50 essential photography tips _ reviews _ cnet uk

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9/12/12 50 essential photography tips | Reviews | CNET UK 2/40 reviews.cnet.co.uk/cameras-and-camcorders/50-essential-photography-tips-50006080/ Downloads Compare Prices Log In | Join Log In Join CNET UK Sign in with Cameras iPad & Tablets Laptops Mobile Phones Netbooks TVs IFA iPhone 5 news How To CNET UK Reviews Cameras and Camcorders 50 essential photography tips By Nik Rawlinson on 16 November 2011, 6:04pm Alert me 62 Tweet Tweet 208 Like 461 Whether photography is a hobby or a profession, you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you understand how it works. With a firm grasp of aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity and focal length, the ratio of truly great to merely mediocre shots you download at the end of an expedition is all but guaranteed to climb. Here we present CNET UK's 50 essential shooters' tips. Don't uncap your lens without them.

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ReviewsCameras and Camcorders

50 essential photography tips

By Nik Rawlinson on 16 November 2011, 6:04pm

Alert me62

TweetTweet 208

Like 461

Whether photography is a hobby or a profession, you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you understand how itworks. With a firm grasp of aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity and focal length, the ratio of truly great to

merely mediocre shots you download at the end of an expedition is all but guaranteed to climb.

Here we present CNET UK's 50 essential shooters' tips. Don't uncap your lens without them.

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Aperture

1. Understand apertureThe most fundamental element any photographer should understand is aperture. The aperture is the physical

opening within your lens that allows light through to the sensor (or film in an older camera). The wider theaperture opening, the more light can pass through, and vice versa.

The size of the opening, which is regulated by a series of fins encroaching from the edge of the lens barrel, is

measured in so-called f-stops, written f/2.8, f/5.9 and so on, with smaller numbers denoting wider apertures.If you find this inverse relationship tricky to remember, imagine instead that it relates not to the size of the holebut the amount of each fin encroaching into the opening.

A narrow opening is regulated by a large amount of each fin encroaching into the barrel, and so has a high f-

stop number, such as f/16, f/18 and so on. A wide opening is characterised by a small number, such as f/3.2,with only a small amount of each fin obscuring the light.

Picture the size of the fins, visible here inside this lens, when trying to understand the concept

of f-stops.

2. Aperture measurements

Lenses almost always have their maximum aperture setting engraved or stamped on one end of the barrel. Ona zoom lens you'll see two measurements, often stated as f/3.5-f/5.9 or similar.

Rather than being opposite ends of a single scale these describe the maximum aperture at the wide angle and

telephoto (maximum zoom) lens positions respectively. Always buy a lens with the smallest number you can

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afford in each position.

3. Avoid using aperture to compensate for poor lightingChanging the aperture has a dramatic effect on the amount of light coming into the camera, as we have

already said. You'll notice this is the case when shooting landscapes with a narrower aperture (higher

numbered f-stop) as your camera will often want to take a longer exposure -- so much so that you may have

to use a tripod to avoid motion blur.

You should avoid using the aperture scale to compensate for unfavourable lighting, however, as it also

changes the amount of the image that remains in focus, as we'll explain below.

The image on the left was taken with a wide aperture and so has a shallow depth of field; the

image on the right was taken with a narrow aperture and so has a long depth of field.

4. Use a wide aperture for portraitsAnyone with a cat knows that when they're hunting or playing their irises contract to enlarge the size of their

pupils. This has the same effect as widening the aperture in a camera lens: it makes the subject they are

focusing on very sharp while causing everything behind and in front of it to blur. We call this a shallow depthof field. This is perfect for portrait photography, as it draws forward your model within the scene, making

them the central focus while the background falls away. Choose f/1.8 or similar wherever possible.

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This image of a chicken was taken with a wide aperture to keep the subject in focus while

blurring the background.

5. Use a narrow aperture for landscapesFor landscapes, on the other hand, you want to have everything from close-at-hand foliage to a distant

mountain in focus. This is achieved by selecting a narrow aperture. If possible stray towards f/22, or whatever

the tightest setting your camera allows.

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This image of a Moroccan campfire is taken with a narrow aperture to maximise the depth offield.

6. 'f/8 and be there'

Static models and immobile landscapes are easy to shoot as you can predict with a great deal of certainty

which aperture setting you need to get the best out of either. Reportage and street photography, weddings,

Christenings and so on are less predictable as your subjects will be moving in relation to the frame. In these

circumstances, adopt the pro photographer's adage, "f/8 and be there".

