Landscape photographs are among the most beautiful photos you can produce. But it isn’t easy! To get decent results, you have to know, understand — and follow — tons of rules. Individually, none of them are a very big deal, but they combine to create powerful landscape photos. Today’s two photo tips are each another of those […]
I was recently asked a great question about how to diffuse an on-camera flash. This is an important concept to understand—not just how, but why! Today’s photo tip will explain diffusion and how to create and use it. Here is the question I was asked: “When using flash inside a room with a low ceiling […]
Today’s photo tip is to help you in shooting better pet photos. Pet portraits can be the most fun you’ve ever had with your camera, you’ll meet a bunch of really nice people and it’s one of the easiest ways I know to go “pro” if that is a goal of yours. This tip concerns […]
Today I have a photo tip that actually breaks the rules. I’m going to talk about including hats in portrait photography. Hats can say a lot about a person’s personality and are a good prop to use – if they actually DO fit the subject’s personality. But, be careful of the lighting. You don’t want […]
Use the “halo light” pattern in your photo lighting. Here is a photo tip I’ve recently read that I disagree with: “When photographing people, always make sure to avoid direct sunlight in the background of the photo. This will make odd shadows and add an undesirable element to the picture. Position the people so the […]
Today’s landscape photo tip involves diagonal lines. In a landscape photo, portrait photo, still life or any other kind of photo, the first major task of the photographer is to draw the viewer’s eye to the most important aspects of the shot and keep it there! We want our photo to send some sort of […]
Today’s photo tip is about pet portraits and how to get the animal’s attention. Pet portraits can be some of the most fun photography you do. As an added bonus, it’s a great photography training ground. “Never Work With Kids or Animals!” Or so says the old show business expression… Why? Because they steal the […]
In previous lessons, we’ve been getting pretty heavily into scientific and technical issues, so today I wanted to step back and talk about one of the softer techniques. For today’s photo tip, we’ll move back into landscape photography composition. Framing is one of the major photo composition ideas and is a strategy that you should be […]
Photographing your dog can be a terrific way to not only get amazing photos of a beloved family member, it’s also good practice and will sharpen your over all photography skills. Like any other portrait session, the first step is to mentally pre-visualize what you want the end result to be. Please don’t skip this […]
We previously discovered that the pretty colors in a sunset aren’t always enough. A winning sunset photo needs a star. In today’s lesson we’ll discuss adding silhouettes to get better photographs of the sun. In previous articles, we have mentioned that the star could be an interesting palm tree, a seagull flying by, or basically […]
