The following article contains a list of important composition tips to help you take the strongest possible photos. It goes without saying that composition is a very personal creative decision, so there are no truly universal do’s and don’ts. Nevertheless, there are certain techniques you can use to improve your photos, from forming a vision to refining your initial composition in the field. The goal is to make your image’s final message as clear and effective as possible.
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Is Chimping in Photography Good or Bad?
Photographers are pretty good at coming up with creative, self-deprecating insults. From GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) to pixel peeping, just look on any photography forum today and you’ll find a new term that makes you smile and cringe at the same time. One of my personal favorites is chimping – a word that describes photographers who review their photos too frequently, often at the worst of times. But perhaps chimping doesn’t fully deserve the bad reputation it has.
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20 Photography Tips for Beginners
Whenever I think of a useful photography tip, I always write it down for later. Most of them are forgettable, but a few are so important that I try to tell them to as many photographers as possible. This article contains 20 of the best. These bite-sized photography tips are easy to understand, covering everything from beginner camera technique to creativity and composition. If you’re learning photography, this list offers some wisdom you may find helpful along the way.
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How to Use Leading Lines in Photography
Lines are some of the most fundamental elements of photography, and some of the simplest, too. But don’t let that fool you. Lines come in many varieties – sometimes leading lines that guide the composition, other times barriers segmenting a photo. They also impact an image’s sense of emotion and structure. In this article, I will cover the best ways to use leading lines and other lines in photography, including how to put them into practice in your own compositions.
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Lightroom vs Capture One: Should You Switch?
There is always a second fiddle – a silver medalist who chases after gold, a challenger just half a step behind the leader. In the world of RAW post-processing software, the undisputed champion is Adobe Lightroom; competing products enjoy nowhere near its popularity. But that alone doesn’t make Lightroom the best. Arguably its biggest rival, Capture One, includes several features that Lightroom lacks (and vice versa). Below, I’ve tested both side-by-side to see which comes out ahead.
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Mastering Dodge and Burn in Photography
When you know how to dodge and burn your photos, you’ve mastered one of the most important techniques in photography – using post-production to draw a viewer’s eye through an image. There are dozens of techniques for dodging and burning, although doing it incorrectly can lead to unnatural halos and other artifacts in an image. So, what are dodging and burning, and how can you make the most of them in photography?
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Recommended Gifts for Photographers (2019)
With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s a good time to decide what to buy for the photographer in your life (or for yourself). In this guide, I’ve compiled a list of the best gifts for photographers in 2019. The products below are arranged by price – under $20, under $50, under $100, and over $100. I’ve used almost all these items myself and strongly recommend them. The ones I haven’t are on my own wish list this year!
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How Color Impacts Photographs
At a technical level, color can be complicated; just see our recent article on sRGB vs Adobe RGB vs ProPhoto RGB. But at an artistic level, it is one of the most important parts of an image, impacting emotions and interest unlike almost any other element of photography. This article introduces the concepts of color and color relationships, including how to use them to take the best possible photographs.
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sRGB vs Adobe RGB vs ProPhoto RGB
Color spaces are essential in photography; they apply in some way to every photo you take. The most well-known color spaces are sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB. But what makes them so important? Beware: There’s a lot of misinformation about this topic online. Outdated and inaccurate recommendations abound – but so does a lot of valuable information, if you’re willing to learn it. This article introduces sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB, and when to use each one.
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The 10 Elements of Composition in Photography
Sometimes, it helps to take a step back from broader discussions on creativity to look at the truly fundamental elements of composition. Although there are countless elements of composition in art as a whole, this article covers the ten most important that are specific to photography – critical parts of nearly every photo you take. They’re divided into two main categories: objects, and their relationships. These are nothing less than the building blocks of creativity.
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