Digital photography basics By learning digital photography basics you will be able to take better digital photos that

delight and surprise your family and friends. There are two main things to master when learning digital photography: the mechanics of how to use your camera and the creativity involved in learning how to compose a great digital picture on the screen. Get to know your camera Modern cameras have dials, buttons and menus galore, each of which has an important part to play in your digital photography. Basics such as reading the manual may seem boring, but will help you learn where the controls are and how to use them. I remember the first time I tried to use my Olympus camera. I wanted to shoot in aperture priority mode and turned the dial ready to begin. But I didn't know how to change the aperture! Which button to press? I was at a loss, I hadn't learned the digital photography basics! Of course I didn't have the manual with me so I ended up using the auto mode. The advantage of digital photography is that you do not have to pay for film or processing so play around with your camera at home, testing different settings and evaluating the results. While learning, do not worry about the subject matter of your pictures just get used to changing the settings quickly. If your camera has a range of scene modes to choose from, take shots using the different options and then upload them to your computer. By right clicking on a photograph's name in the list and choosing properties you can see what settings it was taken with. Read the page about shutter speed and aperture to learn how you can use these can alter the appearance of the photo. Be aware that in addition to picking the shutter speed and aperture sometimes a scene mode will alter the zoom setting, white balance, contrast, saturation and sharpness of your shot, settings that would take some time to set manually. Digital photography tutorial - Understanding exposure Understanding exposure, even if you use a digital camera with automatic exposure modes, can help you have more control over your photographs and to be more creative Shutter speed/aperture/ISO table - find out what camera settings to use outdoors. Table for indoor shots - for photos taken without flash So let's start by considering the three variables that work together to achieve a well exposed photograph. They are the ISO setting, camera shutter speed and aperture. As many different combinations of these three can be used it can be quite confusing for digital photography beginners. ISO ratings ISO originally referred to the speed of the film you placed inside your camera. Each ISO was suitable for particular lighting conditions; you would use a fast 400-800 ISO film if you were shooting where there was little light, and a slower 100 film on your bright, sunny summer holiday.

Nowadays the term ISO relates to the sensitivity of the sensor in your digital camera and you can change it in between shots, no more waiting to finish the film in the camera! So how do these numbers help us in understanding exposure? The higher the number or ISO setting, the greater the sensor's sensitivity to light. At an ISO of 800 or more, the camera's aperture only needs to be open for a short time in order to create an image, whereas using lower numbers means that the sensor needs more light to reach it in order to record a properly exposed shot. For normal, everyday photography ISO ratings in the region of 100-200 are the most commonly used, and won't usually need changing during a photographic session. Camera shutter speeds The shutter speed, on the other hand, may change with every shot. There are two reasons for changing the shutter speed; to let more or less light onto the sensor, or to stop or blur action. The first determines the correct exposure, whereas the second option allows more creativity. A well exposed photograph of something moving, that is blurred because the shutter speed chosen was too slow, won't make an attractive photo. Likewise, a shot of someone on a horse won't make it into the photo album if, although it caught the moment that the horse cleared the jump, you can only just pick out the animal because the whole picture is too dark. Camera aperture settings Thinking of the camera aperture as a hole that can change in size assists us in understanding exposure. When it is tiny, the shutter needs to stay open longer in order for enough light to reach the sensor to ensure correct exposure. When it is expanded then the shutter needs to only open for a fraction of a second. The aperture is measured by f-stops. Starting at the smallest number, often f2 or f2.8, we can say that each time we change the setting it halves the size of the aperture, ending up at f11 or even f16 at which point only a tiny pinprick of light will enter the camera lens. The size of the aperture will have an effect on how much of the photograph is in focus. Click here to learn about how shutter speed and aperture can be used in creative ways to put the emphasis on part of a photograph and throw the rest out of focus. How to put them all together The following tables will help you in understanding exposure. Try them out by setting your camera to manual and studying the results you get. Outdoor settings ISO ratings 100/125 200 400 Sun on snow or sand 1/125 sec @ f/11 1/250 sec @ f/16 1/500 sec @ f/16 Bright sunshine 1/125 sec @ f/8 1/250 sec @ f/11 1/500 sec @ f/11 Hazy sunshine 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 1/125 sec @ f/11 1/250 sec @ f/11 Cloudy but bright 1/125 sec @ f/4 1/125 sec @ f/8 1/250 sec @ f/8 Overcast 1/60 @ f/4 1/125 @ f/5.6 1/250 @ f/5.6

Indoors, without flash Subject Well lit room Dimly lit room 100 1/15 sec @ f2 200 1/30 sec @ f2 400 1/30 @ f/2.8 1/30 @ f/2 800 1/30 sec @ f/4 1/30 sec @ f/2.8 1/30 sec @ f/2 1/60 sec @ f/5.6

1/4 sec @ f2.8 1/15 sec @ f2 1/30 sec @ f2.8 1/30 sec @ f4

Candle light (close up) 1/4 sec @ f2 Bright fluorescent light

1/8 sec @ f2 1/15 @ f/2 1/60 @ f/4

Shutter speed and aperture work together to offer you more creativity Now don't run away because of the digital camera terminology in the title! This page will hopefully help you with understanding how camera shutter speed and aperture work together to create correctly exposed photographs. But perhaps you were looking for a chart to help you work out which aperture and shutter speed to use in certain situations? (Click here to view an exposure table that will help.) Used carefully, the aperture and shutter speed settings on your digital camera can open up a world of creativity and help you take better digital photos. So what is shutter speed? Basically it is the length of time that the camera allows light to hit the sensor of the camera, thereby creating the image. Two main things help the camera (or you) decide which shutter speed to use for a particular shot: the size of the aperture the amount of available light. Let's turn our thoughts for a moment to a room in a house. If that room has a big picture window then lots of light is allowed into the room, however if it only has a tiny window the room will appear dingy and you may need to turn on the electric lights, even in the daytime. The window does the same job as the aperture of the lens in your digital camera, it allows light in. However, unlike a window, it can change size. If there is a lot of light outside, the camera lens aperture doesn't need to be as big as when the light levels are low. So these three things work in harmony. The amount of light, the size of the aperture and the camera shutter speed. All work together to create the best exposure, producing a photograph that is neither too light or too dark. Most point and shoot digital cameras take care of these settings for you automatically. All you need to do is pick a program setting and metering mode and then take the picture. So

why do you need to learn about shutter speed and aperture? Can't you just let the camera get on with it and just concentrate on finding good photographic subjects? If you just want to take snapshots of the family or holiday photos on the beach then you can ignore the rest of the page. But if you want to learn how to take better photos, read on. Shutter speed and aperture examples Let's start by looking at two situations where you may want to take a photograph; at a school sports day and on holiday surrounded by a beautiful landscape. Fast shutter speed - large aperture At the sports day you want to capture the action and excitement while showing the "big picture". In the photo, you can see that the children are running, by the position of their legs. You can also see other children in the background, thereby putting the two girls in the foreground into context, they are obviously taking part in a race not just running for the sake of it. What part of the photograph do you see first? The two girls? This is because they are in focus and the other children are softly blurred and less visible. To get this effect I choose to use a fast shutter speed and a wide open aperture. To get the maximum shutter speed I also increased the ISO rating which has given the photo a grainy appearance. The photo was converted to black and white as the colours in the boys striped teeshirt, in the background, were fighting for attention. Slow shutter speed - small aperture In contrast, for the landscape photograph, I wanted to get as much in focus as possible, from the fall foliage in the foreground to the farmhouse in the distance, so this time I picked a small aperture and a slow shutter speed. I didn't need to stop any action so using a slower shutter speed didn't matter, but to get the best result I steadied the camera on a tripod to avoid camera shake

