Innehållsförteckning för Issue 8 från Creative Photography The Complete Manual

From freedom comes creativity. From creativity comes art. With our digital cameras in our hands or even smartphones at our finger tips we are all artists.This is an exclusive series of publications crafted with a single goal, to help elevate your creative photography. In this issue we cover some essential photographic techniques, and look at a host of ways of adding an extra level to your images and find new and exciting ways to seek out and capture the wonderful art that surrounds us. From the addition of props and creative lighting to elevate your life photography to unlocking the beauty of everyday household items such as a plastic beaker, incense sticks and even the contents of your fridge and garden. Welcome to this series, we are delighted to join…

Once you get beyond the basics of photography and you find yourself wanting to add a little creativity and take more control of how the light affects your shots, then you need to take a look at additional lighting in the form of flashes. Your first experience of flash might be the tiny pop up flash you find on the top of a lot of digital cameras. They are useful to light a subject when all else fails but, if you want professional looking shots, then you need to look further afield. We are referring to the dedicated flashguns that can be mounted in your camera's hot shoe, or for even greater flexibility, used off-camera and fired remotely by a wireless trigger. Pop up flash Most compact cameras and entry…

Filters have been an essential part of photography since its very beginnings. Used creatively they can improve a hard-to-capture scene, add an extra artistic element to an image or just provide a bit of fun. Modern digital photo editing has provided an, almost too easy, method to add filter effects to an image after it has been captured; some effects are better when applied by actual physical filters fitted to the camera when the photo is taken and this is particularly true with black and white photography. Let's take a look at some of the different types of filter and how they can help to improve your photos. FILTER TYPES 1. Circular screw on filters are the most common type that fits directly on your lens filter thread. They come…

The main difference between a well taken snapshot and a truly artistic photograph is simply a matter of composition. By changing the focal length, the angle and the position of the camera, the photographer can change the relative positions and sizes of objects in the frame to produce a more visually pleasing effect. Learning to do this is mostly a matter of practice and experimentation, but there are a number of simple tips and rules-of-thumb that can help you to take better pictures. The first and most important thing to remember is to take your time. Look at the scene in the viewfinder or on your monitor and try to see it not as simply a view but instead to imagine it as a finished print. Ask yourself if there's…

The shutter of your camera is simply a mechanical barrier that prevents light from entering the camera until it is needed, controlling when and for how long light is allowed in to expose the sensor. The latest digital cameras have high-speed electromechanical shutters capable of timing exposures with an accuracy measured in fractions of a millisecond. Along with the aperture setting and the sensitivity control, shutter speed is one of the three ways that photographic exposure is adjusted. When a picture is taken, the shutter is opened for a precisely measured amount of time allowing light to pass through. The duration of the exposure is set either automatically by the camera's light meter or manually by the photographer. The wider the range of available shutter speeds, the greater the creative…

Most modern digital cameras have zoom lenses and it's likely that if you own a major brand DSLR, you will have a couple of zoom lenses in your kit bag. Zoom lenses let you alter the focal length of the lens. For example, a 24-105mm lens lets you change the focal length from 24mm up to 105mm, but what is focal length? Focal length explained Focal length is usually represented in millimetres. A 100mm lens is not the actual length of the lens but rather the distance between the point at which rays of light from your scene enter the lens and create a sharp image on the camera's sensor. Altering the focal length has a dramatic impact on the scene you are photographing. A 20mm wide angle lens can…

Although there is no real right and wrong to shooting landscapes, there are a few tips that can elevate your shots and have them stand out against the general background noise of countless dull shots. First of all, take time to research your possible shooting destination if you have not been there before. Just Googling the location you want to shoot will call up all sorts of information. Most of it may be useless to you, but you can guarantee that there will be examples of other photographs taken there. The experiences of other photographers in this location will give you the heads-up as to whether it is an easy or difficult place to reach. There may be tips concerning local by-laws and the best nearby parking spots etc. There…

The word panorama means ‘an unbroken view of the whole region surrounding an observer’. In more simple terms, it means a photograph containing a wide view. A vertorama is simply a panorama that is shot in a vertical orientation. It all came about in the 1700s when artists would paint a horizontal image that encircled an entire room. These wide, expansive views are much prized by landscape photographers who strive to capture entire vistas to give the viewer of the final image a sense of the scale of the scene that was visible to them whilst they were there. Conveying all this ‘bigness’ would normally require the use of wide angle lenses. These lenses have short focal lengths of around 14mm to 24mm and can capture an angle of view of…

