May's 2nd A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• Light Painting: How to Spin an Orb. This article walks you step-by-step through the process of spinning and creating orbs with light painting. All you need is a bright LED light, a tripod for your camera, and a little bit of practice. You'll be surprised at how easy these are to do!

• ISO Basics. Get the details you need about ISO and understand the impact of shooting with lower vs. higher ISO values.

• Shutter Speed Guidelines. Do you know which shutter speeds to use in which situations? Need to know how best to freeze motion or to capture silky water? This quick overview of shutter speed guidelines (plus cheat sheet) has your answers.

• Creative Ideas using Shutter Speed. Round up of how to and inspiration posts using shutter speed, including jumping, waterfalls, star trails, and more!

• Flipped Reflections. Need some fun photography inspiration? Try a flipped reflection shot.

• Spring Round-Up. Get three months of great posts all in one place. The 2014 Spring Round-Up details every post from March through May.

• Travel Photography Must Haves. Don't leave for your next summer trip without making sure you have all the travel photography supplies you need! This quick article will get you started with all the basics for bringing back home amazing travel photographs.

• Be a Local Tourist: Photograph a Farmers' Market. Photography opportunities are all around you. Take a trip to your local Farmers' Market to discover a wealth of photographic options. Practice your street or travel photography, zoom in on some curious details, or just wait for inspiration to strike!

• Remember the Background and Move Your Feet. This article focuses on an oft-forgot point of composition: the background. Rather than getting sucked into your subject, take the time to pay attention to the background and see how moving your motion or perspective can make an immediate impact.

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

May's A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• Explaining Exposure and Exposure Compensation. Find out how and why to use exposure compensation to nail the exposure in your photograph. 

• Focus on Focus. An introduction to how to focus, including why to use a manual focus point, the difference in autofocus modes, and how and why to focus and recompose. 

• Deciding Where to Focus. This follow-up post elaborates on the importance of knowing where to focus when shooting.

• 5 Tips for Better Flower Photographs. These five can't-miss tips will make dramatic improvements in your flower photographs, allowing you to stand out!

• 5 Inspiring Ways to Display Photographs. This collection of posts and pins features great ideas and inspiring arrangements for displaying your images. 

• Better Before and After Photographs. Before your next DIY project or room make-over, find out how to take great before and after photographs to really showcase your work. 

• Rephotography: Dear Photograph. This rephotography project idea comes courtesy of the web site Dear Photograph. All you need is a set of older photographs and the time to return to the original location and match your your shot. Presto! (Read the full article for more details.)

• Why Won't My Lens Focus?. This first article in our occasional series for beginners zeros in on some common focus problems and offers straightforward advice and suggestions for immediate correction.

• Missed the Shot? Remember Camera Zero. This article covers the default settings (Camera Zero) that you should be using with your DSLR. Never miss a shot again by having your settings mixed up from your previous shooting.  Use Camera Zero, and you will always know your camera's settings!

• Start a Series: from where I stand. This creative approach to selfies involves creating a collection of photographs where you include your feet for both context and scale. Read on for more ideas and inspiration!

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

April's 2nd A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• Spinning Fire with Steel Wool Photography. It's easy to capture amazing photographs with steel wool spinning. This article will walk you through all that you need to do to creative these types of photographs safely and easily (even with a point-and-shoot camera)!

• Teaching Kids Photography: shooting modes, focus, and exposure. This is the first in our series of posts about teaching kids photography, based on my experiences running a photography club with elementary and middle school students. Learn about where to start, regardless of whether you are using phone, point-and-shoot, or DSLR cameras.

• Great Advice for Printing and Displaying Photography. A round up of ideas for what to do with your images after you've taken them.

• Top Tips for Camera Memory and Storage. Get in the know about how best to protect, safe guard, and backup your digital photographs and files.

• What the ... White Balance? This break-through post explaining white balance, what it is, and how to make the most of it, is one of our top five popular posts of all time.

• Shoot the Moon with The Photographer's Ephemeris. Another popular post, this one explains how to capture amazing moon photographs by using The Photographer's Ephemeris to plan your shoot.

• Photographing Architecture - watch your lines! The focal length of your camera and the distance between yourself and your subject can cause various kinds of distortion in your images. Learn how to watch your horizontal and vertical lines for better architecture photographs.

• Capture a Day in a Single Image. Learn how to shoot a series of photographs over the course of a day and how to layer then together in Photoshop for a unique image depicting the entire day. Tips, advice, and Photoshop how to all included.

• Maximize Your Tripod. Get the most out of your tripod with these simple tips.

• Cheap and Easy Macro: Comparisons and Recommendations. This summary article provides a quick overview of the most common, inexpensive ways to capture macro photographs, along with links to all the detailed articles about each method. The final head-to-head comparison will help you decide which method(s) may work best for you.

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

April's A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• 5 Must-Read Articles on Food Photography. This great compilation post features five incredible articles about food photography that will help you with all stages of the process, from ideas, to set-up and styling, to shooting, to processing!

• GorillaPod Tripod Review. A GorillaPod is a specific type of travel tripod with flexible legs that allow you to pose and place it in many different locations. This post fully reviews my thoughts about my own GorillaPod and highlights common situations when a GorillaPod is an invaluable accessory!

• Theme and Photography. Find out why setting a particular theme is a great photography challenge to push yourself as a photographer.

• Best Flower & Macro Photography Advice. Great round-up post with five different articles chock-full of advice to improve your macro and flower photography.

• New Book Alert: Photos Framed. Read on for a review of this history-of-photography told through photographs book by Ruth Thomson.

• Make the Shot: droplet refraction. This super-easy technique creates amazing and mystifying photographs. All you need is a piece of glass or plastic, some water, and some colored paper ...

