7 routines which will make you a much better photographer

Pictures arrives normally with a individuals, however the majority of us require a small exercise. Implementing these types of programs might help.

1. Use manual publicity
At the risk of stating the most obvious, when you use guide exposure mode you are in charge of aperture and shutter pace. That means in order to consider successful images, you need to consider whether you need to blur or freeze movement and just how much depth of field you would like for every shot.

And when you set specific sensitivity settings instead of using the Auto ISO choice, you also determine how much noise you will see.

Many experienced photographers realize the principle of guide exposure, but they make use of the semi-automatic modes of shutter concern and aperture priority with regard to convenience.

Using manual exposure mode makes you consider exposure and how you would like your images to look a lot more carefully – and that may only be the best thing.

2.Check the histogram
Checking your camera’s histogram look at for each image is a good way of getting a much better understanding of brightness as well as exposure. This simple graph indicates the amount of pixels with brightness ideals running from 0 (black) to 255 (white) using the tallest peaks appearing at most common brightnesses.

If there’s an extremely big peak at the far right from the scale, there large bright places and some pixels could be burned out.

Meanwhile a large peak at the reverse end indicates large dark areas having a strong chance that a few shadows are featureless public of black.

If you check the histogram of each and every image that you shoot you’ll develop a good picture of the way the light and dark areas inside a scene translate into an image in addition to how altering exposure effects upon the histogram/image.

In time you’ll find out how interpret what you observe into exposure settings so you get the shots you would like first time.

3. Make use of your camera’s spot-meter
Like while using histogram view, using your camera’s spot-meter can help your understanding of publicity develop.

Whereas a camera’s evaluative, matrix or multi-segment metering system is made to give an exposure settings that work with the image in general, the spot-meter option takes measurements from the very precise location.

It is made to suggest exposure settings which make the target area the mid-tone. This means you have to be very careful where a person position the metering stage, if its over the bright highlight or darkish shadow the image is going to be badly under- or over-exposed respectively.

           4. Set a custom whitened balance
Many photographers depend on their camera’s automatic white balance system to obtain colours looking right and in many natural lighting conditions it’s quite a safe bet.

A few may use a few of the preset values to cope with some specific lighting problems, and quite a few rely on the truth that they shoot raw images and may correct white balance having a click of the computer mouse post-capture.

However, if you use your own camera’s custom or guide white balance option regularly you will develop a larger understanding of colour as well as white balance.

You’ll also see the ultimate image straight after it’s shot rather than later on on your computer keep track of, so you’ll have a far greater idea if you’ve got the image you want.

5. Shoot using only one focal length
Zoom lenses make life easier because instead of needing to carry a bag crammed full with lenses you will get away with just 2 or 3, depending upon what you do.

The downside to move lenses, however, is they make you lazy. Rather than walking towards a subject we often zoom in. Moving towards and around a topic enables us to uncover new angles and perspectives and may often lead to much better, more interesting images.

One method to force yourself into the actual habit of exploring subjects more would be to restrict yourself to only one focal length. If you've got a collection of prime contacts, great, pick one and spend the day/week utilizing it and it alone. For those who have zoom lenses, pick 1, choose a focal duration within its range as well as shoot everything at which.

As well as discovering new angles you’ll also create a deeper understanding of level of field control in the focal length – there’s much less depth of field from any given aperture because focal length increases.

This will make it easier that you should decide what focal duration and aperture to use later on and you’ll take much more creative images..

\6. Share one image every single day
Showing other people your shots (and taking a look at their images) is a good way of gauging the effectiveness of your images and obtaining constructive feedback.

And there are numerous website, apps and organisations that will help you do it: Instagram, Myspace, Flickr, Twitter and Photocrowd to name just a couple.

However, rather than bombarding individuals with lots of shots, why not commit to sharing only one every day and which makes it the best image that you could?

Undertaking the challenge of shooting a minumum of one image a day means that you’re constantly searching for images and you’ll end up being alive to new photo taking opportunities.

And the pressure of getting to share some of those images everyday will provide you with extra determination to allow it to be a great shot

7. Rate your own images
Get into the routine of rating your pictures from 0 to 5 following every shoot – where 0 may be the worst (and unstarred) along with a five-star image is the greatest.

