Categoria: Photography Tips

Taking good photos for Instagram seems like an easy thing to do. You pick up the phone, open the front camera to click a few times and you’re ready. You download it to the Instagram photo editor, put a filter on top of it, and wait for likes to arrive. And most of the time they don’t come. Then you wonder what’s wrong with your picture. The answer might hurt you, your picture might not be that cool.

So the thing before you go out shooting anything is to think about how you’re going to make this picture, and how you want it to appear. Today there are a multitude of good photos on Instagram can bring not only more likes, but more job opportunities, for example.

Currently, employers tend to look at employee social media profiles and, if their photos aren’t unique or at least beautiful, that’s a warning sign. But let’s assume you’re an attention-hungry girl. Or maybe a kid who wants to attract some nice girls. Because, to be honest, young people use Instagram primarily for this purpose.

How to take pictures for Instagram alone?

For this you will need planning, practice and some equipment. Passing things like lighting and backgrounds will be a sin you don’t want to commit when we talk about photos for Instagram.

If you’re tired of harassing your friends or family to be your personal photographer for a few hours, hoping you’ll look perfect in the photo, you’ve come to the right place. Now, let’s cut to the chase!

Necessary equipment for good photos for Instagram

Preferably a camera. Most people say you don’t need a camera or a good phone camera to get photos appropriate for Instagram, but in reality you need something with quality.

If you don’t have a decent camera it’s much harder to take beautiful photos. If you just your phone you need to activate the timer, which is almost always 5 to 10 seconds, then rush back to your place to do a pose and take a picture. To be honest, this method can sometimes work just fine, but most of the time you don’t get what you want.

If you have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera this problem begins to subside. Many of them have a function called an intervalometer, where you can take pictures at spaced time intervals without the need to press the shutter button more than once.  

So you can take as many photos as you want and as many poses as you need without having to touch your camera or run away every time you take a picture. Even slightly older cameras rely on this feature, and are more than enough for photos for Instagram. 

If you’re happy you can even get a camera that has WIFI and apps to control everything you want, so just put your camera on a tripod choose the composition and use the app to shoot the camera after you have checked the composition on your phone screen .

Have at least one tripod 

Even if you don’t have a super modern camera with a trillion megapixels, which is actually not necessary when we talk about taking pictures for Instagram, why IG compresses so much photos that a time comes that you don’t even see such a difference in a photo with many megapixels compared to a photos with less mp.

One of the most underrated tools in the world of photography is a tripod, and I don’t understand why it is such a useful tool after all. Having a good tripod is a minimum requirement for those who want to shoot on their own.

No matter if you’re using a camera or a smartphone, having a tripod will help a lot when making photos to Instagram on your own. With it you can define exactly how and where you will stay during the photos and do not have to worry about angle or focus changes, as long as everything stays in place. 

Fortunately tripods don’t cost a fortune. Even a cheap tripod of $20 or less will do the job. But in case you have a giant DSLR beware of very cheap tripods. 

How to take good Instagram photos on your own, tips and tricks

Good lighting

It’s not supposed to be news to anyone, but having good lighting when it comes to taking a photo is essential. No matter if you are using natural light or artificial lighting having a reliable source of light during the time of the photo shoot is a mega help.

For this you can use the light that passes through a window, or the light that bounces in a light building to help you build your natural lighting. Of course, to take good photos for Instagram alone you will need to always keep an eye on the lighting around you to find the best time. There’s no point in a super beautiful, dimly lit place.

If so you can also use artificial lighting to create all the mood you want in your photos. One of the coolest things I’ve seen lately is called LumaCube and it doesn’t do any work to load and is super useful when it comes to lighting something, and can be used with cell phone, photo camera, video, etc.

Background

Maybe here’s one of the main mistakes we all make from time to time, not paying attention to what’s in the background of our photos. Whenever we shoot we have to look for a way to clean what is in the background of the photos, to avoid distractions or even unwanted things in the photos. It’s not cool when you have a branch sticking out of the middle of your head.

You can choose the place you will shoot and in this way avoid virtually all distractions and thus have a cleaner photo and with a clearer message; In addition we can choose a background that has context with what you are shooting and that completes the message you want to pass, after all one of the functions of a good photo and pass a message.

If you have a camera with a fast lens you can use the aperture of this slow to blur the background of the images and thus draw more attention to the main plane of your photo. But be careful not to overdo it as this may cause your photos not to have such a clear focus.

Movement

When we talk about movement, we don’t think about running around. It’s the subtle movement that adds meaning to your photo. Something that gives your image much more context and action to your photos. Something very simple to do when you have a camera, but not always so simple to do with a mobile phone for example is to use a slower shutter speed during your photos. 

This will surely bring another layer of creativity to your photos. And if you work right you will have a beautiful photo album that not everyone has the patience to learn how to do.

Here your imagination is who commands, there are not many limits to this type of technique as long as you can get the message you would like is all right.

Use the thirds rule 

It may seem like the world’s most beat tip, but for those who don’t have much experience with photography this is one of the most valuable tips. Using the rule of thirds brings a very good strength and balance to your photos, and ends up generating something much more dynamic than always shooting something very centered on the screen.

So think about your photos in more ways than one, even if Instagram favors photos with the subject of the centered photo, try to break this create something that has more sauce and is more artistic

Shoot in public

Even if you have a certain shame of riding your tripod and doing certain poses in the crowd it is important that you have a certain dynamic in your photos, so that everything looks even more alive.

Try to use other people with background or even blurry foreground, so you’ll be able to create more than one layer of interest in your photos and show that you’re part of a whole lot more than you, leaving aside all the egocentrism of the Instagram.

Of course in this type of situation if you are shooting alone it is interesting to pay close attention to where you will make these photos, as not all places will be friendly to what you are trying to do.

Use a drone

Changing perspective always helps to create better images, and there’s nothing better to make this happen fast than using a drone. Even if it’s not one of the cheapest outfits to have in a backpack, they’re usually worth every penny invested because they’re able to create breathtaking images.

Think of a drone as a normal camera, even if it has the ability to fly. So try to use all the previous tips even if you’re using a drone. 

You will see how addictive all the photos are with crazy angles and insane perspectives you will get. Do not forget that in some places it is illegal to fly with drone, so before going around putting your camera to fly try to find out if you are allowed to do this without hurting any law. 

Organize your Instagram profile

And the most valuable tip of all and put your Instagram up to date. Organize your photos so that they all make sense, no posting thing that doesn’t have so much to do with the previous photo. You can choose to organize your profile by themes, or even by seasons, but the important thing is to organize to create a sense that you really take it seriously.

Try to create something that has felt as a whole, no use posting dog photo in day and then post something that has absolutely nothing to do with the photos of the little doguinho.

If you’re sure photos you don’t want on your timeline anymore, try archiving them to make only the content that best represents you visible.

To give you an inspired take a look at these Instagram accounts to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

https://www.instagram.com/elainery/

https://www.instagram.com/k.els.e.y/

There are a lot of apps that can help you when organizing your Instagram profile, so just jump into your smartphone store and search, particularly use one called Garny that is super easy to use and still help when scheduling posts.

Now that you’ve come this far just missing one thing, take good photos for Instagram putting all this into practice and create an Instagram feed that you’re proud of, not only in how it’s organized but also in the quality of the photos you’ll post. If yo
u paint any questions you can call here in the comments there on Twitter or on the Face page.

10 lighting facts that will enhance your photos

Without wasting time today we will talk about the 10 facts about lighting that many people let go unnoticed but that will be the whole foundation for your photos.

Yes, I know I have been more relapsing with the posts in recent months, but all this is part of a plan. And I promise one day I’ll tell you. But today we go straight to what matters, and in photography what matters most is light. So today I will put here 10 photos about lighting that will help you improve your photos.

The bigger the light source, the smoother the light

One very simple thing that not everyone knows is that the size of the lighting makes a big difference in your photos. And one of the first great facts about lighting that will enhance your photos is that the larger the light source it is the smoother it is.

With a large light source you dim shadows, reduce contrast and suppress texture. With a wide source, the rays of light reach the subject in more directions, which tends to fill shadows and give a more uniform illumination to the scene.

You don’t need any studio equipment to implement this in your own photography. Placing the subject of your portrait near a large, bright window that doesn’t get direct sunlight essentially creates a free light box.

The closer the light source, the smoother the light

This one is fully connected to the first point, the further you move the light source away from objects, the harder the light becomes. The closer the subject the light is bigger it will become relative to what you are photographed.

