New camera owners are usually faced with one of four scenarios: they’re staying within the same system, they’re switching systems, they’re moving from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera, or they’re purchasing their first fully manual camera.

The first scenario is the easiest, because you’ll already be used to the menu system and control layout. The differences in menu system and control layout between two Canon EOS cameras, for example, will be minimal.

Switching systems is much harder because not only will you have to grapple with a new menu system and control scheme, you’ll be fighting against the muscle memory you've carefully honed when using your previous system.

Switching from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera isn’t overly strenuous if you’re sticking with the same manufacturer (although there are some specific considerations) and, if you’re not, revert to my last point.

And finally, if you’re a complete beginner, you’re sailing into uncharted waters. The good news is that you don’t have to undo any muscle memory or relearn things, because everything is new to you, so you have a chance to start everything off on the right foot. Let’s get into it…

1. Set your camera up

Before you’re tempted to head out and about with your pride and joy, hold your horses and take the time to set it up properly. The first thing I do when I get a new camera is to set it to RAW. Most cameras will be set to JPEG by default, so if you’re a RAW shooter, this is a very important step.

I then take the time to go through the menu system bit by bit, making sure that everything is set up to my liking. I’ll have the manual to hand, too, so if I find a setting I’m not familiar with, I can look it up.

Finally, I’ll make sure that I map out any custom function buttons. If you’ve never done this before, buying a new camera is a great excuse to start – because you’ll have to get used to the new control system anyway, so you might as well make your life easier by mapping custom buttons and building up the muscle memory for everything at the same time.

2. Set up your video settings

Videographers and hybrid creatives will head straight for this option by default – but if you only shoot video occasionally or hardly ever, you might not think to set up your camera’s video preferences.

However, just in case inspiration strikes, it’s always a good idea to set up your video settings from the outset. That way, if you suddenly find yourself wanting to capture some footage, you can simply switch to video mode and start shooting.

3. Set up your EVF accordingly

If you’re picking up a mirrorless camera for the first time, it’ll likely have an auto EVF (electronic viewfinder) setting where the rear LCD screen switches off when you bring the EVF up to your eye. This can present something of a problem if you’re shooting video or framing photos using the rear LCD.

This is because something like a gimbal or even your torso, if you’re shooting from the hip, can trigger the sensor and switch off the rear LCD. As such, make sure you find your camera’s EVF settings and set this function to your preference.

4. Use your camera at home

I’m not saying you shouldn't get outside with your camera on Christmas Day – who wouldn’t want to? – but don’t be afraid to pick up your camera and play with it at home.

Just handling it, fiddling with a few settings, and taking a few pictures of the cat all go towards building that crucial muscle memory that will eventually have you wielding your camera like it’s an extension of your arms.

5. Keep your camera with you

The more time you spend with your camera, the quicker you’re going to become one with it, so it’s crucial at this early stage that you keep it with you as much as possible.

Walking the dog, heading to the shops, visiting the in-laws… make sure your camera is always by your side so that you’re encouraged to use it.

6. Know that mirrorless cameras can drain batteries faster

This one’s for anyone moving from DSLR to mirrorless. Depending on which mirrorless camera you have, you’ll probably find that the battery drains much quicker than your old DSLR’s battery. This is because either the EVF or the rear LCD, along with the sensor and possibly the stabilization system, are constantly working while the camera is switched on.

As such, you’ll need to get into the habit of switching your camera off when you’re not actively using it, ensuring that your batteries are fully charged on every shoot, and keeping an eye on your battery indicator.

The battery life of mirrorless cameras has definitely improved over time, and some higher-end models do boast very good battery life, but if you’ve been a DSLR stalwart all this time, this is something that can catch you out.

7. Avoid important shoots

Whether you’re a jobbing photographer or a keen enthusiast, you might want to think twice before taking out your new pride and joy on an important shoot if you haven’t spent the time getting to know the camera first.

Granted, this only works if you still have your old camera – but if you have the choice, I’d recommend sticking with your old kit until you’re comfortable using your new kit.

After all, you don’t want to be wasting valuable time trying to find out your new camera’s flash sync speed, finding yourself completely bamboozled by all the new AF settings, or inadvertently shooting JPEG for the entire shoot because you forgot to employ tip number one.

8. Learn to use the viewfinder

If you’ve only ever used camera phones or compact cameras with no viewfinder, I think it’s extremely important that you get used to shooting through the viewfinder.

I’ve written about this in the past and am in no way saying that composing through the viewfinder is better than composing via the rear LCD. Plenty of incredible photographers – especially in this modern age of camera phones – do so.

However, if you’re starting your photography journey, I think it’s worth learning both ways. Why? Because if you start to use longer lenses, you may find yourself struggling to steady the camera effectively if you insist on shooting via the rear screen.

And if you find yourself shooting in bright sunlight, you might not be able to even see the image on the rear LCD due to glare. I say, get it out of the way now and learn to use both.

9. Put on a camera strap

I’m guilty of not using my camera with a strap. Then again, I do a lot of product and landscape photography where it’s secured on a tripod, and sports photography where the camera and lens combination is simply too heavy (for a neck strap at least).

However, if you’ve bought a camera that can be comfortably worn around your neck or over your shoulder, it’s worth attaching a strap. Not only will this avoid unwanted drops, but it’ll keep your camera always available to you, meaning you’ll use it more and are less likely to miss the moment.

10. Know your exposure settings

If you’re using a fully manual camera for the first time, it can be a very daunting experience. So much so that plenty of beginner photographers buy manual cameras, switch them to auto mode and never get the best out of them.

I therefore wholeheartedly recommend that you take the time to learn the exposure triangle and the settings on your camera so you can begin to wield it like a pro. However, you needn’t take the training wheels off in one go.

A great starting point is aperture priority. This setting enables you to control your aperture and thus your depth of field, while the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. You can then choose to set your ISO manually or set it to auto ISO, so you only have to worry about your aperture.

This is the first step into the world of manual photography and is a great way to get started without relying on auto mode.

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I directed exactly that question to not just a Photoshop expert but Adobe Photoshop’s Senior Director of Product Management, Stephen Nielsen. Here’s when (and why) photo editors may want to try a third-party AI.

Adobe Firefly

Best for: Commercially-safe AI

Adobe Firefly has a key feature for creators: it’s built on licensed content, not photos scraped from the internet. That makes Firefly safe for commercial use, Adobe says.

Firefly is the safer choice – and the more ethical option for creatives, as many generative AI platforms do not share where the training data comes from. There are a number of lawsuits and legal questions surrounding AI and what constitutes fair use for training data.

Photoshop’s third-party AI models are also considered a premium generative AI feature, whereas Firefly is considered a standard feature. That means that, depending on what subscription you have, you may have to purchase extra generative credits to use the third-party models, where some standard generative credits are included in some Adobe Photography plans.

Nano Banana and Nano Banana Pro

Best for: Legible text and signs, understanding instructions

AI image generators are notoriously bad a generating text, but Google’s Nano Banana Pro shows significant improvement. For editors who need to generate text, Nano Banana may spit out the most usable options.

Nano Banana Pro is also able to understand instructions. Firefly wasn’t built to use instruction verbs like “change this to that” in the prompt, so using those types of prompts can introduce unintended errors. Editors using prompts with instruction verbs may want to experiment with Nano Banana inside Photoshop.

Flux.1 and Flux.2

Best for: Realism, maintaining image “identity,” understanding instructions

Black Forest Lab’s Flux AI models are known for realism, and that can extend into Photoshop’s Generative Fill. Editors may also want to experiment with the Flux models for maintaining “identity” or keeping more of the original intact and staying in line with the original image.

Like Nano Banana Pro, Flux models' training allows them to handle instruction verbs in the prompt better than Firefly at times.

Currently, third-party AI models are only available in Generative Fill inside Photoshop. Third-party models are available by using the drop-down menu next to the prompt text box in the Contextual Task Bar. Third-party AI model support was introduced in October 2026, and a software update is required for those running older versions of the software.

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You don’t need a professional camera body or lenses to become a professional photographer. In fact, I’d say that if you have the determination and flexible skills, you can probably make do with the kit you already have and build up your gear collection slowly.

If you think a camera body upgrade is absolutely necessary, I'd advise you to think about what sensor you’re going to need for the work you want to take on (for example, is a full-frame camera a necessity?) and then work out your budget.

It doesn’t matter if you choose the cheapest camera available, as lenses are really where putting your money pays off. Good-quality glass and faster lenses make more of a difference to your overall image quality, although you don’t need to spend a fortune here either.

I’ve been asking photography pros for their best advice on working with a limited budget when you first get started…

Pro Advice

Second-hand and renting

Photographer Dave Kai Piper is a portrait and fashion photographer, and has some useful advice when it comes to setting up your business on a budget.

“To be a photographer, you need a camera, lens, possibly an external light source and a phone,” he advises. “Let your income dictate the purchase of gear, not your lust for new things. Marketing firms and influencers will do their best to tell you that you need the latest stuff. It’s a total lie, don’t believe the hype!”

When it comes to buying gear, remember that you don’t need to buy new. There are many great second-hand outlets online, such as KEH and MPB to name just a couple.

These websites are legitimate companies that thoroughly check the kit as it comes in and offer a guarantee. However, note that this may not apply to every product, so check before purchasing.

When buying lenses, tripods, accessories and lighting kits, second-hand is the way to go if you want to save money. Camera bodies are a little riskier on the second-hand market, but nevertheless you can get some good deals if you shop around.

Make sure you look at the shutter count of the camera body you intend to purchase, to give you a good indication of the life left in it. Many professional camera bodies should last 200,000 clicks or more. You can also trade in your old gear, which may get you a few extra quid – every little helps!

Dave also makes a good point about renting gear. “If you find you need a certain item, rent it unless you are using it every day.” Although more advanced photography gear can still be pricey to borrow in the short term, this is a better solution than buying it (even second-hand).

Companies like Hire A Camera have a great range of products that can be borrowed from a day rate up to a two-week period.

Take some risk

It takes guts to put money into your business (especially if you’re uncertain of the outcome), but self-belief is a good philosophy to keep in mind. While I don’t advise you to borrow massive amounts of money you can’t repay, sometimes you have to take a bit of a risk to get somewhere, like photographer Suzanne Porter:

“I’ve always had a tendency to just go for it and deal with the consequences, and manage to convince myself what I want is worth the money… Hence, a number of my projects have left me in debt! But that is also what drives me. If I’ve overspent on expensive items, then I damn well have to go out and get the work.”

Invest in yourself

Dave Kai Piper is a great believer in investing time in yourself and the people around you. “Create a network of like-minded people that you can go to for advice and help,” he suggests.

“You can share gear and resources, and help each other. Many people think being a photographer is a solo game, but I can tell you from my heart, there is just no way I would have done half of what I have done without the support of friends and family.”

He continues, “You can have a fancy office, the best cameras with all the technical training, but if you don’t have customers, it’s worth nothing. Talk to everyone about what you want to do, keep going, and with hard work you’ll get rewards.”

Online presence

To get yourself noticed and to build up your network, it is recommended that you have some type of online presence. This doesn’t need to be in the form of an expensive website; you can simply set up free social media sites that sell your brand.

Instagram is a great way to visually entice people to look at your work, and a thought-through Facebook page provides you with a platform for people to get in touch and book business directly with you.

Don’t be under any illusions, though, that you’re suddenly going to get loads of work through these platforms as soon as they go live; you’ll need to network in person as well. “Social media is a bit of a rabbit hole,” Dave says. “It can be easy to spend a lot of time without any reward. Use it wisely!”

When thinking about your marketinf strategy, look at other photographers you admire and take note of how they brand themselves. While imitating someone’s business like-for-like is a big no, taking a little inspiration is flattering.

Resist unnecessary temptations

When it comes to looking at your budget, don’t make any extravagant expenditures. While Suzanne Porter invests her money in some areas of her business, such as her kit, she has found it beneficial to reel the budget back in others.

“Since starting the online marketplace, I’ve come up against many situations where I would love to spend the budget on areas outside my comfort zone, for example, PR and marketing, analytics, social media, and even to have a lovely office to disassociate from home life,” she says.

“But I have managed to resist these things, and I am learning to do much more myself. This is empowering and invaluable, even if I farm out the work at a later date. Do as much as you can yourself, at least in the beginning (there are tutorials for everything online); start small, go slowly and believe.”

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Bear in mind that the prism needs to be long enough to cover the whole front element of your lens (for most 35mm, 50mm and 85mm prime lenses, the 4-inch version will be fine). Requiring hand-holding, the prism needs to be long enough to avoid your fingers appearing in the shot. 

Start in Aperture Priority mode and select the widest aperture on your lens, such as f/1.8. This will not only throw the background out of focus but will also render the prism in the foreground out of focus. Adjust the ISO value until you can shoot with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec or above to eliminate camera shake and enable any image stabilisation.

Now it’s time to start shooting and asking your model to experiment with their poses.

Gear advice

Commonly referred to as a ‘nifty fifty’, a 50mm f/1.8 lens is usually priced around the $100-150 (£100-150) mark and even less on the second-hand market. With a brilliant focal length for portraits, when used on a full-frame camera, the wide maximum aperture of f/1.8 will create separation between your model and the background by turning the latter into blurry ‘bokeh’.

See some of our best 50mm lens options

Fractals Filters Classic review: a three-pack of prisms for portrait photographers - 

Have a go using prisms at home with still life images 

Watch video: Hit the streets

Whether you live in a big city or you’re taking a day trip to see some sights, urban environments are full of photographic potential. There’s so much to point your Canon EOS mirrorless or DSLR camera at, it can be difficult to know where to even begin! From the hustle and bustle of busy city streets to amazing architecture, a vibrant urban snapshot is never far from reach. That’s why this month I headed to the UK's capital city of London, and in this project I run through six fun and exciting ways you can get started with street photography.

When it comes to what equipment you need to take a decent street shot, an entry-level DSLR or mirrorless camera will be ideal, with either a kit lens such as an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens for APS-C, or something like a 24-70mm or 24-105mm on a full-frame body. Even premium compacts can work well and help you keep a low profile, this is especially useful when taking reportage style shots of people going about their day.

Personally, I like a 35mm lens with at least an f/2 wide aperture setting for full-frame, though a 24mm on an APS-C body will also get the job done. I find a 35mm focal length offers the perfect balance between being a wide-angle without loads of barrel distortion that you would get with an ultra-wide angle lens and they’re affordable too. That said you will need a lens with a zoomable focal length to try out this eye catching zoom blur effect below! So, let’s hit the streets and take some top city shots... 

1. Look out for nature's frames

It can be tricky to compose your shots in the wide open spaces of city centres. Be on the look out for ‘natural’ framing devices in your cityscapes, such as the bridge above, which helps frame the skyscrapers and guide the viewer’s eye towards them.

2. Smarter stabilization

Travelling light definitely has its perks so a full-size tripod isn’t always the best solution. Instead, we favor a GorillaPod (pictured), which is much smaller and can be wrapped around railings and lamp posts, of which there are plenty in urban environments.

