|
Take this shot: Lightning
by Debbi Allen on 26th October 2009
Ever noticed that you rarely see photos of lightning taken during daytime hours? There’s a very good reason for that – it’s virtually impossible to achieve. The speed and unpredictability of lightning means than you can only ever hope to get a shot by leaving the shutter open for an extended period. Only at night will the scene be dark enough to get away with this without too much light hitting our sensor.
There’s no easy way to shoot lightning, but there are some tr
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take this shot: Action
by Debbi Allen on 1st October 2009
Capturing a great action shot is one of the hardest things you can do with your digital camera. But with some patience and practise, images like this one are perfectly possible. Basically, the key principle you need to remember is that pointing your camera in a fixed direction and hoping to capture a fast-moving subject as it speeds past is a lost cause – your finger will simply not be fast enough. Instead, you need to pre-focus your camera onto the subject before you shoot by half-pres
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take this shot: Children
by Debbi Allen on 10th September 2009
We all want great photographs of our kids that we can keep forever, but children aren’t always the easiest of subjects to capture. They’re so full of energy, it’s mpossible to keep them still long enough to take a decent snap. The solution is just as obvious as the reason behind why they aren’t the easiest subjects – just don’t even try to keep them still! Not only are posed pictures difficult to achieve, they can also be rather dull and old-fashioned
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take this shot: Silhouettes
by Debbi Allen on 27th August 2009
One of the most important aspects to get right when shooting silhouettes is proper exposure. To calculate this, you first need to position your subject between the light source and your camera. Set your camera to manual exposure and use an external light meter, or your camera’s internal meter (in Spot-metering mode), to take a light reading from the highlight area. Alternatively, try metering the background and then the subject. The difference between these two readings provides the rig
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take this shot: Exotic
by Debbi Allen on 12th August 2009
If your camera has a macro mode (or even better, if you’re lucky enough to win a macro lens), this is an excellent time of year to get up close and personal with the natural world and pull off some fantastic close-up shots.
Don’t be put off by our exotic subject pictured below. You might not have geckos to photograph, but you’re likely to be able to find all manner of insects, frogs and slow worms in your back garden!
Once you’ve found your subject, moun
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take This Shot: Sports
by Debbi Allen on 23rd July 2009
As any sports photographer will tell you, half of getting a decent shot is timing, and the other is being prepared. To start with, the focus needs to be correctly set up to allow the image to be taken when the instant occurs, rather than having to wait for the correct focus zone to be highlighted. Because of the relatively uninteresting background it isn’t any great loss to lock the zones down to centre only, and leave the majority of the rest of the shot blurred. This also ensures any obj
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take This Shot: Slow shutter speeds
by Debbi Allen on 7th July 2009
Creating the illusion of movement within a still image can be a difficult proposition, as it requires breaking one of the basic rules of photography in keeping the subject sharp.
A waterfall makes for an attractive subject when taking landscape photography, but some of the majesty of the image is lost when the shutter speed is too high. The water appears completely static and although the environment will give away the motion, the final effect will still be a poor reflection of the subject. The
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take This Shot: Winter
by Matt Tuffin on 30th November 2007
Snowy winter scenes are notoriously difficult to photograph due to the challenges of exposing correctly for the bright white snow. In Automatic mode, the camera can become confused by the whiteness of the snow, and underexpose the rest of the image. Many digital compacts feature a Snow scene mode that, once selected, will automatically adjust the camera settings to a level suitable for snowy scenes.
However, a scene like this one has its own specific challenges, not least of which is the fact i
Read more of this technique
|
|
Take This Shot: Sunrise
by Matt Tuffin on 30th November 2007
Dealing with sunrise or sunset takes practice, but there are a few tricks of the trade that make the photo-taking process a lot easier. First off, try and use manual settings as much as possible as this will mean you have greater control. For example, an automatic white-balance setting will try and compensate for the warm glow of sunset and tweak the settings to create a dull version of your shot. Preset white-balance options are fine to use, so long as you realise their effects. The cloudy opti
Read more of this technique
|