Digital Photography Student

QQQQcon makes and interesting and educative video tutorial on landscape photography. Enjoy

Do you ever feel that you have exhausted most of the landscape shot opportunities at your current location ? Here is a word of advice: Take a train ride. You will be surprised with the wealth of potential landscape photography opportunities that will present themselves. Let me share with you a revelation I had today when taking a train ride to Kutina, Croatia. Due to the fact that recently we have sold our car, we took a train to go and visit our family in Kutina. It turns out that while traveling, I have caught myself constantly reaching for my digital camera, and long lens (Sigma 70-300mm) and rushing towards windows to take photos. I was amazed by the wealth of fantastic landscape photo opportunities that were passing by me. I thougt to myself: Are we missing out by taking a car ? If you think about it, there are many upsides to train travel if you are a photographer: 1. Elevated platform - In the train, you usually stand much higher than a car or a bus , and in addition, railwa...

Our colleague from the Nikon Help Hotline has published a great video tutorial on Neutral Density glass filters. Check it out below. Happy Shooting

Most of us are used recording the world around you. However, sometimes showing only a part of the whole picture while letting our brain suggest the rest, can be equally, if not even more powerful.  The beauty of an abstract photo is that it communicates to us on so many levels. It can be a strong color, an interesting pattern, or a layout of shapes forming an abstract image. Our minds like to be tasked by figuring out what exactly does an abstract photo represent, and therefore, abstracts can engage a viewer in a way other photos can not . And the best thing about abstraction is, you can shoot a photo of virtually anything. It does not require captivating landscape, or a beautiful subject to make the photo. If you take a look at our example on the left. The photo is of a boat, but we are not showing the boat itself, but suggesting it through showing its bow surface and rigging, leaving the viewer to create his own image of how does this boat look like. Abstraction will work as...

One of the most fascinating photography effects you can achieve is a shot of a waterfall or stream, where the water has smooth and silky look, while the surrounding environment looks perfectly normal. Learn the photography technique in this week´s photo school. The trick on how to achieve the dreamy water look is simple: long exposure . The basic goal here is to have your shutter open long enough that it captures movement in the water, while the rest of the environment is perfectly still. This is best achieved using shutter priority mode (Tv on Pentax, or S on Nikon), since it gives you direct control over how long will the shutter remain open. Since our goal is to try and keep shutter open for as long as possible, camera shake will be an issue, rendering hand holding the camera virtually impossible. Make no mistake, you will need a tripod , or some other camera support. You can always look for a nearby rock or some piece of cloth to rest your camera on, while it takes the photo. ...

If you are a photography enthusiast, it is safe to assume that you spend a good deal of your time taking photos. And if you use digital camera which is the case with most people nowadays, you probably store a large amount of them on your computer. And why shouldn't you, it's fast, easy, cheap and convenient. And safe. Or is it ? If you are like me then most of your photos are stored in a single photo on your hard drive creatively labeled: 'photos'. Now imagine just for a second what would happen if your computer was stolen ? ... your operating system got infected with a virus ? ... your hard drive died ? It all comes down to one single question: "Do you have a backup ?" If your answer is YES, then good for you. Your photos are preserved, despite your problems. By having a backup, getting them back is a few clicks away, or as many as it takes to invoke the restore procedure. However, if your answer is NO, you should definitely consider making a backup. T...

Getting quite a bit of blurry shots ? Worry not, DPStudent helps you identify 5 most common reasons for unsharp images, and how to avoid and/or correct them. The sharpest part of your photo should be the point of interest , so take extra care when focusing. If something other than the main subject is the sharpest part of the photo, the viewer's eye will rest in the wrong place. Five of the most common reasons are the following. 1. The lens is not focused accurately, particularly at wide apertures (f/1.4 - f/4). This issue, although somewhat annoying, can be easily avoided by either focusing manually , or by using LiveView with the zoom feature, which can help you preview how the subject focused. 2. The lens is focused on the wrong part of the composition. This is most often the case when trying to compose using rule of thirds , and the autofocus kicks in. This you can easily solve by aiming directly at your subject, pressing the shutter half-way, and then recomposing . Alte...

Another fantastic video by Gordon Laing of the Cameralabs.com . This time he is interviewing Chase Jarvis , one of the most popular photographers in the world lately, and he is here to talk about the commissioning process. Lots of interesting stuff to learn here. Enjoy.

How many times did it happen to you that when shooting sunsets, what you see is definitely not what you get ? The beautiful and rich sunset colors you see with your eyes look just wrong. Here is how to fix it. The problem lies in the automatic exposure mechanism, and the fact that the setting sun can throw your exposure meter way off. However, there is an easy fix. What you need to do is: aim just above the setting sun, and press and hold your shutter half way, then recompose the photo as intended and then shoot. Make sure that while pressing the shutter half way, that the sun is not visible in the frame. The point is to get the exposure value reading from the sky itself without the sun locked in , and then use it to shoot the photo as originally intended. Alternatively you could use Auto-Exposure Lock feature (AE-L) if your camera has it instead of half pressing the shutter. Additionally, if you want to get creative with your sunset shot you might want to check out our article: ...

Miniatures are an interesting and a rewarding hobby that requires patience, focus and attention to detail. Did we mention that they are fantastic macro photography subjects? In the following guide we give a few tips for shooting miniature macros and creating interesting battlefield stories. When checking out miniatures, there are many different vendors spanning multiple themes and scales, from common everyday life (e.g. featured in H0 scale models often used for train sets) to dramatic and violent fantasy battles such as Warhammer , Lord of The Rings amongst others. Whether you are a miniature collector, diorama artist , or simply a macro photographer looking for a new subject to shoot, miniatures can be very interesting subjects, so here are a few useful pointers for shooting miniatures. First, the story... The night of the living dead Near the quiet town of Courtrai... ...the undead have risen... ...led by Lord Abhorash. ...

Last week was all about tutorials for macro photography. In this weeks video guide we feature MPTutor and his fantastic guide regarding macro photography gear. The video comprises of two parts and covers most of the gear required by a successful macro photographer. Enjoy.

Hi and thank you all for your contributions. We have gotten several amazing macro shots at our Flickr group , and we list the best ones here: avielpa : My best angle(Green Mantis) The composition of this image is amazing. A true, intimate portrait of the Green Mantis. Notice the tack sharp detail on the tentacles and mouth, and the clever use of shallow depth of field to emphasize the head. A truly stunning macro . q8phantom : Human Eye Pupil! Extreme Macro Version! Simply put, WOW. The light coming from the side illuminates the eye perfectly exposing wonderful color and truly magnificent level of detail. saxonfenken : Macro Paradise This wonderful flower macro just amazes with color. Blue/yellow combination is a perfect fit, and the large depth of field ensures a punchy image with tremendous impact. In addition if you look for a moment longer, you will notice a small fly hidden between the petals. A true masterpiece. canadian_photography : Parsley Worm Macro This is an...