Understanding shutter speed and aperture What did you learn from the example photographs? Well, they showed that sometimes shutter speed is more important than the aperture setting. And vice versa. It depends on what you are photographing and what effect you wish to achieve. You perhaps also picked up on the fact that smaller lens apertures keep more of the photograph in focus, and bigger apertures can throw some areas out of focus. How to set the shutter speed and aperture Most cameras have a dial that you can turn to change the settings. Sometimes this just shows icons such as the automatic setting, a mountain range, a face, a flower and perhaps an M for manual. Other cameras have the letters P, A, S and M which relate to program, aperture, shutter and manual settings. If you only have the icons, then setting your camera to the mountain range will allow you to take photos of landscapes where everything is in focus (small aperture), the face is the program to use for portraits (large aperture) where the background will be blurred and the flower is for close up photography. The letters on the dial allow you to choose which shutter speed and aperture you want to use. The camera will then adjust the other setting for you automatically to give the correct exposure. By choosing the manual setting you will need to pick both settings, so this is perhaps better left for when you have more experience. What do the numbers mean? Shutter speeds are shown in seconds and parts of a second. A 1 second exposure is much longer than one of 1/250th of a second, or in other words the light is directed onto the sensor for a longer period. The best shutter speed for general photography is around 1/125th of a second. If you want to capture fast action change it to either 1/250 or 1/500th. Apertures are measured in f stops. These numbers can be confusing when you are learning digital photography as they don't seem to follow a logical step progression. A small aperture would be f16 and a wide one, f2.8. The settings in between these can include f4, f5.6, f8 and f11. A practical aperture setting for portraits would be around f5.6 whereas for landscapes you would want to pick f11, f16 or even f22 if your camera has an aperture that small. Have a go yourself! Check your camera and its manual to see which system it offers to change the settings. Then try taking two or three photos of the same subject but change the settings each time. Try to pick something which has items at varying distances so that you can see the effect the aperture has on them. For your second set of shots photograph something that moves to find out which shutter speed freezes the action.

Start building your own photographic journal by printing your photos and including the details of the settings for each shot as I have done with the examples below.

Learn how to lock the focus Auto focus cameras are great until they "decide" to focus on the wrong thing! But don't worry, learning the digital photography basics will show you a way to ensure that the right part of your picture is sharp. Just line up the auto focus marks on the LCD or viewfinder with the subject of your photo, press the shutter button halfway down to "lock focus" then reframe before pressing the button all the way down. Easy. A perfectly focused background with blurred family members is a common result of not doing this! Especially when there are two people in the photo and neither is dead centre. This is what happened in the photo of my son-in-law and grandson, both of whom are out of focus whilst the wall behind is pin sharp! It is sometimes difficult to remember to lock focus when something is happening fast and you want to capture it on your camera. If you are taking pictures of people the new Face Detection method of focusing can be useful, or on some cameras you can choose Area or Spot focusing and move the focus guide to where you want it on the LCD before taking the photograph. Expose correctly You cannot learn digital photography basics without understanding exposure. By using the auto settings on your camera the exposure is taken care of for you, leaving you to get on with the job of composing good photos. However there are occasions where auto exposure gets it wrong and it is handy to be aware of them and know when and how to make adjustments.

So what situations can cause the camera problems? Light subjects - White or light coloured items, like for instance a wedding dress or snow, can fool the exposure metre in your camera causing the resulting photograph to turn out too dark. Dark subjects - If your photograph contains mainly dark objects the camera may believe there isn't enough light and therefore increase the exposure, turning them gray. Light backgrounds - If you are photographing something against a light background, say people in front of a window, the camera may expose for the lighter areas and the figures will be too dark, as in the photo on the left. Dark backgrounds - Can cause the camera to make the main subject too light and washed out. So how can you cheat and fool the camera into giving you what you want without resorting to manual mode? Most digital cameras have an exposure compensation feature that will help. Look for a button or dial that has a symbol that resembles a plus and minus sign with a diagonal line between them. By adjusting this you will be able to tell the camera to exposure the photograph for a longer or shorter amount. To make things lighter move the setting in a positive direction, and pick a negative number if you want things to appear darker. You will probably have a choice of three settings in either direction, maybe 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0 EV (exposure value). Another way to solve the problem is to change metering modes on your camera. Check your manual for instructions on how to do this, but most cameras use some kind of menu system. Your camera may have a selection of metering patterns including multi-zone, centre weighted, or spot. Once you understand the way the different digital camera metering systems can help you are well on your way to mastering digital photography. Multi-zone metering is very clever and will evaluate a number of areas (between 4 and 16) from all over the frame then pick the best exposure. This method tends to ignore an overly bright sky and gives accurate exposure for most pictures. Centre weighted metering, as its name suggests, concentrates mainly on the area in the middle of the frame. This is where most amateur digital photographers place their subject and therefore the camera will normally expose correctly for whatever is placed centrally. Spot metering is a more professional method of exposing your photographs. If you have some photography experience you can get the best results from using spot metering. It only takes into account a very small area in the centre of the frame. As with auto focus lock you can position the guides in the frame on the subject you want to take the meter reading from, half press the shutter then reframe the picture keeping the exposure settings you require. Once you have acquired the digital photography basics of how to focus and expose your photographs it is time to move on to some tips and techniques for taking better digital photos.

So what is a megapixel? Well the simple answer to the question "What is a megapixel" is that it is made up of one million pixels. A pixel, or picture element, is a tiny light sensor that is situated on the digital camera's CCD (coupled charged device). The CCD has taken over the job of the film, in that it captures the scene electronically to form an image, but it has the advantage of not needing to be replaced to take more pictures. A digital camera will be said to have a certain number of megapixels. The very first cameras had less than 1 (640 x 480 pixels)! Of course the number of pixels will determine the quality of the image the camera can produce, but it is not the only thing to consider when choosing a digital camera. The size of the CCD itself, can differ between cameras. The bigger the CCD, the more pixels it can hold. However, as it is the most expensive part of a digital camera the manufacturer would normally try to keep it as small as possible, even if that means cramming the megapixels onto it. So how many megapixels do you need? Now you know the answer to what is a pegapixel, we can move onto deciding how many your need. This does tend to depend on what you wish to do with your photos once you have taken them. The following table may guide you when thinking about megapixels and print sizes. Size 2mp 3mp 4mp 5mp 6mp+ Ideal for... Emailing snapshots to friends, photos to use on your Web site or blog For printing nice 6 x 4 snapshots Printing a film quality 6 x 4, editing and retouching your photographs Now you can print an acceptable 10 x 8 photograph Print huge enlargements!

How many photos can you get on a memory card? Most modern digital cameras allow you to choose from a number of different resolutions (the pixel count horizontally and vertically) for each shot. Just because the camera is capable of taking 10 megapixel photographs does not mean every one you take has to be at that resolution. You are likely to be able to choose from a selection of picture sizes, such as those below.

640 x 480 1920 x 1080 2048 x 1536 3264 x 2448 3264 x 2176 (equivalent to 35mm film ration of 3:2)

A certain juggling act has to go on when capturing images on your camera. The greater the number of megapixels the more storage space is required for each photo. However, with today's large capacity memory cards this is less of a problem than it was a few years ago.

The next table will give you an idea of how many photographs you can fit onto different sized memory cards depending on how many megapixels your camera offers. Megapixels 2mp Card size 128mb 256mb 512mb 1gb 2gb 4gb 4mp 128mb 256mb 512mb 1gb 2gb 4gb 6mp 128mb 256mb 512mb 1gb 2gb 4gb 8mp 128mb 256mb 512mb 1gb 2gb 4gb Digital photography composition Some people speak about the rules of digital photography composition but I prefer to call them guidelines. Think of them as tips to help you take better digital pictures. How many times have you been subjected to a friend's holiday photos and tried to look interested as each badly composed picture is presented to you? This one has the top of the subject's head missing, that one has something weird seemingly growing out of the persons ear, and there it is, the obligatory photograph of someone standing by a famous landmark. Boring! Number of photos approx: 140 approx: 275 approx: 550 approx: 1140 approx: 2275 approx: 4550 approx: 60 approx: 120 approx: 240 approx: 480 approx: 960 approx: 1920 approx: 38 approx: 75 approx: 150 approx: 300 approx: 600 approx: 1200 approx: 29 approx: 58 approx: 116 approx: 232 approx: 464 approx: 928

With the tips on this page you can do better! Then next time you show your pictures around, you will received gasps and smiles as your audience eagerly asks for the next one. So what are these guidelines that help you learn how to take good pictures? I covered the technical aspects on the digital photography basics page here we will look at composing the picture in the viewfinder (or on the LCD screen). Digital photography composition - background distractions Too many photographs are taken in a hurry. Sometimes it is necessary, as the once in a lifetime moment needs shooting as soon as it happens, but usually you should take a moment or two to think about digital photography composition before you raise the camera to your eye. It is too easy to concentrate on the main subject of your photograph and ignore everything around it. Check for those trees growing out of people's heads and distracting background details before you press the shutter. And if you do spot them, try moving slightly so that they will not be visible in the photo. IF you really cannot remove the distractions by moving your position, then you might want to make clever choices of shutter speed and aperture. Open your lens to its maximum aperture and focus carefully on the subject itself, and the background will turn into a soft blur into which distractions will disappear.

