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It has been my favorite form of photography and is usually rock ‘n’ roll
photography. I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot for a couple of big
magazines and newspapers and have had access to really awesome concerts.

The reason I like it so much is because A) it’s extremely challenging. It’s
generally crazy lighting patterns, crazy lighting schemes, low lights
situations, fast action. So it create a lot of difficult problems, but if
you work with it really hard you can get great photographs.

A couple tips to get some great rock ‘n’ roll photographs is you’re going
to shoot wide most of the time. Most concerts will have you up front for
maybe the first two or three songs and that will be all you will get to
shoot. So you’ve really got to nail it in that time. Shooting wide ensures
you a lot of frames to work with. That way if you’re have to crop in, you
can crop in.

I generally will set the exposure I think is right in manual mode and
adjust it accordingly as I’m shooting, depending on how the lighting is.
Nailing down a white balance in is also a really great way to ensure
that your faces aren’t going to look too blue or too red or whatever. The
lighting that they’re using, you want to compensate for that.

Now if it’s a small venue you might be able to get away with using a flash.
I don’t really recommend it because A) it generally aggravates the rest of
the people in the venue, especially if it’s a really intimate crowd. So if
you’re going to use a flash, use it sparingly. Don’t be that guy in front
popping off a million frames. They’re just going to hate you.

Generally speaking, at bigger concerts you’re not going to have that
option. You’re basically going to be at the mercy of the bouncers up front,
and you’re going to be able to do what they tell you. So if you want to use
a flash, ask them first. In fact, ask them anything before you do it
because you don’t want them to be your enemy.

Another important thing to keep in mind when shooting rock ‘n’ roll is
everybody going to hate you. The crowd is going to hate you because you’re
either in their way or you’re up front out of the mosh pit, or you’re
popping off a flash, or you’re really close to the bands. For all these
things they’re not going to like you.

The band is not going to like you because they think you’re just . . . not
all of the time, but a lot of big bands will be like, oh, this guy is just
smooching off our fame. The bouncers aren’t going to like you because
you’re in their way. Pretty much your only fan is going to be the band’s PR
firm which is okay. So if you’re cool with everybody hitting you and you’re
cool with the really tough challenges, hey rock ‘n’ roll photography might
be for you.

These are some of my favorite shots I’ve done over the years. This is (?)
NRD shot during an outdoor concert. It was a pretty easy shoot with good,
natural light probably day. In fact, it’s actually pouring rain during this
show. The band was covered, and all of the other photographers had given up
and gone home, but I was sitting in about a foot and a half of water next
to the stage and just happened to look up and get this shot.

This is the band, the Front Bottoms, performing at a really teeny, tiny
venue. This is an example of using a flash with some shutter jags, and this
photo is less about the band and kind of more about the movement and the
vive of the music.

This is Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium. It was a really different kind of
photo. This was shot from really, really far away with a really strong
telephoto lens. This we literally had the first two songs, and we were
shuffled right out of the stadium into a parking lot.

This is Dave Navarro. This is an example of really funky lighting. The
reason, honestly that it is grayscale is his face was so blown out from
fluid and it was corrected, so sometimes grayscale is a good way to deal
with a problem like that, but it was such an interesting look I felt it
deserved to be edited and published.

This is another band shot with some shutter jag, low ceiling with a flash.
This is another example of using black and white. This one was less because
I messed up and more of it began to convey a mood. He’s a good friend of
mine. This was another one shot from far away. This is Jane’s Addiction
again.

A lot of rock ‘n’ roll photographers will kind of neglect the crowd. You’ve
got to realize that is half of the concerts, the performers, the energy
they’re getting back from the crowd that makes a concert so interesting.

This is obviously the boss, Bruce Springsteen, hometown Jersey boy
represents I think really intense. You can tell he’s really getting into
it. It just kind of makes it. This is an example of using the lighting
schemes around there to kind of give it energy, to kind of give a mood to.

Another thing to realize with rock ‘n’ roll photography is you’ve really
got to be prepared for anything. You’re, again, always going to be at the
mercy of the bouncers, the people in charge. So I have had plenty of shares
where I wasn’t even allowed in front of the stage and had to shoot from a
balcony with a long lens. So for that reason I always bring two cameras. I
always bring a wide angle. I always bring a telephoto. I always bring a
flash, just in case I can use it. I always go into the concert with the
understanding that there’s a chance I’m not going to get to shoot at all.

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Nearly every digital camera out there has an on board pop up flash. This camera is no exception. Truthfully though, it’s kind of a little dirty so you go to the camera industry and these flashes are really God awful for lighting your subject well. It’s just straight on, blinding light that generally washes out the subject, make them look really pale, ghost like.

It’s just not flattering. So, there’s a couple different ways you can hack the flash or already on your camera so you can’t afford or don’t want to buy a more expensive one, that will just really improve your image quality. This camera is a little bit of an exception because it has this little bit of a nice feature. You can bend the flash in like that and I can literally hold it there and bounce it off the ceiling like a more expensive flash, and have if fall down on my subject instead of blinding. If your camera can’t do that, which most can’t, another really simple technique is to take a piece of masking tape or even a piece of tissue paper and just put it over the flash.

