What is "tone," and how does it apply to black and white photography? The tonal range of a photo refers to the varying degrees of grayness. If you strip away all the color from a photo, what remains is its tone. In other words, a [...]
Continuing our theme of black and white photography this month, I thought I'd talk a little bit about sepia photographs. Basically, sepia refers to the reddish-brown color that is often associated with vintage monochrome photos typically produced in the early days of photography. This classic [...]
I made my first pinhole camera in a high school photography class. It was made out of a small cardboard box and some photo paper. Things have changed since then. New technology has emerged, and now companies like Lensbaby offer creative lenses and optics, like [...]
Last night, I mentioned to my husband while watching the holiday tree lighting downtown that I wanted to capture some bright colored bokeh. He turned to me with a smile, and said, "I like Almond Roca Bokeh!" He's such a jokester! Now, every time I [...]
White balance is an important key to creating great images. The white balance presets in your camera can do a decent job of applying a good white balance to your photos. Personally, I have been using Auto White Balance 99% of the time and I’ve [...]
Last night I took my daughter out for a fun little photo shoot. We headed over to our local nature park. This place has so many cool little spots to take pictures. You'd never know we were in the middle of the city! I wanted [...]
Many photographers think that good natural lighting ends when the sun goes down, but there's a little secret I want to let you in on... Have you heard of the Blue Hour? Blue Hour refers to the period of time known as Twilight, just after [...]
When I first heard the term, chimping, I have to admit I immediately thought of a cute furry animal in the jungle, swinging from tree to tree, eating a banana. Then I snapped into reality, and looked up exactly what the term meant and how [...]
What is ISO? What role does it play in digital photography? ISO stands for International Standards Organization. Basically, it refers to the sensitivity of your camera's image sensor to light. ISO is measured in numbers, with the low numbers being the least sensitive (ISO 100), [...]