As well as causing you to focus on your photos, trying to separate the wheat in the chaff, you will gain an insight to the mistakes that you make as well as your photographic process.

For instance, if you find that you simply habitually take a broad shot, which is okay but instead cluttered, before moving to a brand new vantage point to have a less cluttered image after which go a bit closer to obtain a shot from a much more dynamic angle, then you are on the way to taking better images in the outset..

How to compress perspective in landscape images

We demonstrate how to give the result of compressing the viewpoint and bring distant hillsides closer together by capturing a misty scene having a telephoto lens.

Distant landscapes could be difficult to shoot. We’re all often tempted to make use of as wide a lens as possible to be able to capture a vast look at that looks great towards the naked eye, but in a picture that impressive vista may become a tiny sliver associated with interesting land with scores of dull foreground below as well as plain skies above. In this tutorial we’re shooting landscapes having a telephoto lens to be able to compress the scene.
This method may not fit in just as much of the land at either side from the frame as using the wide-angle lens would, however it will scale distant features to become more comparable, compressing hillsides and valleys together, while mist and haze will help make edges in the actual landscape look more described.
Mist gathered in the valleys between the hills will also assistance to emphasise the structure from the landscape.
This effect is actually popular with travel photographers since it enables them to include multiple landmarks inside a single frame – pictures of places like Bagan within Myanmar, with temple peaks compressed together inside a sea of mist, tend to be so familiar they’re nearly a cliché.
You may also use the same method in cities, compressing skyscrapers as well as spires, so long as possible find
a suitable vantage stage.
We used a 70-200mm f/2. 8 Nikon lens fully zoomed set for our shot, although any kind of telephoto lens should function. It’s the focal period of the lens, and your distance in the hills, that creates the actual compression effect. The lengthier the focal length, the greater pronounced the effect.
1 Wake up early
Check the forecast to try and predict when fog is probably. Keep an eye away for clear skies, chilly nights, temperature changes as well as high humidity. First thing each morning is usually the greatest time for fog. Head out well before sunrise to get set up with time for you to spare.


2 Head up high
Find the correct angle for viewing the actual landscape. Ideally you desire to be looking out over moving hills, and positioned slightly greater than the tops of the actual hills you’re photographing. We got setup below Corn Du within South Wales to shoot out over the misty lowlands below.
3 Scale to suit
Use a long zoom lens to crop in in your chosen subject. This may compress the hills as well as valleys, making them look scaled-down, and scale the entire scene to some similar size, rather compared to having, say, one small peak within the distance with a large tree within the foreground


4 Compose carefully
You don’t want in order to overpower the sky along with bright sunlight. To keep your fog clearly visible however gain the orange shine of sunrise, compose your image so the sun is just away from edge of the body, and the light leaks in with no sun itself blowing away the highlights.


5 Arranged spot metering
Put your own camera in aperture-priority setting, and use an aperture associated with f/11 or f/16 to ensure you've got a large depth of area. With spot metering chosen, expose for the water. Allow the land to become silhouetted if you need to, as all you really require would be the shapes of the hillsides.
6 Change the exposure
Review the histogram to check on that the graph includes a peak towards the right-hand aspect for very bright, whitened mist, or towards the center for grey mist (above). When the graph is in the incorrect place, or ‘clipped’ from either end, use publicity compensation to shift this left (-1EV) or correct (+1EV).

14 family portrait pictures ideas you’ll in no way wish to ignore

Portrait photography tips can vary wildly from simple tweaks to your camera settings towards the seemingly impossible task of getting children to remain still.

Although many photographers upgrade to a decent DSLR to provide them more control when they take family pictures or pictures of friends, getting great shots of individuals is always a challenge.

The difference between amateur and professional portraits could be vast. So we’ve compiled this list of 14 of the very important portrait photography tips for any photographer to understand.

We’ll start off using the basics on aperture, shutter speed and lens option, then move on to focusing and photo make up techniques, before showing you how to use sun light and reflectors to dramatically improve your results.

We’ll then discuss a few of the more advanced portrait photography tips, such as the advantages of using flashguns and other accessories when shooting pictures.

