Top Photography Tips for Beginners and Beyond

Every beginning photographer needs to master a few concepts before he can start taking good photos. The most important among them are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Knowing how each of these concepts affects the others distinguishes the occasional snapper from the aspiring photographer.

Top Photography Tips for Beginners and Beyond

Of course, even a perfectly exposed and sharp photograph can appear dull if its composition is not interesting. Mastering composition requires a great deal of learning and a lot of practice. Every starting photographer should first acquire some knowledge and inspiration from established artists and practitioners before coining up his own unique style.

But then, even with a trained eye and a perfect combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed, we might not achieve the desired result if our gear is not good or suitable for our purpose. So knowing what camera body and what lens to use for each creative pursuit is a prerequisite for success.

Let’s say you’ve chosen the perfect gear setup (for you). You’re pretty aware of the basic composition rules and have used them numerous times in your work. You know what effects you can achieve with a big aperture or a slow shutter speed. Are you good to go?

Well, to a certain extent. You know the basics and if you make a mistake you can trace your steps back and see why it occurred. In fact, this is what I would recommend either – go outside, shoot and analyze. Learn from your mistakes. And repeat.

But then there are certain things that can save you a lot of time and nerves. I’ve collected many of these pieces of photographic wisdom under the category Photography Tips. These are things I’ve also learned from others or discovered myself in all my years of experience as a landscape photographer.

Shooting snowy scenes for example: do you know they present an extra challenge in terms of figuring out the right exposure? Or taking photos at low light – are you aware how to approach this situation in different photography genres? What makes photography difficult but also exciting are exactly those kinds of special circumstances that require extra thinking and some creativity.

My goal with this collection of articles is to give you the exact steps to tackling these more complicated photographic situations. Here you will find tons of advice on how to compose and/or expose your frames in such tricky circumstances. In addition, you will learn how to take proper care of your gear. You’ll also figure out what kind of camera and/or lens you need for your specific interests.

I’m more than eager to share my ideas on anything else you don’t see here. So if you need some tips you can’t find in this category or you just want to add something from your own experience, contact me. I’ll be glad to answer your questions on this website.

Shutter Speed Chart – Cheat Sheet for Controlling Motion in Photographs

The “Shutter Speed Chart” is a tool or cheat sheet designed to help photographers understand and use shutter speed effectively for various shooting scenarios. By understanding the patterns and principles laid out on the chart, you will unlock new creative avenues in your photography journey. Shutter Speed Chart Infographic As we explore the world of photography, we understand the important role that Shutter Speed plays in achieving proper exposure. It’s one of the essential elements of the…

Snow Photography Tips: How to Photograph and Edit Snowy Scenes

Do you want to know my favorite snow photography tips to improve your winter photography? The winter season offers landscape and travel photographers unique opportunities that cannot be replicated. Here, in Montreal, we have long winters with plenty of snow. As a rule, I can shoot snowy landscapes from the middle of December until the end of March. And today, I want to share with you how I approach winter photography. Since shooting and editing winter landscapes…

Top 8 Spring Photography Tips for Landscapes

Every season of the year presents its own challenges and opportunities. As photographers, we need to recognize and adapt. The most rewarding time of the year for any landscape photographer, in my opinion, is the fall season—a time when you do not have to look for opportunities because they present themselves everywhere. Winter is the most distinct time of the year. It is a time when landscape photographers can capture unique, snowy landscapes. Spring is the most…

How to Create Abstract Landscape Photos With Ease

Creating abstract landscapes is an advanced technique in photography. Before you can fully take advantage of this kind of composition, it requires a photographer to be fully comfortable with the general concept of composition and how to apply it in different situations and different types of photography. And, even when you are comfortable, it still takes time and practice to produce meaningful abstracts. To help you accelerate the learning process, I want to share with you a…

How to Take Pictures of Stars: A Beginner’s Guide to Astrophotography

The How to Take Pictures of Stars Guide is the product of collaboration between Kevin Choi from CapturetheMoment.pics and Viktor Elizarov from PhotoTraces.com. At some point in the photography journey, every photographer entertains the possibility of getting into astrophotography. But, for many beginners, it is a scary proposition because of two major misconceptions. Misconception One The equipment for astrophotography is prohibitively expensive and, as a result, is out of reach for most beginners and hobbyists. This was true even five to seven years ago…

F-Stop Chart Infographic – Aperture in Photography CheatSheet

If you’re looking to understand aperture in photography, then you’ve come to the right place. F-Stop Chart infographic graphically illustrates the different features of aperture and its relationship to the lens, F-stop, depth of field and light In this article, I’m going to cover the ins-and-outs of aperture in photography–so that by the time you’ve finished, you’ll know: Beginner photographers are often confused by the term “f-stop”. They know it is somehow related to the concept of…

Types of Cameras to Consider When Choosing Your Next Camera

I do not have many articles and reviews on my blog dedicated to photography equipment. I prefer to concentrate my efforts on teaching skills instead. But, you can not start learning photography without a camera. Here is my breakdown of different types of cameras to help you to make a right choice. Four types of digital cameras to choose from If you are new to the wonderful hobby of photography, you might be confused by all of…

Creating Depth in Landscape Photography: 5-Step Method

Today’s article is by contributing author, photographer and educator Andrew Gibson from the UK. The article is dedicated to the process of creating depth in landscape photography. Andrew is the author of over 20 photography books with my favorite being Mastering Composition. I also highly recommend to download his free eBooks here. Today, he’ll share with us how to improve the composition in landscape photographs by addressing depth.  Take it away, Andrew! Would you like to create…

Low Light Photography Tips for Landscapes, Cityscapes & Portraits

Without light, photography could not exist—neither literally nor figuratively. What do I mean? Literally, the word “photography” combines the Greek words “photo” and “graphia” to mean “drawing with light.” Figuratively, photographers across all genres and skill levels from portrait and landscape photographers to beginners and seasoned professionals chase and attempt to capture light. But here’s the catch or what I like to call the great paradox of photography—an abundance of light does not always produce amazing photographs….

Daytime Long Exposure Photography Without ND Filters

Today, I want to share my favorite technique to achieve the long exposure effect in broad daylight without using any filters. Nothing can improve seascapes like the effect of smooth and silky looking water. Such an effect can be achieved by keeping the shutter open for a longer period of time.  This is called the Long Exposure Effect. When you shoot during the golden hour or the blue hour, it is easy to obtain a shutter speed…

Choosing the Best Camera for Landscape Photography

As you have probably noticed, landscapes are the most important part of my travel photography. They represent approximately 70% of the total photos I take. After shooting landscapes for years, I have specific criteria for what I look for when choosing my next camera. Instead of answering the same question repeatedly through hundreds of emails, I decided to answer it for everyone by putting together an article on the topic and sharing it directly with the entire…

Creating a Dark Blue Sky in Photoshop in Under One Minute

This is a very common challenge for any photographer. When you shoot wide open and well lit landscapes, the sky is always a few stops lighter than the foreground elements of the composition. As a photographer, you have to learn how to deal with it. There are few well known and effective ways to reduce the dynamic range of your photo to ensure that darker elements (grass, trees, beach, etc.) and the light sky are well exposed….