Scared of Studio Lighting

To clarify, this month’s Photography Concept on Friday is not a self-help guide for photoaugliaphobics ( people with a fear of glaring lights – of course I looked that up ) – it’ll centre more around the basics of studio lighting and the basic properties of light. If you’re interested in a bit of studio lighting but don’t know where to start, or would like to know at least a little before you begin, then this month’s PCoF is for you. 

Specular Highlights and Diffuse Value

Softboxes were placed very close to the model here, meaning there is very low contrast between the specular highlights and the diffuse value, giving flattering, evenly lit skin.

Now it’s very easy to go into too much detail too quickly with studio lighting. I am writing from the point of view that you have never seen or considered the principles of lighting before, so please don’t roll your eyes too far back into your head if any of this seems obvious. Everyone starts somewhere – I started to improve my studio lighting the moment I got these concepts into my head.

Specularity refers to an object’s shininess. If you imagine a snooker ball in a pub (or snooker hall, if you’re a more reputable sort than myself), the bright white spot on that ball is the specular highlight of the ball.

Diffusity refers to how evenly spread out light is across an object. The more diffuse the light, the less contrast there is. This is represented by a more gradual transition from light to dark across an object. An object with a strong specular highlight has a higher contrast value around that highlight, as the brightness of the object changes much more suddenly.

In Short – Specular Highlights mean more contrast, Diffuse Lighting leads to less contrast.

Now, let’s look at a situation where we control the light source- we’ll ignore the different properties surfaces can have for now, to keep it simple (a snooker ball is a lot more reflective than human skin, for example. If your skin is as reflective as a snooker ball, see a doctor).

Controlling Light

There are two factors we should keep in mind for basic control of lighting. These are the size of your light source and the distance of your light source from the object being lit.

Size of Light Source

The size of your light source determines how it lights the object in question. Assuming the distance is the same, let’s look at the difference between a torch and a softbox (which look like this).

A torch has a very focused, directional beam – the light isn’t very diffuse. When you use a torch in the dark, it only lights the small area you point the torch at. On our imagined snooker ball, this creates a strong specular highlight, giving high contrast to the ball. If we replace this with a softbox, a much larger light source, we create a light source with more diffuse, spread out quality. This will lessen the contrast on our snooker ball, and light it more evenly than the torch will.

In Short – The larger the light source, the more diffuse the lighting, giving us less contrast. The smaller the light source, the more focused the lighting is on one point, giving us greater contrast.

As an extra point if you’re not confused yet – the more diffuse the light, the darker it is, due to the light available from the light source being spread more thinly.

Distance of Light Source

Due to the Afro of Doom in this pic, I had to move the light sources much farther away. This has led to a greater contrast between the specular highlight and the diffuse, which is why we see the stronger highlights on the bridge of the nose, for example. To combat this, I used my large light source for the face and brought the smaller one in for the hair.

The distance of the light source shares many qualities with the size of the light source, seeing as they are almost exactly the same thing as far as your camera is concerned. The closer the light source is to your subject, the larger it is and the further away it is, the smaller it is. Therefore, all the qualities pertaining to size of light source apply here also. There are two differences, however.

The first, most obvious difference is that the closer the light source, the less far the light has to travel, meaning the light is stronger.

The second, less obvious difference, is the difference between the specular highlight (high contrast area) and the diffuse value (low contrast area). The closer you place the light source, the less difference there is between the specular highlight and the diffuse value. The farther away you place the light source, the greater the difference there is between the specular highlight and the diffuse value.

In Short / To Simplify – All you really need to keep in your head here is that the farther away you place the light, the more contrast you will have between the shiny bit and the non-shiny bit. As you put the light closer, the difference between the two will be lessened, allowing for much more even lighting. So, for even lighting, put your light source closer. For higher contrast, move it back.

Oh Sweet Lord My Brain What Have You Done?

Essentially, explaining the basics of lighting is the equivalent of explaining the offside rule in football – it’s actually fairly simple but once you start trying to explain it, it sounds horribly complicated. It’s really not. What I suggest to you is, take this mini guide, go and rent some portable studio lighting (when I rented mine a few years ago, it only cost me £40 for a week), find some unsuspecting victims (or snooker balls) and try this stuff out. It’s not nearly as daunting as you might think. Go on, get some studio lights and try it yourself, it’s fun!

In the future, I’ll do some more lighting write ups, if people have found this useful. Just remember, if you’re still having trouble with the difference between size of light source and distance of light source, use this handy, cow based reference.

250 photography tutorials

Time for some tutorials, because at some point, we all want to grow beyond the cliché holiday snaps...

A curious thing happened with the advent of the internet - and that is that people seemed to shun photography clubs, classes, books, and even learning from your mates, and turn more towards learning from online tutorials. In some ways, that's a shame - but given how many hard-working photographers there are out there who are more than happy to share their knowledge with the masses, we're probably in a better place now that we ever have.

The kids nowadays - and by 'the kids', I mean everybody who is currently taking photographs - are learning at an incredible rate, and most of all, we're learning from each other. The curious thing is that we're transferring knowledge in a completely new way: through the magical mystery world of photography tutorials

With that in mind, I figured I might have a look and see if I couldn't dig up a couple of high-quality tutorials to share with you all. When I set out to search for 'a couple', I soon found a dozen. Then a score. Then a couple more... And rapidly, my search completely spiralled out of control, ultimately resulting in the list you're looking at here.

Yes, there's 250 of 'em, and yes, there are a few tutorials covering the same topics... But I challenge anyone to have a look through this list and not find a few tutorials they like - and who knows, you may even learn a couple of things along the way.

Enjoy...

1 - Digital Basics

It happens rarely that I find an article that seems to cover all the basics of digital photography, but this article hits the spot very nicely indeed. It's a one-shot introduction to the basics - nearly as good as buying one of my books! :)

Get the full skinny at Digital Basics on Photo Pursue

2 - Learn Photography in Five Steps

Panning. I think I cried the first time that I tried it. I might've had a better experience with this clear, five-step tutorial to capturing moving subjects.

Find it all on Learn Photography in Five Steps on Step By Step Photography

3 - Working with Models for that Perfect Wide-Angle Photo

So you've tried your hand at underwater photography and you love it. Now you want to try something a bit more advanced. How about including a model? Here's how...

There's more at Working with Models for that Perfect Wide-Angle Photo on Stephen Frink

4 - Avoiding the evil of red-eye

If you're using a compact camera, red-eye can turn a portrait of your best friend into a picture of the devil incarnate. This guide explains what red eye is, how it happens, and how to avoid it.

Read more on Avoiding the evil of red-eye on Small Aperture

5 - Digital Photography Tutorial

Basic ideas in photography are covered here: composition, exposure, editing, storage, and printing. There's nothing too detailed, but it does offer an entry-level guide - a perfect tutorial to forward to your clueless mum / dad / sibling who just got their first camera

Read it all on Digital Photography Tutorial on Hub Pages

6 - Beginners Guide to Photography for computer Geeks

A beginners' guide to photography written by a beginner with a sense of humour. It has everything from metering to filters, as well as a decent explanation of focal length.

Learn more at Beginners Guide to Photography for computer Geeks on Bernie Sumption

7 - How to write and sell a photo story

You're a photographer, right, not a writer? But sometimes, you need words to accompany your images. This'll help you to find the words to sell your story.

Check out the full tutorial on How to write and sell a photo story on Pixiq

8 - Understanding your Digital SLR Camera

What happens if you change your camera's aperture? How about shutter speed? And ISO? How can you make sure your camera focuses where you want it to focus? What's a good lens to have? This tutorial has it all.

The full article is on Understanding your Digital SLR Camera on Kevin and Amanda

9 - Photographing Panoramas

Photo Guide's guide to Panorama photography is a simple guide covering all the major points for photographing panoramas, including how to get the photos, and how to stitch them all together. A great introduction guide.

More at Photographing Panoramas on Photo Guides

10 - Dave Hill Quick photography Tutorial

Ever fancied giving your photos a cartoon-like effect? This tutorial shows you just what you need to do with a little HDR and unsharp mask help.

Have a read at Dave Hill Quick photography Tutorial on Abdu zeedo

11 - How to Develop your Photography Skills

Taking good photos isn't just about understanding physics and the technicalities of your camera. It's about knowing what makes a good picture and spotting the opportunities. This tutorial tells you what to look out for.

There's more at How to Develop your Photography Skills on Bama Scenes

12 - The Digital Photography Tutorial

You've filled a memory card with images. Now what? This tutorial will walk through your workflow, from post-processing and on through organisation, printing, sharing and storing.

More at The Digital Photography Tutorial on Best Family Photography Tips

13 - Beginning Photography Tips: Top 10 Techniques for Better Picture

You might have aperture sewn up and ISO is no longer giving you a headache, but what other elements contribute to a great photo? Composition, the weather, time of day, timing. This website covers ten things you need to think about.

There's more at Beginning Photography Tips: Top 10 Techniques for Better Picture on Better Photo

14 - Learning Photography

A lot of photography is instinctive: knowing what makes a good image and how best to capture. These five pointers help you to get the most out of your pictures by experimenting and practising.

More at Learning Photography on Dan Heller

15 - Understanding Histograms

The histogram. That groovy little graph that shows you just how over- or under-exposed your picture is. This tutorial walks you through the magical art of using a histogram to make sure your images are just right. Nifty!

The full article is on Understanding Histograms on Digital Photography School

16 - Six Secret Steps for Taking Great Photos

These secrets probably aren't all that secret, but they certainly reinforce what we know about taking good pictures: get as much advice as you can, keep on practising, and enjoy yourself!

The full article is on Six Secret Steps for Taking Great Photos on Free Digital Photography Tutorials

17 - How to Take Sharp Images

Great idea for a picture; a pity that it has come out a bit fuzzy around the edges. Here are seven tips to ensuring you get pin-sharp images.

Check out the full tutorial on How to Take Sharp Images on Hypergurl

18 - How to find great Locations for Model shoots

Finding a shoot location can be a headache. But have you thought about checking the geotag locations on Flickr images? What about using places you've never considered? What do you need to take with you? How about lighting? This article has got it all.

There's more on How to find great Locations for Model shoots on Lights Talking

19 - An introduction to Digital Imaging

Film cameras and digital post-processing can live harmoniously. Honest! This article tells you what hardware you'll need and explains the benefits that a bit of software can bring to a negative or slide.

Check out An introduction to Digital Imaging on Luminous Landscape

20 - Introduction to Photography: Ten Ways to Improve your Skills

If you're setting off with your first camera, this article has some useful ideas for how to make the most out of the experience, like keeping a diary and not giving up when things seem a bit tough.

Get the full skinny at Introduction to Photography: Ten Ways to Improve your Skills on Paxton Prints

21 - Crash Course Guide to DSLR Photography

You've just bought your first dSLR! Congratulations! Now what? Well, you'll want to get it out of auto mode, and this crash-course demystifies aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to help get you started.

Have a read at Crash Course Guide to DSLR Photography on Photo Guides

22 - What is correct Exposure?

A great tutorial on how to combine aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to ensure that your pictures are correctly exposed. Banish the auto mode and take control of your photography!

There's more at What is correct Exposure? on Photoxels

23 - Photography Basics

Clear diagrams show you how light passes through your camera to create an image, and explains how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO affect your pictures.

Get more at Photography Basics on Tutorial 9

24 - Camera Skills Manual

Confused by the different settings on your camera? This tutorial explains the difference between Tv and Av, and what the benefits of shooting fully manual are.

There's more at Camera Skills Manual on Worth 1000

25 - How to take Great Photos of your Projects?

Have you ever wondered how to take photos to illustrate your own tutorial? This tutorial walks you through it, from what you need to how to do it.

Learn more at How to take Great Photos of your Projects? on Ada Fruit

26 - Photography in low light Conditions

We've all been there: you're presented with a great image, but the light is on the low side to actually capture it. These suggestions should help you to get the shot that you want when things are a little dim.

The full article is on Photography in low light Conditions on How to Photography

27 - Develop your Photography Skills

An amazing step by step tutorial to develop your photography skills. It is based on basic knowledge of photography and is a great starting point for struggling photographers who want to take their photography further.

Read more on Develop your Photography Skills on Wiki How

28 - Digital Photography Tips for Beginner

This tutorial reminds you to get to know your cameras and recommends different ways to experiment with it so that you get the most out of it, and out of your pictures.

There's more at Digital Photography Tips for Beginner on Oh Blitz

29 - The Golden Hour

When is the golden hour? What is the magic effect that it has your photographs? If you want to learn how to make your photos sizzle, read on!

Read more on The Golden Hour on Small Aperture

30 - Basic Photography Tutorial

If you want to try shooting on film, need to know how to load a spiral, or would like to have a go at processing your own black and white film, you'll find the answers here.

Learn more at Basic Photography Tutorial on Silver Light Uk

31 - Taking Photographs At Unfamiliar Places

Taking photos when you're travelling can be a daunting experience. Differences in culture and outlook and just unfamiliarity with the place can be difficult to navigate. Travel photographer Alissa Everett has some useful advice.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Taking Photographs At Unfamiliar Places on Pop Photo

32 - Travel Photography Introduction

When are you most likely to take photos? Probably when you're on holiday. This guide will help you to make the most out your holiday snaps, with a look at the technical and the practical side of things.

The whole nine yard's at Travel Photography Introduction on Dan Heller

33 - Taking Professional Photos

From using plastic boxes as light diffusers to walking you through Photoshop, this tutorial aims to help you get the most professional looking pictures you can, whatever camera you have.

There's more on Taking Professional Photos on The Switch Board

34 - How to Make Great Photographs

Photography is not just about taking photos - but taking great photos. This detailed tutorial discusses just about everything you need to start photography - and sees you on your way to become a great photographer.

Read more on How to Make Great Photographs on Ken Rockwell

Composition

Technically part of the 'basics' in everybody's book, composition still deserves its own little mini-section in this list - it's an important topic, after all - and well worth a read, of course.

35 - The Rule of Thirds

Have you heard of the Rule of Thirds? If you haven't, you've almost certainly seen it. It's a groovy trick to help you compose your images. This article explains all.

Learn more by going to The Rule of Thirds on Digital Photography Tips

36 - An Introduction to Photography Composition

From the rule of thirds, through leading lines, to different points of view, and including a whole heap more, this tutorial covers just about everything you might want to know about composition.

Get it all on An Introduction to Photography Composition on Yanki Photo School

37 - Vantage Points in Park Photography

Who hasn't taken a picture in a park before now? I bet we all have. But how can you get the most out of your local patch of green? Here're four great tips.

Learn more by going to Vantage Points in Park Photography on Photography Tutorials

DIY photography

Photographers are a curious and crafty bunch - and there's something rather lovely about building parts of your own kit. With these tutorials, you'll get the creative do-it-yourself juices flowing!

38 - How to Create a Low-Budget Reflector or Diffusor

The more you practise photography, the more things you find you need. Like reflectors. Or diffusers But, you don't have to buy them, you can make a two-in-one reflector and diffuser yourself.

Learn more at How to Create a Low-Budget Reflector or Diffusor on Pxl Eyes

39 - Making your own Macro lens for $10

If you have a can of pringles kicking about, you can turn it into a surprisingly good macro lens. It'll take an afternoon, but it'll be worth it!

Read more on Making your own Macro lens for $10 on Pixiq

40 - How to Make and Use a Pinhole Camera

Lo-fi photography can be great fun, but it also helps you to develop as a photographer. So how about trying pinhole photography? Don't have a pinhole camera? No problem - here's how to make one!

Get the full skinny at How to Make and Use a Pinhole Camera on Kodak

Equipment

Without equipment, there's no photography - but without knowledge about your own equipment, it's all too easy to mis-invest your hard-earned cash into stuff you either don't need, or aren't able to use. This set of tutorials collects some of the info I wish I had when I first started out with photography.

41 - Compact vs Digital SLR cameras

You've just starting out taking pictures. You're not really sure how a point-and-shoot compares to an SLR. Do you really need to splash out on an SLR for what you want? This'll help you figure it out.

Give it some love at Compact vs Digital SLR cameras on Cambridge in Colour

42 - Choosing a Camera

Itching to get started in photography? The first conundrum to solve is deciding on what camera to buy. This tutorial will help you choose the one that best suits your style of photography.

There's more at Choosing a Camera on Geoff Lawrence

43 - 7 ways of ruining your photo equipment

We love our cameras. They take pretty pictures. But some things don't love our cameras, like salt and dust. Here are the top seven camera ruiners, and how best to combat them.

There's more on 7 ways of ruining your photo equipment on Digital Photography School

44 - Taking good photos with an iPhone

I always say that it's not about the camera, but its operator. To prove my point, here's a tutorial proving you can can a pretty good photo with your iPhone. Honest! Here are seven ways to make sure that you do.

Have a read at Taking good photos with an iPhone on eHow

45 - Using a Point & Shoot Camera

If you don't have access to an SLR camera, for whatever reason, you can still get great photos from a point-and-shoot. This article shows you how.

