As any SLR or DSLR owner knows all too well, the price of lenses can often approach or even exceed the cost of your camera. As such, it's important that you take the necessary precautions to protect them. With this free photographer's guide, you'll learn about using UV (that is, ultra-violet) filters to protect your single lens-reflex camera lenses from sun damage.
Dirty filters ruining your shots? Glass filters, as useful as they may be for protecting your SLR or DSLR lenses from external damage, can grow dirty over time, reducing image quality. Learn how to properly clean your single-reflex camera's glass lens filters with this free photographer's guide.
When choosing a camera lens, use a telephoto lens for a zoom or a wide-angle lens for a broader view, which allows photographers to fit more of a subject into a photo. Choose the right lens for a specific photo with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. Lens are very expensive, so make sure you are educated before you buy a new camera lens.
Want a way to reduce or increase the exposure of your camera's sensor without actually having to adjust ambient light levels? Apart from changing the aperture of your lens, you can adjust your camera's ISO setting, which will increase or decrease your sensor's sensitivity to light. To learn more about ISO, and to get started using custom ISO settings on your own DSLR, watch this free photographer's guide.
Old camera equipment like flashes and lenses are often praised by modern photographers, but getting them integrated into new digital photography setups can be a challenge. This video will show you some tips for using old flashes with new digital cameras, including a great trick for making your digital camera recognize the flash by covering one specific contact. Don't get a new flash, use an old one with the skills you learn in this video.
There's a technique available for digital SLR cameras that most amateur photographers do not know about, or do not use correctly, and that's using a simple telephoto lens (long lens) to create blurry background, great portraits or awesome up-close macro shots. Without the telephoto lens, you lose a lot of the emphasis on your subject, because the background blends in, whereas telephoto lenses help create a degree of depth, blurring out the background, giving concentration on the foreground. I...
For some digital photographers, there is a noted compatibility issue when trying to use a lens which lacks a built-in or internal auto focusing motor. This tutorial shows you a few easy fixes you can use to alleviate this probem for your onw DSLR.
When cleaning a camera lens, use stiff brush to remove the dirt, then wipe lens with a lint-free cloth. Clean camera lenses with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. Be sure to be sage and avoid scratching the camera lens.
A great photographer is more than a technician, but all great portraits begin with a photographer’s mastery of equipment and technical requirements. Set yourself on the road to greatness by learning the basic components of photographic portraiture. You will need a camera, a telephoto lens, and a subject. Props are optional. Compose your subject by using the rule of thirds, where your subject is either in the left or right third, not the direct middle, for the most intresting pictures.
If you are a photographer and are handy with a screwdriver and electrical tape, this is a really cool project to do. Basically, you "Frankenstein" a camera, taking a camera apart and rebuilding it with different lenses and the like, which makes for really cool photo effects.
Macro photography is a type of photography used to create interest by focusing the lense on one thing in a picture, generally something that's located in the foreground. The rest of the image (the midground and background) fades out into a blur.
This video tutorial takes front and side reference images in Adobe Photoshop and prepares them for use as reference plates in your 3D modeling package of choice, like Autodesk's 3D Studio Max. Distortions introduced by the lens, camera, and photographer are removed and key features are lined up for easy digital modeling in 3ds Max 8.
Researchers have created a possible replacement for traditional camera lenses, using an "optical phased array" to function as both a lens and sensor of a camera.
Interested in taking professional-caliber portraits but haven't time (or money) for a bulky light rig? Great results can be had by taking advantage of the available light from windows. This photographer's guide offers a number of pointers for you shooters out there. For more information, and to get started taking your own beautifully lit photos, take a look.
Accidentally stick a time stamp on an image file? Get rid of it with Photoshop's touch-up tools. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial from Tutvid. For more information, and to learn how to get rid of digital photo time stamps yourself, watch this digital photographer's guide.
In this Ovation TV original special, acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson shares with us his insight into his photographic techniques. Like a film, he uses a lot of production, a lot of lighting, a lot of set design. He is an American photographer best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Learn how to take pictures like this master artist.
Want to add cool, colorful effects to your photos without paying for filters or using Photoshop? A cheap glass prism (and some practice) is all you need to bend the light to capture images like the ones below taken by wedding photographer Sam Hurd. Sam uses a six inch triangular prism to catch the light and reflect images in front of his lens. The shape allows you to "twist the prism into creating a curve and bend-like distortion of your surroundings," which can create rainbow effects and mir...
New to photography and looking to learn the fundamentals in a flash? This free photographer's guide, which discusses flash photography and its terminology, will help you to accomplish just that. To get started learning the flash/strobe/speedlight basics (as well as to get a basic handle on the jargon), watch this free video tutorial.
Interested in taking professional-caliber portraits but aren't sure what sort of backgorunds to buy? When choosing a background, your biggest consideration should, of course, be the backdrop's primary application: browns and blues, for example, are great colors for standard portraits. For more information on selecting your first photo backdrops, watch this free photographer's guide.
