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How to get the best out of your camera and lenses

Countless photographers like to shooting images and the majority are hoping to take beautiful pictures but not everybody seriously considers and carries out all the steps that would significantly improve the technical quality of their pictures. Here are 10 techniques you should implement.
1) Use of a tripod to greatly help remove camera movement which often occurs with a hand held camera.
2) Use of a cable release to reduce on the amount of vibration that normally otherwise occurs at long shutter speeds. In the old days these were simple but these days they are electronic.
3) Select the facility on your DSLR to use mirror lock up and notably cut down the movement as a image is taken. Any movement that occurs while a photo is created produces image softening and should be eliminated.
4) When possible always try to use at the best aperture for the lens. This is typically about F11 on most lenses. Small apertures such as F16 are generally softer. Large apertures such as F4 are also usually not so detailed.
5) Always ensure that your lenses are absolutely clean with no dirt that might impair final image.
6) Make sure select the slowest possible ISO on your camera because this will reduce the quantity of picture noise and guarantee the highest possible file quality with maximum detail rendering.
7) Using a lens-shade will control any stray light from hitting the lens surface and causing flare, which will innevitably degrade the picture quality.
8) Purchase the best quality lenses you can manage, since budget priced lenses will always be quite poor in anything less than ideal conditions and using all the practices detailed above. The Schneider lenses are well known for their superb optical performace.
9) Try to take photographs when the light is crisp and pure on sunny days. It is also a good plan to shoot during the early morning when the natural light is especially intense. Shooting in grey weather will heavily degrade the sharpness of your pictures. The illumination at the end of the day is soft and warm but not perfect for producing the sharpest possible images.
10) Ensuring the perfect light reading is important to guarantee that your images are as good as possible. Over exposure may lead to ruined highlights with little information. Under exposure can produce terrible file noise levels in the shadow areas. To achieve the best possible exposures I suggest making use of a hand held exposure meter such as a Gossen.
By employing the steps above you should find a substantial improvement in sharpness of your images.

Locating models for nude and glamour photography

There are many places where you can find a suitable model to work with, whether for beauty, fine art nudes or general glamour.
The primary and most straightforward place to look will be an established agency for models, where you are likely to find experienced models that are suitable for your individual assignment’s needs. This is my first option in general and the majority of professional photographers look for models.
As an alternative there are Internet sites where photographers and models regularly get together through the internet. These are large sites where people upload images, make contacts and try to improve their portfolios etc. This is definitely not my first chosen way of looking for models, since I tend to think they are far less reliable on the whole and consistently not aware of normal business practices; making up their own rules as they please.
The most frequent issues with models found through the Internet are final minute cancellations or simply deciding to disappear without a word, which could leave you on the day with the conundrum of an expensive studio and makeup etc. but nobody to shoot!
When shooting artistic nudes don’t forget venues such as dance schools where you can often find very interesting potential subjects. As dancers they will generally be in amazing shape and move with a flowing grace, which can assist you to produce some really special photographs. In some cases the photographs can actually be better than those produced with professional models.
Athletes and gymnasts are undoubtedly very much worth thinking about given that they are usually understandably confident about the condition and shape of their body, so they are less likely to be uneasy in front of the camera.
When shooting glamour photography, some photographers look for possible subjects at glamour workshops or strip clubs but as always I would always choose to use a professional model from an established agency wherever possible. There are a thousand tasks you have to get right on the day of the shoot so I would always rather go with the less tricky option than risking the unknown.
Irrespective of where you look for a model and whomever you work with, always endeavour to have a friendly and polite yet always professional manner in your work with other people. As a final point, always ensure that any model you hope to work with is not under 18.
glamour photography