Think of the sun, which is something like 109 times the diameter of the earth – pretty big right! But 93 million kilometers away, it occupies a very small portion of the sky. Being so, even being great in nature his distance from us makes him a small source of illumination.

The result of this is that when shooting on sunny days, using only the lighting of the sun, we will always have more defined shadows which is one of the great features of hard light, or small and/or distant lighting sources.

Diffusion disperses light

First let’s talk about diffusion. Diffusion is nothing more than putting something between the light source and the object of the photo so that it interferes with the behavior of light. This is one of the facts about lighting that everyone forgets exists until they need it. Usually we’re talking about some interference that allows light to hit your subject. Diffusion disperses light, essentially making the light source wider and therefore smoother.

We can observe a beautiful example of this when the clouds float in front of the sun, the shadows become less distinct. The clouds are acting as diffusers. On cloudy days the entire sky becomes a giant softbox.

If you do not have the clouds available to be able to diffuse your lights you can use a range of other materials. From professional diffusers to bathroom curtains.

Reflected light acts as diffusion 

Every time we use the reflected light on something like it, it acts as diffused light, i.e. if you want to break down a little bit the hardness of your light source, you can try to reflect it on some surface.

Point your light at a white wall before it hits your subject and you will see that the shadows in the photo were much more under control.

This is because you are increasing the physical size of your light source, and as we have seen at the beginning of the article everything is involved with the physical size, no jokes here huh…

A piece of crumpled aluminum paper, crumpled and then stretched on a cardboard plate, can serve as a great reflector or bouncer, it will not be as soft as a white wall but it will be great for generating contrast and bright highlights.

The further away the light source, the weaker and darker it gets

The rule is clear if it was touched inside the area is foul and it is penalty…..ooops wrong blog…

Anyway, the law is clear, the law of the inverse of the square of distance, which for many may seem complicated, but in fact it is quite simple and one of the 10 facts about lighting that will improve your photos that you can never forget.

If you double the distance between the light source and the subject you increase its effective size, but you will also lose lighting in the subject.

In other words, the light decreases quickly the further you move it away – something to keep in mind if you are moving the lights or the subject to change the quality of the light.

Light decay can be used to vary the relationship between subject light and background

We don’t have to always light the background separately from the main subject. With that in mind, we can use the same light source to illuminate both the background and the subject at the same time.

If you bring the illumination closer to the background, the decay of the light will help to make it illuminated. And using the opposite case, moving the subject away from the background, will cause the light decay not to spread enough to properly illuminate the background.

Front lighting reduces texture

A portraitist may want to keep the light source close to the lens axis to suppress skin wrinkles, and this we call frontal lighting.

Generally, the greater the angle at which light is positioned relative to the object, the more texture is revealed. If you are photographing a dog and want to retain the details in the soft fur, position the light source slightly to the side, not directly.

The same rule applies when setting up a hair light.

Shadows help create volume

Having shadows in your photos, whether they’re portraits or landscapes, will help you create the feeling of volume in the photo, something three-dimensional.

So it’s smart to use the shadows to your advantage when it comes to creating your lighting. In addition to this a beautiful lighting, which has areas of light and shadow, it gives personality to the photo and also help in the composition guiding the eyes of the viewer through the photo.

The backlight can be used as highly diffuse lighting

The backlit feature is widely used when we want to photograph the silhouette of something or person. But this is not the only function of this type of lighting.

It seems easy to photograph silhouettes in natural light, but in reality it is not always that easy. Even with the light coming from behind we have a lot of reflection that will reach your subject where you don’t need to.
This can of course come in handy at some point, as this light that reflects and it is very diffuse and soft. So you get a photo with little hard shadows on the subject’s face for example.

Of course, you will have to control your exposure carefully in this type of situation so that the fund is not completely overexposed.

Light is colored, even when it looks white

Another one of the 10 facts about lighting has to do with the color of the light. This is called color temperature, and our built-in computer, eyes + brain, is very adept at adjusting our perception, so that we hardly notice these differences . Digital sensors and films, however, can record color projections where our eyes don’t see them so easily.

The color of early morning and late afternoon is warm, while the shade open at midday can be quite bluish. Tungsten lamps emits very yellow light. And even if you don’t notice the orange wall where the light is reflecting before it reaches your subject, it is coloring your photo.

With digital cameras, you can use white balance control to neutralize or emphasize color projections – for example, to add a warmer tone to a landscape or portrait.
With the film, you had to choose the right film for the light in which you were shooting or compensate with filters placed on the front of the lens.

The white balance is super important on some occasions, when you need to faithfully represent a particular scene, you will have to adjust the white balance accordingly that it doesn’t change the scene.

In other cases, it is possible to use white balance as an artistic tool, effectively changing the mood of the photos just by manipulating their general color.

As you can see this 10 facts about lighting not only will help you to improve your photos but they will also make you see your photos in a different way.

If you liked this article consider sharing it with your friends, it helps the blog a lot and encourages me to create more article like this! Cya!

Wassup guys, it took me a while but I am back, and I didn’t die, and to prove it today we’re going to talk about photography terms that you need to know. I’m actually more alive than ever. Sorry about the big disappearance. But in addition to a little vacation I also ended up getting into one of the biggest projects of my life! When it’s more opportune, I’ll tell you everything! 

The bid today will be how you beginner in photography can unravel the secret code that many photographers use, the famous jargon of photography. After all who never got totally lost when a friend who is a photographer started speaking in a language that only they understand. 

So today I’m going to give you at least 38 photography terms you need to know, and besides, I’m going to brush each one. Sit, pick up the coffee mug because this is gonna be great! 

38 Photography terms you need to know – Almost all the jargon used by photographers 

1 – What is Aperture?

Aperture is the size of the hole in your lens. But it’s not that simple.

The aperture controls the amount of light that enters the camera, and this is one of the pillars of a photo’s exposure. In addition to controlling how much light enters the camera, it also controls how much of the scene is in focus. In this case we have a pretty name for this which is depth of field. Large apertures like f/1.4 will cause the background of your photos to become blurry. 

There are two more photography terms related to the aperture that is – faster lens or a more open lens, which means that this lens can reach larger apertures.

On the other way we have the smaller openings/aperture. This will keep almost everything in focus, and will make your camera capture less light. Usually we’re talking numbers like f/8 up to f/32. 

I know that these numbers can be quite confusing, since a small aperture equals a larger f-number. But here’s a simple way to remember.

Large aperture = Small f number = Shallow depth of field

Small aperture = Bigger f number = Deeper depth of field

If you still feel confused I suggest reading this article here, in it I talk all about aperture. and you can also take a look here where it talks more about the F/Stops. 

2 – What is Shutter Speed?

Following on the toil. The shutter controls how long your sensor or photo film will be exposed to light, the same light that the aperture let in. It’s as simple as that. It’s kind of a curtain in front of the sensor that opens and closes as soon as you press your camera’s trigger button. 

The time when the sensor is exposed to light will directly influence the exposure of the photo, here we have the second leg of the exposure triangle. With the correct choice of shutter speed you can create different visual effects on your photos. 

You can simply freeze the moment, using a faster shutter speed, or you can create a more fanciful effect by using slower shooting or slower shutter speed. 

Shutter speed is shown in fractions of seconds like 1/125, or in full seconds such as 1, 2 up to 30 seconds or more.

Simply, the longer the shutter stays open, the more light hits the sensor and this will make the photos brighter. 

If you want to know more about how to use your shutter more creatively in your photos just read this article here.

3 – What is ISO?

Are you still there?

Okay, so there’s more. In other words, the ISO is nothing more than how sensitive a photographic film is to light.

This “ability” was also translated into the digital medium, so we can say that the ISO in digital photography is how sensitive the sensor is to light, which is only half the truth.

In digital photography, ISO in easier terms acts like photographic film, as I explained above. But in fact, when we adjust the ISO, we digitally increase the electrical gain capacity of the sensor to transform light into electrical signals. And it has a lot of consequences.

But with the ISO we complete the famous exposure triangle, aperture, shutter, ISO (sensitivity). All these settings will always be correlated, so that when you change the shutter speed you may have to adjust one or two of the others before taking the picture

Normally the ISO is adored by many and hated by others. The reason is simple, GRAIN in the photo. When we use an high ISO setting we will introduce some noise, also called graininess or just grain into our photos. The same happens with photographic film, because you buy the film with the desired sensitivity / ISO.