Thinking of getting your first digital camera, or maybe you are looking to upgrade that old point and shoot you usually take on holiday with you? Are you a little unsure about the various kinds of cameras available and which one's may be more suitable than others? For any newcomer to fine art photography, many questions need to be answered in order to have a clear picture of what kind of camera, lenses and accessories will be needed to set you up ready to start enjoying your hobby. Then you may turn your thoughts to flash lighting, light modification, tripods and filters. This section is here to give you detailed information and help you make the right choices. There is a whole world of exciting photography to explore and we…

Advanced compact Advanced compacts are designed for more experienced photographers, and offer superior photographic versatility and quality, as well as advanced creative features such as manual exposure controls, manual focusing, optical viewfinders and external flash connections. They are considerably more expensive than other types of compact, with prices starting around £300/$400. There are relatively few models in this category, with examples including the Olympus XZ-10, the Panasonic LX100 and the Canon PowerShot G7X. There is an even more rarefied category that has appeared more recently of advanced compacts with larger sensors. Notable examples include the Sony RX1R, the Fujifilm X series and the Canon G1 X Mk3. Prices range from around £500/$600 to well over £2,000/$2,500. Super-zoom Super-zoom cameras used to be called “bridge cameras”, since they were seen as…

When you use flash lighting you will be aware of how harsh the shadows it casts can be. You can't always be near a large picture window on an overcast day, where the softness of the light makes it difficult to take a bad photo. You have to work with what you have, so that means you need to go back to your flash. However, there are some techniques that allow you to modify and shape light to suit your needs. This is where light modifiers come in. A lighting modifier is an object, surface, or material that alters the way the light travels from its source to the subject. If you shoot with an unmodified flashgun, the light is traveling in a concentrated beam from a very small light…

Photography is built around some basic principles that a lot of casual photographers might not encounter if they shoot fully automatic with their cameras. In full auto, all the decision making is done by the camera and you are there only to push the shutter button to take the picture. As good as modern cameras are, they are not perfect and you may find that the shots you are trying to get don't come out the way you expect. In this next section we will look at the core principles of photography in greater detail to help you understand the factors in play as you shoot. These main skills will help you get the shot you're after.…

Apart from the role that aperture plays in controlling the exposure in your image, it is also the key ingredient in defining how much of your image is sharp and how much is out of focus. If you want your outdoor shots to be as sharp as possible from front to back, or you want a close-up of your model to be the only thing that is sharp in the scene, then it's aperture that will do that for you. The aperture is literally a hole through which light passes after it enters the lens. The diameter of this hole can be altered, allowing a greater or smaller amount of light to pass through on its way to the sensor. In the early days of photography, aperture was adjusted by…

Nearly all digital cameras, from top-of-the-range DSLRs to the humblest budget point-and-shoot compacts, have multiple light metering options. Knowing how and when to use these different metering modes can make a dramatic difference to the quality of your photography; unfortunately most people don't understand what the different modes are for, how they work, or how to use them. Let's help you with that. Know your modes Depending on your camera, you'll find metering options either in the menu or with their own separate control. In cameras with a fullyautomatic setting, this will usually disable the metering options; automatically selecting multizone metering as the best option for day-to-day scenes and snapshots. The most common light metering modes are found on nearly all digital cameras. They are spot metering, centreweighted metering and…

Finding a new way to capture a landscape or any scene in general is always exciting and quite invigorating. It can be helpful in getting you out of a creative rut and sparking new ideas and thoughts on how to see the world in a fresh way. One such way is crystal ball photography. In case you were wondering, it's nothing to do with fortune telling, but rather the use of a crystal ball as an additional lens in your shots. How you use it in those shots dictates its effect on the final image. Using it very close to the camera so it fills the frame means it almost acts like a fisheye lens, whilst having it further away, it becomes a small globe containing the landscape it is…