This will diffuse it a little bit and soften the light. Always keep in mind you’re going to have to compensate a little bit when shooting your subject because you’re having less light output and tricking your camera into just putting out less light in general. Play around. There is a lot of household items that will work well. Like I’ve said masking tape is great, tissue paper, and wax paper. So play with it and have some fun and see what works for you. If you are one of the people who is fortunate to have a point and shoot that you know you can bend the flash like this, give that a try to and see what works, but don’t use it like this.

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What is digital photography?

Photography literally means painting with light. Digital photography is essentially the act of painting with light onto a digital sensor. It is essentially the same thing as traditional film photography, except for the fact that, instead of having a piece of side film in the back of your camera, it’s actually replaced with an electronic sensor that acts in a very similar way. Benefits of that include being able to the grain quality, ISO, and just being able to suck in more light as the technology gets better.

Some other benefits of digital photography include instant gratification. You can immediately see the image you just took on the back of your screen. It makes learning photography in general much quicker because you immediately know where you went wrong, instead of having to wait for the film to be processed and the prints to make.

Since the dawn of digital photography, which a lot of people will say really caught on in about 2001 as digital cameras got to the point where they began to surpass the quality of film, we’ve seen a rapid increase of digital cameras, the exposing of digital camera technology. Prices have come down. Quality has gone up. While this camera might cost $3,000, you can easily go to the store and get a high quality digital camera for $200.

That’s a basic introduction to digital photography.

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We recently did a really popular story on PopPhoto.com about great household items to keep in your camera bag. One you’re going to hear me mention a lot is a trash bag. I always keep a trash bag in every camera bag, with me at all times. Why do I do that? It’s not because I’m looking to, you know, pick up trash. It’s to cover my gear in case it rains.

I used to shoot a lot of football, and, you know, it would rain a lot. If your gear gets wet and ruined, you know, it’s kind of a bummer, but a garbage bag is just a really, really simple down-and-dirty solution. You know, you cut a hole in the front of it, tape that around the front of your lens, and just throw the rest over the camera, and, you know, kind of wrap around the viewfinder and shoot away.

,Other good items you can keep in your bag, that I tend to keep in there, are things like: bits and pieces of cardboard, tape, A-clamps, bungee cords. These are all really good if you’re on location and you need to, let’s say, you know, you’re getting lens flare on your camera, and you need some sort of lens hood. You take some cardboard, wrap it around and tape it, and you got an instant lens hood. The same goes if you’re doing a studio shoot. Cardboard can make a great snoot. A snoot is literally like a tube that will come off a light source to make it more directional. So again, cardboard works great for that.

l personally use gaffer’s tape, but electrical tape, duct tape, they all, you know, work really well. Gaffer’s tape is the tape of choice, because it doesn’t leave any residue, peels right back off, it’s all natural, acid-free. Rubber bands are also great to keep in your bag, just to keep wires and cables, you know, neatly packed away.

I also personally like to have a mini screwdriver, just in case I need to do a quick-and-dirty repair.

Paper towels, I always keep some paper towels in a side compartment of my bag, along with various, just lens-cleaning cloths. Again, you know, just in case things get wet, things could smudge. It’s just good to have that there.

These household items just prove that one of the greatest things about photography is the DIY factor. You can do a whole lot, on the cheap, with just things lying around your house, and save money and not have to go out and buy expensive gear because, you know, a piece of cardboard works just as great as a $50 lens hood.

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Next to food photography, I’d say one of the most popular forms of photography out there is pet photography. Everybody loves their pets. We have a very close bond to them, and just like shooting a human, you want to bring out the natural glow of your pet. A really good way to do this, is to do it with natural light. Flashes have a tendency to scare dogs and cats, and kind of freeze them up. And just like human beings get red eye, animals tend to get what’s known as green eye, which is just a green haze in the eye that kind of makes them look like they’re a zombie vampire pet, which obviously is not what you’re going for. I also think that a really great way to get good pet photos is to move in really close, and make it really intimate. Now this isn’t a great example, because I haven’t done a lot of pet photography. But this is my dog, Cooper, who’s pretty much the coolest dog in the entire world. I was just kind of hanging out with him on the couch, laying there, and I just kind of snuck the camera up. He’s very skittish, he doesn’t like cameras. I was able to pop off this (?) and get a very cute photo of him. Again, natural light is a really great way to light your pets; a window light, light just from a lamp, anything that’s not going to surprise them or make them skittish. Try using dog treats, cat treats, whatever, just to try to bribe them to get them a little bit closer. But look for the candid as well. Shooting with a telephoto lens outside as your dog is running around in the snow or whatnot is a really great way to shoot. Just like you would shoot wildlife from afar, you can do the same thing with pet photography. I personally like to get really close and intimate, but that’s also a really good way to do it, too. And if you’re really good, you can mix in your pet photography with family photography, children photography, friends. There’s nothing better than a cute dog next to a loving family. So, just some basics of good pet photography.

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There’s a couple of different kinds of lenses out there. The two specific distinctions are zoom lenses and prime lenses. The difference between them is really simple. Prime lens is just one focal length. In this lens’s case this is an 85mm portrait lens. This is a zoom lens and its focal length is 70-200. Within this lens is the same focal length as this lens. So why would you ever use this lens when you can use this lens? And the answer is pretty simple. It’s just a matter of preference. This is obviously a much bigger lens. There’s more to carry around. This is a lot more small and compact.

