The DVD I’m reviewing is called ‘Digital Photography Exposed’, and is available online here.

Here’s a small trailer for the DVD:

My Review

So, first off, I’d say that this DVD is aimed at the beginner-to-enthusiast photographer, and will definitely be great for you if you’ve just had a DSLR for a few months, but haven’t really been able to get to grips with just how to get the best out of it. One of the great things about the DVD is that your host and photographer for the film – a guy called Mike Browne – only uses and recommends equipment that beginners generally have; cameras such as the Canon 550D / T2i, or the Nikon D90. So all the advice and technique he shows you, including close-ups of buttons/LCDs etc, is going to be useful for you, the learning photographer.

My overriding feeling from watching this DVD (which runs at a good length of nearly an hour and a quarter) is one of ‘wow, I really want to get out and try that’. I had my camera with me as I watched the film, but I found it so inspiring – and, in particular Mike’s down-to-earth advice and enthusiasm – that I wanted to get outside and try out all the different things he’d showed me.

If you’ve ever felt confused from photography books, manuals or magazines, but haven’t wanted to take the plunge with physical photography lessons, this DVD is for you – it’s like having a personal, one-on-one photography teacher showing you just how to take great photographs.

I made lots of notes as I watched the DVD, so I’ll share and elaborate on some of the things Mike teaches us below:

• Composition and lighting; this is where the magic is. I really like this notion, as Mike makes it clear that equipment is only one part of photography, and rather it is the use of light – and knowing just how to make the most of any lighting situation – that really makes a great photographer.
• Without any equipment, however, we wouldn’t get any photos at all! So there’s a nice section on lenses, and a great description of focal length and zooms. Good tripod advice too.
• Exposure – great demonstration of shutter speed. Being able to physically see what happens when the shutter opens and closes is great; really helps you visualise what is happening in the camera. Mike gives a good explanation of what shutter speed looks like on your camera screen, too i.e. the difference between 4 (quarter of sec) and 4″ (4 seconds).
• A physical demonstration of aperture – so Mike actually shows us just what happens to the lens as we increase/decrease the aperture size. Just seeing this kind of thing realy helps you realise what’s going on inside your camera/lens, and makes aperture so much easier to get your head around.
• Explains lightmeter view on back of camera, changing shutter speed and aperture to ‘zero’ the lightmeter, and thus get a properly exposed shot. Sounds a little technical, but Mike shows you how easy it is.
• Depth of field, using aperture to blur the background, separating your subject from the rest of the scene nicely.
• Freezing motion or creating blur by controlling shutter speed.
  
  

  That's Mike above - he's a cheery chap, and a great host!

• ISO. Great advice: if you can either take the photo by raising the iso, or you would miss the shot, take the photo!
• Focal length. Demonstration with a model, using different focal lengths to take the same composition, but learning what the change of focal length does to the resulting image. Learning to move yourself, rather than zooming: know what focal length you want, and just moving yourself to get the shot, rather than zooming all the time. Great to see three different images and being spoken to about the differences. Changing depth of field, field of view, and perspective (how close spaces seem to be).
• How to get sharp photos. Where to focus by choosing focus point (auto focus doesn’t always focus on the things you want it to!). How to stop camera shake.
• Semi auto modes. Aperture priority and Shutter priority.
• Composition. Rule of thirds; don’t put your subject bang in the middle. Really great demo of putting the subject into rule of thirds. Creating depth/3D effect by utilising the notion of a foreground subject. A nice section on creating a ‘Frame within a frame’.
• Good advice about thinking/constructing images, rather than just ‘clickety clicking’.
• Light. This is a really great section on the quality of light, with physical demonstrations of different light types, and how they are suitable for different situations/people. For example, harsh, directional light is generally not good for people, but good for powerful subjects. Nice soft shade is diffused light for nice portraits.

As the review has probably shown you, I really like this DVD. I thoroughly recommend it to beginner DSLR-owners, and also think even an enthusiast photographer who’s had their DSLR for a year or so would still benefit hugely from giving it a watch. There really is a lot to be said for actually being shown how to work your camera effectively, and just how to use each mode, compose and shoot, to get the photo you want.

‘Digital Photography Exposed’ is available to order online via this link.