Whether you’re taking portraits of your friends or you’ve been commissioned to photograph a household, and whether you’re shooting in a pristine studio or outside inside your local park, the helpful advice below will assist you to become a better portrait photographer

+1 EV

01 When to make use of Exposure Compensation
A common photography problem when capturing portraits light skin tones is under-exposed portraits. You’ll notice this more when shooting full-face photos or when there’s plenty of white in the scene – brides at weddings really are a prime example.

No EV

To brighten subjects when using Aperture Priority mode, you can use Exposure Compensation.

Try dialling in up to +1 stop of positive Exposure Compensation to lighten people’s faces. For more on when to make use of this feature.

02 Aperture advice
When shooting portraits, it’s better to set a wide aperture (around f/2. 8-f/5. 6) in order to capture a shallow depth of field, so the backdrop behind your subject is nicely blurred, making them stick out better.

Shoot in Aperture Priority mode to manage depth of field; in this mode your SLR will helpfully set the shutter speed for any correct exposure.

Specialist portrait lenses tend to possess even wider maximum apertures (from f/1. 4 in order to f/2. 8) in order to blur backgrounds additional.

03 Shutter speed settings
When setting shutter pace, factor in your lens’s focal length otherwise camera-shake (and blurred results) will end up an issue.

As a general rule, make sure your shutter speed is greater than your effective focal length. For example, at 200mm make use of a 1/250 sec shutter speed or faster.

This also means you will get away with slower shutter speeds when using a wide-angle lens – for example 1/20 sec with an 18mm focal length.

For more about this portrait photography tip, see our guide to common mistakes at every shutter speed – and also the best settings to use..

'04 Increase your ISO                                                                                                                         
People move around a great deal as they’re photographed, not to mention blink and constantly change their own facial expressions – and there’s nothing worse than the usual photo of somebody half-blinking or gurning instead associated with smiling!                                                                                                                

To avoid these problems, and to avoid motion blur appearing, you’ll need to use an easy shutter speed.
This will also help to ensure sharp shots and avoid camera-shake because generally you’ll be shooting portraits handheld.                                                                                                                          
While in Aperture Priority mode and maintaining a broad aperture, to increase your shutter speed simply improve your ISO (from ISO100 to ISO400, say).                                                                        
Within low light (indoors and outside), you may have to increase it to ISO800, 1600 or even 3200.
Just a little grain is infinitely better than a blurry, ineffective photo.                                                  

05 Zoom lens choice
Your choice of lens has a big effect on your portrait photos. A wide-angle (around 18mm) zoom lens captures a wider angle of view, so more of the subject’s surroundings will be in shot.

A telephoto (over 70mm) zoom lens captures a narrower angle of view, and less of the subject’s surroundings will appear in frame. Focal duration also affects depth of field (DoF).

A wide-angle lens will capture more depth of field when compared with a telephoto lens. This is why telephoto contacts are favoured over wide-angle lenses for portraits, because they further knock backgrounds out of focus to make people more prominent within the scene.

Portrait Photography Tips: Focusing and Framing

06 Creative compositions
Don’t be lazy with your compositions. Too often photographers stand back, thinking it’s best to include all, or at least the top half, of their subject.

Zoom in instead to fill the frame for a more inspired photo composition. Positioning your subject to one side of the frame, with ‘space to look into’, is a great technique to master, as is experimenting with wide apertures to capture a very shallow depth of field.

But remember to make sure your focusing is as precise as possible – with our example, shot at f/2. 8, we focused on the model’s left eye,

Shot without a reflector

07 Use a reflector
A quick and affordable way to brighten up your portraits and to give them a professional look is to use a reflector. Use them indoors (near windows) or outdoors to bounce light back onto your subjects to fill in unwanted shadows.

The white reflector produces neutral results

Many reflectors arrive double-sided or with detachable covers,
so you get a range of white, silver and gold reflective surfaces. The white surfaces of reflectors may also double up as diffusers to soften strong immediate sunshine.

A gold reflector warms up your portrait

The silver reflector brightens your image

If you’re truly strapped for cash, you can make a reflector by simply utilizing a large sheet of white cardboard – which you'll also cover with tin foil for a silver effect – also it should still work a treat!