Set your aperture to f/8 for a practical, manageable balance of fairly fast shutter speeds and broad depths offield, allowing you to spend more time thinking about composition within the frame than you do about optical

algebra. When shooting indoors without a flash, and depending on the lighting conditions, you may need to

increase your camera's sensitivity setting at this aperture, but be careful not to push it so high that you

introduce grain into your images, unless you are chasing that specific effect.

Filters and lenses

7. What does the ø symbol on my lens mean?

After the focal and aperture ranges, the other measurement you'll see on most dSLR lenses is preceded by ø

and describes the diameter of the screw mount on the front of lens barrel. Check this number each time you

head out to buy a filter or hood as you can't guarantee that it will be the same for each lens in your collection,

even if they are all designed to be used on the same camera.

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Check the diameter of your lens when heading out to buy a new filter.

8. If you only buy one filter...

...make it a circular polariser. This is the perfect beginner's filter, and one that will have the biggest effect onyour day to day photography, giving holiday skies a vibrant blue tone and accentuating the contrast between

the sky and passing clouds to afford your images greater texture. Although you can add blue to your images

in Photoshop or a similar post-production editing tool, the effect is never as believable when done that way as

it is when shot using a lens.

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Invest in an inexpensive circular polariser to improve the blue of skies in your images.

9. Don't confine it to skies

Polarising filters also cut through glare and reflection. Use it to shoot through windows and water.

We used a polarising filter when shooting this frame to cut through reflections on the surfaceof the water.

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10. Look for lenses where the zoom control doesn't change the filter orientation

Rotating a circular polarising filter changes the strength of the polarising effect, making skies deeper or lighter,

and changing the amount of reflection they cancel out. If you plan on using such a filter then wherever possible

buy lenses where turning the zoom control doesn't simultaneously rotate the end of the lens, and with it the

filter, as this will change the effect. If you have no choice, set your zoom first and adjust the effect afterwards,being careful not to throw the lens out of focus in the process.

11. Don't forget about white balance

When using a filter set your the white balance on your camera to the appropriate conditions, rather than auto,

to stop the camera compensating for the filter in front of the lens.

Make sure you set your white balance manually when using a filter.

12. Don't rush out to buy a skylight filter

Putting a clear filter on the front of your lens to protect its surface sounds like a great idea. After all, your lens

was an expensive investment. The end of your lens is stronger than you might think, however, and easy toclean if you don't let the dirt build up. Dispensing with a skylight filter will not only save you money, but also

avoid the chance of introducing light problems due to increased reflections or the slight reduction in the level

of illumination reaching the sensor.

13. Cheat's macro mode (add-on filters)

Dedicated macro lenses are expensive, but you can quickly and easily improve your existing lens' macro

credentials by using screw-on magnifiers. They're not a perfect solution as they decrease the level of light

coming into the lens, but for occasional work they are very effective, easily sourced and cheap. We boughtours, below, first-hand from eBay, where you should expect to bid around £15 for a set of four screw-on

filters.

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If you can't afford a dedicated macro mode, you can achieve the same result using an

inexpensive set of add-on magnifiers.

14. Avoid stacking up too many filters

It's tempting to add multiple filters to the end of each lens to achieve different results, but bear in mind that

although they may look perfectly clear to you, each one reduces the amount of light passing through by asmall amount. For the best results, use the smallest number of filters possible.

15. Choose a manual lens over a powered one

Some compact interchangeable lens cameras come with a choice of powered or manual zoom. The former is

a great lazy option, allowing you to press a button to get the framing you're after, but the latter is often

cheaper and almost always quicker to use as it moves at whatever speed you turn it, without being hobbled

by the speed of an internal motor. You can also often make finer and more predictable changes whenzooming manually than you can with a powered zoom rocker.

16. Shoot slowly, zoom quickly... At the same time

If you're shooting a static display, add some interest by turning the zoom control while shooting with a fairly

slow shutter speed (you can only do this with a manual zoom, as a powered lens will be locked off when

shooting). This works particularly well when shooting cars and other forms of transport as it gives them a

sense of motion.

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Give static subjects added dynamism and excitement by changing the zoom while using a slowshutter speed.

17. Try a prime lens for more creativity

Shooting with a fixed focal length -- a prime lens -- will make you think more carefully about how you wantto frame a subject to tell a particular story. It will often also get you a cleaner, sharper result.