Now a lot of professional photographers actually choose to use prime lenses for a couple of different reasons. One is just one focal length that you kind of get accustomed to. You become really comfortable with. But another reason is that prime lenses tend to be a lot sharper than zooming lenses. And that reason is because there are no moving parts other than the focus. So you can get more glass and it gives you better overall image quality.

However, if I was shooting something like say a basketball game, this really wouldn’t be a very good option. I would want to bring in this guy instead. Players running up and down the court, you want to be able to zoom in and zoom out with them, and get them in the center of the frame.

A lot of old school photographers coming from the film age also swear by prime lenses. A lot of these really famous Magnum photographers, guys who are known Rangefinders, like Leica’s all swear by primes. Just because again it makes it a little bit more of an art. You’re moving your body around instead of moving your lens around so you’re actually physically seeing things differently. Rather than standing there and zooming in and zooming out.

Personally I’m a prime lens shooter. I like the focal length 85, which is this, and 24mm. I do also on occasions bust out a zoom lens. Another important thing to keep in mind when looking to purchase either a prime or a zoom is prime lenses will always be a fixed maximum aperture. The aperture being the opening in the lens that lets light into the camera. A larger maximum aperture, which is actually a lower number, this one is a 1.8, means you’re going to be able to shoot better in low light. Primes generally tend to have a higher, in reality lower, maximum aperture. Something like 1.4, 1.8, 2.8, those are really good maximum apertures.

This is a 2.8, where this is a 1.8. So this will do better in low light. But this is also a very good lens because it’s a fixed 2.8 from 70 all the way to 200. However, as you get cheaper lenses or more affordable lenses, a lot of times that low maximum aperture will actually jump up as you zoom in. So it’s not uncommon to see something like a 70-200 like this, that instead of being a 70-200 2.8, it will be a 70-200 3.5-5.6. Which physically means that that maximum aperture is getting smaller and smaller as you zoom in. Not super great for low light.

For that reason, zoom lenses can be a lot more expensive and do a lot worse in low light situations. You also have to keep in mind that there are a lot more moving parts on a lens like this than on a lens like this because there is nothing zooming here. In addition most prime lenses don’t have things like image stabilization that you’ll find with lenses like this. This is specifically made for sports photography. So it has optical image stabilization. This does not.

Again it depends on your subject and it depends on your matter of preference and it depends really on your pocket book.

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If you ever spend any time on the popular photo sharing site app Instagram, you’ve probably seen a lot of really mediocre food photographs. It’s kind of a craze right now to be like, “Hey, I’m having a pizza bagel. Let me take a picture and send it to everybody I know.”

And that’s great, you know, there’s a time and place for that, but there’s also something to be said for really good food photography. One of our sister publications of Popular Photography is a magazine called Saveur, which is a food photography magazine, and just talking with them and looking through their images, I’ve come up with a couple really basic ways to ensure you’re going to get great food photographs, even if they’re just going on Instagram.

One thing to take into account, as with any photographic subject, is your light source. A really easy way to get a great food photograph is to bring the plate, or the dish, or whatever, over to the window, a fixed light source, whatever it might be, and use that to your advantage.

A lot of people like to shoot straight down, just have the full plate, and that’s okay; but a lot of times if you get a little bit closer, and you abstract areas of the photograph, it just makes for a better, more appetizing looking image, taking into account the different colors in the foods, on the plate, the texture, and just focusing on something that’s really going to make it look appetizing.

I like to personally vary my aperture and get a shallow depth of field. So let’s say I’m taking a picture of piece of chicken with some broccoli rabe and potatoes, maybe I’ll focus in on the chicken and kind of abstract and throw out of focus the other things. I just make sure, you know, a really delicious food photo. So if you are going to do this and post it to Instagram, I’m not going to judge you or anything, but do yourself a favor and do everybody else a favor, make it look good.

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The staple of any good wedding photography album is the classic posed portraits. Bride and groom, bride and groom with Aunt Josephine, Uncle Henry. It can be kinda challenging, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, doing all these portraits at once. There’s a couple really simple ways you can ensure that you’re going to get a great picture of everybody in the family.

The ways to do that are try to shoot in natural light. Shoot outdoors, shoot by a window; somewhere where you know that they’re going to be lit well and they’re going to look good. You won’t have to deal with a flash. Obviously if worse comes to worse, use a flash. Make sure you bounce it up and off the ceiling so it falls down in a much more natural pattern. That will be great too.

Obviously avoid having your subjects look directly into the sun or into a light source. Tilt their heads. Have them shimmy over one way or another.

The best way to ensure that everybody is looking good and has a good smile is to bang off a bunch of frames. The way I like to do this is I’ll take my camera, usually with a lens attached, and I’ll stand there, and I’ll get everybody posed. I’ll line up the photo, and I’ll go, “OK. I’m going to take it in 1-2-3.”

As I’m saying 1-2-3, counting down to take the photo, I’m taking photos before, and I’m taking photos after. I might shoot in total of eight photos for the one portrait. That way, because they’re so quick, chances are you’re going to get at least one image where everybody’s eyes are open, everybody has somewhat of a natural smile, and it just makes it a whole lot easier.

People often tense up when they think they’re getting their picture taken. Shooting frames before they think you’re shooting the frame and after ensures that you get a little bit more natural of a look. Those are just some tips to get good portrait photographs at a wedding.

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Hi. I’m Dan Bracaglia. I’m a New York City commercial photographer and Web Editor at “Popular Photography” and “American Photo Magazine.”

