What kind of camera should I buy?

This is a question I hear from time to time, usually from  a parent about to buy a camera for a young photographer or from an artist using photography to document subjects or document artworks.  If the question is from someone who wants to learn photography as a hobby, it is difficult to answer.  . . . → Read More: What kind of camera should I buy?

What about white balance?

When we all used film, we had to be concerned with white balance, but we dealt with it in more clumsy ways than today with digital cameras.  We bought daylight film or indoor film, or else we used filters to “color correct” based on the difference between the light we had and the . . . → Read More: What about white balance?

Three simple rules

… and their exceptions!  Rules in photography are not like rules in chess, where you must obey them faithfully, or basketball, where you might foul if you think you can get away with it.  They are guides, and we need to know about them so we can both use them and break them with . . . → Read More: Three simple rules

Using Flash – Or Not

This tutorial on flash is about not using flash.  How does that make sense?  Well, there are two main reasons to use flash.  One is to provide light quickly enough (maybe a thousandth of a second) to stop fast action.  The other is to provide light to remedy a scene with an extreme range . . . → Read More: Using Flash – Or Not

Using Flash – Light Modifiers

The first two tutorials on flash dealt primarily with exposure, and the third with the color of light, and all had to do with the overall frame.  This one deals with the light’s shape and texture, and how to change it.

You have probably seen modified light in this sense.  One of the simplest . . . → Read More: Using Flash – Light Modifiers

Using Flash – Light Color and Correction

One of the problems of using flash, especially when the ambient light is strong, is matching the colors.  Light has color, typically measured in kelvins.  Why kelvin and what the “color temperature” means is too much to go into here, and isn’t really about photography.  Let’s just say there is a measurement scale for . . . → Read More: Using Flash – Light Color and Correction

Using Flash – Fill Flash

Fill flash is the second most common use of on-camera flash (second to flash as the primary light), and perhaps should be used more often than it is.  Fill is a very descriptive term; the light from the flash is used to “fill” shadow areas that are expected to be too dark.  But if . . . → Read More: Using Flash – Fill Flash

Using Flash – Basic Exposure

A few days ago, when photographers were picking up their works from our Member Show, a couple of people asked me about using flash.  My first though was “Wow, that’s a tough subject.”  But, what are tutorials for?  If I only wrote tutorials on easy subjects, what good would they be?

So, here goes.  . . . → Read More: Using Flash – Basic Exposure

So why tutorials?

Well, why not?  I don’t assume we are all equal in experience, skill, knowledge, or interest.  But it is pretty safe to believe that many people who join a photography club are interested in learning more than they know about photography.  Another thing I don’t assume is that well all have the same class . . . → Read More: So why tutorials?