General helpful shizzle

LEARN ABOUT YOUR CAMERA! We all hate reading manuals, but learning what does what, how it does it, and why it does it is essential if you want to be a good photographer. Also - look at other people's photos, and try to work out why you like them and why you don't like others - and it sounds silly but take lots of photos - obviously the quickest way to learn!


Definitely shoot in RAW if you have a big enough memory card - gives you power to process your own photographs and has much more scope for cropping/post process work.


Use a UV filter on your lens most of the time where possible - it costs £10 to replace as opposed to hundreds/thousands if you need a new lens.


Follow the Rule of 3rds! There is a section on it in a previous post on this blog below.

Hosting your photos on a website like http://www.flickr.com/ will allow you to share and catalogue your photos for free (or if you decide to go pro, at a small cost) - you can join groups which will boost your confidence when nice people say nice things about your photos, and you can see stats like how many people have looked at your photos, where they are being posted by others etc. It does make an OK backup source for your photos, but use something else like an external harddrive as well in case your house burns down - although your photo collection might be the last thing on your mind if your house burns down.

Shoot with a polarising filter outdoors. look at the post on filters for what a polarizer does and how/why - but a quick synopsis is it makes skies very blue, and foliage very green - also allows you to see under the surface of water (light reflected from water is polarized), but does not absorb reflected light from metal, just so you know.


Canons- The less numbers in the name, the better the camera.


Nikons- The more numbers in the name, the better (except the D3/D3x - best camera in the world, up yours cannon)


If you're shooting moving objects/panning - TURN OFF VR OR WHATEVER YOUR VIBRATION REDUCTION TECHNOLOGY IS! Also, same goes for it you are shooting on a tripod, the tripod is your VR, turning VR on will actually introduce shake, much the same as if you start taking anti-psychotic drugs when you're not mental will make you hallucinate. Sort of.



If you have an onboard flash indoors at a party for example (not a big group or if the subject is far away), and no flashgun/strobe - then try putting a bit of tissue paper over the front of it. You'll look like a bit of a mentalist, but it will soften'diffuse the light a little and will look better in the end (unless you are after hard light in which case don't bother)