Here the numbers are very simple, digital or analog photography, the higher the number the more sensitive to light, the lower the number less sensitive to light.

4 – What is Photographic Exposure ?

Exposure is basically how light or dark an image is at the time of capture. This is determined by the amount of light that hits the sensor or the camera film. That is controlled by the three main camera settings: shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

If you have not exposed your image correctly and it is too dark, the sensor has not received enough light. We call it underexposure. To fix this, you need to use a slower shutter speed, open your aperture or increase your ISO setting.

If your image looks too bright, the sensor has received a lot of light. We call it “overexposed.” To fix, you need to use a faster shutter speed, close the aperture or use a lower ISO setting.

5 – What is Depth of Field?

Depth of field simply means how much of your image will be in focus, from the front (the area closest to you) to the background (the area of the image furthest from you).

If you’re shooting something like a portrait, you may want the background to be a little blurry, so that when you look at the photograph, your subject really stands out from the background.

This is called shallow depth of field.

If you’re photographing a landscape, you may want everything from the front to the back to stay in focus, so we can clearly see the whole landscape.

This is called deep depth of field. Sometimes it is also called only depth of field.

The depth of field is largely controlled by the aperture setting on your camera. A large opening will produce a shallow depth of field. A small aperture will produce a deep depth of field (with almost the entire photo in focus). But this is not the only way to control the depth of field.

Mastering depth of field is one of the biggest keys to creating an impressive image. When used correctly, it can turn a photo from good to great.

Be sure to read this article here to fully understand what it is and how to use depth of field.

6 – What are F/Stop or F/Numbers?

This is a term used to describe aperture positions on a lens. Controlling how much light enters the camera when a photo is taken. F-stop numbers are used to control the size of the aperture that lets the light into your camera.

Don’t worry alot about it. because it’s a lot more complicated than it looks, because there’s a mathematical calculation to set the F-number of a given lens.

What you really need to know is the relationship between the F-numbers, or F-stops, with the aperture of your lens. So keep in mind. Small F-numbers, F/1.8, mean the lens will have an big aperture, a hole to pass the light is large. Just like an F number with a higher number, F/22 will produce a much smaller hole, or aperture, in your lens.

7 – What are Stops ?

Stops is a term widely used in photography, mainly by professionals, to describe how changes in camera adjustments occurred in the exposure of the photo.

Think of the following situation. You take a picture and it comes out underexposed, your camera settings are:

• Shutter = 1/60
• Aperture = F /2.8
• ISO = 100

Now I tell you that for this same photo to be properly exposed you have to make a change of 1 stop.. If the photo is dark you have a few options. Slow down the shutter, increase the aperture, or increase the sensitivity of the ISO.  You decide you don’t want to increase the ISO to not produce noise, and that you also don’t want to mess with the depth of field. Then you only have the shutter setting, which needs to be adjusted at 1 stop slower. In this case going from 1/60 to 1/30. So it will stay twice as long open and will allow double light into the camera. 

As soon as you become familiar with this term, and how to make such changes, you will be able to make these type of decision in a matter of seconds. 

To get a real grasp in this subject I suggest you give a nice read in this article here where I explain everything in much more detail.

8 – Manual mode

When using Manual mode (which is usually marked as ‘M’ on a camera), you set the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. Manual mode gives you full control over your image exposure. You will be responsible for all decisions related to the exposure of the photos. 

There are many advantages to using manual mode, as well as advantages in using the camera’s semi-automatic modes. If you are going to take photography seriously it is good to have a deep knowledge on how to use the manual mode of your camera. Click this link here and see at least 4 reasons to learn how to shoot in manual mode.

9 – Full frame camera or cropped camera

Full-frame cameras use a sensor of equivalent size to the 35mm film. Typically, full frame sensors can be found on cutting-edge DSLRs and increasingly in mirrorless cameras.

The cropped sensor is smaller than the full-frame. If you have a cropped sensor, you will have an magnification factor, usually between 1.3x and 1.6x. This essentially means that the sensor is literally “cutting” the edges of the frame. Which actually increases the focal length and produces such magnification. 

Did it get hard? Wait. In practice if you use a 50mm lens produced for full frame on a cropped camera the magnification factor will be applied and you will actually have a lens close to 75mm. Many lenses are produced only for cropped cameras, so they do not present this magnification factor.  

But… what is the benefit of a full-frame camera?

The main difference between a cropped sensor and a full frame sensor is the size of the camera sensor itself.

The full frame camera features a larger sensor, which offers a wider dynamic range and better low light performance. The full frame camera also allows for a shallower depth of field than a cropped sensor.

But to be honest, one’s not necessarily better than the other. They’re just different.

And the reality is that due to technology, cropped sensor cameras are rapidly reaching their most expensive full frame friends.

In addition, cropped sensor cameras can be slightly lighter and less bulky than full frame cameras and are also slightly cheaper.

10 – What is Bokeh?

Have you ever seen a photo where the main subject is sharp while the background is slightly blurry?

This effect is known as bokeh. They say the term comes from the Japanese word “boke”, which means “blur” or “fog”.

Bokeh helps bring your photos to life by separating the subject from the background. This makes the subject seem almost detached of the picture. Put the main subject into sharp focus while nicely blurring the background.

By mastering the bokeh, your photographs will become more visually appealing. It places the focus on a specific area of your photo. Allowing you to highlight some objects while hiding others in the blurred area.

To produce a nice bokeh effect on your images, you need to use a quick lens. A quick lens is one with a large aperture. Lenses with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 or f/2.8 will produce the best bokeh.

You will also need to take into account the focal length. The 35mm, 50mm and 85mm prime lenses are excellent options for bokeh production. The longer the focal length (the greater the number in mm), the greater the separation of the background.

You can also create this background effect by approaching the subject. The closer you are to the subject, the more the background will become blurry. Another way to increase the distance between the subject and the background. You’ll increase the amount of background blur in your photos, keeping subjects further away from the background.

With a little practice, you’ll be ready to produce a smooth, creamy bokeh.

11 – How many Frames per second (FPS)?

Most of the time, you probably end up taking one photograph at a time. However, there are occasions when you need to take multiple photos in quick succession. This helps ensure that you capture the perfect moment. Especially when you’re doing action or sports photography.

To shoot multiple frames per second, you need to put your camera in continuous shooting mode (also known as burst mode).

On your camera you probably have a frame rate per second. This number is the amount of photos your camera can take in a single second.

8 frames per second (fps) means you’ll get 8 shots per second (obviously, you’ll need a fast shutter speed!)

In continuous shooting mode, you can simply hold down the shutter button and your camera will continue taking photos.

12 – Which should be my camera resolution?

Have you ever wondered what is the number of megapixels? Well, this is the resolution of your camera sensor.

For example, a sensor with a resolution of 5472 x 3648 pixels will provide 19,961,856 points. Because this number is too long, it will be rounded to 20MP.

Generally, people think that the higher the number, the better the quality. This is true to some extent, but you also need to take into consideration what you will do with the images. You only need a 3MP sensor to get a good 6″ x 4″ impression for instance.

On the other hand, if you want to frame your images and place them on a big wall or a billboard, you’ll need a camera with more than 3MP. In general, the more megapixels your camera has, the higher the prints produced without quality loss.

Keep in mind that some cameras don’t have the sensor size they claim to have. They use what’s called “digital interpolation.” It uses a much smaller sensor and enlarges the image in software.

We have other considerations here, like file size, storage size and computing power to process the huge files that a high megapixel camera produces.

13 – What is Exposure Compensation?

Exposure compensation is a simple way to make photos brighter or darker.

The exposure compensation button is usually located in the upper right corner of most DSLR and MIrrorless cameras. Denoted by a plus sign (+) and minus (-). This feature is available on most cameras. This small button allows you to change the exposure values of the camera to make the photo brighter or darker.

14 – What is RAW File?

Much like your computer, your camera has many ways to store images. The most common are. Raw. TIFF and JPEG.

. RAW is the best way to shoot your images because they record a lot more information than. JPG and . Tiff. 

RAW files can only be processed by using post-processing software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or Luminar.

Most cameras can also save your photos in both, JPEG and RAW. Giving you the best of both worlds.

But remember that the . RAW require much more space on your memory card and on your computer to be stored and they need to be processed before call the job done!

See everything you need to know about RAW files here

15 – What is Focal Length?