When setting the shutter speed and aperture of a camera, use a light meter to take a reading, then set the aperture or shutter speed, depending on which is more important for the photograph. Set the shutter speed and aperture of a camera with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. For novice photographers, setting the shutter speed and aperture is an important first step in mastering the art of photography.
Here are some tips about the Holga camera. The Holga is a plastic camera that takes unique, distorted pictures. This instructional photography video is good for people who just got their Holga camera and want to learn some photographer's tricks.
Watch this instructional photography video that shows how to build a useful, inexpensive tripod for the amateur photographer on a budget. This tripod will be more useful than most commercial tripods with only a plastic bag full of beans. The result is a stable, useful extension with minimal photographic inhibitions that works on any surface. A great how to video for the amatuer photographer.
Ben and Paul show how easy and effective it is to cook up some great vomit effects using a strip of blue photographer's paper and a tin of pumpkin. Oh, and Adobe After Effects.
Camera shake is often an unwanted effect in photography, when a telephoto lens or long shutter speed has been used for a camera that hasn't been stabilized. The images subject to camera shake appear blurry and smeared, which is often considered an error - though some photographers find artistic value in camera shake and purposefully try to cause the effect in their art.
Photograph cakes like a professional by viewing this informative video. A visit to a professional food photographer's studio discusses briefly the basic philosophy behind cake photography, preparation, visual elements & props, establishing mood, framing the cake, lighting the cake and involving people within the photograph.
When loading film into a camera, never touch the blades of the shutter and make sure to advance the film a couple of times in a manual camera. Load film in a camera with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. Loading film is an important first step for new photographers.
What do professionals take on a photo shoot besides photo equipment? Find out by watching this video.
One of the greatest new features for photographers in Bridge CS3 is the new Stack feature. However, in this video we'll not only take a look at how Stacks work for photographers, but also for videographers. That's right, video folks can also take advantage of this in interesting ways.
For photographers, the "plus" in the iPhone Plus models used to mean optical image stabilization, but now that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus both have OIS on board, that "plus" has moved onto something else—the dual-lens camera. Actually, the new dual-lens setup on the iPhone 7 Plus is a much bigger deal than OIS ever was. While OIS stabilizes the image before it's converted to digital information from the sensor, creating a much cleaner photo, two lenses working together in unison unleashes...
Lighting is one of the most important features of good photography. American photographer Eric Levin has become somewhat of a favorite of mine, especially because his photography tips and tricks are a very helpful tool for all aspiring photographers.
We have no doubt that famed photographer Annie Leibovitz takes perfect photos right at the photo shoot that require minimal retouching. But for the rest of us, as it is for most photographers, the photo editing process is just as important as the photo taking process, if not more important.
Whether you're new to Adobe Photoshop or a seasoned digital photographer after a general overview of CS5's most vital new features, you're sure to be well served by this official video tutorial from the folks at Adobe TV. New Photoshop CS5 helps you achieve the visual and emotional effects you’re after with re-engineered features for reducing and adding grain, performing post-crop vignetting, and sharpening. CS5 reinvents HDR imaging with Exposure Merge, which makes it easy to preserve the fu...
Instead of using Photoshop, why not give Apple's Aperture a try? Aperture is designed more for post-production work for professional photographers, letting you cull through shoots, enhance images, manage massive libraries, and deliver stunning photos.
Instead of using Photoshop, why not give Apple's Aperture a try? Aperture is designed more for post-production work for professional photographers, letting you cull through shoots, enhance images, manage massive libraries, and deliver stunning photos.
Want to take your digital pictures to the next level? This tutorial demonstrates how to use Photoshop's various touch-up tools to do just that. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial. For more information, including step-by-step instructions on how to retouch your own digital photographs for professional-quality images, watch this digital photographer's guide.
Lean the best kept secrets of professional photographers.
Long exposure photography has long allowed photographers to do amazing things with light. Now you can do that! This video will show you how to use a long exposure, sparklers, and Photoshop to create amazing psychedelic art on your photographs. This new art form is called light painting or light writing, looks amazing, and is pretty easy to get started doing. Do it!
It doesn't matter how great a photographer if you don't have the right tools. Even Annie Liebvitz would get only average shots with a lower grade digital camera because it's very limited in terms of settings that you can control.
A light meter can prove to be an invaluable tool on any film set, allowing you to quickly and efficiently set lights and know the correct exposure values of those lights. Light meters were initially designed for still photographers and cinematographers can easily calibrate them to a given film stock speed for shooting film. But what about today’s digital cinematographer? I’m glad you asked. In this video tutorial you'll see how you can use a light meter to quickly and efficiently light a scen...
When traveling or sightseeing, you may come across a landmark you can't quite identify and want to know what exactly it is and the history behind it. It could be a building, waterfall ... anything. If there are no signs around or they're in a different language, you'll have no idea what you're looking at. Fortunately, Google Photos can be your personal tour guide with the power of Google Lens.
