Articles

'Tis the season of holiday decorations. The air is getting cooler, the sun is setting earlier, and the holiday lights are slowly being put up. It sure seems like it happens earlier and earlier every year, and this year the lights are out in full force even before Thanksgiving is done here in the States, which is great for photographers because it means we have more chances to get those sparkly, pretty captures. Here are just a few ideas on how to best capture the twinkling magic of the season.

We've all seen (and drooled over) those gorgeous photos of food that make your mouth water. The tasty dish might be from a restaurant that does a beautiful presentation and the photographer just had to capture its beauty before taking a bite. This article won't be discussing the tips for professional food photography, like using glue for milk. In some cases for professional food photography, the food might not even really be food at all, but just some kind of lovely looking dish resembling food. Instead, let's go over a few tips for making wonderful food photos while eating out at a restaurant.

No single technique or tool will improve your photos on its own, but mastering the use of many techniques and tools can certainly help you together. Learning to use and correctly interpret a histogram is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to digital photography. It can help you figure out how to expose for difficult situations, and reduce the amount of images you end up tossing in digital post-processing. For those of you who shoot film, don't feel left out; you can still take advantage of the histogram on a digital camera if you use it to check your exposure before taking a shot. Whatever the medium, a digital histogram can be a useful tool when it comes to getting correct exposures.

Lens hoods are a neat little piece of equipment. They do make your camera look professional and cool, but they also serve a great little purpose: reducing lens flare. Not sure what lens flare is? If you've ever taken a photograph into the sun, and gotten these little floating specks from the sunlight, then you've seen lens flare. You can often see these floating orbs in movies when they are filming a sunset. For some photos, lens flare is simply part of the image, a wacky side effect that they like to have in their images. There are some photographers that purposely photograph into the sun to get the lens flare in their images. For those times when lens flare is any annoying effect that you would rather have removed, you can use something simple like a lens hood to reduce and completely remove lens flare from your images.

We're getting ready to celebrate independence day here in America, which means lots and lots of fireworks displays. Maybe you've tried taking photos of them in the past, only to get blurry, messy photos that look like something exploded, but you're not necessarily sure what it was. Shooting fireworks might sound intimidating, but a few tips can help improve your photos and help you capture a happy outdoor memory for the future. This year, check out our tips to help you get better photos of your local fireworks celebrations this summer.

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