Tag: photography
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Taking It To The Streets
Street photography was historically the original subject of many of the first photographers who working with the most primitive of cameras and ancient wet-plate technologies to produce some of the most iconic street images of all time. So how do you become a street photographer? The simple answer is, of course, you take your camera…
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Composition
Photo by Marion West Photo composition is how you the photographer arranges the elements of your image. So where to start? First with your camera in hand go out and shoot photos. Doesn’t matter if it’s digital or film. Doesn’t matter if it’s your smartphone or a $5000 top-of-the-line DSLR. Go out and shoot and…
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Do expensive camera work better than cheaper ones?
Photo by Marion West Yes….but! But do you need the latest and greatest technological wonder? Unless you’re a professional photographer and selling your images probably not. Sure it’s nice to have the newest camera but it’s been my experience teaching thousands of students over the years that very few (I’m tempted to say if any)…
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White Balance
White balance is simply the colour temperature at which white objects actually appear white in your digital photograph. The colour temperature of daylight is somewhere between 5000 to 6500 K. So how do you know if the white balance is off? Everyone has taken a photo at night indoors and the photo had a yellowish…
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The Light Meter
I have owned a Sekonic L-300 light meter for decades. I now have two more external light meters including a better Sekonic meter (L-358) and a (Lunasix 3). Plus every camera I currently own including two old film cameras (Nikkormat and FM2) and my Olympus OM-1 and OM-5 all have light meters built in. Why…
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Manual Mode – Finally
After paying way more than you thought possible for a new complex digital camera with all kinds of modes and controls and menu items why oh why would you want to shoot in manual mode? In the old days before digital cameras and even before automation came to 35 mm film cameras all cameras from…
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“S”-mode
Shutter speed priority (S mode) allows the photographer to manually set the shutter speed for a given exposure while the camera then automatically sets the appropriate aperture and ISO setting. Usually labelled as S on your camera, it is also shown as TV (for time value) on Canon cameras. So why use S mode? Using…
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What’s “A” Mode?
Aperture mode is often the preferred mode of the professional photographer. In aperture mode the photographer sets the preferred aperture value and the camera auto selects the proper shutter speed based on the available light. Aperture mode gives the photographer full control over one of the most important settings in photography. With it the photographer…
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What’s “P” Mode?
“P” mode stands for “professional” mode! Just kidding but seriously a lot of professionals use P mode and so should you at least for awhile. P mode is a lot like automatic mode with the exception that you get to choose when to use the flash. In other words in P mode the camera still…
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Automatic Mode
Photo by Marion West So you got a new camera. Congratulations! Maybe it’s one of the newer complex mirrorless camera or a simple point-and-shoot but all digital cameras whether complex or simple have an automatic mode. Should you shoot in automatic mode? Professional photographers won’t admit to shooting on auto mode but there are times…
