How to Set up a Tripod for a Portrait Photograph

Camera and tripod setup ready to shoot portraits outdoors

Even with a high-end tripod, camera and lens, you might not get the results you expect if you don’t set up your tripod correctly when shooting portraits. Learning how to set up a tripod for a portrait photograph will help you stabilize your tripod and minimize camera shake. How to Set up a Tripod for …

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How to Clean a DSLR Sensor

Person using a blower to clean a DSLR sensor

If you use your camera daily, or even once in a while, you will have to take some time out to clean its sensors. It might seem like a hassle, but you must know how to clean a DSLR sensor. It can be through dry cleaning or wet cleaning. How to Clean a DSLR Sensor …

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Making Sense of Camera Sensors

black camera sensor on a black background

While the most commonly advertised number when it comes to selling a digital camera is megapixels, image quality is not just about the number of pixels. The Nikon point and shoot Coolpix S6500, for example has 16 megapixels, but their popular entry level DSLR the D90 only has 12.3 megapixels. Which one will have better …

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Types of Digital Cameras

phone and a lense in a white background

Choosing a new digital camera can seem rather daunting—there are hundreds of options out there with a wide range of features and an even wider price range. But if you start by narrowing it down to what type of digital camera suits your needs, you’ll narrow down those overwhelming options. Options like size and features …

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What is an Anti-Aliasing Filter?

wooden house with black roof

If you’ve followed the ads for the latest cameras, you’ve probably heard the term “anti-aliasing” or “optical low pass” filter tossed around. So what is an anti-aliasing filter and why do many recent cameras seem to be getting rid of them? An anti-aliasing filter (or low pass filter) helps to reduce distortion in fine patterns—you …

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Getting Acquainted: Auto and Scene Modes (And When to Use Them)

night landscaping photo of a city

Most of the time, a good digital camera is pretty adept at sensing the lighting conditions and selecting the optimal shooting settings. Auto and the no-flash auto lets the camera do the thinking and the photographer do the snapping, often resulting in clear, well lit photos. There’s just one problem—cameras can’t actually think. On an …

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A Beginner’s Guide To RAW Photography

Cannon raw set up guide

Back before digital cameras, photographers weren’t finished after just taking the photo. The image was developed, fine tuned and perfected in the dark room, and each photographer did their developing a little differently, depending on the result they wanted. In a digital camera, a JPEG file is automatically processed, but a RAW file isn’t—giving the …

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Capturing Images That Sell: 10 Product Photography Tips For Any Budget

Set of honest beauty products

In the world of online sales, product images are essential to draw in the customer—but bad product images can just send them clicking the back button. A good product photo will have all of the elements of good photography in general, like proper exposure and lighting. But product photography also involves more than just a …

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Trading In Your Digital Camera

Photographer using a Canon digital camera to take a black and white self-portrait.

With digital camera technology developing so rapidly, even last year’s cameras feel outdated. The latest and greatest advancements quickly become old news, leaving you to decide whether to settle for the older model or upgrade to the shiniest new digital camera. It’s likely that you want to buy the newer – and supposedly better – …

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What Is Image Stabilization?

A woman holding a camera in a one-knee bend pose in a grassy field

When it comes to buying a new camera, there are dozens of features to consider—image stabilization is one of them, and it often gets overlooked. Manufacturers use different names like vibration reduction, optical image stabilization and shake reduction, but the bottom line is that image stabilization systems allow you to use your camera handheld at …

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Camera Brands: What To Expect From Top Camera Manufacturers

Canon camera

If there’s one question that will start a riot in a group of photographers, it’s “what camera brand is best?” Okay, so that’s (hopefully) a bit of exaggeration, but it’s a highly debatable topic. While there is no right answer as to the top camera brand, each manufacturer offers a certain set of characteristics that …

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Troubleshooting: Fixing Common Digital Camera Errors

Canon lens troubleshooting

Nothing is more frustrating in photography than missing the perfect shot because the camera that worked perfectly yesterday suddenly malfunctions. Maybe the camera had a mishap with gravity or water, or maybe the camera came out of it’s nice protected case with an unusual error. Digital camera repair is often costly—and in the case of …

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