Focal length is measured in millimeters (mm). You will notice that your lens has a focal length. If it is a prime lens, it will be a fixed focal length that cannot be changed.

A zoom lens has a variable focal length, so you can zoom in and out without having to physically approach what you’re shooting.

In simple terms, the focal length is how the images will be “enlarged”. So, for example, a 50mm lens will appear more “magnified” than an 18mm lens.

16 – What is Focus on Photography

Focus is the sharpest point in an image. So if you’re taking a picture of your friend in front of a bush, you will “focus” on your friend trying to leave the bush out of focus. It is the area with acceptable sharpness.

17 – What are the Focal Points in photography?

Most cameras let you choose from many different focus points. Most people leave their cameras in auto focus and allow the camera to do the work of keeping the subject in sharp focus. But you can also choose from several other modes that will provide complete creative control over the focal points of your image. Allowing you to focus on certain objects while giving other parts of the photo a blurry and pleasant effect.

19 – What are Zoom Lenses?

This is a lens with a variable focal length. It allows you to “broaden” your subject without having to physically approach. By changing the focal length, you can zoom in and out by composing the photo and framing it as you see fit.

The zoom lens allows you to shoot in a variety of situations without having to change lenses. The main advantage of a zoom lens is its versatility. However, they tend to be slightly larger than the prime lenses because of the its moving parts.

21 – What are Prime Lenses?

It is a lens with a fixed focal length. When using a prime lens, you will need to approach more or less physically to frame your photo. What we call zooming in on your feet.

However, this can also be a great way to learn about composition. Prime lenses force you to think about how to frame your photos. Another benefit of prime lenses is that they generally produce sharper images. This is because they don’t have as many moving parts as zoom lenses have.

The use of a prime lens also generally allows for lower aperture values. It allows you to create this beautiful bokeh effect that comes from a shallow depth of field. Prime lenses also tend to do better in low light situations due to their lower aperture values.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to zoom lenses or prime lenses. It depends on the situation and what you’re photographing.

22 – What is a Macro Lens?

Designed to photograph small subjects very closely. It lets you take stunning photos of insects, flowers, water droplets and more.

A macro lens allows you to explore the small details of a flower or the intricate pattern of an insect. Revealing a world that was once invisible to the naked eye. It has a factor of magnification greater than the normal lenses due to its construction.

23 – What is a Telephoto Lens?

A lens that allows a lot of zoom power. Although technically it is any lens with a longer focal length than the standard. Telephoto lenses are usually 70 to 300mm. This produces a narrower field of view and an enlarged image.

Super telephoto lenses are usually 300mm or more. That’s a lot of zooming power. With this kind of lens you can photograph thinks that a far away and can barely be seen with a naked eye.

24 – How to know what is a Wide Angle Lens?

They’re lenses with a large field of view. Perfect for capturing a wide landscape or tall buildings or any scene where you need a to capture a large portion of what you are seeing.

Any lens with a focal length smaller than 35mm can be considered a wide angle lens. But you should also be careful with the distortion created by wide angle lenses. 

25 – Sync with Flash

As you probably know, when the flash goes off, the light only goes off for a very brief period. Making this brief flash moment match your camera’s shutter speed requires a lot of technical work.

Flash Sync is the highest shutter speed with which you can use a flash. Sometimes this is marked with an ‘X’, which will look like: 1/125thX or only 125X.

If your camera has a maximum flash sync of 1/125 of a second, you can use a shutter speed of 1/125 seconds or SLOWER to shoot with the flash. Most of modern cameras have a flash sync speed around 1/200th nowadays.

Some cameras also feature what we call high-speed flash synchronization, which will allow you to use almost any shutter speed.

26 – What is Flash Shoe (Hot Shoe)?

At the top of the camera, usually above the viewfinder, you can see a small square of metal with circles. There will be rails that will allow you to slide some accessories.

This is known as “hot shoe”. Also sometimes called “shoe accessories”. The shoe is where we can put additional add-ons to the camera … Most of the time, a flash or microphone.

As this shoe is electrically connected with your camera make sure that you are using accessories designed for this place, otherwise you can damage your camera.

27 – What is Long Exposure?

A long exposure is an image taken with a slow shutter speed (the shutter stays open for a long time). These exposures usually last a second or more.

We use a long exposure when the subject is too dark, such as urban landscapes at night or in astrophotography or when we want moving objects to look blurry, like moving waterfalls or cars.

28 – How to do Light Measurement?

Integrated into your camera you have a “light meter”. This is a way your camera knows exactly how much light it is getting. This information tells your camera what settings are needed to get a correct exposure. 

Generally, there are three types of measurement modes available. They are also known as evaluation models.

Matrix: In this mode, the light meter gathers information about the entire scene. Analyzing colors, overall brightness, contrast, tonal ranges, and more. The camera calculates the average of everything in the scene to determine the best possible exposure. Center weighting: The measurement is obtained in a large area in the center of the display. Punctual: The measurement is done in a small section in the middle of the display.

On our camera we also have a reflected light meter, which will send the light information to the evaluation modes. We don’t have control over this light meter, just how to evaluate the measurements. 

Other type of light meter is incident light meter, which is used to measure the brightness of a strobe or a natural light source.

29 – What is Grain (Noise) in Photography?

Noise is the modern word use to describe film grain. 

Photographs taken with low ISO settings (ISO 50-200) have very little grain / noise. As the ISO increases, you’ll notice more discolored dots in the images, especially in dark scenes. This is the “noise” we are talking about. And it will get worse as soon as you go to higher ISO adjustments. 

There are a lot of reasons for this noise, and most of then are out of the photographer’s control.

30 – Where is shutter button?

Sometimes known as “Shutter Release”, this is the big button at the top of the camera that we use to tell the camera to shoot and take the picture.

A remote release is a shutter button on a cable or even a wireless system that you can use to take a photograph without physically touching the camera. Used regularly when making long exposures.

31 – What is a single lens Reflex?

Better known as “SLR” it is a type of camera construction . Single lens reflex means that when you look through the viewfinder, you’re actually looking directly out of the lens with the help of a pentaprism. The image you are seeing is a good representation of the reality.

32 – What is Time Lapse?

Have you seen those videos where plants grow at a phenomenal rate or buildings emerge in just a few minutes, even if these things should take days, weeks or months?

That’s what we call “timelapse video.”

For a video to appear to be moving the same way we see things in real life, you need to capture 24 images every second (24 fps) at least.

A time last is just a way to reduce the amount of images you need to composed 1 second of video.

The amount of photos you need to take depends a lot on how quickly the subject is. A building that takes a year to build will need only 3-4 photos per day to look like it’s being built in just a few minutes.

33 – What is a single lens Digital Reflex (DSLR) camera?

is essentially equal to SLR but instead of recording the images in a photographic film, the image is recorded on a memory card. The term is an abbreviation for Digital Single Lens Reflex

34 – What is a Mirrorless camera ?

Mirrorless is the name given to certain cameras that don’t rely on pentaprism technology that help you see the frame on the camera viewfinder. Instead they rely on an electronic display that usually is a faithful representation of what will be captured.

35 – Where is the Viewfinder?

A viewfinder is what you use to compose (and often) to focus your photo. There are two main types of camera viewfinder. Optical (OVF) and Electronic (EVF).

DSLRs have an optical display. Electronic displays are found on some mirrorless cameras. But not all of them.

An optical viewfinder allows you to see the frame in the same way as your eyes. An electronic viewfinder allows you to see exactly what the camera is digitally viewing. The great benefit of an electronic viewfinder is that you can “view” exactly how your photograph will look (based on current camera settings).

The viewfinder is one of the best tools a photographer has to capture a properly exposed image. And the electronic viewfinder is especially useful for new photographers who are starting out and learning how different camera settings affect a photo.

36 – What is Liveview ?

Liveview is another way to see what your camera is seeing, nothing more than to make the image that is in front of the camera appear on the screen of it in real time.

38 – What is White Balance ?

White balance is a setting to correct the color of your photographs based on the color of the light source.

Sunshine actually has a completely different color from the light on a cloudy day. Tungsten light has a completely different color from halogen light. Your eyes are incredibly sophisticated to correct all these different colors without you noticing.

Unfortunately, your camera is not so good at getting the different colors with the correct look! White Balance can be set manually by selecting one of the presets, such as: “Daylight”, “Cloudy”, “Fluorescent”, depending on the light in which you are shooting.

