Cool article over on DPS today about photographing flowers.

Earlier in the week I had the chance to sit down with a photographer whose specialty is photographing flowers. As I tend to do with pro photographers – picked his brain as we chatted and took as many notes as I could.

By the way – he also recommended two flower photography books – Photographing Flowers: Inspiration*Equipment*Technique by Sue Bishop and Field Guide To Photographing Flowers by Rokach

Check out the rest of the “Photographing Flowers” article and tips at DPS.

Found a cool little article on Histograms… makes sense to me now!

Histograms are a topic that we could (and probably should) spend a lot of time talking about but let me give you a very brief answer to get you through in the short term.

Histograms are a very useful tool that many cameras offer their users to help them get a quick summary of the tonal range present in any given image.

Read the rest of the “Understanding Histograms” article at DPS.

Found this cool article, delves into Photography and related laws in Canada. Most of it is common sense but it’s a good read nonetheless.

The applicable laws may vary by city, province and country. Note that this is not legal advice, and I am not a lawyer, this is simply my interpretation of the laws surrounding photography. Click the text for actual quotes, and links to the laws, where applicable. This page has grown considerably in size with the updates, not every law will apply to you, depending on your location and the type of photography you do.

Read the rest of the article over at ambientlight.ca.

Should be common sense, but hey – we all need reminders from time to time! I know I was guilty of some of this when I was using the Point & Shoot cameras in the past.

One of the common problems that many new digital (and film) photographers have is ‘camera shake’ where images seem blurry – usually because the camera was not held still enough while the shutter was depressed. This is especially common in shots taken in low light situations where the shutter is open for longer periods of time. Even the smallest movement of the camera can cause it and the only real way to eliminate it is with a tripod.

Here’s a quick summary:

1. Use your right hand to grip the right hand end of the camera.
2. The positioning of your left hand will depend upon your camera but in in general it should support the weight of the camera.
3. Make sure you don’t hold your camera too far away from you.
4. Add extra stability by leaning against a solid object.
5. (Bonus tip)… before you take your shot take a gentle but deep breath, hold it, then take the shot and exhale.

Read the rest of the article over at the DPS site.

I’ve never heard of Lomo Photography, but it looks pretty cool… going to have to try this out!

From the first time I saw a photo that looked like this, I wanted to shoot one of my own. But, for the longest time I couldn’t figure it out how people took photos look like this. Then one day searching the web, I realized I needed a Lomo LC-A camera. This is a Russian made camera that was a knock off of another camera. It is poorly made and by Japanese camera standards, a bad picture taker too. As the legend goes, somewhere in the 1990’s a cult following developed and hasn’t stop since.

Photo from Frank Lazaro’s Lomo Photography Tutorial.

Read the rest of the article over on the DPS site.

Another great article over at DPS today by Jeffrey Bail… definitely going to have to try this out!

If you’re like me, you don’t want to spend money if you can do it yourself and yield the same results. One day I was at my local photography store I saw one of these “Pop-Up” light tents. It consisted of a collapsible white fabric box with a hole in the front and 3 lights – used for photographing small objects in photographic studios (like the shot of the chocolate reindeer to the left).

Read “How to Make a Inexpensive Light Tent” over at DPS.

Cool post over on DPS today, here’s the summary:

1. Shoot your subject at different focal lengths
2. Shoot your subject from different angles
3. Shoot using different formats
4. Avoid the Group Shot Blink
5. Use continuous exposure modes
6. Move your Subject around
7. Try Exposure Bracketing
8. Experiment with different ‘modes’
9. Play with your Flash
10. Tell a story
11. One last tip: when it comes to shooting lots of images – take note of what you’re doing.

Read the rest of the post and the detailed comments on each point over at DPS!