The art of nude photography using candles

Only a small number of photographers have tried using candles as a source of lighting in their nude photography; however it’s a very interesting source of light that creates a soft and very particular effect. For obvious reasons you will find that candles don’t produce a significant amount of light, so you will require a quite a lot to lift the overall brightness to a usable level and be willing to shoot with slow exposure times, so a tripod is absolutely essential and a cable release would also be useful. You may also use the mirror lock up facility if you have this option on your digital camera. Make sure those candles are positioned in safe positions where nothing will catch on fire!
Since your exposure time will probably be many seconds, it’s important that you locate a place for your subject that is comfortable and allows her to stay reasonably still or you risk having photos with undesirable blur from the subject’s body movement. It’s that slow exposure time however with the gentle movement of the candlelight that delivers the special final effect.
When preparing your setup, take a moment to consider the different lighting effects as you shift your candles into different locations and study the changes between highlights and shadows. After you find the right look try one or two test shots to see how the image looks and ask yourself if you have to make any changes. Since candles have a rather warm colour balance you will almost certainly want to perform a custom white balance with your digital camera using a white piece of card.
A handheld light meter can also be used for measuring brightness in different areas of the image. Accurate measuring of the illumination is important to avoid burned out highlights or shadows with no detail and if you have a computer at your disposal you can download a few test shots to check them using Photoshop before you continue with the main shoot. Always shoot in RAW mode if you have this option available because it will produce superior quality images and permit you to make more enhancements at a later stage during postproduction.
After you have taken your photos and saved them on a computer you now have the option to work on the final effect where you can choose if you want to have the image in colour or black & white, along with other changes you can make to noise levels, contrast and other areas. One of the wonderful advantages of working with candles is that the lighting is very flattering to female skin, so that should reduce the amount of skin retouching you need to do. Have a try and discover how amazing candlelight can be for creating professional nude images .
nude photography

Digital Photography, The Plusses And A Few Cons

Digital Photography is relatively fresh. (II decades to be accurate) compared to its film peer and has without question brought photography to the masses through the respective formats and platforms available.

Digital cameras are simpler to use. Indeed you can just about open the box and start shooting without even picking up a manual should you wish which could not always be said in the days of film cameras.

The innovative new digital cameras and lenses are packed with technology that help you avoid some of the pitfalls of Digital Photography such as histograms to check for any exposure errors and image stabilizers to help avoid camera shake, ensuring sharp images even in less than perfect light.

Most people feel that after the inital investment of buying the camera and lenses that their photography is now cost free but that is not the case unfortunately. Even after purchasing further accessories like software, tripod, bag, memory cards, extra lenses etc. you still have to think about long term secure storage of your images.

In the days of film, negatives or transparencies where essentially very easy and cheap to store but with digital photography this can be a little more complex if you really want to protect your valuable pictures.

In an ideal world you want to keep your images at the very least in duplicate form, perhaps one set of images on DVD stored in a location other than at your house and another set of the same images on an external hard drive. This ensures you have a duplicate safely maintained against unfortunate events like fire, theft or flood at seperate locations with an additional set usefully on hard drive available for speedy retrieval when needed.

So digital photography, although a fantastic new medium does have a few extra costs that may not be immediately plain and we have not even started to speak about computer equipment which can require a whole lot more cash depending on how serious you are about your photography.

I’m talking about printers, ink a good calibre monitor and the calibration tools required to make certain that what you see on screen will match any prints that you may wish to produce. The new high resolution DSLRs also require higher quality more costly lenses than cameras from when film was the standard medium.

Painting with light Techniques

Painting with light gives you sensational images that are completely unique and are straight forward to produce when you know the right technique to do so. Light Painting in digital photography can turn the most mundane object into a stunning image that is wholly unique.

What you do in effect is literally paint with light when creating such images using a light source such as a torch. In order to be able to capture the best effect with this technique you can use the following tips:

Painting with light is literally painting an object with a light source such as a torch or flashgun. The technique is simple if you follow a few simple guidelines. Using a light source such as a flashgun or torch you illuminate the scene and paint it. Here are a few thoughts to help you.

A sturdy tripod is a must as the exposure times needed prohibit hand holding the camera.

The subject you wish to shoot and its size will more often than not determine your choice of light source. For landscapes and other large subjects such as buildings a torch between 1-5 Million candles will normally be sufficient.

Another necessity is a handy light source that you can use to assist you while setting up the camera and packing it away. Ideally a headband mounted torch is ideal as it enables your hands to be free.

Complete darkness may sound like an basic tip but light spill or light pollution as it’s commonly known from distant roads or street lamps can sometimes ruin your images.