18. What do the measurements on my lens mean?Lenses are measured in terms of their focal length, which broadly describes the effect they have on incoming

light and the way it is focused on the sensor. A short focal length, such as 24mm, doesn't have a very highlevel of magnification, so will focus a broad vista on the sensor. A long focal length, such as 240mm, has ahigh level of magnification, like a telescope, and so will fill the sensor with just the central part of the view.

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This lens has a fairly long telephoto with the zoom topping out at 300mm.

19. Understand your lens' true dimensions

Unless you've paid for a high-end dSLR, or a professional camera such as the Leica M9, your pocketsnapper's sensor will almost certainly be smaller than a frame of 35mm film, the standard point of reference

against which all focal lengths are measured.

The 35mm in a frame's name actually relates to the space between the top and the bottom of the film strip,which as well as the frame itself also contains some border areas and the sprocket holes used to move the

film through the camera. A 35mm frame is positioned lengthwise on this strip, with its shortest dimension --top to bottom -- perpendicular to the film's direction of motion. As such, neither the height nor the width of

the frame measures 35mm, but instead 24x36mm.

To understand how the stated focal length on any lens will affect the shot captured by your camera, you needto factor in the multiplier effect, which converts the size of your sensor to the size of that 35mm piece of film.

The multiplier is often between 1.5 and 1.7 but varies between manufacturers and models.

So, if you're buying a lens for the Canon EOS 600D with its 22.3x14.9mm sensor you'd need to multiply the

stated focal length of the lens by 1.6. This would make a 50mm lens, commonly used in portrait photography,act like an 80mm lens, thus increasing the effective zoom and narrowing the amount of the scene seen in each

frame. On a Nikon D5100, which has a slightly larger sensor (23.6x15.6mm) you'd need to multiply the lens'measurements by 1.5, in which case an equivalent 50mm lens would act as though it were a 75mm unit.

20. Save money by opting for a smaller sensor

This means you can, technically, save money by opting for a smaller sensor, as you'll be able to buy lesspowerful lenses to achieve the kind of results you would otherwise only get with a longer, more expensive

zoom.

21. Use zone focusing

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Related to point 6 -- f/8 and be there -- if you have a lens with both f-stop and focal measurements on thebarrel, understanding how they relate to each other can help you take great spontaneous photos with a highdegree of confidence.

In the image below we've set our aperture to f/5.6, as indicated by the red line pointing to the 5.6 reading onthe lower gauge. We've then set the range on the yellow gauge to around 1.2 metres by positioning this at the

top of the same line. We can now use the green scale to understand how far away from the camera oursubjects need to be if they are to be accurately focused.

By following the lines running from the two green entries for 5.6 on either side to their measurements on theyellow scale, we can see that so long as we're more than 1m away from our subjects they will be in focus (thegreen 5.6 on the left is linked to around 1m on the yellow scale, while the green 5.6 on the right is linked to

the infinity symbol, which is like a number 8 on its side). Anything closer than that will be blurred.

This gives us a great deal of freedom to snap whatever we want without making any further adjustments, so

long as it's no closer to us than 100cm. To create a more intimate effect, adjusting the distance ring so that0.4 sat at the top of the red marker would mean that only those objects between around 36cm and 50cm

would be kept in focus.

Use zone focusing to understand which parts of your image will be in focus at any particularaperture setting.

Lighting

22. Invest in a cheap pair of lights

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If you're doing any kind of indoor photography, invest in a cheap pair of lights. Buy at least a pair, completewith tripod stands and reflectors to direct the light. Opt for continuous light rather than flash units, as they're

cheaper, easy to use and great for beginners, as you don't have to take test shots to see how the shadows fallduring setup.

23. Understand colour temperature

Different colours and levels of light are measured using the Kelvin scale. For the best results, look for studiolights with a temperature of around 5,500K-6,000K to emulate bright daylight. Lights with a lower colour

temperature often render a colour caste in your images that will have to be corrected in Photoshop or analternative image editor.

This professional studio bulb maintains a constant colour temperature of 5500K, as specifiedon the furthest end.

24. Buy a light box -- but don't spend more than £20

Minimise shadows in your studio-lit work by investing in an inexpensive light box. Effectively a five-sidedcube with gauze sides and top, you position your lights so that they shine through the sides of the box,diffusing the light and softening the shadows. Light boxes usually ship with a felted back cloth that can be

attached using Velcro to create an infinite field of view by obscuring the seams of the box.