3. Look out for reflections

An easy way to make your city scenes look more graphic is to incorporate a reflection. There’s no shortage of glass windows in cities: we used a glass advertising panel from a bus stop here, you could even use water and puddles if smooth enough.

4. Moving elements

Frame up on scene and use an exposure fast enough to freeze the scene, but slow enough to blur moving people, cars or bikes as they pass through. Use Aperture Priority (Av) mode and set the ISO to 100, then close down the aperture until you have a shutter speed of 1/15 sec to get started.

5. Try a zoom burst

This is a fun technique to do with entry-level Canon EOS cameras and a kit lens, such as an 18-55mm. Use Shutter Priority (Tv) and dial in a shutter speed of 1/5 sec at ISO100. Focus on your subject, then fire the shutter while at the same time quickly rotating the zoom ring from 18mm all the way to 55mm.

6. Straighten up lines

There’s some fascinating architecture with interesting lines and geometry. These straight lines are easy to distort when shooting from a low angle, or using a wide-angle lens, so be sure to straighten them up in Photoshop CC using the Perspective Crop Tool or Free Transform.

Check out the best cameras for street photography

Watch video: Custom bokeh shapes

Bokeh is the Japanese word we use to describe the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus elements in your image. (It's also the name of the Digital Camera World podcast, Bokeh Face!) In particular, the specular highlights in an image are often rendered as round "bokeh balls".

However, these highlights actually take their shape from the aperture of your lens; Canon’s budget EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, for example, is known for the pentagonal shape of its bokeh balls due to its five-bladed aperture (a higher number of blades would create a more circular specular highlight ball).

A 50mm prime lens is ideal for this technique because these optics usually have wide apertures of f/1.8 or more – and this makes it easier to blur the background with a shallow depth of field to further exaggerate the effect.

While some 50mm lenses can be pricey, luckily they’re also some of the most affordable optics on the market, too. Sometimes costing under $200, it’s no surprise that these "nifty fifty" optics are usually the first lenses that beginners upgrade to after a kit lens. If you don’t already have one, it could be worth adding one to your Christmas wish list as they deliver brilliant bang for buck!

Bokeh balls or other shapes are created when specular highlights are thrown out of focus with a shallow depth of field. And the closer you focus to your subject, the larger your bokeh shapes become.

I focused super-close to my Santa Claus decoration for this image, and also set up some colourful string lights in the background to make sure there was no shortage of specular highlights that would be turned into my custom bokeh shapes using this cheap lens hack.

The technique costs peanuts, so be sure to get creative with your bokeh templates. Simple shapes work best, so start off with stars, a love heart or Christmas tree, and then get more elaborate once you’ve picked up the technique.

With no shortage of bright lights on display at home and around neighborhoods and cities this time of year, it’s the perfect time to get creative with custom bokeh and try it out for yourself on a simple still-life setup or even portraits.

1. Draw around your lens

Place your 50mm lens face down on a sheet of black card and draw around its perimeter with a pencil. Remove the lens and mark another larger circle around it, about 1-2cm bigger. Draw a cross in the middle to centre your shape.

2. Create your shape

Now it’s time to draw your shape. I went for a tree to fit with my Christmas theme, then cut it out with a sharp craft knife on a cutting mat. Now cut around the outer circle and then cut tabs at 1cm intervals between the outer and inner circles.

3. Attach it to your lens

Cut a strip of card about 2cm wide and wrap this around the tabs you made on your template, then stick it in place on your lens with some tape. The whole template should then snugly fit over the front of your 50mm lens.

4. Dial in the camera settings

To make the bokeh as prevalent as possible, shoot with the aperture wide open. To do this, go into Aperture Priority mode (Av) and open the aperture as far as it goes – such as to f/1.8. Then set the ISO to 800 if you’re going to be hand-holding, or ISO100 on a tripod.

5. Focus manually

As the aperture template can interfere with autofocus, it’s best to manually focus, so a tripod is a safe bet. To make depth of field super-shallow and increase the size of the bokeh, set your lens to its closest focus distance, then move towards your subject until you can see that it’s pin-sharp.

6. Start shooting

Now it’s time to take some test shots. If your bokeh shape looks as though it’s been cut off, you’ve likely drawn it too big – so it’s worth making a smaller one and having another go. When taking your test shots, be sure to check the sharpness and exposure on your camera's rear screen.

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But as you start to learn more about compositional theory, you may find the rule of thirds to be lacking. And yet, what makes the rule of thirds so useful is that it can be applied to so many different situations. Unlike the rule of odds, leading lines, and a frame within a frame, the rule of thirds is an overarching compositional principle that can be applied to almost any image. Thankfully, there’s a more advanced alternative: the golden ratio.

How to use the golden ratio

1. Know the rule of thirds
2. Familiarize yourself with the Fibonacci spiral
3. Apply the spiral to images in post-production
4. Place the focal point at the end of the spiral
5. Use the curvature of the spiral as a guide for leading the viewer towards the focal point
6. Mentally apply the spiral when capturing images with your camera

What is the golden ratio?

The golden ratio, sometimes called the divine proportion or phi, is a mathematical equation that ends up close to 1.618. This number can also be achieved using the Fibonacci sequence, where the current number in the sequence is added to the previous number to make the next number: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc. As the sequence progresses, the Fibonacci sequence increasingly converges towards the golden ratio.

I’m no mathematician, so I’m not going to embarrass myself by explaining how that happens, but there’s a relationship. What we’re interested in is those numbers being used to form a curve known as the Fibonacci spiral. However, in the world of photography, I’ve seen Fibonacci spiral, golden ratio, phi, and the like, all being used interchangeably to refer to this curve. So, from now on, I’m just going to call it the golden ratio.

Things get really interesting when you realise that the golden ratio pops up all over the place throughout history. Not just in great works of art by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but throughout the natural world. And while the concept of the golden ratio is pretty difficult to get your head around, applying it isn’t. But it does require practice.

The biggest difficulty is that, unlike the rule of thirds, it’s hard to find cameras that actually feature golden ratio overlays. This means you’ve got to overlay the spiral in your head. Thankfully, both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic have a golden ratio overlay you can use when cropping, so you can tweak your composition accordingly. There’s also a simplified version of the golden ratio, which looks a lot like the rule of thirds grid, but with the two verticals set closer together in the center of the image.

As with the rule of thirds, you can place the focal point of the image on any of the converging points on the aforementioned grid, or roughly around the center of the spiral. The spiral itself can be flipped horizontally or vertically, and you can use the curvature as a guide for leading the eye towards the center of the spiral via objects or leading lines within the image.

Ultimately, the golden ratio isn’t overly different from the rule of thirds. However, due to its equally spaced grid, it’s less flexible than the golden ratio, and subsequent compositions can appear more rigid. I also find the Fibonacci spiral more useful in that the curvature can be used to lead towards the focal point of the image, whereas the rule of thirds simply features intersection points. It's also worth pointing out that you the golden ratio is scalable, so you can apply it to different aspect ratios. So, the next time you’re out and about, or if you’ve got some images to crop in post, why not try the golden ratio instead of the rule of thirds?

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“How’d you make your dog so tiny, Peter?” 

“Is your dog one of those new miniature Bichon Frisé breeds!?”

No, and, er, no.

As our dog is standing beside the tennis ball on the grass, I haven’t played with perspective - eg when the ball (or toy car) is in the foreground and the dog (or subject) is in the background to make them appear the same size.

So I must’ve used some Photoshoppery? Or a little bit of AI generative fill stuff?

No, and again, no. 

So what’s the secret? 

Big balls. Big tennis balls, to be specific. Ever since my children were given giant tennis balls to play with, I knew there was a great photo op just waiting to happen. 

It’s simply a large tennis ball! To confirm, our Cavapoochon dog is a normal medium-size pooch, it’s the tennis ball in the photo which is big. It’s actually bigger than most soccer balls. 

It’s not a trick of the camera, it’s more a trick of the mind. We associate tennis balls as a certain size, so our brain thinks the thing next to it must be equally small. 

I shot low to the ground at around 50mm with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, and at f/4 to keep the dog and ball on the same focus plane, and the background blurred. A bit of High-Speed Sync fill flash to brighten the shadows helped the exposure on this sunny day.

Anyone for tennis? Well, anyone for soccer? My balls are too big for tennis!

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In fact, drab days can work very well, with soft diffused light flooding through windows, instead of the harsh, direct light you may encounter in the middle of a sunny day. Setting up your still life so it’s side-on to the window will allow you to replicate a classic-looking, single-light effect, illuminating your subject from one side, and forming shadows on the other to add both depth and dimension.

Simple still life tips for beginners:

1. Set up with the subject side-on to a window
2. Place your arrangement in front of a relatively plain backdrop
3. Think hard about your arrangement: the relationship of the objects, the narrative, the textures, and the colors
4. Frame your arrangement with your camera on a tripod
5. Use manual mode or aperture priority
6. Set an aperture of f/8 or f/11
7. Choose a low ISO
8. The subject is still so a slow shutter speed won't be a problem
9. Focus on the subject or just in front of it to maximise the depth of field
10. Use an exposure delay mode or remote shutter release to avoid camera shake

As far as subjects go, you can choose anything you have to hand, but classic still life subjects include pottery, flowers, and fruits. Many classic still-life paintings feature objects that are intended to connote death, referred to as a memento mori, so feel free to use objects to build a narrative. You’ll also want to think about your background. Typically, you’d opt for something that isn’t overly busy. That might be a dedicated photography background, a bare wall, or a piece of cloth.

Getting good at still life photography isn’t just about knowing how to use your camera; in fact, that’s really only a small part of it. The crucial part of any still life photo is the arrangement of the still life, so make sure you spend plenty of time thinking about your layout and what that says to the viewer. Consider elements such as the different textures within your frame, how the colors interact with each other, and the depth of the image.

When it comes to actually taking the photo, you’ll be working in low light, so a sturdy tripod is essential. An aperture of f/8 or f/11 should give you a suitably large depth of field to render your subjects sharp, but don’t be tempted to boost your ISO too high. Because the elements within your frame are, by their very nature, still, you can set a long exposure to gather the light that your camera needs.

When focusing, you may simply opt to focus on the focal point – the main subject – of your image. However, it’s worth taking a few test shots and playing with your point of focus if you want as much of your arrangement as sharp as possible. Sometimes, focusing slightly in front of your intended subject can help to render elements sharper in the foreground of the image, with the depth of field still large enough to render the subject in focus. Focus peaking can help to illustrate this.

If you’re finding that the natural lighting isn’t working for you, you could have a go at light painting. This requires you to set up a long exposure and brush the light from a torch over your arrangement. This is a more advanced technique that may require trial and error, and a little practice, as well as the blending of multiple images in post-production, but it’s a great workaround for those who don’t have dedicated photography lights.

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A bit of clever cropping is an easy way to lose these blank areas in the frame. So why don't you go for a panoramic-style crop? It’s a brilliant and quick fix for removing large areas of sky, or large empty bits of land or sea, like these shots by the beaches of California.

When I’m cropping these images, I don’t mean the classic 16:9 ratio favored for most panoramic shots; I’m talking about a more extreme 21:9 ratio for a proper widescreen movie experience.

The great thing with modern cameras is that the large file sizes captured by their high-resolution sensors mean that you can make some hefty crops and still be left with large, usable images.

These shots were taken with an old 30MP Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, which captures 6720 x 4480 images – more than enough pixels to crop. But, of course, when doing these 21:9 crops we’re keeping the full width, and therefore the full impact, of our high-res images.

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Take a look at these landscape photography tips, to help you get the most of the best cameras for landscape photography and the best lenses for landscapes.

Switching over to live view would often be a painfully slow and inaccurate affair on many of the DSLRs I owned. But with the removal of the mirrorbox and optical viewfinder, we saw mirrorless cameras that had no option but to autofocus using the on-sensor data.

This improved greatly over time and could eventually detect faces to lock onto a specific person or even their eye for very precise people tracking.

My secret weapon is to use a couple of different autofocus options in combination with back-button focusing. For those unfamiliar with the term back-button focusing, this is where you remove the AF acquisition from the shutter button and place it instead on the rear AF-On button – the shutter button now purely fires the shutter (and starts metering, if you wish).

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The other key setting is to enable your continuous autofocus drive mode. This means that, so long as you hold down the autofocus button (now set to AF-On), the camera will constantly refocus over your active AF point – very useful if it’s on the move.

Just by making these simple changes, you have access to three autofocus modes all without ever having to dive into a menu. Hold AF-On down to continually track, press AF-On once to focus and set (much like Single Servo AF mode) or don’t touch AF-On at all and use the lens focus ring to focus manually.

Now I’m going to add a game-changer into the mix. I suggest setting another button on the back of the camera, in my case the * button on my Canon EOS R5 to activate Face Detection. So if I want to use it I can press and hold the * button to track a person’s face, though if the camera gets it wrong (it’s rare, but it happens) I can switch back to the AF-ON button for a more manual override.

Of course, if you’ve already got a very good hit rate I wouldn’t suggest you change anything. But, if you own a mirrorless camera and you’re struggling with achieving pin-sharp shots, your camera likely has these settings and costs nothing to try it out – so you don’t have anything to lose!

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This is a brilliant feature available in cameras like the new EOS R6 Mark III, EOS R3, EOS R1, and the EOS R5 Mark II, which I was using to take photos of my son playing soccer at the weekend.

It’s simple to set it up. To register the person you want to focus on, a soccer player in a match in my situation, just scroll to the AF menu and select Register People Priority.

Switch Register People Priority to ON, then you can take a quick headshot of your subject using the Photograph People And Register option.

Your Canon EOS camera will now save the face information to prioritize your subject when using autofocus. Alternatively you can use an existing image on a memory card and register that.

It goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – you need your Canon EOS camera’s AF modes already set up to shoot action sports. So I’ll list the settings here I used on my Canon EOS R5 Mark II, in case you don’t already know for soccer:

My menu settings for shooting soccer

AF pink menu 1:

AF operation - SERVO

AF area - Expand AF area: Around

Whole area tracking Servo AF - On

AF pink menu 2:

Subject to detect - People

Eye detection - Auto

Register People Priority - On

Action priority setting 1 - Enable

Action priority setting 2 - Sports Events – Soccer

Also use High-Speed Continuous Drive mode, and set the AF-ON button for back-button focusing to give you more control.

Now you’re good to go! During the match, aim your camera and ensure the player you want to track is in your frame. Whenever the camera highlights your registered subject, a little ‘headshot in a box’ icon appears in the viewfinder (or rear screen) along with a small white cross-hairs box – so you can be sure it’s your player. Press AF-ON to focus, and a small blue box confirms focus locked, and press the shutter button to fire off a burst of shots.

In the past, when shooting sports without Register People Priority, cameras would focus on the player closest to me, or the players with their face looking towards me and easiest to focus, but not always the player I wanted to focus on.

With Register People Priority set up, as long as the camera can see the player’s head (and ideally the eyes, nose and mouth are visible) it will highlight them in the viewfinder for you to focus and shoot. During the match, I found the R5 Mark II could find my player even when in profile or if their hair was in their eyes.