'08 Focusing your camera
When using wide apertures (especially f/2. 8 or even faster), your depth of field decreases dramatically, therefore
it’s crucial your focusing is bang on, otherwise you could end up getting out-of-focus facial features; the person’s nose may be sharp however the eyes soft.
With tightly composed photos, focus about the eyes; with wider compositions, focus on the mind. To help with pinpoint focusing, manually select just one autofocus (AF) point.

09 Posing for portraits
How your subject stands, poses and looks may have a dramatic effect on your results. A slight change in facial expression – for example whether they smile or not – can radically change the whole feeling of the photograph.
When shooting, try and capture a variety of expressions so you can pick which you prefer when editing them back home on the pc.
Also consider setting up portrait shots where your own subject looks off-camera, up or down, or to 1 side. Play around and see what works.

Portrait Photography Tips: Using flash

10 Obtain artistic with flash lighting
Equipped with a flashgun, remote triggers along with a good-sized diffuser, you open up the possibility of the vast array of clever and cool lighting set-ups.
Light your subjects in the side to add drama to your portraits, and obtain creative by under-exposing the sky or background, dialling within -2 stops of Exposure Compensation to capture the moody backdrop behind your subjects.
10 Wired as well as wireless flash triggers
Although your digital camera’s pop-up flash could be handy and helpful, there are many reasons to purchase a hotshoe flashgun.
One of our favourite portrait photography tips is by using off-camera flash. An off-camera flash is much stronger, which means a brighter burst of light, helping you to set smaller apertures to capture more depth associated with field, or to light up a group of individuals.
You also have more control over its configurations, and you can angle it up or sideways in order to bounce the light off ceilings and walls.

11 Uphold me
Consider investing in a flashgun stand, like the Manfrotto 5001B Nano stand (£45), plus a Manfrotto
026 En aning Tite Swivel Umbrella Adapter head (£29).

A stand not just acts as a second pair of hands, it also allows you to position your flash up high or down reduced, pointing the head exactly where you want the light hitting.

With fill flash

12 Using fill flash on sunny days
Although it may seem odd to use flash when the sun’s out, that’s precisely the time when you should use it!

Without fill flash

The sun can cause a variety of problems for portrait photographers: harsh shadows across encounters, unbalanced exposures and burnt-out highlights.
Use a little bit of ‘fill flash’ and you’ll instantly improve your pictures; your camera will capture a much more well balanced exposure, because your flash will light up your subject as the camera exposes for the background.
13 The advantages of off-camera flash
A flashgun is detachable and could be fired via a cable, or wirelessly using a handheld remote control attached to your hotshoe (some of the latest SLRs may even fire flashguns remotely, without the need for one more trigger).
You can also use two flashes together for more complex lighting set-ups. Using a remote trigger will allow you to fire one flash, to act at the ‘master’, which in turn will fire the second ‘slave’ flash unit simultaneously.
Attach diffusers and softboxes for a bigger, softer – and much more flattering – spread of lig

14 Five expensive upgrades & add-ons
a) A hotshoe flashgun (or two). Read the Nissin Di866, £200.
b) Flashgun diffuser. The functional Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce is a great option, £18 (see page 130).
c) Flashgun softbox. LumiQuest Softbox flash attachments come in a variety of sizes, from £25.
d) A remote flash cable, like the Canon OC-E3 Off-Camera Shoe Cord or Nikon TTL Remote control       Cord SC 28.
e) Wireless flash triggers, such as Hähnel’s Combi TF Handheld remote control and Flash Trigger, £50.

7 focusing features you might have never used.

Wish to take your focusing skills to another level? Here are seven tips that will help you focus faster, easier and much more accurately.

