If I was to go back and give myself a tip when I started to take photos it would be this. Never be afraid to increase you ISO setting on the camera. There is an auto feature in most cameras but my tip would be to keep it in manual, but never be afraid to use a bigger value. The reason is simple – it’s always better to get a photo then to know you had it but it came out blurred or too dark. Let’s dig down into this with a few examples.
I live in Sweden where it currently is winter. This time of the year there is more then just the snow to take pictures of. Since there is more hours with darkness there is also more hours to get great photographs of the beautiful star sky which can be seen now. Taking pictures of stars does not require expensive equipment nor knowledge and it is due to this a great project for the aspiring photographer!
Every day, people find the joy of photography using what they have and many get the urge to upgrade their equipment to a DSLR instead of a compact. The reason to upgrade can be that one want a system where lenses can be exchanged or perhaps where a better quality of the images that are being taken is needed. What ever the reason is to upgrade to a DSLR, there is a number of questions one should ask before running to the store.
A few days ago I wrote a short tutorial on how to use the “Heal” tool in Adobe Lightroom. The “Heal” tool is however not unique in Lightroom so if you don’t have Lightroom you can instead use GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is a free photo editing application.
Many times when taking pictures outside or when travelling we come home to see that there have been dust or other distracting particles on our lenses that gave blemishes on our photos. If you are using Adobe Lightroom this is however an easy fix in Develop mode.
This is a quick guide to how you use the Heal tool in Lightroom and I am using version 4.1 but the tool has been around since at least version 3. If you do not have Lightroom, please read the article on how to get the same result using GIMP!