Becoming a professional photographer takes a lot of time and effort, and many people have neither the time nor the inclination to do so. However there are a whole series of guidelines that can be adhered to when pursuing an interest in photography, and many of these can help relative novices to immediately improve the quality of their pictures.

Being quick to the draw is a vital skill for all photographers to learn. Many subjects are fully capable of moving away from the reach of your lens, so it is much better to take a shot than miss an opportunity whilst searching for a perfect moment. If you do have the time to plan, any picture does benefit from some attention to detail. Try to crop any unsuitable elements from your composition, and consciously attempt to place your subject within an area of the picture that naturally leads the eye towards it. Also, moving your picture in closer to your subject almost always creates a more interesting picture. Details often look much better on a photograph than a broad overall view does, so a picture that has your subject almost filling the frame of your photo generally helps the viewer to recognize and value your photo to a much greater extent.

Any photographer also needs to learn to use time, light and the weather to their advantage. Experimenting with the speed of your camera shutter is an oft overlooked method of capturing a moment in time that would normally be invisible to the naked eye, and as such it can be highly beneficial when you’re photographing a moving subject. By combining a fast shutter speed with a long distance lens, even the most fleetingly distant moment can be caught within the confines of a photograph, so taking the time to practice can yield some truly stunning results.

Lighting is a tricky element to optimise into photography, but successful results can be well worth the effort. A boldly coloured subject can be greatly enhanced by having a strong light source shining directly upon it, whilst sometimes a much greater drama can be achieved with a light source situated at the side of the subject. Likewise a soft and ethereal glow can be attained by making use of an indirect light source, whilst shooting directly into the sun will give you a strikingly framed silhouette effect that you might find useful on occasion. The weather naturally affects light levels an awful lot, although you can still learn to take advantage of any meteorological effects that happen to be available when you’re photographing. An overcast day often benefits from being shot in greyscale for example, whilst camera models with a polarizer filter can achieve some stunning contrasts on a bright day with a few simple adjustments.

Your camera model obviously makes a lot of difference to the outcome of your photography attempts. Whilst it is generally advisable for relatively new photographers to keep things as simple as possible, sooner or later many people wish to explore the possibilities of a camera exchange. At the Camera Exchange Store, we offer an efficient service if you’re looking to sell your old camera for cash. Any camera that we buy will then be remarketed, meaning that you needn’t be concerned about any damage being caused to the environment. So whether you’re looking to merely get some current market data for a valuation, or are actually looking to trade and exchange an old digital Canon camera, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Photographer Walker Evans is best known for his images depicting the Great Depression. In the summer of 1936, he and writer James Agee spent eight weeks in the “Dust Bowl” of the American South, and many of the images he took that year are now iconic; although the article he and Agee were sent to write never came about, the work they did formed the basis of the book “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”, and many were included in the 1938 “Walker Evans: American Photographs” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This was a groundbreaking exhibition; it was the first time that the museum had devoted an exhibition entirely to the work of a single photographer. Other new conventions were formed around this exhibition – in the book that accompanied it, a declaration at the front informed readers that the pictures were intended to be looked at in their given sequence; this was a new idea, that there was not just art in the individual pictures but in the sequence of a group of pictures, too.

That book was instrumental in gaining acceptance for photography as a bona fide art form, as well as giving rise to the modern photography art book. It is now available in its fifth edition, to coincide with the current 75^th anniversary of the original exhibition and a new exhibition of American Photographs at the MoMA.

Evan’s work has been influential not just in the field of photography but beyond, inspiring literature, film and all kinds of visual arts. “Photography isn’t a matter of taking pictures,” he said. “It’s a matter of having an eye.”

Of course, the camera helps. If you’re thinking of upgrading your camera to a better model, the Camera Exchange Store is an excellent place to sell used Nikon cameras, as well as other makes, and with the cash you receive you could upgrade and – who knows – perhaps you could have your own exhibition at the MoMA one day.

Walker Evans American Photographs at The Museum of Modern Art in New York runs until the 26^th January 2014.

As you are reading this blog post at Camera Exchange Store, there’s a high probability that you have either traded in a camera or are about to after purchasing a new one. If you have yet to buy your new camera or still have some money left in your upgrade budget then you might consider upgrading the most important thing after the camera – the lens you attach to it.

Many new consumer end DSLR cameras like the Canon 650d for example are squeezing an incredible 18 Mega pixels into the image sensor. The file size (in Mega bytes) they produce is huge, especially when shooting in uncompressed camera RAW mode. Yet you might not notice a significant improvement in the image quality you are getting over your previous camera of say 10+ Mega pixels. You’d think with up to twice the pixels in the image that the image would have twice the definition. Not always so; there’s a limiting factor.

Most people upgrading their camera will stay with the same manufacturer for their next camera body so that they can continue to use their existing lenses. These lenses, particularly if they are ‘kit’ lenses bought with a previous model camera are the limiting factor to the quality of image you will get.

Camera Exchange Store now offers cash for your old digital lenses. If you’re thinking of upgrading your camera body, then why not trade in your digital lens and upgrade both at the same time? If you have a digital lens that you haven’t used in a long time you can trade it in to release its cash value.