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An inexpensive light box makes it easy to shoot with artificial light without casting strongshadows.

25. Make best use of available light with a sheet of paper

If you can't afford studio lights, even out harsh contrasts when shooting with natural light by positioning a largesheet of paper or card to reflect the incoming light onto the unlit side of your subject. If shooting people, askthem to hold the card themselves outside of the framed shot. Alternatively, invest in a set of reflectors. You

can pick up a new, multi-part set with white, silver and gold reflective surfaces for around £12 on eBay.

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This shot would have benefitted from a reflective surface positioned to the left of the frame to

illuminate the right-hand side of our subject's face.

26. Don't be dictated by the sunUsing automatic settings to shoot into the sun will throw your subject into silhouette as the camera dials down

the exposure to compensate for the bright background. Shooting people with the sun in front of them,meanwhile, solves the silhouette problem but introduces another one: squinting. Solve this by keeping theirback to the sun and forcing the flash to fire (switch from it 'auto' to 'on' or 'forced') to correct the exposure on

your subjects' faces without leaving them squinting.

27. Observe the rule of thirds

The most aesthetically pleasing images are those in which the subjects are aligned with the one-third powerpoints in every frame. Position horizons one third up or down the height of the image, and people one third infrom the left or right. Likewise, if you're snapping a frame-filling head shot, position the eyes so they're one

third down from the top of the frame.

Some cameras give you the option of displaying an overlaid grid on the rear LCD to help you line up your

subjects along these lines. If yours does, go one step further and put key elements on the points where thehorizontal and vertical lines intersect.

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Here we've added short red ticks to the top and the bottom of this frame to show how the manwarming his drum is positioned one third of the way in from the right of the frame, and the

flames of the fire are one third of the way in from the left.

28. Exposure and focus come first, framing secondHalf-pressing the shutter release fixes the focus and exposure settings for the shot you're about to take.

Pressing it all the way captures the frame.

Use this to your advantage by metering for particular conditions by putting your subject on one of yourcamera's focus positions and half pressing the shutter to lock its settings then, without releasing the button,

recompose the framing to align your subjects on the one-third power positions. This way you'll get perfectexposures every time, whatever the composition.

29. Use your free light meterIf you don't have a light meter, use your camera's auto mode to gauge the optimum settings, even if you don't

want an immaculately exposed result. Examine the shot's settings and then switch to manual mode andreplicate them before pushing individual elements -- shutter speed, sensitivity, aperture and so on -- toachieve the moody result you're after.

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Let your camera do the hard work: take a picture in auto mode and use its self-selectedsettings as the basis for your manually dialled variables next time around.

30. Get up early, stay out latePhotography is all about painting with light. Light is what gives your pictures contrast, shape and texture, and

often the best light it that which appears at either end of the day when the sun is lower in the sky. At thesetimes of day it casts longer, more extreme shadows, which in turn pick out small details, bumps and texture.

By shooting early in the morning and late in the afternoon, you'll achieve far more interesting results than youwould at high noon when you'll spend more time controlling the light coming into your lens than you will

manipulating your subjects to best exploit the shadows.

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It's a cliche, but this shot of Whitby Abbey wouldn't be nearly as atmospheric if it weren't

taken at sundown.

31. Embrace the grey dayDon't let an overcast day put you off heading out with your camera. The softer light you get on an overcast

day is perfect for shooting plants, flowers and foliage as it dampens the contrasts we were championing in ourprevious step. This allows the camera to achieve a more balanced exposure and really bring out the colours inpetals.

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Overcast days present the perfect conditions for shooting flowers and foliage.

Cheat's tips

32. Travel without a tripod: tip 1Packing a tripod when you head off on holiday is a great way to extend the shooting day, allowing you to

take some stunning night-time shots with streaking lights and illuminated landmarks. If you're pushed forspace, though, check out this trick. Balance your camera somewhere sturdy and safe, disable the flash and

set a slow shutter speed or two seconds or more.

Now set your self timer, fire the shutter release and let go of your camera so that you won't cause it to

wobble. By the time the self timer countdown expires, any residual movement caused by your hand letting goshould have evened out, so your camera will sit still and steady throughout the exposure for a crisp, sharpresult.

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We took this using the self timer and a long exposure. Avoid the temptation to squat in

Rome's rush hour traffic.

