Before editing – this image has a strong green tint After editing. The colour looks more natural and there’s more contrast One of the questions I’m asked most often in my workshops is “Why should I edit my photos?” It’s a great question – and a very common one among beginners. Many people feel unsure […]
Moody food photographs are all over Instagram and Pinterest and it’s a style that looks set to stay for a while. So, it’s no wonder that lots of people want to give it a go. However, unless you know a few techniques and tips, it can be hard to achieve the look.In this blog post you will […]
Left to its own devices (in AUTO modes) your camera may fail to expose a scene as you would like it to. I’ll try to explain why, without getting too technical. Your camera’s meter (how it measures light) sees everything in greyscale, a range of grey tones from very dark grey through to almost white. It […]
Discover how I learned how to photograph long exposure sunsets and, even better, it doesn’t matter that I can’t quite afford the filters yet! A couple of weeks ago I went to the Lakes and had a go at long exposure landscape photography under the expert tuition of Melvin Nicholson. We had a fascinating half […]
Polarising filters are a useful addition to your kit if you enjoy photographing landscapes. They reduce atmospheric haze and reduce reflected light, which can be helpful to your images in a number of ways: They give you more detail in the sky, revealing clouds and darkening the blue areas. In the images below you […]
WHITE BALANCE This is really meant as a quick intro for people not familiar with this setting. Light can be different temperatures and degrees of warmth from cool to warm. You will have encountered this when buying light bulbs. The colour temperature of light is measured in degrees Kelvin as shown in this chart from Digital […]
Silhouette images have a certain magic about them don’t they? A simple story told with an outline against a beautiful backdrop, usually a sunset or other beautiful sky. They can be quite difficult to create though, often occurring by chance rather than intention. Here are some tips: Shoot towards the sun – but remember that doesn’t […]
This is a photo I took of a friend’s lovely white Alsatian (Luna?). You might not be able to tell at this low resolution but it is nice and sharp. Although the auto focus on modern digital cameras is awesome, you do need some knowledge on how to take advantage of it to avoid operator error. […]
Tips for photographing moving water, such as fast moving rivers and waterfalls As you will need to use a slow shutter speed you should avoid bright sunshine, so overcast days are better, or at sunrise and sunset. You will need to shoot in manual (M) or Shutter Priority Mode. Set the ISO to 100 and use a […]
C for CONFIDENCE – it’s hard to photograph people you don’t know. I’m not comfortable with it, but there are some amazing shots to be had if we could just get over our fear. So I want you to go for it this week. I’ve had a go over the last week, knowing this topic was […]
5 family photo shoot tips We all want lovely photographs of our family don’t we? And as our children grow older, we can foresee the day when they will have left home to pursue lives of their own. This was the case with this lovely family, where the oldest daughter will be heading off to […]
What a fabulous day this turned out to be! The idea to hold a Fine Art Photography Course came to me when I first visited The Botanist in Alderley Edge late last year. It is a beautiful and unusually styled venue, with botany and gardening inspired props and plenty of distressed and stained wood panelling. If I’d […]
How to photograph fireworks One thing I’ve never got round to photographing is fireworks. I’ve admired other people’s shots but it’s always felt like too much hassle to me, to lug a tripod around, set it up in the middle of crowds of people, mess about with camera settings in the dark and keep an […]
One of the best ways to improve your photography is to take photographs as often as you can, ideally daily or at least several times a week. This isn’t as hard as it seems as most of us carry smartphones everywhere and can practise our craft with those too. Setting a photography project is a […]
My kids are older now – 12 and 14 – and although I still love photographing them, they are not as keen as they used to be (wild understatement – Abii acts like a vampire being shown a crucifix when I point the camera at her). So I concentrate more on what’s around me when […]
I absolutely love it when one of my clients sends me pictures they’ve taken that show what they’ve learned and how confident they now are with their camera. I had a great email from new mum Louise today. She attended a Let’s Shoot The Kids course in January and has recently given birth to baby […]
We recently made a much anticipated visit to the Dr Who Experience in Cardiff, where fans get to take part in an adventure with the latest Doctor and then look at real props, costumes and prosthetics used in the show. Our kids are Dr Who crazy and were beyond excited and fascinated. All of the exhibits […]
In the first of this series we looked at How to Photograph Trees (click on the link if you missed it). This time we’re going to concentrate on how to photograph Autumn leaves and capture their many glorious colours, shapes and textures. It’s all about the Light. Well of course it is as without light we wouldn’t have […]
I am often asked how you get from snapshots to great shots. Some people assume that I can take good pictures because I have expensive cameras and lenses. I tell them that I have a great oven but my cooking is awful… So it’s not about kit. You can take great photos with a camera […]
Helford Passage is a lovely spot on the Helford River, offering everything you could want from a little seaside hamlet, a decent pub, boat hire, ice creams, crabbing, a tasteful gift shop and a dozen gigs! These are fast, narrow rowing boats and there’s obviously a thriving community of them in Cornwall, judging by the […]
According to my site analytics blog posts with pictures of cute babies and children on get far more views than those with (toy) meerkats, so I won’t be using my little Sylvanian family again! They enjoyed their little trip to the Riviera (side of our pond) but are glad to be reunited with their dad on the […]
In Part 1 we looked at how Aperture plays a big role in how to get blurred backgrounds in photos. Low f/numbers (large apertures) give us a narrow depth of field and high f/numbers result in a wider depth of field. This sounds pretty straight forward, but like lots of techie things it’s not quite […]
How to get blurred backgrounds in photos is high on the list for people who want to take better images and it’s one of the things that distinguishes good pictures from snapshots. It can be easy to achieve but if you really want to understand what you are doing and how to control the amount of blur, you should read […]
Photographs of your baby beautifully dressed in your favourite outfit, with a shiny clean face and huge smile are fantastic and they are the pictures that end up in frames around the house. However, some of our favourite moments may not be “frame-worthy” but are still very special and the ones that make us laugh every time […]