Canon EOS R6 Mark II The Canon EOS R6 Mark II is a fantastic choice for portrait photography, thanks to its high-resolution sensor, quick performance, and advanced autofocus system with subject detection. With its 24.4MP sensor, you'll capture beautiful detail and a wide dynamic range. The camera's ergonomic design and comfortable grip, along with features like in-body image stabilization (IBIS) and impressive image quality for both photos and videos, make it a pleasure to use and a great companion for capturing portraits. Prices from £2,200/$2,200 (body only) Fujifilm GFX 100S II The Fujifilm GFX 100S II stands out as a portrait powerhouse, thanks to its 102MP medium format sensor that captures every nuance and texture with breathtaking realism. Its renowned colour science brings skin tones to life, while the camera's…

Camera ownership goes through a number of phases. First is the decision about which camera to actually buy, then comes the choice of lenses. Then come the choices with accessories. It may sound like an exaggeration, but one of the best accessories you can get to improve your photography, is to invest in a good tripod. In fact, it might be safer to upgrade it from the status of ‘accessory’ to ‘essential purchase’. You might wonder why a tripod would be considered among one of the top key factors in taking better photographs. Well, this is because one of the primary causes of unsatisfactory photos is camera shake. The unwanted movement of the camera during the capture of the shot that translates as blurry photos, often blurry enough to ruin…

All but the most basic budget compact cameras have a selection of shooting modes, usually chosen by a dial on the top or back of the camera. Easy-to-use, mainly automatic cameras in the range will only have a few shooting modes, while the more sophisticated cameras such as the EOS DSLRs may have as many as a dozen, including manual exposure options and user-programmable special settings. As newer models appear in the range or older models are updated, the shooting modes available will be revised and possibly expanded. Shown on this spread are some of the most often used modes selected from the mode dial on the top of the camera and some chosen from the rear menu screen. Auto The camera will analyse the scene automatically and then it…

Explaining exactly why altering the size of the lens aperture alters the depth of field is a little complicated, but a few simple diagrams should help to shed some light on the matter. For a start, let's clear up some popular misconceptions about the difference between focus and sharpness. This is a highly simplified diagram of the arrangement of lens, aperture and sensor inside a modern digital camera. In this first diagram, three subjects at different distances from the camera lens are represented by the red, green and blue dots. The lens is focused on the green spot, so light from it passes through the aperture and the lens and appears sharply focused on the sensor. Light from the red and blue spots also passes through the aperture and lens, but…

Understanding exposure and how it affects your photographs is probably the single most important technical skill you can learn in photography. It's certainly the one that most people get wrong, and apart from camera shake, bad exposure probably ruins more photos than any other single cause. The main problem is over reliance on the camera's automatic metering. Most modern cameras, even relatively cheap compacts, have sophisticated built-in TTL multi-zone evaluative exposure meters that measure light levels at dozens, in some cases hundreds, of points within the frame, instantly comparing the results with a built-in library of exposure situations and automatically adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to deal with problems such as back-lighting, close-ups or very fast moving subjects. In most cases these automatic exposure systems are very good, and…

So, you've learned the fundamentals, brushed up on your theory, and armed yourself with your favourite camera gear and accessories. Now what? Well, we would say get out there and have some creative fun. Shoot, adapt, make mistakes, and learn. That is easy to say, and sometimes you need a project to get your teeth into. Something you genuinely enjoy and can use to really help you stand out as a talented photographer in contrast to one who's merely a skilled technician. It comes down to an eye for the creative and a desire to learn and do more. By learning and trying out new ideas and techniques, you can turn your photographs from snapshots into works of art that you can be proud of. Let us show you some…

Trying to pin down what an urban landscape actually is, might depend on who you ask. There are those that don't actually count the urban environment as valid landscape material in the first place, opting for landscapes that are untouched by people and the modern world. Fair enough, it's not for everyone but there are many who find the city full of photographic potential. From murky dark alleys to towering city skylines, the city has much to offer. It isn't necessarily a thing of beauty, it isn't always that clean but it can't be denied that it has character by the bucket load. It's this character that many photographers try to capture. Humans are incidental in urban landscapes, the city is the star. Think about light Take the time of…

The blue hour is a period of time, within civil twilight, where the sun is below the horizon. This period is a prime time for the landscape photographer; neither day or night but something quite ethereal in between the two. The environment is bathed in a soft light and there can be a pinkish orange glow along the horizon, fading into to a deep blue sky. The world is full of promise as the new day begins, or conversely it is about to shut its eyes to drift off to sleep and it is this magical feeling that photographers endeavour to capture. The time of year will dictate how long this period lasts, so it's a good idea to get to your destination in plenty of time to get yourself…