David Charlwood

I’m really thrilled to bring you an interview with David Charlwood today, a fantastic wedding photographer from the UK.

David was one of the very first photographers I started to follow on Twitter (follow him here), and he also featured in my very first ‘I Wish I’d Taken This Photo’ article back in March 2010.

So, without further ado, over to David:

Hi David, and thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview. One of the things that first drew me to your style of wedding photography – without sounding too pretentious! – is the true artistic value of your images. Indeed, you market yourself as a ‘Fine Art’ wedding photographer. How would you describe your style, and how did you come up with it?

Fine Art wedding photography is about creating a visual narrative that’s more than just story-telling. I love the idea that through the light, moments, detail and colour of a wedding day an image can be a piece of art in itself. Fine Art wedding photography was started by Jose Villa in America, but it wasn’t until I read how he described his work that I realised that description suited how my own style had developed.

You got married recently – congratulations! Was it strange being in front of the camera, for once? Did you take any shots yourself?

Thanks for the congratulations! Yes, it was strange being in front of the camera. My wife is an events planner, so we had a deal that if she didn’t try and run our wedding on the day, I wouldn’t take any pictures. I think I was quite well behaved.

It’s a typical situation for someone known as ‘the photographer’ within their circle of friends or family: sooner or later you’re approached to photograph an upcoming wedding. Can you give an amateur any advice on how to handle this at all?

Yes, the main thing is to think carefully about whether you want to accept the responsibility, and if you’re happy with it go for it!  Make sure you have spare camera gear (rent it if necessary), but most of all just be yourself. Your friends/family will have asked you because they like your work and want you to photograph their wedding, so photograph it from that intimate perspective. One final, random piece of advice: make sure you drink enough on the day. If you’re dehydrated it will badly affect your images.

If you only had one lens to shoot an entire wedding with, what would it be, and why?

My one lens would be the Zeiss 50mm f/2.0 Makro Planar. I shoot 90% of my images on it. The way it renders out of focus areas is amazing and I actually enjoy the extra thought that a manual focus lens makes you put into every image.

What’s the best piece of photography advice anyone has ever given you?

Position yourself for the light, first and foremost. Once I started thinking about the direction and quality of the light first, before the other elements in the scene, I found I began to create better images.

How did you get into the wedding photography business? For example, did you start by second-shooting, or did you jump straight into the deep end?

I jumped straight in at the deep end. A friend called me and asked me to help some good friends of hers whose wedding photographer had dropped out at the last minute. I loved every minute of it and knew by the end of the day that I’d found something I wanted to do.

As well as your main wedding photography site, you also write a really great blog, where you share your personal experiences, photography tips and more. What are your favourite things to write about, and why?

I think I most enjoy sharing images I’ve rediscovered. I blog a lot about current weddings and other photoshoots, as well as review photography equipment, but I love finding an old image on one of my hard-drives and being able to share it with people again.

We’ve all heard horror stories about weddings going wrong; angry mother-in-laws, crying brides and more. What’s been the hardest/scariest thing that’s happened to you?

I’ve been very lucky, as I haven’t really had any real disasters or things go wrong. I think my scariest moment has to be leaning quite far out of a car window to catch a shot of the wedding car following us down a country lane. My wife was not impressed when I told her afterwards!

If Twitter suddenly gave you a 3 person limit to the amount of people you could follow, who would they be and why? They can be photography-related or not, totally up to you.

@josevilla – Jose Villa, apart from basically inventing Fine Art wedding photography, has helped wedding photographers gain more respect in the industry.

@Lytro – If you’ve not heard of Lytro’s Light Field camera technology then look them up, I think it’ll be the next big development in photography.

@photojournalism – Shares really interesting links. I like seeing events through other photographers’ eyes

Thanks again to David for taking the time to do this interview! As I mentioned before, David was one of the first ever photographers I started to follow on Twitter, and I really recommend you do the same, by following him here. He’s also active on Facebook, too, and writes a really interesting blog. CharlwoodPhotography.com is his main website, where you can view lots more examples of his stunning fine art wedding photography.