Of course rules are meant to be broken, and sometimes including the background can help put the subject of the photo into context. In the two pictures above, which one tells you more about the situation in front of the camera? The horse on the right is just standing in a snowy landscape but in the left hand picture you can deduce that he has been carrying logs to the machine behind him. All it took was taking a few steps to the side to make the picture tell a story. Digital photography composition - vary the viewpoint I mentioned moving your position above, but consider many different viewpoints to help you take better pictures. Not every photo should be taken from a standing position. Try sitting on the floor and looking up. Or climbing onto something and shooting from a higher viewpoint. Photos of children, especially, benefit from being taken at their own level. Crouch or sit down and look at things from their line of sight. You could even place the camera on the floor giving an unusual view from below child's height. Anything slightly different from the

norm will help you take better digital pictures that get a second glance when you show them to your friends.

Don't keep to photographing things from the side. Just think how "ordinary" the photo above would have been if taken as a sideways view? In fact in order to get the whole donkey in the shot the child would have been too small to recognize. Getting in close, and in front of the donkey, makes it much more interesting and shows both my grandson's and the donkey's faces. There is enough background to enable you to see that they were on the beach and that this was not the only donkey giving rides. Also the angle of the shot helps to eliminate any distracting background, such as the row of deckchairs that was behind them.

If you are using a digital SLR camera or a compact with a zoom lens try using a different focal length by picking the best digital camera lens for the job, and taking a number of photos of the same subject. You are guaranteed to get a variety of pictures this way. Take the photo above, of our village church. On the left I used the normal length zoom, standing a short distance away from the churchyard. Then for the picture on the right I moved closer and zoomed my lens right out to change the whole look of the photo. In the first the church is the centre of attention whereas the focal point of the second is the gravestone with the church in the background.

Digital photography composition - You need a focal point An important part of digital photography composition has to be giving your picture a focal point. The eye needs something to rest on before it can then go on and explore the rest of the photograph. To illustrate this let us return to our working Suffolk Punch horse. This photo, left, again puts him into context, showing us that he is transporting logs in the winter woodland landscape but what do you look at first? Yes, the horse himself. He is the focal point of the picture. Your eye then roams around the photo and registers the logs in the foreground and the one that frames the top of the picture. Compare this with the photo below of the Derbyshire peak district in the UK. When the photograph was taken the view was impressive but the picture really doesn't do it justice. There are a number of problems with this picture but the one I will mention first is the lack of a focal point. What does your eye rest on? Is it interesting? I am going to guess that you either said the green bushes on the left or the greyish green circle smack bang in the middle of the photograph. What is that by the way? A pond, a stand of trees? I can't tell you for sure, as I didn't even notice it when I took the picture! It doesn't tell the whole story, it just leaves you guessing. Definitely a photograph that leaves you wondering how many more you have to politely look at before you can leave. Get close with digital macro photography Digital macro photography allows you to get closer to your subject. To reveal those tiny details that are not normally visible at a casual glance. Have you already entered the world of macro nature photography? Why not submit your own for comments at the bottom of this page. And if this is something you haven't tackled yet read on, learn then practise. Then YOU can come back and show us how you got on. Let's start with an explanation of the term macro. This is generally used for photos taken from a closer than normal distance. True macro photographs result in an image on the digital camera sensor that is the same size or larger than the object being photographed. Modern digital cameras and macro lenses have the capability of close focusing down to as little as 1cm away from the subject. In fact some even allow you to touch the object you are photographing! But getting this close can create problems with depth of field (how much of the photograph is in focus).

Depth of field in digital macro photography Two things will affect how much of a photograph is in focus: the lens aperture and the camera to subject distance. The depth of field will be narrower the closer you get. The flowers in the photo below are all in focus but if we wanted to get closer and concentrate on one bloom there are decisions to be made.

With only centimetres to play with you will need to decide which part of the flower to focus on. In this shot you can see the detail in the petals closest to the camera but rest are blurred as the depth of field drops off. To

If you wanted to get all the petals in focus it may be better to shoot from above so that they all lie a similar distance from the camera. However in the shot below that has resulted in anything in front of or behind the plane of focus being blurred, including the flower centre.

These photos were taken on an overcast day therefore the light levels were only enough for me to use an aperture of F/3.5 at ISO 200. For more information on these settings check the Understanding Exposure page. Check this page for more information on macro photography. Flowers are covered in more detail and there are lots more photos. Insect macro photography - Bumble bees Contrast this with the bright sunny morning on which I took the following photographs. On this occasion I was able to use a fast shutter speed of 1/1000 sec to freeze the bumble bee, and still use an aperture of f/5.6 to give enough depth of field.

Don't only take one shot in a situation like this, keep shooting and check your memory card later. Out of a hundred shots you may only get a few really good ones. In the shot above, for example, although the picture obeys the rule of thirds it is a shame that the bee is facing the corner of the photo rather than the centre.

Another reason to keep shooting is that after a bee has visited a number of flowers you will be able to see the pollen on its fur. In the shot below it almost looks as though it has been snowing!

Sometimes you may even get lucky and find extra bugs in your photograph! The photograph below was a lucky accident, with the second insect perfectly positioned in front of the light area of leaf. The sun shining on the blackberry flowers and leaving the leaves in shadow also served to highlight the main subject throwing the other insect into silhouette. This was also the last shot of the session, as I had filled my memory card!

Digital macro photography - Butterflies Another popular subject for digital macro photography is the butterfly. The Ringlet below, obligingly settled just where the dappled sunlight highlighted the fine hairs along the edges of its wings and one of its antennas. With its wings folded the creature was all in one plane and an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/250th sec was enough to give adequate depth of field. This photo was taken from a little further away and then cropped on the computer to eliminate a distracting leaf which had caught too much sunlight.

In the following photograph the butterfly had its wings slightly apart and therefore only the wing furthest from the camera is in focus. This illustrates another point about depth of field. Two thirds of the plane of focus is behind the focus point and 1/3rd in front. You can use this information to make the most of the depth available. I wanted to get the butterfly's antenna in focus so focused a little further back, rather than on the closest wing.

The prettiest butterfly pictures can be taken when its wings are fully opened. The full beauty of the colours are then apparent. For the next shot I cheated by using a long zoom lens from a distance. By shooting from further away you disturb the creature less and can still get a closeup photograph.

I have only covered flowers and insects on this page about digital macro photography, but of course you can take pictures of anything from close up. You could even ask other people to guess what they are! Using the motion blur effect in your photos Motion blur can add movement to photos where a fast shutter speed was used to capture the action. You may have seen this photo on the photographing birds page. A shutter speed of 1/640th second was not quite fast enough to freeze the wings allowing them to blur slightly. This gives a subtle impression of movement, making the photo a little less static. But what if we were after a more dynamic effect? With the help of this Photoshop Elements tutorial you can edit similar photos to add that extra movement. Other digital photo editing software will have a motion blur filter so you can still make use of this tutorial even if you don't use Elements.