I’m a convert and will be using this super-clever mode every time for sports photos in the future.

You might think you need a studio to capture indoor pet portraits, but so long as you can set up a dedicated or makeshift photography backdrop next to a window, you’re halfway there.

Some pet photographers use flash to capture four-legged friends, but both the flash and recycling hiss can make some animals uncomfortable – so if you have a nervous pet, I’d recommend using constant lighting.

The upside of this is that LED light panels can be picked up for a very reasonable price and, if you’re not used to using off-camera flash, they’re easier to set up to, since what you see is what you get.

You don't need a fancy, super-fast lens either. A standard zoom or a nifty fifty will do, meaning you can get by with most kit lenses.

As the old saying goes: don’t work with children or animals. And indeed, the hardest thing about photographing pet portraits is the pets themselves. Patience and positive reinforcement are key. Make the process fun for the animal, and you’ll have more fun yourself, not to mention increasing the likelihood of capturing that winning shot.

For my portrait session I enlisted the help of Fenwick, the border collie. Once she realized her bed was in the middle of the studio and was plied with plenty of treats, she happily sat in front of the camera while I tweaked my lights and camera settings. Here’s how I got on…

How to capture a pet portrait at home

1. Set up a backdrop (and bed)

I set up my Lastolite collapsible backdrop next to a window on an overcast day, but a plain wall or bed sheet will work just as well. If your pet is particularly attached to their bed or a blanket, placing it in your makeshift studio is a great way to get them to sit in one place and stay there.

2. Set for success

I set everything up before my sitter arrived, as I didn’t want to waste their – potentially limited – attention span while I set up the backdrop and camera equipment. I used a similar-sized object as a stand-in so I could get my camera and lighting roughly set up. That way, I only needed to tweak things later.

3. Build a positive rapport

Positive reinforcement is the key to success when working with animals. Allow your sitter the time to sniff around and give them a fuss, so they know they’re in a safe place. I rewarded everything throughout the shoot with a tasty treat. If your pet becomes restless, this might be a sign that they need a break. A quick game of tug or a run around the garden before returning to the ‘studio’ can make a big difference.

4. Focus on the eyes

I used single-point AF and AF-C to focus on the nearest eye to the camera. If you’re photographing a cat or dog and you have a mirrorless camera, you may have an animal AF function available to you. At wide apertures you’ll have less room for error, so make sure you are constantly refocusing to better your chances of nailing critical focus.

5. Camera settings

Your settings will depend on the available light, but aim for a shutter speed of around 1/100 sec to compensate for movement. I shot at f/4.5 so as not to completely blur out the snout with a super-shallow DOF, while also letting in a good amount of light. If your camera can handle it, don’t be afraid to increase your ISO if you need to. Sharp shots take precedence.

Quick tips

Use treats, toys or commands to encourage your subject to look at you while you capture the shot. If you need your hands free or want to convince your pet to look off to the side so you can capture their profile, set up a self-timer or, ideally, use a remote shutter release to fire the shutter at the opportune moment.

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These ultra-wide optics are so-called because they replicate the ultra-wide vision possessed by fish. They’re often used to capture street scenes, architecture, skateboarding and occasionally portraits. The latter is particularly effective on pets, since the extreme barrel distortion emphasizes the subject’s features – much like a caricature.

Since a dog’s snout is one of its most poignant features, artists often choose to amplify this feature when designing cartoons – think Scooby-Doo, Snoopy and Dug from Pixar’s Up. By getting very close to your subject while they stare directly into the lens, the distortion will enlarge the canine’s snout and make for a humorous (and charming) caricature effect.

While a fisheye lens’s ultra-wide angle of view is its biggest draw, it also presents a challenge when shooting portraits – because it can be difficult to compose shots without distracting elements encroaching on the frame. Add to that the unpredictable nature of animals, and there’s plenty to consider before heading out with your camera…

How to photograph pets with a fisheye lens

1. Choose the widest lens you have

I used the Nikon AF-S Fisheye 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED at its widest to maximize distortion. If you don’t have a dedicated fisheye, you can use the widest lens you have available. Remember to account for the crop factor if you’re shooting on an APS-C camera. For example, a 24mm lens will have a 35mm equivalent focal length of 36mm (or 38.4mm on Canon bodies). As such, it’s easier to get a super-wide fisheye effect on a full-frame camera.

2. Get really close to your subject

To emphasize the extreme barrel distortion, get close to your subject. Small subjects, like my puppy, may require you to get close to the lens’ 0.5ft minimum focus distance. On more than one occasion, the excitable pup licked the front element – so a lens cloth is essential!

3. Remove the lens hood

The 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5’s lens hood isn’t visible at 15mm, but when I was shooting at wider focal lengths it started to creep into the frame. At 8mm – as the picture above illustrates – it dramatically encroached on my shot. I therefore removed it altogether.

4. Find a clean, open space

Super-wide focal lengths cram in a huge portion of the surrounding area. To prevent unwanted details detracting from my subject, I shot in a wide-open space that was free from distractions – a field, park, or large garden are ideal locations. I further eliminated distractions by shooting down at my subject from a higher angle.

5. Make it fun for your pet

Animals can be difficult to work with; however, it’s important not to get frustrated with them. I spent a few minutes before the shoot playing with my pup. This meant she was less excitable, more relaxed and more pliable during the shoot, while also providing me an opportunity to introduce her to the camera gradually.

6. Focus on the eyes

As always, when shooting portraits, it’s best practice to focus on the eye that’s closest to the camera. I used single-point AF to pinpoint the correct eye and continuous-servo AF to help lock onto my bouncing subject. If you're using one of the best mirrorless cameras, there's a chance you can use an animal AF mode to make things even easier.

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Want more tutorials? Make sure you know the exposure triangle inside and out. My fisheye pet portrait isn't the only thing that looks like a cartoon character: this robot camera looks like a PIXAR character and is ready to photograph the moon. And for a change of pace, try my photography-themed crossword.

What lenses should I take, I hear you ask? Well, surprisingly, I wouldn’t go with a super wide-angle lens (like 18mm), as the widest you’re likely to need is a 24-28mm standard zoom, and often you’ll want to zoom in to frame specific features. The other consideration is that this is a wood/forest, so if you need more space for a shot, simply move backwards, and avoid the heavy distortion that you get with those super wide-angle shots.

The other lens to definitely pack is a 105mm or 150mm macro lens for flowers, mushrooms, berries, and leaf close-ups. In fact, if you really want to set yourself a challenge, just take that 105mm macro lens because you can still use it for your landscape shots as well as the macro ones.

1. The standard landscape shot

Here’s a standard landscape shot, using the red foliage to provide depth. I composed the image so that the trees progressively step back as you look into the photo, from the bush-like one in the foreground onwards. I used an aperture of f/8 to maximize the lens's sharpness and depth of field.

2. Flower portraits

Under the cover of the trees there will be wild flowers and mushrooms growing, especially as we get into the wet season. I brought a mat to kneel/lie on and a beanbag to rest my camera on to keep it steady (If permitted, you could use a travel tripod). This setup allowed me to get down low to photograph at my subject's level. For group shots, I like to put the first flower on a third vertical and focus on the stamen.

3. Let’s get abstract

If you’re visiting a managed wood/forest, somewhere there will be a pile of chopped up logs just asking to be photographed. Duly oblige them by filling the frame with the logs and shooting from parallel to the pile to make it about the pattern and textures. Here, I used a 35mm focal length at f/6.3.

4. Launch an ICM

A classic shot is looking straight up towards the tree canopy, but as the sky was grey and dull, I decided to hone my intentional camera movement (ICM) skills. This is where you use a slow shutter speed to intentionally introduce motion blur as you physically move the camera in the desired direction.

For this image, I paused initially to get a solid recording of the tree and then moved the camera downwards to create streaking highlights. I used a narrow f/22 aperture, blocking enough light so I could reach a 1/4th sec exposure.

5. Turn over a new leaf

There will likely be flowering trees and trees with fruit, as well as leaves turning a spectacular color, like the image above. I deployed my macro lens with a wide aperture to blur the background. If the sky is blue, you can compose your subject with that as the background; otherwise, try to find a shot where the green foliage is in the distance for a more pleasing backdrop.

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If you’re capturing fall, then the best tripod is essential. You might also use a polarizing filter to banish reflections from rain-soaked leaves. And finally, make sure you’ve got a waterproof bag for your gear if it starts raining.

But there's a simple in-camera feature that supports you when composing, and it can transform your shots instantly: camera grid lines.

Activating this often overlooked feature helps you apply professional composition techniques in real time, so every frame feels balanced, intentional and visually engaging. So turning on your camera's grid overlay will help line up horizons, straighten verticals and compose like a pro.

With the in-camera composition guidelines, you can achieve perfect composition straight away – even handheld, on the go, without any compromise.

Many camera brands provide a rule of thirds grid as standard, as well as more advanced guides with additional lines that you can apply to any scene.

Every camera manufacturer's menu system is different, but you'll generally find the Grid Line features in the Display settings.

Having the ability to view these lines as an overlay is vital for photographic genres such as architecture or coastal photography, as non-straight lines and horizons can lower the image quality and the viewer’s experience.

With the help of these guides, you will encourage yourself to think more creatively by changing positions and perspectives. The in-camera guidelines are not only helpful in enhancing your compositions, but they also serve as a great way to train and build your photographic skills.

A useful tip is to always keep a particular grid option active to focus your mind on the composition.

Composition examples

Visual balance
The straight lines are crucial for creating a sense of harmony within the image composition.

The rule of thirds
By incorporating the rule of thirds, the subject is positioned off-center to create a more visually pleasing photo.

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You might be interested in our video explaining what is the rule of thirds, as well as our explainer on what is exposure in photography.

What you need is a clever camera setting that can help you get the shot quicker than your mind and shooting finger allows.

The often-overlooked and almost hidden Pre-Continuous Shooting mode is every action photographer’s dream. This feature is available on EOS cameras including the new Canon EOS R6 Mark III, along with the professional camera tag team of the EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II, and APS-C bodies EOS R7 and EOS R10.

When activated, the feature is already in progress in continuous shooting drive mode – even before you fully depress the shutter button to start taking shots.

Pro tip: To access this hidden feature, first you need to set the high-speed continuous shooting mode – then the Pre-Continuous Shooting setting is available. Now just press Enable to activate it, and set how many photos you want the camera to take as a maximum – 15 is the default, and that seemed more than enough for me.

Now, when you half-press the shutter button, Pre-Continuous Shooting does its magic! You can see it’s in action when looking through the viewfinder as you get a little ‘PRE’ timer icon in the top-left corner. Fully press the shutter button to take a burst of shots as usual.

I found I was sometimes a fraction of a second too late when shooting action subjects, such as our dog, Teddy, running around the park. Pre-Continuous Shooting makes up for any ‘human lag’ when we’re pressing the shutter button.

When you’re shooting at 20fps on the R5 Mark II and using Pre-Continuous Shooting, you’ll get lots and lots of shots! Which is what you want, as you will have more choice to pick the best shot with the subject’s eyes, arms and legs, or whatever in the most pleasing position.

But be warned: you’ll need a fast CFexpress card and have lots of hard drive or portable SSD space to store all the large hi-res RAW images, which are about 58MB each on the 45MP R5 Mark II.

This Pre-Continuous Shooting mode isn’t just great for photos of your pets or wildlife, it’s actually essential for action sports subjects when you’re at live events and aren’t allowed to take shots at certain crucial times to avoid putting people off.

This includes before a tennis player has served at Wimbledon, or at professional golf events where you shouldn’t ever take a burst of shots until the player has made impact with the ball to avoid distracting them mid-swing. With Pre-Continuous Shooting, you can get even better action shots than ever before.

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In fact, I was so happy with the results, I can’t see myself returning to my manual focus-stacking ways. Well, not unless I’m capturing an extremely detailed macro stack, but for general close-ups and landscapes, I’m a Focus Shift convert. With that in mind, read on to find out how to use Focus Shift.

What is focus stacking?

Focus stacking is used to create a larger depth of field than is otherwise possible, whether to render the entire subject in focus or the entire image for front-to-back sharpness. It works by capturing multiple images with exactly the same framing while incrementally moving the point of focus from front to back. Those images are then blended together in post-production, typically in Adobe Photoshop or with specialist focus-stacking software, like Helicon Focus.

The traditional way to focus stack is to focus on the element closest to the camera that you want sharp, using manual focus, and taking the shot. Then, identifying where the focus starts to drop off and manually shifting the focus ring accordingly, repeating until you’ve covered the entirety of your subject.

Focus peaking has made this process easier, but if you don’t get this right, you can end up with out-of-focus patches when you blend your images together. As such, it’s worth capturing several stacks to help mitigate this problem. Ultimately, manually focus stacking is laborious, but plenty of cameras are able to automate the process.

How to use Nikon’s Focus Shift Shooting

Focus Shift Shooting is relatively easy to set up and completes the entire stacking process in a matter of seconds. All you have to do is blend the images together in post-production. Here’s how to activate Focus Shift Shooting…

1. Compose your shot, ensuring the camera is locked on a tripod to maintain consistent framing
2. Focus on the element you want sharp that’s closest to the camera/lens
3. Hit the Menu button and select the ‘Photo shooting menu’ (camera icon)
4. Scroll down to ‘Focus shift shooting’
5. Input your desired settings (explained below) and hit ‘Start’
6. Leave your camera to complete the focus stack

Perhaps the most complicated bit is understanding what the many options within the Focus Shift Shooting menu do. So here’s a breakdown.

No. of shots: This is the number of shots that will feature within the stack. I captured a stack of seven shots, but my Nikon Z8 is able to capture up to 300. Bear in mind that the more shots you have to stack, the more demanding the stacking process will be on your desktop computer or MacBook. Larger stacks are more necessary when focus stacking at extreme magnifications, due to working with extremely shallow depths of field.

Focus step width: This is how much the focus distance changes between increments, and is the trickiest setting to get right, because it’s a little abstract. Go too high and the camera will focus beyond the point of drop off, leaving you with blurry patches at the blending stage.

I like to start at five, right in the middle of the scale, and take a test stack. I then cycle through the stack in Playback and gauge whether I think there are any gaps. If in any doubt at all, I’ll lower the distance. Do be aware that if you lower the distance, you may need to increase the number of shots; otherwise, the camera might not cover the entirety of your subject before it finishes the stack.

Interval until next shot: This is simply the time taken before the next shot. Set it to zero and it will move onto the next shot immediately, completing the stack in the fastest time possible. The only reasons you’d have to increase the interval are if you need time for a flash to recharge or you’re shooting at such a high magnification you’re worried that vibrations from the closing shutter could cause camera shake (assuming your camera has a mechanical shutter).

First-frame exposure lock: This will lock the exposure of the first shot, so you can maintain a consistent exposure throughout your focus stack.

Focus position auto reset: A handy addition to some newer Nikon cameras, this returns focus to the point of focus at the beginning of the sequence.