 SimpleSLR: Hands-On Photography Training, is a fantastic book from Andy Lim – well known in the photography world for his photography classes and tutorials (as well as great images, of course!). His new book (which is available to buy here) is an extension of his classes; fitting in lots of practical lessons and examples to get the new DSLR-owner up to speed and taking great shots in no time.

And that sentence above really sums up why I’ve found Andy’s book so great: it’s full of practical lessons. It’s not one of those books that’s just full of technical theory and jargon; instead, Andy has written it as if he’s guiding you through one of his personal tutorials.

What I Learnt

Well, where to begin? I’ve read and reviewed quite a few photography books now, and whilst I have learned something new from each and every one, Hands-On Photography Training is the one I’m coming back to the most. It’s not just about the knowledge that Andy imparts, but the way he does it – each section is easily and straightforwardly explained, with full illustrations and example photos throughout. He just seems to make everything so easy to understand, and I can sit there, camera in hand, and physically go through his lessons and examples – learning the best way, practically.

So, some examples, I hear you ask. And here you go!

How To Handle Backlight Situations

Learn to handle those dreaded backlit situations with ease!

You know those times when your chosen subject is standing in front of something really bright? And it frustrates you because your photo comes out with the subject looking far too dark? That’s because of the strong backlight, fooling your camera into exposing the scene wrongly (or, at least, not exposing the scene how you want it to look!).

One of Andy’s lessons in this book guides you through just what to do to get around this problem; working to get a photo where both the background and your subject are correctly exposed. Top stuff.

Using The Right Focus Point

Using the right focus point can be the difference between swiftly hitting the 'delete' button, and a keeper.

You may already be familiar with the ‘focus, lock, recompose’ technique, where you can get focus on your chosen subject, and then recompose your shot so they’re exactly where you want them to be in the frame. However, did you know that instead of using this technique, you can just choose a different focus point for your camera to use, rather than using the centre-point all the time?

Not only does Andy talk through this technique, step-by-step, but he also gives great tips on just where is best to get quick, effective focus, and how getting this right can improve the amount of photos you decide to keep tremendously.

OK, What Else Is In The Book?

Plenty.

Oh, you want more examples? Well, how about:

• A beginner’s guide to exposure
• How to use Aperture Priority mode effectively
• How to control Depth of Field
• Wide angle lens vs Telephotos
• ISO settings
• How to avoid camera shake
• …and lots more…

…and, one of the best features of the book, 12 ‘Analysing The Shots‘ examples – where Andy shows you a photo he took, and then explains in great detail just how he ‘got the shot’: camera settings, compositional tips and more. If you’ve ever read any of Scott Kelby’s great photography books, you’ll have seen something similar (what Scott calls his ‘Photo Recipes’) – but Andy goes into even more details in his book.

My Verdict

I think you may have guessed that I like this book!

As well as being a great resource for a beginner or enthusiast photographer, I really liked the fact that it is an e-book; I was able to put it on my iPad, prop it up on the table, and go through each lesson with my camera in my hands – the best way to learn. (Being able to read the book on your daily commute would be an added bonus!).

SimpleSLR: Hands-On Photography Training comes highly recommended, and is available to buy (and thus instantly download) at this link.

They really are great little videos, especially for the beginner DSLR user – or even for people who’ve had their camera for a while now, but are yet to delve further than the automatic modes. You can check out Ethan’s Youtube channel at this link, or view 8 of his videos below:

Emma Case

I’m very excited to announce the first of what will be a new series of posts on LearningTheLight.com: ‘Learn From The Experts’, where professional photographers will share their tips, tricks, anecdotes and words of wisdom for us all.

And I’m even more excited that our first expert on board is none other than Emma Case, of Emma Case Photography. I’ve been a long time admirer of Emma’s wedding photography, so it was really exciting when she agreed to do this interview!

Hi Emma, and thanks a lot for agreeing to do this interview. You market yourself as an ‘alternative’ wedding photographer – does this come from the kind of weddings you cover, your particular style, or a combination of the both?

I think it’s a combination of both really.  I would say that personally my tastes are alternative when it comes to clothes, music, furniture etc and the business is just a natural extension of me as a person.  Because of this I seem to attract similar people.. just the same as if you portrayed yourself as a very corporate business.. you would expect to attract that type of client.  I want to look at my photographs and my branding and think that I would book myself if I stumbled across my work..