Selecting the background to add a motion blur First we need to use the lasso tool to make a selection. I have drawn an arrow to it in the photograph, left. If this icon isn't showing in your program left click and hold your mouse button down over the tool that is visible and you will get a pop up menu giving you a choice of three different lasso tools. Select the one you want by clicking on it. I am using Photoshop Elements 6 in this tutorial, if you are using an earlier version the icons may look slightly different but have the same purpose. For this photograph we will actually select the owl rather than the background then swap them over before applying the motion blur. If necessary zoom into the subject that you want to remain sharp in your finished digital photography project, so that it is easier to see the edges. With your left mouse, click on the outline of the subject, then move the mouse around the shape without letting go of the button. You will see a little lasso icon under your mouse pointer as you move along the outline. Continue in this manner all around the area you want to remain sharp in the finished project. For this blur effect you do not need to worry too much about keeping exactly to the edges. For this photograph I left the ends of the wings out of the selection altogether! When you reach the beginning point the selection will join up and you will get what is commonly referred to as the "marching ants" dotted line dancing around the part you selected. The following photo shows my finished selection.

From the select menu pick 'Refine Edge' and change the settings to smooth your selection a little, so its less wobbly. Add a little feathering to soften the edge and avoid a cut out effect. Lastly contract the selection a little so that some of the owl is outside your selection.

The numbers I have chosen in the screenshot here may not work for your photograph, it depends on the original size of the photo (in pixels) and your subject matter, so play until you are happy that the selection lies just inside the area you want to remain sharp. Once you are happy go back to the select menu and choose 'Inverse'. This will then swap things around so that the background is selected. Adding the motion blur effect Next go to the Filter menu and hold your mouse over the word Blur. A context menu will pop up to the right with more options. Choose 'Motion Blur' and click your mouse. More settings to make! Here you can choose the angle of blur. As we are trying to represent the direction the bird is flying we will leave that set to 0 or horizontal. You can play with the Distance until the background blurs to a degree that gives the effect you are after. For this photograph I used 22. Once you click OK you will be able to see your finished project complete with convincing motion blur. Here is my finished result.

And the zoomed in section, below, shows the effect the contracted selection had on the edges of the owl. Just enough to give a streaky effect that looks as though the bird moved just that bit too fast for the photographer to catch by panning the camera.

Digital photography composition - the rule of thirds

Another problem with this photo is that there is an equal amount of landscape and sky. Dividing the picture across the middle like this gives a boring photograph, is it a photograph of the landscape or the sky? What is the viewer meant to concentrate on? By emphasising one or the other, the photograph would gain strength and be much improved. You, as the photographer, need to guide the viewer into looking at the area you found more interesting at the time you took the picture. Give them a hint, by focusing their attention where you want it. Was it the sky, with its attractive cloud formation, that caught your eye or the pretty landscape? The horizon in the next photo is deliberately kept really low to empasize the sky and the church spires reaching up to the clouds above. The flat, brownish field in front of the church held no interest to me as the photographer and, I felt, was best minimised as much as possible.

I have divided this picture into thirds with four red lines. Can you see how the main focal point, the church spires, sit in the area of one of the intersections and the large cloud at another? There is a tendancy for new photographers to place their focal point right in the middle of the picture which can make for a very static looking photo. Using the "rule of thirds" as it is known in digital photography composition, produces much more interesting photographs. This isn't a rule that only applies to landscapes by the way, it can be used to great potential in portraits as well. When composing your photo try to imagine these guidelines and place a persons face or features at one of the intersections. If you don't manage to get it quite right when you take the photograph you can always crop it later in digital image editing software. In the photograph below, I set an intersection on my grandson's right eye. As you can see by the faded area which will be discarded, it also allows you to remove any distracting elements that sneaked into the background, such as his Dad's arm and some of the beer can!

Now might be a good time to scroll back up the page, and test the other photos I have used to explain digital photography composition, for the rule of thirds. Photographing flowers and gardens If you are anything like me, the sight of a beautiful garden tempts you to get out your camera and begin photographing flowers along with the insects that are attracted to the sweet smelling blooms. With such an abundance of subject matter to pick from it can be difficult choosing what to photograph; a wide view of the whole garden or a flower closeup.

You may want to get even closer and venture into the realms of macro photography, flowers that are the same size or larger on your digital camera sensor as they are in real life! Read on for some great tips on how to take better digital photos in your garden or click on the links to see photos from other visitors and to share your own. Garden photography tips Take your time to really look at your surroundings. Concentrate on the emotions the garden stirs in you. Do you feel relaxed, happy, warm, or full of energy? Is there a way that you can show your feelings in the picture you capture? What catches your eye first? What would you first snap with your camera? Is the rustic bench in the shade of the overhanging tree, which looks like the ideal place to sit and rest awhile? Or the blaze of colour in the flower beds? Is the light throwing one part of the garden into shade while highlighting another area? Does the garden path invite you to walk along it and explore? When visiting a new garden for the first time, I make it a rule that I won't take my camera out of the bag for at least 15 minutes while I just look and study, picturing the shots in my mind before I take them. I bend down or sit on the ground to see the garden from a different viewpoint. Or I might stand on something to raise me above eye level so I can look down and see any patterns that emerge. With a garden full of interesting colours and textures in front of you, it is tempting to zoom your camera right out to its widest setting, in order to get everything in. Before you do this, stop and consider whether this will really show the garden of to its best effect. Reduced to snapshot size the splendour of your surroundings will be diminished and it will be difficult to pick out the details that attracted you in the first place. Wide angle lenses have their place when photographing flowers and gardens but don't just use them automatically, think first. Try to find something to lead the viewers eye into your photograph. Make them want to explore the garden and see what it has to offer. Including the garden path in the shot is an obvious way to do this, as in the photograph at the top of this page, but you can also use a set of steps, as in the photo right, or even a row of flowers. Try to use the smallest aperture you can depending on the light available (click here to learn more about shutter speed and aperture) to keep everything in focus. However, in this situation the shutter on the camera will need to be open longer in order to let enough light hit the sensor, so try to support the camera, perhaps on a wall, to help avoid camera shake and blurred photos.

Flower closeups The closer you get to a flower the more stunning detail is revealed, sometimes missed by a casual observer. Photographing flowers in close up, however, involves overcoming some technical difficulties, such as a narrow depth of field where only a few inches, or even centimetres, from front to back will be in focus as shown in the photo, left. Accurate focusing is important here and it may help to support your camera on a small tripod, but remember the flower itself can still move in the breeze! You will need lots of patience and to take lots of photographs in order to get a perfect shot! I like to set my camera in macro mode and zoom that lens right out, then get up close to the flower. Some point and shoot digital cameras will allow focusing in macro down to a few centimetres while if you have a digital SLR camera you can attach a dedicated macro lens. See this page for more information on macro photography of flowers. To get around the narrow depth of field it can help to hold the camera parallel to a number of blooms so that more are within those important few inches that will be in focus as in the photo, right. Wide angle lenses, by their nature, give more depth of field than telephoto lenses giving you a bit more focus to play with. I tend to try not to interfere with what nature presents to me, but on occasion it may be necessary to do a bit of weeding or "cosmetic surgery" in order to remove deadheads or twigs that protrude into the field of view. If you have an assistant (willing or not) you could ask them to hold the offending item out of the way while you are taking pictures of flowers, rather then damaging the plant. A little care now can make for better digital photos in the long run. Before you press the shutter look carefully. Flowers might not be the only thing in the shot! If the background is distracting you could ask that patient assistant to hold a piece of black paper or card behind the flower to obscure it. If you are alone, you can use an item from your photographers tool kit to attach the card to surrounding stems. You do have a tool kit don't you? Also take a moment to consider the light that is hitting the flower. Is it causing ugly shadows on the lower petals? Is it so bright that you cannot see any texture? Try moving your position and see if the lighting and/or background improves. Oh and be careful not to throw your own shadow onto the flower!