1. Focus lock
We’ve all been in the situation when we know what we to focus on but, for whatever reason, our cameras have another idea. Maybe other subjects around or in front of the intended one are distracting it, or the camera keeps losing focus on account of the subject being too featureless or low in contrast for it to always be noticed.
Or perhaps we’re shooting through a window and the camera keeps focusing on the window itself rather than what’s visible through it.
Your camera’s focus lock feature is a fast way to ensure the camera stays locked on the subject of your choice.
Once the camera has found focus, pressing the relevant button will temporarily disable the focusing system so that you the camera literally stays focused on what you want, leaving you free to slightly recompose the image and know it won’t get distracted.
This technique also helps when a focusing point does not cover the subject after you’ve recomposed the image. You could, of course, simply use manual focus to get around any issues with the autofocusing system, although this way you retain both the speed and accuracy of autofocus..
2. Back-button focusing
Most of us understand the idea of a camera concentrating on a subject with a half press from the shutter-release button and capturing the image once the button is fully pushed down. This is perfectly suitable more often than not, although focusing using another control can be beneficial in certain situations.
On Nikon and Cannon cameras the button that does this really is marked AF-ON, although some Nikon models that lack this could have the feature assigned towards the AE-L/AF-L button.
By disengaging focus in the shutter-release button, you can focus ahead of time and know that the actual camera won’t hunt around with regards to the critical moment associated with capture.
This is particularly useful whenever you’re in times when something may be getting around the subject, which could cause the autofocus system in order to refocus.
It also means you are able to focus and recompose along with greater ease and also enables you to subsequently override the AF program with manual focus if you think you need to, using the knowledge that pressing the actual shutter-release button won’t trigger your camera to redouble.
3. AI Concentrate / AF-A
Most people understand the separate focusing settings for still and shifting subjects. Canon’s DSLRs, for instance, have long offered 1 Shot and AI Servo configurations, while Nikon and Pentax versions offer AF-S (single) as well as AF-C (continuous) options.

You might have noticed, however, that some camera provide a third option is frequently included alongside these, labeled AI Concentrate on Canon DSLRs and AF-A upon Pentax DSLRs. So what do these do so when might you use all of them?

These options automatically switch between your two primary options as so when a camera deems this necessary. So, if you’re concentrating on a subject and it starts to maneuver, this option will notice this and can attempt to keep an eye on its movement.

This is useful when capturing any type of subjects that are vulnerable to unpredictable movement, such because children or pets, or even when focusing for a passing fancy person in a crowd or within the distance.

4. Disabling the actual AF assist lamp
Many cameras possess a small lamp on their own front that sometimes springs alive to illuminate a topic, and its purpose would be to help out the camera’s autofocus program, particularly in darker problems.

This can be helpful when capturing inanimate topics, although there may be instances when it’s not welcome, such as in locations of worship or every other occasion where you have to be discreet.

Fortunately, you can disable this with the camera’s menu system. While this will obviously have an effect on your camera’s capability to focus in low gentle, it will help you to definitely stay discreet if you want to.

5. AF Microadjustment
Digital cameras and lenses are put together with great precision, but they are made to fit within a certain degree of tolerances. This, together using the general bumps and scratches that equipment encounters via use, means that different combos of camera and lens can provide different results with regards to focusing.

It’s no question, then, that many manufacturers have provided the possibility to tailor how a lens performs on the particular body within the last few generation of their own cameras.

These adjustments, which permit you to very slightly adjust focus if you discover the camera is regularly focusing a little before or behind where it will, don’t physically affect the actual lens itself, rather they happen in camera in support of apply when that type of lens is used (unless you decide to apply it globally for those lens, which some cameras permit you to do).

Many lenses should end up being fine and it’s feasible that you won’t have the ability to improve on this, if your camera offers this and also you do attempt it, ensure that you follow the instructions in your manual to find the best results.
6. Touch focus
If your camera includes a touchscreen it’s very likely that it will help you to focus on a subject by simply keying it on the actual LCD screen. This is excellent when the subject is specially small or at the peripheries from the frame, although it’s also great for any type of tripod-based work where you might be using the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder with regards to composition.

It may also be possible to mix this with the choice to trigger the exposure, which could speed up your capturing..
7. Focus peaking
An element on many CSCs plus some compacts, but also beginning to make an appearance upon DSLRs, focus peaking gives a much clearer idea of whenever your subject is in focus while using the manual-focus mode.
Here’s exactly how it works: as a person adjust your focus by hand, highlights start to show over areas which are in focus.
The more in focus a topic is the more covered it's in highlights, and when you’ve reached the most over the desired area you realize you’ve reached the best position. This option is ideal for tripod-based work, where you are able to adjust this with greatest precision.

