Learn Photography Tips Blog

10 Fantastic Videos Shot With A Canon T2i / 550D

// July 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // My Photographic Life

So far on LearningTheLight.com, I’ve not tended to talk about the video side of DSLRs – but that’s about to change. Although many people buy DSLRs for their photographic prowess, more and more are investing because of their fantastic video quality: high-definition, the ability to use all different types of lenses, and great overall quality mean that our trusted still-memory taker can also be our best-friend movie maker!

One of the more recent cameras that particularly excels with video is Canon’s T2i (known as the 550D in the UK). With full 1080P, 30 frames per second recording capabilites, the video you can take with it is just awesome – check out these examples, all taken with the T2i:

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How To Remember F Stops Easily

// July 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // How To...

When I first started to learn about the theory of photography, the one thing that caused me the most confusion was to do with f-stops and aperture. Did a higher f stop number mean a smaller aperture? And did that thus mean more depth of field? Or less? Argh, it was so confusing and hard to learn…!

Robin says: Use the '2 F's' rule to easily remember your f-stops!

So, I bring to you an incredibly easy way to remember how to set your f stops -  Just remember the ‘2 F’s:

If you want more Focus, you want more F-numbers.

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Funeral Photography: What Are Your Thoughts?

// July 21st, 2010 // 4 Comments » // My Photographic Life

Whilst looking through some photography threads on Flickr, I stumbled across this post, which was a long discussion on the subject of Funeral Photography. I’d never actually though about it before, and it really got me thinking. What do you think about it?

By Dsb Nola, on Flickr

The thread contains a lot of thoughts from various people – some very much against it, and some for it. Myself, I can see both sides…

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Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D Digital Field Guide Review

// July 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photography Book Reviews

If you’ve just splashed out on the brilliant Canon T2i (knows as the 550D in Europe), then you may be a little bewildered with all the controls and functions your new camera has to offer. If you’re anything like me, and you devour any reading material to do with photography, then you might want to look into getting the Digital Field Guide for the T2i, available at Amazon US and UK.

What You’ll Learn

One of the best things about buying a book made specifically for your camera model, is that everything the book talks about is designed just for you – there are no ‘general’ settings and exposure talk,  instead each feature, such as aperture and shutter speed, is explained according to the T2i’s buttons and dials.

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How To Show EXIF Data For Your Photos On Flickr

// July 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // How To...

Have you ever wondered why the EXIF data isn’t showing for your photos on Flickr? I know I have, and, though it hasn’t been a major concern over the past couple of months that I’ve been using the photo-sharing site, I did wonder why my shots weren’t showing that info.

The EXIF data, by the way, is all the information about how your photo was taken – shutter speed, aperture, ISO, camera model, focal length etc – that is automatically embedded within your photo by your camera, and it means, among other things, that you can quickly check how you took the shot. It’s really handy to be able to look at people’s photos on Flickr and see exactly how they ‘got the shot’, and I noticed that this information is available for a lot of photos, but wasn’t there for mine. What was I doing wrong?

The Solution: Don’t ‘Save For Web’ in Photoshop

And that’s all there is to it…! I thought I was being helpful by using the ‘Save For Web’ function on Photoshop to reduce the filesize of my images (which, I thought, would make my photos quicker for people to view online, and reduce my upload time), but it turns out using this feature strips the EXIF data from my photos. Simply choosing a normal ‘Save As’ keeps the EXIF data intact, even if I have edited the shot in Photoshop.

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Download Our Free iPad Photo Book: ‘Mirror, Mirror’

// July 12th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // iPad Photo Books

We’re pleased to announce the arrival of our very first iPad photo book: ‘Mirror, Mirror’.

Right-click, and 'Save As...' to download

Featuring nearly 30 full screen self-portraits from 28 fantastically talented photographers, ‘Mirror, Mirror’ is now available to download totally free of charge.

Why an iPad Photo Book?

Well, because photos look truly amazing on it, for starters. I was totally blown away by the quality of the screen, and the tactility of it – being able to ‘pinch in’, swipe across, turn the iPad over to show a friend opposite… the list in endless. The iPad really is a fantastic medium to devour photography.

OK, you like the iPad, we get it. But why create this photo book?

Good question! I’ve had my iPad for a while now, and I thought there would have been plenty of fantastic photo books for it… but there just aren’t! Sure, there are a few photo book-type apps on the app store, but, frankly, they’re just not very good, and there are only a couple. Browsing photo websites on the iPad is fun, but I also wanted something to view when I’m offline, something that I can keep in my virtual library to whip out whenever I want a high-quality photo fix. So, I contacted some of the amazingly talented photographers on Flickr to see if they would be open to contributing, and, a couple of weeks later, created our very first photo book.

