Digital Photo Secrets

Take Amazing Photos with these little known tips and tricks!

Photo Critique: Flying In Formation

There has been a lot of recent talk about digital SLR cameras, lens modifications, and whether you need to go out and get a digital SLR right away. Sometimes the best arguments for getting the most out of your point-and-shoot system come from seeing what can be done with them. Usually, this is enough to [...]

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Giving Your Subject Space To Look Into

There is something peculiar about people. We are amazingly adept at reading one another. We can look into someone’s eyes and see emotions without having to think for a second about it. Because people are so good at this, photographers have to be careful when they frame portrait pictures. If you don’t give your subjects [...]

Sequence photos provide a truly amazing perspective for action shots. They allow the viewer to see the progression of something as it is happening. Unlike video, all of the important parts are frozen, so we can see every step. There a lot of sports where action sequences bring out the true character of the athletes. [...]

Photo Critique: An Evening in Riga

It’s always a good idea to critique photos and to have one’s own photos critiqued. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to develop an eye for great photography. You just need to sit back and think about what appeals to you in a photo. Oftentimes, this is some combination of color balance, composition, [...]

If you own a digital point and shoot or SLR camera, you may have been sold on its the built-in image stabilization system. For some camera models, this is available through the lens. On others, it is in the camera. Either way, you probably want to know what it means for your photography and whether [...]

How To Take A ‘WOW’ Photo

Some pictures are simply impossible to describe. They yank us right out of our seats and force us to pay attention. The only thing we have left to say is “Wow! I didn’t think you could do that.” It is the photographer’s dream and ultimate goal to produce pictures like this, and even the best [...]

Using a Flash When Outside

It might not occur to you to use a flash outdoors, especially in the middle of the day. After all, there’s plenty of light around, and all of your shots should expose without any camera shake issues. I won’t argue with you that there is a lot of light outdoors, but where is it coming [...]

Another email I received this week was from Mark Jones. Mark writes: I would like some advice on the attached picture. I tried to photograph my band playing a gig in a pub and the light was shining through the window meaning the drummer/guitarist was in almost complete dark, how?why? What should i have had [...]

Improve Photos By Cropping

In my very first tip, I recommend moving closer to your subject. Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer. It works especially well on faces because when you fill the frame with your subject’s face, there is less clutter to draw the viewer’s eye away from the pleasing [...]

Focusing On Your Subject

Sometimes, when our photos turn out blurry, it’s because of a focus problem. Your camera has set the focus point on the wrong part of the image. An example is in the image on the right. The camera’s focus point is outside leaving our subject (the boy) blurry and out of focus.

Nothing is more annoying than getting home from an event and realizing that most of your photos have turned out blurry. There are 4 major causes of blurry photos in digital cameras and unless you know what to look for, it’s hard to tell what is causing the problem. Read on to learn each of [...]

Create a Foreground

Justine Stevens has won a digital camera with this great tip that works very well alongside the use negative space tip by Neil Speers. Congrats Julie! – David. When taking photos most people remember to consider the background. However a really important thing to remember is that we see three dimensionally, and to create amazing [...]

Use Negative Space

The third camera winner is Neil Speers, who has a great tip on composition. Congratulations Neil! – David. Learn to use negative space. Positive space is your subject – a person, an animal, a building, an egg, etc. Negative space is everything else that shows up in the picture. Take five pictures of five different [...]