I have been shooting with my Canon 50d for about 4 years now. I’d been using the stock 17-85mm IS kit lens that came with it for the majority of my photography. My friend, also a canon user, let me try out his 24-70mm f2.8 L series lens. I mounted the camera on a tripod and tried taking a shot of the same composition with both lenses. On the camera screen there wasn’t a noticeable difference. On the computer screen and the final prints however, the difference in definition, vibrancy and sharpness of the image was incredible! The 24-70mm f2.8 L series lens is out of my budget – no question of that. However an equivalent lens from Sigma might be within my reach.

I’m going to be trying out some lenses soon at my local camera store; but only after finding out how much I’ll get in exchange for my current all purpose lens.

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust, author.

“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
― Ansel Adams

“Making art has taught me that the tiniest smidgen of progress is something to be cherished.”
― Julia Cameron, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance

Black Rooms by fs

“No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”
― Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

WHITE BALANCE

White balance is an adjustment that accounts for the color temperature of the light in a scene. White Balance is nothing more than an adjustment to get the color you want. You set it to look good on the camera’s LCD and that’s it until the light changes. There is no right answer; it’s what looks good to you. White balance settings may be altered for deliberate creative purposes, exactly as we do with exposure.

AUTO (also called AWB) mode works OK with flash and indoors and outdoors. Usually the images will still be fairly blue in shade and pleasantly warm indoors at night. When the flash is on most cameras automatically switch to flash white balance.

The fun starts when you take it out of AUTO and set it yourself. Here’s what the other settings do:

Tungsten : Very, very blue most of the time except indoors at night, for which it looks normal. “Tungsten” is the name of the metal out of which the bulb’s filament is made. Even indoors many people prefer the warmer AUTO setting. TRICK: Set -1 or -2 exposure compensation and use this setting in daylight to simulate night! In Hollywood we call this “day for night.”

Daylight : Bluish normal. This is a little bit bluer than I usually prefer. Only use it for shooting test charts in direct sunlight.

Cloudy: I prefer this. It’s a little warmer than the daylight setting and best for most shots outdoors in direct sunlight. Why not the daylight setting? The camera manuals are written by engineers, not artists. The engineers are interested in copying color test charts, not making a good photo. I prefer things on the warmer side.

Flash : Almost identical to cloudy but sometimes redder depending on the camera. Use this the same way. On Nikons like the D70 you usually can set separate fine-tuned adjustments for each setting, so you can set different adjustments under cloudy and flash for quick access. This is optimized for the little on-camera flashes that tend to be blue, thus this setting tends to be warm to compensate. With large studio strobes you probably don’t want to use this, since the images may be too red. Try the Daylight setting to match carefully daylight balanced studio strobes.

Shade: Very orange. This is perfect for shooting in shade, since shade is so blue. It’s also for shooting when you are under a cloud on a partly cloudy day since most of the light is coming from the blue sky. It’s also for shooting in backlight, again since the subject is lit more by the blue sky instead of the direct sunlight. TIP: Some cameras skip this critical setting. If so, manually set the CUSTOM preset while in shade (also called one-push, Manual and white card and other things depending on manufacturer) and use this setting in place of the missing shade setting. TIP: I often use this mode even in direct sun when I want to make things look warm and inviting. Try it and you’ll probably love it. The SHADE setting is a professional secret for getting great images, pass it on!

Tips for Black and White Photography

You know those dull gray winter days when you feel like staying in bed for the day? Pick up your camera and go for a black and white shoot! Those grey days are perfect for black and white photography.

1. Look for contrast.
The world looks differently in black and white. When you learn to ‘see’ in black and white you’ll easily pick out the situations that are perfect for black and white photography

2. Use a polarizer.
Pay extra attention to the lighting – because black and white photographs generally show more contrast than colour ones, if you don’t get the lighting exactly right they can appear too dark or washed out.

3. Look for patterns.
By using black and white, images of patterns are far more compelling. Shapes cast shadows that bring out the shape of a subject. Without colour a black-and-white image is reliant on texture, form and shape. As you go about your photographic business, train your brain and eye to disregard the colour information and instead concentrate on the shapes and light within the frame.

4. Long exposures love black and white.
Long exposure photography can create dynamic, surreal images full of motion. This fashionable technique amongst landscape and black and white photographers is characterized by simple composition and exposures up to several minutes long that blur any moving elements like water or clouds.

5. Give your photo some Silver Effex.
Silver Effex Pro 2 is a Photoshop or Lightroom plugin that does one thing–make black and white photos look incredible.

6. Shoot at your lowest ISO setting
I’d recommend on using the lowest possible ISO setting when taking your shots. Lower the ISO to the lowest setting possible for your standard black and white photography. A tripod is highly recommended when using low-speed photography unless the photographer has an extremely steady hand for slightly longer exposure times.

7. Practice!
The more you train your eye to see in black and white the better your images will be.

When was the last time you have managed to solve a problem by falling inside the issue, analyse it until you faint with boredom and by blaming the issue itself? It has been said that you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside. In that case I choose to take the responsibility of creating my outside world within and say to myself ” I am sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you and I love you.” (Ho’oponopono technique)