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Is Photography School Really Worth It?

// July 9th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // My Photographic Life

Now, there’s a question: Do you think photography school and courses are really worth it?

And, by ‘worth it’, I’m not just meaning the money they involve, but also everything else: the time, the work, and – perhaps most importantly – the results. I’m really interested in getting people’s feedback on this subject – have you been to a photography school? Have you perhaps gone to your local college for some photography classes? Did you learn a lot? Was it expensive? Good value? Would you recommend it to others?

By Thomas Hawk, on Flickr

When there are so many free sources of information and guidance available on the internet – this site included – is there really a need for them?

On the other hand, surely you can only learn so much from books, so much from articles?

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A Dabble Into Wedding Photography

// June 22nd, 2010 // 5 Comments » // My Photographic Life

It’s been a while since I posted some of my own photography on the site, so I thought I’d just do a quick post to show some wedding pics I took recently in Liverpool. I obviously – and thankfully! – wasn’t the ‘proper’ photographer for the day at all, but it was still a good chance to have a go, without the added pressure of actually being asked to do so.

I like quite a few of my shots, and the ones I’ll post below are some of my faves. They’ve all been edited in photoshop CS5 to boost the contrast using ‘Curves’, and I’ve added a vignette to some, using this great quick video tutorial. In the last photo, I also used Photoshop’s brilliant new feature, ‘Content Aware Fill‘, to remove some distracting candlesticks in the background. I’m really, really new to photo editing, and I must say I’m kind of enjoying it!

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Great iPad App To Improve Your Photography: Guardian Eyewitness

// June 7th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // iPad Photo Books, iPad Photography Apps

Right, first off, a little apology: I haven’t posted in about a month! That is absolutely awful, and will not happen again. I did have a very good reason for this lack of updating, though, as I have just moved into my very first house, and have been without internet access for far too long…! I know, excuses, excuses…but it won’t happen again, I promise.

Anyways, this will be a pretty short post, as I’m still really busy with trying to make my house livable – so much to do! – but I wanted to just write a little about a fantastic free app for the iPad – called Guardian Eyewitness (available to download from iTunes here).

Guardian Eyewitness iPad App

As this site is all about learning photography, anyone who is reading this and owns an iPad (or is thinking of making the splurge – I heartily recommend it, the screen is fantastic, so amazing to view photos on) should definitely get this app. Basically, it’s an app that showcases the fantastic photography from the Guardian (a UK newspaper), and when you first get the app, it will download the latest 100 photos, and each day after that you’ll get a brand new spanking one delivered direct to your iPad.

Now, not only are the photos themselves fantastic, looking absolutely amazing on the iPad’s beautiful screen, but along with each photo you get a ‘Pro Tip’, explaining just how that particular photo had been taken. That’s right, you’re getting fantastic photos, updated daily, and with photography tips too – all for free! I just love it.

The ‘pro tips’ are all really useful, and range from comments such as ‘the photographer used a high vantage point to capture the entire scene’ to ‘the photographer has used a tripod and a slow shutter speed rather than flash to capture the low light conditions’. The app is a bit similiar to the ‘Great Photo Collections (And How They Were Taken)” section on this website, but these are obviously from some of the world’s top professionals (and you get a photo/tip a day – no excuses of moving house from this app!)

So, enough of my warbling. Got an iPad? Love photography? Get the Guardian Eyewitness App!

15 Great Photos Shot With A Canon Rebel T2i / 550D (And How They Were Taken)

// May 3rd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Great Photo Collections (And How They Were Taken)

Canon have surely created a winner with the Rebel T2i (known as the 550D in Europe). Building on the already fantastic performance of the 500D, the new model has received great reviews around the ‘net, and will no-doubt be in the minds of a lot of prospective DSLR owners.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d feature some great photos that have all been taken with the T2i / 550D, along with some information on how they were taken.

'The Dark Side'

By Paul Hudson

An apt way to kick-off this 550D / T2i collection is with a great self-portrait. A large aperture of f/5 means the photographer himself is a bit blurry, drawing our attention to the sharp camera – the true subject of the photo.

'Pittsburgh: Watson Street'

By David Watson

The range of colours taken in this shot are just gorgeous, and it works to keep your eye moving across the shot, from one colour to the next. As virtually everything in the shot is the same distance away from the camera, the choice of aperture (in this case, f/5.6) does not really matter, as a large or small aperture would still keep the majority of the photo in focus. Composition, and the great skill of the photographer to ‘see’ that this would make such a good photo, is more important than the technicalities of the shot in this instance.

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