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3 Digital Photography Secrets - Low Lighting 01/15/2010

Shooting in low lighting situations has many challenges especially when you are new to digital photography. The good news is digital cameras now has advanced so much that even novice photographers can take stunning photos in low light. These 3 tips can help you improve our photography.

Digital photography secret 1.

Shoot wide open. Almost everyone loves taking photos in a party with relatives and friends. The problems you will surely encounter are dark backgrounds in your photos. To brighten the background use a wider aperture in your lens. Just be careful how you focus. Your depth of field will be shallow especially when you are using F/2.8. Focus directly on the eye to be safe. Be sure to take multiple shots.

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Digital photography secret 2.

Use a higher ISO if possible. Try to push the ISO setting higher if your camera does not have much noise after 1600 ISO. I was shooting a big concert in our city and avoided using flash even though I was allowed to use it. I was using my Canon 20D camera and adjusted my ISO setting to 1600 ISO and after I checked the photo in the LCD preview it looked neat with minimal noise. If you want to further eliminate noise on your photo you can use Noise Ninja.

Digital photography secret 3.

Avoid using short to telephoto lenses. When shooting in low light using super wide or wide angles, lenses helps to avoid blurry photos. Using wide angles lenses usually makes your lens more steady. Try to come closer to your subject to fill in more the frame.

Dreaming Winter Photography 01/15/2010

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The sight of early morning snow, the shimmering frost in the trees, your sister falling off in your snow filled front yard and your stunning snow angel, don’t you ever wish you could just capture that moment right away and place them in your computer desktop? Right, sounds easy but for an amateur photographer this may sound too challenging and laborious. But thanks to the dawn of digital photography and winter photography need not be exclusive to the professional anymore.

You have to remember a few pointers though. Winter shooting can be tricky as majority of the landscape is white and the background is bright. When shooting a snow filled area, the brightness of the snow may often cause your digital camera to somewhat underexpose the scene, thus making the snow to look gray. To correct this, you might have to increase your exposure compensation so the whiteness of the snow can be appropriately captured. The time of the day you took the picture can also have an effect in your image. So if you want cooler shots shoot closer to midday but if you want warmer shoots, shoot early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Although traditional photography belief tells us that using flash outdoor is not necessary but if you are shooting a winter photograph, using a flash can bring out details and highlights that might not be captured without it. However, if you are shooting close shots avoid using flash as much as possible as the reflection can greatly reduce any detail in your photo.

With the flexibility of processing available with digital cameras, you have better choices when in comes to choosing the finished format of your photograph. There is really nothing to lose to trying winter photography. You might even be surprised with the images that you captured. Once you have become accustomed to winter photography and have been familiar with the different techniques, you will find that winter is one of the best times of the year to go out there, take photos and make use of your digital camera. You will be surprised to see that the final results are worth the hassle.

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