I definitely want this to come across as a strong message as the alternative style starts with the photographs so I want to be completely clear from the start so that prospective clients understand my style and approach which hopefully means that I attract the right kind of couple for me.

I love the colours and tones in your photography; for me, it’s one of the factors that really make your images stand out. What software do you use for your photo editing, and can you give us any tips on how you get your look?

I use Lightroom for basic adjustments and then the remainder of the work I use Photoshop.  I have Totally Rad Actions, Oeil Photography actions and have just started playing with Alien Skin too.  It’s quite strange actually as another good friend of mine, he uses pretty much the same actions as me but our images and style are completely different.  I do think it’s a combination of everything on how to get your own ‘look’.  The way you use light, your composition, your relationship with a couple..I shoot in Aperture Priority and I quite often tend to slightly overexpose… all these things will effect the final photograph.

What’s the one lens you like to shoot most with at a wedding, and why?

My 35mm 1.4 is my wingman (or winglady)… it’s my favourite lens.. I’ve also got the 85mm 1.2 which is great for ceremony, speeches etc.. I’m pretty happy with these two on my shoulders…

Can you tell us a little about the very first wedding you did as ‘the pro photographer’?

My first wedding as a pro photographer was in January 2010.. it was snowing and the wedding was in a beautiful manor house with dark wood panelling on all the walls and the ceiling and the ceremony was at 4pm.  I remember feeling sick for pretty much most of it but at the same time completely and utterly loving it.  The couple were amazing and the whole wedding was beautiful.. lots of laughing and lots of dancing but I definitely jumped in at the deep end.. most of the day everyone was inside, the lighting was really tricky and through the speeches I could just about get my bum through the seats as it was quite a small room.. but I’m so glad that it was such a challenge.  Wedding photography is HARD. You’re having to deal with a million situations at once and you have to be able to make quick decisions… and you’re doing it on someone’s wedding day.  That particular wedding taught me a lot and by the time summer came around I was in my element that there was still light at 6pm let alone 9pm!

I’m sure a lot of our readers would love to know your thoughts about this time-honoured scary situation: being asked to photograph your niece/brother’s/best friend’s little sister’s wedding, just because you’re known to have a ‘big camera’. What would your advice be for someone facing this dreaded event?

This is always going to be a tricky situation whatever profession.. hairdressers, mechanics, decorators… we’re all going to get asked and it’s so difficult as to friends and family all you’re doing is taking a few pics.. I wasn’t great at dealing with this for quite a while and have shot quite a few friends events for free or heavily discounted but I’m much better now.. I think you definitely learn by your mistakes.  I now will only shoot for immediate family and what I call my close friends.. for anyone else I will tactfully explain that my schedule is really busy and also that me and my husband are both making a living from this so if I shoot a wedding for free or discounted that’s equivalent to someone having their wages cut one month!  It can sound a bit harsh but otherwise you would be constantly shooting for nothing.

There’s always a lot of talk amongst wedding photographers about ‘gear’. What are your thoughts on equipment, and do you think it’s as important as creativity?

Someone can have all the ‘gear’ in the world but still take rubbish photographs.  I started with pretty standard non-professional cameras.. and although I now really appreciate having better equipment and can see a difference in performance in say low light etc… it still has to come from the photographer.  You can be taught how to use any camera, you can be taught about light but creativity and emotion and relationships aren’t so easy to teach.

Flash photography at weddings. Yay or nay?

Personal preference really.  I only use my flash for dancing shots and the photo booth.  Everything else is natural light.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read about photography? Can be wedding or general-photography related, totally up to you.

I am in love with ‘Days with my Father’ by Phillip Toledano.. it’s a photo journal of Philip’s father’s last years.  All the photos are accompanied with small descriptions or quotes from his Father and the photos are so emotionally charged.  Such depth, emotion, sadness, joy, heartache.. and although his Father has passed away.. the book is such a wonderful celebration of a Father and Son.. for me it is such a strong reminder of how important documentation is in whatever form…

It’s a hypothetical situation, so don’t panic, but if Twitter only let you follow 5 people, who would they be and why?

