Having at least some part be sharp in every photo is a goal for most photographers. But it doesn’t always work out. After all, there’s a number of things that can prevent sharp photos.

Winter’s here, and it’s brought early sunsets that handicap outdoor photography. But there’s plenty of opportunities indoors. Candles are a natural here. They’re easy to get, and around Christmas they’re often right at hand. Read on to learn how to handle the technical aspect of a shoot like this, plus some ideas for arranging the candles.

Both at night and at many times throughout the daytime, you can run into situations where there’s not enough light for a good picture. That’s especially true when the days are short and the nights are long. When you don’t have access to daylight or streetlights, you can also use a flash.

Our digital age makes everything a whole lot easier than it used to be. Every typo can be corrected, and every photo can be retouched, darkened, brightened, or otherwise fine-tuned to perfection. Well… usually. Levels, meanwhile, are an important, yet often forgotten tool that can rescue more photos than you’d think.

Work with natural light has simpler equipment demands than work with artificial light, but on the other hand, you don’t have the light fully under your control. But you can still direct and enhance the light, using reflectors and diffusion panels.

Photography doesn’t have to be just trigger-pressing. It has its rules and its theory. Come join us for a look at photography’s basic means of expression, and learn the difference between a photograph (a photographic image) and a mere camera-powered recording of reality. You should give each photo a distinct subject, and to express that subject creatively, you need thorough work with light, composition, and perspective.

Your basic light for photography—available to you free of charge—is natural light. But when you’re using that light, you usually don’t have many ways to fully control it, and so you’ll often have to adapt your exposure and your scene to the light. You’ll learn to perceive light and take advantage of its characteristics with some practice…

Sometimes photos don’t turn out the way you hoped. Underexposure is a common mistake, one that can happen for example because you were hurrying to press the trigger and didn’t stop to check your settings, or because you used automatic settings when shooting against the light. One way or the other, you’ve got a dark photo. But fortunately, you can brighten it after!

If you depend on your camera’s automatic settings or you rely on the inbuilt meter when you’re in manual mode, then don’t worry—you’re probably getting correct exposure every time. However, you’re often robbing yourself of unexpected, interesting photos that you could get with creative use of exposure. Don’t be afraid to leave the safe zone of average exposure and try getting creative with your pictures!

A camera’s built-in light meter measures the level of incident light and adjusts aperture, shutter speed, and ISO based on that. Your exposure mode setting determines how your camera will work with the light levels that it measures. Depending on the mode, the camera will either adjustments fully automatically, or leave you a certain amount of control over a photo’s final tonality. Meanwhile in manual mode, the meter has no effect on the exposure settings at all. What exposure modes do DSLRs offer and how are they useful? We’ll be answering these questions in today’s article.