Turn Off Vibration Reduction (or IS)

The big rage in digital lenses these days are the Vibration Reduction (VR) lens from Nikon and the Image Stabilization (IS) lens from Canon, which help you get sharper images while hand-holding your camera in low-light situations. Basically, they let you hand-hold in more low-light situations by...

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES

When shooting well-known places such as the Grand Canal in Venice or Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, take classic photos and then shoot creatively, too. Unless you have specific reasons to shoot particular scenes or subjects, the best photo opportunities for you are those things that you enjoy. If you...

Shutters and Apertures

Your camera’s shutter and iris controls allow you to change exposure to control the brightness or darkness of your image, and the depth of field and motion-stopping power. Whereas film cameras have mechanical irises and shutters—actual metal, cloth, or plastic mechanisms that open and close—digital...

White balance

Ever wonder why certain film is labeled as daylight film? This designation is used to differentiate between films created for daylight lighting, Tungsten (studio) lighting, or infrared lighting. Film comes with various light ratings because different types of light have different color casts that can...

FILLING THE FRAME

n order to be able to talk about the different graphic elements in composition, and to look at the way they interact, the first thing we must do is to isolate them, choosing the most basic situations for composing pictures. A little caution is needed here, because in practice there is usually a multitude of...

Shoot Horizontals and Verticals

As much as you may prefer a horizontal shot over a vertical, or vice versa, shoot a subject both ways. By doing so, you off er a client—or a book or magazine publisher—an important choice. In the case of publishing, your photograph may fi t into available space on a page one way. Limiting your format...