The way to shoot a reduction ice still life

Imitate the coming of spring and coil as we show you a brilliant technique for shooting a reduction still life image.

Depending on where you stand in the world, spring may still feel just a little way off – but like a photographer you don’t have to wait for the second, sometimes you can create it on your own.

Frozen subjects have a wintry magic all their own, and the way the actual ice around them holds onto and refracts the light since it melts means no 2 photographs
are the exact same.

This project involves getting a bright, vibrant subject, then freezing it inside a block of ice. In the event that you’re using buoyant topics, such as flowers, place them inside a pot of shallow drinking water, allow this to deep freeze, add more water to completely submerge the flower, after which freeze it again.

When the block of ice is actually ready, you are likely to suspend it above a few candles, the idea being to feature a mixture of ice, water, fire and perhaps actually some smoke all in one still-life image.

You’ll need a macro lens to get really close to your own subject, but if you don’t have one you are able to shoot wider and include more from the candles within the frame making use of your standard zoom at complete zoom. You could also make use of a cheaper alternative
to a passionate macro lens, such like a magnifying filter or a good extension tube.

Macro photography provides a variety of challenges, from requiring extremely precise focusing having a narrow margin for mistake, to calling on an enthusiastic attention to detail when designing your scene. Despite these types of challenges, with some careful placement and key settings you too is going to be capturing stunningly detailed macro touches.
1 Frost nova
Make your ice blocks ahead of time – start at least your day before your shoot. It’s smart to make multiple ice blocks so you have more options obtainable. Make them in plastic tubs and pour warm water within the underside of the box to obtain your block out.
2 To black
Set up your own backdrop and light. All of us used a black fabric to isolate our topic, with a standard 40-watt household lamp towards the right to light the actual scene. It’s also smart to put down a holder that’ll sit underneath your susceptible to catch dripping water as well as any candle wax.


3 Maintain a candle
Position your own candles against your history (but not too close), remembering you’ll have to suspend the ice over them. One flame isn’t especially effective, so we arranged three candles inside a line. Wider shots filled with smaller tealights can also lead to interesting shapes.
4 Prop it up
Placement your ice above the actual candles, either by propping this up (use the edge from the tray, jars, cans, or anything you like so long as it’s out of shot), or even suspending it from over on string. If a person suspend it, use multiple bits of string to stabilise it and prevent it spinning.


5 Open up wide
As your scene will probably be low-lit, you might need to utilize a slowish shutter speed, so place your digital camera on a tripod if you want to. Keep the depth associated with field shallow, with a good aperture of, say, f/3. 2 to split up the subject from the backdrop. Set ISO to 100 to get rid of noise.


6 Glaciers melt
Light the candles as well as shoot from low right down to crop out the holder and any stands accustomed to hold up the glaciers. The ice will dissolve quickly; this is ideal for showing the defrosting procedure, but means you need to shoot quickly. Only light the candles when you’re prepared to shoot.

6 surefire ways to improve sharpness in your images

Sometimes, even when using effective image stabilisation or a tripod, images can still come out with a little less bite than expected.

Often it’s difficult to understand why this is the case when we believe we’ve done everything as we should, but the fact is that this could be down to a number of reasons, from issues with equipment and technique to the subject and even environmental factors.

Here are six tips make sure you always stand the best chance of capturing images with clearly defined details.
1. Insure your shots with a minimum shutter speed

Many modern cameras allow you to set a minimum shutter speed, and this is an effective way to ensure images always stand a chance of being captured sharply – particularly when using lenses or cameras without any kind of image stabilisation.

When shooting in the Shutter Priority or Manual exposure modes you will probably already be using an appropriate shutter speed for your scene, although in the Aperture Priority mode it’s easy for shutter speeds to occasionally dip below what’s recommended for that particular focal length.

So how do you set this to the right speed? For general-purpose use, a good idea is to set this to the reciprocal of the focal length of your lens, taking into account any crop factor applied by your camera’s sensor.