33. Travel without a tripod: tip 2It's not always possible to find a flat surface on which to perform the previous trick. Try and find a flat surfaceon some castle battlements and you'll see what we mean. Combat this by packing a small beanbag in your

camera bag.

Check out school sports and games categories on eBay to find 100g beanbags (a pack of four costs less than

£5), which can be pressed into shape on uneven surfaces, with your camera snugly settled on top. It's morestable and less likely to either fall over or wobble during the exposure.

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Paris this time, and we're once again employing the delayed shutter trick.

34. Travel without a tripod: tip 3Professional tripods use quarter-inch screws to fix your camera in place. You can easily source a screw ofthe same size from a normal hardware store. To avoid travelling with a bulky tripod, drill a hole in a standard

bottle top (the type you'd find capping a 500ml drinks bottle) and thread the screw through it, fixing it in placeusing strong glue.

Keep this in your camera bag as you travel, but don't bother carrying the rest of the bottle, as these are easilysourced wherever you happen to end up. Fill an empty bottle with grit to give it some weight and screw yourcap to the top. Instant tripod.

35. Banish long-arm self portraitsSelf portraits are great for capturing holiday memories, but if you can't find somewhere suitable to balanceyour camera while also framing the scene behind you, the only way you can take them is to hold your cameraat arm's length and press the shutter release. The results are rarely flattering.

Invest in a cheap monopod (search eBay for handheld monopod) and use this to hold your camera away

from you while keeping your hands in a more natural position and the great scenery you want to stand in frontof behind you. Use your camera's self-timer to fire the shutter 2 or 10 seconds later.

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Your author in Greece, without the aid of a monopod, where the arm and watch strap

somewhat distract from the Acropolis.

36. Look at the eyes, not around the eyes, look at the eyesEver wondered why so many magazines have faces on the cover? It's because we identify with such pictures,which in turn helps us identify with the magazine. Art editors know that our inclination is to connect with the

eyes staring out of the cover, and the same is true of your portraits.

When shooting a person, if only one part of your image is in focus, make it the eyes. That's the first place youraudience will look. So long as they're in focus, they'll consider the whole image to be accurately shot, nomatter how shallow your depth of field and how blurred the rest of the frame.

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The eyes are in focus in this shot, so we read it as being accurately focused overall.

37. Use burst mode when shooting petsPets are unpredictable, so don't wait for them to pose before shooting. The chances are you'll miss the crucial

moment.

Don't wait until you've attracted their attention -- start shooting while you're trying to do it, as they don'tunderstand the concept of cameras and will move at the worst possible moment. Switch your camera to burstmode and start shooting while you're trying to attract their attention towards the lens for a better chance ofcapturing something close to the picture you wanted.

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Use burst mode when shooting animals and pets to increase your chances of capturing theshot you're after.

38. Make use of scene modesYour camera knows better than you do how to use its own settings to create special effects. Don't be afraidto use its in-built scene modes for punchy monochrome or high-key effects. If possible, set your camera to

save raw and JPEG images side by side so you also have a copy of the original unadulterated scene shouldyou later change your mind.

39. How to shoot fireworksFrequently the most impressive spectacle, fireworks are nonetheless tricky to shoot. For your best chance ofcapturing a display, set your sensitivity to ISO 100 and compensation to 0EV so that you don't unnecessarily

lighten the sky, which you want to keep as black as possible.

Mount your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to at least 8 seconds. Zoom out so that thefireworks just fill the frame, preferably without being cropped by the borders and be careful not to wobblethe camera during the exposure or you'll end up with blurred results. All being well, the result should be pin-sharp streaks of light falling to the ground.

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We shot these fireworks using an 8-second exposure with the help of a tripod and timedshutter release.

40. How to shoot moving water

Short shutter speeds do a good job of capturing a waterfall and its surroundings, but you'll achieve a far moreattactive result by slowing things down. To do this without overexposing your image, start by switching out ofauto and reducing your camera's sensitivity to its lowest setting (usually around ISO 100 or ISO 80), theneither use a neutral density (ND) filter or, if you don't have one or can't fit one to your camera, dial down theexposure compensation to its lowest level (usually -2EV, -3EV or -5EV).

Mount your camera on a tripod, half press the shutter release to fix the focus point and exposure and thenpress it all the way to take the picture, being careful not to shake the camera while it's taking the shot. It'lltake some experimentation to get this right, so don't be put off if you don't get the perfect results first timearound.