Tips For Light Painting.

Firstly you should find a location that is ideally away from any light pollution, like a street lamp. Get in place early while there is still ambient light and set up your camera for both focus and composition then lock it down securely.

Exposures commonly will start about 30-45 minutes after the sun has gone down when exposures are long enough to allow time for you to paint the scene. Apertures can range from F2.8 to F16 depending on the scene and you should allow yourself a good 60 seconds or so to paint the subject.

Monochrome Digital Photography

By its very nature, Black And White digital photography is a type of artwork that takes a lot of time and experimentation to learn as it requires dealing with a number of challenges. Whilst there’s no actual colour to play with, lights, contrasts and framing become highly crucial in achieving excellent photographic results and in the era of digital photography, post processing will help you get there.

But foremost, you should take advantage of your camera and its capabilities to shoot images that are predisposed towards a black & white rendering process to be finalized through your photo processing software. Here are several quickpointers to do that:

Always shoot in RAW and if possible in color – since it gives you most mastery and most information to use and work with in post processing. Even when you shift to black & white from your camera settings, shooting in RAW will maintain every piece of data - including colors - and will make your developingwork easier.

Always photograph with the lowest achievable ISO – to nullify increased image noise that invariably occurs when converting your images to black & white. Even if you love the feeling of film given by granulated images, you can always add this result in developing, but it’s incredibly hard and time consuming to withdraw it.

Take advantage of low contrasts – it’s said that gloomy days add an extra something to your captured images, giving a sense of softness and mildness to the end result of your black & white story.

Use the available light wisely – shadows, highlights and different tones will make the variation in a black and white photo.

Use framing wisely – to accentuate your most vital subject that will grab the viewer’s interest in your black and white image. Use foregrounds and backgrounds to make depth and give more substance to your main subject.

These of course are just a few fleeting tips to introduce you to Black And White Digital Photography.

Do you know which exposure mode to choose on your camera?

For the last few years there have been numerous different modes of exposure on new digital cameras. These include choices for manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and full program, along with some choices such as sports mode in program that alters the settings to favour faster shutter speeds to freeze fast action sequences.
In manual mode the photographer has to choose both the shutter speed and the aperture. This is more advanced than other modes but gives the greatest flexibility. It allows the photographer to maintain total control over the brightness of the picture. It is particularly popular by advanced photographers who want to maintain total control and is also the common choice when shooting in the studio.
In aperture priority the photographer chooses the aperture he wants to use depending on how much depth of field is desired in the image. Although the camera will alter the shutter speed to maintain the correct exposure the photographer still has to make sure the combination is acceptable for sharp images. Landscape photographers often like aperture priority because control over depth of field is essential to achieve the best possible result.
Shutter priority functions in the opposite way to aperture priority i.e the shooter chooses the shutter speed and the camera chooses the appropriate aperture for the correct exposure. This mode is very popular with action photographers, who often decide that the shutter speed is the most important factor they have to consider.
Program mode is essentially full automatic. That means the user leaves all the exposure decisions to the camera and just presses the shutter button. This allows the user to focus totally on the composition and subject without worrying about the exposure. This is particularly popular with amateurs who are not yet sure about the exposure choices or even professional users who sometimes just want to focus on the subject and don’t have time to consider other problems.
Many years ago most shooters thought that serious photographers only worked in manual mode however this is not really true nowadays. The best exposure mode is the one that allows you to get the picture.
In addition to the exposure modes, most advanced digital cameras also have exposure compensation, which permits the user to compensate for diverse lighting conditions that normally trick a built in camera meter. In snow scenes for example light meters tend to underexpose, so the user can use exposure compensation to correct this problem and still continue to work in automatic or program mode without being obliged to use manual.
When a photographer is first learning about photography it is a good idea to experiment with all the different choices to learn how they work then later on it will be easier to make the correct decisions that will all help to produce the best possible photographs and turn the photographer into a true master.
Above all it is most important to take lots of pictures so that you improve as a photographer and learn something every day. If you are one of those photographers who invariably shoots everything in program mode try some of the other modes to gain more control over your images.