So, a speed of 1/50sec would suit a 50mm lens used on a full-frame body, or alternatively 1/80sec or so if using a camera with an APS-C sensor.

If you’re using a camera with a particularly high-megapixel sensor (24MP or 36MP, for example), you may want to set this slightly higher to be on the safe side. On your camera this may be offered in same setting where you can adjust ISO (sensitivity) to an Auto option.

If your subject is moving, consider setting this to a speed that you know will render it sharply in relation to how fast or erratically it moves.

For posed images of people this does not need to be much higher than 1/100sec or so, although for those moving around a speed of 1/160sec or even 1/250sec would be more appropriate. Obviously in these situations you may also wish to employ continuous AF too..
2. Know when not to use focus-and-recompose

The focus-and-recompose technique is a popular way of achieving focus in an image when, for whatever reason, there isn’t an AF point covering the subject.

What typically happens here that that the photographer will use the central or another key AF point to focus on the subject, before recomposing the shot to the desired composition. This usually works well with distant subjects but can cause softness with closer ones.

So why is this? Depth of field increases with subject distance, so when you’re focusing particularly closely to a subject, any shifts in subject or camera position after focus has been confirmed can leave the subject slightly out of focus.

This is particularly problematic with wider apertures where depth of field is shallow, so be aware of this if you do choose to employ this technique here.

f/8

3. Don’t always use the widest aperture…

Wide-aperture lenses are great in low light and when trying to achieve very shallow depth of field, but most don’t give their optimum performance at their widest aperture. In fact, they tend produce sharper images when they are used at a smaller one, such as f/5. 6 or f/8.

The main reason for this is because of an image-softening effect known as spherical aberration, which is particularly problematic at wide apertures.

It’s certainly the case that some optics are surprisingly sharp at the widest f-stop, but closing down the aperture – even slightly, thus maintaining the kind of shutter speed and effect you want in your image – can often help details be better defined.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should always stay away from wide apertures. In fact, you may prefer a slight softness when shooting portraits or when images aren’t likely to be viewed at 100%, and the advantages of a having a very shallow depth of field may outweigh minor losses to sharpness.

4. … but don’t always use the smallest either

Although it’s possible to achieve expansive depth of field at very small apertures, push this too far and you may see sharpness compromised.

The reason for this is down to an effect known as diffraction, which concerns what happens with light as it passes around an obstacle of some kind, which in the case of lenses would be the aperture blades.

Most lenses can be stopped down to f/16 or f/22 but if can get the depth of field you need in an image at a slightly wider aperture such as f/11 or f/13, or if you use hyperfocal focusing, you may find this serves your images better.
5. Activate Face detection

When capturing people, one mistake many photographers make is focusing on the bridge between a person’s eyes rather than on the eyes themselves.

In some cases this isn’t too great an issue if the aperture is small enough to ensure depth of field renders both in focus, although when shooting close to the subject with a wide apertures – as you may well be doing with portraits – this can mean that the eyes are a little soft.

Obviously the best course of action is to always focus directly on the subject’s eyes, although when shooting multiple images in different compositions, it’s all too easy to slip on the occasional shot.

Activating Face Detection is a good way to ensure that the camera knows what it’s focusing on, and often these systems will try to ensure that the eyes are as sharp as possible.

6. Change your technique when using a tripod

Using a tripod can be an effective means of improving sharpness in your images, although even when using one it’s possible to compromise the result in many ways. The key thing to ensure is that the camera remains as static as possible during the exposure, which you can make sure of in a number of ways.

Using a remote release of some kind is a good way to ensure the camera is not touched at the point of exposure, although if you don’t have one, the self-timer option can be used successfully in its place.

Your camera may also have a mirror lock-up mode that allows the mirror to be raised independently of the shutter opening to capture the exposure (also a potential cause of blur), and you may be able to use this in conjunction with a remote release.

Make sure to turn off your image stabilisation system when using a tripod too, as this can create vibrations that work against the very thing the system is trying to prevent.

Your camera or lens may automatically sense then they are being used on a tripod and deactivate image stabilisation of their own accord, so check to see whether this is the case to save you the effort.

