Photography Blog DigitalPixels.net

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front and beyond the object that is in focus. This tutorial will teach you about how to use Depth of Field in your own photography.

A short depth of field can be very useful when you want to isolate your object from the background, such as when taking portraits or macro photography. A large depth of field is great when you photograph landscapes and overall when you want every detail to be in focus.
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Astrophotography is a complex activity, you can not simply point a camera at the sky and take a photo. There are a wide range of technical challenges that must be solved. Learning the basics is just the first step in the process, there are a multitude of small issues that need to be addressed while photographing. Few are of any great difficulty, but there are a lot of them.

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The PhotographyBB Online Magazine Issue #11 for December is now available for download!

The holiday season is upon us and what better way to celebrate than to grab a cup of hot chocolate, kick back, and enjoy the December Issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. This month, we head back to Moscow where Jon Ayres gives us a look at how the holidays are celebrated in Russia. We’ve also made some slight changes to the magazine to include more “how-to” style articles. Check out this month’s issue for:

• Night photography techniques - Part II - Painting with Light and Holiday Lights
• Best Shooting Gear for the Holidays
• Better Portrait Posing Techniques
• Mastering Photoshop Brushes
• Pro Retouching Techniques
• and more!

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ISO should be one of the easiest aspects of digital photography to master, but many beginners in photography still have a hard time understanding this fundamental camera setting.

I suspect this is because of the way it is being taught. You see, ISO started out as a property of film, and it was much easier to visualise it in terms of the old technology. So that's where I want to start my explanation, before bringing you into the 21st century with ISO today.

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People always say, ‘Never work with children or animals’ – where’s the challenge in that!

Capturing stunning images of children is one of the most rewarding parts of my job – and while they aren’t always perfectly behaved, there are many ways in which you can put them at ease and within a great environment in order to shoot the best images possible!

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How to create the high key image outdoors

1. Set up a white diffuser or diffusion panel behind your subject like a backdrop. (Make sure the sun is behind diffuser but not necessarily low in the sky)

2. Set up a second diffuser above your subject.

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Digital cameras and zoom lenses go hand in hand. When shopping for your new camera, chances are one of the first features the salesman mentioned was the power of the zoom lens.

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The main problem with using an on-camera flash is the same as using the built-in flash, the light goes straight at the subject and flattens features and can cause red-eye. With an on-camera flash you almost always want to use a diffuser if shooting straight on. There are a wide range of diffusers such as my favorite, the Gary Fong Lightsphere. What you really want to achieve is a larger light source to help prevent harsh shadows. Without a diffuser, your best bet is to aim the flash at something you can bounce the light off of such as a wall, ceiling, foam board, reflector, or even a white shirt.

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Film might not be dead, but it has been relegated to a niche category. In its place has risen the digital camera, a product  so successful that it has set the popularity of amateur photography on fire in a way not seen since George Eastman launched his mass-market Brownie.

It's not hard to see why. While it can be argued (and I have tried) that film cameras still have some advantages, the modern digicam is better in so many ways that the demise of film is no surprise at all. Here's a list of five ways the digicam wins.

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In the first of our Mythbusting series we are going to look at a common myth that you should always use the lowest ISO number possible to get the best results This is based on the knowledge that the higher the ISO number you use, the more noise (digital artifacts) will be created in your image While this is certainly true, what we are going to examine in this article is wether or not you should always shoot in the lowest ISO number your camera can handle in order to get the best images Will this myth be confirmed or busted? Continue reading to find out
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The first thing we need to do is to connect the lights to your camera, for this we are going to need what is called a PC Sync port. On most Canon DSLR’s the PC Sync port is on the left side of the camera under a rubber flap. In the image here you can see the PC Sync port and the end of a PC Sync cable. In my typical setup I will have the main light plugged into the PC Sync port to fire it and the other lights will automatically fire at the same time because they have a built-in optical slave that will fire the flash when another flash is detected. Since this happens far faster then the mechanical shutter, the effect is that all of the lights fire at exactly the same. There is a limit of how fast the lights will sync to the camera but we will address that in a moment.

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# Use a wide angle lens, but get close. A wide angle lens will help you expand your viewpoint, but at the same time, you don’t want your photos to be too impersonal to the subject. Get close to the important aspects of the scene and make them the primary focus of the shot. Then, try to include other objects or people that are important to the situation. Place the primary subjects at different spots around the image to create a more dynamic photo with tension. A wide angle lens will also give the viewer a perspective of being in the middle of the action.

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