There's more on Using a Point & Shoot Camera on Photo.net

46 - 10 Super cool creativity boosting Photography gadgets

If you've a little money to spare and fancy splurging on some fun and creative photography gadgets this list of ten cool things might help you burn through your cash!

The full tutorial lives at 10 Super cool creativity boosting Photography gadgets on Creative Closeup

47 - Lenses; What do all These Characters mean?

If you've ever been confused and befuddled by the strings of near-impenetrable numbers and letters on a lens, you're not alone. And now you can feel enlightened as this article sorts out EF from EF-S and reveals the mystery of IF.

Interested? Check out Lenses; What do all These Characters mean? on Car Photo Tutorials

48 - Upgrading to a Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex)

When you've reached the ceiling with your point-and-shoot or bridge camera, what should you look out for when you take the plunge and upgrade to a dSLR?

Read all about it on Upgrading to a Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) on Digi Diversity

49 - Cleaning your DSLR Sensor: Tips and Advice

If you can see spots on your images or when you look through the viewfinder, something in your camera probably needs cleaning. This article helps you diagnose where the problem is and what to do about it.

Have a read at Cleaning your DSLR Sensor: Tips and Advice on Photo.net

50 - Camera Lenses for Indoor Event Photoraphy

If you're shooting indoors, probably with limited light, you need some fast glass. This article looks at primes and zooms, wide angle and telephoto, and helps you decide what you'll need in which situation.

There's more at Camera Lenses for Indoor Event Photoraphy on Picture Correct

51 - Lens Diffraction and Photography

Diffraction. It has a nasty habit of interfering with the pictures you want to take. This article explains what it is and how to resolve it.

There's more at Lens Diffraction and Photography on Cambridge in Colour

52 - Travel Photography Equipment

You're off on your travels so naturally you're taking your camera with you. But what else do you need to pack to capture those glorious sunsets and amazing architecture? Take a look here.

Read more on Travel Photography Equipment on Dan Heller

53 - Understanding Polarizers

Doubtless you've heard of a polarising filter before now. But what does it actually do? Why do you need one? How do you use one? All your answers are here.

There's more at Understanding Polarizers on Luminous Landscape

54 - Avoid Flash Media Problems and Save your Images

Flash cards are not cheap and if you shoot digitally, you can't do it without them. This article talks you through caring for your flash media, how you can prolong its life, and how to get the best out of it.

Find it all on Avoid Flash Media Problems and Save your Images on Paxton Prints

55 - Choosing a Digital Camera

Buying a camera is a major financial investment. This website outlines what you need to look for to make sure that you get the right camera that meets your needs, at the right price.

Have a read at Choosing a Digital Camera on Photoshop Tutorials

56 - Using a tripod

After a shiny camera and a couple of lenses, a tripod is probably the next piece of kit a photographer needs. Why? What are the benefits of a tripod? What are the different types of tripod? What should you look out for? Are there alternatives? This reveals all.

Read all about it on Using a tripod on Cambridge in Colour

57 - How to Choose a DSLR Camera

Upgrading from a point-and-shoot to a dSLR can be overwhelming. This article shows you what you need to consider, how you find the right camera for you, and makes some camera suggestions.

More at How to Choose a DSLR Camera on Digital Photography School

58 - Cleaning and Maintaining Your Camera

Cameras can get dirty pretty quickly, no matter how carefully you treat them. This tutorial shows you why you need a clean sensor and how to clean it yourself.

Read more on Cleaning and Maintaining Your Camera on Paxton Prints

59 - Prime lenses (and why you need one)

Not being able to zoom might be seen as something of a disadvantage when it comes to a lens. But actually, a prime lens is rather wonderful thing that every photographer should have. This explains why.

Read more on Prime lenses (and why you need one) on Pixiq

60 - How to clean your DLSR sensor

Got a grubby sensor? (It happens to all of us.) Want to have a go at cleaning it yourself? (It's not that scary.) Here's how.

The full article is on How to clean your DLSR sensor on Better Photo

61 - Choosing your first dSLR

Your compact camera just isn't doing it for you anymore. You need more control and more options. But where's the best place to dive in for a dSLR? This article covers everything from brands to megapixels, looks at the body or glass debate, and even makes some recommendations.

Find it all on Choosing your first dSLR on Pixiq

Essays & Philosophy

As I started collecting my tutorials, I occasionally found a load of articles that weren't technically tutorials - but that were simply too good to leave off the list anyway. So, hereby, in this haphazardly named section, 'Essays & Philosophy', I offer a series of these articles

62 - Knowing your Limits as a Photographer

Sometimes we are limited in our photography, maybe we don't have a macro lens to capture that bee or the landscape is actually really flat and boring. Recognising these limits can be useful, and so can knowing what to do about them.

Read more on Knowing your Limits as a Photographer on Digital Photos Secrets

63 - Getting Started as a Second Shooter

Breaking into professional photography is not an easy feat. One way to get started is as a second shooter. This article explains what a second shooter is, how to land yourself a gig as one, what you'll need and what you need to do, and how to make the most of it.

Interested? Check out Getting Started as a Second Shooter on Pxl Eyes

64 - Understanding Films

Film. If you've grown up digitally, it's a whole new world. Here's your map that explains metering, film speed, and even how to store it.

Interested? Check out Understanding Films on Dan Heller

65 - Why is the F-stop scale so weird?

Yes, the f-stop scale is weird, but it makes perfect sense as to why f/18 is a 'small' aperture and f/1.4 is a 'large' aperture when it's explained. Read on!

Have a read at Why is the F-stop scale so weird? on Pixiq

66 - Haje's History of Photography

This 3-part epic is a complete history of photography, starting in the era before film was even invented, and taking us well into the digital age. Well worth a read if you've never thought about where it all started...

Check out the full tutorial on Haje's History of Photography on Pixiq

67 - Why fake what you make?

Here I am having a questionably erotic moment with myself and a strawberry. This never really happened. - a great article about how whilst there is a pace for fakery in photography, some times, there's absolutely no need

Read more on Why fake what you make? on Pixiq

Exposure

Easily the biggest stumbling block for new and old photographers alike, Exposure is an integral part of photography... Which seems to confuse the hell out of people rather frequently. Here's a collection of articles and tutorials to help you keep your shutter speeds apart from your apertures.

68 - Shutter Speed

Wikipedia has an in-depth discussion on shutter speed - and whilst (in true Wikipedia stylee), it's completely devoid of character, it does introduce a lot of the relevant topics in a more or less useful manner.

The full tutorial lives at Shutter Speed on Wikipedia

69 - Breathtaking Long Exposure Photography and How to Capture It

Seven great examples of photos shot with a long exposure are shown here. Then it explains how what to do, and gives you some tips for achieving something similar yourself.

Read more on Breathtaking Long Exposure Photography and How to Capture It on Designzzz

70 - Benefits of Using Manual Mode

Taking full control of your camera and setting it to manual mode can be a daunting experience, but this article explains the benefits of switching the dial to 'M'.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Benefits of Using Manual Mode on Digital Photography Tricks

71 - Understanding Aperture Priority Mode

How do you control aperture? Why do you want to control aperture? This tutorial shows which dials you need to turn and what a different depth of field resembles.

There's more at Understanding Aperture Priority Mode on Free Digital Photography Tutorials

72 - Capturing Motion with Slow Shutter Speeds

So much in photography has both a technical and a creative application. Shutter speed is one of those very things. This article shows you how shutter speed works and what you can do with it.

Find it all on Capturing Motion with Slow Shutter Speeds on Picture Correct

73 - Understanding High ISO

High ISOs don't have to be scary and full of noise, honestly! These four facts take the fear out of high ISO and low-light photography.

More tasty treats at Understanding High ISO on Dp Mag

74 - Aperture and Shutter Priority Tutorial

A dSLR gives you a wealth of creative options, but only if you take it out of auto mode and use what it has to offer. This tutorial shows you what you can do with Aperture and Shutter Priority settings.It even has suggested exercises to practise what you've learned.

Get the full skinny at Aperture and Shutter Priority Tutorial on Photo.net

75 - Understanding Shutter Speed

This tutorial begins at the very beginning with shutter speed, explaining what a camera shutter is and how shutter speed is measured, before going on to examine the impact shutter speed has on your pictures and how to control it.

There's more for you on Understanding Shutter Speed on Free Digital Photography Tutorials

76 - Understanding Exposure

So you've switched to manual mode and you're wondering just how to get your exposure right. This guide to metering will have you set on the right path.

Learn more by going to Understanding Exposure on Luminous Landscape

77 - Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively

From capturing motion to freezing time, via 'zoom blur', this article gets creative with the effect that altering shutter speed will have on your photographs.

There's more for you on Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively on Cambridge in Colour

78 - Understanding Long Exposures

This article uses side-by-side comparison photos to illustrate just what effect altering your exposure times can have on your pictures, including landscapes, waterfalls, fireworks, and lightning.

More tasty treats at Understanding Long Exposures on Dan Heller

80 - Understanding Aperture

Here's a quick guide to what aperture and depth of field are. There's also an explanation of the aperture limits on lenses, and how they can change depending on the focal length of your lens.

Read more on Understanding Aperture on Free Digital Photography Tutorials

81 - Understanding Camera Exposure

We know that aperture, ISO, and shutter speed combine to influence exposure, but understanding the interplay between them is not always straightforward. This article should help to explain things.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Understanding Camera Exposure on Cambridge in Colour

82 - How-To: A Primer on Long Exposures

Ever wondered how to get that cool light-streaking effect in your photos? It's all to do with long exposure, but this article will tell you how.

There's more at How-To: A Primer on Long Exposures on Digi Photo Mag

83 - How to shoot in Bright Daylight

Photographing food is tough at the best of times. In broad daylight, it's even harder. But fear not, here's how to handle it and make the most of the situation.

Read more on How to shoot in Bright Daylight on Diners Journal Blogs

Focus and Depth of Field

Remember what I said about Exposures? Yeah - well, if the exposures don't get you, the focus will. Here we go - a collection of articles to help you get a firm grasp of focus, depth of field, and everything in between.

84 - Depth Of Field For Geeks

This is a comprehensive guide to depth of field - from circles of confusion to tilt-shift miniatures - conveyed with pictures, diagrams, even mathematical equations, and a great sense of humour.

There's more at Depth Of Field For Geeks on Bernie Sumption

85 - Understanding Depth in Field

There seems to be a bit of a love affair with shallow depth of field. But deep depth of field can be wonderful, too. This article goes through its advantages, and what you need to consider when you shoot with one.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Understanding Depth in Field on Photo tutsplus

86 - Depth Of Field

This tutorial explains what depth is field is, how to control it in your images, its relationship with focal length, and even provides a handy-dandy calculator. Nifty!

Check out the full tutorial on Depth Of Field on Cambridge in Colour

87 - How to use Shallow Depth of Field

This tutorial gives you an introduction to depth of field, explains how to achieve a shallow depth of field, and suggests when to use one.

Get the full skinny at How to use Shallow Depth of Field on Emmett Lollis

88 - How to control Depth in Field

Aperture isn't the only way to control the depth of field in your photographs. This article explains the influence of proximity to the subject and lens focal length, too.

There's more at How to control Depth in Field on The Photo Argus

89 - Where to put the Focus in the Pictures

Your photo is all about your subject, and where you put it in your composition can turn an okay image into a stunning one. This tutorial gives you four key pointers on where to place your focus.

Get more at Where to put the Focus in the Pictures on Digital Photos Secrets

90 - Getting shallow DOF in your photos

What is a shallow depth of field? Why would you want one? How do you achieve one in your photos? This articles gives you your answers!

Get the full skinny at Getting shallow DOF in your photos on Digital Photography School

91 - When to disable Autofocus

Autofocus is a wonderful thing. But sometimes you need to switch it off and do it yourself. This article explains the whens, the whys, and the hows of manual focusing.

Read more on When to disable Autofocus on Digital Photos Secrets

92 - Understanding AutoFocus

Autofocus. It's an amazing tool, it makes our lives so much easier. But if you actually understand how it works, as explained here, you can make your pictures so much better.

More at Understanding AutoFocus on Cambridge in Colour

Nature and Landscapes

Moving beyond the basics, two of the most exciting photography subjects are landscapes, animals, and the environment around us. Tutorials galore - bon appetit!

93 - How to create beautiful Seascapes

This tutorial guides you through capturing your ultimate seascape, from scouting a location and timing your shoot to the techniques you'll need with your camera and in post-processing.

Find it all on How to create beautiful Seascapes on Free Hobby Solutions

94 - How to: Photographing a Stunning Sunset

A sunset photograph is incredibly evocative, but it isn't necessarily easy to get right. These six top tips should set your on your way to ride into the sunset (photos).

Get more at How to: Photographing a Stunning Sunset on One Side Photography

95 - Improving Mountain Photography

Mountains make wonderful photographic subjects, but capturing one effectively can be a bit of a challenge. This tutorial covers composition, time of day, and even the weather.

Read more on Improving Mountain Photography on Learn Digital Photography Now

96 - Photographing Birds in Flight

As if photographing birds isn't hard enough anyway, if you fancy a bigger challenge, try catching them as they are careening around, hunting for mosquitoes and other food. Sounds impossible? Maybe, but with a bit of practice and this tutorial, you'll get there.

There's more at Photographing Birds in Flight on Mike Atkinson

97 - Beach Photography

There must be millions of beach photos out there and you don't want yours the same as everyone else's. This tutorial encourages you to think differently about your beach photos.

Get it all on Beach Photography on Cameras About

98 - A Guide for Nature Photographer

Light meters are useful little gadgets, but you know, our eyes do a fairly good job of judging exposure, too. Train them, and they'll be the best exposure calculator you've ever used. Here's how.

More at A Guide for Nature Photographer on Fred Parker

99 - Zoo Photography Tutorial

If you're okay with the concept of zoos, they offer excellent opportunities to practise your photography and develop particular skills; aside from dealing with animals, you encounter glass and fences. This tutorial shows you what you can learn.

More at Zoo Photography Tutorial on Yanik Photo School

100 - Shooting in the Snow

There's a lot to think about when you take pictures in the snow. It's that vast expanse of white. This tutorial should help you get a handle on exposure, metering, and lighting in wintry weather.

There's more for you on Shooting in the Snow on The Photo Argus

101 - Taking Photos in Pine Forests

Have you ever thought about photographing a pine forest? No? Perhaps you should. They're atmospheric places with a wealth of wildlife. This tutorial shows you what you're missing out on.

More tasty treats at Taking Photos in Pine Forests on Ephoto Zine

102 - How to take Great Landscapes shots when its raining

There's no need to put your camera away when it rains. This tutorial shows you why and tells you how to protect your kit, too.

The full tutorial lives at How to take Great Landscapes shots when its raining on Ephoto Zine

103 - Flower Photography

Flowers really do make wonderful pictures. They're easy to photograph and look pretty. But you can approach them in lots of different ways and learn from the process, as this tutorial shows you.

There's more for you on Flower Photography on NYIP

104 - Basic Field Techniques in Bird Photography

Wildlife and bird photography go hand in hand - but you've got to start somewhere, so this tutorial collects the basics all in one handy place.

Read more on Basic Field Techniques in Bird Photography on Mike Atkinson

105 - Landscape Photography Techniques

Professional landscape photography tips, tutorials and techniques will help you improve your scenic photography and allow you to shoot stunning panoramic pictures, with any digital camera, that are full of realism.

There's more at Landscape Photography Techniques on Digital Photography Tricks

106 - Shooting Stunning Nighttime Landscapes

If you've never really turned your hand to landscape photography and are wondering where to start, start here. It takes you through location scouting, what to wear and pack, composition, and so much more.

Learn more at Shooting Stunning Nighttime Landscapes on Paxton Prints

107 - Landscape Photography at Twilight

Did you know that there are four phases to twilight? No, I didn't either, until I read this article. It explains their different properties when it comes to capturing them as photographs.

More tasty treats at Landscape Photography at Twilight on Picture Correct

108 - How to Shoot Amazing Landscapes

Landscape photography isn't all about kit and set-up. It's got a whole lot to do with composition. This tutorial explains what to look for and how to get it right.

Read more on How to Shoot Amazing Landscapes on The Photo argus

109 - Take Better Wildlife Photos

Nature has been one of the primary subjects of photography for more than 100 years, but it turns out that wildlife isn't the easiest of subjects. This tutorial attempts to kill some of the myths and help develop your photographic thinking in the right direction.

Learn more by going to Take Better Wildlife Photos on Tutorial 9

110 - Shooting Nighttime Landscapes

Taking pictures at night isn't as counter-intuitive, or as difficult, as you might think. This tutorial gets you started, with location ideas, composition tips, and technical know-how.