This is hard… is it quite strange that if I could only follow 5 then I’d probably just not use it (sorry that’s a rubbish way out of a question!)…

I’d like to thank Emma again for taking the time to give us this interview. I urge you to check out her main website (where you’ll find even more great examples of her photography), ‘like’ her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter too.

The Speedliter’s Handbook, by Syl Arena

The Speedliter’s Handbook, by Syl Arena, is the best book about off-camera flash photography that I have ever read. Go buy it – it’s that simple! (It’s available from Amazon US and UK, by the way).

If a three-sentence review isn’t quite good enough for you, though, you may want to read on for a little more depth…

What I Learnt

Wow, where to begin? Well, let’s start by saying that I learnt lots. The Speedliter’s handbook is amazingly thorough, and full of tips and tricks, but I think the biggest reason why it is so much better than other books on flash photography is because of the way Syl writes: he writes in such a down-to-earth, practical manner, that it is just so easy to understand what he is saying, and put it into practise yourself. In truth, he writes like I want to write like in this blog; trying to demystify the world of photography, writing so that the total beginner can sit down and understand what he’s trying to say.

So, if you’re totally new to world of off-camera flash, this book is the one you want to get. It doesn’t matter that it is mostly about Canon speedlites; a colleague of mine who shoots Nikon also got this book and raves about it – Syl’s advice and tips are truly universal.

Soft Light From Softboxes

A shot of my wife, using techniques learnt in The Speedliter's Handbook

Let’s jump straight to a shot that I took, using the knowledge learnt from this book – see the above photo of my wife in our kitchen. (And no, it’s not an advert for Cling Film, though it does look a bit that way!)

As well as shooting and exposure tips, Syl also covers recommended equipment too, so I took his advice and got a Lastolite Ezybox Softbox for my Canon 430 EX II flash. You can see what the softbox and flash look like in the shot below:

One of the main tips you’ll find in his book is that the closer your subject is to the light-source – in this case the softbox – the softer the light will be. So, with this in mind, I had my wife stand as close to the softbox (without it entering the frame) as she could. I triggered the flash by using my Canon 7D’s built-in wireless transmitter, and I’m really happy with just how soft the light is on her hair and face – really happy!

And it was just so easy to follow the tips in the book; really, really simple.

Here’s another shot from the same setup:

For Interesting Light, You Need Interesting Shadows

This is one of the main points that Syl makes sure comes across in his book: for interesting light you need to create interesting shadows. When you think about it, he’s obviously right – photos without shadows can look flat, texture-less and just plain boring, whilst photos with shadows look three-dimensional and, well, just far more interesting.

There’s a great section in the book where Syl talks about the different styles of lighting you can create by just moving your speedlite into different positions around the subject, with example photos of what each flash placement produces. Needless to say, when you just use your flash ‘straight-on’ at the subject (like when you ever use that little pop-up flash on your camera), the results are boring because there are no shadows. Simply move your speedlite at an angle to your subject, and you’ll create shadows, depth, and much better images.

With this in mind, here’s a shot of my hand, again shot through a softbox, with the speedlite up and to the right:

Even though it’s just my hand, I think it’s still an effective, interesting image because of the relationship between the light and shadows – caused by positioning my flash at an angle to my hand. The light on the background also comes from the same flash, and I purposely positioned it so that the light was uneven on the background; I like that kind of diagonal light/dark divide in the image.

When You Want A White Background

In theory, you’d think it would be pretty easy to get a white background – just stand infront of something white, surely? The thing is, if that’s all you do, that background will not actually come out super-white like those professional sutdio shots you see in magazines – to get that kind of result, you need to put a flash directly on the background.

Syl covers lots of examples of using multiple off-camera flashes, and how to set them up in groups, changing their power and so on. I used this knowledge to take the below shot of my wife, using one flash (in a softbox) to put light on her, and a separate flash pointed just at the background to make sure it came out pure white:

Dark, Dark Backgrounds

Conversely, you’ll find that the way to get dark backgrounds for your photos is by limiting the amount of available, ambient light in your photo to virtually none – which you can do so by shooting at high shutter speeds of around 1/200 sec, combined with low ISOs and small apertures (of around f/8 or smaller). By doing this, it means that your flash will be providing the only light source in your photo – no natural light at all. If you then make sure that the flash is positioned so that it won’t fall on your background, your background will come out nice and dark, another example below:

My Verdict

I think it’s pretty safe to say I like this book! I have only covered a very small part of what Syl’s book teaches in this review, too – there’s just not space for me to cover the wealth of knowledge encompassed in its 432 pages.