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I'm not the only one who likes Focus Shift: I can focus-stack insects “much quicker” with the Nikon Z8, says pro macro photographer. Want more photography techniques? Make sure you understand the foundation of all photography, the exposure triangle. Plus, using a tripod might seem simple, but make sure you're not making these common tripod mistakes.

In short, white balance in photography refers to the color temperature – how cool or warm the colors in your image are. And it's affected by the light sources in your image, from the yellowy-orange hues of artificial light to the blueish tones of LEDs and fluorescent illumination.

In addition to an automatic white balance setting, which will read your scene and select the best balance for you, most modern cameras also have a manual white balance control – and it's this that enables you to adjust the color temperature of images yourself.

Every light source varies in color temperature, which is measured in kelvin (K). At one end of the kelvin scale is the warm glow from a candle and at the other is the cool blue light seen in shadows on a sunny day. And multiple light sources can have conflicting temperatures!

So why adjust the white balance at all? Well, if you fine-tune this color temperature, you can record more accurate or natural colors in your scene.

What is white balance in photography

Since we're talking about "warm oranges" and "cool blues", you might be wondering why this setting is called white balance. The reason is, it enables you to ensure any that whites in the image are rendered as 'pure' white. For example, without a calibrated white balance, a sheet of white paper would appear orange when photographed under candlelight.

Really, white balance should probably be called 'light balance' – because the small icons you see when you scroll through your camera's white balance options all represent different lighting conditions.

It's the job of the camera's white balance system to compensate for the color differences in the lighting, so that the colors in the scene look exactly as we would expect them.

Most cameras typically have a wide range of options for controlling the white balance to suit the color temperature of the light in the scene. However, your camera is set to automatic white balance (AWB) as standard – which will cleverly look after all this for you.

It's not infallible, however, which is why we sometimes need to take control manually – either selecting one of the preset options or by dialling in a custom white balance, which again is measured in kelvin.

If you find that your colors aren't quite right when you choose auto or the presets, refer to the diagrams above and try choosing your own kelvin setting – the difference can be pretty profound!

So what is the kelvin scale?

You'll often hear reds and yellows called 'warm' hues for convenience, since we think of fiery colours as hot, and high numbers often give reddish casts in-camera. In reality, the kelvin scale says differently.

Blue colours are the hottest (tungsten burns at a higher temperature than a candle flame and gives off a blue color) so these have a higher kelvin value. For this reason, if you want to remove a blue cast you’d match it by selecting a high-kelvin white balance (like 8,000K) for a neutral shot.

Alternatively, if there are lots of reds and yellows in the shot, you would select a low-kelvin number (like 3,000K) in-camera to balance these by introducing some blue. Remember to match the color of the light with a similar camera value to produce an image with no color bias.

White balance takeaways

• White balance is measured in kelvin (K)
• The "correct" white balance varies depending on the light source
• Daylight is typically 5500 – 6500K
• If you shoot in RAW format, you can tweak the white balance using photo editing software

Use the handy cheat sheet above to see this all for yourself. And make sure to keep us bookmarked for more great photography cheat sheets.

Read more
How to use a custom white balance
The best monitor calibrators
Photography tips

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Some beginners may be forgiven for thinking – why would you use a super-telephoto lens when you want to shoot landscapes? Surely you must use a wide-angle landscape lens for landscapes!

Rules are made to be broken. Long lenses are also great for landscapes. Because a super-telephoto lens allows you to zoom in and focus on more interesting scenes within a scene. More importantly, longer the focal length, the more you can compress the perspective. This means pulling elements within the scene closer together. Which equals fuller scenes, like this shot of this distant church spire amongst the Fall tree foliage.

This has made this image much more dense, full of colour, and more interesting. I shot this image at 270mm which has pulled the perspective together. If I’d shot the scene at something like 24mm or even 50mm, the church would appear a lot smaller in frame and there would be lots of unwanted gaps between all the nice colorful trees.

The RF 100-500mm’s comparatively narrow aperture range also becomes a benefit for landscape shots - f/4.5 at the short end, and stopping down to f/7.1 at the long end. I want to be shooting at around f/8 and narrower apertures for a better depth of field when using a long lens here.

For this photo, I shot at f/11, 1/160 sec and ISO160. The built-in Image Stabilizer helps to make sure I capture shake-free shots handheld at long focal lengths.

However, such is the changeable nature of weather, during the day it remained totally overcast, and the forecast kept changing… the promised sunshine getting shunted ever later.

Through the afternoon it remained totally cloudy, and by late afternoon my Met office app showed only one solitary hour of sunshine – just before sunset.

Undeterred I headed to Clevedon Pier with my optimistic hat on, as experience has taught me over the years, it’s always worth taking a chance on the weather to get the shot.

Here is how I got on…

⏱️ 17:15
The cloud cover was so thick all around when I arrived in Clevedon, I was beginning to think it was going to be a wasted trip. While my weather app still said sunshine at around 19:00 for an hour, my hopes weren’t high. But something told me to stick around…

⏱️ 18:22
Seemingly out of nowhere, blue skies appeared inland, and the clouds moved slowly over the pier and out to sea! I started to feel more positive as it began to brighten up.

⏱️ 18:36
The sun broke through and lit up the pier! I began to get excited. Now I just needed the cloud cover beyond the pier to shift. I waited patiently on the beach, with my Canon camera and 70-200mm on a tripod, composed and poised…

⏱️ 19:37
It was even better than I’d hoped. Now just the haziness remained on the horizon across the Bristol Channel, leaving the outline of Wales beyond. The skies in my scene were now completely clear, and the colors started to evolve, as I started taking photos of the scene at sunset.

⏱️ 20:12
Shortly before the sun was due to disappear below the horizon, and the skies surrounding the now-silhouetted pier had transformed to reveal beautiful pinks, oranges and yellows. I smiled smugly, zoomed in to around 150mm on my 70-200mm lens, and clicked away to capture this winning shot.

Camera settings: Canon EOS 5D IV with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM. 0.6sec at f/16, ISO 50.

In 2025, two key models appeared with improved low-light potential: the Insta360 X5 and GoPro Max 2. Both claim 8K resolution and AI-assisted noise reduction. With the GoPro Max 2 unavailable at the time, I took the X5 to Churchill, Manitoba, to see how it performed under the Canadian Northern Lights.

Why use a 360 camera for astrophotography?

The immersive nature of 360 cameras is immediately appealing. By capturing the entire sky and landscape, they open new possibilities for creative storytelling — linking the cosmos above with the scene below. If astronomy is about what happens above the horizon, and astrotourism is about what happens beneath it, then 360 astrophotography bridges the two beautifully.

The best thing about 360 photography is that you can reframe your shot later — zoom in or out, switch from vertical to widescreen, or highlight any element that happened to be in view. You can go “tiny planet,” panoramic or all-sky — the choice is yours.

Limitations of 360 cameras

The most common misunderstanding about 360 cameras is their effective resolution. Even though 8K sounds impressive, that’s across the entire 360° sphere — effectively around 4K per hemisphere. The Insta360 X5’s stills measure 11,904 × 5,952 pixels (about 70.9 MP) in a 2:1 equirectangular format, but reframing inevitably reduces detail.

Sensitivity is another challenge. Consumer 360 cameras use small smartphone-class sensors. They perform well in daylight but struggle in darkness, producing grainy, low-contrast images even with long exposures.

The X5’s PureVideo mode (8K 30 fps) is designed to enhance low-light footage, but in my tests during a new moon, it wasn’t sensitive enough. That’s a shame because it’s something the newer full-frame mirrorless cameras can handle. Happily, the X5’s 1/1.28-inch sensor handled long-exposure stills far better.

Field test in Churchill

During my three nights in Churchill, the moonless night skies were clear, with the late-season Milky Way bright — and the aurora brighter. At 58 degrees north, Churchill is permanently under the auroral oval, so even if there’s no significant geomagnetic activity forecast, the aurora are often visible after dark. On the final night of the trip, Kp5 conditions ensued, causing the night skies to come alive with intense aurora for about two hours.

With the Insta360 X5’s battery fully charged – and good for about three hours – I took it out first to a lonely lake road, and then to the iconic “Miss Piggy” air crash site close to Churchill Airport … where polar bears are often spotted (there was an armed guard with a gun, and a minibus with open doors, nearby at all times!).

I set up the camera first on its invisible selfie stick, which extended to 9.8ft. I mounted it on a small tabletop tripod — and it immediately fell over in the wind during one of the first shots I took (the camera wasn’t damaged, but its casing was scuffed). I quickly re-mounted it on a tough full-size tripod.

I also took the opportunity, between auroras, to apply (several) Band-Aids over the very bright and incredibly annoying blue flashing lights on each side of the Insta360 X5 that accompany a countdown to a long exposure. If there is an option in the settings menu to switch those off, I didn’t have time to look for it.

360 settings at night

After testing, my preferred settings — under a new moon — for stills were: PureShot, ISO 1600, 10-second exposure, auto white balance, and no exposure compensation. Under darker or brighter conditions — for example, during quarter or gibbous moon phases, or with less intense aurora — you’d need to adjust accordingly.

A timelapse would have worked — essentially hundreds of stills like these stitched into a video sequence — though I didn’t have time to process one during the trip. Here’s an example on Reddit of an aurora timelapse from Greenland, whereby still images are stitched together in-camera to create a video.

Despite its limitations, the X5 produced colorful, bright stills of all-sky aurora. Images showed noticeable softness and noise, making them great for sharing but not for archival or print-quality work.

Verdict

Whether a 360 camera suits astrophotography depends on your goals. For scientific or high-resolution imaging, a full-frame camera with a fisheye lens still far outperforms any consumer 360 model. Observatory all-sky cameras — with large, low-noise sensors — also remain in a different league.

Where 360 cameras excel is in documenting experiences: aurora viewing, eclipses, or nights under the stars. They capture both the sky and the landscape in a single immersive frame, producing striking images even from modest displays.

So, is 4K per hemisphere enough? Not for deep-sky astrophotography — but it’s more than enough for the aurora. It’s not yet time to leave your DSLR or mirrorless camera at home, but next time you head north, consider adding a 360 camera — and don’t forget a tough tripod!

Jamie Carter travelled to Churchill with Lazy Bear Expeditions.

Check out our guide to the best 360 cameras

There are a handful of new tools in the Lightroom October 2025 update that I’m particularly excited about as a portrait and wedding photographer, and Color Variance is one of them.

What is Color Variance in Lightroom?

Color Variance is a slider that creates more or less variety in a selected color tone. Using the Color Vairance slider, photo editors can make a selected color range more uniform, or take the slider in the opposite direction to add more color contrast. That makes the tool useful for smoothing out color variations in skin tones, such as redness from heat or rosacea. But, the slider can also be used in the opposite direction and create more color contrast in landscapes and other shots.

Where is Color Variance located?

Color Variance is located in the Point Color tool, which is available on Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. The new tool can be applied to the entire image, or to a mask, such as applying the change only to the skin tone.

Find the Point Color tool inside the Color Mixer tab in Develop. Then, click on the eye dropper icon, hover over the color that you want to adjust, and click on that color. Now, the sliders in the Point Color tool will adjust the color that you’ve selected.

That includes the new Variance slider. (Adobe calls it Color Variance, but the slider is located in the Color tools and named Variance.) Move the slider to the left for less variety in that color range, such as if you want to create more even skin tones in a portrait. Move the slider to the right if you want to increase the variety of colors in that selected range.

What does Color Variance in Lightroom do?

Decreasing Color Variance is a helpful tool for editing skin. Decreasing the color variance can help correct things like redness from heat. In this particular scenario, editors may want to use a Smart Mask over the skin; otherwise, the edit may also affect the colors in the subject's lips.

Take a look at this photo from Adobe Stock:

First, I masked out the subject’s skin so my adjustments wouldn’t affect the lips. Then, I selected the skin color in Point Color. Look at the before and after when I take that Variance slider all the way to the left:

Now, I like that the redness is gone, but the skin now looks a bit pale, so I adjusted the hue, luminance, and temp just a bit and ended up with this:

That process only took a few seconds, and I didn’t have to brush over specific patches of red skin.

Increasing Color Variance will help create more contrast in the colors without losing detail. If you have a photo of the fall colors, for example, and want to make the variety of different colors in the scene really pop, select one of those fall colors and take the slider to the right.

Take a look at the before and after here, where the only thing I did was move that Variance slider all the way to the right:

Like all Lightroom sliders, you probably don’t want to take the Variance slider all the way to the right or all the way to the left. Variance is a bit more subtle, but it makes a noticeable difference in editing skin or working to add contrast.

Color Variance can be used in conjunction with the other Point Color sliders. That includes the range slider. Range dictates how many colors similar to the one you selected are also impacted by the Point Color sliders, so if you want to adjust more or fewer colors with Color Variance, adjust the range.

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High-key refers to the dominance of brighter tones in the shot, which produces a clean image. This allows good contrast while introducing an airy atmosphere, setting off products with a modern feel or with geometric shapes.

It offers clean surroundings for clean lines. This type of lighting can be achieved by mixing natural window light with a reflector on the opposite side of the object, creating a balanced exposure.

High-key shots don't need to be limited in color palette. While a dominance of white can appear contemporary, overlighting a chroma background can have intriguing effects which suggest a setting, without additional set items actually being introduced to the scene.

Most critically, when setting the lighting for your shot, consider the branding of the product. The tone in any shot is significantly affected by the amount of light present, and this has to make sense for the product.

Key characteristics

Color choice
We chose a yellow background color to introduce a summery, sunlight atmosphere.

High-key color
Exposing to-the-right has given the scene greater luminance, maintaining the high-key modern styling.

Minimalist composition
Wider framing increases negative space, pushing the clean, unrestricted tone.

Alternative look

Splash of color
To break up the otherwise empty periphery, the petals add contrast while staying on-brand.

Almost shadowless
Window light from the right and diffused flash from the left reduce most shadows to soft impressions.

Subtle high-key
The airy look is achieved through bright negative space, which contrasts with the dark box but is not entirely seamless.

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Capa is arguably the most famous war photographer of all time, it’s not surprising that getting close to the action was of extreme importance. However, his wisdom can be applied to many different genres of photography and while filling the frame should be considered just one compositional technique in your arsenal, it’s a great technique for beginner photographers to learn, because it’s a simple concept that can be achieved with almost any lens (providing you’re photographing the right subject).

One way to fill the frame is by cropping your images. This is fine, so long as your subject is sharp and you’ve got enough resolution to play with. However, this technique works best in the way Capa intended it, by physically getting yourself closer to the subject, either by changing your lens or moving your feet.

Filling the frame is a useful technique for a variety of reasons, perhaps the most useful being that it amplifies the impact of your subject on the viewer. This is because it positions the subject closer to the viewer and in doing so eliminates distractions, which brings me to my second point, something I like to think of as shielding.

Filling the frame can be used to 'shield' the viewer from uninteresting or overly busy backgrounds or elements within a scene. If you’re photographing a portrait of a flower, but the background is a tangled mess of weeds or the back of a shed, filling the frame will eliminate the noise.