Digital macro photography - flowers I don't know about you but tiny things fascinate me, hence my love of digital macro photography. Flowers and insects have a beauty all their own when you get really close to them. Point and shoot digital cameras often have a special macro setting that allows you to focus closer than normal, however, if have a digital SLR camera, and can forsee yourself taking many macro shots, you may wish to purchase a dedicated macro lens for the purpose. You may also find a digital camera tripod to be a useful part of your equipment along with other items that I will mention later in this article. One of the advantages of digital photography is that you can take as many shots as you like without wasting film, a feature that is very useful when it comes to macro photographs! The closer you get, the less depth of field you will have. This term relates to how much of the photograph, from front to back, will be in focus. When you are really close to the subject of your photograph the depth of field can be measured in millimetres! A slight movement of the camera, or the flower itself in a gentle breeze, can be enough to spoil the shot. Expect to take many shots to get one that is technically perfect. Of course there is more to photographing flowers than just the technical aspect. You will need to develop an eye for a good photograph and the best way to do that is by practising.After that first shot, try moving your viewpoint slightly or focus on a different part of the flower. Keep the rule of thirds in mind when composing your picture, placing the centre of interest at one of the four intersections. You may even be lucky enough to find something else taking an interest in the same bloom, like the tiny hover fly in my bindweed photograph, right. Insects can add to the challenge of taking great digital photographs of flowers as they tend to dart in and out of view amazingly quickly! You will find yourself torn between using a fast shutter speed, to prevent the insects wings becoming a blur, and a small aperture, to get as much depth of field as possible so that both insect and flower are in focus. Generally, these two do not tend to go together! I find that when undertaking macro photography, flowers and tiny insects are easier to capture when you hand hold the camera rather than attaching it to your tripod. You then have the ability to move the camera fractionally rather to adjust the focus, rather than

fiddling with the settings. You may feel a bit silly, bobbing backwards and forwards but don't worry. When the subject comes into focus snap quickly before you lose it again. Other photographic accessories for macro photography Flowers of a larger size can benefit from that tripod. By using a small aperture on the camera, the shutter speed will need to decrease and along with it the chance of holding the camera steady! To eliminate the possibility of jarring the camera when you press the shutter you may even want to set the self timer so that the camera operates in a "hands free" mode when the photograph is taken. With your camera anchored in one spot you need to be aware that the flower itself can move! Taking macro photographs on a breezy day needs a lot of patience. Waiting for the breeze to drop and the plant to stay still can be frustrating to say the least. It is possible to fashion a sort of windbreak with your body or from a piece of card kept with your photographic equipment. A photographers tool kit which includes sticky tape or clips, to attach the card to anything handy in the vicinity, will prove useful. Something else that I like to pop into a corner of my camera bag is a translucent white, plastic carrier bag. Small, light and easy to carry, these bags can have many uses. Turned upside down and placed over nearby foliage they can act as either a reflector, directing the light into the shadow areas of a scene, or a diffuser, by way of being positioned between the sun and the flower you are photographing. In a similar manner, they can also be useful for hiding distracting greenery or twigs. And of course after you have eaten your lunch you can use them for a more common purpose of collecting your rubbish! Macro photography lighting In macro photography lighting is very important. At such close quarters the flash built into your camera is perhaps not the ideal souce of illumination. Natural or available light is more likely to give better results. Don't limit yourself to bright, sunny days for taking close up pictures of flowers. In fact harsh sunlight can cause ugly shadows to spoil your macro photography. Gentle side lighting, as in the photo of the dahlia left, can help to separate petals from each other and show the form of the flower to advantage. This portrait was actually taken in my kitchen, by the light of a window. With white tiles on the wall behind and the white refrigerator on the other side a hand held shot was possible at 1/30 sec at f3.5 using an ISO of 125 (if these numbers mean absolutely nothing to you, you may like to read my page about shutter speed and aperture). Flowers lit from behind can create appealing photographs, especially if the light catches any tiny hairs on the stems making them glow with a halo like effect. However, photographs taken in this way can cause exposure problems if you are not careful. Most

digital cameras have either a backlight (or shadow adjusment) feature or else you can adjust the exposure compensation. Often there will be a button showing a plus and a minus sign, that will allow you to tell the camera to expose the image for a little longer than normal, to avoid the flower appearing too dark in the photograph. Wherever you take your macro photographs, flowers are a great subject to tackle. Why not have a go and share your results with other visitors to the site? You can even ask for a critique to help improve your results in the future. Submit your photo and tell us about how you took it and then take a look at other people's images and comment on their work. Constructive critiscm will help us all take better digital photos of flowers. Bird photography made easy Bird photography in the wild is challenging but it is possible to get good photos of birds in rescue centres, wildlife parks and zoos. In fact they make a good place to learn how to photograph birds before setting off into the wild open countryside. Carol was lucky enough to have two great places to visit locally and over the years have taken many bird of prey photos with a variety of cameras from 35mm to modern digital cameras. Most people today live within a short drive of bird sanctuaries or places where they fly the birds of prey to educate people Bird photography equipment Do you need special equipment to get great digital photographs of birds at places such as these? Not really, but some features will help. First a zoom lens will help you get close up pictures even if you can't physically move closer to the birds because of the aviary. Taken without a zoom, small birds can sometimes only just be visible in a photograph even if they seem quite close at the time the picture was taken. Having the ability to pick the aperture and shutter speed when photographing birds is also handy. By using a wide open aperture (along with a fast shutter speed) you can throw the background out of focus while freezing movement of the subject. You can get a similar effect on a compact camera with programmed settings, by picking portrait mode.

Bird photography tips There are drawbacks to photographing birds in captivity. To stop them flying away they are normally kept in aviaries or tethered in weatherings. During flying displays the birds will wear jesses or leather fittings around their legs. All of these factors can "interfere" with getting a good, natural looking bird picture. My own morals prevent me trying to pass off photos of captive birds for those taken in the wild, but I still prefer to take photos with natural looking surroundings. Take the photo of a blue winged kookaburra, left. You can tell at a glance that this bird was not flying free! Of course for a record shot, to say that you have seen this species, that may not matter. But it is possible with a little care to take better pictures of birds in this situation. Try moving around the aviary to see if there is a better looking background. If you find one, be patient and wait to see if the bird will pose for you in front of it. Also take note of the lighting available. Bright sunny days, although not ideal for bird photography, can help you out. Often the bird will have a covered perch area towards the back of the pen which, when the light is right, can be thrown into shadow. If the bird is sitting out in the sun it may be possible to use this dark area as a background, especially if you can use a wide aperture to throw it out of focus. Can you see the difference? Although these trees are not the natural habitat of this Australian bird, the picture looks more natural without the obvious signs of captivity that were present in the previous photograph. It was a shame, however, that I managed to cut his tail off! That is another tip. If you are not trying for a close up of part of the bird, make sure you get the whole creature in the photograph! All three of the samples of bird photography I have shown you so far, were of birds behind wire mesh.

Here are a couple of tips to avoid spoiling your photographs by its ugly presence. Get close. As close to the mesh as you can, without risking your lens to attack through the mesh by the bird you are trying to photograph. Don't laugh, I have seen it happen! If the mesh is quite large and your lens is small enough in diameter you can sometimes avoid the mesh altogether in this way. So what do you do if the wire mesh is very fine and you cannot get close to it? Use that wide open aperture I mentioned earlier on this page. An aperture of f2.8 or even f4 will blur the mesh until it is no longer visible. Focus on the bird itself and both the foreground mesh and background distractions will disappear. But keep an eye out for shadows of the mesh falling on the bird. That is a certain giveaway to anyone looking at the photograph later on! Another tip is to not get too caught up in just photographing the birds themselves. Watch what else is going on around you. On a recent trip to the Raptor Centre I took a friend along. She was delighted when she was asked if she would like to wear the leather glove during the flying display and have a barn owl fly to her. Although not a stunning photograph, capturing this moment and giving her a print afterwards made an old lady very happy. She has shown the photo to so many people, all of whom now want to visit the centre, that it has definitely been a good way to help the birds themselves. Sadly, even though I also got the opportunity to hold the barn owl, Betty was unwilling to try some bird photography of her own to take a reciprocal shot of my experience. Some backgrounds, although obviously man made, just suit the subject so well that they beg to be photographed. Take this barn owl for example, perched on an old wooden ladder in the barn. Perhaps not a "natural" backdrop but in keeping with the bird and resulting in a wonderful, almost monochromatic, photo. The lighting also helps in this shot.

