Photography News

A clear blue sky sounds like a gift until you open the file and find a flat, even band of color behind your subject with nothing to hold the eye. Lightroom's AI masks can fix that in a few clicks, and the sky selection most people reach for first isn't always the cleanest one.

 

[Read More]

The f-number on your lens tells you how bright your exposure will be, and it says far less about how blurry your background will turn out. If you've ever copied a recommended aperture and ended up with a frame that looked nothing like the example, the gap usually traces back to the size of your sensor and how far you stood from your subject.

 

[Read More]

The Sony FS100 records 1080p to 8-bit files, has no built-in ND filters, and is well over a decade old, yet plenty of filmmakers relied on it for documentaries and corporate interviews. Cheap used cinema cameras like it raise a fair question about how much of a good image comes from the camera and how much comes from the person running it.

 

[Read More]

Apple's new iPad mini replaces its LCD with an 8.5-inch OLED display that reaches 1,200 nits on HDR content, in a body 5.4 mm thin with an IP67 rating for water and dust. It's the best screen Apple has ever put in its smallest tablet, with true blacks, a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and HDR highlights that glow in a way the old LCD never could.

 

[Read More]

 

Leading up to Halloween you may like to spend some time in your local graveyard... you will find plenty to photograph and much of it will be in the detail. You should remember that graveyards are, by their very nature, places that should be treated with respect, but don’t let that put you off: as long as you behave yourself you shouldn’t get into too much trouble.

  1. Kit Choices 

A zoom lens with close focusing capabilities will be useful and a tripod will certainly improve the quality of your pictures. If you fancy doing something a little more dramatic you could also consider using some 'off camera' lighting, either a flash or even a torch.
 

2. Detail Is King Here

First, look around for interesting details, there shouldn’t be any shortage of these. They could be stone, lichen or moss, text on the gravestones, sculpture, ironwork, trees or the flowers left on the graves. When you have found something that interests you, look at it carefully and decide how best to make a picture out of it. Consider where the light is coming from, what angle will best suit the subject and how tight you should frame it. It is these decisions that will make the pictures ‘work’ or not. If you are getting in really close then try using different apertures: isolating the detail by shooting wide open or stopping right down to get the subject sharp from front to back. 

 

3. Think About What Distractions 

When you are looking at detail, it is usually best to try and frame in such a way that there is no distraction in the foreground or background – unless you are making some specific use of them. To do this, you may need to get right in close. If your camera then struggles to find something to focus on, try switching to manual, focus as close as the lens will permit and then move the camera to get the subject sharp.

  4. Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark 

You can also get some spooky results by waiting until it is dark and then shooting with the camera on a tripod and ‘painting’ with a torch. Get the camera focused on what you want to photograph, a gravestone for instance, set the ISO to around 200 and the shutter to ‘B’ then do a test, open the shutter and ‘paint’ with your torch. With digital cameras, you can see the result straight away so review the picture and adjust the amount of time you take to do your ‘painting’. If your torch is not bright enough you might start to get problems with noise, but it is easier to get subtle shading if you have a little longer so don’t use a super bright torch. It may take a while to get it right, but it’s very rewarding when it works.   

Your passport photo got rejected because of a shadow. Not a dramatic one. A soft gradient under your jaw, maybe a quarter-shade darker than your cheek, the kind of thing you would never notice and the clerk who handed the print back probably could not have described either.

 

[Read More]

Planning a landscape photography trip is something I spend a considerable amount of time doing, and living here in Ireland means that checking the weather is an important part of that process. The conditions can change quickly, and even when you use several weather forecasting apps, there is never a guarantee that things will work out as you hoped. However, I have learned that waiting for a forecast that promises perfect conditions can mean missing opportunities that were worth pursuing in the first place. 

[Read More]

Sony's new 400mm f/4.5 and 600mm f/6.3 primes come in lighter and cheaper than the Nikon lenses they closely resemble, and that puts a real decision in front of anyone who shoots birds and wildlife. Long glass is usually the most expensive and physically demanding part of a wildlife kit, so a few hundred grams and a four-figure price gap can shape what you carry for years.

 

[Read More]

A telephoto lens pointed at a sea of fog turns one broad, washed-out view into dozens of small pictures: a single ridge, a clump of treetops, a slow waterfall of mist spilling over a hill. Fog shifts by the minute and the best light on it can vanish in seconds, so the decisions you make before anything happens determine whether you come home with frames or just a nice morning.

 

[Read More]

 

A peaceful scene of two wild swimmers captured by Mike43 at Derwentwater in the mist has been chosen as our Photo of the Week.