Click here to see how to avoid using the white balance in the wrong way. 

37 – What is Proportion ?

The relationship between the width and height of an image. It is usually expressed as 3:2, 4:3 or 16:9.

If you have a photo with a ratio of 3:2, the image size can be 300 x 200, 600 x 400, or up to 1350 x 900. As long as the ratio between width and height remains the same (3 : 2)

By changing the aspect ratio, you essentially “crop” the image. Changing how much of the frame you can capture in a single photo.

To give an example, the Sony a6000 has a 3:2 sensor, so using 3:2 will provide the “whole image”. That can be cut to a different ratio later.

This becomes even more important when you want to print your photos.

• A 4×6 print has a ratio of 3:2.
• And a 5×7 print has a ratio of 5:7.
• And a 8×10 print has a ratio of 4:5.

But what if the aspect ratio of your original photo doesn’t match the print aspect ratio?

Your image will be cropped to match the print aspect ratio. So decide how you want to use / print your photo first and select the best aspect ratio based on that.

38 – And the Golden Hour?

This is the period of a day just after sunrise and just before sunset. The exact time window depends on your location and the time of year. But on average, it lasts about an hour. It is the first hour if the sunlight at the beginning of the day and the last hour of sunshine at the end of the day.

Many photographers believe that this is one of the best moments to shoot as it provides your photos with a soft, warm and golden light. It is also a more diffuse light, making it easier to get a more evenly exposed photo.

The End

Phew is over…we have completed at least 38 photography terms that always put questions in people minds. Not that there are no more photography terms out there, but these here are really useful in everyday life. 

If you’ve read everything I congratulate you are a warrior and deserve a round of applause! 

Don’t forget to share this article! This helps the blog a lot! And until the next post.

Shooting in color will always seems a very simple thing, especially so if you only know what digital photography. But colors in photography fulfill much more than the role of bringing things to life.  

Colors in a photo, or in video, can help you a lot on telling the story or when to set the mood for the scene. Colors are very useful tools in the life of any artist be it a photographer, painter, or designer.

And today we’re going to talk a little bit about colors in general, but mostly colors in photography. 

How to use colors in photography

Understanding how colors communicate and understanding what mood may be the result of a color are very special things. For some people, this type of synesthesia is essential to produce certain feelings.

Using my great love of music as an example it is very common for a certain song to sprout in a certain tone, and this usually represents the feeling that music passes me. 

And as if listening to a quieter song my mind filled with a bluish purple color, and this brings me a certain tranquility. Or when I hear a heavier sound, which is usually the preference here in the house, orange and red tones appear, which make me pay more attention to what is happening around me. 

Yes, I know this sounds like conversation from someone who just had a certain type of herb or mushrooms, but it’s not like that.

So when I think of colors in photography I try to put the same feeling I have with music in action.

To understand certain things we need the help of a simple color wheel where we have the primary colors of red, yellow and blue and their complementary colors. 

Understanding this color wheel is key to producing good color photographs.

For many photographers, this is an intuitive thing and they are able to feel the compatibility of colors. But it is also a skill that can be learned from practice.

How to make a good color combination ?

The combination of colors is something essential in a work that will be distributed in a colorful way. Not only photos, but also drawings, movies, paintings and so on. 

Concerning how colors communicate the feeling the artist wants to convey and also how colors speak to each other can be a lifelong study. It is the same thing as leaving art itself and going to branches such as psychology, for example.

Complementary colors 

The first combination of colors we see are the complementary colors. In the photo below we see that the teal/green color is complementary to the color orange/red. Soon we can use this relationship between these colors to create special features in our photos.

As we can see in the photos above the peppers stand out much more because of the green background of the photo. And talking about colors in photography this is a good use of complementary colors.

Of course we can divide the color wheel into many more segments, and thus achieve a much wider range of shades. 

Using basically the same complementary color ratio we managed for example to get to the so famous Teal and Orange color scheme. Which is nothing more than a shade of green and a shade of orange working together, and most part of the movies after 2000’s use.

This type of placement is very famous in the movies and TV series, where the shadow of the scene has this more greenish coloring, while the brighter parts of the photo hang towards something more reddish orange. 

You can not only manipulate the coloring of your photos in post production but can also do so while preparing the photo. Choose a background color that is the complementary color of the dominant color of your portrait and see how everything will collaborate to bring attention to the main object. The same goes for clothes that models will wear or for landscape photos, try planning the photo to incorporate complementary colors 

Other combinations

In addition to the complementary colors we still have other combinations that also have the same job, use the colors to communicate something.  These combinations are:

• Analogous Colors
• Triad
• Monochrome 
• Shadows 

Once we understand the relationship between colors it becomes much easier to think about how and why to combine them. The main combinations will basically cover everything you will do when working with colors in your life! 

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Luminance, contrast, saturation, and hue

In addition to the colors relating to each other they also have a great relationship between itselves and how we perceive them. There are many people who can see differences between two shades of green. For other people these differences may be non-existent. 

One of the differences that can easily go unnoticed by people is the luminance of color. The luminance is nothing more than how bright os dark is the color.

In addition to the luminance in the colors we also have two other pillars, saturation and hue. Saturation defines the intensity of the color. We know that the more intense the color, the more attention it will draw. But very saturated colors can be annoying and quickly tire the viewer’s eyes. 

Speaking of hue it is a way to distinguish one color from another based on the amount of red, green or blue present in the color. 

The hue can join with the luminance property of the color, so that we can define the transparency of the color. We can say that the hue is what gives the colors names.

The color contrast is the difference in luminance of two nearby colors that will at some point be superimposed. A simple example is a portrait of someone with black hair under a black background. The color contrast in this case will be very minimal, making it difficult to distinguish the background of the photo of the person’s hair.  On the other hand, same black hair over a white background will have a higher level of color contrast. 

A very cool site to see what is the level of color contrast is the Webaim.org where you can set the color of the background and foreground and get an idea of the amount of contrast. Null color contrast will have a 1:1 level while full color contrast will have a 21:1 level. 

But what colors work well together?

A simple way to start working with colors is to look for colors that belong to the same family (for example, shades of red and orange). These are known as analog color schemes. Often, you will find them occurring naturally in nature and they are harmonious and pleasing to the eye.

If you are shooting with similar colors, you need to make sure that there is enough contrast between the colors to create an interesting photo.

Once you master this, you can go on to work with complementary colors. These are opposite colors on the color wheel (for example, red and green). This can create a very vibrant scene, but it is inadvisable to use them in large doses.

A good way to use complementary colors would be to photograph a landscape with lots of green grass and trees, with some red details to create a high contrast look.

A more complex way to work with colors is to examine the color schemes of the triad. Triads colors are those evenly spaced around the color wheel (for example, purple, orange, and green).

As complementary colors, a triadic color scheme can be very vibrant, so it is better to work with one dominant color and the other two used as support. In general, colors work well when you follow these rules because they provide a well-combined and attractive image. Of course there are exceptions to the rule.

But, like all rules, it’s best to learn how they work them break then

In summary, color photography can be much more complex than black and white work, as you should feel color compatibility. But it is a task that can be mastered by practice!

See you guys later and share this f****** post!

Today we have modern cameras, artificial intelligence, miraculous applications and lots of technology for all sides, are there still reasons to learn to shoot in manual mode? 

Of course, nowadays with the huge technological advances we can not always afford to learn how things were done in the old days. Like learning to shoot using only manual camera mode, for a lot of people this is a tremendous waste of time and maybe it doesn’t make any sense at all to do it.

But of course for many curious, like you and me, this is a totally valid subject because automatic settings of the cameras will not always the save you. And I can go even further and put autofocus on the same package, the autofocus of the camera will not be always  your friend.  

In today’s article I will give you at least 4 reasons to learn how to shoot in manual mode. No matter what camera brand you use, as long as it has a fully manual setup this article will help you. 

How to shoot in manual mode

There are many reasons to shoot using your camera’s manual mode, the reasons range from simple things to more complicated things. And having this knowledge up your sleeve will help you better understand both your camera and your photography.

Depth of field

The quickest way to make your photos look professional is to control depth of field. The depth of field can be well seen and explained when we talk about photos with blurry background. 

As in the photograph above where it is possible to see the sunflower in focus but everything behind it is out of focus or blurred. This is part of what we call depth of field, and can be easily controlled and manipulated using your camera in manual mode.

