Learning

How many times has it happened where you take a shot, using the camera settings and things just don’t look quite right?  Probably not all that often, because today’s cameras do an amazing job most of the time.  Manufacturers have analyzed millions of images to develop automatic and semi-automatic modes that do a great job for you.  But let’s talk about two situations where the automation may not do what is needed.

Timelapse of Moon Phases

So many people enjoy beautiful time-lapse photography, but they aren’t confident that they have the ability (or the tools) to create such fascinating works.  Here’s a glimpse into the world of Time-Lapse photography, along with some step-by-step recommendations so you can join in the fun.

Soon the trees will burst forth with the beautiful colours of autumn, and everyone with a camera will want to capture the glorious scene. Almost any weather is good for shooting spectacular fall foliage images, including cloudy, sunny, misty, and rainy because each type of condition imparts its own magical element to your photography. The season is short, and you don’t want to let the weather interfere. Pack up your camera bag and let’s get started on an autumn photo adventure.

The Exposure Triangle is a continuous entity. A change to any value necessitates a change to at least one, perhaps both of the other elements. If we want a higher shutter speed, then either we have to open the aperture or increase the ISO or some combination of the two. When we shoot in full automatic, the camera’s CPU is doing all the work for us based on the meter reading. That’s great, right up until we choose to take a bit more creative control of the triangle.

When I teach someone about how to use strobes for lighting a portrait, they always seem amazed as to how simple the technical hurdles are to getting started.  One’s initial impression of a potentially difficult, complex and highly technical world becomes a fairly simple affair.

It’s easy to understand how someone can be led to believe that using strobe lighting is difficult.  The various pieces of the puzzle can have an outward appearance of being technically complex and sophisticated.  Taken one piece at a time, you can learn the essentials of lighting very quickly, after which it becomes a matter of practice with the lights themselves to get portraits that you love.