Although it was dark in the barn and I needed a wide open lens and a fast film-speed setting, the light coming through the window has helped to separate the bird from the similar coloured wood.OK let's get closer in our attempts at bird photography. One way to avoid the leather jesses showing in captive bird photos is to zoom in and concentrate on the birds head and shoulders. This can also help to eliminate those unatural looking perches that they are tethered to. However, remember to bend down so as to be on the same level as the bird. Just as with photographing children, looking down on birds, results in strange looking photos. We are more used to seeing birds up in the air, or in trees. Again, by using that wide aperture, the background in this shot of a buzzard is out of focus. The eye could almost be deceived into thinking that there is a tree trunk behind the bird, whereas, in fact, it was the side of his shelter. Many people head for cover if the weather turns and it starts raining. In fact that is just what my friend Betty did, retiring to the tea shop, while I carried on my bird photography session. This falcon was tethered to the ground in the open, and we got wet together. I zoomed in on his majestic head and could see the raindrops sitting on his weatherproof feathers. To get this photo I had to sit on the ground and increase the film speed to 200 ISO in order to be able to use a wide enough aperture of f4.5. Even so the fastest shutter speed I could use to get a good exposure was only 1/125th second. A moment after this shot was taken the bird shook his head and I tried to get a picture of the raindrops that showered me, but the action was too fast for the lighting conditions. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Action makes for more exciting bird photography. If you can catch the bird doing something other than just sitting as still as a statue you could just get a winning shot. For this snowy owl photo I struggled to find a suitable backdrop so I laid on the floor, amid some curious gazes from the other visitors to the centre, to frame him against the sky. In situations like this you need to be extra careful with your exposure settings. Your camera's auto setting is unlikely to get a good result as the amount of sky in the picture will fool it into underexposure, resulting in a dark picture. A perfect time to use the exposure compensation button on your camera to allow more light in than the camera thinks it needs. For this shot I set a slow film speed of 80 ISO, kept a wide aperture of f4 and a shutter speed of 1/400th second. The fast shutter speed also had the advantage of freezing the action when the owl opened his beak. Of course the ultimate action shots in bird photography are taken when the bird is in flight. Most bird of prey centres have at least one flying display during the course of the day and these are the ideal opportunity to practice. Each bird in the display will be flown multiple times, often following the same flight path each time. Take time to watch the first couple of passes without the camera to your eye to see where the bird heads and where he likes to land. Then pick a spot on route to focus your camera on. Remember to set your camera to shutter priority for this job so as to stand a chance of stopping the action. Barn owls tend to fly slower than the other bird of prey, so are a good starting point for your pictures of a bird in flight. For this shot of a snowy owl I had the camera set to 1/640th second, an aperture of f4 and an ISO (film speed) of 80. I didn't want to freeze the movement all together, and this speed allowed a slight blurring of the wings.

For your first few shots concentrate on getting the bird in the frame. Its harder than it looks! Once you have that under your belt, try to leave room for the bird to fly into. If you don't get it quite right at the photography stage, you can always crop your picture to achieve a better composition, as I did in the shot above. When you get back to your computer you can use the motion blur effect to add more movement to the background if necessary. Finally, when tackling bird photography at a bird sanctuary, don't forget the relationship between the birds and their keepers. I snapped this shot just after the flying display. Although the background is somewhat distracting your eye is drawn to the owl for two reasons. First it is staring directly at the camera. (That area of red behind its head also helps draw the eye to the focal point of the picture.) Secondly the photo uses the "rule of thirds" where one of the owl's eyes is directly on an intersection. If the rule of thirds is a new term to you check out my explanation at the bottom of the digital photography composition page. Include candid family photos in your album Candid family photos have never been easier to shoot. Digital cameras allow you to keep shooting until you get that precious shot that captures the real essence of those nearest and dearest to you. You don't need to worry about wasting film any more! If you are anything like me, you always have a camera in your hand at family functions. In fact my family are so used to seeing me with a camera that they would be surprised if I turned up anywhere without one. At my sister's wedding it was automatically assumed that I would be so equipped and on arriving I was told I was the official photographer!

But don't limit yourself to only taking group photos at family weddings, christenings and parties. Capturing those everyday events are just as important. Looking back at these candid family photos in years to come will transport you back in time and remind you of the persons real character, that a posed professional portrait doesn't always capture. Tips for taking natural looking candid family photos Many people don't like having their photos taken. They will make silly faces when they see you with a camera or get all self concious. Take the picture on the left, for example, of my sister who caught me pointing my camera in her direction. Not the most flattering shot I think you will agree? Ah, but I had a plan! The camera was out and visible, with the odd shot being taken without the expecation of getting any good pictures at this point. I was just getting her used to the camera being there. After a number of useless shots like this, she began to relax and ignore me and my annoying piece of equipment. Then I started to get some more natural portraits. On occasions I even set a small aperture and manually focused on something the same distance away, before turning the camera back in her direction. But I didn't lift the camera to my eye to take the photos. Instead I hung it around my neck, and positioned my finger on the shutter, then looked in the opposite direction and just casually pressed the button. Of course candid family photos taken in this manner aren't always straight. I think the builder that put our conservatory together should have been shot, if the windows were really on an angle like that!

For the shot above I had to straighten the photo in my photo editing software and then crop it. Allowing extra space around the subject when taking the shot is useful here, as after rotating the picture your cropped photo will be smaller and you don't want to cut off important parts! As your subject gets more used to the camera you won't have to hide the fact that you are photographing them. Familiarity breeds contempt as the saying goes. They will eventually ignore the camera and act naturally enabling you to take candid family photos to be proud of. Staying unobtrusive In some circumstances you really would rather not bring attention to yourself and your camera. In these situations you will achieve better results if you sit back from any action and use your zoom lens to get you closer. This can be especially important when photographing your children at play. If they become aware that you are taking photographs they may stop what they were doing spoiling any chance of getting the shot.The next photo shows my grandson being lifted in the air by his father. By standing back and observing the fun, it was possible to get a fun photo showing his wonderful expression as he got a birds eye view of the world. Candid family photos like these will help bring your photo album to life, and gives you the opportunity to take many more photos than if you restrict yourself to special occasions only. Have fun!

Food photography tips These food photography tips will help you take mouthwatering photos of food for your own website. After all if you are sharing a recipe you want to make the finished dish look as appetising as possible don't you? Photographing food for advertisements, packaging or magazine use is beyond the scale of the information I will provide here, these tips are meant for the amateur or beginner digital photographer. Most food is three dimensional and a good photograph will give an impression of that 3D form, whether it be a sphere like the tomatoes in the photos below, or an irregular shape like the slice of cake further down the page. Food can also be shiny, smooth or highly textured and it is important to emphasize this in your food photography. Tips like spraying with a light mist of water can come in useful but let's start with the basics. Please note I haven't concentrated on the backgrounds particularly in these shots, they are purely an exercise in lighting at this stage. All photos on this page were taken with the camera supported on a tripod. Food photography tips - show the shape Tomatoes are almost spherical so we will use them for our first food photo session. lighting is important in food photography, using the on-camera flash just doesn't cut it! So turn your flash off and find a lamp. This doesn't need to be an expensive studio light system; I used a daylight lamp designed for needleworkers. For this first photograph I positioned the lamp over the tomatoes and picked an aperture of f3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/125sec. I set the film speed to ISO 200 to gain a little extra speed. If these numbers mean nothing to you pop over to the shutter speed and aperture page for more information. The overhead light has caused harsh shadows underneath the tomatoes and highlit areas on the top. But the tomatoes themselves do not really look three dimensional do they? They are a bit flat; the same colour red throughout.

Let's try again. Moving the light to the left hand side and bringing it down a little lower helps to reduce those ugly shadows under the tomatoes. We are also beginning to get a sense of roundness in the tomatoes now. The exposure was set to f4 at 1/160sec (smaller aperture, faster shutter speed, let in less light, but because the lamp was closer to the subject the picture is brighter). For this third shot I moved the light further back and brought it lower still. This has served to give a better shape to the tomatoes throwing the side away from the light source into shadow. To prevent the shadows being too dark I positioned a hand mirror opposite the lamp to redirect some of the light back into the picture. Because the light is glancing off the side of the tomatoes it gives them a slight translucency, showing some of the internal structure.Can you see how we improved that first, flat shot into a picture where you could almost pick up the tomatoes from the screen?