When we take a picture we use a certain setting to achieve a small depth of field. The same will not happen when we photograph a landscape, where we will need a completely different fit. 

The manual adjustment that you will modify is the aperture to help you resolve how much of the object will be in focus or not. We can manipulate the aperture of the lenses both by the camera settings and by adjustments to the lens itself, depending on the make and model. 

It is common to use wide openings to make portraits, so we decrease the depth of field. Adjustments between F/1.4 to F/2.8 usually do the job well. For scenes where we want pretty much everything in focus, as a landscape we will use narrower adjustments, F/8 up to F/22.

This is definitely a great reason to use manual camera mode. Of course you can just use Aperture Priority Mode and get pretty much the same results.

Creativity

When you don’t make all the decisions you are no longer responsible for the results. This is pretty simple to understand. When we shoot in automatic mode we lose the chance to be creative, because we leave it up to the camera to make all decisions about ISO, aperture, shutter speed and even white balance. This takes you completely out of creative control of your photo.  

Some cameras still make a big mistake in their automatic shooting modes and forget to take into account what the minimum shutter speed will be for the lens being used. So even in auto mode it is possible to take shaky pictures.

To be able to take full advantage of the camera you bought it is very important to know how to control every aspect of your exposure triangle. It is important to know what the ISO does, what the aperture does and also what can be done with shutter speed.

So we take back creative control of things

If you get lost I advise you to read this other articles here, I guarantee you won’t want to use the automatic mode of your camera anymore. 

• Use shutter speed to create movement
• What is a Stop? And what’s the point?
• Take control of your camera to enhance your photos.

Take photos without flash

One of the things that annoys me the most is when you select a certain setting on the camera and suddenly the flash devil pops-up. Besides giving you a freaking scare, most of the time he’s completely unnecessary. 

Shooting using the camera’s automatic modes is letting the camera itself decide when it is or is not to use flash. This is very annoying because usually the flash built into the camera is a real s***. (whoever reads this will think I hate flash)

I say this because I don’t like to get stuck with the lighting position, and when we have to use the built-in flash in the camera that’s exactly what happens. The flash light goes straight to the face of the subject being photographed. You can’t put it more to the side, you can’t let it any further away and you can’t manipulate her intensity with a reflector or something.

So using the automatic mode only helps you not to have control of anything else.

When we use manual mode, or semi manual modes, we have more control over things, including whether the flash will turn on or not. And if it turns on, what’s the time he’s going to be on, or the flash’s power. This all puts in our hands everything we need to make the decisions and take a good picture.

This was one of the great reasons that made me want to learn how to shoot in manual mode.

White Balance Correction

One of the great things about digital cameras is that they allow us to change the white balance of the camera, according to the type of light we are photographing (e.g., sunlight, tungsten lights, flash). 

And this makes a huge difference in the photo we’re taking, because it can manipulate the colors or make them totally true to the scene we’re seeing.

I remember to this day how I learned to use the white balance. I showed some pictures to a friend who is a  photographer asking for some suggestion. The only thing he told me was:

Beware of white balance

I pretended I understood what he just said me so I went running home to do my research. Conclusion my photos were coming out all bluer than they should because I was using the wrong white balance.

When we use the camera on automatic it will probably adjust the white balance to AWB (automatic white balance). This can be a great danger, especially if you are shooting in JPEG. Because you run the risk of the camera misinterpreting the light of the scene and choosing a white balance that doesn’t match what you want.

There are big problems when we photograph brides or a lot of snow, usually scenes that contain a lot of white color, because minimal changes in light can make the white balance go rogue, and your colors are gone 

If you choose the manual iso mode means that you will also choose which white balance will use. Soon if you make the right decisions you won’t have any problems. 

Extra tip

Choose whenever possible to shoot in RAW so you can choose the white balance at the time of photo editing. 

Extra tip 2 

At the beginning of the section or in the lighting change use a Grey Card to record a white balance reference.

For those who prefer to shoot on automatic, no problem, just keep in mind that all you “are doing” is not you who is doing it is the computer in your hand. Maybe the only  merit  you have is the composition. But of course this does not get to be a big problem, after all even using the camera in the automatic mode the photos almost always came out good.  

You can start slowly and use some priority mode first and then evolve to full manual mode. 

There it goes, if you wanted some reasons to learn to shoot in manual mode here were at least 4 of them. If you liked the article share on your social networks and use the hashtag #dicadofotographiko. 

Definitely this is as necessary subject as the one we talked about last week here, knowing how to use contrast in photography is a indispensable part of knowledge for any photographer.

And in today’s article we’re going to take a nice brush stroke on almost everything we need to know about contrast in photography. Then grab the cup of coffee, full of coffee, and let’s go to this week’s article.

Contrast in photography and contrast in art 

Contrast is one of the fundamentals of art, we are not just talking about light and shadow here. We’re talking about a tool that can help you create context as well. The contrast was super important in works by classical painters such as Caravaggio and Rubens. They used it so they could transform the space with the use of shadows, a great contrast between colors and thus achieving a great depth in their images.

The role of the contract here in this case was to affirm the intentions of the painter in order to create stronger images. By drawing a parallel with photography we can use the contrast in the same way they used in theirs paintings. If we always look for stronger shadows to create an almost three-dimensional image we will see how much the fight between light and shadows can enrich our photography.  

So if you paint, draw or take pictures, think about contrast as a tool to help you tell the story and not just as a color difference. 

Tonal Contrast

Tonal contrast is a type of contrast that can be very subtle or right on in your face, everything will depend on the tones you are using. The thing here is nothing more than using tones that have natural contrast on each other.

In black and white images we have two tones that are definitely opposite and create a very large tonal contrast. The idea here is to create questions insides the mind of the viewers and and try to force the person’s eyes to a specific part of the photo using colors.

As we have many more shades besides black and white and shades of gray we can also use colors that have natural contrast between them in order to create our images.

Color contrast

Like the tonal contrast in photography and the arts in general we also have color contrast. Which we can treat as the relationships between colors. The simplest relationship between colors is between families, warm colors and cool colors. In addition to this relationships, we also have the relationships between the colors inside the same families and also the relationship between more than 3 colors. 

In this way color contrast can be almost a infinite subject in the world of color photography. 

To make use of the use of color contrast in your photograph you must choose the colors that is photographer in a way that they not only help you tell the story of the photo, but also enrich its composition. 

We have some settings to name the color contrast;

• Analogous
• Monochrome
• Complement 
• Triad 

These are just some of the names used to represent certains types of contrast and all consist of organizing colors in a way that they talk an specific language to each other. 

Always think before shooting, choose the color of the girl’s dress, the color of the background and everything else you can. So you will always have control over the color contrast of your photos. 

Conceptual Contrast

This kind of contrast has nothing to do with what we’re used to. I’m talking about contrasting ideas. As if the things to be photographed were opposite to each other. Or maybe they shouldn’t “participate” in the same plan at the same time. 

We use this kind of contrast when we want to put an idea in the head of the person who sees the photo. When we want to say something that cannot be contextualized and challenged. 

Conceptual contrast is very powerful in photography and helps to tell at least two stories at the same time. Used with care can be a great tool for telling stories of social differences.

Combining all the contrasts in the photograph

Now that you already know about the main types of contrast in photography how about trying to combine them into a photo. It can be tricky, for example to combine the conceptual contrast with the color contrast. Especially if we’re talking about street photography, but it’s not impossible. 

Whenever you want a more expressive photo think of contrast as your friend, as it will give you the greatest strength on some occasions. Don’t limit yourself to just one type of contrast in your photo, try to merge them all together or use them apart. Sometimes things will work magically and sometimes they won’t. 

If you liked this article share it on your social networks with the hashtag #dicadofotographiko, and if you want to ask something use the comments section!

You don’t just want to take pictures, you want to know how take great photos at any time of the day, no matter what or who you’re shooting. Taking good photos is a professional photographer’s obligation, and taking pictures without light is impossible after all:

It soon becomes totally necessary to know how light works, and this is an essential knowledge for any photographer. I’m never going to get tired of saying this, no matter if it’s film photography or digital photography. The light will always be present in the theme. 

And when we talk about light we always have at least two “schools” of photography. The natural light photographers and the rest of the photographers. There’s always going to be that guy who says he only shoots in natural light because it’s better, bs.