Read more on Shooting Nighttime Landscapes on The Photo argus

111 - Wildlife Photography

Never work with children or animals goes the adage, but wildlife is such a great photographic subject who wouldn't want to? This tutorial walks you through the kit you'll need, the practical side of taking photos in the wild, and how to get the most out of your pictures.

Read more on Wildlife Photography on Tutorial 9

112 - Surefire Landscape Photography

The epic landscape is a picture to behold. But how do you go about achieving one? These 11 key pointers should have you well on your way to getting there.

Read more on Surefire Landscape Photography on Digital Photography School

113 - Twelve ways To improve your Digital Landscapes

From when to shoot to a reminder that you won't always get the photo you're looking for, these 12 tips should help you to get the most out of your landscape pictures.

Read more on Twelve ways To improve your Digital Landscapes on Paxton Prints

114 - How to Catch a Humming Bird

If you want to try to capture a gorgeous, fast-moving, and tiny hummingbird, it's probably a good idea to read this guide first - it ain't easy. But when you succeed, it's like winning an award!

Read more on How to Catch a Humming Bird on Prong Horn Wildlife Photography

115 - Tips For Photographing Stunning Sunrise

Getting up early for a sunrise photo might feel like hard work, but the results can be stunning. These eight pointers should make it all worthwhile.

Interested? Check out Tips For Photographing Stunning Sunrise on One Side Photography

Lighting

Without lighting, there's no photography - but how do you get it all to work properly, and look as good as it can? There's plenty of writing about lighting on the internet - here's a smattering of the best.

116 - Strobist Lighting 101

David Hobby's website the Strobist is a great starting point for wannabe Speedlite photographers. His 101 is a great introduction to the magic of multi-strobe setups, but beware - you are liable to waste several days reading the wealth of information that's available on his site!

The whole nine yard's at Strobist Lighting 101 on Strobist

117 - Shooting & Editing a High Speed Fruity Water Splash

From the equipment that you'll need through to editing your final shot in Photoshop, this tutorial gives you the low-down on those gorgeous shots of fruit splashing into water.

Learn more by going to Shooting & Editing a High Speed Fruity Water Splash on Photo Tuts+

118 - How to Photograph Lightning

Capturing lightning can be tricky and you might not have that many chances. This tutorial, with its practical and technical insights, should help you get it right.

The full article is on How to Photograph Lightning on Weather Scapes

119 - How to take Photographs of Sunsets

Photos of sunsets are always popular. But how do you elevate yours above a holiday snapshot into something truly spectacular? This tutorial takes you through from beginning to end.

There's more at How to take Photographs of Sunsets on NYIP

120 - Don't let good light ruin a photo

When you're used to using artificial lighting, you sometimes miss the wood for the trees and forget about the awesome effect you can get with ambient light. Don't. Here's a reminder as to why ambient light can be just what you need.

Interested? Check out Don't let good light ruin a photo on Strobist

121 - Photographing Young Children with Low-Key Lighting

From the easiest lighting set-up to props that you'll need (including Mister Smiley-Face), this tutorial gives you a great overview of how to photograph young children in the studio.

There's more for you on Photographing Young Children with Low-Key Lighting on Studio on a Shoe String

122 - Why You Should Own an External Flash

If you've not yet been convinced as to why you need an external flash, this tutorial will show you just why you ought to skip off to the shops and add one of these to your shopping basket

Check out Why You Should Own an External Flash on Digi Diversity

123 - Professional Lighting in Model Photography

Interested in model photography with correct lighting? This short tutorial will help you understand various aspect and characteristics of lighting in model photography and how it works well.

Read more on Professional Lighting in Model Photography on Tutorial 9

124 - Studio Lighting Examples

Using a toy car as a model, this tutorial demonstrates the different effects that light placements will have on your studio photos. Super stuff, and makes it easy to grasp the concepts!

Learn more at Studio Lighting Examples on Worth 1000

125 - Painting with Light

Light painting is great fun and not that difficult. This article tells you what you need and how to go about capturing fun images in the dark.

Learn more by going to Painting with Light on DIY Photography

126 - Take Better Indoor Photos Using An Off Camera Flash

Flashes are great for ensuring that your pictures aren't black holes, but the light can be harsh and unflattering. This tutorial shows you how to take aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and type and direction of flash into consideration to get the best image.

Give it some love at Take Better Indoor Photos Using An Off Camera Flash on Expert Photography

127 - The 5 Lights of Nature

Photography is all about using the natural light correctly according to the situations and scenarios. This fantastic tutorial will help you underdstand the five major lights of nature which can ultimately will enable you take some stunning outdoor photos.

Interested? Check out The 5 Lights of Nature on Pixiq

128 - Shooting Photos in the Dark

Too dark to take photos? No such thing - this tutorial lays down seven basic principles to help you get the most out of pictures taken in the dark.

Interested? Check out Shooting Photos in the Dark on Photoshop Tutorials

129 - Homemade Light Box for Product Photography

If you want to give product photography a go, you'll almost certainly be needing a light box. You might not, though, want to go investing in one quite yet. So how about making one? Here's how.

Interested? Check out Homemade Light Box for Product Photography on Studio Lighting

130 - Master Photography Lighting

If you'd like to know how to capture rays of light in your photographs or how best to achieve a silhouette, take a look at this simple-to-understand article.

The full tutorial lives at Master Photography Lighting on HD Japan

132 - Glass Product Photography

Photographing anything in a glass container is fraught with peril. This tutorial begins with the kit that you'll need and takes you through the post-processing, ehm, process, to leave you with professional images.

Learn more by going to Glass Product Photography on Tim Kainu

133 - Photography Poses

Taking people photos are sometimes tricky as it is not easy to guess about the pose that might suit accordingly. In this tutorial five simple poses are discussed which can really help you in suggesting pose for variety of people.

Read more on Photography Poses on Digital Photography Tricks

134 - Photographing sunsets

Sunsets might play evil tricks with your camera, but if you follow the tips and advice in this tutorial, you'll get the better of the evening's last vestiges of light.

More at Photographing sunsets on Digital Photos Secrets

135 - Beginners Guide to Lighting Kits

Investing in lighting is a big undertaking. This guide demystifies what's available, what things do, and should help you to work out just what you need to get started.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Beginners Guide to Lighting Kits on Photo.net

136 - Understanding Basic Light Properties for Photography

Light isn't just light. It has different characteristics and comes in different temperatures from different sources. This tutorial throws some light on the subject. (Pun absolutely intended.)

Interested? Check out Understanding Basic Light Properties for Photography on Picture Correct

137 - Measuring Light

A lot of photography writing focuses on 'exposure', which is all fine and well, but what are you exposing for? In order for your camera to get the best possible photos, it needs the best possible light measurements. This article explains some of the theory - and a lot of practical aspects - of measuring light.

Find it all on Measuring Light on Dan Heller

138 - Golden Hour a Magical Time for every Photographer

The golden hour gives photos the most gorgeous warm glow. This tutorial will ensure that you can make the most of those magical two hours every day.

There's more on Golden Hour a Magical Time for every Photographer on Digital Photos Secrets

139 - 35 Photography Poses Tips/Tricks Guidelines

You might have the most attractive model in the world, but if she or he is badly posed it'll ruin your photo. These 35 pointers should help you avoid smelly armpits and two-headed bodies.

Find it all on 35 Photography Poses Tips/Tricks Guidelines on Free Digital Photography Tutorials

140 - Lightning Photography

This tutorial helps you figure out what you need practically and technically to get that perfect picture of lightning. It even has some neat post-processing ideas, too.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Lightning Photography on The Photo Argus

141 - Indoor and Studio photography

This tutorial is for those who want to excel in their abilities of indoor and studio photography. This is a step by step guide which goes over the basics to get you started.

Find it all on Indoor and Studio photography on Photo Tutsplus

142 - Using Fill Flash

You might hear the term 'fill flash' a lot but not know exactly what it is and why you might need it. Wonder no longer as this article explains what fill flash does and how it'll improve your pictures.

Learn more at Using Fill Flash on Digital Photography School

143 - Photographing Large Group in a Studio

If photographing one person can be demanding, taking pictures of a large group might feel impossible. But it isn't, and this tutorial will help you through it.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Photographing Large Group in a Studio on Studio on a Shoe String

144 - Shooting Glassware on a black background

Photographers are only successful when they are versatile in their abilities. The best photographers are able to produce mind-blowing images in all sorts of circumstances. Shooting Glassware on a black background is an cool exercise to get a firmer grip of your studio work.

Check out Shooting Glassware on a black background on Pixiq

145 - How to Paint with the Light in a Photograph

Want to have a go at light painting? It's a lot of fun! This tutorial shows you how, and gives you some ideas to get you started.

Get the full skinny at How to Paint with the Light in a Photograph on The Photo Argus

People & Portraiture

It it weren't for the fact that people can't seem to get enough of people, I doubt there was much photography at all. Unsurprisingly, there's also a load of writing about the subject online - here's a tasting menu of awesomeness.

146 - Portrait Photography

Photographers should take photography from all direction and from every aspect. Mastering photography in one specific field is never appreciated. You can take some stunning portrait photos if you know how to take them and add wow factor to your images. This tutorial helps you exactly the same way.

The full article is on Portrait Photography on Digital Photography Tricks

147 - Shooting an orchestra's portrait

One full orchestra, all of their instruments, and only 15 minutes to photograph it. How on earth do you go about that? This article explains it all.

Give it some love at Shooting an orchestra's portrait on Pixiq

148 - Wedding Photography

If you want to make a memorable wedding you surely will be looking for some amazing photographs. This tutorial will provide you with some really cool tricks and guide-lines about wedding photography.

Have a read at Wedding Photography on Media College

149 - A Beginner’s Guide to Candid People Photography

Posed portraits have their place, but there's something incredibly appealing about the candid shot. This tutorial shows you what to look out for and how best to capture that unexpected moment.

Get the full skinny at A Beginner’s Guide to Candid People Photography on Lights Talking

150 - How to turn Photos into Cinematic Portraits

If you fancy having some fun by taking an average portrait and transforming it into something overblown and cinematic, this tutorial gives you the step-by-step instructions you'll need.

Interested? Check out How to turn Photos into Cinematic Portraits on TutsPlus

151 - Try nude photography

Taking a portrait can be scary enough; but taking a nude portrait? Well, actually, it's a very challenging and interesting form of photography. These are my insights and recommendations from my experiences.

There's more for you on Try nude photography on Pixiq

152 - Wedding Photography

Wedding photographer Jeff Ascough talks about how and what he shoots, what kit he uses, his workflow, and the finished product in the demanding world of wedding photography. An insightful read if you're thinking of starting out there.

Learn more at Wedding Photography on Photo.net

153 - Wedding Photography

If you're considering embarking on wedding photography, you'll need to decide if you're heading down the more traditional or the more journalistic path. This article assesses the differences and helps you to decide which best suits you.

Read it all on Wedding Photography on Shutter Bug

154 - Tourism and Photographing People

Photographers are always on the move and those who love traveling along with photography will surely love this tutorial as it covers almost every aspect of photographing people and tourism.

Give it some love at Tourism and Photographing People on Dan Heller

155 - The Classical Portrait lighting setup

Main light? Fill light? Background light? Hair light? If you've ever wondered about the lighting set up for a portrait shoot, this tutorial explains all the terms, what they do, and why you need them.

Read it all on The Classical Portrait lighting setup on Pixiq

156 - Introduction to Portrait Lighting

This excellent tutorial uses roll-over images to show you exactly the properties of different lights and the effects of light placement on your portraits. A must-read.

Find it all on Introduction to Portrait Lighting on Cambridge in Colour

Photoshop and Editing

Very few photographers see 'photography' as a purists' artform anymore. It's a rare image that doesn't stand improving a little through a little bit of Photoshop (or, in my case, Lightroom) tickling - and here's an impressive array of tutorials to get you started.

157 - Fantasy art tutorial

This tutorial walks you through the post-processing steps that you need to transform an ordinary portrait into a water-nymph fantasy-styled picture, complete with stars. Now where did I leave those unicorn stock photos?

More tasty treats at Fantasy art tutorial on Lorelei Web Design

158 - Taking Clone Photographs

A very exciting and cool tutorial about combining clone photos to a single image. This gives your picture and interesting and fantastic look.This also adds some fun element to your snaps.

There's more at Taking Clone Photographs on Net Glos

159 - Replacing a Background with The GIMP

This tutorial shows you how to use GIMP to replace the background of an image so that quickly-snapped portrait can lose the clutter behind it and look a whole lot more professional.

Check out the full tutorial on Replacing a Background with The GIMP on Gimp Guru

160 - Grunge & Dark Art Tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to transform a perfectly normal, healthy looking subject into a clone of the legions of the undead. Perfect for Hallowe'en!

Read more on Grunge & Dark Art Tutorial on Dubtastic Blog

161 - 10 Easy Steps to Advanced Photography Skills

The title says it all: simple steps that will help you to improve your photography. Whether you are a beginner or more advanced, you'll find something of value amongst the collection of tips, tricks, and advice.

Read all about it on 10 Easy Steps to Advanced Photography Skills on Smashing Magazine

162 - Gradient Mapping for Better Landscape Photos

By using the gradient mapping tool, you can transform images that are a little on the flat and dull side into something with a bit more zing. This tutorial shows you how in 12 steps.

There's more at Gradient Mapping for Better Landscape Photos on Wipeout 44

163 - Fresh Photo Manipulation Tutorial

Do you fancy applying a bit of surrealist, Dali-type effect to your photos? This tutorial gives you some ideas and shows you how to do it.

Read all about it on Fresh Photo Manipulation Tutorial on Noupe

164 - Colouring an Old Black & White Photo

You probably have a stack of old photographs lying around that you'd love to have a go at retouching and giving a bit of colour. This tutorial shows you how to do just that.

Read more on Colouring an Old Black & White Photo on Tutzor

165 - Creating a Searing Hot Effect

Using a combination of the ripple, wave, and displace filters, this handy-dandy tutorial shows you how to give your pictures a sizzling heat-haze effect. Smokin'.

Check out Creating a Searing Hot Effect on 123RF

166 - Fast and easy facial retouching

This six-step tutorial shows you how to remove blemishes and smooth out skin tones to give an okay portrait a much more professional look - and to make your models look just that little bit more model-like.

Give it some love at Fast and easy facial retouching on TutsPlus

167 - Repairing an old photograph

You can restore life to your old photographs using this fabulous tutorial. It'll guide you through the entire process to repair them, from retro-broken to current-fantastic. Your grandparents will thank you.

There's more on Repairing an old photograph on Show and Tell Graphics

168 - Sharpening Techniques Explained

You've heard the term 'sharpen' before, but what does it mean for your photos? Why and how can you apply it to them? This tutorial explains all of that, and even gives you a few different methods to sharpen your images.

There's more at Sharpening Techniques Explained on Car Photo Tutorials

169 - Fake tilt-shift photography

Creating photos that look like miniatures is done through a technique called tilt-shift photography. If you don't have the hundreds of dollars that a proper T/S lens costs kicking about, then maybe a spot of Photoshop can help you along. This tutorial shows you how.

Read more on Fake tilt-shift photography on The Unofficial Apple Weblog

170 - Five ways to speed up Lightroom

If you're a little frustrated because Lightroom seems to be running slowly, here are five top tips to help speed up your post-processing software and workflow.

There's more at Five ways to speed up Lightroom on Pixiq

171 - Creating Sleepy Village Photos

You can have a lot of fun by merging together several different images to create something entirely new. This tutorial gives you the step-by-step instructions you need to achieve the finsihed product.

Get it all on Creating Sleepy Village Photos on TutsPlus

172 - Changing a model's hair colour

Well you don't have to visit a hairdresser anymore to colour your hair, especially when you want to impress your friends. You can easily do that in your Photoshop just by using few magical tools. Visit this tutorial if you want to learn it step by step.

Get the full skinny at Changing a model's hair colour on Photoshop Tutorials

173 - How to Tweak Images

Have you heard of the puppet warp tool in Photoshop? It enables you to alter the placement of key features in images, for example leaf stems or limbs. This tutorial shows you how to amend slightly awkward arm angles or deal with lines that are suffering from lens distortion.

Get it all on How to Tweak Images on TutsPlus

174 - Optimizing the look of your HDR images

So you've heard of HDR and you've seen just what it does to photos, but how do you recreate it yourself? This tutorial takes you through the process of creating an HDR photo, step-by-step.

Get more at Optimizing the look of your HDR images on Pixiq

175 - Using Layer Masks to Create Unique and Fun Images

Once upon a time, if you wanted to create a composite image you needed to expose a single frame multiple times. Not so anymore, there's Photoshop. This tutorial teaches you what you need to know.

There's more at Using Layer Masks to Create Unique and Fun Images on Paxton Prints

176 - Creating Dreamy photos

There are two skills related to photography. First skill works when you take your photos and your second skills come into play when you start editing them. This tutorial shows you how to add a touch of 'dreaminess' into your shots.

