What makes a good portrait?

Photographing people is the most common and, in many ways, the most challenging task for photographers. We all know a good picture when we see one but what is it that makes the good ones stand out? Is it because it is an especially good likeness? A photograph will always be a true likeness, even when we think it isn't. How many times have you heard someone say "that doesn't look like me/you at all"? How can that be when we are using a camera?

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Firework photography presents some technical challenges; learning how to photograph fireworks successfully needs quite a different approach to most other subjects but follow these few steps carefully and you will be successful. What are we photographing?

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If you prefer to go on sightseeing holidays rather than flopping on a beach then you're probably going to want to take photos of the buildings you visit. The trouble is you're always there at the wrong time of day, the light is coming from the wrong direction, there are crowds of people blocking your view and the rest of the family are nagging you to put the camera away and get moving.

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Of all the things there are to photograph we find animals, birds and insects the most satisfying and the most difficult. They almost never do what you want them to and are most likely to do whatever you least expect.

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Here is a method for producing extra depth of field in all, or just part, of your picture. We decided to put this tutorial in the 'photography' section rather than the 'Photoshop' section because, although the large part of the explanation is about what you do in Photoshop, the planning and execution starts at the photography stage.

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The first problem we need to look at is, how close the lens will focus. Lenses have a minimum focus distance which varies considerably from lens to lens, some longer zoom lenses have a 'macro' setting and will focus quite close but most lenses will not focus close enough to take the picture on the right.

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The 18% Gray Card has several uses. It can be used to determine the correct exposure (hence the 18% bit) and can also be used in a couple of different ways to help set up the correct color balance for the shot.

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To understand why you might need to adjust the white balance in your camera, you first need to understand color temperature.

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Before we can talk about how to control the white balance in your camera we need to know a little bit about color temperature.

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Coping with light, sunlight, overcast days, flash, fill in flash, studio lights, the Inverse Square Law.

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