Filling the frame is also a good way to make a boring subject more interesting. For example, macro photography very often involves filling the frame by magnifying the subject beyond the capabilities of the human eye. Photograph your living room carpet with a 50mm lens from head height, and it’ll look extremely boring. Photograph it with a 1:1 macro lens, and the minuscule threads will form an abstract tessellation that's infinitely more interesting.

So, if you’re ever faced with a subject that you want to amplify, that isn’t quite interesting enough, or sits in front of an overly busy background, try filling the frame. If it’s good enough for the late, great Robert Capa, it’s good enough for me and you.

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For this project, you’ll need the military memorabilia associated with your relative. Or, if you’re a militaria collector, you can theme the image for a particular nationality or branch of the service.

For this shot, I’m using the medals, badges and studio portrait of a woman who served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, formed in 1938. The role of the ATS was to free up manpower for the front by giving military jobs at home being done by men to women instead. In total, some 210,308 women served with the ATS in WWII, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, with 335 losing their lives and many more being injured.

This is macro photography, so you’ll be getting close up to the objects – ideally using a macro lens. I you don’t have enough items to fill the display out, consider printing out a map of the area where your subject served. Maps make great background material but another option is blueprints of trucks, ships or tanks. There’s a free resource at: http://the-blueprints.com.

1. Arrange the items

The main item is the photo, so this should be placed centrally with everything arranged around it. Here, there is a cap at the top, which helps hold the various badges. Around this are various pieces of documentation arranged in a fan shape, including a letter of conferral from the Under Secretary of State for War for the two medals – the Defence Medal and the British War Medal. There’s also a card from the ATS, in which the subject served.

2. Light the scene

As this is a project dealing with the past, it suits being lit with warm tones, so a constant tungsten lamp was used to the side. This meant that the objects to the far side didn’t show up that well so I also used a flashgun for additional light. Firing it directly was too strong – though I could also have used flash exposure compensation. What I wanted to do was to soften the shadows and lift the highlights, including the WVS badge, so I aimed the flash at the ceiling and bounced the light back down from above.

3. Depth of field

My Sigma 105mm f/2.8-EX DG OS HSM macro lens has a fairly narrow field of view that makes it ideal for closely grouped items. If your objects are spread out over a wider area, then a shorter focal length lens with a wider field of view could be a better option.

The idea was to focus on the eyes in the portrait and use a shallow depth of field to make everything else above and below that line start to go out of focus, giving the photo a more nostalgic feel. An aperture of f/3.5 was used in Aperture Priority mode. Normally, a tripod would be necessary but the shutter speed was fast enough to do this handheld, enabling me to move around easily to try different angles.

4. Photo editing and achieving a specific look

The use of the tungsten lamp gave a fairly warm tone to the image, compared to simply shooting it with flash, which gives a cold result. However, this is a nostalgic themed shot so enhancing that look and feel was worth doing. You can use any photo editor to add grain or noise and a subtle vignette effect. I decided to put the Dehancer Film plug-in for Photoshop to the test. This used a specific film and paper stock to give the colours a reddish tone, add a vignette effect and give the photo more of a grainy feel. You could achieve the same kind of results in Affinity Photo.

If you're looking for a new macro lens then have a look at the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 lens that's available for all popular camera brands. If you don't have time to get your camera set up, how about using your phone to capture this image? Here's the best camera phones on the market. Then try editing your photos on one of the latest iMacs, perfect for photographers.

That’s a bit restrictive isn’t it? Well, I actually discovered it gave me more creative freedom, as I wasn’t always thinking should I change lenses? Instead I could concentrate on better compositions with the focal lengths I had at my disposal.

This would also enable me to manage the precarious balancing act of capturing great travel photography in a quick and efficient way, while keeping the family happy during our epic road trip from LA to San Francisco.

So, I took an old Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM standard lens stalwart.

Deciding which lens to take on our vacation wasn’t as tricky as you might think. Some may want to take a superzoom that covers everything from 18mm to 400mm, but I didn’t need a super wide or super long lens for my travel photos. I just needed standard wide-angle to telephoto focal lengths, and I didn’t mind if my lens wasn’t small and compact. I also didn’t want to compromise on image quality. I wanted a fast-ish lens so I could set a wide aperture and get a shallow depth of field when I felt like it. The EF 24-105mm f/4 is the perfect compromise. Plus it’s not as heavy as the modern 24-105mm F2.8L hybrid lens, or some 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses.

24mm was wide-angle enough for my needs on a full-frame camera, but I could zoom up to telephoto 105mm for capturing ‘a scene within a scene’ or distant objects like boats on the sea, or zooming in on bustling boardwalk of a Californian beach town. Although I’ve found I often end up shooting around 40mm or 50mm for scenic shots for the better compositions, such as this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The EF 24-105mm is a reassuring and tried-and-trusted piece of glass, so I knew my shots would be sharp across the frame, especially when shooting between the sweet spot of f/8 to f/11. Plus it’s got image stabilization, which is great when I was shooting handheld on the streets of LA, and wanted to shoot quick and fast.

It also complements the weight and size of a 5D Mark IV body perfectly, which is a camera I know back to front. I’m able to adjust camera settings on the fly without taking my eye away from the viewfinder.

This is another reason I took this camera with me – rather than a newer mirrorless model – as I wouldn’t waste time thinking about what new settings to use. I could focus on more important things, like exposure and composition, and simply enjoying my holiday.

By the way, here’s a top tip – don’t carry an obvious camera bag when travelling. I hadn’t brought a specific camera bag with me on our vacation on purpose. Instead I just used my son’s small Nike backpack to keep the camera with lens inside when we were out on our daily American adventures. It was great as it didn’t shout out that I’m a tourist, or even worse - I’m a tourist with a camera bag and some expensive Canon kit! So it meant I could covertly take my camera with me wherever I went, which meant I didn’t ever miss any photo ops.

It’s easier than you might think. First you need subjects to be a lighter colour and brightly lit by the sun, then position yourself so backgrounds behind the subjects are in deep shadow. With the correct exposure for the light levels on the bird, you can render the darker background to appear totally black in the shot.

It’s also easier to achieve this sort of low-key look with jet-black backgrounds when using a long lens so you can isolate subjects against the backdrop in dark shadow. Using a Canon EOS R5 full-frame mirrorless camera, I shot at around 400mm with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM super telephoto zoom lens.

In Manual exposure mode, I dialled in around one stop of underexposure, ending up with an exposure of 1/4000 sec at f/7.1 at ISO2000. The high ISO was to obtain a fast shutter speed to freeze the twitchy flamingos in motion for a super sharp result.

Check out the best lenses for bird photography

However, the golden age of steamships was the Victorian era (approx 1820-1914), with one of the most famous being the SS Great Britain, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and launched in 1843. Fitted with screws for propulsion, cabins, kitchens, promenade deck and a sumptuous dining saloon, it was the first great luxury liner and sailed between Bristol and New York. She was also the first iron-hulled steamer to cross the Atlantic, in 1845, fielded a crew of 120 and could carry up to 360 passengers.

Capturing exteriors

A heritage ship like the SS Great Britain is more than likely permanently moored or in dry dock as it will never sail again. Even if the ship is still seaworthy, as a floating museum you are again, more likely to find it tied up, rather than actually sailing. Photographing a ship at sea is essentially an action shot, here it’s more a case of exploiting the angles and space as a static landscape. 

If you are at the dock with the ship, the tricky part is getting far enough away to include all of it in the shot, as buildings and dockyard equipment may be in the way. Clearly, a wide angle lens is required here, so head for the prow of the ship and frame it so you can get everything in. For ships with masts, the problem is even more acute because now you have a large vertical element to incorporate as well. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to get everything in, in which case a portrait-orientation shot, including the prow, figurehead and first mast, is your best bet. 

The one thing to be aware of is the position of the sun (if you get any that is) as you want it to be on the side of the ship that you are shooting, not on the far side as this will make it either too dark or offer a tricky exposure. Focus on the prow and use an f/8 or f/11 aperture for the best combination of sharpness and depth of field.

Whilst up top the main attractions are the patterns of wooden planks leading down the ship and the views from either end. Here use a wide angle lens and focus around 3m into the scene, unless you are excluding what is right in front of you, in which case focus a bit further into the scene. Then you can either opt for f/5.6, f/8 or f/11 for maximum sharpness. For ships with masts or tall steam funnels, switching to portrait orientation is usually a good idea.

If the ship is in dry dock there can be the opportunity to get below the waterline, in which case head for the rear to photograph the propeller and rudder. While at the dockside, especially for heritage harbours, there are often other elements of interest such as gears and pulleys, cranes, stacks of barrels and coal, or re-enactments of 19th century life. Capture these before you board the ship.

Life below decks

Capturing how the crew lived and the passengers travelled on a luxury steam-power liner ship like the SS Great Britain can be fascinating but technical challenges await. For a start, it’s going to be much darker, too dark to shoot with f/8 at ISO 100. If you don’t want to keep changing the ISO rating everytime you encounter a new scene it can be worthwhile setting it to Auto ISO and specifying a lower shutter speed limit. Now, with a wide angle lens and either in-camera image stabilisation or lens-based vibration reduction, you can hand-hold a camera at fairly low speeds. How low you can go is your call, but if you set the lower shutter speed to 1/50 sec, then that will offer a good balance between a stable enough shot and the Auto ISO going too high.

Things to look for include cabins for the passengers and control rooms and kitchens or storage areas for the crew. The steam-powered engine machinery may also be visible. For cramped areas the options for composition can be limited, but for locations such as promenade decks or dining saloons where there is more space, avoiding having vertical columns right at the front of the shot as they will probably distort. Use flooring patterns to lead the eye through the scene and consider using symmetrical compositions for architectural features. Which shooting mode to use is your choice but personally I’d go with aperture priority at f/5.6 or f/8 with Auto ISO.

Finally, as these are heritage vessels, it’s not uncommon to find re-enactors dressed up to represent people of the day. Do you have room in your kitbag for a little 50mm portrait lens? If so, now’s the time to swap it in, go wide with your aperture to blur the background, or narrow it down to include the setting.

Metering matters

Scenes below decks will invariably offer a combination of deep shadows, tungsten lamps and natural light from portholes. Zone or evaluative metering, which works well outdoors, is not a good option here, resulting in slower shutter speeds and overexposed highlights. Centre-weighted metering is a better choice, but check the results and if necessary, meter off the brighter elements, lock the exposure reading and recompose for the actual shot. However, if your camera has this, then the best metering option of all is highlight-weighted metering. This actively looks for the light sources and creates an exposure for those, giving you pleasing shadows in other areas. If the overall result is too dark, then ensure you’re shooting RAW and brighten the shadows or mid-tones in post production.

When visiting historic attractions you might not want to lug around your main kit so why not take a travel camera with you or upgrade your phone so it packs one of the best built-in cameras?

This enables us to begin experimenting with angles and focal lengths to vary the narratives of our images – a moderate change can have significant effects, unlocking exciting potential for alternative stories.

Presenting familiar subjects in novel ways is reason enough to adopt some of the following advanced framing techniques. Many of these composition strategies enable a photographer to make the most of any subject.

"I think the best way to be creative with composition is exploring, trying new things, different perspectives, angles," explains pro photographer Mercedes Castillo Sánchez. "The most important thing is to observe all the elements: subject, light, colors, location – to play with combining them in different ways.

"Sometimes you will realize that certain things don't work for you, but that experience helps your growth towards being a better photographer."

The next challenge is learning to recognize when some photography composition techniques are not appropriate. It is not uncommon for photographers to want to emulate others they admire, but this can result in a tendency to apply techniques even if they do not work in the current setting.

"We are all tempted to copy the works that impress us," offers landscape and cityscape photographer Bogdan Maris. "This is not a bad thing, but I would suggest always searching for something personal to add to the composition. This will make your shot unique.

"When I shoot a place photographed by many people before, I look to include elements that give originality and dynamism to the scene."

Ultimately, advanced composition is not necessarily technically challenging – rather, it tests our ability to recognize when things do and do not work. The perfect composition is difficult to define, but Mercedes Castillo Sánchez describes it as when all of the scene elements are connected in a meaningful way. Bogdan Maris, meanwhile, knows he has the ideal shot when he has managed to keep only the essential scene elements.

5 photography composition techniques

1. Lines and curves

Find unique angles and features to frame points of interest. The Ponte dell’Accademia here frames the Canal Grande in Venice. This shot was only possible because of a temporary building site under the bridge.

Pro insight: Why it works
1. Contrasting form
The arc of the curve naturally complements straight lines in a scene, creating pleasing harmony
2. Lead the eye
The curve of the bridge crosses the physical and visual barrier of the canal
3. Natural frame
The eye is led around the entire shot by edges that also frame the main subjects

2. Repeating patterns

By cropping tightly so that objects of similar color or shape align, eye-catching patterns are created. Allowing the pattern to extend beyond the frame suggests an excitingly endless field of detail. The single yellow object breaks the pattern for added interest.

3. The center line

This image has a strong subject but sparsely detailed middleground. The central line of the jetty is a strong leading line, which guides the viewer's eye directly to the main point of interest – the silhouetted figures in the distance.

4. Extreme angle

Since we almost always see the world around us from a standing position, by lowering the camera to shoot straight up or raising it to shoot directly down at around +/- 90°, we can create an engaging perspective with near-abstract characteristics.

5. Experiment with timing

The position of a moving subject in a shot controls whether it feels like they are entering or exiting the frame. This alters the direction the viewer scans the image.

Pro insight: Why it works
1. Lead the way
A strong leading line guides the viewer through the frame to the subject
2. Direction of movement
The motion of the biker away from the lighthouse opposes the direction of the path
3. Control context
The distance between the biker and frame edge controls the feeling of context outside the image

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You see, when you physically press a camera’s shutter button, minuscule movements from the tripod itself and/or vibrations travelling through the camera can cause just enough movement to soften an image at slow enough shutter speeds. In addition, if your tripod is set up on soft ground, simply shifting your weight can be enough to create subtle movement.

By using a camera remote, you can fire the shutter without ever touching the camera itself, while also standing far enough away so as not to shift the ground beneath your tripod. The problem is, it’s not a question of if you forget or misplace your camera remote; it’s a question of when. Fortunately, there are a few simple and effective workarounds.

Set a self-timer

Setting a self-timer is perhaps the most commonly used workaround for an absent camera remote. You simply set your timer, press the shutter button and then move away. Any vibrations caused by activating the self-timer should have died down before the shutter is fired.

However, DSLR photographers can experience a phenomenon known as ‘mirror slap’. This is when the movement of the reflex mirror flipping upwards, just before the shutter is fired, produces enough vibrations to cause camera shake.

One workaround is to ensure you are using live view, since the reflex mirror will be flipped up by default. Another is to use mirror-up mode (or mirror lock-up), whereby you press the shutter button to flip up the mirror in the first instance and press it again to activate the self-timer, all the while the mirror stays up. However, some Nikon cameras have a feature called Exposure Delay mode.