I began shooting photography on a daily basis somewhere around the freshman year of high school. Over the past ten years, I’ve really dipped my toes into every form of photography, everything from urban horticulture to wedding photography to product photography.

I was traditionally trained in photojournalism, specifically. I studied under a commercial shooter for a good year and a half, got into the magazine industry, and now I just do a little bit of everything.

I started freelancing with “The Star-Ledger,” which is New Jersey’s largest newspaper, shooting mainly rock and roll. I then began working with “Popular Photography” and “American Photo,” reviewing and testing all the cameras that come out week to week, month to month, kind of just having the ear to the ground in the industry, all the newest technology.

“Popular Photography” is the world’s largest photography magazine. It is the authority on camera testing, especially with digital photography. Everything’s so instantaneous. Everything learned about editing and post production and lighting I got from just sitting in the studio for hours on end and just figuring it out myself.

I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph some pretty interesting people over the years. I’ve photographed President Obama on several different occasions, Bill Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen.

More recently, I put out a little book, a limited edition release, that coexists with my personal website, www.thelondonbroil.com.

Now I’m going to teach you a few basic things to help you get started in digital photography.

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Another question I often get is from beginner photographers regarding what gear they should buy and how to get started in photography. Thankfully all the big manufacturers have really well priced DSLRs that a lot of times will come with a kit lens for a pretty good bargain.

Canon for instance has the T2I, the T3I. Nikon has the D3100, D3200. Sony has cameras like the A35. These are all really, really powerful cameras with somewhat stripped down features just to make them more affordable. Most of them will come with some sort of kit lens. Generally it will be something like 17 to 85 F35/56 lens. Which is a decent average focal length. It’s what called a normal or a wide to normal focal length. But it doesn’t have a great maximum aperture because as you zoom in, the amount of light you can take in vastly decreases.

So when looking to start a photography kit, getting a kit lens is a great option, but I always recommend also purchasing a 50 millimeter F1.8 lens. Most companies sell a really well priced 50. Usually you can pick one up for between 100 and 15dollars. And it’s a prime lens so it’s a one focal length, but because it’s that one focal length you’re getting really high quality glass with a really low maximum aperture for a really good price. And it’s just a really great way to learn.

When I first started shooting, I only had one fixed lens, one prime lens and it really forced me to see the world a little bit differently. I had to move around a lot more. Get real low, get real high. And I think I was fortunate because had I had a zoom lens, I might have been a little bit lazier and would have just seen things the same way.

Other good things to buy if you’re just getting into digital photography, is always consider getting an extra battery, at least two memory cards. You know generally eight gigs, 16 gigs is a good way to go. Get one or two of those or at least two of those. Get a bag. You know, a lot of companies if you’re buying this kind of gear will throw in a free bag. Some will throw in a free tripod. Although I caution against free tripods because they’re usually really cheap, really plasticy. Not great for your camera because they break.

And if you’re really looking to splurge a little bit, a flash is not a bad idea either. Yes, most DSLRs or all DSLRs, especially on the lower end have popup flashes, but it’s not a really great way to light a subject because it’s just blinding straight into their eyes. So if you can pick up, you know, a lower end flash or proprietary flash, a much better way to light is to bounce it off the ceiling. However, camera, extra battery, extra memory cards, kit lens, 50 millimeter lens, really good way to go.

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Good group photography can be challenging because the more people you put into a frame, the harder it’s going to be to get everybody to smile, everybody to loosen up, everybody to have their eyes open.

So the trick I always use is I’ll rattle off a bunch of frames. For example, this image here of an engagement party, I held up the camera and I said, “Okay, I’m gonna take a photo in three, two, one”. As I said three, two, one, I was hitting the shutter before and after. I was getting photos when they didn’t expect their picture to actually be taken.

And the more images you take of a group the more, the higher your chances that everybody’s gonna have their eyes open which is obviously the first goal of shooting a group and natural expression is the second goal.

This is another example of a little bit more of a candid one. The two main subjects knew that I was taking their photograph but everybody else didn’t and that kind of draws the focus into them.

This is another example of a candid one. I was asked to shoot pre-school classes first day of school. I just rattle out a bunch of frames and found the one that I thought worked the best.

There’s this old saying that you don’t want to spray and pray which basically means firing off a bunch of frames and hoping for the best. Well, I think in the case of group portraits like this, spraying and praying is actually okay and a pretty good way to get the effect that you want.

It’s a really important skill to have if you’re going to be doing commercial work or you’re going to be doing events and it’s a great thing to practice.

Another important thing to remember when doing group portraits is to line the people in such a way that it’s not distracting. You generally want to work from the outside having the shortest people on the sides and kind of working your way up to tallest and just fitting everybody in. There’s nothing worse than an off balanced group photo.

I always try to laugh a lot when I’m shooting them and just act really goofy so people aren’t taking me necessarily seriously and they’re kind of lighthearted and they’re not like, “Oh, man I’m getting my picture taken”.

So being jolly and being funny and being silly is actually really encouraged when you’re doing something like this because oftentimes it’ll help you.

That’s just some of the basics of getting good group portraits.

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A lot of people, when looking for a good wedding photographer, will look for photographers that not only shoot great post photos but also shoot really great candid photographs. The first tip I would give you is be observant. Notice the subtle nuances, the relationship between the bride and the groom, and hone in on those moments and those nuances. Just look for things out of the ordinary. Get different angles. Get low. Get high.