Get more at Creating Dreamy photos on Stock XCHNG

177 - Sharpening your photos using Unsharp Mask

The term 'unsharp mask' might seem completely counter-intuitive to use to sharpen images, but it's not, really! Here, you get told the origins of the term, why you need to sharpen your images, and are shown how to do it.

Read more on Sharpening your photos using Unsharp Mask on Pixiq

Printing & Exhibiting your work

So you've taken the photos... What next? Time to make some presents, post 'em online, or create a gallery show.

178 - Exhibiting your Work

For some photographers, the pinnacle of their career will be an exhibition of their work. This tutorial tells you what to expect from exhibitions, when and when not to exhibit your work, and how to promote yourself.

Learn more at Exhibiting your Work on Photoshop Tutorials

179 - Why Prints Can look Bad

If you have recently changed cameras, there are a whole host of reasons why your prints might not look as good as they used to. Trouble-shoot your way back to perfect pictures with this tutorial.

There's more at Why Prints Can look Bad on Dan Heller

180 - How to win photography competitions

Seven invaluable tips from yours truly (who's judged enough photo competitions to write a blog post) on how to catch the judges' attention and win that coveted prize.

The whole nine yard's at How to win photography competitions on Pixiq

Topic-specific tutorials

So far, we've been covering photography from a generic point of view - but of course, that's not how we take photos. Tutorials shine especially when the time comes to learn a specific new technique. Let's have 'em...

181 - Water Waves Tutorial

If you're going to be making waves with your photography... Okay, yeah, I went there. Photographing waves is a cool exercise in studio work - it combines a fast-moving subject with advanced lighting techniques, the risks of working with a 'wet set', and a huge amount of patience - it's not that hard, though, and the results can be rather fabulous. Give it a go!

Get more at Water Waves Tutorial on Chris Nuzzaco

182 - Infra Red Photography

So you've heard about infrared photography and you'd like to give it a go. But where do you start? And where do you end? This tutorial walks you through it.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Infra Red Photography on Galits

183 - Panoramas and Photomerge

A very good tutorial about panorama photos, featuring a good collection of picture stitched together to show an extended view of landscape. The in-depth instructions in the article help you get started - and the extra little bit of inspiration included in the article comes in handy, too!

There's more at Panoramas and Photomerge on Second Picture

183 - Doll Photography Tutorial

Photographing dolls might seem quite specific, but this tutorial provides useful information on general product photography. Don't overlook it just because of the niche subject matter.

There's more for you on Doll Photography Tutorial on American Doll Outfitters

184 - Easy Water Photography

Photographing water is never the same twice; it's fun and challenging. This tutorial gives you lots of ideas and takes you through the process of capturing coloured water droplets.

Get it all on Easy Water Photography on Free Photo Sources

185 - Night Photography Step by Step

Your adventures don't stop when the sun goes down, and your photography shouldn't have to either. Night photography can record beautiful scenes that have a fairytale world feel to them when compared to their daytime counterparts. This 6-page guide shows you how.

Get it all on Night Photography Step by Step on Photography about.com

186 - Photographing Smoke

There might not be a 'right' way to photograph smoke, but there are some tips and recommendations to help you get the most out of it. These are some of the best.

The whole nine yard's at Photographing Smoke on Pixiq

187 - Smoke Photography Tutorial

This tutorial takes you through capturing awesome photographs from everyday smoke sources. There are some fabulous pictures to set alight the flame of inspiration, too. Break out those incense sticks, sing some Kumbaya, and take it from there.

There's more on Smoke Photography Tutorial on Designzzz

188 - Basics of HDR photography

Which kinds of photos work well for HDR; which don't? What do you need to create HDR images and how do you go about it? This tutorial explains it all.

The full article is on Basics of HDR photography on Emmett Lollis

189 - How To Photograph Comets

With everything from rough dates of meteor showers to required kit, this tutorial guides you through everything you need to capture gorgeous images of shooting stars, comets, and meteors.

More tasty treats at How To Photograph Comets on Free Photo Sources

190 - Macro Photography

Taking close-up photos of small and things is always an amazing experience especially when you start enjoying it. This tutorial will provide you with useful information and tips about macro photography.

More tasty treats at Macro Photography on Photo Net

191 - How to take Worlds Best concert Photos

How do you get that iconic rock photograph? Once you've got yourself into the pit and snapped the picture that freezes time in low-light, how do you make some money from it? This article reveals all!

Read more on How to take Worlds Best concert Photos on Photo Shelter

192 - The Complete Guide to Shooting Farming Agriculture

This one wins the prize for most bizarre tutorial: How to take photos at farms. I have no idea why anyone thought this was a good idea, but it's actually pretty well written, and the photos are nifty, too.

Find it all on The Complete Guide to Shooting Farming Agriculture on Photo Tuts+

193 - Night Photography

Night Photography isn't exactly easy, but it makes for great pictures. This tutorial will help you to get the best pictures out of low-light situations.

The full article is on Night Photography on Photoxels

194 - Hunting for superior mirages

Ever seen a superior mirage? It's a mirage in the sky above an object, rather than below it. They're awesome to photograph, if you get the chance. This guide helps you find them, and them capture them with superior results.

Read all about it on Hunting for superior mirages on Weather Scapes

195 - Food photography on Wikipedia

Want to know how to make drinks sparkle, keep green vegetables looking green, and glasses stay frosty? This article is full of the sneaky tricks used by food photographers.

The whole nine yard's at Food photography on Wikipedia on Wikipedia

196 - Making a time-lapse

Making a time-lapse is fun and with Small Aperture's excellent step-by-step guide, you'll be having a go in no time. Sunsets never were this awesome!

Get more at Making a time-lapse on Small Aperture

197 - Introduction to Lomography

Off-kilter, bleeding colours, slightly blurry, but definitely fun. It's lomography. Want to have a go at it yourself? This quick and easy guide shows you how.

Read all about it on Introduction to Lomography on Lights Talking

198 - Car Photography That Sells the Car

Most of us are probably taking photos for fun or 'just for the art of it', but what happens when you actually need to go the whole hog into the world of commercial photography, as the photos are going to be used for 'something'? Photographing cars is one of those instances - if you've ever browsed eBay for second-hand cars, it's easy to see how huge the variation is in the quality there's available. This tutorial helps you along.

More at Car Photography That Sells the Car on Car Photo Tutorials

199 - Camera Toss Photography Techniques

If you're confident that you won't drop your camera, camera tossing can create some beautiful photos. If you'd like to give it a go, take a look at this tutorial.

Check out Camera Toss Photography Techniques on Designzzz

200 - Photographing Buildings a Guide

Architecture is an abundant photographic resource - it completely surrounds you. So why aren't you taking more beautiful photos of buildings and bridges? Maybe because you think it's difficult? This tutorial takes the stress out of it.

Get the full skinny at Photographing Buildings a Guide on Free Photo Sources

201 - How to Take the Perfect Spring Flower Macro Photograph

Flowers are fab photo subjects, and even better in macro. Want to have a go at some floral close-ups? This guide will get you started.

Learn more by going to How to Take the Perfect Spring Flower Macro Photograph on Lights Talking

202 - Underwater Photography

I'm a complete convert to underwater photography. But it is very different from shooting on dry land. If you want to give it go, read this first!

Get the full skinny at Underwater Photography on NYIP

203 - How to Photograph The Moon

So you like macro photography, do you? How about doing the exact opposite: Photographing outer space? Even just as an experiment, you can learn a lot from attempting to get a good shot of the moon - and this article shows you how to, er, shoot for the moon.

Get it all on How to Photograph The Moon on Photo Tips

204 - 13 Steps for Shooting The Perfect Water Droplet

Photos of water droplets aren’t hard to come by. Flickr is littered with them and although some might look impressive, they all seem to have very similar composition and formation. However, the techniques used to capture a water droplet may not be second nature to all of us and the skills learned here will undoubtedly be applicable to other photographic situations. Here are 13 steps to getting the technique right!

There's more on 13 Steps for Shooting The Perfect Water Droplet on Photo Tuts+

205 - Camera Skills Night Photography

Lighting is what makes or breaks a shot, writes the author, so it's a little ironic that night is one of my favorite times to shoot. I totally know where you're coming from - and this article is a lovely guide to stumbling through the darkness with your camera.

Learn more by going to Camera Skills Night Photography on Worth 1000

206 - HDR Explained

This tutorial explains what HDR is, what you'll need to take HDR pictures, and then how to ut it all together when post-processing for that overall HDR effect.

Get it all on HDR Explained on Free Photo Sources

207 - How to Photograph Macro Water Droplets Splashes

Photographing water droplets is an easy way to drive yourself mad, but you might be able to avoid plenty of hair-pilling and head-scratching if you read this guide first.

Read more on How to Photograph Macro Water Droplets Splashes on Hypergurl

208 - Photographing Waterfalls

With some great technique tips, for example ensuring that your images aren't too dull or too busy, this tutorial helps you ensure that your waterfall photo isn't just another waterfall picture.

Read more on Photographing Waterfalls on Luminous Landscape

209 - How to Take Great Photos of Holiday Lights

Want to take great photos of the lights on your Christmas tree, or of your Chanukiyah? This tutorial is full of advice to getting it just right.

Interested? Check out How to Take Great Photos of Holiday Lights on NYIP

210 - The Ultimate Guide to HDR photography

What is HDR photography? How did it come about? What does it mean for your pictures? This guide explains the mysteries of high dynamic range.

Give it some love at The Ultimate Guide to HDR photography on Pixiq

211 - Photography Secrets from One of the World's Top Shooters

Photography secrets from Joe McNally shares a series of stories behind some of his best shots: a great behind-the-scenes insight into some lovely photographs. A great inspiration, and best of all: you may even learn a few things!

Read it all on Photography Secrets from One of the World's Top Shooters on Creative Pro

212 - Food photography for Amateurs

This food blogger takes one image of a plate of food and deconstructs it critically, explaining just how it can be made better. This makes for an excellent read in both constructive criticism and good food photography!

Read more on Food photography for Amateurs on Jenn Cuisine

213 - The Complete Guide For Photographing Live Insects

Some photographers prefer their insects for macro photography to be standing still - but that doesn't mean you have to kill 'em to get a decent photo! This guide gives you an insight into how you can capture live insects

The whole nine yard's at The Complete Guide For Photographing Live Insects on DIY Photography

214 - Auto Racing Photography

Fast cars and race tracks make for brilliant photos, but how do you get involved and how do you go about it? This tutorial gives you lots of ideas, pointers, and advice.

The whole nine yard's at Auto Racing Photography on Luminous Landscape

215 - Winter Photography Tutorial

Winter scene photographs look amazing, but what about getting the exposure right for snow, or your camera coping with the cold? This tutorial comes with advice a-plenty to ensure you get that perfect snow landscape.

The full article is on Winter Photography Tutorial on Picture Correct

216 - Beginners Guide to Sports Photography

Want to have a go at sports photography? This tutorial goes through equipment basics, composition, what to expect when you're at a game trying to capture images, and post processing.

Check out the full tutorial on Beginners Guide to Sports Photography on TutsPlus

217 - Concert Photography

Concert photography - if you're mad enough to try it, what with nothing staying still and the light being low - is monumentally rewarding. Want to give it a go? Start here!

Read more on Concert Photography on Pixiq

218 - How To Photograph Bubbles

To quote Jaques the Cleaning Shrimp from Finding Nemo: Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles! My bubbles!. Erm, yes. (can you tell I've been spending just a tiny bit too long writing descriptions about photography tutorials? Especially awesome because I have my doubts whether anyone will ever read far enough down this list to actually read this, but hey. I did set out to do 250 tutorials, and by jove, will I complete this herculean task). Anyway - this tutorial is called how to Photograph Bubbles, and you win today's top prize if you're able to guess what it covers.

Read more on How To Photograph Bubbles on Learn My Shot

219 - Abstract Photography

If you want to make some cool, dramatic images you should read this fantastic tutorial. It'll help you to approach photography from a new, abstract angle.

There's more at Abstract Photography on Ron Bigelow

220 - Rural Photography

Rural photography isn't just about landscapes. There're plenty of details to pick up on an stories to tell. This guide will get you started. Strap on your wellington boots, dig out your flatcap, and let's get started.

More tasty treats at Rural Photography on Digital Photos Secrets

221 - Night Photography

From using reflections, to light painting, to cooling down and warming up images, this is a pretty comprehensive guide to taking pictures at night. Now where did I leave those night-vision goggles?

Read it all on Night Photography on Photo.net

222 - Getting started with Time Lapse Photography

Photography, from its very infancy, has been great at the art of either freezing or 'flowing' motion. Time lapse photograpy bridges the gap between motion and stop-motion, between photography and video, and between the real and the uncanny. This is a lovely introduction to the art - and a great little article to boot.

There's more on Getting started with Time Lapse Photography on Picture Correct

223 - Shooting in Low light Situations

These four pointers will help you get the best out of your low-light shots, helping you to think about composition as well as develop some practical skills.

Get it all on Shooting in Low light Situations on The Photo Argus

224 - An introduction to Food Photography

What does it take to make a plate of food look good enough to eat? These eight top tips let you in on the secrets of successful food photography.

There's more for you on An introduction to Food Photography on Digital Photography School

225 - Spectacular Night Shooting

Getting great shots at night isn't as hard as you think it might be, despite the relative lack of light. If you follow these five steps, you'll be well on your way.

Learn more by going to Spectacular Night Shooting on Digital Photos Secrets

226 - Smoke Photography

Starting with the equipment that you'll need and taking you right the way through to post-processing to capture some delicious-looking smoke photographs, this tutorial is a lovely starting point for smoke photography!

More at Smoke Photography on Paxton Prints

227 - Shooting in the Rain

A downpour doesn't necessarily mean that you have to put away your camera. This guide to rain photography helps you to freeze raindrops, to create a background haze with rain, and to have some fun with soft focus.

Have a read at Shooting in the Rain on The Photo Argus

228 - Moon Photography

We love the moon...' except that it isn't always easy to photograph. This tutorial gives you six invaluable tips and plenty of inspiration to get it right.

Can't get enough? Read it all on Moon Photography on Dan Heller

229 - How to photograph fireworks

Want to know how to capture the gorgeousness of a fireworks display? These ten tips will guide you through tripods, framing, and exposure to help you get it right.

Give it some love at How to photograph fireworks on Digital Photography School

230 - High speed Photography Tutorial

With equipment lists, hand-drawn diagrams, and photos to aspire to, this tutorial tells you everything that you need to know to get started taking photos of things moving at high speed.

Get more at High speed Photography Tutorial on DIY Photography

231 - Photographing Star trails

If you'd like to have a go at making a time-lapse of the night sky or photographing star trails but aren't sure where to begin, try here. There's lots of useful information and plenty of inspiration.

Get it all on Photographing Star trails on Dan Heller

234 - Lomo Photography Tutorial

You know, you don't have to spend money on a Lomo-camera to create lomo-style images. Nope! With good old post-processing you can get that Lomo-look. This tutorial shows you how.

Read more on Lomo Photography Tutorial on Digital Photography School

Photography Theory

A lot of the stuff we've had so far is rather practical, but what if you want to learn some of the theory of what goes on behind the scenes? Do not despair, my fellow photography comrades, here's a load of theory for you to enjoy!

235 - How to Get Tack Sharp Photo Images

What does it take to achieve pin-sharp images, both technically and practically? This guide sets out the basics, looking at shutter speeds, focal length, and more.

The whole nine yard's at How to Get Tack Sharp Photo Images on Apogee Photo

236 - What is ISO?

If you're new to photography, ISO can seem this arbitrary scale that has some sort of effect on your pictures. This guide explains what ISO is and how it can have an impact on your images.

The whole nine yard's at What is ISO? on Small Aperture

237 - Understanding White Balance

If you come from the world of film, you may remember using filters to correct for incandescent or fluorescent lighting. Most people didn't bother and their indoors pictures invariably came out with a yellow/orange or bluish cast. In the digital world, these correction filters are no longer necessary, replaced by a feature found in most -- even the entry-level -- digital cameras called, White Balance. Here's an article explaining the whats, hows and wherefores

There's more at Understanding White Balance on PhotoXels

238 - What is shutter speed?

What sort of effect will adjusting your shutter speed have your pictures, both technically and creatively? This short tutorial has some answers - and a light dusting of inspiration, too.

Read it all on What is shutter speed? on Small Aperture

239 - Photography illustrated

A fun and unusual take on teaching photography, this site takes a couple of cartoon characters explaining photography to each other, and turns it into a somewhat-readable guide to various aspects of photography. I'm not a big fan myself, but several of my readers e-mailed the link to me, saying it helped them out - so why not!

Get it all on Photography illustrated on Worth 1000

240 - What is a small aperture?

What is a small aperture? How will altering the aperture of your lens affect your photos. This quick and easy guide should answer those questions.

Read more on What is a small aperture? on Small Aperture

241 - What is white balance?