Food photography tips - show the texture The tomatoes I used for the shots above had a smooth, slightly matt surface. I wanted something with a rougher texture for the next series of food photographs so I baked a cake! I started by using the same set up as for the second photo above, with the light behind and mid-height. The cut surface of the cake received little direct light and hence showed little texture. The light has caught the top left corner of the cake creating a rim lighting effect which has potential, however.

For the next shot I moved the light source lower and turned the cake slightly to expose more of the cut surface to the light. We are getting there, with slightly more texture visible and the rim lighting effect more pronounced against the darker background area. With the light being lower, the rim of the plate is also more apparent.

Finally I brought the light slightly further forward, enabling it to glance off the cut surface of the cake and show the fluffy texture nicely. This created a darker shadow behind the cake, which I lightened by positioning a hand mirror opposite the lamp. Much better! Quite appetising in fact.

Nature Photography Tips These nature photography tips may give you some ideas whether you live in a town or the countryside. I am lucky enough to live in a rural English village, with fields and trees all around, but there are animals and plants to be found even in big cities. In fact it is often easier to see creatures like foxes in town as they are more used to humans. The photo below of a village church, nestled amongst the trees with its steeple peeping over the top.. Take your camera for a walk, and keep your eyes open. Along the way, take photographs of the nature around you. You can make use of the nature photography tips on other pages of this site to practice your flower photography, macro shots and even some

landscapes. You can experiment with exposure and composition, wide angle or telephoto lenses and extreme closeups. Try to take photographs of at least 10 different subjects. But don't limit yourself to one shot of each! That is one of the benefits of digital photography, you can take loads of pictures and delete those that don't quite work out. Try to tell a story of what you saw on your walk, in pictures. Take some establishing shots so that we can see where you were. Don't forget to look down at the ground, up in the air, from side to side, over, under and through things. You could even repeat the exercise at a different time of year. Don't limit your photography to warm, sunny summer days...an autumn stroll or a country walk in the spring (like mine below) can all turn up unexpected pleasures. You might even want to try photographing a winter wonderland. So onto those nature photography tips. I will use the photos I took, creating the the ideas behing this web page, as examples. Set the scene All the pictures on this page were taken within a 1 mile radius of my house. My walk started right across the road from our house, with a little pathway through the trees that leads to a meadow. It was a lovely spring day, with gentle sunshine and hardly any breeze. Walking under the canopy of trees I loved the way the sun left dappled patterns on the ground. I also wanted to capture the "light at the end of the tunnel" effect. Scenes like this can present a problem of contrast. Our eyes are capable of picking out details in both the shadowed and sunlight areas of a scene but this is not always possible in photography. To get detail in the trees I lost the detail in the sunlit area at the end of the path. In this photograph I felt it didn't matter. That light area represented the effect I was after and the lack of detail was not detrimental. If, however, it is important to your picture to show detail in both areas, it is a good idea to take two shots, exposing for each in turn. Back at the computer you can combine both in one finished photograph with special photo editing techniques, known as high dynamic range. Catch the light Don't just look in front of you when you are walking along. Glance down at the ground from time to time. As I walked through the trees, I almost trod on these tiny yellow flowers growing in the path. The sun, shining through the branches, happened to catch them in its beam and they positively glowed against the unlit areas of the path. The high contrast worked to my advantage for this shot. I didn't want to capture detail in the shadowed areas, wanting instead to concentrate on the blooms. Setting the camera to use the

spot metering mode I took the reading from the flowers, deliberately under-exposing the background. As these flowers were tiny I set the camera to macro mode and knelt down on the path to take the shot, being careful to keep myself out of the sunlight so I didn't cast a shadow on my subject. Not all photographs can be taken from a standing position, be prepared to get yourself into some less comfortable positions! This is one of my favourite nature photography tips, in fact. Did you notice that the top flower obeys the rule of thirds? Use natural frames As I came out of the trees at the end of the path I saw this tree full of blooms. I had several options here for photo taking. I wanted to catch the detail in the flowers but not to just take a record shot in closeup. I walked around the tree for a better viewpoint, using my thumb and forefinger of each hand to create a sort of sort of frame to help me compose the shot. I used my zoom lens at its wider end, to focus on the flowers, while allowing enough background to give a suggestion of the path through the field beyond, framed by the trees. I set a wide aperture of f5.6 on the camera to throw the background out of focus, so that the viewers attention was first caught by the flowers. If everything had been in focus the shot would have been too busy. Look up After walking across the field I reached the outskirts of the next village. Here a pretty thatched cottage caught my eye. Why am I including a building on a page about nature photography tips? Read on.... Including the darker tree on the right, framed the cottage nicely and helped to even out the overall exposure.

With the white walls and bright sky it would have been easy to underexpose this shot.

It would have been nice if the gates had been open, welcoming you into the cosy cottage, but as the residents were at home I didn't think opening them would be a good idea. On closer inspection I noticed the unusual wildlife along the top of the thatched roof. You just never know where you are going to see something worth capturing.

I don't really have any nature photography tips for this kind of wildlife. Apart from using that spot metering mode again, to exposure for the thatch, so that the large expanse of sky does not result in a dark photo. Zoom in to create a mini landscape Around the back of the cottage I cam across a vast area of grape hyacinth flowers. Rather than photograph them individually, I decided to picture them en masse. The tree trunks added some contrast in tone and texture, and also threw shadows onto some of the flowers creating a more pleasing shot. How I wished I could nip into that garden to remove the dead daffodils and the lone stinging nettle! But one of the most important nature photography tips is to leave things undisturbed, and I didn't feel like trespassing. So I stayed on the path and used a zoom lens instead. Garden flowers are just as worthy of being photographed as their wild cousins. Zoom out If you are using a DSLR with additional lenses, or a zoom lens on your compact digital camera, do not forget to make use of them. I zoomed in on a small area for the picture above, this time I zoomed out to use a 9mm focal length to capture the church and churchyard.

The yellow field shown in the first picture on this page, taken from behind the church, also used a wide angle lens, 11mm this time. Using a wide angle lens has an additional benefit, in that depth of field is exaggerated. The yellow flowers closest to the camera were in focus, as well as the church steeple in the background. Complimentary diagonals colours and

The final picture from my country walk illustrates two more nature photography tips. When taking colour photographs the opportunity to include complimentary colours, in this case yellow and purple, must not be missed. Success here lay in letting one colour dominate, equal amounts would not have worked so well. My first shot was a straight on view of this wall in front of the church. But it needed something more. Moving so that the wall created a diagonal line helped to carry the viewers eye through the picture. A useful tip, not just reserved for nature photography. Photographing pets in the home and garden Never work with animals or children, or so they say! But when it comes to photographing pets who can resist? After all they ARE part of the family. Even those as young as 15 week old Belle pictured left. So start photographing your pet today and submit your photos for other visitors to this site to enjoy and comment on. And don't forget to check out their photos too! First a few tips and ideas for taking better photos of your cats, dogs and other pets. Photographing pets can be challenging as they tend to be unpredictable and some of them can move pretty fast! Getting that perfect shot may need a lot of patience. Young Belle was keen on exploring and sitting still for a photograph was boring! It took many shots to get the one above that really captured her inquisitive nature.

