If you just bought your first camera kit, you may be wondering what the plastic thing is that came with your lens. Maybe you’ve been doing photography for a while and even have been using your lens hood but haven’t questioned why. The downside to lens hoods is that it’s another piece of gear that…

35mm is my personal favorite focal length for photography. It’s wide but not overly so—in many scenarios it’s just wide enough. It also has an uncanny ability to make intimate and personal images. So what is a 35mm lens good for? That’s what I explore in this article. Street Photography The 35mm focal length is…

First of all, there are many different settings you’ll want to be familiar with before going out to shoot the stars. You can certainly check out my article on “Nightscape Photography,” to see some of this information, but there are many other sources to learn this information. Most importantly though, photography in general, and certainly…

There’s a lot to like about cameras with full frame sensors: they have excellent image quality, work well in low light situations and are capable of producing shallower a depth of field than digital cameras with smaller sensors. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that a full frame camera is the optimal choice for photographers across…

At one point, DSLR cameras had all the advantages in their favor. But as of this writing in November 2017, the advantages that DSLRs once had over mirrorless cameras has dwindled significantly. But regardless of how mirrorless camera technology has improved in recent years, DSLR cameras still have a lot going for them in terms…

Out of all the photography concepts, “bokeh” is one of the most talked about and controversial. It’s one of those things in photography that excites both new and experienced photographers alike.

If you’ve paid close attention to pictures before, you’ve probably noticed that some have a lot in focus whereas others it’s the opposite, resulting in a blurred background effect. This blurred background effect, also known as “bokeh” among photographers, named after the Japanese word for “blur” can be done in a very tasteful way that…

If you’re new to photography, you may be asking yourself, “what is a candid picture?” Many of us have known inherently what a candid picture is for most of our lives because we’ve heard the expression before but that’s not the case for everyone.

Choosing a depth of field and a corresponding aperture may not be so apparent when first starting out in photography but ultimately it’s fairly straightforward. This article is broken up into two sections on how to choose depth of field camera settings.

If you’ve ever photographed indoors, you’ve probably noticed that your photos don’t turn out as good as when you photograph in nice bright outdoor light, especially at the golden hour. The reason being is that there’s less light indoors than outdoors—a lot less. The results can be disappointing, as things like underexposure, grain, and unappealing…

If you’re getting started in photography you might have heard the terms ‘depth of field’ or ‘shallow depth of field’ thrown around.

If bouncing light in photography is a foreign concept to you, it may seem complicated at first. But bounce flash techniques are actually extremely simple and can significantly improve the aesthetic results of your flash photography.

Doing photography indoors without a flash can be tricky. You may not have a flash handy or just want a natural light look. However, shooting without a flash indoors presents us with some issues as photographers because there’s less light present than when you’re out in open sunlight but we’re not using flash to help…

I think it’s safe to say that pictures with blurred backgrounds can be extremely impressive and inspiring. I know that a lot of photographers just starting out assume that it’s done in post-processing in Photoshop or whatever. But there’s a far better way to achieve a blurred background than by editing it in. The best…

It can be annoying to have your pictures turn out blurry and not know the reason why. The good news is that there are only a few reasons why photos turn out blurry, so it’s easy to correct course by by adjusting some aspect of how you’re using your camera.

The DSLR vs mirrorless debate has been going on for several years now in the digital photography industry. While in the past the choice between the two was obvious for professional photographers, the two are on far more equal footing today. Up until recent years, mirrorless was not a viable option when it came to…

Understanding depth of field is an important part of being able to control the outcome of your images in photography. The look of any given image will be strongly influenced by the depth of field of that image. So in order to be able to consistently have control over your pictures, it’s important to be…

Shutter priority mode is a semi-automatic camera mode in which the photographer chooses one component of the exposure triangle (shutter speed), the camera takes a meter reading when pointed at a given scene and does the rest of the work for you by choosing the aperture value that it thinks will get the most accurate…

Getting your exposure right while also achieving the depth of field you’re looking for can be tricky at times, especially if you’ve got to get some exposures off quick or you’re in a hectic situation. Luckily we have several camera modes at our disposal to make our lives easier as photographers in these situations, and…

Just got your first camera and wondering what that ‘P’ on your mode dial is? Understanding program mode is one of the first steps in the natural evolution of getting out of auto mode and learning to take control of your camera. While program mode does have severe limitations compared to manual mode, learning to…