What is Exposure Delay Mode?

Exposure Delay Mode is present on some Nikon DSLRs. The beauty of this is that it simplifies all the above. It can be found in the Custom Setting Menu and differs from a self-timer by automatically flipping the mirror up, when activated, before firing the shutter after the designated period of time has passed. It's as simple as that!

Do I need a camera remote?

As I’ve proven, you can get by without a camera remote more often than not. However, there are two instances where a camera remote is essential: if you need to time your shot or you’re working in Bulb Mode.

Say you’re photographing a long exposure of waves lapping against the shoreline. You might want to time your shot just as the waves start to recede, so you can capture the lovely streaks when the water is dragged back out to sea. In this instance, delaying the shutter from firing isn’t practical.

Similarly, if you’re using Bulb Mode, you need to hold down the shutter button for the desired amount of time. That means self-timers and exposure delay mode won’t work, so a camera remote is essential. Some remotes even feature locks, so you can fix the shutter button in place and leave it for the duration of the exposure.

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If you're battling handheld camera shake, don’t forget to read up on the reciprocal rule. If you're still struggling, I’d suggest revising the exposure triangle. And for landscape lovers, here are my landscape photography tips.

In our era of hyper-advanced cameras chasing technical perfection, flawless and razor-sharp images flood our feeds. But sometimes, perfection feels cold. That's where a digital pinhole camera flips the script.

Removing the lens invites imperfection, mystery and emotion back into the frame, producing photos that appeal to the viewer through their characteristics.

Pinhole photography: How does it work?

Pinhole photography works by allowing light to pass through a small hole in the body cap. The purpose of this hole is to restrict the amount of light reaching the sensor, creating an almost infinite depth of field. Instead of chasing sharpness, our focus shifts to composition.

With no lens to focus, your eye sharpens on composition and storytelling. Try experimenting with long exposures, intentional camera movement, or play with how light and shadow dance through that tiny hole. Each shot will be a unique journey.

Pinhole photography: Before & After

Pinhole photography: Tutorial

1. Get prepared

You will need a spare body cap (preferably a non-branded one to save money), an electric drill, sandpaper, aluminium foil, a needle and a piece of sticky tape. To drill the hole, create a template of your body cap out of card and mark the center point.

2. Drill the cap

Place the template with the centre marked on it over the actual body cap and use an electric drill to create the hole. For best results, the diameter should be 3-4mm. To optimize the result, use sandpaper to remove plastic residue.

3. Create a pinhole

Cut off a small piece of aluminum foil and carefully prick a hole in it with the needle – the smaller the hole, the sharper the image will be. Use a piece of black tape to attach the foil to the cap in the centre of the pre-drilled hole.

4. Choose your subject

Outdoor scenes offer plenty of natural light, which makes it easier to expose the photo correctly. To enhance the pinhole effect, choose a subject that offers plenty of structure and fine details. If you are shooting indoors, consider using a flash as well.

5. Choose your settings

Experiment with using high ISO settings to enhance the overall brightness of your image. Take some test shots to get a feeling for the impact of the small aperture and keep an eye on the histogram to get the ideal exposure.

6. Keep still

As there is only a little light reaching the camera sensor through the hole, you should work with long exposures in manual mode. For clearer results, mount your camera on a tripod and use a remote shutter release or the self-timer function.

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Currently, Nikon only has two cameras with sensor shields: the flagship Nikon Z9 and Nikon Z8. But as one of my colleagues recently found out, Nikon’s sensor shields are not active by default.

“My Nikon Z8’s sensor is filthy,” she told me last week. “Because there’s no reflex mirror in the way, the sensor is completely exposed.” When I asked if the sensor shield was engaged, she said, “I had no idea it had a sensor shield!” It was at that point I realized how much I take the shield for granted. I’d activated it over a year ago, when I bought my Z8, and hadn’t thought about it since.

You see, my colleague is right. A mirrorless camera is much more susceptible to dust and dirt deposits settling on the sensor, because it doesn’t have a reflex mirror. On a DSLR, the mirror flips down when you're not using live view. This covers the sensor and partially protects it when you change lenses.

Without a sensor shield, a mirrorless camera’s sensor is directly exposed to the elements when swapping lenses – so you have to be very conscientious when doing so. Even with an activated sensor shield, caution should be taken when changing lenses.

While the shield definitely offers more protection, any dust that settles on the shield itself could work its way inside the camera when the shield is retracted. So, if you’ve got a Nikon Z8 or Z9 and want to activate your shutter shield, here’s how to do it.

How to activate the shutter shield on a Nikon Z8 / Z9

1. Turn on your Nikon Z8 / Z9 and hit the 'Menu' button
2. Navigate to the 'Setup Menu' on the side bar (wrench icon)
3. Scroll down to the 'Sensor shield behavior at power off' setting
4. Hit the 'OK' button and then select 'Sensor shield closes'
5. Turn your camera off
6. Carefully remove the lens or body cap and check to see if the sensor shield is down

That’s all there is to it, but it’s important to note that the sensor shield will only be activated when the camera is turned off. If you decide to swap lenses while the camera is turned on, the sensor will be fully exposed.

Be aware, too, that the sensor shield is a delicate piece of kit, so make sure that you don’t prod it with your finger or a foreign object.

Automatic sensor cleaning

If you want to further decrease the chance of dust and dirt settling on your camera’s sensor, you can also set it to automatically clean the sensor every time you power the camera off. This causes the sensor to literally vibrate, in a bid to repel any loose particles.

To activate this function, navigate to the ‘Setup Menu’ once again and select ‘Clean image sensor’. You can either manually activate it by selecting ‘Start’ or select the ‘Automatic cleaning’ option, so it cleans itself every time you power your camera off.

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Watch video: Blurred blooms

The typical approach to flower photography is to use a long lens or macro lens and blur out the backdrop with a shallow depth of field, so that the focus is on the subject. But why not take a different approach to background blur? In this project, the aim is to blur the backdrop with motion.

To achieve this, there are two key factors. First, we need to get set up for a long exposure: so all of the usual long exposure tricks apply, like use of a tripod and neutral density filter. Secondly, we need to work out a way to keep some parts of the scene still, while the others are in motion. This is where our secret weapon comes in: a leaf blower.

We can use the leaf blower to direct a gust of wind in the places where the scene needs it, creating movement in the plants and flowers that – coupled with our long exposure – results in a distinctive blur. Alongside this, to keep a single bloom perfectly sharp, we can fashion a clamp to secure it in place. This way, we get a lovely combination of blurry and sharp detail. It’s a fun technique to try, as you never know quite how the blurred areas will turn out. 

What’s more, because the camera is locked on a tripod, we can shoot a sequence then combine the best parts from each later. Give it a go, for beautifully blurry blooms. 

1. Shoot lots of frames

With everything set up, it’s worth shooting plenty of frames. This way, you have the freedom to combine several frames later if necessary and choose the best areas of blur from each. We turned on the Self-timer mode to capture several frames at a time so we could shoot in chunks while directing the leaf blower.

2. Blur different areas

The leaf blower lets us direct the blur on different parts of the backdrop with ease. So we can shoot the scene bit by bit, blurring areas over several frames then choosing the best from each later on. You might find that distant details require a stronger gust than close up details to emphasise the blur.

3. Shoot an 'empty' frame

Once you’re done blowing, it’s worth removing the clamp and taking an extra frame, as you might find that you can use this to fill in the details obscured by the clamp later on. It’s also a good idea to shoot a frame of the scene with everything still, just in case you need to blend any sharp parts in later on.

4. Open into layers

You might find that you nail the effect in a single fame, but if you do need to blend the best parts from several frames, this can easily be achieved in Photoshop CC. Begin in Adobe Camera Raw, select the images you want to use then go to Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers.

5. Blend with a mask

Once open, identify the strongest image and drag this layer to the bottom of the stack. Click the eye icon to hide all the layers above it. Reveal the layer above and assess which areas you want to blend. Hold Alt and click the Layer Mask icon to hide the layer, then paint it white to reveal the area you like.

6. Remove the clamp

Repeat the masking technique for the remaining layers. Finally, open the image where you removed the clamp, copy it in and blend it with the rest using another mask. Or try using the Photoshop Remove tool. Simply make a new layer, paint over the clamp then hit Apply and Photoshop to let AI fill in the area.

7. People and traffic

Look for ways to capture motion blur with sharp subjects. A shutter speed of 2 secs blurs the London traffic here while the stationary man in the centre foreground stays relatively sharp. A tripod is by no means essential, as Image Stabilisation in modern Canons means you can get away with handholding for up to a second.

8. Bird's wings

Sometimes even if the whole subject is moving, there are parts that will be moving faster than others, like a bird’s wings. If we’re careful with our shutter speed, we can capture the slower moving areas relatively sharply, while the faster moving areas become nicely blurred. Here a shutter speed of 1/25 sec works.

9. Panning blur

Try panning with the motion of a subject moving through the frame. Use a panning tripod head and move the camera to keep the subject in the centre. You’ll need a relatively slow shutter speed and – with luck – the subject will come out sharp while the backdrop is blurry. Here a shutter speed of 1/30 sec works for us.

If you're serious about landscapes, take a look at the best lenses for landscapes along with the best cameras for low light.

This makes Wales an incredibly versatile country to explore as you will always find something of interest to photograph whether that be nature or wildlife. However, Wales, and Britain as a whole, is infamously known for its volatile and ever-changing weather regardless of the season. But, just because the sunny skies may change to a dark downpour at the drop of a hat, it doesn’t mean that you need to put the camera away and run for dry cover. Sometimes this can be the most fun and satisfying time to shoot!

Five fast tips for shooting

1. Always plan ahead

Periodically check the weather forecast and daylight times. Visit the location that you’re shooting early. Consider looking at reference images on social media. Finally, scout the area before shooting so you know what is achievable and then play around using interesting objects in your foreground such as water, grass and rocks.

2. Get warmed up

It may sound strange but when stepping outside, have a quick stretch of the body to get the blood pumping so that you’re ready for your journey. If you’re stiff and achy, then it can take away from the enjoyment of being outside, leading to impatience and wanting to leave sooner, which links into the next point.

3. Have plenty of patience

You'll have heard this repeatedly within the world of photography, but patience really is key, especially given the erratic nature of the weather in Britain. For this shot, we hiked for 30 minutes in the torrential rain and wind, but we knew there would be a break in the conditions for the light to shine through.

4. Wrap up well

It's easier to have patience if you and your setup are protected from the conditions. This means putting on your waterproof clothing and footwear, as well as having microfibre cloths to wipe your lens and camera, even if they’re weather-sealed. You can even use a shower cap or umbrella to protect your gear from the rain.

5. Experiment with settings

Different settings achieve different results. Ideally for a landscape, you’d want a wide angle and to use an aperture around f/11. The aperture may make your image dark which will require a higher ISO, or a longer shutter speed where a sturdy tripod will definitely be needed and could achieve a nice blurred-trail effect to moving subjects.

Beware the highlights

When shooting a moody landscape and having patiently waited for the break in the clouds for the sun to shine through, this may cause bright areas within your image which are overexposed. To even this out, reduce reflections in water and metallic surfaces, and bring natural colour to the scene, use a polariser on your lens.

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The North Pier at Blackpool, in the northwest of England, was no better, devoid of visitors, manned only by the stoic operator of a fairground ride. So, if the sun doesn't shine, what can you do? Well, let's discover what to shoot when the weather doesn't cooperate, starting with what was on the pier itself.

Boardwalks and piers

Piers or boardwalks have plenty of real estate, so it's not a surprise to find fairground rides situated on them. For rides, use a wide-angle lens and an f/8 aperture, then focus on the part of the ride nearest to you. The same applies to things like the ornate booths and kiosks that are on the pier.

An alternative is to use the planks, as most piers or boardwalks are made from wood, to lead the eye from the foreground through to the background. On murky days, make the photo symmetrical and consider converting the image to mono. Older structures may also feature interesting ironwork, lending itself to abstract or even macro photography.

Head inland and into the town

I moved away from the beach and boardwalk/pier to the seaside town itself and discovered colorful displays of plastic spades, candy, and other elements of a cheap and cheerful day out at the beach. Consider using a wide aperture to isolate these elements from their busy backgrounds. When I happened upon a poor horse pulling a gaudy carriage along the seafront, I opened up the aperture and focused on the animal's eyes. You can also use a telephoto lens to pick out interesting shop signs and parts of attractions.

Doom and decay

Unfortunately, the heyday of some beach resorts is long gone, leading to decline and decay. Graffiti-daubed walls and boarded-up houses are all examples of this. If you want to document the plight of someone on the street, I always make sure to ask their permission before taking a photograph and see what help I can offer in return, whether that’s a few dollars, some food or toiletries. Use a portrait lens or short telephoto, anything from 50-85mm, use a wide aperture, f/1.4 or so, and focus on your subject’s eyes.

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So, what do I mean by that? Well, whether you’re looking through your EVF or the rear LCD, you’ll notice a heads-up display with a plethora of information – including your exposure settings, an exposure meter, battery life and you may have set up some optional extras such as a virtual horizon or histogram.

This is all useful information but, if I find myself really refining a composition, it can sometimes be a little bit distracting. That’s where the good ol’ record button comes in, because when in photography mode, I have it set to toggle the HUD on or off.

Turned off, the only thing that’s left on the screen is your chosen grid and focus-point indicator. Everything else disappears, enabling you to cancel out the visual noise and focus entirely on your composition.

As far as I’m aware, this works on all Z-Series cameras. However, it’s not the only function you can assign to the record button. That’s right, in photo mode, it essentially becomes a sneaky custom-settings button! To set your record button to disable the HUD, do the following…

1. Hit your Nikon's 'Menu' button
2. Head to the 'Custom Settings Menu' (pencil icon)
3. Use the D-pad or joystick to scroll down to 'Controls' ('f')
4. Select 'Custom controls (shooting)'
5. Select the little camcorder icon and hit the 'OK' button
6. Select 'Live view info display off'

You’ll notice that there's a swathe of other custom settings you can apply to the record button, including setting the white balance or metering, or toggling AE lock or cycling through the framing grid displays, and much more.

So, there you have it. Cut down on visual noise by assigning ‘Live view info display off’ to your Nikon’s record button.

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For watermills it’s somewhat different, as the buildings themselves tend to be anonymous square shapes made from bricks, so what to look for there is the water source and the great wheels that were driven by it. Some watermills were situated on rivers or fast-flowing streams, which suit long exposure shots, while others dammed the supply into a lake, and then used the height differential to a basin below to power the wheels at specific times. For these you’re looking for reflections outside and close ups of the machinery inside or featuring the wheels.

1. Don't do this

This is exactly what not to do. Don’t get too close and then use a wide angle lens (18mm here) to squeeze the mill into the shot as it creates significant distortion. Stand much further back and zoom in. The main photo on the previous spread used a 32mm focal length.