There is plenty to love about this image, from the pink and purple tones in the sky to the mist hanging over the water and the dark outline of the trees along the shore. The wooden jetty adds to the setting, while the two brave swimmers entering the cold waters of Derwentwater stand out against the soft colours and misty backdrop. The ripples across the water and the soft light in the sky make this a lovely landscape to enjoy.

It’s a calm and atmospheric photograph of an early morning swim in the Lake District.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2027, we'll crown our 2026 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. See the terms & conditions and prize procedure for more information.

It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards! Want to be our next POTW winner? Just upload an image to our gallery where you'll also find all of our past POTW winners.

For about a decade, glass-smooth skin and spotless frames marked a careful retoucher, and that exact look is now what image generators produce best. If a client scrolling your portfolio can't tell your work from a prompt, they have one less reason to book you.

 

[Read More]

Open gate recording, in-body stabilization, and anamorphic desqueeze have become the most requested features on compact cinema cameras, and the Sony FX5 is the first Sony to offer all three in one body. Whether those features can run at the same time affects how you rig, monitor, and shoot, especially if you work handheld with anamorphic glass.

 

[Read More]

Photo by Joshua Waller 

 

Objects which look like they’re growing out of people’s heads, unwanted ‘hot spots’, unsightly rubbish and general clutter are just some of the things which can spoil a shot thanks to them pulling attention away from your main subject. However, with a few simple adjustments, you can have clutter-free backgrounds that’ll leave all attention where it’s meant to be, as shown in the image below.

 

1. Make Sure You Check The Frame

Ok, it may seem like something rather obvious to list, however, it’s a simple step some of us forget to do, especially when we don’t have much time to take the shot. But taking the time to study the background of the frame can stop unsightly highlights and objects spoiling your shots.

 

2. If Possible, Remove Clutter

So, you’ve checked the frame and seen there are a few unsightly elements which means the next step is to remove them. In some places this can physically mean picking objects up and moving them out of frame, however, this isn’t always possible as you’re not always taking photos in locations where you can just pick up and move objects as you wish. When working in locations such as this, you’ll have to do one of the following that’s listed further down the page instead.

 

 

 

3. Move Locations Or Positions

Try hiding the distracting object with your subject or if it’s not possible, see if moving a couple of steps to the left or right may help. Again, it’s a simple and quite obvious thing to do but it can make a huge difference to the overall look of the final shot.

 

4. Be Patient

If you’re shooting in a busy town centre or in another location where there are lots of people walking through your shot, set your gear up, position your subject and just wait for your background to clear. If you have people trying to be a nuisance, pulling faces and generally being annoying in the background, just patiently wait for them to move on as they’ll get bored a lot sooner than you will.

 

5. Change Your Depth Of Field

Using a larger aperture to throw your background out of focus (and creating bokeh) can hide distracting objects and allow all attention to fall on your subject which is pin-sharp. However, areas that are overexposed and strong colours can still pull the eye towards them even if they are blurry so just be aware of that and check for any objects that may do this.

 

 

6. Adjust Your Zoom

Cropping some of the background out by using your zoom to pull your subject in so they fill the frame more will remove distracting objects and ensure your subject is the main point of focus.

 

7. Move Your Feet

Don’t just think you can use your zoom to get closer to your subject. Move your feet to find a different angle, a better background or to simply ‘zoom in’ closer to your subject.

 

Photo by Joshua Waller 

 

8. Use Simple Backgrounds

Plain walls, studio backgrounds and even the sky can be used as backgrounds and they won’t distract your viewer. For smaller items, use pieces of card, paper or material as backgrounds which you can slip behind your subject, hiding whatever unsightly items are behind it.

 

9. Change Your Angle

If you can’t move your subject you’ll have to move. Try shooting from a lower position so you can use the sky, for example.

 

10. Edit In Post Production

Even though it’s always best to get it right in camera, you can edit your shots during post-production to fix your background. You can, among many other things, clone, crop, remove backgrounds completely and adjust brightness levels of all or parts of your shots. Take a look at ePHOTOzine’s techniques for more editing tips.

 

  As photographers, when we think of mood, we think of stormy, dark and dramatic, but mood can equally relate to any lighting type that evokes a feeling. Photographically then, mood can readily be associated with weather conditions – calm and misty mornings, dramatic cloudy days with sunbeams and often, the most dramatic mood can be obtained on those days you might think offer less promise – as it only takes a break in stormy clouds to give a magnificent, moody image.