Another really good way to get great candids is to just blend into the scene. Don’t be obnoxious. Don’t be up in people’s space. Because if they see you you’re not going to get a candid. It’s going to be a forced, posed picture.

I spend a lot of time when shooting any event positioning myself as a fly on the wall just blending in and taking in the scene. I worked for a photographer for a while who said no matter what he’s shooting the first thing he does is get a lay of the land. Again, what that means is just taking into account everything that’s there including the relationships and nuances, and using that to his advantage as he shoots the event.

A lot of times, especially the weddings, it’s easy to anticipate when the couple might kiss, they might hug, or they might dance. Look for special moments outside of the wedding, too. Maybe they’re whispering in each other’s ear at a table or something. If you’re looking for something like that you can catch it from across the room and have them have no idea you even got it.

Another really great way to get good candids is to make sure that you’re comfortable with the people you’re photographing and they’re comfortable with you. With a wedding especially you want to kind of develop a relationship before it. Get to know the people. Don’t act like a business proprietor photographing a client. Make it that you’re there because you want to be there and you want to get these great photographs. And make sure they know that. The more they know that the more comfortable they’re going to be with you and the better photographs you’ll get overall.

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One thing I always recommend to anybody shooting anything with any kind of camera, is to have extra batteries. Some cameras, the lower end compacts, will use double As, making it simple. You buy some rechargeables and keep on you at all times. You’re good to go.

For something like a DSLR, it is probably a little more expensive, but definately worth it. There’s nothing worse than being out shooting something, let’s say a soccer game, and have your camera die. That’s it.

Another thing that I invested in, that’s a really good option if you’re shooting with the DSLR, is getting a vertical battery grip. This puts two batteries in your camera instead of one. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, and all the major brands make these for those other cameras. It just gives you more juice, so you don’t have to physically carry around a second battery.

Don’t buy third party batteries, unless they’re from a really reputable brand. Firestone makes some pretty decent third party batteries. You can get them on websites like D&H [SP] and Battarama [SP], but there’s a lot of really cheap, dangerous batteries floating around on Ebay, that can present a danger to you in multiple ways.

They can short out your entire camera circuitry, and that might not be fixed on the warranty. Then, you’re really out of luck. Others have had cases of charging, heating up, and catching on fire, which is not very likely to happen. It’s something to keep in mind.

With such expensive equipment, it does pay off to get proprietary stuff. I always do, at least with batteries. Have a second battery, have a third battery, have a fourth battery. You can never have enough batteries.

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Sports photography is certainly one of the most interesting forms of photography out there. And certainly a form of photography that a lot of people start shooting because that’s what they want to capture.

Aside from fast shutter speeds, there are a lot of things you can do to ensure you’re going to get great sports photos, depending on the sport.

For things like action sports, BMX, skateboarding, snowboarding, rollerblading, it’s usually important to get the lowest possible angle to make the subject look as large as possible.

For sports like football or baseball or soccer, you’re going to generally want to eye level with your subject just to give that feeling of being on the field with the players to kind of convey a really powerful image. And that goes for a lot of sports too. Generally speaking you don’t want to shoot down on them because it takes away from sort of the machoness of the sport.

You’re going to want a telephoto lens. You’re going to want something that’s going to be a long lens, especially if it’s a big field, so you can get them as they move back and forth. If it’s an action sport where it’s one split second that you want to get, again, like skateboarding, you’re going to want to get a lot closer and generally use a wide angle lens and frame it up beforehand and hit that shutter the moment they get right where you want them.

When shooting team sports, a lot of times you won’t be able to bring in something to stabilize your lens of your camera rig. And if you’re shooting with a big lens like this or something even bigger, it can get pretty heavy and can lead to some camera shake. So here’s a couple of ways you can combat that. You can use a monopod, which is essentially a single legged tripod and it will thread in right here and it will help you keep the camera balanced and the lens balanced as you shoot.

The other thing you can do is look to purchase lenses that have optical image stabilization. Image stabilization helps you get less motion blur at slower shutter speeds. A lot of the new lenses they’ll even give you up to four stops of better hand hold ability, which is great.

And those are just some things to consider when going to do sports photography.

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A question I get from a lot of our readers of popular photography is how can I take better nighttime photos without using a flash? There are a couple of different ways you can do that. The easiest way would be to put your camera on a tripod, and just keep it steady. That way you can vary your exposure, and compensate for the light really easily. However, if you don’t have a tripod or maybe you’re shooting something fast action, there are a couple of other options. Depending on the quality of your camera and where it falls on the scale of price range, higher end cameras will let you crank up something called “ISO,” which is the quality of the actual image. When you go up in ISO’s, your camera can do better in low light situations; however you sacrifice the grain quality, and you start to get something called “noise,” which is just sort of patterns in the shadows, and also in the highlights of your image. Higher end cameras will have better noise reduction and just look better at higher ISO’s, whereas lower end cameras, they’re going to reach a point where you’re not going to be able to go any further. This is a Nikon D700. I can push this up to about ISO 6400, which is just fast enough to allow me to hand hold it at night and still get a clear image. However, if I was shooting with something like this guy here, this is the Sony RX100, it also goes to ISO 6400, but the image quality just doesn’t look quite as good. This is something I’d probably want a tripod mount, whereas this is something I could probably hold in my hands. And that’s just a few tips on getting better nighttime photos without using your flash.

