Mobile Photography

01 Shoot in Raw
For maximum control when it comes to processing your images, always shoot in Raw. You’ll often be shooting high-contrast scenes, with dark bridges backlit by bright skies, and Raw files enable you to extract the maximum amount of shadow and highlight detail at the editing stage. You can fine-tune the white balance post-shoot too.

03 Camera accessories
A remote release is essential for hands-off shooting to avoid blurry shots. Use this in conjunction with the Mirror Lock-up Custom function to ensure that there’s no risk of camera shake. For more about remote controls, see this issue’s Help Me Buy feature on page 102.

04 Camera filters
To stop bright skies overexposing, use an ND grad filter to retain the detail and colour – but avoid positioning the filter over the bridge, otherwise it’ll look unnaturally dark. A polariser will decrease reflections and increase colour saturation, especially after rain, and is great for deepening blue skies.

Or for that sought-after wispy effect in water use a straight ND filter. A variable ND filter with a range of densities from one to eight stops will give versatility. Or use a 10-stop ND filter for really long exposures of 30 seconds and more – in daylight!

05 Focus and metering
If you’re using filters, such as a 10-stop ND filter, make sure you compose, focus and meter the shot before you fit the filter. This is because the camera will struggle to focus if it’s too dark.

If you do decide to meter with the filter fitted, it’s best to cover the eyepiece completely so it doesn’t affect the light reading. And remember to focus on the bridge – it may sound obvious, but that’s what you want the viewer’s eye to be drawn to.

"Producing high-quality product photos of jewellery using smartphone cameras requires an understanding of exposure and focus, says studio photographer Lex McColl."

"The Nexus 5does not have the best camera among its peers, even with the presence of Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) technology. But that’s not stopping Google from trying to convince you that it’s more than good enough, mostly thanks to software features. Now the company has come out with three short video ads that show how even a decent quality camera can be fun."

Before heading out to get some great images of the city after sunset, it is important to make sure you have the proper equipment. This means that you should definitely have a flexible tripod that can adjust to varying heights; a wide-angle lens; some sort of lens hood or a system for directing the flash outside of the frame; and a game plan.

Urban areas can be dangerous locations in which to setup a camera and take a prolonged series of images. This is not due to the potential for a crime alone, but also because of busy streets, and the fact that people do not see well in the dark. This translates to the need for a photographer to select their target shots and consider the settings that their camera might need to make the images they want.

If the camera has a capacity for custom "presets" a photographer who makes a regular habit of nighttime photography might want to dial in these settings in order to make their work as easy as the tap of a button.

One of the lessons in the Photography Lab series I teach is a lesson on night photography, specifically shooting the stars. There are two essentials to know before going out to shoot stars your first time.

One: The Earth is rotating. This means you can photograph star constellations, but after about 15 seconds, you will start to get blurring in your stars because of the movement of the Earth.

Two: You should know a couple of constellations before you go out: the Big Dipper and Orion are the two I use to orient myself.

Why the Orion and The Big Dipper? First, they are extremely bright and easily found in the night sky. Second, besides being my favorite constellation, Orion is usually high enough in the sky to photograph with other stars around, but it can also sit low so you can get nice foreground elements in your compositions. Finally, use the two stars which make up the pouring end of the Big Dipper to find the North Star. Look at the bottom star in the dipper part of The Big Dipper, the non-handle end. Draw a from the bottom star in the dipper to the top star in the dipper, then continue this line until you see the Little Dipper. This line (and these two stars) point to the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. Why is this important? The last star in the handle of the Little Dipper is Polaris – the North Star.

If you know where Polaris (The North Star) is located, you can point your camera in this direction and, using long exposure times, you will get circular star trails instead of blurry constellations.

When I shoot stars, I use 2 lenses: a Canon 10-22mm and a Tamaron 28-300 which I use in the 28mm – 80mm range. I set my camera to M (manual) and use the following settings:

• Aperture: widest setting F2.8 / F3.5 / F5.0 depending on focal length
• ISO: 100 or 200
• Shutter Speed: BULB setting
• White Balance: Auto or Tungstun
• Focusing: Set focus to Manual / Infinity

Since the technique was first pioneered around 200 years ago, photography has developed to a state where it is almost unrecognizable.