2. Use the foreground

If the location has an interesting foreground then include it in the shot. Although this was shot at 23mm, the windmill itself is in the distance, so the main concern was distorting the buildings close to the camera. With an f/8 and wide angle, there was plenty of depth of field.

3. Include reflections

Some watermills didn’t even need running water, they simply dammed it in front of the building and machinery and then released the water when milling was required. Look for the reflections in these locations, as well as evidence of milling in the shape of the discarded grinding stones.

4. Bring nature into the scene

The large body of water in front of this watermill has attracted all manner of wildlife, while the tree next to the building has grown substantially over the last 200 years, making this a pleasing rural scene in the late afternoon sun. The point of focus here can be the mill itself for maximum sharpness.

5. Look for the details

Whether you’re inside the windmill or down by the watermill’s wheels, look for the interesting shapes of the machinery that once powered these stalwarts of the rural milling economy. If you have a sweaty, flour-covered operator there, you can also add some portraits to the image list.

What kit do you need?

For interiors you’ll need a wide angle lens for general shots (18-24mm) but for close up details it can be interesting to pack a macro lens as well. For exteriors, a short telephoto is ideal unless you know exactly how much space you’re going to have for the shots. I took along a 24-85mm lens for the main shot for this feature, which gave ideal flexibility. If you’re taking some long exposure shots you’ll need a tripod, otherwise it’s not really necessary.

Before you go...

To shoot windmills and watermills you'll need a wide angle lens with a telephoto capability, a tripod if you want to capture long exposures and a backpack to cart everything around in.

One of the problems with shooting outside is that you don’t want the subject squinting in the light. You can remedy this by backlighting them, but then you have the problem of the subject looking dull. Don’t worry, though, I’ll also show you how to fix that with lighting effects to go with the color gradients.

How to use gradients in Affinity Photo to fake seasonal lighting

1. Make a gradient

Load the image you want to make summery and then duplicate that layer, calling the new one ‘Lighting’. Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer and click and hold in the top-left corner of the image. Drag and release near the bottom corner. You will now have a new layer called ‘Fill’ that’s a black-and-white gradient.

2. Add some color

On the top-left are the details for the gradient. Click on the mono gradient patch and then click on the control point at the white end to select it. Then click on the Color box and select a nice yellow, which will go in the sky area. Repeat the process for the black control point and use a warm red colour.

3. Blend and Lighten

Change the blend mode of the ‘Fill’ layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity to 50%-75%, depending on how much of an effect you want. Then select the ‘Lighting’ layer and go to Filters > Lighting. Change the Type to Point and place it just on the shoulder of the subject – in your images, either put it on the brightest point or on the subject.

4. Tweak the settings

There are a lot of parameters to play with here; the important thing is to overexpose the light. Also, add yellow as the Specular color and a reddish-pink as the Ambient light. Keep the main light color as white. Use the Distance slider to increase the coverage over most of the subject. Click Apply and reduce the layer opacity if required.

5. Finish up and try a different season

Merge your layers and save to finish. Now, as mentioned, this is fine for bringing back summer, but how about adding a green-yellow gradient for spring, or a brown-orange one for fall and a blue one for winter? Just change the gradient to give a seasonal feel to your outdoor portraits.

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1 Work it out

Rather than loading a photo, correcting things and then deciding you want to create a macro halfway through, it’s best to have a clear plan of what filters or adjustment layers you’re going to use and write down the settings used. Then go to Window> Macro and move it from the left side to a more useful size.

2 Begin recording

Click on the red button in the Macro panel to start recording then go to Layer> New Live Filter Layer> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Enter values of Radius: 30px, Factor: 0.5, Threshold: 1%. Then click on the X in the corner of the palette to close. Next is colour so go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Vibrance.

3 Finish the edits

Enter value of Vibrance: 40% and Saturation: 20%. Close and then go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Put in three control points and create an S-shape to boost the contrast. You should now have three basic adjustments that can be edited later. Click on the Stop Recording icon.

4 Save your macro

In the Macro palette, click on the Add to Library icon. Enter a name for the action that reflects what it does then click on OK. It will now appear in the Library where it can be activated with one click. The adjustment layers can all have their parameters tweaked so if something causes highlight clipping you can reduce the effect.

Loading and saving macros

To export the macro that you’ve created, click on the Export Macro icon which is next to the Add to Library icon. In the file browser that appears, give the macro a descriptive name and save in a notable location. Next to this is the Load Macro icon. Click on this, navigate to the macro you want to load and click on it and then on Open.

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Even if tripods are allowed, sometimes it isn't practical to use them, such as when shooting in crowded areas.

Not being able to use a tripod becomes particularly problematic in low-light conditions where longer shutter speeds increase the susceptibility to camera shake.

Despite the many advancements in camera technology that have helped low-light photography, achieving sharp photos in these conditions is difficult. Without the necessary knowledge and practice, you may end up with a collection of blurry images.

By using the tips shared within this article, you can enhance your photography skills and boost your chances of producing high-quality, well-defined images when faced with challenging lighting environments.

Before/After

Shooting steps

1. Shutter speed

In low-light conditions, achieving a steady handheld shot is challenging due to the slow shutter speeds. Follow the reciprocal rule, which is "1/focal length" – for example, with a 50mm lens, use 1/50 sec or faster to avoid blurred photos caused by camera shake in low light.

2. Raise your ISO

To ensure that your shutter speed is going to be fast enough to shoot handheld, you will need to raise your ISO. Don’t push the ISO too far, or your image will start to display noise – increase it just enough to achieve your minimum required shutter speed.

3. Select a wide aperture

In these conditions, you should aim to get as much light into the camera as possible. Along with raising your ISO, selecting a wide aperture – such as f/4.5 or wider – will also enable you to select a faster shutter speed.

4. Burst mode

To maximize your chances of getting a sharp image that you are happy with, set your camera to shoot in burst mode. In a sequence of fast burst shots, the images in the middle of the sequence will usually be the sharpest.

5. Choose live view mode

On a DSLR camera, it can be difficult to see the scene through your viewfinder, especially in low-lit conditions. So switch to live view mode – and you might also find that you can get away with your shutter speed being a couple of stops slower.

6. Steady yourself

Before shooting, make sure your stance is correct and that you are as steady as possible. Leaning against a wall, sitting down and even lying down with your elbows resting on the ground will make you much more stable, reducing the chance of camera shake.

Pro tips

1. Try practising this type of photography at home to help you become more accustomed to what you need to do when required.

2. Test your camera at different ISO levels to get an understanding of how high you can set your ISO before your images show unacceptable levels of noise.

3. If you have set your camera on auto ISO, make sure that you have also set the maximum limit.

4. Look for ledges and shelves, or even use place your camera on your camera bag, as an alternative to handheld photography in these conditions.

5. Be aware of any potential movement in the scene. If someone is moving, even slightly, you will likely need a faster shutter speed.

Editing steps

1. Brighten up

Naturally, when shooting in low-light conditions, you will find that your images will be slightly underexposed. In your preferred editing software, start by brightening the whole image as well as lightening up the shadows, which are too dark.

2. Add contrast

Here, I wanted to ensure that I maintained the general ambience of the scene, so I slightly increased the contrast using the Tone Curve. I also boosted the Clarity slider a little so that it added some more definition to the edges.

3. Adjust the white balance

Whenever you are photographing in these conditions with any sort of artificial light, you will need to check your white balance settings. Here I added a magenta tint to the image, which also benefits from being slightly warmer.

4. Check the saturation

The candlelight and the striking red robes dominated the scene, so I decided to reduce the overall saturation and vibrancy. This gives the scene a more natural look rather than the bright reds that were a little overwhelming.

5. Crop the photo

On reflection, there was too much dead space around the main subjects (the monks) in the frame. So I cropped in slightly to remove the dead space at the top. I also checked whether the image was perfectly level and straightened it up.

6. Add vignette

For this type of image, where the viewer’s attention should be focused on the subjects in the centre of the frame, it can sometimes be a good idea to add a vignette. This darkens the edges and helps the viewer to navigate to the middle of the photo.

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So how can you ensure your photos aren’t inundated with crowds of people? One highly effective solution involves the use of extremely long exposures. By keeping the shutter open for an extended duration, the motion in the scene blurs, effectively eliminating unwanted elements from the frame. This technique proves particularly valuable in crowded scenarios, transforming busy city streets or iconic landmarks into empty, almost surreal landscapes.

The beauty of this method lies in its ease; with the right equipment and a few considerations, any photographer can use long exposures to enhance their photos and avoid hours of editing work. Whether you’re capturing iconic cityscapes or serene landscapes, using long shutter speeds opens up new realms of creative possibilities.

Before / After

Shooting steps

The setup

1. 24-70mm f/2.8 lens Your shutter speed is the most important component in low-light photography. So a fast lens (f/2.8 or less) will make things easier

2. 10-Stop ND filter Shooting in live view mode will use up batteries much quicker, so make sure you have fully charged spares

3. Tripod You will take a lot of photos in burst mode, so make sure you have plenty of memory cards for your shoot

4. Cable Release You will take a lot of photos in burst mode, so make sure you have plenty of memory cards for your shoot

1. Ensure everything is stable

Stability is crucial when using slow shutter speeds to blur out any motion as any slight camera movement can cause camera shake. So, to ensure that your photos remain sharp, mount your camera on a stable tripod on a solid surface.

2. Select a small aperture

For long shutter speeds, the key is to limit incoming light by choosing a small aperture, such as f/14 or f/16. Avoid going anywhere above f/16, as extremely small apertures can lead to reduced sharpness due to lens diffraction.

3. Go with a low ISO

Depending on how quickly the distractions in your scene are moving, you are likely to need an exposure of at least 30 seconds and possibly even longer. Alongside a small aperture, expanded low ISO will also help you achieve longer exposure times.

4. Use a filter

During the daytime, the main challenge will be to attain a sufficiently long shutter speed. To overcome this, use a six- to 10-stop neutral density filter. If necessary, consider using stacking filters to achieve a long enough shutter speed that blurs out any movement.

5. Select live view mode

When using DSLR cameras, mirror flips cause subtle vibrations. In long-exposure photography, this may lead to camera shake and soft photos. Prevent this by choosing Live View mode to eliminate mirror movement and ensure your images stay sharp.

6. Don’t touch the camera

Even pressing the shutter button can be detrimental to the sharpness of your photos in a long-exposure shot. So refrain from touching the shutter button and, instead, opt for a cable release or go into your camera’s menu and set a two-second timer.

Pro tips

Top tips for long exposures

1. Be aware of where you are placing your tripod. For example, if you are on a bridge, a passing car or even people walking by can cause vibrations that will blur your images.

2. Make sure that you have multiple filters – even a 10-stop filter might not be enough to slow your shutter speed sufficiently.

3. If you have a UV filter on your lens, remove it before you attempt to screw in an ND filter or the ND filter holder. If there is a slight jam, it will be difficult to unscrew
the two filters from one another.

4. You also need to ensure that you have enough power and spare batteries for this type of photography. Long-exposure photos will drain your battery quicker than you think.

5. Be aware of colour casts when using poor quality or cheap filters, especially if they are made from plastic. If you stack these, you may find that your images have a magenta color cast.

Editing steps

1. Fix the shadows

This was a high-contrast scene between the bright, reflective stupa (shrine) and the shaded areas in the foreground. So the first thing to focus on is to brighten the shadows and recover the highlights slightly to avoid them being clipped.

2. Add contrast

Fixing the highlights and shadows has meant that the image now looks a little flat. The next step is to remedy that on the Tone Curve by moving the sliders to create an S-curve. I also added a bit more Clarity to define the edges of the objects.

3. Tweak the brightness

Boosting the contrast has darkened the image slightly again, so I tweaked both the Brightness slider and the Shadows slider to make it lighter. To make the colours pop
a little more, I also increased the Vibrancy and Saturation sliders.

4. Zoom in and finesse

At this stage, I zoom into my image to make some local adjustments and tweak things. For example, increasing the brightness has resulted in some of the highlights being clipped, so I created a mask and recovered these local areas.

5. Straighten and crop

Next, I try to fix the converging lines in the image. In most cases, the image can be straightened by selecting the Auto setting in the Transform tab. I then cropped in slightly on either side and the top of the image to get a 4:3 ratio.

6. Tidy up

My last step is to zoom into the image at 100 per cent and check the photo for things like dust spots, which often become more noticeable when you darken clear sky areas. I use the Healing function to remove these and clean up the rubbish in the foreground.

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A macro is simply a series of commands, keystrokes, and mouse actions that are recorded and can be played back to automate repetitive tasks. On a Mac, macros are known as Actions.

Basic image adjustments are just the start though, because whatever ideas you can come up with, you can create and save a macro of it to use later. That’s what we’re doing here, starting with those basic landscape edits, which are all created as adjustment layers so they can be tweaked for each individual image. 

I'm using Affinity Photo 2 - but macros will work with whatever photo editing software you use.

1. Work it out

Rather than loading a photo, correcting things and then deciding you want to create a macro halfway through, it’s best to have a clear plan of what filters or adjustment layers you’re going to use and write down the settings used. Then go to Window> Macro and move it from the left side to a more useful size.

2. Begin recording

Click on the red button in the Macro panel to start recording then go to Layer> New Live Filter Layer> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Enter values of Radius: 30px, Factor: 0.5, Threshold: 1%. Then click on the X in the corner of the palette to close. Next is color so go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Vibrance.

3. Finish the edits

Enter value of Vibrance: 40% and Saturation: 20%. Close and then go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Put in three control points and create an S-shape to boost the contrast. You should now have three basic adjustments that can be edited later. Click on the Stop Recording icon.

4. Save your macro

In the Macro palette, click on the Add to Library icon. Enter a name for the action that reflects what it does then click on OK. It will now appear in the Library where it can be activated with one click. The adjustment layers can all have their parameters tweaked so if something causes highlight clipping you can reduce the effect.

5. Loading and saving Macros

To export the Macro that you’ve created, click on the Export Macro icon which is next to the Add to Library icon. In the file browser that appears, give the Macro a descriptive name and save in a notable location. Next to this is the Load Macro icon. Click on this, navigate to the Macro you want to load and click on it and then on Open.

For this project I headed down to Salisbury Cathedral, which is certainly one of the most impressive in the United Kingdom.

There are three main challenges: distortion, low light and overly bright highlights. The first one is tricky and can only be completely overcome by using a tilt-shift lens to correct the converging verticals and having the building look like it’s falling away.

If you lack that, then the best practice is to get as far away as possible with an unobstructed view, then zoom in to fill the frame. The nearer you are and the wider the lens used, the worse the distortion will be. However, the wider the lens, the more depth of field you get.

You could aim to hit the hyperfocal distance for focusing (which creates the most front-back depth of field), but if the foreground is basically grass and not that important then it's better (like in this case) to focus on the building itself, with an f/5.6-f/8 aperture, for maximum sharpness.

Objects of interest

There can often be interesting objects stashed away inside a cathedral. Use as wide an aperture as possible and zoom in. This image is shot is f/4.5 at 72mm – it’s the bell from a ship that was used to baptize babies at sea. There are children’s names inscribed inside the rim.