I believe a good photographer has to do a good job in any lighting situation in which he is going to take pictures. And as I always try to make everyone’s life easier, including mine, today I will give some tips on how to take good photos for Instagram, for Facebook, for anyplace and anytime, after all good photo is good photo. And no, I don’t hate natural light shooters. I just think that there’s nothing better for photography than good light, no matter where it came from.

How to take great photos at any time of the day

One of the first things we should take care of is programming when we’re going to take pictures. And this becomes much more evident when we talk about natural lighting. And to understand this we have things that we always have to keep in mind. Time of the day, amount of lighting and colors are the main ones and they will help you to always take good outdoor photos.The first situation we’re going to talk about is obviously the Golden Hour. That’s definitely the most sought period by everyone to take great pictures, and for a lot of good reasons.

Golden Hour

The Golden Hour takes place during the morning and also afternoon. Usually about 45 minutes after sunrise and also 45 min before the sun goes down. It is a very beautiful type of natural lighting, and you will definitely want to take many pictures during this time of day. One of the facts that make golden hour so cool to me, is that light comes almost from the horizontal. This makes your lighting not so obvious and allows you to take different pictures.

The fact that during this time of the day light has to travel through a larger part of our atmosphere we will have also a good soft light, not to much harsh shadows. 

Another big factor is the color of light, the golden hour is full of warm and vivid colors. All this brings a very happy character to the photo, as if everything was magic, and it is no wonder that many photographers call the golden hour also magic time.  

Although it is great for shooting at this time you will have to take certain precautions, such as with shutter speed. Not always in the golden hour you will have a lot of light available, so you will have to work with the shutter speed to compensate for this. Of course you can use the ISO or aperture as long as these do not harm your intent with the photo. Having a good tripod or knowing how to wield the camera well can be of great help here. 

Elaborate your photos using reflections, light leaks and shadows because during the magic hour all these details will bring more context to your images.

How to take good pictures with the sun on pin – Midday light

At this time of day, the light is very direct and is tilted directly downwards. This means there is little chance of light spreading through the atmosphere, leaving a harsh and reasonably neutral white light.

For many it is impossible to photograph during these times of the day, and it is not for less, it is quite difficult even. But hard doesn’t mean impossible. There will be a situation where you can take great pictures during noon. 

When you need enough contrast you can choose to take pictures during this period. Or when you need to reduce reflections on some surface this type of light can be quite useful. Depending on the scenery you are shooting it will also be an advantage to use the midday sun. As the light in this period is not so colorful you will have much less problems with your white balance and consequently with the colors of the scene.

You can also take advantage of some shadow area or some object that partially obstructs the light to be able to “break” your high contrast a little to make your photos with more uniform lighting. Awnings and marquees will do this role well.  

Of course, taking great photos during midday presents its challenges but nothing impossible for those who are not afraid to take a chance.

Photos in the morning and afternoon

Photos that are taken outdoors and are neither in the Golden Hour nor at noon are probably taken between these two periods. These periods of the day are great for taking pictures because they have a very beautiful light with warmer colors. The contrast level is not as high as at noon, but it is also not low. The most interesting of this period are how the shadows will work on your photos. For a few hours of the day the sun will focus its light in a more lateral way. And so you can use this in your favor to create images where shadows are more active role in the photo.

Side light and shadows can be very useful for making objects more three-dimensional, as well as producing strong and interesting portraits. However, as the light is not as neutral as noon nor as hot as in the magic hour, you are in risk of photos that seem a bit boring and common.

Perhaps here lives the most feared period of the day for  many photographers. How to take pictures in low light?

It’s one of the questions I always hear from anyone who’s trying to learn photography. And the answers are as varied as possible. They range from buying a cameras with giant ISO capability to never leaving home after 6:30 pm.  

And taking pictures at night and something really cool, depending on what you’re shooting, of course. At this time of day the lighting is dim, we have many cold colors, we run the risk of being robbed or bitten by some animal. But most of the time it’s well worth it.

Here I will give the best tip to take good pictures at night:

Long exposure and tripod

When you are shooting at night this two items will help you a lot in everything you are doing and depend on natural light. So you don’t wait and buy a tripod right away. Night photos of nature will rely heavily on the light of the moon or the clarity of the night itself. And if you use a shutter speed that helps in your exposure you won’t need a giant ISO setting.

Of course you can include some lighting in your photos, such as flashes, lamps, flashlights or any other light source. Do not forget that shooting the night in the city is totally possible because many places have a huge amount of light even at night. You just need to choose the location that best fits the context and fire.

Shadows and cloudy days

You want an easy mission? Choose a day with more clouds to take pictures. All the cloud that blocked the sunlight acted like a giant softbox. This will make your photo have a much smoother lighting and that both colors and textures become more controlled. 

The same happens when you take your subject into a shadow, taking him/her out of the direct sun you get an effect similar to that of a softbox. 

You can also choose to go out on cloudy and even rainy days to make your photos. After all all the darkest weather days cannot be missed. On days with these features you will have at your disposal very different and interesting textures and colors to work with.

What to do to take good pictures

As you can see there is no excuse for not taking great pictures at any time of the day. All moments of the day present their peculiarities and specific ways of working. It’s up to you to choose and plan before you shoot. Choosing the time of day according to the project you will shoot is super important and will help you define the whole context of the work.

Now it’s up to you just to put into practice these tips on how to take good pictures and start putting your gems there on Instagram.

That’s it for today. Don’t forget to like and share this post!

As we already know, there are a lot of niches to photograph, and there always paints a question; How to choose the best lens for a particular photo? It is not always so easy to choose a lens for a more specific job. And today’s article deals with exactly how different lenses can make your photos a disaster or a success. Choosing the best lens for your photos involves much more than just whether the lens is fast or slow and some things may surprise you.

Choosing the best lens for your photos. Theory

We usually think of lenses as much simpler than we should think, especially when we are presented with photography. Over time we gain knowledge and trickery and some things start to make more sense. Like when choosing a longer lens, 200mm or 300mm. Or when choosing a shorter lens, 35mm or 18mm without thinking. But the fact is that most of the time the beginner in photography does not know this, because he only has the kit lens, usually an 18-55 mm lens with an F / 3.5 aperture. And even with only the lens in the kit everything you will see in this article works.

And many of these things can impact the quality of the photography you want to do, a very simple thing is the angle of view of the lenses, or how much they can see.

In this regard, we can divide the lenses into families:

• Fisheye (180° viewing angle with focal length between 8 and 16 mm)
• Super wide angle (84° to 114° viewing angle with focal length less than 24 mm)
• Wide angle (viewing angle from 64° to 84° with focal length between 18 to 35mm)
• Normal (viewing angle from 40° to 62° with focal length between 35 to 60mm)
• Medium telephoto (10° to 30° viewing angle with focal length between 85 and 135mm)
• Long telephoto (8° viewing angle with focal length above 300mm)

Note that the longer the lens is, the narrower your field of view is, so if you want to isolate an object it is interesting to use a long lens. However, this requires physical space to be able to use this lens. To use a 300mm lens you will need to be physically distant from what you are photographing.

All of this is very interesting but it doesn’t help that much to solve life when choosing the best lens for the photo.

Choosing the best lens for the photo. Practice

As they always say out there:

“In practice the theory is different”

So let’s move on to something simpler. The first thing to weigh is what kind of photo you are going to take. Will it be a face portrait, will it be a landscape?

This you have to answer now, so you are on a good way for choosing the best lens for your photos.

To make your life as a photographer even easier, we can divide the lens into themes, and then the game is much simpler.

• For street photography use between 24mm – 50mm
• For landscape / Architecture use 16mm – 35mm
• For pictures use between 85mm – 200mm (close)
• For sports use between 70 – 200mm
• For Lifestyle Photos / Documentary use 35mm or 50mm
• Macro photos use 100mm (with macro function on lens)
• Wildlife macro photography use 200mm (with macro function on lens)
• And for wildlife photos recommend using between 200 – 400 mm

Of course, the list above are just tips on which lens works best in every situation. Nothing stops you from taking pictures of a wild lion with a 18mm lens. You will get two results. The first will be a photo of a wide landscape with a small lion in the corner, after all you stayed in the car away from the lion. The second, if you have the courage, is a close-up photo of a lion, the photo is a portrait with a wide angle yes it has a little distortion but this makes the photo even more impactful, but you probably took too much risk to take this photo and maybe no longer have an arm or a leg.

Do you understand why knowing how to choose the best lens for the photo you want to take is super important?

