Photography News

As the leaves turn colour and fall off the trees they present us with another photographic opportunity to shoot autumn themed images in a very different way. The technique we're talking about is freezing colourful leaves and photographing the ice block.

By freezing whole leaves in a pan of water you'll not only have colourful photography, but interesting and unique ice patterns to photograph too.
 

 

It's best to do this technique outside if you can as the light's better, they'll be less cleaning up and there isn't electrical equipment to fry as there is in a studio!

Kit wise, you'll need a macro lens on the front of your camera so you can get in close to the cracks that spread over the colourful leaf textures in the ice. You can leave the tripod inside, but make sure you have a reflector handy as it will help direct light into the dark areas the sun can not reach.
 

How to make a leaf ice block Place your leaf, vibrant autumn colours work the best, face down in the container, add water and put it in the freezer. If you can, pick leaves with splayed tips so light can shine through them. After about 30-40 minutes check your container as the leaves may have floated to the surface and moved position. Once it's frozen take the container outside and start shooting.   Make a support for your ice block

If you have something that can support your ice block so light can shine through it – great. If not, freeze it in a clear container and place it on a light coloured surface. Shallow containers work the best as you only need a few inches of water for this to work. You may also find coloured paper/card useful to add a punch of colour to the background of the image.

 

Camera settings

 

Small apertures, around f/22, will give you great depth-of-field so you'll be able to shoot patterns right through the ice. Check your camera's meter reading and if needs be spot meter from the leaf so the camera doesn't get confused from the light shining off the ice. Look for interesting designs, areas where air bubbles have gathered and unusual shapes that cut across the colourful leaf.

As it will take a while for the ice to melt, head back inside, put the kettle on and come back out to the ice every half an hour or so to snap the frozen air bubbles and water as it melts.   

 

If you spend hours in Lightroom Classic, every extra click adds up. Tightening your workflow means more time out shooting and less time stuck at a desk.

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Nailing a dramatic close-up in the studio and then watching it fall apart the second you zoom out to a full-length frame is frustrating. You get harsh falloff on the legs, dead backgrounds, and a look that feels accidental instead of controlled. Here's how to fix that.

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Choosing a standard zoom in the $1,300 range quietly decides how your everyday kit feels in your hand and how long you can stay fresh on a long shoot. When you put a compact 24–50mm against a heavier 24–70mm, you are really choosing how you want to move, react, and work.

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Usage fees are one of the easiest ways to undercharge on commercial jobs without realizing it. When a small local client pays the same rate for images as a national brand running a big campaign, you leave serious money on the table and take on huge responsibility for a fraction of its value.

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Flat-looking images usually are not about the camera or lens at all. They come from choices about light, contrast, and viewpoint that quietly cancel any sense of depth.

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Photo by Joshua Waller

Working with just one light, or indeed natural light at dusk, is a great way to create moody portraits that can be full of character. It's a perfect technique for shooting subjects who are a little older as low light can really exaggerate lines and wrinkles but don't let this put you off photographing low light portraits of younger members of your family. Shots of kids converted to black and white or shots of women in candlelight can be really atmospheric. Just remember to have your tripod to hand as you'll be using long exposure you won't be able to hand-held without it looking like you took your shot in the middle of an earthquake.

 

Photo by Joshua Waller

If I need to use a light, which kind should I go for?

When it comes to picking a light source a studio flash is always an option but if you're working from home try using a torch, light from a window or a table lamp to add a little light to your scene. If you find the light's a little too harsh, try moving your subject further away from it or if you're using a window, diffuse the light with material such as muslin or parchment paper. If you're using flash try fitting a softbox or use barn doors to direct the light to where you want it to be.

Having the light to one side of your subject will mean one side of their face will be really bright while the other's hidden in shadow. For something less dramatic use a reflector to bounce light into your shot, adding detail where it was originally lost. If you want to add more light move the reflector closer to your subject and experiment with different reflector shades to change the colour balance of the light. To create really strong shadows try positioning your light source under your subject. Just be warned that this won't work with everyone!

One final note: Don't take your exposure reading from the dark part of your set-up as this will cause the lighter parts of the image to appear overexposed.
 

Photo by Joshua Waller

   

The times when you had to buy a new camera to take your photography to the next level are long gone. Cameras haven't been a limiting factor for most genres of photography for many years now. Other types of equipment are much more critical.

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If you thought the first batch of weird lenses was strange, buckle up. The history of photography is deeper and weirder than anyone gives it credit for, and manufacturers have tried some truly bonkers ideas in pursuit of solving problems both real and imagined. Some of these experiments were brilliant engineering achievements that the market simply wasn't ready for. Others were solutions so specific they could only ever appeal to a handful of users. And one of them literally reinvented what a camera lens even is.

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Canon’s new RF 85mm f/1.4 portrait lens sits right between the compact f/2 option and the huge f/1.2 flagship. If you care about how your RF setup balances on a gimbal, how clean your files look at wide apertures, and whether a lens really earns a premium price, this one deserves attention.

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High ISO noise is still one of the toughest challenges for photographers, even with today’s advanced sensors. Concert shooters, wildlife photographers, street artists, and event professionals often return with images full of grain, color speckling, and smudged detail, issues no camera can fully eliminate. 

Aiarty Image Enhancer tackles these challenges with a powerful suite of AI tools, combining smart denoising with deblurring, upscaling, color correction, and photo restoration, all while preserving natural texture, tonal depth, and fine detail in every image. Built as a desktop application running fully offline, Aiarty provides a reliable, privacy-safe workflow that caters to photographers who expect exceptional detail preservation.

 

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Clean High-ISO Shots with Fine Details

Noise continues to challenge photographers working in low-light, indoor, or fast-action situations, where even high-end cameras struggle to maintain clarity. Aiarty Image Enhancer’s Smart Denoise engine is designed to reduce unwanted grain while preserving natural detail and tonal depth. 

With the latest V3.5 update, the new Strength slider gives users precise control over denoising intensity, letting them retain a subtle, natural grain or achieve a cleaner, more polished look according to their artistic preference.

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• Authentic skin and facial textures without appearing over-smoothed
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