Knowing what white balance is, how it affects your pictures, and how to control it can make a huge difference to your pictures. This introductory guide will help you out.

There's more for you on What is white balance? on Small Aperture

242 - Infra Red Basics

Infra red photography is a great challenge - and enables you to take a couple of steps into the world of the arcane and unreal-looking. With a side helping of awesome. Here's how...

Read more on Infra Red Basics on Worth 1000

243 - Understanding Lens Contrast

Many photographers — even some experienced and knowledgeable ones — seem permanently confused about contrast, especially when the word is used to describe lenses. This article thoroughly rectifies that situation, and is well worth a read if you're interested in having a deeper understanding of lenses and what you're looking for when you buy one.

There's more at Understanding Lens Contrast on luminous Landscape

244 - 8 steps to sharper pictures

I personally love this tutorial as it has helped a lot of photographers get a firm grip on how to produce sharp images without using any specific software such as Photoshop or Lightroom. 8 Simple and easy to follow steps to make difference in your images.

Check out the full tutorial on 8 steps to sharper pictures on Pixiq

245 - Your pictures; your rights, redux

This article sets out the difference between copyright and licensing rights, and highlights what you need to look for when signing licensing rights deals, even if it's only to display your pictures on a photo-sharing website.

Interested? Check out Your pictures; your rights, redux on Small Aperture

246 - Understanding Polarizing Filters

There are a lot of photographic efects you can re-create digitally easily enough... Polarisers isn't one of them, so if you're planning to take the leap into the world of landscape photography, you could do a lot worse than buying one - and learning how to use it.

Check out the full tutorial on Understanding Polarizing Filters on Cambridge in Colour

247 - Understand digital camera Sensors

For the geek among us, learning how a camera sensor actually works is very interesting indeed - this guide talks you through some of the details about how to make it tastier.

There's more at Understand digital camera Sensors on Cambridge in Colour

248 - White Balance Basics

Digital SLRs do a great job of figuring out white balance for you, but sometimes they don't get it quite right. If you understand the principles behind white balance, and how to control it yourself, your photography will come on leaps and bounds. This guide will get you started.

Can't get enough? Read it all on White Balance Basics on Paxton Prints

249 - Your pictures; your rights

What is copyright? When do you need a model release? If you want to use your images commercially, what do you need to know? This quick-and-dirty guide should help you out.

Read more on Your pictures; your rights on Small Aperture

250 - Understanding Camera Lenses

This tutorial sets out the basics in lens composition and focal length. It talks you through zooms and primes and it covers apertures. When you're starting out with glass, start here.

Get the full skinny at Understanding Camera Lenses on Cambridge in Colour

A big thank you

This epic post couldn't have happened without the help from Daniela and the rest of the Small Aperture gang. If you liked this post, head over to Small Aperture, and subscribe to the RSS feed right away. You know it makes sense.

When not to use your flash

It always amazes me how often people just leave their flashes turned on all the time – or, more accurately, how great people’s faith is in the camera’s ‘automatic’ setting. To wit: I recently had the pleasure of dragging myself out at bed before dawn to photograph the sunrise at the legendary Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia. Now, this temple is famous for being beautiful and facing west, which makes it great for sunrises. Multiply that with the fact that Angkor Wat is a tourist trap of epic proportions at the quietest of days, and you might imagine that the place attracts a fair few people.

I got to the location by the light of my flashlight – and slowly the sky started changing colors, as the sun was climbing its slow ascent past the horizon. Unsurprisingly, lots of my fellow tourists were taking photos of the sunset. Surprisingly, a huge proportion of them were taking photos with a flash.

When is a flash useful?

All flashes have a ‘guide number’. This is a number given in feet and meters, and gives a good indication for how far away you can expect the flash to reach. Typically, for a compact camera, the flash range will be 5-7 meters (16-23 ft). The pop-up flash built into an SLR camera can have a range of 10-15 meters (32-49 ft) at the most, and EVIL cameras tend to fall in between the compact cameras.

A flash having to be fully charged and fired at full power isn’t great for your camera’s battery life, and it takes a relatively long time to cycle the power (i.e. from taking a photo, until your camera is ready to take another shot), which isn’t all that helpful when you’re standing around waiting for your camera so you can take another picture.

In general, it’s recommended to try to keep your flash at around 50-70% of its output – this tends to be a nice balance between flash charge time, and battery usage. This means that on a compact camera, you should only expect about 3 meters (10 ft) of useable flash range. That’s perfect for indoor snapshot portraits when it’s dark, and not for a lot else.

If you want a flash that charges faster and has significantly more power, start looking for an accessory flash.

When’s the flash not useful?

The built-in flash isn’t very powerful – so unless you are taking a photo of someone that’s close enough that you can throw a stuffed animal at them, turn off your flash.

Whatever you do, don’t be one of the hundreds and hundreds people at a famous landmark after sunset, taking photos with your compact camera with the built-in flash turned on: There’s no way your flash is going to reach that building 600 yards away, so you may as well save your battery…

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Do you enjoy a smattering of random photography links? Well, squire, I welcome thee to join me on Twitter - Follow @Photocritic

© Kamps Consulting Ltd. This article is licenced for use on Pixiq only. Please do not reproduce wholly or in part without a license. More info.

Making your pictures last forever

How best to store and preserve information isn’t exactly a new problem. Yes, right now the question is more prescient because there’s more information floating around our world than there ever has been, but history bears out that information storage and loss is something that we’ve battled with for millennia, for as long as we’ve had language, in fact.

The Minoans might’ve thought that they’d done a great job of recording their society using the Linear A script on clay tablets, except that the language died out and we can’t decipher it. We’ve still got the tablets, but not a clue what they say. You never know, the key to Linear A might have been in the Great Library at Alexandria, but the library’s contents, mostly written on papyrus and parchment and almost certainly including works that we don’t even know about, were lost in a massive conflagration. In one instance we have the data but not the language; in another we still have the language, but not the data.

In the age of digital media, those same two problems still present themselves. We might lose the data, or we might lose the ability to decode it. You never know, we might lose both.

There’s been oodles of column-space devoted to discussing the most secure methods for storing digital images, and how many backups you need and in how many forms; I’ve recently embarked on archiving a not-insubstantial project, and one of the first discussions that I had with the records office concerned the most appropriate format in which to save the information; the conundrum of what to do about artefacts that are on deteriorating original media and we’re struggling to preserve owing to copyright concerns needs to be solved pretty quickly. Chances of a simple, easy solution to these problems? I’d put the odds at slim-to-none.

So when I read the following statement in a press release, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit disingenuous: ‘…customers will now have the option to take their media from analog to digital to the [insert company name here] cloud, ensuring that photos and videos truly last forever.’ No, it wasn’t just PR hyperbole; at least not when it was followed by ‘… [insert company name here] can give you the peace of mind that your photos and videos are secure and always accessible.’

I remember seven inch floppy discs from when I was in primary school, about 25 years ago; since then we’ve raced through three-and-half inch floppies, CDs, USB sticks, and now we’re into cloud storage. Do we really think that this is where it ends? I’m not convinced.

Forever is a very long time.

And it was only today that a British on-line image storage company, Fotopic, went into liquidation. No one seems to know for sure how many images are now trapped in the aether, inaccessible to the people who stored them there, but estimates are between 30,000 and 70,000. One hopes that these customers had the good sense to make backups elsewhere.

So forgive me, perhaps, if I’m a bit sceptical about the security of on-line or cloud-based information storage firms and if I have a moment of nostalgia for analogue cameras, which give you the original and the backup as soon as you develop the film. Even so, they’ll end up as dust one day, just as the gorgeous frescoes excavated from the ash and mud at Pompeii and Herculaneum will, too.

What it comes down to is that I don’t think that you can make your pictures last forever; it’s not the way that the universe works. Empires come and go and languages fade away; the best that you can do is to give them as many opportunities to survive fire and theft and hard drive failure and loss of language and format shifts and magnetic electron realignment as you can. So have them printed, burn them to disc, save them on two separate hard drives, email them to yourself, and hope for the best.

You see, nothing lasts forever.

(All the images were taken at the remains of the Roman city of Volubilis in Morocco.)

Giving a good photo critique

Giving feed-back on something is really easy. Giving useful feedback on a subjective matter — such as photography — is, in fact, extremely difficult. That’s why I’ve created sort of a check-list with some tips as to how I like to do critiques.

Myself, I’ve spent a lot of my days critiqueing stuff. Back in the day, when I did a lot of writing, I went to Folkehøgskole. (kind of like an artistic boarding school where you faff about for a year while you decide what to do with your life. As far as I know, it’s a Scandiwegian concept — I’ve written more about the folkehøgskole over on Everything2.com). Part of the school's idea for improving its writers was to give each other feed-back on writings done in class.

Since then, I've given hundreds (if not thousands) of photography critiques (hence my old blog name, 'Photocritic'), and over the years I've slowly developed a template of sorts that means it takes as little time as possible to do a critique, whilst giving the photographer as much useful information they can use to become better photographers as possible.

Photo: Valencia by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

Why?

The first question you have to consider is this: “Why are you doing a photo critique?”. After all, by the time you’re doing the critique, the photo has been taken. It might be hours, days, even months or years since the photo was taken. Perhaps it was taken abroad, or in a situation where the photographer will never be again. In other words, it is important to remember that a photo critique isn’t about a single photo: it’s about how a photographer can develop as a snapper, both technically and artistically.

“I like this photo, the contrast is cool” means nothing to the photographer, it only means that you like this particular photo, and that you feel that contrast is a good thing. “I like this photo, because it shows you’ve thought about the lighting, and the increased contrast adds to the overall impression of the amount of time you’ve put into lighting this item”, for example, would encourage the photographer to continue putting more work into their lighting. They’re on the right track, and you're pushing them along. It's easy to understand which of the two is most useful!

Photos in context

So, when you’re writing a photo critique, try to break away from the single photograph, and try to take a wider approach to the way you look at photos by a particular photographer.

Also remember that there’s no right or wrong in photography. Gross technical errors (vast exposure problems, for example) can be universally wrong, but artistic considerations are not universal. Personally, I have a strong affinity for tightly cropped black and white photos. I have a friend who loves to do landscapes in colour, and I find it really difficult to give him useful critiques, because it’s not my style of photography…

Finally, if you’re the photographer getting critique, don’t get defensive. If fact, just shut the hell up. Getting people to talk to you about your photos is a rare opportunity, so don’t waste it. Let people talk (even if you think they’re full of shit), it’s their opinion, and your target audience should be important to you. Let them rant, and if you really have to, defend yourself afterward, once it’s all finished. Although — honestly — if you feel you have to defend yourself, you might want to take a step back and consider why :-)

Photo: Valencia II by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

Right, so how can you do a photo critique?

1) Look

First of all, take a close look at the photograph. Let your eyes scan it closely: Make sure that you’ve caught every possible detail of the photo. If something jumps out at you as being really good or really bad, note it, but don’t say anything

2) Interpretation

Now, talk about the photo for a little bit. This is the thing that is most frequently overlooked when doing critiques, but is actually one of the most useful things you can do to a photographer. For the interpretation, start off by saying “When I look at this photo, I feel…”. Explain what sort of emotional response the photo raises in you. Follow up with “I think this photo is about…”. Any symbolism you spot, tell the photographer. If you aren’t sure, let them know that.

3) Technical points

The next thing to take care of, is the technical points. Is the photograph technically okay? Did you spot dust, is the exposure okay, is there any unwanted blur (wrong focus, motion blur, zoom blur etc)? Are the colours accurately represented? What’s the contrast like? Could the photographer have used lighting differently? Would a bigger or smaller aperture have been beneficial?

4) Artistic points

What do you think about the crop and aspect ratio? If the photo is in black and white, should it have been in colour and vice-versa? Is there a good balance between the foreground and the background? Would the photo have worked better with a different prop / model?

5) Good points

This is where you point out what you like about the photograph, and why. The why bit is most important: If you can’t tell why you like X, Y, or Z, there’s no point in mentioning it. “I like the sky” is useless. “I like the colour of the sky” is better. “I like the deep blue colour of the sky because it contrasts nicely with the yellows and reds in the photo” is perfect. Put some thought into this.

6) Points worth improving

This point is saved for last, because you’ve made the photographer more confident about their photograph by now. It is still important to remember that the photo has been taken, and that this photo can’t really be changed anymore. As such, there’s no point in slating people for their photographs. Tell them one or two specific points that could be improved on this particular photo (‘clean up dust’ and ‘turn into black and white’ are useful suggestions, as they can done in the darkroom), and perhaps one or two points that you would have done differently, if you were the one taking the photograph.

Photo: Orange tree in Valencia by Photocritic.org on Flickr

7) Overall

How did this photo appear to you overall?

An example critique

Take Untitled, by Solofotones on Flickr, for example:

When I look at this photo, it makes me think of... street performers everywhere.

I think this photo is about... the people who go out of their way to inject some random into your life, and who, in the process, remind you why you're alive; it's not just to trudge through it all, it's to be surprised, amused, and bemused by the world. This photo illustrates all of this

Technically... I think this photo is weaker than some of your others. His hand is in perfect focus, but his face is just a big haze of blurriness. The shallow DOF is very important in this photo - otherwise the background would be a mess of impressions, fighting for your attention

What I like about this photo... is the archaic hat-tip the young gentleman is doing, and the feeling of him being an outcast in a world that is raging around him. He clearly doesn't give a damn, which makes him awesome.

If I were to improve or change anything, I would... tweak this photo quite a bit. His face is too hazy for my liking, which is obviously a very subjective thing, but in my opinion, street photography is all about people - their eyes and faces are the be-all and end-all of street photography, and if you haven't captured it properly, then - no matter how awesome the photo is otherwise - it doesn't cut it.

Of course, I don't have access to your original negatives or prints, so I had to make do with the Large file - I made a few changes: I ramped up the contrast a lot, I removed the lamp which is hovering in thin ear next to his head (and a couple of bright white dust spots, too, because I was out there with with the clone tool anyway), and re-cropped the photo to give it a different focus. I'm not 100% happy, but I think it illustrates that if you go back to the source material, there's a lot of potential for this shot

Does it have the X-factor? Overall... I think this photo has a lot of charm and intensity - The suggested changes are very subjective, obviously, and you might not agree with the ascertations. The shot itself is a gem, though, and I think a slight re-edit could do wonders to make it as good as it deserves to be. Give it a shot!

Your turn!

Right, now you've got a taste for one way you can do a photo critique (although obviously you can adapt it to suit your critique style and the photo you are critiqueing) along with an example... Why not pick a photo by your favourite Flickr friend, and give it a good thorough critique?

Finally, you may be interested in Attracting Better Feedback and Dealing with Negative critiques - you never know when those skills may come in handy!

PS: You may have seen an earlier version of this write-up before on my blog (I first posted it in February 2007). The version you have just read is vastly expanded (it's nearly twice as long), and I have changed my mind about some aspects of doing photo critiques in the meantime - so consider this version 2.0 of this blog post. Enjoy!

Re-visit your older photos

Every now and again, I may be doing something completely different, and a photo I took many days, months, or even years ago, springs to mind. Occasionally, I decide to dig through my archives and take a look at it - and some times, this leads me to re-edit a lot of the photos I've taken a long time ago.

This happened again recently. Many years ago, I did a photo shoot for a theatre outfit which is called Tmesis Theatre these days - a physical theatre troupe consisting of a couple of deeply impressive physical theatre performers.

Adobe Lightroom to the re-rescue

By the power of Lightroom, I decided to see if I couldn't do a re-edit of these photos, and turn them into a coherent set of photos. The great thing about Lightroom is that you can create a set of edits, and then copy them onto a whole batch of images - which is what I did here. I edited one of the images very carefully - I decided to use two-toning, with a particular amount of grain, and a very specific 'look' to the images.

I copied the settings from that one image to all the others in the set, before cropping the images one-by-one, and tweaking the settings for each image (mostly for contrast and/or exposure).

The resulting gallery looks nothing like the original set of images I took - and yet, as a set, it works incredibly well. I'm currently looking into seeing if I can't make them work as an exhibition.

So, what's the lesson that can be learned from this? You're never finished with your photos: Keep them around, and re-visit them from time to time on (as the case is at the moment) a rainy day. You never know what hidden treasures you haven't yet tapped into, from the deepest depths of your archive!

Keeping your photos safe whilst travelling

the Corsair Survivor is a near-bulletproof USB drive. Perfect for backups!

 As some of you will know, I'm currently travelling around the world for a few months, and I'm writing this from a rather lovely balcony outside our hotel in Hoi An, Viet Nam.

As a traveller, I'm worried about many things; I've had a ton of vaccinations, I'm on malaria medication, and you're living with a healthy suspicion of the food you're eating (no problems so far; knock on wood). There is one thing that is a bigger worry to me than any of this, however: Losing my data.