A 5-point checklist for capturing the best landscape image possible

At some point, we’ve all come back from a shoot and been disappointed to find that the image or images we’ve believe to have captured successfully have had something wrong with them.

Maybe the wrong shutter speed has caused details to blur, or perhaps focus was slightly off. Or perhaps depth of field didn’t extend as far back or forward as we thought it would.

This is particularly disheartening when capturing a landscape, given the effort that goes into getting to a location in good time, setting up and waiting for the perfect moment.

So, to make sure you always come away with your images as best as you get them them, here are five key things to check as you’re shooting.
1. Use a lens hood – and make sure it’s mounted properly

Lens hoods are one of the simplest and most useful lens accessories, but they’re often forgotten about. They help to ensure that extraneous light in the scene does not creep into the image and affect contrast and saturation, and so they’re particularly useful in landscape photography.

Whenever you use a lens hood you should make sure of two things. The first is that you’re using the correct hood; these are designed for specific lenses so that they are most effective at blocking light for the particular focal length(s) of a lens, but it’s easy to mistake one for another if you have more than one and they have the same diameter.

Using the wrong hood could lead to vignetting in your image, so get into the habit of reverse mounting your hood on your lens (if possible) to make sure it always stays on the right lens.

The other thing to check is that the hood is mounted correctly. This isn’t a concern with round lens hoods as they provide the same protection however they are rotated, but petal-shaped lens hoods are designed for the aspect ratio of your sensor, and when they’re not correctly mounted they can darken the corners of the frame (and this is easy to miss).

Most click slightly when they are in the correct position, with the longer petals vertical and the shorter ones horizontal, so check this is the case before you shoot.
Vignetting is also easily caused by filters with deep profiles, or when using a number of filters at the same time, and the effects can be so gradual that it can be hard to appreciate until you view your image on a larger display. When buying filters, look out for those with a low-profile design as these should help to keep this to a minimum
3. Use your depth-of-field preview function

Most cameras only close down the aperture to the selected f-stop just before you take the image, rather than as and when this is changed on the camera.

The reason for this is that, by using the widest aperture to admit the most light, the camera’s autofocus system can work most effectively, although this also means that you don’t get the best idea of what effect that aperture will have on depth of field until you’ve captured the shot.

Clearly, when shooting a landscape, you want to make sure you either have focus and sharpness extending throughout the whole scene or just the selected elements in focus, and the depth-of-field preview function allows you to check this prior to shooting.

This temporarily closes down the aperture to the selected f-stop, so you will typically see the view darken as this happens, particularly at very small apertures. Nevertheless, it should give you a better idea of what will and won’t be in focus in the final image..
4. Zoom in to check focus

Most cameras allow you to check focus by zooming into the frame, either as you’re composing the image or once you’ve captured it. Some cameras even usefully automatically zoom into the image to 100% at the press of a button or similar control.

You will typically be able to move around the scene to so that you can see whether different parts are focused, and you may be able to use this in conjunction with focus peaking (if your camera offers this), which is great if you want to manually fine-tune focus.


5. Check your highlights

The range of tones within a landscape can be far greater than in most other images, and it’s important to make sure you’re not losing any highlight detail in areas such as skies; fine gradations between lighter parts of the scene are always preferable to clipped highlights.

Naturally you may use a graduated ND filter to help bring this down to a more manageable level, although however you’ve chosen to capture the image, it’s a good idea to activate some kind of highlight warning feature.

The manner in which this is displayed differs between cameras. The majority of interchangeable-lens cameras offer histograms that show where detail is being lost, and a line rising all the way to the top of the right-hand-side of the chart will indicate that this happened with highlight detail.

On playing back an image, you may be able to set your camera to flash a coloured warning over areas with clipped highlight details so that you can adjust your exposure and recapture the image.

Many recent cameras have a Zebra patterning option to show where highlight detail is being lost, and this can be a useful tool if you use either the LCD screen or an electronic viewfinder for the purpose of composition.

Bear in mind that the above controls are more relevant to JPEG files from the camera rather than the potential malleability of Raw files, and that you may be able to improve this in post production. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to make sure you’ve captured as much of this as possible to begin with.