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Within every single lens, whether it be a DSLR lens or a point and shoot lens, like the one on this camera, there is something that is called an aperture. Now what the aperture is, is essentially a circle that controls how much light comes through the glass and passes through into the sensor behind. I am going to draw exactly what that aperture looks like, just to give you a basic idea.

This is the bottom portion of your lens. Generally they are made up of blades. It would look something like this. The light is going to pass through this circular area here, so you can control that area to control your exposure, essentially.

Maximum aperture is how open that space can get. Lenses like this, higher end lenses, will have that space be able to open very, very wide. That means that more light will be able to come in. What exactly happen though, when you open that up or close it down to a tiny little hole?

Well, I will show you. Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, this is about the equivalent of an aperture of f2.8, which is fairly open, and this is equivalent of an aperture that’s f16. Keep in mind that this is the center hole that is letting light into your sensor.

At f2.8 you’re going to be able to get a much faster shutter speed than f16, just because the amount of light coming in is much higher, however, what that affects is something called depth of field.

Depth of field is a really simple concept. When your aperture is very open, maxed out, letting the most light in, you are going to have a very shallow depth of field.

What shallow depth of field means, is literally, whatever you are focused on, whatever point in the frame you are focused on, everything beyond that point, or in front of that point is going to fall out of focus, and you’re going to isolate that one subject. Now this works really well on some photos, and it doesn’t for others, so that’s something to keep in mind.

For example, if I’m taking a picture, say that there is a guy standing here, there is a tree behind him, maybe there is fire hydrant right here, and a bird flying right there. If I’m shooting from right here with my camera, and I have it at f2.8, only this guy is going to be in focus, however if I make my f stop, my aperture, smaller, I can get everything in the frame into focus, within reason.

So again, if you’re shooting something, let’s say, like a basketball game, you may want a somewhat shallow depth of field so that you can isolate the players in the frame, and the crowd kind of falls out of focus.

Say you are shooting something like a landscape. You’re going to want to have those things in the frame in focus. In fact, probably the world’s most famous photographer, Ansel Adams, was known to shoot at f64. He even had a crew of his homeys, who were all these photo buddies that shot these brilliant landscapes, and they are called the f64 club, meaning that they would only shoot with lenses stopped all the way down to f64, which is basically a pin sized opening in your lens. The reason that they did this was because all of their photographs, or most of them, were tripod mounted, and they were are these gigantic landscapes; and he and his cohorts wanted everything in that landscape to be perfectly sharp and in focus.

The nice thing about lenses that open up really wide and have a really good maximum aperture like f1.8 or f1.4, or f2, or f2.8, is that you can do a lot better in low light. Obviously, you are going to sacrifice depth of field, and you are going to have a shallow depth of field in low light, but you will be able to shoot much better.

Now if I was going to a concert and I was going to shoot in f64 inside the venue, I would be totally out of luck. With a lens like this, if I had it stopped onto f1.8, I’d have a much easier time. The reason I would have a much easier time is simply because there is more light being allowed into the lens. Because it is a low light environment, you want to maximize that amount of light to keep your shutter speed fast enough that your subject isn’t blurry.

So these are the basics and some tips just to help you wrap your head around this whole idea of aperture.

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One of the most popular styles of photography is outdoor nature
photography for obvious reasons – beautiful landscapes and just a really
great way to go out and bond with your camera and bond with nature.
However, there’s a couple of really important things to remember if this
is something you’re interested in.

One of them is, I always recommend traveling light. A camera like this
might be a little bit heavy to be carrying around all day in the woods
and if I were going out to shoot, let’s say, antelope or elk or
something, I would remove this bottom portion and just keep it a little
bit lighter.

Another important thing to remember, and I mentioned this before, is to
bring something to cover your gear in case it starts to rain. When
you’re out in nature or wherever it might be, you can’t control the
elements and you want to be prepared for anything, so having a bag,
simply like a garbage bag, to put over your camera, can ensure that,
even if it does rain, you can still shoot by covering your gear and
cutting little holes in front of the lens.

Another important thing to remember when doing outdoor photography is
to have the right lenses. You know, a lens like this wouldn’t particularly be
advantageous because it is one focal length and I can’t zoom in on things.
I might use something like this instead which is a zoom lens. Zoom lenses are
great because you can bring things close while still being far away, so you
see a grizzly bear, you might not want to get super close to it, but
with a zoom lens you can get a great shot. These are just some tips on
shooting outdoors.

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Another question we get at Popular Photography Magazine is how to take great wildlife photographs. And obviously with great wildlife photographs the key is great locations where there is great wildlife.

You can always go to your local zoo and get some great wildlife photographs there. If you’re gonna do that or if you’re going to out to the Sahara or wherever, it’s important to be prepared.

In both cases you’re gonna want have telephoto lenses for two reasons. One, you’re gonna be pretty far away whether you’re in the zoo or you’re in the African jungle but if you are actually out on safari somewhere you’re gonna want to be far enough away that you’re gonna keep yourself out of danger.

Another thing that’s important to remember, just from having talked to a lot of wildlife photographers, especially if you’re going out into the natural world, it’s important to have a guide with you. Somebody who knows the ropes, somebody who’s gonna know what’s safe and what’s not.

