Photocritic photography blog

So you’ve finally graduated from taking photos with a compact, and have your grubby little paws on a fantastic digital single-lens reflex. All good and well, but why don’t your pictures come out as fantastic as some of the ones you see on Flickr? Surely, they’re using the same camera as you - where are you going wrong?

That was essentially what Pieter asked me about this week. So, without further ado, 8 ways to make your photos jump off the screen. Read the rest of the article »

This week, I received a rather good question from one of my old friends, Cindy. She was wondering “how come that whenever I’m taking digital images, I have to sharpen them afterwards?” Good question, and of course, it’s already one step ahead of the curve, in that the question presupposes that yes, you DO have to sharpen your images. Which is correct… But why?

Back in the days of film, things were simple: If you wanted your photos, you got prints made. These prints were predictable: They’ll be on paper, have a certain dynamic range, etc. Then digital photography came along and turned everything on its head, because suddenly there are so many more things you can do with your photos… Read the rest of the article »

Update: This was an April’s fools’ joke in collaboration with DPReview. Sorry, guys ;)

Just a quick one - I had a day off before starting my new job, so I was out go-karting with my dad yesterday (I won, hah), and we went for a bit of a touristic travel around London afterwards. Near London Bridge, I saw someone who was taking some photos. Nothing unusual there, I hear you say, but what caught my attention was the camera he was using - what IS that thing? Read the rest of the article »

Good day, my lovely readers!

Just a short post today (but don’t worry, I’ve got a phenomenal post lined up for tomorrow - just you wait)…

I was just thinking… I haven’t got any formal photography qualifications, and it would be rather awesome to have one, but I’ve also got a busy day-job, so I haven’t got time to do this full-time. Instead, I’d like to do a distance-learning photography course. I’ve looked into Photoworkshop (who co-published my book with Wiley), but they don’t do any sort of qualification as far as I can tell.

So, the big question, then: Have any of you lot tried doing a course like that? Would you recommend it? Which course did you do, and how did you find it? Was it useful?

Tell me in the comments!

I get a lot of people sending me images with ‘mysterious’ problems, and I figured it was only fair if I run a series of articles about how you can alleviate these problems. The most frequent problem is actually a lens-flare related problem, and there seems to be some confusion as to what lens flare actually is.

I suppose the first thing we should discuss is just what lens flare actually is. Most commonly seen in photographs, lens flare can appear as bright circles, smears of light or glimmering lines.

On some occasions, it can even appear as a thin film over the entire picture that makes the image itself lighter. Read the rest of the article »

It’s that time of year, and all that, so I thought I’d put together something of a christmas list: What can you get your photography-addicted buddy for the holiday season?

But first, let’s help the readers of this post with a poll. Here’s your chance to tell people what you’d really like!

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If you’re working as a photographer - and perhaps especially if you’re just starting out, in the hope that you can build up a bit of a portfolio - you are often asked to take on the strangest assignments. Some of them can be a lot of fun, while others… in the immortal words of Borat: Not so much.

I’ve done a fair bit of work which involves charities, and a few years back I noticed a new trend: They will want you to sign a contract as part of the photography work. You’ll want to read it carefully, because ‘charity’ isn’t automatically synonymous with ‘good people’: Some of their contracts will try and rob you of all your rights. Read the rest of the article »

The other day, I received a really interesting question from one of my regular Photocritic readers. Danielle lives in Ohio, is a Senior in high school, and wants to be a professional photographer. I’ve seen some of her photos, and while she still has quite a bit to learn (why not send in some photos for critique, Danielle? Who knows, perhaps I can help you along a bit), she certainly shows a lot of potential.

Her question, in a nutshell, was ‘I want to sell my photos. How much do I charge?’. It’s a question most photographers occasionally come across, but it’s important to everybody who wants to make a career in photography, so here are some of my thoughts on the matter… Read the rest of the article »

Another long-term reader and frequent-commenter had a question for us, and because I’m such a nice guy, I couldn’t let this one go, because I feel his pain: He has ruined his camera, and doesn’t know what to do next… Read the rest of the article »

A couple of months ago, we did a feature on how you can remove the IR filter from a digital SLR, to enable it for Infra Red photography. All good and well, but surely, that filter was there for a reason?

One of our readers was wondering about just this, and sent me a question: “I was wondering If it was possible to have a external IR filter that threads onto my lenses that will block the IR light to the sensor but still transmit all visible light through it, mimicking the original internal IR filter that was previously attached to the cameras image sensor?” Read the rest of the article »