From cameraphones to full-frame sensors, we saw a lot of features come into fashion this year. Here are our picks of the most interesting trends of 2013

Parents Refe and Susan Tuma aren't big on Movember, at their house November is reserved for a different tradition: Dinovember. Documented in photos on the project's Facebook page, the Tumas spend November keeping their kids' imaginations alive by convincing them that every night, their dinosaur toys come to life and get into all sorts of trouble.

The tradition started last year, and their Facebook page now boasts almost 250K followers who love to see what the dinos got into last night.

At it's most basic level, Dinovember is a whimsical photo series that makes for a fun way to spend November, but the Tumas are quick to point out that the point of the experiment goes beyond that.

Working in concert with the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, photographer Patrick Gries has put together a book/photo series packed full of striking black and white photographs of vertebrate skeletons — from tiny creatures to massive mammoths, his book Evolution covers a vast swath of vertebrate natural history.

In all, the book consists of 300 of these white on black skeletal photographs that took Gries six full months to shoot. The photos represent a coming together of art and science: even as the book chronicles millions of years of evolution, each individual photo is masterfully taken, with the skeletons arranged in poses that breathe life back into the bones.

Zoos … love ‘em or hate ‘em? I think it depends on the zoo. I much prefer open range zoos where the animals have tons of space to roam around and live almost as they would in the wild.

Choose the right zoo:

The type of zoo you choose makes all the difference to your photography (and to the animals). Zoos with large open areas for the animals to roam tend to make better photographs because the images look more natural when you cannot see any fences.

Wait for a special moment:

When the animals are right there in front of you don't just snap away because you can. When you have this opportunity to be so close to them try to be patient and wait for a special moment to make a unique image.

Dealing with fences and rails:

If you are at the kind of zoo with fences, you can use a wide aperture to reduce the depth of field which should make any fences out-of-focus. This is easier to achieve if there is greater distance between the animal and the fence.

It is also easier to make the fence disappear if it does not have direct light on it. Find a portion of the fence that is in the shade if it is in front of or behind your subject.

People Panoramas:

If you're out with a grup of friends or at a social gathering, a panorama is an interesting way of capturing a group portrait. Whether it be at a picnic, or just a get together at someone's house, a panorama is a unique way to include everyone in a photo with ease. Try using different poses and expressions to create a shot with is nore dynamic and fun.

Vertical Panoramas:

Vertical panoramas can be used to give vertical objects more presence. They are great for when you're capturing tall trees and buildings, as they give you a real sense of height and grandeur. It is also ideal for capturing waterfalls, wind turbines and windmills.

360 Degree Panoramas:

For something more quirky, try shooting a 360 degree panorama. You can but gadgets that do this or some cameras, such as the Nikon Coolpix P520, have 360/180 panorama modes built in. Don't worry if your camera doesn't have a 360 degree panorama setting, as you can stitch several panoramas together to create a similar look.

Last week, we reported the news that Android developer Josh Brown had discovered some juicy tidbits within the Google camera API: namely, that RAW capabilities and a few other features were in the works. That was just an interpretation of code, but now, it looks like Google has come out to confirm some of what Brown found.

The announcement was made by way of a CNET article in which Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano confirmed that both RAW image capture and burst mode are already supported in Android's code, and will soon make their way to an upcoming API.

"Android's latest camera HAL [hardware abstraction layer] and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography," Scigliano said. "We will expose a developer API [application programing interface] in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality."

Burst mode is actually already used in the Nexus 5 when taking HDR photos, but the release of an API would allow all developers to take advantage of both features and design more competitive photography apps that really take advantage of the camera hardware built into phones like the aforementioned Nexus, which left reviewers unimpressed when it was released.

After a number of years harnessing the power of photography in a way that has improved my entire outlook on life, I have wanted nothing more than to encourage other people to do the same. It doesn’t take much, just a little shift of perspective to get you seeing and in turn, shooting the world around you in a whole new light. And I can think of no better time of the year than this month to begin. Here are a few simple ideas to get you focusing on gratitude, one picture at a time.

