Learn Photography Tips Blog

My 1st Off Camera Flash Shot

// August 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // My Photographic Life

I’ve been interested in off-camera flash for a while now, and really fancied having a go, seeing what it could do for my photography – so, last week, I bit the bullet and ordered the Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter (from Amazon UK, also available at Amazon US). It really wasn’t cheap – not by any means! – but it means I can now fire my 430 EX II flash wirelessly, with full ETTL support. While I was spending my hard-earned money (oh, how easy it is to spend too much money on photography!) I also bought a portable softbox kit too (Amazon UK – similiar one on Amazon US).

Anyways, enough of the talking, here’s my first off-camera flash shot, of my dog, jumping. Softbox was camera left, using a 430 EX II flash.

What do you think? Have you tried some off camera flash photography? There’s so much to learn, if you have any tips you’d like to share, please do leave a comment below!

Want To See 1000s Of Camera Flashes Go Off At Once? So Did Robbie Williams!

// August 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Photography

Yep, we know, as budding amateur photographers, that the flash on our little compacts are nowhere near strong enough to illuminate a concert photo, but, though we may silently scoff at people who do it (go on, admit it, you have had a little inward grin at those times, havent you?), wouldn’t it be fantastic to see thousands of those little flashes all going off at the same time? Well, it seems Robbie Williams had the same idea – just watch the video below to see what happened. Pretty. Darn. Cool.

Wedding Photography: What I’ve Learnt Recently

// August 5th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Photographic Life, Photography Tips, What I've Learnt This Week

I recently had the pleasure of taking photos (lots of them!) at 2 friends’ weddings over 3 days. Yep, quite exhausting, but good fun and really good experience. Of course, I wasn’t the main photographer at either of the weddings – not even a ‘second shooter’, as both weddings actually had 2 pros at each. But I was more than happy to take lots of shots without the added pressure of actually having to produce the goods!

At the first wedding I was actually an usher (the ‘photogrusher’), so couldn’t actually take as many as I wanted, as I had other duties to do (it’s actually quite stressful in itself, being an usher!). At the second wedding I was free from any responsibilities and so could take more. Over the two weddings, I shot around 500 photos. Anyway, here are a selection of some of my fave shots, and my thoughts on what I’ve learnt from this experience is at the bottom:

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10 Fantastic Videos Shot With A Canon T2i / 550D

// July 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Photography

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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Funeral Photography: What Are Your Thoughts?

// July 21st, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Random Photography

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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Is Photography School Really Worth It?

// July 9th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Random Photography

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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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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The Perils Of Photography Via Google Search

// April 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Photography

Google have released a really nifty new tool, called Search Stories – where you can create your very own video to tell a story via Google search. It’s really quick and easy to do – see the one I knocked up in about 5 mins below, entitled ‘Photography Perils’:

What do you think? Pretty fun, huh? Why not try making your own video – if it’s photography-related, and you let me know of its existence (you can contact me through the site, or follow me on twitter) I may feature it on the site sometime.

Go on, you know you want to!

How I Got The Shot: ‘Bird Of Gloom’

// March 30th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // How I Got The Shot

How I Got The Shot

Camera: Canon T1i
Lens: Canon EF-S 55 – 250 mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 250 mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority
Photoshop: Increased the contrast, and converted to black and white.

'Bird Of Gloom'

The Story Of The Shot

This was taken on a recent trip to St. Ives in Cornwall, and was the only photo I really liked from the day. I was actually waiting outside while my wife was shopping, and I noticed this bird above me, and thought it would make an interesting shot. It was daylight, but a bit cloudy, so I chose a relatively low ISO of 200, and I shot in Aperture Priority mode (‘AV’ on my Canon camera). I shoot in this mode a lot, as I often want to control the depth of field in the shot, but, in this case, it didn’t really matter too much what aperture I used, as the background was the distant sky.

By using my telephoto lens ‘racked out’ to its longest focal length of 250mm, I managed to get pretty close to the bird, and I framed it so it was just to the right of the shot, with the wire creating a pleasing diagonal across the image. By increasing the contrast, and converting it to black and white in Photoshop, I think I’ve created quite a strong, impactful image – I especially like all the ‘white space’ in the shot, and how this deeply contrasts with the black bird.

Critique The Shot

What do you think of the photo? Write a comment below and let me know – all your thoughts are really appreciated.