Bird Photography Tips for Beginners

The colour and texture of birds’ plumage makes them fascinating subjects for photography, made all the more exciting by their fleeting and elusive nature. With a lot of patience and practice, and the help of these tips, you’ll soon be on your way to making memorable photographs of...
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Weekly Photography Challenge – Highways and Byways

Earlier today I shared a collection of images of paths and roadways. Leading lines are a great compositional element, and paths and roads are a great way to incorporate them into your images.
More info on using leading lines:

How to Use Leading Lines for Better Compositions
How to Use...
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A Collection of Pathway and Roadway Photos to Lead You

As I’ve been on the road for a couple weeks now I’ve seen more than a share of roads recently. So I thought I’d find some pathway and roadway photos to lead you on – hopefully to get out and do some of your own photography.
Enjoy the journey down these highways and...
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6 Tips to Take Your Architecture Photography to the Next Level

Architectural photography may seem like an incredibly boring subject, but there is lots of creativity involved with shooting buildings, not to mention it’s a rather lucrative way to make a side income as a photographer. However, the rules of photographing a building versus a person are...
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How to Create Amazing Reflection Photos using Puddles

People are captivated by reflections, and photographers eagerly seek out still bodies of water in order to capture stunning reflection shots. But a perfect reflection may be closer than you think, especially if it has just been raining.

Puddle reflection

Photographing puddle...
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5 Ways to Create Better Images Without Buying More Gear

You are a photographer. You love getting out there and doing your best to create great images. Photographers also love something else. Camera equipment. Sometimes you may find that you spend more time searching for a new lens, filter or accessory than actually photographing with it. When you...
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Using Composition to Create More Powerful Portraits

As part of my series on portrait photography, in this article, I will discuss composition, one of the most important aspects of creating a good portrait image.


Are there any laws regarding framing a portrait?
Can I leave hands, fingers, or part of the head out of the frame?
Does a portrait...
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Raw Versus JPG – Why You Might Want to Shoot in RAW Format

If you have ever shared a photo by email, or posted one online, you might have seen a three or four-letter extension at the end of the file name that looked like “.jpg” or “.jpeg”. Almost every camera – from cell phones to point and shoots to expensive DSLRs takes...
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The Secret to Capturing the Best Image Quality with Your Digital Camera

Many modern digital cameras boast incredible ISO speeds. Where ISO 400 or 800 was the top speed in the film era, usually accompanied by grain the size of golf balls, today’s digital cameras can give you top ISOs of 6400, 12,800, 25,600 or even higher. Camera makers boast of these high...
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Using Slower Shutter Speeds to Show Motion in Your Images

Changing shutter speed not only changes the amount of light that enters the camera, it also changes the way your images look. By changing the shutter speed, you’re allowing the film or digital sensor to be exposed for a longer or shorter period of time. That affects how motion is portrayed...
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How to Choose a Great Portrait Photography Location

There’s an expression in the photography world called ‘ESP’ which stands for ‘Expressions sell photographs’. It’s true, a lovely expression is the single most important thing in any portrait photo (unless it’s a silhouette).
However, portrait photography...
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Four Reasons to Display Photos of Your Children

As parents and photographers, we take thousands and thousands of photos of our children every year. Looking at my Lightroom catalogue from last year, I have over 3000 photos of the kids, and that doesn’t include all the pictures I took with my phone camera!

In our house, the camera is always o...
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The Camera Histogram Explained

This video does a great job of explaining how the histogram on your camera works and how to read it.

I do slightly disagree with his tip on having a mountain in the center is the best option, as it does depend on the subject. If you are photographing a black cat on a black sofa that would be...
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How to use the Contrast Checker Technique to Give Your Images More Punch

I am about to reveal a technique that will have your images looking awesome in seconds every time you use it. I am even going to share the Photoshop Action with you so you can edit in lazy mode, I mean efficiency mode! Before I bare all, I need to give you some background information, and I am...
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5 Tips for Doing Photography from the Hip

Photographing from the hip is, quite literally, having your camera near or resting on your hip and pressing the shutter button. This photography method is typically used in street photography when the photographer wants to take candid, incognito photos. But, sometimes, trying this as a...
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Weekly Photography Challenge Things at the Beach

Earlier today I shared a bunch of jaw-dropping images of beaches. As you may have guessed, this week’s photography challenge is one in the same.
Even if you aren’t near the ocean you can get out and find a body of water somewhere near you – perhaps a lake, pond, stream or even...
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A Collection of Breathtaking Images of Beaches

Seeing as how I’m writing this while I sit with a view of the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon coast, I thought I’d round up some great images of beaches, the sea and the ocean for you this week.
Some of them incorporate some great long exposure techniques, and many are shot at the...
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Three Tips for Being Ready to Shoot Faster so you Never Miss a Shot

We’ve all heard one of the cornerstones of making better photographs is to slow down; be deliberate and take your time. This is very true. In no way am I advocating not being purposeful in your shooting. However, sometimes there are situations when the difference between getting a good...
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5 Bad Photography Habits You Need To Keep Doing

I don’t floss every day. I still use the word “rad” as an adjective and not in the cool retro way, but in the I-don’t-have-another-word-for-it way. The driving speed limit and I have a love/hate relationship. And I have been known, on particularly hard days, to let my kids eat coo...
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Preview of the Slide and Clutch Camera Carrying System from Peak Design