Of course one of the advantages of digital photography is that you don't need to use rolls and rolls of film any more, just make sure you have plenty of batteries and lots of room on your digital camera memory card. What makes a good pet photography portrait? Filling the frame with your subject and getting the focus right are both important. Snapshots of pets are often spoiled by messy backgrounds from which you can just pick out the animal. Get down to the animals level and focus on the features for a stunning shot, like my friend Jacquie Hookey did, with this cute photo of one of her cats. Jacquie is an Abyssinian cat breeder and has her own website. Of course her beautiful cats are the stars of her site, but she kindly allowed me to share some photographs of them here with you. If your pet strikes a particularly appealing pose and you have your digital camera handy (it is always to hand isn't it?) you may have to shoot your photograph whatever the background, but there are ways of making it less obtrusive. Simply taking the picture from a slightly different position may help to exclude distracting background elements, so always take a moment to consider this before pressing the shutter. Your digital camera will normally have programmed settings for particular picture taking situations. By picking the right setting (with a wide aperture) you can throw the background completely out of focus, which will make your pet stand out crisp and clear. Be sure to read the page on shutter speed and aperture to learn how to do this, if you haven't tried it before. Of course there are those happy occasions where your pet puts him or herself in front of the ideal background as Ramses did in Jacquie's next photo. The black setting makes his stunning colouring really stand out, doesn't it? If you can, try not to use flash when photographing pets indoors. Flash can cause ugly shadows behind the animal and the light from the flash may reflect off their retinas causing them to become visible in the photograph, as glowing red or green eyes. Of course all is not lost when this happens, you can correct red eye in digital image editing software, but it is always better to try to avoid the problem in the first place if possible. One occasion where digital flash photography can be helpful is when photographing black dogs and cats. In this situation the harsh light can help to show the glossiness and texture of the black coat.

Don't limit yourself to staying indoors when photographing pets. If you have somewhere safe to let the animal roam, outdoor portraits can really help to show the animals character. My friend's Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs were having fun in the garden and I caught this shot by choosing a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. Of course you could deliberately choose a slower shutter speed and pan (or move) the camera, resulting in capturing the animals in focus while allowing the background to blur and add a real sense of movement to the photograph.

Watching a pet for a while before taking the shot can pay dividends. Pippa, the yorkshire terrier left, regularly stood by the flower pot in my neighbour's garden to watch what my two dogs were getting up to. Getting the perfect shot was a case of patiently waiting for her to do it again. Using a wide aperture of f2.4, enabled me to throw the distracting background out of focus. When you are photographing pets that belong to someone else it is a nice gesture to print out a couple of your best shots to give to the owner.

My neighbour was delighted with his, and immediately sent his wife off to find some frames! It is not just cats and dogs that can feature in your photographs, don't forget the smaller pets like rabbits, mice or birds.

Accurate focusing is even more important with close up photography. Due to the nature of the camera lens, the closer you focus the less of the picture will be sharp. This is known as limited depth of field of DOF. The closer you get, the narrower the band of focus becomes. If possible try to focus on the eyes as I did in this rabbit photograph. An assistant is helpful when photographing pets in cages or hutches. They can be on hand to watch the pet doesn't escape while you concentrate on taking the pictures. If possible, try to remove any barriers between you and the pet, such as wire netting or glass. Obviously if you are taking photos of fish in a tank removing the glass is not advisable! If the animal has to remain behind glass you can help eliminate unwanted reflections by wearing dark or black clothes, wrapping a dark cloth around the outside of the lens and gently pushing the lens against the glass. If you have a tripod and your camera has a remote control you can move away from the scene before pressing the shutter to make sure you don't catch your own image in the glass. Avoid flash when photographing through glass or your picture could end up with a hot spot which could obscure the very pet you are trying to take the photo of! Right let's summarize these tips for photographing pets before I turn this project over to you.

Fill the frame Watch those distracting backgrounds Try not to use flash Photograph the pet where he/she is happiest Open the aperture wide Use a fast shutter speed Focus on the eyes Be patient and take lots of shots

Five digital wedding photography tips for the amateur If you have been invited to the wedding of a friend or family member then these digital wedding photography tips may just come in handy. Of course the big day is not complete without the services of a professional wedding photographer but the keen amateur can also get some beautiful shots worthy of being included in the album. Wedding photography tips number 1. Don't get in the way! First things first, if the happy couple have gone to the expense of hiring a professional then do your utmost not to get in his or her way! Distractions such as calling the bride or groom by name, to make them look your way, just as the pro is about to snap are bound to alienate. As is taking key members of the wedding party to one side as the pro is taking group photos. Another no-no is to set up your own tripod and try to capture the same scene by placing yourself in the photographers line of view. Of course you wouldn't do these things would you? You would perhaps be surprised just how many people do! Be patient and wait until the pro has got his shot then take yours. For the shot above I waited until everyone else had taken the shot, from in front of the happy couple, then took mine as they looked towards me. As the light was fading, I used a little fill flash to brighten the bride and groom while keeping the background darker. But don't limit yourself to only taking the shots that the pro is taking. Why not direct your attentions elsewhere and capture incidental shots of other things occurring at the event? Wedding photography tips number 2 - Behind the scenes Some pros will agree to come to the house to take photos before the event, but it can cost extra. Shots of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready for the wedding can add a sense of excitement to a photo album. This is an ideal opportunity for you as a keen amateur to shine. Try not to get in the way of the preparations but watch what is going on and capture those special moments. I like to use natural light if at all possible for these intimate shots. Open the curtains and let the light shine in, choose a fast ISO setting on your camera (such as 400) and shoot away. Using a slightly longer lens can come in useful here, and a wide aperture to throw any distracting background out of focus. If the bride would like posed shots try to keep them natural. If necessary ask them to move closer to the natural light and remove anything that you don't want in the shot.

Don't panic if something cannot be moved, it can always be edited out afterwards. In the shot shown here there were a few leaves of a hanging plant peeking into the top right corner, but they were easy enough to edit out afterwards with careful use of the cloning tool in photo editing software. Try not to be a nuisance and work as quickly as you can but do give some thought to the background. In the shot above I realised that the bride's head-dress and veil would not show up against the pale cream walls so I positioned the group in front of a wooden panelled cupboard to give contrast. I also asked the bride to move away from the window to avoid the sunlight burning out the whites in her dress. I wanted to avoid using flash in this shot, but only just got away with the light available. I had to shoot at f3.4 and 1/20th second shutter speed! Click for more information on shutter speed and aperture settings. Wedding photography tips number 3 - Capture the details

Number three in my list of wedding photography tips has to be get in close. When taking wedding pictures there are some you just have to snap. The wedding rings in situ is a classic! This is a shot that the pro will often take while the bride and groom are signing the register but that doesn't prevent you having a go later in the day. Use a wide aperture again, to blur the background. You will find many opportunities for close up shots at the wedding reception. Maybe champagne glasses in a toast, or the nicely set out tables before anyone has started attacking the food. And of course there are the wedding flower arrangements. Wedding photography tips number 4 - Don't forget the bridesmaids and page boys

Of course the professional photographer will take posed shots of the attendants with the bride and groom but, especially if they are young, the bridesmaids and page boys will offer lots of chances for candid wedding photography. (For more tips on how to take candid shots check out the candid family photos page.) Tips such as watching the children interact with each other, or with their parents will come in handy here. Or catch a pensive moment like this little lad, who obviously thought the official wedding photos were taking much too long! He wandered off to wait by the church gate with his shirt hanging out. He was soon back in the thick of things and having fun with the bride and her brother. These fun and games gave me an ideal opportunity to grab a photo of the back of the wedding dress. After being asked to look after the littlest bridesmaid the professional, and I, eventually got our posed shot of the three of them together. Wedding photography tips number 5 - The wedding cake

The wedding cake is another part of the celebrations that should be captured on film. But don't just limit it to the cake cutting ceremony. Often the cake will have been made by the mother of either the bride or groom and a close up shot should be included in your wedding photography. Tips that will help get a good shot of a white cake on a white plate sitting on a white tablecloth, include using the exposure compensation button on your camera. A camera's exposure metre tries to average out the scene in front of it to give a medium grey. That is fine when the scene consists of equal amounts of dark and light areas. But point it at such a scene as described above and you are sure to get a disappointing photo. Instead, turn that dial, in order to fool the camera into thinking the scene is darker than it really is, then it will keep the shutter open a little longer allowing more light into the picture, resulting in a white cake rather than a grey one. If your camera doesn't have an exposure compensation facility look to see if it has a snow scene mode, that should do the same job. Don't be afraid to inject a little humour when taking wedding pictures. The bride and groom were having fun in the left hand photo above and I was in the right place at the right time to take advantage. It turned out to be one of their favourite photos. It certainly shows more of their character than the usual staged cutting the cake photo.