I've written about my backup routines when I'm back home in the past, but when you're on the road, you're living with all sorts of other challenges. My internet connection is slow and flakey at best (non-existent at worst), and Vietnam's government has taken to blocking various websites (including blocking Facebook). Given Egypt's most recent insanity (blocking all internet access for the whole country) and the ongoing shenanigans of China's government... Basically, it's not safe to assume that you'll be able to take backups in the cloud whilst travelling.

So, what else is a poor traveller to do? As a writer and photographer, I cannot risk losing all the photos I've taken, and the work on the books I'm currently writing on.

Offsite backups, on-site

My solution goes a little bit like this: Every day, I take a back-up of my stuff, using Apple OS X's built-in backup solution, Time Machine. I take this back-up onto a fantastic little drive, the Iomega eGo Helium. It's a tiny, palm-sized, USB-powered 1TB harddrive, that cost a paltry $130 from Amazon - certainly one of the better investments I've made.

Because of the way Time Machine works, I know I'll have a completely up-do-date copy of my entire system, my software, my writings, pictures, music, and all my financial information (even though I keep my finances and accounts in the cloud using Xero anyway, it's good to know that I have a separate backup, too) on that little big hard drive.

Whenever I leave the hotel, I take the hard drive with me: It lives in my day-pack, which I 'lock' (i.e. use the waist strap to fasten it) to the table, chair, or motorbike wherever I go. This means that my back-up drive is probably safe. It'd better be: I also keep (some of) my travel money and my passport in that backpack. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, I have all my data on my laptop, either hidden in the hotel room, or locked in a hotel safe, if there is one.

The idea is this: If I lose the backup drive, I can buy a new one, and go back to keeping backups. If I lose my computer (i.e. it gets stolen, or it breaks in one way or another), I have to find an Apple store and buy myself a new one. It'd be expensive, but that's what travel insurance is for: And all my data would still be safe on my laptop.

What about when you are with your laptop?

There are times, obviously, where me, the backup drive, and the laptop will necessarily have to be in the same place. When I'm flying, for example, I make sure that the hard drive is in my checked luggage, whilst my laptop is with me.

When I'm sleeping, the Iomega drive lives under my pillow - next to my passport and a spare credit card. The idea is that even if somehow a thief manages to steal every single other thing I own, I still have my data, a way of getting out of the country, and a credit card to help me solve any bad problems.

What about the really important files?

I have a small subset of files that are so important that if I lose them, I'm buggered. It includes the manuscripts to my unpublished books, copies of my passport and credit cards, all that sort of fun stuff.

Those files are about 2GB in size in total, and I back them up religiously: They are automatically backed up to DropBox, an online backup service, whenever I do have an internet connection. In addition, I back it up to a Corsair Survivor, a shock-proof, water-proof, and extremely rugged USB thumb drive. It lives in my pocket, and looks inconspicuous enough that I think I should be able to hang on to it even if I were robbed (knock on wood) in the street.

Finally, I e-mail manuscripts in progress to my Google Mail account whenever I have an internet connection.

Dude, are you paranoid or something?

Probably. But I think this is one of the situations where the phrase "Better safe than sorry" comes in ringing true.

I decided to be paranoid after doing the worst-case-scenario maths: If I were to lose my data and my laptop at the same time, the only way I can continue working and get the books done before deadline, is to get on a plane back to the UK, get my backups from storage, buy a new laptop, restore it all, and head back to Vietnam. It would cost me thousands and thousands of dollars - and probably cost me at least of week of time.

Put simply; if the worst were to happen, I probably wouldn't be able to afford to continue my nomadic lifestyle - which I'm rather enjoying at the moment, and would like to continue for a while!

This article was first published on Small Steps, my travel blog.

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© Kamps Consulting Ltd. This article is licenced for use on Pixiq only. Please do not reproduce wholly or in part without a license. More info.

Creating strong narratives in video

You don't need top-end camera equipment to create some compelling videos - In this video, I'm using a Nokia N8 mobile phone to explain the basics of narrative in videos!

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Protest photography

I kinda missed out on the whole student protest thing when I was at university. The skirmish around the loss of grants had already been lost, round one in the tuition fees bout went to the Government before my time, and the Iraq war was yet to come. What was left? Better rights for water voles on a four mile stretch of the River Avon? Probably.

But gee whizz! The whole of Europe has been making it up for it this year. Athens, Paris, Lisbon, London, and Rome have seen angry mobs rampaging through the streets demonstrating against police brutality, changes to the retirement age, austerity measures, the imposition of increased student tuition fees, and a probably corrupt and almost certainly inept Prime Minister. And it has all been captured with some superb photography.

Which got me thinking. If you are intent on photographing a demonstration, and something with the potential to turn nasty, how should you go about it?

Preparation

If you’re photographing a planned demonstration, make sure that you know the route. Suss out good vantage points for the beginning, the end, and points along the way. (Barriers or bollards to stand on are a good start.) You’ll want shortcuts between key places, as well.

Tamil separatist supporters demonstrating in London. The 'stop' barrier was pure chance.

Wear appropriate clothing: something inconspicuous that will allow you to move easily and run if you have to.

Dig out your press card if you have one. If you’re in the UK, print off a copy of the police guidance on photography, just in case.

Take as little kit as you can get away with. Your main camera with one lens – so ideally the most versatile that you have – spare memory cards and batteries, and a second camera if you can manage it.

On the day

Be nice to the police. Be co-operative. (I took a few minutes to chat with the officers who were policing a protest by Tamil separatist supporters in London. I found out lots of useful information. They knew who I was. We all won.)

I turned around; he was looking straight at me. Boom!

Even if it doesn’t look as if things will turn hairy, make sure that you have an exit strategy at every point.

Stay alert: both to get the photos that you want, and to stay safe.

Getting photos

Crowd scenes can convey the enormity of the protest, but what’s of greater interest are the individual stories. You want the quirky and unusual and you want to tell the narrative of the protest. So look out for the grandmother marching with her grandchildren, stay alert for flash-points, and keep a watch for the unexpected.

She joined the International Women's Day march, in her owner's handbag!

Don’t delete anything. You never know what might be in the background on closer inspection.

Be brave, but don’t be stupid.

Finally

Your safety is the most important thing. Put that first all the time, whether to stop yourself from tumbling from a lamp post and breaking your neck, or not being in front of a mounted police charge. Mmmkay?

Photos, nativity plays, and the Data Protection Act

This is just a quick reminder to anyone going to see their child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or house elf perform in the school nativity play or concert: the Data Protection Act does not prohibit you from taking photos or making a video of the performance for your own personal use.

Obviously you wouldn’t be able to sell your video of Class 3B singing ‘Oh Little Town of Bethlehem’ to the Israeli or the West Bank Tourist Boards, but if my school productions were anything to go by, you wouldn’t want to, anyway. Still, no one can stop you from snapping away for the family album, so says Christopher Graham. He’s the Information Commissioner, he knows about these things.

If you need to point anyone in the direction of the specific guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office, you can find it here.

Anyone for a quick rendition of ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’?

(Thanks to Amateur Photographer for the reminder.)

The 10 Second Pre-Shoot Camera Check

I’ve been there many times – half way through a photo shoot you suddenly stop and think. “Oh… no.. I did a photo shoot in the dark yesterday. Please don’t tell me my ISO is still set to 800″… And some times, it turns out that yes, I really am that stupid.

A pre-shoot camera check makes a lot of sense, but what should you check before you run off to do a shoot? Myself, I’ve gotten in the habit of taking a single photo. If the camera shows me the photo afterwards, it means that I’ve remembered to put a memory card in the camera, I’ve got my battery, and there’s a lens attached (No, I don’t forget attaching a lens very often. But, to my gravest of shame, it has happened once that I rocked up at a shoot without a lens. Luckily, I did have one in my camera bag. That could’ve gotten very very embarrassing.)

Anyway, there’s a small list of stuff worth checking before you get all snapper-happy, and my good mate Brian Auer is more than happy to run us through it..

Read the full 10-second camera check over on Epic Edits!

What went wrong?

A good friend of me recently posted on a social media site that a recent photo shoot he had done had gone horribly wrong; sure, some of the photos came out all right, but none of them fulfilled the ‘vision’ he was hoping for from his shoot.

It’s heartbreaking when a lot of effort doesn’t pay off – but all you can do is to chalk it up as a writing experience. Analyse what went wrong, and then don’t do that again. It’s a slow way of learning things, of course, but things learned the hard way are generally learned properly – so there is a bit of a silver lining after all.

What can you do when you feel as if you’re properly starting to get the hang of photography, but you still want to learn more? There’s a simple trick you can use… And it really works, trust me.  

Even photos that come out very well deserve a second thought. If I was in this situation again, what would I do differently? (click for full size)

Some of you might know that I’ve spent a lot of time working towards my advanced motorcycle licence with the Institute for Advanced Motoring. It’s bloody hard work, but it’s awesome as well: It serves to illustrate that even though I’ve got my full motorcycle licence, I didn’t really have much of an idea about how to keep myself in one piece on two wheels.

The IAM course (which, incidentally, is built on the Police system for Motorcycle Control. Check out Motorcycle Roadcraft or Roadcraft, the car version. It’s a bit of a revelation) teaches you to become psychic on the roads; I find myself slowing down for hazards that don’t even exist yet, I change lanes instinctively before something dangerous happens in my line, and I do overtakes on split-second decisions. And I can control my motorcycle better than I thought ever possible. It feels bloody awesome.

Haje, I didn’t come here to read about your two-wheeled prowess…

Because studio work is generally repeatable, it's a great candidate for constant improvement.

Okay, okay, my apologies. But trust me, there is a link here: All the things that are relevant to learning how to control a motorcycle at speed are relevant to photography as well; the ‘psychic’ element comes in when you’re working with studio work, for example – once you understand your equipment well enough, you can visualise what happens if you just add a smidge of power to your fill light, or add a slight warming filter to your main.

And, like riding a motorcycle, it feels flippin’ brilliant when you know something is going to happen. Then you do it. And then you check what happened. And it worked. It makes you feel great about yourself. Only recently, I was standing next to a photographer who was struggling to get the shot they wanted. Without even looking at their settings, I surmised they were shooting in Program mode, when what they wanted was a particular shutter speed to get a panning shot right. So I told them that a 1/45 second shutter time might be easier. They looked at me, changed their setting, and rammed home the shot. And bought me a pint, which I thought was a nice touch.

Once bitten, twice shy: If you can't learn from other people's mistakes, you've got to learn from your own. No, I agree, this caption doesn't really make sense, but I don't really have anything to say about this photo.

Anyway – I’m not the greatest of photographers, but the trick about getting much better at what you do, is to do everything consciously – even things that are instinctive. What I mean by that is that if you feel you need to change a setting or a lens, go ahead and do it. But the important bit is to go back to it later. Find out why you felt that way. ‘Because it was the right thing to do’ is not a valid reason – there was something that made you ‘feel’ that you could improve your photo in one way or another.

That feeling is extremely valuable. That’s your experience talking, and you have to talk back: It’s a skill, but more importantly, it is a skill you can develop with practice. So, if it’s practicable, stop right there and then, and have a think. Why are you making a choice to make a change? What is wrong with the photos you are getting, and what will the effect be of making the change? The answer to those questions will help you develop and become a better photographer. But you have to be conscious about it. Write it down, add it to your Flickr notes, tell other photographers about your choices. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but make sure you vocalise it. The next time you’re in the same situation, the perfect photo will roll out effortlessly.

Oh who are we fooling, I’ve never taken a perfect photo. And nor will you in your lifetime. But that’s the point: You become a better photographer by polishing one aspect of a photograph every time – and hopefully, the photos you take will be closer and closer to perfect for every day of shooting.

Didn’t you mention a simple tip?

God, I don’t half ramble on, don’t I? Do forgive me, I get very excited about photography. And motorcycling, for that matter.

It's worth re-visiting your photos after some time. This one, for example, sat in my archives for five years before I realised it was actually sort of a wicked shot - all it took was some Lightroom magic to make it sparkle.

Anyway: The real reason I started burbling along about motorcycling is that this is a tip I learned as part of my IAM training. Replace ‘ride’ or ‘drive’ with ‘photo shoot’ below, and you get the gist of the tip.

After every photo shoot, spend one minute to think about one thing you would improve about your most recent shoot. Don’t worry if you made lots of mistakes. Don’t worry if everything went wrong. Pick one thing you would improve. And think about how you could improve it.

The great thing about picking just one thing is that it’s bite-sized. You can process one thing, and you can come up with a plan with avoiding it next time. Missed the sunrise? Get up earlier. Didn’t get the photo of the soccer goal? Stand somewhere different. Scene too bright? Bring neutral density filter. Got your camera equipment stolen? Buy a big Rottweiler. Couldn’t get the toddler to smile? Bring that hyper-colourful hawaii shirt your wife hates so much. It’ll make the kids smile, trust me.

Eventually, you become good enough a photographer that most of your development will come from your own experience and the fact that you are challenging yourself. Always remember, though: There is always something you can improve. But only if you’re consciously working on it.

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Publishing your own photo book

A while ago, I was talking with my good friend Randy Kruzan, who told me he had self-published a book – or, as he likes to put it – how he made the transition from “being a fool with a camera to being a fool with a book”.

There’s a lot of things that go into creating your own book (I should know, I’ve helped friends and clients self-publish things in the past, and I’ve been published with my own stuff) – but the interesting thing is that a lot of the things that take time aren’t the things you’d think…

I managed to talk Randy into writing a guest article for me here on Photocritic, explaining how his book came about, and what you should do if you want your photos to end up as a coffee-table book yourself.

The beginning

I was in a rut. No, that’s too cliche. I was between myself… yeah, that’s pretty accurate. My creative needs were being stifled by day-to-day work as a software engineer. On top of that, I was doing more of the same freelancing and, I have to tell you, there’s only so much left brain activity I can take. My right brain was screaming “There must be something more!” and there was. Is? Whatever.

Dave Browne, a friend of mine, former co-worker and fellow photographer, recently came back from an 18 month trip around the world. Upon his return we started having coffee once a week when schedules permitted. It would be melodramatic to say this changed my life, but it definitely put things in perspective. Call it a shove in the right direction.

Discussing photography with him is always enlightening, more for me than he, I think. He told me he was working on a book that he was going to publish himself. I had been playing with the very same idea for months but never found the time nor motivation, until he brought his book the next time we met.

It was gorgeous! The photos were taken on his trip with a Diana (that’s a plastic camera you pay real camera prices for through Lomo). The paper and finish were top notch, the design and layout were complimentary and it truly equalled traditionally published books.

Cylinder Head by Randy Kruzan on Flickr

That was enough motivation, on the way home that night I decided to stop stalling. First I had to wrap up open freelance projects and stop taking more. Then I could get to work on my book. A couple of weeks later I was free(er).

After seeing Dave’s book, I realized mine could be better than I had been thinking about. Knowing I would never be good enough for myself (too critical), I asked him if he would help out with my book. He agreed and now I had an editor as well as someone to handle design and guide me through layout.

The middle

My theme was to be loss and abandonment, things left behind. I had several dozen photos fitting this theme taken over the last 4 years. Some black and white, some color and taken with two different cameras. Geographically they were split between Washington State and Illinois. Overall a nice smattering of styles, composition and colors.

I wanted a landscape oriented book with full bleed, so I cleared out any photos in portrait orientation. Next to go were any with focus or other technical problems. Eventually it filtered down to 32 photos. Now I could send them to Dave and get the editing and layout process underway. This is where it really pays to have someone you can collaborate with. Another eye, unbiased and critical, is invaluable.

We whittled those 32 photos down further. Some were just too bland, too flat. Others were great pictures but against the bulk of the remaining lot, didn’t fit anymore. Here I learned another lesson, to be flexible, to change direction if that’s where the photos are leading you.

In my case, the theme of abandonment and loss had transformed into something a little different. The majority of photos I started out with were structures that were either abandoned or left to fall apart, but this didn’t stand out right away until we started cutting shots. The stack I was left with wasn’t saying loss any longer, it was saying something about persistence in the face of ruin. Yeah, these things were left alone or abandoned or simply neglected, but looking at them I could see that they were also surviving.

Mill Series #6 by Randy Kruzan on Flickr

By the end of a few rounds of this, I was down to less than 14 pictures. With a revised theme in mind and to add more bulk (you’ll see why that’s funny later), I set out to shoot some new photos, and reshoot some I had liked originally but rejected for technical reasons. While I did this, Dave began working on my layout and design. Out of another 50 or so new pics, 12 made my first cut. 7 were finally selected and sent to Dave, who approved. My count was now up to 21 and he had picked one for the cover. It wasn’t the one I had picked but after the title was added, I capitulated. It looked right. Dave is always right, ask him.

The end

All that was left was for me to write up the copy for my title and copyright page and an introduction, then it was up to him to tie it all together. We were almost done.