With Peak Design launching another set of products via Kickstarter, we’re very fortunate to get our hands on the new, as yet unreleased, Slide and Clutch camera carrying system prior to launch for a little dPS preview!
You can see the Kickstarter here and pre-order if that’s your ...
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Photography Trip of a Lifetime to the Canadian Rockies for Your Bucket List

With thousands of awe-inspiring and exotic places in the world, you have no shortage of places to visit and photograph. If you’re like me and have a bucket list of adventures you just have to shoot before you hang up your camera, allow me to add one more trip to your inventory.  This ...
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4 Ways Self-Critique Can Improve Your Photography

Learning how to analyze and judge your own artistic work correctly is a valuable skill that can be a bit tricky to learn properly. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “I’m my own worst critic” thrown about, you may have even said it yourself in reference to your own pho...
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Create Better Black and White Photos Using Local Adjustments in Lightroom 5

I showed you how to convert your photos to black and white in Lightroom in an earlier article. But, considering it dealt purely with global adjustments, the piece only gives you half the story. Global adjustments get you started, but in order to get the best black and white conversion possible...
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Avoid These 10 Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Image Quality

Central Park South.

How many times have you captured an amazing image only to view it on your computer, or as a print, and realize that you screwed something up along the way.
Unfortunately, the only way to stop doing a lot of these easy-to-make mistakes is to have an image ruined by them.  O...
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Photography Hunting – Play the Waiting Game with Kids

What is photography hunting?
I am a hunter. My prey, however, does not scurry through the woods, fly through the sky or swim in the streams. My trophies are instead moments, which I stalk, camera at the ready. When the time is right, the target is placed squarely in my sights. Click.
I’m...
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Ebook Review – From Basics to Fine Art Black and White Photography

If you’re interested in black and white photography, the names Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou will probably need no introduction. The work of both photographers has helped define, and push the boundaries of long exposure photography, a relatively new genre in the fine art w...
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Video Tutorial How to Manage Your Lightroom Catalog While Travelling

Last week I shared one of Serge’s videos on some of the new features of Photoshop Creative Cloud (CC). Serge is a French photographer in Paris and was recently doing a workshop with our very own dPS writer Valerie Jardin. So I’ve approached Serge and hopefully he’ll be doing...
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A Different Kind of Photo Tour to Israel with Vibe Israel

I was recently invited on a photo tour called Vibe Israel by a non-profit organization called Kinetis, I wanted to share my experiences of the trip with you.
Who are Kinetis?
Six of us were on this tour of Israel, a tour to show what Israel has to offer to photographers, to show a different side...
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Photo Shoot Ride-along – Photographing Cocktails

In this article you are going to join me on a real client photo shoot photographing cocktails and learn how we created the final images. You can see a previous ride-along doing head shots on a white background here.

Client brief
The client is a 1960′s Tiki themed cocktail bar in...
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Weekly Photography Challenge Reflections

Earlier I rounded up a set of reflection images. Now it’s your turn!
This week’s photography challenge is reflections
Reflections are great for learning to train the eye to see photographically. Start looking for them everywhere, in windows, doors, car panels, wet pavement, puddles,...
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Reflection Photos to get you Motivated

A puddle in the road, plate glass windows, or a shiny car – what do they all have in common? They provide great opportunities to get reflection photos.
This set of images of reflections is to give you some ideas to go shoot your own reflection photos.
Enjoy!


Black Lotus by Mathijs van...
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36 of the Best Online Tools to Boost Your Photography Business

As a beginner photographer, I put most of my time and energy into the product side of my business. I need to practice, improve my shooting and post processing skills, and just grow as a photographer. However, I have a strong intention to make photography my full-time job and be successful in it,...
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Review Domke Chronicle Camera Bag

The new Chronicle is part of Domke’s Next Generation line of camera bags.

There’s a new line of camera bags on the market, but they come from an old, familiar name. Originally founded in 1976 by photojournalist Jim Domke with the introduction of the F-2, the Domke brand has been...
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5 Photoshop Tools to Take Your Images from Good to Great

Seascape image – Before and After image editing

We hear it all the time, “That photo has been Photoshopped”. Sometimes it sounds like the photo has caught a disease or that Photoshop is some undesirable effect that has been added to the image. Photoshop is the KEY to making...
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Why Aperture Priority Mode Isn’t Always the Best Choice

There are a lot of common mistakes to make in photography, but possibly the most frequent is to shoot in Aperture Priority mode when it’s not the best choice.
There are many situations where shooting in Aperture Priority is ideal, such as when you are using a tripod and your shutter speed ...
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eMotimo TB3 Review – Robotic Tripod Head and Time-lapse Movie

I’d forgotten all about my childhood dreams of achieving world domination using my very own robot army until I switched on the TB3 from eMotimo. As soon as I synched up the wireless remote and started panning and tilting this robotic tripod head, I was transformed into a grinning 8 year ...
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5 Hot Tips For Improving Your Summer Photography

We aren’t going to talk about cleaning your lenses (although you should), I’m not going to tell you to use a tripod (you should know that), and I’m definitely not going to tell you to compare last year’s photography to this year’s (but that’s not a bad idea)....
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dPS Mid Year Sale – 7 Hot Deals In 7 Days

For some of us it’s summer time,  for most of us it’s the middle of the year, for all of us it’s time for a huge dPS sale!
If you’ve been a Digital Photography School reader for a while, you probably already know about our huge end of year sale (don’t worry th...
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