Don’t fret, you are not alone – one of the most common basic pitfalls when learning photography is taking blurry photos.

This photography tips & tutorial is for you – to explain a bit about how  aperture and a camera’s shutter speed work and how you can take control of your camera’s settings and make sure you are getting sharp, not blurry photos.  If you are only using the lens that came with your camera, that too can be a problem for you, we got some tips and lens recommendations for you!

Burdened with problems and smartphones that are eating their lunch, camera makers face extraordinary challenges. However, they're also making amazing gear.

"It’s called Foldio, and it’s an ultra-portable (foldable in fact) light box for smartphone shutterbugs who want to add a new dimension to their work or take some professional-looking product shots."

First, I'd like to start this article off with a little bit of a warning. This post is primarily aimed at people just starting to get into photography or people just beginning to make the jump from hobbyist to professional. That said, hopefully there's something below that can be appreciated by photographers of all levels.

fter experimenting a little bit — and by experimenting I mean desaturating the heck out of everything or filtering through any Lightroom preset I could find (yes, I was young, dumb, and very naive) — I wasn’t pleased with my results. Simply put, nothing felt right.

Sometimes, it seems like technology has turned us all into "expert" photographers. Most smartphones come equipped with pretty good cameras, and Instagram lets us edit with the swipe of a finger.

In that context, Chris Maggio's images seem out of place. Maggio is a professional photographer, but his shots remind me of the pictures my parents took with their very first digital camera in the early aughts. In a way, they're remarkably forgettable. And that's what makes them fascinating.

A lot of people call some of the images I take 'consumer,'" he explains. "Why does that term have to possess such a bad connotation? I really love amateur photography, particularly in the rapid-sharing age of Flickr, and it's been a huge influence on me."

Maggio's pictures are more about telling stories and capturing strange moments than dramatic angles and colorful filters. In that way, he challenges us to think about what makes a good digital picture. One of his most popular projects, "Male Chef," consists of meals that appear to be completely inedible and unappealing. Others tell the story of people having fun in Tokyo, land use in America, or bizarre Craigslist postings.

Start to See Photographically with these six easy steps by photographer Valerie Jardin. 

See the light

Play with def=”http://digital-photography-school.com/book/naturallight”>light and shadows. Be aware of the quality of light around you (hard versus soft light) and its effect on objects, buildings, etc. The more aware you become of the quality and quantity of light, the better you will be at harnessing it and making it work for you, no matter the time of day.

Express your vision with basic composition rules

There are many ways to express your vision and they all start with the decisions you make before you press the shutter.

Use focus point and depth of field

The obvious way to lead the eye of the viewer is by focussing on the subject and using the right depth of field so that there is no mistake as to where the eye should go. It only takes a fraction of a second to lock your focus and recompose. You have to put some thought into it and soon you will make quick decisions that will make your images stronger.

Using color

Just like using focus point to draw the eye, using color is another powerful compositional tool. Alternatively, because color draws the eye, it is also a reason to convert your color image into B&W to remove distracting colorful elements and make stronger images!

Negative space

The clever use of negative space makes stronger images as it puts more emphasis on the subject (positive space).

Most photographers already know the basics of product photography – getting the right lighting, using a white background, changing the camera focus and getting close-up shots. But most of them only know these simple tricks.

The same angles across several product photos create a generic, plain, and sometimes boring display. It’s a good idea to mix things up in order to achieve variety and uniqueness between different products and product types. It would be ideal to have different angles at least on every product type.

Create a Story or Scene

Having a story behind a product photo will most likely make it more attractive and interesting. People are intrigued by the scene or story behind a photo. In short, it stimulates ‘eye to brain’ interaction. However, it should be kept in mind that creating a scene requires various props or more objects inside a photo. Be sure not to shift the viewers attention away from the actual product itself. Remember that soft lighting (fewer shadows) should be maintained despite the additional props within the photo.

Go Macro

In a series of photos, having a few macro shots within them makes a very good photo bundle. It makes the series more eye-catching and drool-worthy. It allows better focus or a better look at important features of a product. It also gives a product photo a better sense of attention to detail.