Wildlife photography is really a waiting game as well. If you talk to any National Geographic photographer they’ll tell you that they might spend three months in the outdoors waiting for the perfect shot of a butterfly landing on a flower and that’s really kind of the beauty of it is it takes time and it takes commitment and it takes a lot of dedication and that’s what makes it really fun.

We recently did a big interview with a bird photographer and he said the same exact thing, it’s the time out there, the time that you’re not getting these great photographs that makes those photographs just so much more worth while.

Another important thing to remember with wildlife photography is, you know, wild animals act very similarly to human beings. I think a great wildlife photo is a photograph that humanizes these, you know, these beasts of the outdoors and kind of just gives them this relatable quality and if you can capture that then you’re a pretty good wildlife photographer.

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There’s a huge market right now for really good wedding photography, and for obvious reasons. It’s a really special moment in people’s lives and they want it documented. So another question we get a lot at Popular Photography is, “How can I take better wedding photographs?”

The best tip I could give would be have an itinerary. Sit down with the bride and groom before the wedding and have an itinerary of the shots they want you to get. And bounce ideas off of each other and just come up with a solid list of really easy shots that you can bang out through the course of the ceremony. That way you’re going to get everything that they want plus all the other candids you get.

Another really great tip is to look for just really candid moments. They may not involve the bride and groom. It might be the grandmother or the aunt or the uncle. But just keep your eyes open for anything emotional, anything out of the ordinary, small details, things like that. Variety is always king. You know, the more you shoot the more great photos you’ll get.

When I shoot weddings I like to shoot with two cameras in the same way that I would shoot maybe a photojournalism event with a wide angle and a zoom lens on one camera and a wide angle on the other. This just gives me more versatility to move around. So maybe the bride and groom are hugging. Shoot with a wide angle lens to get the full shot. Bring the zoom in to get maybe a close up of her ring on his back, something like that.

Another really important thing to remember is to have a ton of memory cards. The absolute worst situation you can be in is be halfway through the ceremony and have no photos left, no space left and be deleting them. Because chances are you’re going to keep missing more and more moments.

So just make sure you’re thoroughly prepared, you know, to spend the entire day shooting. And just shoot a lot. You know, get those special moments, because these are photographs that people are going to look back on for years and years and cherish. So, yeah, don’t it up man.

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So as cameras have gotten more and more complex, they’ve added a whole list of features that really should be avoided at all costs.

One of those features is cropping in-camera. While it can be nice if you’re on the fly and you just want to get a photo cropped in quickly, it’s again something I would never really recommend.

Oftentimes you might want to crop your photos; maybe you got a finger in the shot or there are some things on the side that doesn’t look good, and that’s great but we wouldn’t recommend doing it in-camera.

You can double check when cropping your photos in-camera as most of them will save a secondary file cropped in and your original one. But again, it’s always just better to do that on a computer screen where you can see your image in all its glory and really see what you’ve got there and crop accordingly. Don’t crop in-camera.

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A question I get a lot from photographers is, “When is an appropriate time to shoot vertical and when is an appropriate time to shoot horizontal?” The thing about landscape versus portrait photography is it’s really again about a matter of preference. However, there are certain things that will work much better as vertical images and there’s certain things that are obviously going to work better as horizontal.

Photos like basketball generally tend to be very vertical and thus you want to shoot them vertical. That’s not to say all the time. Something like this, gymnastics, this works a lot better as a horizontal photo. Same with baseball. He’s sliding into the bag, and a good rule of thumb is if it is a motion photo as these all are, you kind of want to play off of the motion that they are going. He’s sliding right to left whereas the basketball player is coming up. So you want to kind of go with the direction of that motion when decided how to crop your photos.

Another nice thing about switching the orientation of your camera from portrait to landscape or landscape to portrait is it will totally change up your composition, and it just gives you more to work with. So if you’re our photographing and no compositions are striking you, maybe the answer is turning your camera a different way and seeing how it works that way.

I generally tend to shoot most things horizontal. Simply based on the fact that I think the human eye can better understand, and it translates better to the human eye because we see horizontally. That’s not always the case, but in my opinion I think nine times out of ten it is.
Again though, some people shoot only vertical. Some people shoot only horizontal. It’s really a matter of preference.

If you do find that you’re really enjoying shooting vertical images, I would highly recommend getting one of these guys. Which is a vertical battery grip. What’s really nice about this is that it puts a second shutter here, in addition to the one here. So you can really comfortably hold it vertical and shoot. Great for sports. Great for portraits. Great for studio work. Again, it’s up to you, vertical versus horizontal, but think about your subject matter. Think about what’s going to make the most sense and think about what you like the best.

That’s the basics of vertical versus horizontal photography.

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Along with light, the other basic principle of photography is composition and framing. Photography literally means painting with light, so you want to paint with the light in such a way that fills the frame really well. I have a couple of examples here of photographs I picked that I think demonstrate that well, and I’ll show them to you here.

I like to break my photos up into quadrants. I have various things going on in each quadrant just to keep the photograph balanced. This is another example. You want to avoid centering things. You want to have the frame filled, and just have something in all different sorts of places for your eye to look. This is sort of the way that I like to shoot. It does not follow the rule of thirds, but it’s splitting the frame right down the middle, and sort of juxtaposing one scene to another scene. It’s a really good trick. A lot of photographers do it. I think it’s really effective. It’s one of my favorite ways to shoot.

