Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Shooting portrait in outdoor settings is often challenging because it can be difficult to control the light the way you want. This is particularly the case for sunny days. You can find a good background but the Sun is casting the lights from a awkward direction that causes ugly shadows or hash highlights. Sometimes fill flash or a reflector helps but nothing beats a perfectly natural lighting condition. So, what is the best portrait shooting light condition? Read More…

I came across this very informative article on photo.net. It was originally written in 2001 based on readers’ comments. So many of the recommendations, such as packing films with different speeds, do not really apply to today’s digital photography audience. However there are still quite some very useful tips covering all aspects including the things to do before you leave the house, what and how to pack your gears, safety and security, and some shooting tips. If you are interested in travel photography, there is a entire page on travel photography here.

In some shooting environments, flash photography is strictly prohibited. Often, the ambient light is so poor that the shutter speed becomes very low. In this situation, the photo can be easily affected by blurs caused by camera shakes and subject movement. 

If you are handholding a lens, the rule of thumb says you typically need 1/f (f is the focal length in millimeter) second of shutter speed. For example, if you are shooting with a 200mm lens handheld, you need about 1/200s or faster shutter speed to avoid most of the camera shake. This is for average people. Some one may have very steady hands, others may have especially shaky ones. If you have a lens with vibration reduction (VR), image stabilization (IS), or vibration cancellation (VC) functions, the speed requirement can be greatly relaxed. Often, you can shoot with up to 4 stops (or 16 times) slower shutter speed. Read More…

After two successful series (we have covered both here: part I and part II), Adorama has brought us the third round of its popular daily photography tips series, 100 in 100. Read the press release here and start reading the tips here.

Previous photography tips:

• 100 in 100, part I
• 100 in 100, part II

After the successful series of the 100 in 100 - 100 Photography Tips in 100 Days, Adorama Imaging Resource Center (AIRC) brings us the part II of the series starting Monday February 18, 2008. A major difference from the first series is the theme-based tips organized weekly. The first week’s tips are about low light photography.

We reported a while ago when Adorama’s AIRC (Adorama Imaging Resource Center) started its 100 in 100: 100 Photography Tips in 100 Days program. Currently, the latest tips is tip #57 - Zoo Photo Safari.

The tips are written by experts but in plain English so pretty much everyone from novice to expert in photography should be able to learn something. It only takes about a minute to read each of the tips. You can find the tips here.

While you are there, you may also want to check out their Adorama Imaging Resource Center (AIRC), which has many other useful and nicely written tips and articles about photography.