 

How To Capture Mood In Your Images

To capture dark and dramatic mood successfully, be prepared to wait for breaks in the weather, sometimes you just have to sit out the rainy spells – in the car if you're lucky; but when the weather breaks you can be rewarded with a few minutes really exciting lighting.

When the light does come, be prepared to work quickly. Good lighting doesn't wait for the photographer, and often its over just as quickly as it arrived, so think in advance whether you are going to need a graduated ND filter, or if you need to bracket the shot to put together an HDR (High Dynamic Range) picture. Don't wait for the light before considering that you need a filter or need to bracket exposures to cope with the contrast range, as when the light's gone – it's gone. Checking your histogram after the event to find that your exposure is wrong it's too late – you can't bring it back.

For misty, early morning moody images, again the weather forecast is an essential pre-planner – there is no point sleeping in to find that you've just missed a delicate, moody sunrise. Similarly, there is little point getting up early to find the weather isn't ideal.

The key to capturing mood is to pick the right day and location – as is all landscape photography, but the real secret is to be fully prepared for when the "mood" arrives.

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|163686|3962294[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to JonnyNI (Day 20 - Vista and View).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 18

Backlight

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|350704|3960141[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 19

Cross Polarisation

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|21670|21670_1792394230.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 21

Bad Weather Landscape

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|253884|3966342[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 22

Kitchen Item

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|55274|3454714[/COMMENT_IMG]

  Day 23

'Busy' Theme

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|229038|229038_1792734336.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 24

Town Architecture

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|345095|345095_1792836675.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

The zoom lengths on compact cameras keep growing and even though this makes more photographic subjects accessible to compact users, it does bring one problem and that's camera shake.

Manufacturers do install modes and features to help combat the issue, such as the shake reduction, but there are still a number of things that you can do to ensure your images are sharp every time.

 

1. Use A Support

When you think of a camera that sits on a tripod your first thoughts will probably be of a DSLR but just because you're using a camera with a body much smaller than a DSLR doesn't mean you shouldn't use a support. This can be a tripod, monopod, something smaller such as a Gorilla Pod or even a beanbag. 
 

 

2. Use Your Camera's Self-Timer

Even when you're using a support the small action of pressing the shutter button can still move the camera slightly and cause shake. As a result, when shooting a static subject you can use your camera's self-timer function so there's a delay between you pressing the shutter button and the exposure beginning. 
 

3. Increase The ISO

As longer shutter speeds mean the camera has to be held still for longer periods of time, shake can be a problem, particularly when working hand-held. To increase the shutter speed you can switch to a higher ISO but do take care when increasing ISOs as noise will be introduced at some levels. Where possible, try to stay below ISO400. If long shutter speeds are a must, always use a support as working without one will just result in shake spoiling your shots.
 

4. Check The Image On Your LCD

As images can be previewed on the built-in LCD screens available on compact cameras it means that shots can be checked for sharpness before leaving the location you're shooting in. However, it's not always that easy to tell if a shot is sharp by just checking the screen so if your camera has the option, it's always worth using the zoom magnifier when previewing to get a closer look at the shot. 

 

 

5. Edit In Post Production

You can slightly sharpen images in various pieces of editing software but don't overdo it as the shot won't look right. Boosting the contrast a little can help as well, but again don't go too mad with it. There are ways to reduce noise, too if high noise is a problem. 

The children chose the spot. Nyancho NwaNri was photographing a ballet class at a free school in Lagos, Nigeria, when she asked the young dancers where else they wanted to be photographed, and they led her outside to a worn concrete platform. The frame she made there, "Of Grace and Concrete," won the 2026 Flickr x Black Women Photographers grant, the biggest award in the program's four cycles.

 

[Read More]

Small cameras are no longer only a compromise. For interviews with people who are not used to being filmed, a two- or three-camera pocket setup can reduce the visible footprint of production while still giving the editor real multicam coverage. The question is whether that can also help the person in front of the camera behave more naturally.

 

[Read More]

When you pick a camera system for video, you're also picking a lens mount, a color pipeline, and the answer you'll give every time a producer asks what you shoot on. Canon, Sony, Nikon, and Panasonic Lumix all make capable full frame mirrorless bodies, so the choice comes down to how each one holds up on paid jobs and what it costs you over the years.

 

[Read More]

Most people learn to treat shutter speed as the last piece of the exposure puzzle, the number you dial in once aperture and ISO are set and the meter stops complaining. That habit hands one of your most expressive choices to the light meter, since shutter speed decides how motion looks in every frame, from a frozen athlete to a smeared highway at dusk.

 

[Read More]