This is the final example, and this is a little bit different too. This doesn’t follow the rule of thirds either. However, it fills the frame in an abstract way that the eye kind of just moves around. It’s just another really good way to compose.

Every photographer shoots in a different way, and every photographer composes in a different way. Some people like to have leading lines that go to a single point off into the photo. That’s another great way to shoot. It’s not personally the way that I like to, but it’s not back composition either.

One thing to remember when trying to avoid it is nine times out of ten, centering your objects or centering your subject is going to be bad. The photo, I’ve shown this photo before, this is a centered photo. The reason that this one works compositionally speaking is because the leading lines kind of bring you back to this point. So in this case it works, but in a lot of other cases it wouldn’t.

Composition is really just something you learn as you experiment and as you shoot. As you get better, you’ll see what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. And different people have different thoughts and different rules about it that they like to live by. And it’s just kind of a matter of personal preference.

These are just a couple of things to help you understand composition.

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Another popular form of photography that you’ll see especially on Flickr is HDR photography, and what HDR stands for IS ” High Dynamic Range,” and what that literally means is on a camera like this or a DSLR.

Essentially, what you’re going to do is you’re going to take multiple exposures, let’s just say three for example, one that is under exposed, one stop, two stops, a half of stop. One that’s right on the money, and one that’s over exposed by one stop, two stops, a half of stop whatever, and then you use a program, there’s various programs out there that can do this. Photoshop is another way to do it. You basically mash those exposures together, and it fills in the full photo range of your image, giving you a sort of surreal looking photograph with this sort of looking surreal looking light.

People really like it because it gives you a really interesting look, it gives you a lot of great detail, and the more exposures that you combine together the more tonal range you’re going to get in the overall image.

So, a real practical use for HDR photography is when you have a scene, where let’s say it’s a landscape of the pond and the sky with clouds and trees where the pond, and the trees, and the sky are all different exposures, and you want to bring them all in so that it looks good, and so that everything looks as beautiful as possible.

What you can do is make three different exposures. One for the pond to get the reflections, one for the trees to get the shadows, one for the sky to bring that in, and then combine them all together either by hand or using a HDR program, and it will give a really nice effect.

Again it might look a little bit surreal because it’s not true to real life, but it’s going to look really beautiful and it’s a really great way to accomplish that look.

A lot of pocket cameras or point and shoot cameras and even some DSLR’s even had HDR mode that will physically let shoot three images when you push down the shutter and mash them together for you.

The Iphone also has a HDR mode that does the same thing. It will mash together three different exposures to give you greater tonal range.

I’m not a huge fan of HDR myself, because I think it gives it a little bit of a cheap look, but when done tastefully it can be really, really effective.

If you’re planning on doing one on your own, and mashing it together in post production, not in the camera it’s important to remember to keep your camera absolutely steady whether it be balanced on a tri-pod, on a ledge, anything because if that camera moves at all when you’re trying to line up the various exposures it’s going to look really wonky and give a just nasty effect.

These are just the basics of HDR photography.

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ISO is another way that you can control the overall exposure of your image. And like F-stop or aperture and like shutter speed, it’s just a series of numbers.

Traditionally ISO, or as it used to be called by some camera manufacturers, ASA, is a standard that relates to the quality of the image. So back in the day, and still to this day, you’ll get stuff like this. This is a roll of Kodak Portrait 800. This is ISO 800. So in theory, the grain quality in this film at 800 is going to be, for all intents and purposes, the same as the quality on this camera when I’m shooting at ISO 800.

So what exactly does changing your ISO do? Most cameras will start at ISO 100 and jump up to 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, and some cameras will even go as high as 6400 and you’ll find a couple that will go even higher than that. Basically ISO controls the overall quality, like I said, of your image. ISO 100 is more reserved for bright daylight, maybe outdoors. Whereas something like ISO 6400 or 3200 is more reserved for indoor locations, shooting in low light.

For example, if I were shooting a concert, I’d probably shoot it around 32, 6400. At ISO 6400, you need a lot less light to expose the sensor. However, you’d trade off quality of the image. So you’re going to have a lot grainier of a photo than say if you were shooting at ISO 100 would be much, much crisper.

Most people when they are setting their camera’s exposure, they’ll set their F-stop and their shutter speed first and then they’ll address their ISO accordingly to make sure that they’re getting a fast enough shutter speed and the appropriate F-stop. As cameras get better and better, this number here gets less and less grainy. And it’s actually gotten to the point where digital cameras can shoot in much better low light situations than traditional film cameras and even more than that digital cameras can now basically see better than the human eye in low light conditions.

And this isn’t the world’s most interesting photo. It was shot for a test I was doing on the Nikon J1 camera. But here we go, this is ISO 6400 and you can see if you zoom in, that it has a lot of grain, a lot of loss of quality. And this is also ISO 3200. These are the two highest ISOs on the Nikon J1 camera. And then these are the two lowest. This is ISO 200 and ISO 100. Again, I had to change the aperture and the shutter speed to get these to all be the same exposure, but again you can tell things look a lot smoother here than they do here. And that’s just an important thing to keep in mind with ISO, that when you do crank it up in low light, you are going to see some quality loss.

So that’s the basics of ISO and how it relates to your camera and your overall quality of your image.