Although you may think that no two situations are alike, the fact is that there are quite a few constants that you can rely on to give you a good starting point. The sun is one of these things you can count on to be consistent. Of course there are things that affect the sun’s output like the time of day, haze, fog, and clouds, but on a bright sunny day the light output is very consistent and knowing the camera settings for this condition will give you a guideline to make adjustments. This is where the “sunny 16″ rule comes into play.

We have covered using colored gels for backgrounds in the past (here) and a very common question is how to get the background color dialed in properly. In this article we will walk through a …

Tonight on the Live Learning Lab Jason Anderson and I will be discussing RGB/sRGB/ProPhoto Colorspace and what this means to you as a photographer, when to use which, and how this affects your images. You …

I get asked quite a bit about the difference in using an umbrella versus a softbox so I figured it was about time to do an article about it and see if I could help …

While today’s cameras do a pretty good job when in fully automatic mode, in order to make the most of your camera you should learn how to use your camera on the manual setting. To go full manual you will need to have an understanding of shutter speed, aperture settings, and ISO speed. In this article we will get you going and get you shooting like a pro.

When done well, a photograph that has good control over the depth of field can add dramatically to the impact of the picture. When we are talking about depth of field, what we are referring to is a shot were the main subject of the picture is in sharp focus but other elements in the picture are blurred or out of focus. Two key terms to learn here are focal plane which is the area of the image that we want to have in sharp focus and bokeh which is the out of focus sections.

Some of the more interesting photographs are often of ordinary things viewed from a different perspective. A blade of grass from ground level looking up, a bride and groom looked down on from a balcony, etc. What makes these different is that the person viewing the photograph is able to see things from a perspective that is not normal.

Photographers are human and are therefor prone to making mistakes, however, some mistakes as a photographer can cost you dearly. Fortunately for me, my mistakes have never happened on a paid gig. I have however gone out to shoot nature and landscape shots and realized I didn’t have any compact flash cards once, and didn’t have my tripod another time.

Our good friend Jason Anderson has just posted his latest podcast which features yours truly as the guest host. The focus of the show is all about posing as we discuss some key tips to …

This weekend I was attending my wife’s graduation and watched a guy with a high end Canon camera outfitted with the latest 70-200mm f/2.8 L II lens and 580 ex II struggling for half an …

In this installment of “Getting the Shot” we look at night shot of a girl on a beach. We  see the water crashing onto the subject and a dark sky behind her. She is lit …

One of the things I hear that people really struggle with is how to use gels to make colored backgrounds. Why would we want to do this? Well, because sometimes a basic single color background …