Now you just need to know what you are going to photograph and program yourself accordingly. You don’t need to take your entire arsenal of lenses to photograph an event that just needs portraits of guests for example.

Of course, nothing prevents you from using a 35mm lens to make portraits. After all, the list above is not a rule, these are just guides to make our lives easier. In many cases you may be surprised at what a macro or wide-angle lens can do for your portraits.

Choosing a lens. Distance

Choosing the focal length can have a huge impact on your photo, not only on the photo itself, but also on your security and your pocket. Long lenses are often very expensive and large. But they are great for when you need to photograph a lion feeding in the savanna and you can’t scare it.

Of course, choosing the focal length can affect how your photo will look, and this is quite interesting. Different focal lengths distort the image, some more others less, but somehow they all distort what you are seeing somewhat.

It is no wonder that a portrait taken with an 85mm lens is extremely different from the less portrait taken with an 18mm lens. Many people think that this happens because of the quality of the lens, but it is not just that.

In addition to this we also have another type of deformation, the background compression, which happens with lenses with greater focal length. Of course, you can use this to your advantage as it changes the perspective of things.

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Choosing a lens. Aperture

Choosing the lens aperture you want to use goes much further than taking pictures with a blurred background. And let’s face it, most people think that this alone is enough justification to buy an F / 1.2 lens.

Having a lens with the capacity for larger apertures also means having an enormous capacity for shooting in low-light environments, without relying so much on ISO.

Of course, lenses with large apertures like F / 1.4 will be great for various types of photography, and will always have their particularities, such as the ability to blur not only part of the background of the photo but also part of the foreground.

You will choose the lens aperture according to some needs, and of course availability.

If you are going to photograph a landscape for example, we usually want the focus to be accurate and with few blurred areas, so a very large aperture may not help you that much.

Otherwise, you need to take a portrait outdoors and would like to have only the model’s face highlighted, here a lens with large aperture helps you to isolate the main subject just using the lens aperture.

Not always a lens with a huge aperture can be the solution to isolate the subject from the photo, you can use background compression for this. Just as you can also use the distance between the subject and the background of the photo, everything we already talked about in the article about depth of field.

Lens brands and models

One of the things that end a lot of people’s day is choosing brand and models of things. And the lens market is extremely large and often complicated. In addition to having several models of lenses within the camera brand itself, we also have third party lenses, brands that manufacture lenses for cameras from brands A, B, C etc.

Some of these third party lenses have their own technology, image quality that is sometimes better than the camera’s own brand and so on. Giving just a simple example, a 50mm lens for Nikon, we will have at least the following options:

• Zeiss Milvus 50mm f / 1.4 ZF.2
• Nikkor 50mm f / 1.2
• Nikkor 50mm f / 1.4D AF
• Sigma 50mm f / 1.4 DG HSM ART Lens
• Yongnuo 50mm f / 1.8 MC
• Zeiss 50mm f / 2.0 Milvus ZF.2 Macro Lens
• Tokina Opera 50mm f / 1.4 FF
• Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S Lens

Imagine for those who are buying a lens for the first time, with all these options in front of you, some of them costing almost nothing and others costing almost a kidney, what do you do to Choose the best lens? Let it for lucky decide? Going in the most expensive?

I fully agree that it is a very difficult decision, but not impossible to make. What is worth remembering that the best lens is the one that does the job you need, maybe if you need special conditions to take a picture you need to choose a special weapon. In the above situation I would choose the best cost-benefit ratio (best quality in general for the money I am willing to pay), this is what I would choose.

Mixing it all up

There is not a way to choose the best lens for the photo if you don’t know what you’re going to shoot before. It’s the same as I said in the last post, it’s good to have a plan and be prepared. But usually choosing a lens is not that difficult. If you have the money to invest I always advise you to buy the best lens you can, as they are an investment for the future. But if the money is low and you still need to choose the best lens for the job, use the tips you read here, and don’t look back because at the end of the day what counts are the photos you took and not with which lens you took that photo.

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Today we are going to talk about thing we need to know before taking a photo.

You’ve probably went around your neighborhood with your camera just walking around and trying to make some sense of what you’re doing, meaning you don’t have a plan before you take a picture. Don’t worry this is normal,from time to time we are all like this, we walk around bored by just following the tide.

Although this type of practice seems more spontaneous and “work” in favor of the moment, it can also be a big focus of disappointment in your photography, after all things don’t always happen in front of you just for you to photograph.

So before you take your camera and go out there again to shoot god knows what, I want you to ask yourself these 5 questions before taking a picture and apply your answers in planning. Perhaps the results you are expecting need only a little polish to happen.

Questions you need to answer before taking a photo

Question 1: What is the purpose of the photo?

This is a question we should always answer ourselves, not just talking about photography. Everything we do should have a clear goal so we can appreciate it all the way with much more affection and effort. And when we’re talking about photographing something or someone it’s always good to have in your mind what is the purpose of this photo. What really you want or should show with such a picture.

This can make your job much easier or much more complicated, everything will depend on the situation. However answering this question before raising the camera up to your eye will make your work make a lot more sense for you and everyone who appreciates your photos. Having a job that means something to someone can be much more rewarding than money. Always try to keep this type of thinking in mind before closing any show, so as not to fall into a deeper hole than you need and also not let anyone frustrated with a job that doesn’t make sense.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with having luck when you are a photographer, the only problem that luck does not generate consistent results.

Question 2: Where is the light coming from?

As soon as you answer the first question you define what kind of image you’re going to do, that’s great. 

Now we need to worry about more “simple” issues, or at least one of them. And the second answer you should get before taking a picture is; Where’s the light coming from?

Regardless of where your lighting is, natural or artificial light, you need to know which direction it comes from. There are many photographers who use only available light (natural light), and in these cases know which direction the light is coming is extremely important. The one advantage of artificial light is that you get to choose the direction of light, but in the end of the day. light is light and period. It doesn’t matter if it comes from the sun or from a light bulb a respectable photographer has to know how to work with all of them.

So knowing where to position what or who you are going to photograph is something you need to answer before taking a picture. Think of shadows, light leaks, light color, and everything related. So you will have the chance to create a much better and much nicer photo.

Question 3: Is there anything that draws more attention in the photo?

There’s nothing more confusing than something competing for the attention of the main object in a photo. Sometimes this situation is easy to solve, just move you talent or yourself and fix the photo. Other times you will have no option but to totally switch places or give up the photo. Eliminating distractions will be part of your photo composition process, and will only be real effective at the time of the photo, so pay attention on your entire frame, because there’s not much planning when it comes to photography in a place where you don’t have complete control.

Pay attention to the background and foreground. Pay attention to details that should not appear in the photo, colors, objects etc. All of this works together to make your answer to the first question as clear and direct as possible.

Question 4: Do I need something special on my camera?

Sometimes, we have an idea in our head but we have no idea what do we need to make it a reality. It all comes down to planning and researching, pure and simple. And part of the planning is to answer if you need something special to make the picture you imagine.

The question may be just what type of configuration you will use, or what the period of the day will be better. Other times you will have to define what type and how many flashes you will use and how they will fire and whether you will need to change the lighting color of any of them. 

Having an answer to whether or not you need something special before taking a picture is simply the most important technical issue we will see here. Often you need to postpone the project just not knowing what it is need to take a picture. Other times the project takes much longer because you are learning to deal with new knowledge and techniques while running it. So keep in mind that if you answer all this before taking a picture it will help you much more than you think.

Question 5: Checklist and plan B?

Of course if you have reached the 5th question you should be very confident that the photo will happen. One thing we should get used to doing is always have a checklist to fulfill before you start shooting. Prepare it in advance and don’t forget simple things like taking a pumpkin candy, if it makes you more comfortable to perform the job.

Of course, things don’t always come out like in the plans and it’s always good to have a card up your sleeve in case something goes wrong, so create an alternative path. Have a plan B for some difficult step of the project, or even for the whole project if applicable. Just don’t miss the chance to do the photograph. 

If the place you went to photograph is full of people but you have planned to an empty place, do something different. Think about some of the scenarios you might face and create a little plan for them. I believe that you should always try to deliver your best, and for this to happen be willing to shape the situation a little is very important.

Recap before taking a photo

Never miss photos again because you didn’t plan things right, use these 5 questions and define what you need to know before taking a photo.

Everything we do before we get the camera matters everything we think about before taking a photo affects our work. So, be prepared whenever possible.