If you shoot Canon speedlites, then you really need this book. If you shoot Nikon, then I’d say that you’d still learn loads from it.

The Speedliter’s Handbook, by Syl Arena, is available from Amazon US and UK.

I’d also recommend you follow Syl on Twitter, and check out his website too.

Update 15th January 2012: I’ve just done a new off-camera flash shot of my pregant wife which you may be interested in seeing.

Photo by G. Russell on Flickr

Price

It may seem a little strange to start this review off by talking about price, but the great value of the 50mm f/1.8 II really deserves to be spoken about, as it’s just such an affordable loens to add to your arsenal. For example, it’s only about $150 from Amazon US, or around £100 on Amazon UK.

Photography is an expensive hobby at the best of times, so it’s great to find an excellent lens (which it is, by the way) that doesn’t leave us eating cheese and bread for a month or two…

How Will It Improve My Photos?

This is the biggie – afterall, why would you bother getting a new lens if it’s not going to improve your photography at the end of the day? There are a few reasons why you can benefit from getting the Canon 50mm, and I’ll list them in order of importance (in my opinion, anyway):

1. No Flash Needed

Yep, with this little baby attached to your DSLR, you can put away that little pop-up flash on your camera, because you just won’t be needing it – this lens’ maximum aperture of f/1.8 means that it takes in a whole lot of light at a time, which in turn means that you’ll be able to take sharp shots in lowlight situations with ease.

Don’t believe me? Check out my shot of a friend’s cat, below. It was taken inside at night, with no flash whatsoever:

f/1.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1600

Check out the sharpness of the cat’s eye!

A shot like this, in such a dark situation, would not have been possible to take without flash with the 18 – 55 kit lens that came with my Canon 500D / T1i – the aperture of that lens just ins’t large enough to allow enough light in. But, with the Canon 50mm f/1.8, I just set it at its maximum aperture, raised the ISO (which is the camera’s sensitivity to light) to 1600, and shot away.

By the way, I did a tutorial on how to take photos in lowlight without using a flash, which you may be interested in too.

2. Shallow Depth Of Field

I love taking shots with a beautifully blurred background; love the way this makes the subject of my photos ‘pop’. And what’s the main way you can achieve such out-of-focus backgrounds? Yep, by using a large aperture again – another reasons why the 50mm’s f/1.8 is just so darn great.

You can see an example of this in the shot below: the nice focus on the eyes, with the background (his body) and foreground (his nose) a lovely blur…

f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 3200

It’s also actually another example of the lowlight performance of the lens, as he is a dark dog, in a very dark room – there’s no way that my kit lens would have been able to take this shot without using flash, but the Canon 50mm had no problems.

Funnily enough, I’ve done a tutorial on how to blur the background in your photos too, which you may find useful.

3. Great Focal Length For Portraits

As most of us are probably using crop-sensor cameras – such as the Canon T2i or T3i – then the 50mm focal length of the lens is very similiar to an 80mm lens of a full-frame camera, and this focal length is just great for portraits. And if that talk of crop-sensors and full-frame doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry, just know that by using the 50mm to take photos of your friends and family, you’re going to get some great results.

The 80mm-equivalent focal length means your subject will look natural, and not distorted – and the wide aperture means you can send the background out of focus with ease.

Check out the portrait of my mum (ah…) below as an example:

f/2.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 100

I’m pretty sure my mum likes this shot, and she normally hates photos of herself, so the 50m is definitely working well here!

4. It’s Sharp.

Yep, it really is. At f/1.8 it’s good, and at slightly smaller apertures, such as f/2.8, it’s even better. You’ll definitely notice the improvement from your 18 – 55 kit lens.