Religious elements

It’s a place of worship, so there will be things related to that – none more striking than a pulpit for preaching to the masses. Here, the pulpit is incredibly ornate. If you have to use a wide-angle lens, expect plenty of depth of field, despite an aperture of f/3.5, like here.

Halls and tombs

There will be plenty of tombs related to either well-known figures or those prepared to ease their way into the afterlife with a handsome donation to the church. Combine the tomb (at the end) with long hallways to provide leading lines. Stay away from the walls to reduce the distortion.

Abstract ceilings

To capture the ornate ceilings, stand directly underneath and look up or use a flip-out LCD to make it easier on your neck. The key is to aim for a symmetrical composition of the main elements, even if other features are not balanced. Ensure that your shutter speed is fast enough.

Figures and creatures

Cathedrals often have mythical creatures for you to look for. At Salisbury Cathedral there are all kinds of other figures, such as these four. Like the ceiling shots, aim for some structure and uniformity in the composition.

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A wide angle lens to capture everything inside the cathedral. Having a mirrorless camera will make it easier to capture images in low light and a funky compact camera is something you can easily carry around and whip out when you see something interesting.

"Using long exposures transforms ordinary scenes, adding a calm and ethereal aesthetic to images," says award-winning photographer Ryszard Lomnicki. To truly capture the mood and movement of a scene – to bend light, time and motion into something surreal – you need to understand more than just your camera settings; just slowing down your shutter speed is not getting you these results.

That's why I turned to Ryszard, a master of landscape and long exposure photography. He shared his technical knowledge about creating long exposure shots last leave lasting impressions. For more insights, read here on how to become a slow shutter speed expert.

Place & Time

Choosing the place and time of the day, as well as reading the expected weather forecast, are important. The best conditions for landscapes are during sunrise, golden hour and sunset. If you want soft, warm light that will add depth and texture to your landscapes, check how the light will fall during sunrise, sunset and golden hour.

Compose your shot with subdivisions and guidelines to create an immersive visual story. A well-composed frame gives a harmonious and balanced image that is natural to the eye.

Filters

The basic tool for long-exposure photography is a filter. ND (neutral density) filters and GND (graduated ND) filters give you the ability to control the incoming light. The ND filter reduces the light entering the lens throughout the frame, extending exposure time, depending on the density of the filter.

Hard, medium and soft GND filters reduce the light incrementally to balance the exposure in high-contrast scenes, as GND filters have different densities. Filters with a hard transition are used when taking seascapes, where the horizon is clear. Soft filters can be used in mountain photography, for example, where the horizon is less defined.

Select the density of the full filter depending on the effects you want to achieve and the conditions. When referring to ND filters, ‘stops’ means the level of light reduction – the more ‘stops’ an ND filter has, the longer exposure times we can achieve. The most universal ND filter values are 1.8 and 3.0. The best way to calculate the exposure time is to use a template added to the filters or a smartphone app designed for this purpose.

I believe that square filter systems are better than round filters. They offer greater convenience, versatility and precise light control. To use them you need a filter holder, which is an additional cost, but the benefits of using it are invaluable. I use a Haida Filter holder and filters to ensure high quality. The Haida M10-II holder also enables me to use a series of drop-in filters along with square filters, which significantly extends its possibilities and convenience.

Long exposure photography tutorial

Pro tip

When photographing with long exposure times, it’s important to get a stable camera position. That means you will need a solid tripod with a good head that is resistant to weather conditions, ND filters to reduce the amount of light entering the lens and a timed remote control trigger.

1. Use a sturdy tripod

Mount the camera on a tripod. Make sure that it is level and stable to get sharp photos. This is especially important when working with long exposures that last a few minutes.

2. Shoot in manual

Switch to manual mode, then choose a narrow aperture (a high f-number) for greater depth and a lower ISO setting to reduce the amount of image noise during long exposures.

3. Mount the filter

Attach the holder with a filter and extend the exposure time. Calculate the time based on stops and lighting conditions, using the conversion table with the filter or phone app.

4. Attach remote release

Now it’s time to press the shutter button to start the exposure. Use the self-timer function or a remote release to minimize camera shake when taking the photo.

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Long exposure photography is incredibly versatile. Long exposure flash photography can give you mind blowing results if you want to combine it with flashguns, for example. You can also find out how to capture creative night shots, or how to create light trail effects in product photos using a torch, and even how to remove distracting elements with long exposures.

Since this is a true story, it was clear that I needed to think in terms of a series, as just one image wouldn’t suffice. It was also important to preserve the atmosphere and make the images resemble the original archival photos as closely as possible, which I kept in mind during post-production. I also paid attention to real moments in the story, such as when the crew actually played football on the ice.

The challenge in toy photography is that you need to analyse what makes reality appear real. What is usually self-evident and natural must be simulated here. So, I used lighting to create the feeling that the viewer was standing on an endless ice field.

For the series, I used a Nikon D750 camera body and two lenses: a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 and a Laowa 15mm wide macro lens.

1. Creating ice and ocean

Simulating water is particularly challenging and, under indoor conditions, real water isn’t always the best solution. Here, I used cellophane to represent the water and powdered sugar for the icy surface. I used an XPS foam board for the huge icebergs that I painted white. Lighting is a key factor so I used a strong flashlight as the sun.

2. Real fire and lantern light

In my photos it is important to try creating the effects for real, without fake elements. After I put some sugar on the ship with the brush, I ignited some matches as a campfire, and used small LEDs for the lantern. After all this, I blew smoke in the scene to create some haze.

3. Wide macro perspective

Even though the ship is not in the picture (after it sank) it is still meaningful. The real survival challenge had just begun and, also, I wanted to make a memorial for the dogs who died for the crew. This time I used a Laowa wide macro lens and used a Dutch angle for the intense dynamism.

Figure positioning and emotions

Toy photography is not just about capturing a product shot with well-arranged lighting. Emotions and movements are just as important as when photographing real people. Mini-figures make great actors because they allow us to use a wide range of facial expressions. In this shot, which captures the crew passing time by playing football, this is the most important element. I even had to slightly adjust one figure’s arm to create a more lifelike movement. This way, the storytelling becomes clearer, and the entire image feels much more alive.

Photo editing tips

With some authentic black and white archaic overlays you can make the viewer feel like they were actually there, they can almost smell the history itself. Also it’s a great tool to mask that it’s actually Lego. Usually I use only one overlay, but here I combined three of them, using the simple masking technique.

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You can shoot this type of image with a DSLR or the latest mirrorless camera but what you really need is a good macro lens and a copy of a photo editing package to put it all together.

1. Adjust the brightness

The first step is to get the brightness right across the image. Here the shadows are a bit too dark so needed brightening. All these adjustments are in the Photo Persona so firstly go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Shadows/Highlights. Increase the brightness of the shadows. Then use a Curves adjustment layer to add more contrast using an S-shape.

2. Start coloring

Go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Color Balance. Select the Shadows from the Tonal Range list. Now, increase the cyan and blue tones to give those areas a much more cooler feel. Then select the Highlights from the Tonal Range list and increase the red and yellow elements. As these are adjustment layers you can always come back later and tweak them.

3. Increase the saturation

Time to boost individual colors with a HSL adjustment layer. Select a specific color and use the color Picker tool to click on the precise color itself. Increase the Saturation Shift to give it more saturation but be careful not to introduce color noise. If you want to change the colors, such as making the white more yellow, then use the Hue Shift slider.

4. Use split toning

The final adjustment can have the most dramatic effect. Add a Split Toning adjustment layer and then use the Highlights Hue to tweak the overall coloring of the highlights and use the Highlights Saturation to add more red/yellow. Do the same with the Shadows Hue and Saturation sliders for more cyan/blue. Use the Balance slider to weight the image to one or the other.

Final look and feel

All of these adjustments are editable layers so if you're not quite happy with the overall effect, or you want to try different styles, simply go back in and click on the adjustment effect icon in the layers palette to tweak the settings. If you save the project as an Affinity file you can create more variations later. Simply export the ones you like as JPEG/TIFs.

That said, HDR has a bit of a notorious rep; we've all seen those overcooked, surreal images online that give you goosebumps for all the wrong reasons. When pushed too far, HDR can ruin the subtlety that makes a photo compelling. But when applied with care and restraint – especially in black-and-white architecture photography – it can add incredible depth, texture, and tonal range that a single exposure simply can't match.

Tools like Affinity Photo 2.0 make it easy to merge exposures and reveal the hidden character in both contemporary and historical structures, without falling into the trap of over-editing.

HDR architecture photography: before and after

Tutorial

1. Prepare and select

After shooting your images, connect your memory card to your device and create a folder with the image series you want to merge. Open Affinity Photo 2.0 and open the File option from the bar along the top. Select the New HDR merge option and add the images you want to merge.

2. Control the merge

Affinity offers a few supporting functions to help you create a clean merge process. Activate Automatically align images on Perspective, Automatically remove ghosts, and Tone map HDR image. When working with JPEGs, tick the Noise reduction box if there is image noise evident.

3. Choose a preset

Affinity will now automatically create an HDR merge. When the program has finished, you will find some preset suggestions in the left bar, click through the options to see the differences. Here, I selected the high-contrast black-and-white option as it highlights the architectural details.

4. Fine-tune settings

To the right, there are various sliders you can use to fine-tune the result. Start by adjusting the Tone Compression and Local Contrast. Next, focus on Shadows and Highlights, followed by Detail Refinement and Curves. The HDR effect is strong in itself, so take care when adjusting these settings.

5. Crop and retouch

In some instances, the merger may leave ghosts, especially if there were people present in the frame. We used the Automatically remove ghosts feature, but it didn’t completely eliminate them. Use the Inpainting Brush Tool or the Crop feature to clean up those areas for a more focused result.

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If you're into architecture photography, browse how to shoot architectural photography that reveals a city's unique and changing identity, or discover why this pro breaks this "rule" in his B&W architecture photography to create powerful frames.

While getting a press pass for an MLS or English Premier League game might be out of reach, your local soccer club or a lower league club should be far more approachable. For a club at the bottom of the football pyramid, you might well be able to wander freely around the side of the pitch, but in most cases, you’ll be positioned to one side of the goal until half time.

While the best cameras for sports photography are great investments, lenses should be your main area of concern if you're just starting off. To record bone-breaking tackles and nifty footwork further up the field, you’ll need a much longer lens. If you’re concentrating on goalmouth heroics then 200-300mm will be required but when the action heads to the opposite end of the field, I'd recommend something more like 400-600mm. Either way, the best lenses for sports photography are a great shout.

Metering matters

Soccer under lights or at midday can result in underexposed photos if you use zone/evaluative metering, so in those circumstances it might be better to use centre-weighted metering. The key issue is having a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action, so open the aperture up, dial in 1/800 sec (minimum) in Manual mode and set the ISO to Auto. Definitely use focus tracking, or continuous focus, and shoot with a continuous or burst mode to capture the key moments.

Essential kit

It’s worth having one of the best monopods to provide stability and also make it more comfortable to hold the camera for long periods of time. Bring a stool for yourself. Some kind of weather-proof system is a good idea, so make sure you invest in the best raincovers just in case there’s a downpour.

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To get close to the action you'll need as big a zoom lens as you can afford. Discover some of the best telephoto lenses here. You'll need storage and The Best CFexpress Cards are some of the fastest memory cards you can buy. After capturing the action, it's time to edit your photos, with this collection of the Best Photo Editing Software around.

Portraiture can at times feel like a bit of a dark art. There's so much jargon and little pieces of equipment to get up to speed on, from flashes to guide numbers, and lighting modifiers to triggers. It can be difficult to know where to start!

That’s why we're taking portraits back to basics, using a single continuous light bulb to achieve three completely different looks. You can take these shots at home with a basic setup. You'll need a dark background, a few lightstands, a curtain pole, and then a few extra props that we run through below.

The three techniques we cover in this project are the perfect place to start with artificial light in a studio setting, as we're using constant lighting. This is different from flashguns, which don't have a modelling light, so it will be much easier to tweak the lighting and get the shadows falling on your model precisely where you need them to. Let's get to it!

1. Camera set-up

All of the techniques we shot here use a one-light set-up, and you can keep things simple with a continuous light, or go as complicated as you like with flash. A 50mm lens is ideal as they're affordable and also have a super wide apertures, which make it easier to work with constant lights.

Our simple set-ups look great in black and white, so it's worth using your Canon's Monochrome Picture Style to see your desaturated scene in real-time using the live view. Just be sure to shoot in your Canon's RAW format so that you retain the color information.

Good settings to get started are Aperture Priority (Av) mode with an aperture of f/2 and ISO of 800 to achieve a fast shutter speed.

2. Set-up 1: Fabric fantastic!

For our first technique we set up two budget lightstands and used some duct tape to secure a curtain pole between them at the top which we could drape over a netted curtain with a pattern we could project onto our model's face, you could of course use a background stand if you have one, but the curtain pole method works well if you're on a tight budget.

A single continuous light was set up on the other side of the fabric – we turned off all other room lights and closed the blackout curtains to reduce light spill from outside. For camera settings, we went with aperture priority (Av) mode with a wide aperture of f/1.8 and boosted the ISO until we got a shutter speed of at least 1/250 sec.

The shadows you cast are affected by a number of different variables. You'll need to fine-tune all of them to get the shadows looking just right in your portraits. Moving the light closer to your subject and the fabric results in softer, blurry shadows, while moving the light source further away will render the shadow much sharper and more defined. If your model is close to the fabric, you'll see more detailed shadow patterns from the fabric too.

3. Set-up 2: Film noir

For our next simple setup, we asked our model to change outfits, and this lingerie helped add a little variety and make the portraits look different from the others. We wanted to go for a film noir style to make it look like she was looking through blinds.

A venetian blind was hung to our curtain pole using a few bits of picture hanging wire. Our continuous light was then set up on the other side of the blinds to produce shafts of light coming through the slats. We then experimented with the distance of the model to the blinds, the distance of the light to the blinds, and also changed the angle of the slats; as these tweaks all changed the appearance of the shadows until we had it just right.

To stop your light spilling onto a part of the frame that you don't want it to, you'll need to 'flag' it. This means blocking the light off, with anything from a set of 'barn doors', to the black side of a reflector, or even taping cardboard around your light to sculpt it onto the specific place you want. For our film noir set-up, we wanted a thin slice of light to come through the blinds, without the light spilling onto the black background, which we wanted to keep dark for maximum contrast.

4. Set-up 3: Rinse and repeat!

We kept our lightstands and background in place, then raided our kitchen for a colander and taped it to our curtain pole. The continuous light was positioned on the other side of the colander to cast spots of light over our model’s face. You could use flash for this if you have one, but a flash with a modelling light will make this much easier to see where the spots of light are falling on your model's face.

Using our continuous lights we were able to choose a fast drive burst mode on our Canon EOS R, which made it much easier to catch a series of shots and boost the chances of nailing one where the light fell where we needed it. Having a helper to move the colander until the shadows are in the right position would also be helpful for this technique.

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