Almost. (Since you’ve already been reading this in a little voice in your head, go ahead and insert snickering laughter here)

In the last few weeks before we finished, I waffled on the title. Nothing I was coming up with fit, and every change meant a revision to part of the intro. If that wasn’t bad enough, I had second thoughts about some of the images. I wanted to pull some, add others. I realized I was still fighting for the old theme and kept trying to find ways to work that in somehow. That realization (and Dave telling me to leave it alone) was enough to get me over the last little hurdle and just give in to it. The final book is about things at the end of their useful lives, their defiance in the face of decomposition and neglect. I chose “finis” which is the temporal end. I subtitled it “Exploring the end”, revised my into copy and we were done.

He delivered, unintentionally, the final assets on my birthday and two days later my book was in manufacture. I used the same company he did, Viovio, since I had already seen the quality first hand. Nine days later I had the first print in my hands, and I have to say, I love it. With 21 images and the copy pages, it only comes to 12 paper pages! I laughed out loud when I opened the box and saw that. It didn’t occur to me during production that I was only going to have a 12 page book. It doesn’t matter. Dave did a great job, I am really happy with the pics and I think it’s a neat little book. Literally.

That’s my story about how a fool with a camera became a fool with a book.

How to self-publish

Now let’s talk about self publishing. What it is, why you should do it and what you stand to gain.

The road to publication

We’re photographers. As photographers we speak to the world through images we share. It’s natural to want to share those with as wide an audience as we can, and often dream of having our work recognized. The road to recognition for most of us is long, and unfortunately, sparsely populated. Oh, and, that road ends in a cul-de-sac, which is really just a fancy dead end, albeit one with a turn around. For those of us on this road, our turn around is self publishing.

Mill Series #5 by Randy Kruzan on Flickr

First, a little clarification. When I say self publish, I am not talking about the photo books you can have made at Shutterfly and similar services. For those, you pick a template, add pics and captions, pick your binding, and you’re done. Those are fine for keepsakes, and I’ve made them for birthdays and such, but they’re not the same caliber as an honest-to-goodness book.

What we’re talking about here is a product that when you’re done you can be proud of and looks professional.

So… What is self publishing?

Put simply, self publishing is paying to have your work published.

Traditionally, a publisher pays you to write or put together a book of your work. You get some portion of sales from the book and they handle the rest. Maybe it works out and you get another book deal and repeat the process.

When you publish your own work, you get to have all the fun. You pick the content. You come up with the design and layout, and edit it yourself. Promotions? Marketing? All you, baby! It can be a lot of work, and often is. Maybe it even SHOULD be! The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of finally getting your first copy in hand after all of that work is worth it.

Will it make me famous?

Hmm. Stranger things have happened! Look at that guy Jared from the Subway commercials. At the very least, it can allow more people to enjoy your work and who knows what that can lead to.

Fine. Will it make me rich?

Probably not. I know that’s not what you want to hear, and I don’t want to crush any hopes you might have, it’s just not very likely. Like any other adventure, you’ll get out of it what you put in. You might make some money. For me, if I sell one copy more than I bought, I’ll be stoked. If I make enough money from self publishing books to buy a new prime or two, man, I’ll be on cloud nine.

Then why self publish?

Unless you already have a book deal, or are pursuing one and are extraordinarily lucky, incredibly persistent or some combination of those things, self publishing is the perfect way to share your work with the public NOW. Indeed, it may be the only way you’d ever get a book published, but that’s fine! You don’t need to be famous and your work doesn’t have to be well known to publish yourself. You might be a virtual nobody (case in point, myself), but a nobody with a book (dude, me again). If nothing else, it’s an exercise to see if you can do it.

Just remember… Always look on the bright side of life

I had this conversation with my friend and editor, Dave Browne, where I told him I didn’t have any illusions about doing this book. I don’t expect to become famous or land on some best seller’s list, but it would be nice to sell a few. He put it this way: “Buy two books. Keep one for yourself. If you sell two in a year, your demand will have outstripped supply!” Sure, it’s only two books, a minor detail, but your sales will have doubled in your first year.

Benefits of self-publishing

Do a little searching on the Internet for folks who self publish and you’ll find artists, authors, comic book artists and a whole host of others who have either had publishing contracts in the past or were pursuing them and were unhappy about how little control they had as new authors.

SP is a different world: yours.

You have complete creative control. What’s on the cover, how the book is laid out, what images and text go where, it’s all under your control.

You market or promote as much or as little as you want. Self publishing is perfect for photographers who run their own websites or blogs or have an online presence where they can advertise and promote their books.

You don’t have to hold inventory. Because self publishing is typically print on-demand, nobody actually holds your book in inventory.

You only pay manufacture on the copies you want to buy. If you want one copy of your book or twenty, you only pay manufacture on those copies. When someone else buys your book, they pay manufacture as part of the total cost.

You don’t have to handle sales and fulfillment. Unless you’re buying copies to hold onto and sell yourself, the printing company you’re using will handle taking money and shipping the books out to people who buy it.

You can make money on sales. Blurb is one company that allows you to set your own prices on your books at no extra charge. For companies that allow you to do this, there is a base rate (the price of manufacture) and you set your sale price, the difference between the two is yours.

You hold all the rights. The rights to your work are yours alone. Unless the company you’re dealing with has some clause to the contrary, you are the sole rights holder. If you find that’s not the case when shopping around, find someone else.

How to self publish

Or: ‘How I made self publishing made for you, without any guarantees that the same will work for you, but you could do a lot worse than starting here anyway’

Do you really want to do this? It might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s the first question you should ask yourself. There will be at least some monetary expense and of course the cost of your time. If you get a friend to help like I did, you should consider their time as well. Are they up for it? Start here. If you can’t commit, don’t start. Wait until you’re ready.

What’s it about? Do you want to tell a story with your photos like a photo essay? Or is it many stories? Is it just a portfolio? Is there a common theme it should have? Is it mixed photo and text, for example, like a guide book? You can always change this as the project progresses, but you should start out with a solid idea and build on it.

Know your choices, know the requirements – Shop around the service you’re going to use (or for that matter, shop around FOR services if you haven’t yet, see below). Do they have a product that matches your ideal book size and layout? What, if any, are the minimum page count requirements? Do you have images big enough for that size book? (I’ve included a link to a pixel to print size calculator at the end)

If you’re not using a service-provided tool (Blurb has an excellent book builder) then chances are high your final work will need to be a PDF, and any fonts you use will need to be embedded in the PDF. Check their publishing guidelines and know what you need to conform to in your final layout.

Will it bleed? – This is another point to consider before you actually start gathering up your prospects. If you’re going to do a full bleed book, where the image runs to the edges of the page without a border, then it’s probably best to choose photos that are all of the same orientation. No-bleed pages, or even multiple images per page, is less restrictive.

Gather, review, cull, repeat – Find all of the photos you think might work for your book. Digital is the way to go here, if your pics aren’t digitized already they’re going to have to be for printing, so really just do this now. If you have a favorite photo app with a workflow you’re used to, great- go with it. If not, the simplest thing to do is just copy (not move) all of the prospective images to a folder called “My Awesome Book”. For each round of review, make a new folder and only copy those images that make the cut into it. It’s draconian but when you have to dig up something from an earlier revision, you’ll know where it is.

Review your choices. Do they match what your book is about? Are there technical flaws you don’t like (and don’t want to or can’t fix)? Do some just not feel right? You’re never destroying pictures by excluding them, you should be as critical as you want here.

When you’re done reviewing and have made your choices for the next round, open them all up so you can view them in a batch. How does it look? Are you short of meeting the minimum page count? Add if you need to.

Repeat this process until you feel you’re at that point where they’re all good, then sleep on it and review again once more. If it’s still OK, then you have your final set.

Copy editing – Write all of your copy in a simple text editor. You’re not going to format your text until you’re in the layout stage, so simple text works well. It makes it easier to work with.

Regardless of how much text your book has, it’s a good idea to have it copy edited. Even if it’s simply asking your most grammatically advanced friend to review it, get a second set of eyes on it. Proof read. Spell check. Grammar check. Send me a check. Ahh, gotcha ;)

Cover yourself – You can’t judge a book by it’s cover… yeah, yeah, yeah, we do it anyway. Choose a legible font, no matter how cool the squiggly one you found looks. If your book is about puppies, don’t put a truck on it. Unless the puppies are stealing it. That would be awesome.

I prefer simple, but it’s your book. Choose a picture that represents the book.

Final touches – If the publishing service you went with doesn’t automatically build the copyright and title pages, spend a little time to see how those are laid out. I like to mirror the copy (font, placements and sizes) from the cover on the title page. Then the copy page, then the intro. Spend some time getting it right, good fit and finish is one of the things that sets a good self published book apart from the rest.

Layout and conversion – All of the SP services have different guides, sizes and requirements. This is why you should figure out ahead of time what the print guidelines are. Decent services will provide you templates to assist in the layout. In Design or similar publishing and layout software experience pays off here, my friends.

If you need to treat your copy in fancy ways, do it in this stage. Fonts, colors, leading, etc.

Most of the services I looked at all accept PDFs of at least the inner contents and a separate PDF for the cover. Fonts usually have to be embedded in the PDF. Viovio lets you do one PDF for the front cover and another for the back. If you’re not using tools (or using a SP service that doesn’t have tools) then PDF is the only way to go. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, follow their guidelines and requirements.

A simpler alternative – Layout can suck. It can be confusing and a pain. If it’s not your cup of tea, find a SP service that has a book builder tool. As of this writing, both Viovio and Blurb have such a tool available. These tools give you varying degrees of control over colors, styles, fonts, picture layouts and so on and so forth. If you’re going it alone and don’t have In Design skills, this may be your best bet. Don’t fear it. Embrace it.

And finally a word on rights – To nutshell it: If it’s not yours, don’t print it.

You must own or hold the rights to everything you publish in your book, or get written or other specified permission from the rights holder in order to use their materials. There are all kinds of details and legalities surrounding this, but that’s the high level and if you’re in doubt, don’t use it.

Not all publishers are equal

When you’re shopping for a publisher keep these things in mind: size, cost, quality and the ability sell your book.

Product types – Do they have a book that matches your desired size and layout (portrait, landscape or square)? It’s also a good idea to look at the minimum page requirements. For some products you simply might not meet the final page count.

Costs and fees – How much are they charging you for your book size? Is it comparable to other publishers? What about retailing fees- are there any? Viovio, for example, will only let you set your own price and collect money on sales of your book if you pay for a $35/year membership. Other companies might not charge a fee, but may be limiting in some other factor like available sizes.

Print and paper quality – Before you settle on a publisher, be sure to read reviews from people who have used them. Solicit opinions from friends and colleagues. It’s also a good idea, if you can afford it, to print a sample book from a company you’re considering. It doesn’t have to be fancy, the idea is just to get it in your hands where you can judge the print and paper quality yourself.

Retailing – If your goal is to market your book and make money from sales, you should also look for the ability to retail your book through the publisher unless you’re planning on buying inventory to hold and sell yourself.

Popular doesn’t always mean great – Read reviews from other SP authors on the services you’re considering using. How do people feel about the final result? Was their system easy to use and navigate? Were there gotchas along the way?

To ISBN or not to ISBN, that is the question…

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It’s a 10 or 13 digit code that uniquely identifies your book from every other book in the world. This is supposed to make cataloging easier or faster or some such thing.

Amazon’s CreateSpace is one of the SP services that will assign your book an ISBN if you don’t have one already, because your book will be sold through amazon.com.

Dead Lift by Randy Kruzan on Flickr (and also the cover of his book; ‘Finis’)

If you’re not planning on selling your SP book through a wholesaler, bookstore or other retailer, you probably don’t need an ISBN at this time. If you are contacted by a publisher who wants to publish and distribute your book, they will handle ISBN assignment at that point because part of the ISBN is the publisher code.

Get help, man – If you’re serious about self publishing your work and don’t have the skills (or the discipline) to manage the creation of your book, and don’t know someone who does, you’re in luck. Sort of. You just have to pay for it.

Some companies, like Blurb and BookSurge, offer professional help with editing, layout, design and/or final preflight. You can even buy a professional review for your book.

Making it better through collaboration – I honestly believe that my own book would not be half what it turned out to be if it weren’t for my friend who handled editing duties. Obviously if I felt he wasn’t up to the task I wouldn’t have asked him, so keep that in mind if you approach your friends or colleagues.

Once you’ve acquired help, figure out who is doing what. Better yet, you should have an idea of what you need help with before you go asking. If they’re only agreeing to do cover design, for example, you might not want to push book layout on them as well. If they’ve agreed to copy edit, let them. Don’t assign work and take it away.

Keep it fun, and be open to criticism and feedback. It is your book, but if you’re asking advice, at least hear it with an open mind.

Getting them to commit to your project is just as important as you making sure you respect their time and effort. You both have to be on the same page. (Booooooo, bad pun, I know)

Closing – The subject of self publishing could really be turned into a book itself, and I hope that I’ve been helpful here in this space sharing my own SP story and giving some information and advice.

Thanks very much to Haje for the invitation to guest write on Photocritic.org, it was a much needed break from the 140 character world of twitter.

About the author

Randy Kruzan is a photographer and author well disguised as a software engineer. He lives near Seabeck, Washington with his awesome family. Tweet him up @randykruzan on twitter or on the Internet at randykruzan.com

Randy Kruzan’s book can be purchased from Viovio

More resources

Publishing and print on-demand services

Blurb – blurb.com

Viovio – viovio.com

Other resources

Amazon’s self publish and print on demand – createspace.com

Amazon’s assisted publishing – booksurge.com

Pixel to print size calculator at ScanTips.com – scantips.com/calc.html

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A shot at street photography

Recently, I realised that while I do an awful lot of writing about photography, I’m not actually spending all that much time actually taking pictures myself anymore.

A sad state of affairs – especially as I recently bought a gorgeous Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. (I could rant about prime lenses for hours, but I’ve done so in a previous post, which (if I may nest my parantheses and be so bold as to recommend one of my own articles) is well worth a read), and I have a fabulous city right on my doorstep.

Anyway, so I have never really done that much street photography before, but I figured it’d be a crying shame not to have a go at it…

For someone who hasn’t done much (read: any) street photography before, I think I did pretty well – these are some of my favourites:

Mean Fiddler

This photo, Mean Fiddler by Photocritic.org on Flickr, was a lucky one indeed. Shot from the hip just as he was finishing playing a song, the colours came out magnificently, and I got quite lucky with the focussing as well – Seeing as how I was shooting from the hip at f/1.4, it wasn’t as if I had a lot of leeway with my depth of field.

Technical Details: Canon EOS 450D with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. 1/320 second at f/1.4 and ISO 100, metered in Aperture-priority AE with a -2/3 stop EV bias. More tech info here.

"Is he taking a picture of me?"

This photo, "Is he taking a picture of me?" by Photocritic.org on Flickr, was taken in the midst of a St Patrick’s day parade on Trafalgar square. She was hanging out with some of her friends in front of a fountain, and the light kept catching her, so I figured I’d try and capture that. The back-lighting was quite tricky (and, considering that all of these photos were taken on a single attempt, with one shot at getting it right, I think I got lucky), and I’m happy that I was shooting this in RAW, because I needed to do a few adjustments to make the photo come out well.

Technical Details: Canon EOS 450D with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. 1/1250 second at f/1.4 and ISO 100, metered in Aperture-priority AE with a -2/3 stop EV bias. More tech info here.

Dreaming over Coffee

This particular shot, Dreaming over Coffee by Photocritic.org on Flickr, came about right at the beginning of the walkabout in London – I was in line for the queue at Nero coffee, and spotted this girl, who was sitting there, enjoying her coffee, and being rather blase about checking out the cute guys walking by – what is more summerly than that? When the moment came, I simply lifted the camera to my face, snapped the shot, and paid for my coffee. Simples.

Technical Details: Canon EOS 450D with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. 1/200 second at f/1.4 and ISO 100, metered in Aperture-priority AE without EV bias. More tech info here.

Me too, brother. Me too.

This one, Me to, brother. Me too. by Photocritic.org on Flickr, was taken immediately after the girl above. We were sitting on the statue in the middle of Seven Sisters, and were watching the world go by. This fellow just showed up, stopped right next to me, and stared at the sky for a bit – His T-shirt made me laugh, so I couldn’t not take the shot.

Technical Details: Canon EOS 450D with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. 1/200 second at f/2.8 and ISO 100, metered in Program-mode AE with a -2/3 stop EV bias. More tech info here.

MOAR!

If you want to se more, you can see the whole set on Flickr.

Also, if you haven’t seen many updates from me recently, it’s because I’m out of the country for a while, doing a load of photography and eating a lot of lovely food while visiting my parents in Mumbai, to be precise. When I come back, I’m finally moving back to London again – if I can find myself a place to stay, that is.

What's your photographic kryptonite?