• Travel Photography without the Travel: going local. This post over at Digital Photography School points out how you can practice your travel photography without ever having to leave your home or neighborhood!

• Capture the Seasons: Rephotography. With Spring finally arriving, now is a great time to think about starting a seasonal series. This post offers useful suggestions for choosing an ideal location and making the commitment to return during the course of the year.

• Photography Inspiration: Found Book Poetry. Found book poetry is a truly fun way to create and photograph poems, using only the words on book spines. 

• Inexpensive Close-Up Photography: Extension Tubes. This third article in my guest post series on Photokonnexion covering inexpensive options for macro photography. Extension tubes move your camera lens farther away from your camera body, effectively enlarging the subject as recorded by your camera's sensor.

• Macro and Close-Up Photography: Tips and Tricks. This is the fourth and final article in my guest post series on Photokonnexion. It includes an overview of suggestions for depth of field, shooting macro with and without a tripod, and how to combine various methods to achieve super close-in photographic results.

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

March's 2nd A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• Time for a New Camera? Find out when an upgrade might be worth the investment.

• Finding the Perfect Camera for You. Ready to make the jump and upgrade your camera? Find out what questions you should be asking and check out our handy infographic comparing different types of cameras.

• Memory Card Disaster: what to do about broken, corrupt, or damaged memory cards. When disaster strikes, know your options!

• Product Review: Square Perfect Light Tent. This light tent kit is an easy way to take fantastic photographs of smaller objects, especially for product photography. A light tent is a must-have if you are trying to photograph objects for sale, such as on Etsy or eBay. This is a review of the light tent kit that I personally own and use.

• Series of Posts on Light Tent. This post is a quick overview to multiple posts about light tents both here, on Boost Your Photography, and guest posts of mine for Digital Photography School. Find out how to use a light tent properly, how to create a DIY version, and a direct head-to-head comparison between DIY and professional light tent kits.

• The Decisive Moment in Photography. The phrase "the decisive moment" has become well-worn in street photography, but read on to find out why it is an important idea to consider for all kinds of photography situations!

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

March's A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• 5 Tips to Keep Your Gear & Photos Safe. Learn how to keep your sensor clean, know your battery life, and more! 

• Avoid Memory Card Disaster: proper handling and care of memory cards. This post is a must-read to make sure that you never loose your precious photographs due to memory card error!

• Photography Inspiration: explore the mundane. March can be a month sorely lacking in photography inspiration, at least here in Wisconsin - winter is dragging on into a muddy mess. Find out why the "mundane" can make a great inspiration!

• Shutter Speed: an overview and visual reference: this popular post about shutter speed provides an overview of the various shutter speeds, as well as recommended situations for each. This advice is then collected in one easy-to-understand visual reference chart. A great place to start for understanding shutter speed!

• Tips to Improve Your Macro Photography: Last year we focused on "Macro March," and this post full of tips kicked off the month. Learn quick, practical advice for improving your macro and close-up photography shots.

• Product Review: close-up lenses: Close-Up Lenses are an inexpensive way to use the lens you already have for macro and close-up photography. This post provides a review of the Digital Concepts 58mm 4-Piece Multi-Coated Camera Lens Filter Set, which are the close-up lenses that personally use.

• Focus Stacking for Macro Photography: Focus stacking is an innovative post-processing technique for combining a series of macro or close-up photographs into one image with a much greater depth of field. This post will walk you through the basics to create incredible focus-stacked images.

• Macro Fakery: Background Creation: Find out a few simple tricks for backgrounds in your macro and close-up photography - includes behind-the-scenes wide shots.

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week

February's A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography

A Year Ago on Boost Your Photography is a twice-monthly post rounding up all the great content available on BYP that has been published during this same time of year, across the years. It's a quick way to catch up on content you may have missed, including seasonal and time-sensitive photography tips and ideas.

• Stir Crazy? 4 Fun Indoor Photography Ideas. Great quick stop for ideas about what to photography when you can't get outside.

• Photographing Interiors. Easy-to-implement tips for how to rock shooting in interior locations.

• Another Black and White Book Club: The Magic of Black and White, Vol 1 by Andrew Gibson. Week 1 focused on seeing in black and white, week 2 on details in black and white, and week 3 on developing a single subject in black and white.

• Plus, the last round-ups of top posts revealed ... Top Posts on Lenses and Camera Accessories, Top 10 Photography Ideas, and Top 5 Macro Photography Posts.

• The Black and White Book Club: Michael Freeman. Last year for the month of February a large group of photographers participated in a black and white only photography month plus book club. We read and discussed Michael Freeman's The Complete Guide to Black & White Digital Photography or Michael Freeman Black and White Photography Field Guide. (The Field Guide is a slightly slimmed down version of The Complete Guide,) This first post is an introduction to the book and an invitation to join the challenge. 

• Black and White Book Club Week 1: Black and White Photography as Fine Art – fine art or abstract photography

• Black and White Book Club Week 2: Black and White Photography as Normality – still life, landscape, street, portrait, architecture, or journalism / documentary photography

• Black and White Book Club Week 3: Elements of Visual Design – thinking about shape, structure, tone, volume, form, and texture

• Black and White Book Club Week 4: Creative Choices in Exposure – exploring over- and underexposure, high key, low key, high contrast, and low contrast

• Black and White Book Club Week 5: Putting it All Together – a final week to go back to your favorite or most challenging ideas or styles of black and white photography. You can also explore topics not covered in the weeks above, such as Grain or High ISO photographs, HDR, Tone Mapping, and Adding Tints.

Receive updates daily or weekly via email. Sign up below!

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

How would you like to receive updates? *

• Send updates the day they are posted (2-3 per week)
• Send updates just once a week