essential photography tips

Photography is all about painting with light. Light is what gives your pictures contrast, shape and texture, and often the best light it that which appears at either end of the day when the sun is lower in the sky. At these times of day it casts longer, more extreme shadows, which in turn pick out small details, bumps and texture.

By shooting early in the morning and late in the afternoon, you ll achieve far more interesting results than you would at high noon when you ll spend more time controlling the light coming into your lens than you will manipulating your subjects to best exploit the shadows.It s a cliche, but this shot of Whitby Abbey wouldn t be nearly as atmospheric if it weren t taken at sundown.

Don t let an overcast day put you off heading out with your camera. The softer light you get on an overcast day is perfect for shooting plants, flowers and foliage as it dampens the contrasts we were championing in our previous step. This allows the camera to achieve a more balanced exposure and really bring out the colours in petals.Overcast days present the perfect conditions for shooting flowers and foliage.

Packing a tripod when you head off on holiday is a great way to extend the shooting day, allowing you to take some stunning night time shots with streaking lights and illuminated landmarks. If you re pushed for space, though, check out this trick. Balance your camera somewhere sturdy and safe, disable the flash and set a slow shutter speed or two seconds or more.

Now set your self timer, fire the shutter release and let go of your camera so that you won t cause it to wobble. By the time the self timer countdown expires, any residual movement caused by your hand letting go should have evened out, so your camera will sit still and steady throughout the exposure for a crisp, sharp result.We took this using the self timer and a long exposure. Avoid the temptation to squat in Rome s rush hour traffic.

It s not always possible to find a flat surface on which to perform the previous trick. Try and find a flat surface on some castle battlements and you ll see what we mean. Combat this by packing a small beanbag in your camera bag.

Check out school sports and games categories on eBay to find 100g beanbags (a pack of four costs less than ?5), which can be pressed into shape on uneven surfaces, with your camera snugly settled on top. It s more stable and less likely to either fall over or wobble during the exposure.Paris this time, and we re once again employing the delayed shutter trick.

Professional tripods use quarter inch screws to fix your camera in place. You can easily source a screw of the same size from a normal hardware store. To avoid travelling with a bulky tripod, drill a hole in a standard bottle top (the type you d find capping a 500ml drinks bottle) and thread the screw through it, fixing it in place using strong glue.

Keep this in your camera bag as you travel, but don t bother carrying the rest of the bottle, as these are easily sourced wherever you happen to end up. Fill an empty bottle with grit to give it some weight and screw your cap to the top. Instant tripod.

Self portraits are great for capturing holiday memories, but if you can t find somewhere suitable to balance your camera while also framing the scene behind you, the only way you can take them is to hold your camera at arm s length and press the shutter release. The results are rarely flattering.

Invest in a cheap monopod (search eBay for handheld monopod) and use this to hold your camera away from you while keeping your hands in a more natural position and the great scenery you want to stand in front of behind you. Use your camera s self timer to fire the shutter 2 or 10 seconds later.Your author in Greece, without the aid of a monopod, where the arm and watch strap somewhat distract from the Acropolis.

Ever wondered why so many magazines have faces on the cover? It s because we identify with such pictures, which in turn helps us identify with the magazine. Art editors know that our inclination is to connect with the eyes staring out of the cover, and the same is true of your portraits.

When shooting a person, if only one part of your image is in focus, make it the eyes. That s the first place your audience will look. So long as they re in focus, they ll consider the whole image to be accurately shot, no matter how shallow your depth of field and how blurred the rest of the frame.The eyes are in focus in this shot, so we read it as being accurately focused overall.

Pets are unpredictable, so don t wait for them to pose before shooting. The chances are you ll miss the crucial moment.

Don t wait until you ve attracted their attention start shooting while you re trying to do it, as they don t understand the concept of cameras and will move at the worst possible moment. Switch your camera to burst mode and start shooting while you re trying to attract their attention towards the lens for a better chance of capturing something close to the picture you wanted.

Your camera knows better than you do how to use its own settings to create special effects. Don t be afraid to use its in built scene modes for punchy monochrome or high key effects. If possible, set your camera to save raw and JPEG images side by side so you also have a copy of the original unadulterated scene should you later change your mind.

Frequently the most impressive spectacle, fireworks are nonetheless tricky to shoot. For your best chance of capturing a display, set your sensitivity to ISO 100 and compensation to 0EV so that you don t unnecessarily lighten the sky, which you want to keep as black as possible.

Mount your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to at least 8 seconds. Zoom out so that the fireworks just fill the frame, preferably without being cropped by the borders and be careful not to wobble the camera during the exposure or you ll end up with blurred results. All being well, the result should be pin sharp streaks of light falling to the ground.We shot these fireworks using an 8 second exposure with the help of a tripod and timed shutter release.