My post about being down and out over dance photography the other day garnered quite a lot of comments and more e-mails that I’ve had over a blog post in quite a while… So now I’m properly curious…  

Of course, there are lots of difficult things about different genres of photography. Portraits can be devilishly difficult, because it can be fiendish to get a good rapport with a model. Sports photography can be tricky because things are moving so fast – and indoor sports are even worse. Music photography can be a right bitch; landscapes are tricky because it’s all been done before; photographing fireworks is just plain hard; nude photography can be daunting because it’s a bit taboo, Food photography is hard because the photography subject spoils nearly immediately… and don’t even get me started on Macro…

In fact, I can’t really think of a single genre of photography which doesn’t bring its very own set of challenges to the table… What I’d love to know, however, is which particular genre is which gets you every time… Cast your vote below, and sound off in the comments if you’ve got a particular arch-enemy!

What do you think is the trickiest photography subject?

• People and portraits
• Indoor sports
• Outdoor sports
• Wildlife and pet photography
• Nude / erotic photography
• Macro and close-up
• Nature and landscapes
• Panoramic photos
• HDR, IR etc
• Candid photography
• Fireworks photography
• Studio photography
• Photo-journalism
• Underwater photography
• What do you mean? It's ALL easy!
• What do you mean? It's ALL hard!

View Results

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Dealing with negative critique

It is relatively self-explanatory that doing a photo critique is quite difficult. What few people stop to think about, however, is that receiving a photo critique can be as difficult – if not more difficult: When you move beyond mere snapshots and start putting more of yourself into your photographs, you are a lot more intimately involved with the work you are putting out there.

Putting your photos up for criticism – whether it is at your local photography club, via a site such as DeviantArt, or even when asking a good friend to give some feed-back – is like putting your own head in the guillotine and taking a chance.

Nonetheless, it’s one of the best ways to improve as a photographer, and one of the best lessons you’ll learn is to discover how to deal with negative photo critiques…  

Hayley in the 1950s by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

1) It may come across as crass, rude, or wrong, but there may be a kernel of truth in it.

If someone tells you “LOL learn how 2 autofocus, you dweeb”, you need to do 2 things: Live in the happy knowledge that whilst your camera might have had an off day, at least you know how to string a grammatically correct sentence together.

And perhaps that picture is a little bit blurry, now that you look at it closely…

Take a step back, and take commentary on face value. If you honestly can’t say you agree with a piece of criticism, that’s perfectly fine, as long as you are objective enough to be able to try and see it from their viewpoint.

2) They might disagree, but they are your audience.

Ultimately, you are the photographer, and what you decide is how the final result gets done. Nobody can tell you what to do, and if you like your photo, then you’ve won one of the huge battles.

At the same time, it’s quite possible that the people ripping your photos to shreds are the people you were trying to target: whether you’re thinking about selling them as microstock, as art works, or just to give your mum a present is irrelevant.

Your photos are out there for interpretation, and if you care about the message you are sending, you’ll have to go the extra mile to make sure that they aren’t getting misinterpreted.

3) As soon as you let ‘em go, you no longer own ‘em.

It’s the curse of all writers and poets: They spend months – years, even – crafting their masterpiece, and then nobody ‘gets’ it. They all ‘get it’ wrong. Tell you what though, that’s where part of the beauty comes from: If you are taking a photo which you meant to symbolise the innocence of youth, and your first 10 commenters feel it’s a strong commentary on, say, child abuse, then they are per definition right.

It is not your job to interpret your own photographs, it is your job to take them. This is a good thing: if people can make up their own story to go with the photograph – their own connotations and bias, as it were – they are much more likely to connect emotionally with the photograph. If this is achieved; if someone is caused to feel something because of your photo; your mission is complete.

4) They talk. You shut up.

Remember that, just like you are not there to interpret your work, you’re not there to defend it either.

In a way, the best thing you can do is to never respond to any criticism. Let’s be honest – you will never be able to re-create the EXACT same image ever again anyway. Take the criticisms on board as points of reference for future photographs.

Learn from your mistakes, learn about what makes your audience buzz, and learn from your own opinions of your work.

5) Remember that the best works might be universally hated: Be thick-skinned.

Technical aspects of your photographs might be objective: A photo can be accidentally over-exposed, blurry, or have some rubbish in the background which makes your photograph less-than-perfect. Once you start killing the technical foibles of your photographic work one by one (don’t go too perfectionist on it though, it’s not useful to end up deleting all of your photos because of every little detail), the actual creative work starts shining through, and this is where the worst potential for getting hurt comes from.

You can kick yourself for small technical mistakes in your photographs (and you’ll continue making them for the rest of your photographic career), but if people start critiquing your artistic choices, it’s a different thing altogether.

The important thing here is to believe in your own work 100%: If you feel you’ve done it right, and if the image is an accurate representation of what you were trying to do, then all you can do is to shrug off their comments and move on.

Just think about it: Pink Floyd, The Decemberists, Pendulum, Metallica, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Zero 7 – they’ve all been called ‘the best band ever’ by reviewers at one point or another, and yet it is never difficult to find someone who doesn’t care about – or even actively dislikes – them.

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Making Google love your photo site

You’re working as a photographer, you take fantastic photos, and you’ve even got a pretty sweet website to show off your work… So why is your web server just sitting around in the corner, smoking a fag and nipping at a cup of coffee? Why aren’t the buyers running the door off its hinges, and, come to think of it, where are your damn groupies, already?

The internet is a cold and heartless place, and the biggest source of traffic to any website should be coming from search engines (Photocritic, for example, gets about 70% of its traffic from search engines. Mind you, it’s mostly people looking for pictures of nude women. Go figure.)

Luckily, there are quite a few things you can do as a photographer to make your site really zing in the search engines – and for the sake of making a nice round figure (and, of course, so the Digg and Reddit crowds will love it like a kitten loves tuna fish) – here’s a lovely top-10 list to get you started! 

For the sake of photography, you can basically optimise your site for two types of search: Text search (what most people think of when they think ‘search’) and image search (take a guess…).

It’s worth noting that this list is in no particular order – but the more of them you implement, the better you are likely to do.

First of all, check out the phenomenal SEOMoz, and check out their ‘Google Search Engine Ranking Factors‘ document. It outlines a lot of the stuff you need to know about making your site accessible to Google etc, the most important of which is ‘Don’t use Flash / Flex to build your site’, and ‘Make sure you haven’t inadvertently blocked search engine spiders from entering the site by using a drop-down menu for your navigation system’

1 – Update often

First off, you could do a lot worse than making sure to update your site frequently, no matter what kind of content you have. Many SEO experts have observed that Google tends to give higher ranking to sites that are updated more frequently.

That might mean that, instead of posting 100 new photos once a month, you post 10 or 12 every 3 days. Another way to have new content often is to have a blog. Sprinkle your photos throughout the blog content and the search engines will eat them up like the proverbial fat lady at a cake sale.

2 – Context and categorisation is king

Context is important. The search engines want to know what your site is about. You might want to use the word “photo” in all of your filenames, to keep the context of a photography website consistent.

The next step is to stop and think for a secon – what types of photos do you take? Try to organize them into categories and maybe even sub-categories, so that you have some context for each page. See Rolf Hicker’s Photography website for a good example of photo categories. Of course he also…

3 – Place text near your photos

Once you’ve placed your photos on their pages, the nearby text becomes important. Google gets clues about the content of images from the text near them. Consider using captions or quotes that have the same keywords as apply to your photos, and place them next to the photos for maximum value in the search engine ranking.

Linnea Lenkus Fine Art Portrait Studios website, for example, is an excellent example of good use of quotes next to the photo. Contrast this with the Chesler Photo site doesn’t come up on the first several pages in a “maternity” image search, despite having a whole gallery of such photos, probably due to not having enough textual content on the site.

The Digital Photography School website is another fab example of the use of text on a photography page.

4 – ALT tags are your friend. Use them

When you add an image to your website, you’re using an <img src="[URL]"> tag. You can – and should – add attributes to this tag, including an alt attribute.

Put an explanation of what the image depicts in your ALT tags. Not only do you make it easier for blind people to navigate your site (although why blind people would want to visit a photography site remains a mystery to me…), but it is one of the few sure-fire things that a search-engine has to go on when deciding what your photographs are about.

In addition to using keywords in your ALT tags, make sure that the actual file-name contains the same keywords.

Remember that your alt attribute can have spaces; use dashes to separate individual words if you want your filename to contain multiple words.

Don’t stuff the “alt” tag with lots and lots of keywords, however, or it will appear to be spamming; just describe the image honestly in the same way you would describe it to someone over the telephone.

Example: <img src="http://pixiq.com/images/kitten-eating-tuna.jpg" alt="Photograph of a black and white kitten eating tuna. Nom!">

The Mackins Design Studio website is an example of good use of descriptive alt tags as well as filenames. As a counter-note: PremierPhotographer Pat McNulty’s site doesn’t come up on the first several pages of an image search for “castles” despite having a castle category – there could be many reasons for this, but not using ALT attributes will be at least part of the reason.

5 – Add a blog to your site

You probably never knew that Photocritic started off as a blog-belonging-to-a-photo-site, but it’s the truth. I guess it says quite a lot about me as a photographer that the photography blog became at least a bazillion times more popular than my photography site(s), but I guess it was a godsent: I was always a better writer than a photographer anyway.

Maybe it’s because blogs are generally updated regularly, but images used in blogs are often numbered in the top of image search results, even for blogs which have as their regular topic something that has nothing to do with the keyword. See Mr&Mrsijunky’s blog for a good use of blog with photos. In addition, it’s a lot easier to SEO the hell out of a blog than to make an image-led site really fly. Sad, isn’t it?

6 – Start using the TITLE attributes

Use the image “title” tag. Similar to the “alt” tag, it isn’t compatible with all browsers, yet, but will be accessible to Firefox users, and the spiders from Google and other search engines will see it. You can put text similar to what you put in the alt tag in this tag.

Usability expert Roger Johansson explains:

[The ALT attribute] is not meant to be used as a tool tip, or more specifically, to provide additional information about an image. The title attribute, on the other hand, is meant to provide additional information about an element. That information is displayed as a tooltip by most graphical browsers, though manufacturers are free to render title text in other ways.

If you fancy geeking out about alt vs title tags, Johansson’s blog is the place to go…

7 – Keyword the hell out of your page title

Use keywords in the page title. The page title is a header tag that causes text to appear in the top bar of the window when the page is open in your browser.

Each page of your website should have a different title, a title that contains the keywords applicable to that page, but in title form, not as a list. Check out the browser window title of this very blog entry for a good example…

Also check out how the home page of Photocritic uses different keywords in the title tag, when compared to all the other pages on the site. This differentiation is designed to guide users (and, I admit, search engines) to the right place.

8 – Use keywords in the page URL

That really means the HTML filename for that page. Don’t name your pages page1.html and page2.html. A much better name would be castle-photo-gallery.html or dover-castle-panorama-photos.html

9 – Keep an eye on your directory structure

Use image folders and sub folders. Put all of your images into a folder called “images” when you upload them to your web host. Then, use sub-folders for common categories. The image named Sorbie_Castle.jpg should be in /images/castles/, for example. Not only does it make it easier for yourself, you’ll be able to

10 – Be smart when linking

Anchor text is the text that appears on a page when there is a link; it’s the text that is underlined and/or in a special color to denote a link. These anchor text links should be descriptive, and – if possible – contain keywords relevant to the page you are linking to.

If you put a link to your castles page somewhere else in your site, don’t say “click here” to see my castle photos. The text comprising the link should have the keyword in it, so it should say see my “castle photos” and the words “castle photos” would be the link to that page.

Do this on your own site and encourage others who link to you to do the same. You can even provide actual text they can use to link to you which contains your keyword. A good way to do this is to have a small note at the bottom of every page inviting people to link back to you, and including a link to a page containing the appropriate code with your keyword in the anchor text.

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Models: Preparing for a photo shoot

The modelling industry is very competitive. Every photo-shoot is a chance for a model to show herself at her best, and any model is only as good as their last shoot – so there’s a strong incentive to make each photo-shoot count towards

This article highlights some recommendations that a model may want to review in order to prepare him or herself for a photo-shoot. While digital photo processing software such as Photoshop can work miracles, neither a model nor a photographer will take as much pride in highly photoshopped pictures. If you take the time to prepare well in advance of your photo-shoot, you will feel more confident and as a result, look better. 

Part 1: Show your body and skin at its best!

1. If you work out, you may want to vary your routine to show off the muscles you’re most proud of. Or, a week before the shoot, you may want to increase the intensity of your workout. For example, if you usually do aerobics or body shaping, switch to working with gym equipment for a couple days. You will notice how well your muscles will respond. In no way does this mean you need to have a stereotypical fashion model’s body. Exercise can be great for any body and can boost confidence – and confidence is really what makes you attractive.

2. Moisturize: Hopefully you moisturize your skin regularly. If not, certainly apply moisturizer on the days before and morning of the shoot. To make your skin look smooth, supple and glowing, consider using with a hydrating cream containing exfoliators such as hyularonic or glycolic acid.

3. Remove: If you shave, do so 2 days before the shoot, in order to give your skin a chance to recover. If you do it yourself, follow the main rules of depilation to avoid irritation and ingrown hair:

- cleanse your skin and exfoliate before depilation
- do not stretch your skin when depilating
- do not apply too much pressure when shaving or using hair depilation cream
- do not run the shaver over one and the same spot several times or you can create irritated spots. If you have to, reapply shaving cream.

4. Color: Instead of using a solarium and prematurely aging your skin due to UV damage, consider using self-tanning creams and bronzing products. Choose a light type that gives you a chance to regulate intensity with each application and to avoid disasters like uneven color, lines and spots. Experiment with these products well in advance of your shoot, so you know that the color will look right for you. Try to avoid tan lines.

5. Watch it: Avoid too much salt and iodine in your diet. Salt can lead to water retention in the skin and the skin surface does not look smooth and tight but tired and bumpy. Iodine, for example in sushi and marine dishes, can trigger break-outs. Include more fiber into your diet it will help your body to get rid of toxins, and drink plenty of water.

6. Spots: If you do get a pimple the day of the shoot, do not touch it, as you will make it redder and harder to cover. Most photographers have no problem with one or two pimples as these can be easily covered with makeup or digitally removed by photoshop. If you have serious acne problems, be sure that your photographer knows this in advance.

Caution: Do not experiment with new skin treatments the night before the shoot. Any new treatment can cause skin irritations or allergic reactions. Test out the treatments well in advance of the shoot in order to know how your skin will react and how long your skin needs to recover.

Part 2:

Okay, your skin and body look great! What else you can do to prepare for a photoshoot?

1. Hair: If you dye your hair, make sure that you have had your roots recently treated. Studio lighting can exaggerate dark roots.

2. Nails: Make sure your finger and toe nails look clean and manicured. Use a clear nail polish which will go with any color clothing. If you must color your nails use a neutral white or cream. Red nails will look strange if your outfit is blue.

3. Makeup: If there will be a makeup artist at the shoot, arrive with no makeup on. Otherwise, you will loose time and potentially irritate your skin (and your photographer) when the makeup comes off. If you will be doing your own makeup, remember that photography lighting and the heat from the lights tend to make the skin look shinier than usual. Do not use any shiny or bright make-up that might cause reflection or glare during the photoshoot. Apply a base to smooth your skin and make it look consistent. Use mascara to bring out your eyes. Bring several colors of lipstick that you can apply depending on the color of clothing.

4. Wear antiperspirant. Avoid using any deodorant which may stain clothing.

5. Tattoos: If you have tattoos, experiment to see what make up will cover them naturally. If you are interested in being a traditional fashion model, don’t get tattooed, as many photographers don’t like them. On the other hand, tattoos can make a portrait more interesting – just make sure the photographer knows about them ahead of time.

6. Posing: Practice your poses before the shoot. This is especially advisable if you are a beginning model. Flip through some magazines and find the poses you like. Practice your facial expressions and poses in front of a mirror so you can see how you look at your best. Often exaggerated or unusual poses look most interesting. Wild and disheveled hair may be better for you than the well-groomed look. Do not be afraid to experiment and try new things. It will be much better than standing like a stick in front of the camera.

7. What to wear to the shoot: If your shoot is glamour, swimwear or lingerie, wear loose fitting gym clothes which have no elastic bands. Do not wear underwear. Underwear leaves lines on the skin, which can require 30-60 minutes to disappear.

8. Get plenty of rest: Have a good night’s sleep the night before the shoot. Avoid partying the night before a photoshoot. Alcohol and cigarette smoke, even smoke in the air, can make your eyes red and puffy. Also, if you are a smoker bring down the number of cigarettes your smoke or stop completely before the shoot. Smoking deprives skin of oxygen and nutrients and makes it look gray.

Invest the time to make yourself look the best you can be so you can feel confident during the shoot. If you feel great about yourself, you will exude confidence. Confidence shows and will help to make your photos the best they can be.

This article was written by Eden Fenrick for Photocritic. If you fancy writing a guest article, get in touch!

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