The Death of Google Reader & How To Stay Subscribed to Beyond Photo Tips
Everyone is talking about it … the imminent death of Google Reader on July 1st … and a ton of you are still using it. It’s time you did something about it, or you’ll lose all the RSS feeds you’ve ever collected! Not a happy thought! Here’s what you can do to stay connected to…
1 Trillion FPS. Photographing Light Itself
Who would ever have thought that we’d be able to see how light travels through our world? Yet here’s a video of a pulse of laser light travelling and dispersing through a bottle. Ramesh Raskar from MIT’s media lab talks about how they capture the movement of a single ray of light – by capturing…
Memorable Photographs – How They Got That Way
A friend writes to me: I’m no photographer, and therefore I’ve never understood what makes a photograph amazing? Nationalist sentiments aside, what’s in the photo – “Heroes of Iwo Jima” that makes it so awesome and memorable? Also, the National Geographic Magazine picture – “Afghan Girl“, what’s so special about that? What’s special about those…
Tiny Tips 19: 5 Top Tips When Shooting Tethered
Here are a few tips for when you shoot with your dSLR tethered to a computer. We’ve learnt these lessons the hard way. Try it out beforehand with the particular computer and camera that you will be using. Hardware has a way of doing strange things when you least expect it. Shoot to CF card and hard…
Camera Metering Modes, and When to Use Them
Your camera has a light meter (aka Exposure meter) built into it. This meter measures the light coming Through The Lens (TTL) and helps the camera or you to adjust your shutter, aperture and ISO appropriately, so that you get a well exposed image. Modern cameras don’t just have one metering mode, they usually have…
Photo Critique – A Short Guide to Giving and Taking it
Deep down, no matter what anyone says, we don’t like to be told that our pictures are no good. We love the pictures we take – the ‘art’ we make – no matter how lame it may actually be. I’ve got nothing against that. But sometimes, we need to ask for our photos to be…
Tiny Tips 18: How to get Great Bokeh from your Lens
What’s ‘Bokeh’? It’s a word of Japanese origin used to describe the aesthetic quality of the ‘out-of-focus’ area of a photograph. Typically referring to the more visible ‘circles of confusion’ that are visible in shallow depth of field photographs. To get the best bokeh possible, do this: Use a fast lens, with the aperture wide…
The Best Way to View a Photographer’s Online Portfolio
Art needs it’s own space. This is why art galleries offer an environment that an artist can mold and control to their need. The online experience is a little different, and that’s expected; but how can you create the best ambience for an artist’s work to showcase itself online?
A Compact Wedding
Back in May I finally treated myself to a Canon G12, a piece of kit that I’ve wanted since it was released the previous year, and I set myself a challenge: use it to photograph a friend’s wedding.
The Best Walkabout Lenses
If you’re buying your first dSLR camera, you are probably considering the purchase of a single lens that allows you to do ‘everything’ as you take a walk, a ‘walkabout lens’. Granted, this may not be the best quality lens around, but at least you won’t have to feel like your brand new dSLR…
How to Get More Detail in Your Photographs
I know some people who like to take sharp photographs. Because of this, their images tend to have a certain set of parameters to ensure that their images are crisp and clear from foreground to background. Are you like that?
Composition: A Parkour Frame of Mind
This is a guest post by Andy ‘Kiell’ Day. He is a renowned Parkour photographer, practitioner of parkour himself, and rock climber / builderer. His book “The Moments Between” (see our review) is possibly the first ever book featuring parkour photography, and shows off why his images are so sought after by magazines such as Focus,…
Book Review: The Moments Between
The Book is “the moments between” by Andy Day. Buy it here. The Moments Between is an account of three traceurs – practitioners of Parkour – on a road trip through Italy – on a quest to discover themselves, their abilities, communities, new training grounds and new possibilities in their own Parkour training. Two of…
Helping Your Child Discover Photography
How did you discover photography? When I was young, an aunt gave me a toy camera. The photographs it produced seemed magical. I was 6 at the time. A Defining Moment I remember looking through my father’s Tokina 110mm telephoto lens and trying to focus manually on a nearby bird while on vacation. Looking back,…
Filter Care & Use
So you’re using a filter on your lens, maybe to protect it from dust or finger smears or maybe for an effect that you want, what can you do to ensure that it does not degrade the quality of your expensive lens? Here are some pointers: DOs: Buy a good filter. A bad filter can…