After investing all that money on your amazing new camera and lenses, it makes sense to spend a little time on DSLR maintenance to make sure that they stay in tip top condition. This is mainly so that you continue to get the best image quality and extend the life of your equipment, but it also helps should you want to sell on some of your equipment at any time. I've sold a couple of lenses now and I've gotten a pretty good price for them: lenses in particular hold their value well if you look after them.   I have a bit of a routine that I have with cleaning and maintaining - this is what I do....

If you find yourself struggling to get tack sharp photos of moving subjects, then i have a little tip for you here today that might just help!

It's called back button focus - and it's another way of focusing that is particularly good for action shots. 

Now, I have to warn you ,it's pretty confusing to begin with, and you will probably hate it at first.  I also don't recommend this until you are comfortable with focus in general, just because it can be too many things to think about at once!  But if you are a bit more experienced, you might want to give this a go. 

Here's the lowdown on back button focus. 

Whilst my home isn't exactly an rubbish tip, it's a normal family home with lots of clutter from day to day life. Many times I find myself wishing I had a home that was a bit more camera friendly (imagine, large windows, white walls, crisp clean furniture, with no lego pieces in sight and no drawing on the walls....) but you just have to learn to work with what you've got! Although for sure I sometimes love to incorporate our usual home life into my images - when I'm documenting -  for other image types I usually crave simplicity, so I try to find areas that give me that "clean" uncluttered look. 

The best way to show you that is to show you some images, and pullbacks on where I have taken them.  

Even before I started a Project 365, most days I would pick up my camera – not necessarily to get a great shot, but simply to snap the candid moments that happened throughout the day.   I've lost count of the number of times I missed a "kodak moment" because I was either fumbling with my settings,  trying to find a memory card, or wondering where the heck I'd left my camera bag! 

That's why I now have a little bit of a system in place that helps me be prepared and ready to capture anything that pops up.   Once you get into the groove of doing this, you'll find that you can quickly pick up your camera and snap away at any time! 

One way to make your compositions more interesting is to try to create triangles within your composition - they help divide the frame, guide the eye, and just add visual interest.  Although it sounds hard, these are actually very easy to find once you remember to look for them!   

Here are some examples: 

I've spoken before about using a grey card to either set your white balance or exposure, and today I thought I'd go one step further and explain the steps you take to do that!  First off, a gray card is just a piece of card that represents 18% gray - in other words the middle gray that your camera tries to expose for (See this post on understanding your light meter for more information on that)  Before I got my Expodisc, I used this one - CPM Delta 1 8 inch x 10 inch Gray Card which costs around $10 - but you can get lots of different ones which are pretty inexpensive. (I don't have it but this Pocket-sized one looks good for being a bit more portable). It doesn't really matter which one you choose, as long as they are non-reflective.

I love a simple classic portrait shot from time to time - having your subjects face as the centre of attention allows to really concentrate on their features and expressions,  and can feel much more intimate than other portrait types.  

And since it's been a while since I've done one, here's a classic "10 tips" post on them for you! 

When you are shooting in Manual Mode (or any other mode for that matter) you are probably using your camera's in-built light meter to "read" the light available in the scene and tell you when you have reached the correct exposure.  When the little bar on your meter is at 0, that is your camera telling you that your image will be correctly exposed....in theory at least. However, sometimes, our camera's light meter can get it wrong. Here's why, and how to deal with it: 

Having problems getting your exposure spot on?  Then I have got the tutorial for you!  We are going take a look at how we can combine the awesomeness of spot metering, with the simplicity of something called the Zone System.  This system was developed by a very famous black and white film photographer called Ansel Adams,  who devised it as a way of determining the perfect exposure in camera for any given scene. Although this was created for black and white film users, we can steal it for use in color and digital photography too! 

Enough history: Let's get crackin' with the tutorial!

This is guest post from a couple of years ago that i've moved over from the old blog - so if you are are a long-time follower you may have read this before but it was such a good tutorial I had to share it again!  If you have ever wondered how you can get a black background without a backdrop (or just need reminding!), then this is the post for you. Over to my good friend and wonderful photographer, Jan, to share how this is done....

First of all, thank you Audrey for having me back.  Don’t you all just love Audrey’s blog?  I think she can explain things more precisely than anyone else out there.  She’s amazing! 

No matter where we are in our photography journey, I'm willing to bet that there are always to improve what we do or how we do it.  Although everyone reading this will be at different stages along the road, and even on different paths, I hope that reading this post gives you some ideas of the areas you can work on this weekend regardless of where you are or what you do...

The rule of thirds is one of the most basic principles of composition in photography, and one you will use all the time going forward!  Here's how to do it: 

What you need to do is imagine that your photograph is divided into nine equal sections by two horizontal and two vertical lines (as shown below) Apparently, when we look at something, our eyes are naturally drawn to the points where these lines intersect. Placing a point of interest on one of these intersections, or placing elements along one of the lines, gives the photo more balance and is more appealing to the viewer. 

Still taking most of your photos on Auto and too scared to make the move to Manual?  

You probably already know that in order to get the shots your camera is capable of,  it really needs some guidance from you! 

The good news is that your camera has some features that allow you to begin to very, very gently move away from Auto and start to gain a little more control, which will in turn greatly improve your pics - all whilst you pluck up the courage to switch over to full manual control.  

(Go on, you know you want to!)

Although I confess to loving a bit of a play about in Lightroom or Photoshop, for some of my images I just want to be able to take them straight from camera to print without having to do much work to them!

Of course, it also helps if you have a great base image when you want to go further with your editing too, that way you have extra time to spend on the image without having to do a load of boring adjustments first :)

Other things, like skin tones, are always much better if you get them right in camera too.  So, my goal is always to make sure that I get a great shot straight out of camera (SOOC)

Negative space (sometimes also called White Space) is simply an area of "empty" space around the subject of your image. Space that is negative is usually either a neutral or contrasting background that draws your eye to the main subject of your photograph.