Photography Basics

The Photography basics category of our site will give you a foundation for your photography education.  While many of these are considered beginner or 101 tips and tutorials, they are essential to your understanding of photography.

Why Auto-ISO + Manual Mode Is the Best Auto Exposure Mode

Anthony Thurston

Many of you have and do use Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority on a consistent basis. But what if I told you that Auto ISO, when combined with Manual Mode is actually the best auto-exposure mode there is?

Photographer Attacked, Beaten, and Robbed During Wedding | 5 Tips To Stay Safe

Hanssie

A Baltimore photographer was robbed and beaten at a wedding this past weekend. Also, 5 safety tips for photographers.

5 More Simple Tips For Taking Great Family Portraits

Michelle Ford

Five more tips to help photographers take family portraits

Why Are Some People In My Group Portraits So Soft? – Q&A with Matthew Saville

Matthew Saville

Question: What is the best way to get family portraits in focus, without totally sacrificing shallow DOF?  Sometimes people on ...

Getting Creative With Lens Flare

J. Cassario

As photographers, we are creative beings. I’m a strong believer that it’s our creativity and artistic talents that separate each ...

How To Photograph A Meteor Shower – The 2013 Perseids

Matthew Saville

For those of you who don’t know, (and for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere) the Perseid meteor shower ...

Use Foreground Objects to Add Interest to Your Sports Images

Anthony Thurston

One of the biggest problems when shooting sports is that it can get to be very repetitive. After a few games into each season all of your shots can start to look the same.

Golden Gate Bridge Sunset Panorama – How We Shot It

Matthew Saville

This image was captured from the observation deck / bar of the Bank of America Building in San Francisco. The view from up there is stunning, if you are ever interested in finding this perspective it is available to the public, as long as you are dressed "appropriately" for an elite (and expensive!) bar scene...

The Milky Way in Rhyolite Ghost Town – How We Shot It

Matthew Saville

Even though my full-time job is wedding photography, my photographic hobby is the polar opposite! I enjoy photographing nightscapes in the desert, the more remote the better! Here is a relatively easy-access location, Rhyolite Ghost Town, which is just outside of Death Valley National Park. I have been photographing this bank's cement skeleton now since 2005, and it never disappoints!

Android App Highlight: Easy Release

Pye

As a professional photographer on of the things that you really should be doing is getting model releases from anyone that you photograph. In case you do not know, a Model release (in its simplest form) is a legal document that the model and photographer sign that states that the photographer retains the copyright on the images.