I’ll include some more shots below – all showing great sharpness:

f/6.3, 1/800 sec, ISO 200

f/2.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 1600

f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO 800

f/2.8, 1/3200 sec, ISO 200

Verdict

So, you’re probably thinking I quite like this lens, and you’d be absolutely right! But what of its downsides? Well, you may have heard or read about the build quality of the lens. Yes, it is plasticy, but, you know what? It doesn’t matter. At all. It fits on your camera, and works. Surely that’s all we need it to do? We’re not going to be playing ‘catch’ with it, after all. For amateur/enthusiast photographers, there is just no need to go for a more expensive option just because of the plastic build.

It works, and it works darn well.

A photo I took with this lens was even published in my local newspaper, so, yes, I am quite a fan!

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is available from Amazon US and UK.

Before a crop

The above shot is a photo I took recently at a friend’s 30th party. It looks decidedly average, no strong subject at all, and one that you may just delete. However, by just doing a simple crop, I came away with a really nice portrait of my friend – see below:

After crop

You can see that this is quite a hefty crop, but see all the detail still there? A photo I might have got rid of is now a definite keeper.

Another example of when cropping saves the day:

Before a crop

Pretty boring, huh? The subject is centre-frame, which is not ideal, and it’s pretty small within the whole photo (I took it this way because it’s a lot easier to track focus of a moving subject when it is in the middle of the frame, but that’s beside the point). But, with a simple crop…

After crop

…we get a much better shot! Again, this is a really large crop of the original photo, but there is still plenty of detail here – one of the advantages of having DSLRs is that they have a lot of megapixels; they record so much detail that we can afford to crop our images and still retain great image quality.

By the way, the shots above were taken with my Canon 7D, which has an 18 Megapixel sensor. But you’d be able to get just as good results in your crops with any camera that had, say, around 10 or more megapixels, which all modern DSLRs do.

So, next time you’re reviewing your shots and you’re thinking of sending a few to the Recyle Bin Graveyard, why not try a simple crop instead?

'The DogFather'

Sorry if you’re a little tired of seeing photos of my dog on the site, but, what can I say?, she ‘s just such a great photographic subject!

I wanted to get a bit of a different shot to normal, more of a dramatic/moody look – so I used some some flash bounced off the wall (to the left of the photo; my dog’s right) so that one side of her face was illuminated, whilst the other was in shadow. I think this worked to create a nice sense of depth in the photo.

As in most cases, I focused on her nearest eye, and I’m really happy at how sharp it came out. Focusing on the eyes like this is normally a safe bet, as the eyes are the things a viewer is naturally drawn to when looking at a photo – so if the eyes are nice and sharp, you’re halfway on to a winner already.

I shot in Aperture Priority mode, and chose a wide aperture of f/2.8 – this meant a nice, shallow depth of field was created, where her eyes are in focus, but her nose and collar were not. (I did a tutorial on how to blur the background/foregound in your photos a while back, which you may be interested in)

For post-processing, I used Lightroom 3, and converted the shot to black and white – I felt that the colour was distracting from the overall ‘moodiness’ I wanted to create; it just looked better in black and white. As I normally feel that black and white shots look better when they have a boost in contrast, that’s exactly what I did with this shot.

A bit of a crop so that her head took up the entire frame, and so her eye was nicely over a ‘rule of thirds’ cross-section, and voila, ‘The DogFather’ (thanks to my niece for the inspiration for this particular photo title…!).

I’ve been taking lots of shots in lowlight without a flash recently, which I love to do, but it has meant that my flash has not been seeing much use – so I thought I’d whip it out for a few portraits over the weekend. And I’m very glad I did – it’s made me fall in love with bounce flash all over again!

To take this shot, I angled the flash head on my Canon 430 EX II so that it pointed towards the ceiling, and chose a wide aperture of f/2.8 so that the background would be nicely out of focus. I dialed in a a -1 step of exposure compensation, as I wanted the background to be a bit darker than it would have been normally – so my subject would stand out  nicely against it.

Composition-wise, I focused on the eyes, and positioned them around the top third of the frame, and then took the shot. Although it was a nice photo right out of the camera, I played around with Adobe Lightroom for a bit, and used the Stellar Guru GreenGold preset for the final image you see above.

I still think that natural-light photography is great, but I’m starting to explore flash photography a lot more now too, as I’m really happy with the portrait above.

Have you tried some bounce-flash photography? Let me know in the comments below!