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By taking this picture with a slower shutter we've softened the water both in the waterfall andpassing in front of the lens.

41. Focus on the detailsWhen a scene is simply too big to fit in your picture without it getting uncomfortably close to the edge of theframe, focus instead on one of the details that makes it unique. An abstract crop can often have greater

impact and give a more original view of a tired, over-used view we've all seen before.

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Zoomed and cropped: an unusual night-time view of the Louvre Pyramid, reflected in thepools that surround it.

42. You can't shoot speed head-onYou can't properly capture speeding subjects as they come towards or move away from you. If you'reshooting track events, position yourself side-on to the action so that it passes across your field of view ratherthan coming towards it. Shooting into a chicane works well on TV where we delight in seeing the cars snakearound it in sequence, but fares poorly in static frames.

43. Focus on the actionIf you really want to convey an impression of speed in your images, pan your lens in line with speeding cars,horses and runners and shoot with a fairly slow shutter speed -- 1/125 second or below -- to blur thebackground. Keeping the subject sharp in the frame while blurring the background gives a more effective

impression of speed than static backgrounds and blurred subjects.

44. Reflect on thingsDo rainy days and Sundays get you down? Don't let them: embrace the photo opportunities afforded by thepuddles. The rain is as much a part of the story of your holiday as the food you ate and the sights you saw.Use reflections wherever possible for a different take on otherwise well-known scenes.

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Even ugly urban decay can sparkle with the help of a reflective puddle.

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Smart shopping

45. Don't believe the megapixel mythWe're glad to see manufacturers are starting to see sense here, with many high-end cameras now sportingcomparatively modest pixel counts. At the lower end, however, some manufacturers continue to cram 16megapixels and more on tiny sensors that can't cope with high levels of incoming light. Pay for quality, notquantity, remembering that as few as 10 megapixels is plenty for printing at A3 using online photo-printing

services.

This squirrel was shot using the 10.1-megapixel Nikon 1 J1. Despite the conservative

resolution, the quality is great and we'd be happy to print this as a poster to pin on the wall.

46. Flickr: your shopping assistantBaffled by numbers and stats? If you can't get your hands on a camera to try before you buy, at least have alook at the shots it produces. Flickr uses the metadata attached to every photo shot by a digital camera to

catalogue them by manufacturer and model, allowing you to click through a representative sample of output inits enormous online archive. Find it at flickr.com/cameras.

47. Don't be a memory cheapskateBuy the fastest memory cards you can afford to minimise the time it takes for your camera to write each shot

to the media, and how long you'll have to wait before you can take the next shot. Wait too long and you'llmiss something.

Cards are ranked using a simple class system, where the class number is simply the number of megabytes thecard can store per second. So, your camera will be able to write to a Class 4 card at up to 4MBps, and aClass 10 card at up to 10MBps. Faster cards are more expensive, so if you're having trouble justifying to

yourself the extra expense, compare them to the speed boost you get from upgrading the memory in your PCor Mac.

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This Class 10 card is the fastest you can get, minimising the time you'll have to wait betweentaking multiple sequential shots.

48. Size really is everythingThink carefully about how you want to balance the convenience of carrying fewer large cards with thesecurity of travelling with a larger number of lower capacity ones. On the one hand you'll spend less timeswapping 16GB cards than 2GB media, but if you lose a single 16GB card, or it corrupts, you could lose allof the shots from your trip.

Splitting them across several cards, and locking full cards in your hotel safe so you're only carrying aroundempty cards plus the one on your camera means you'll be taking fewer risks with your digital memories.

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Travelling with several smaller cards than one large card means you can lock your photos in

a room safe while out and about.

49. Replace your cards every couple of yearsMemory cards might not have any moving parts, but that doesn't mean they don't wear out. On the contrary

they each have a finite life, and every time you write to, delete from or read the card you're bringing it anotherstep closer to the end of that life. If you don't want to risk corrupting your pictures far from home, replaceheavily used cards every couple of years.

And finally...

50. Break all the rulesBe truly original. Ignore the rule of thirds. Shoot at high noon. Shoots sports photos at slow shutter speeds for

blurred results. Whatever you do, make your pictures stand out from the crowd and relish the results.

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Notre Dame, obeying the rule of thirds, but otherwise not as we know it.

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anonymous 16 November, 2011 22:10

I think you reversed the depth-of-field photos.

Katie Collins 17 November, 2011 10:28

Thanks for the spot. This has been adjusted so the captions should now match the photos.