DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS FROM ePHOTOzine

 

Tamron are producing some very different and exciting lenses, primarily zooms, that do not necessarily follow the norm for focal length ranges. However, they all make sense when the intended applications are defined. This new 35-100mm optic is indeed an unusual choice of range, however, for arts, sports, people and travel photography, it could just be the compact, fast and efficient companion that is needed. Less expensive and more compact than the well liked 35-150mm, there is considerable potential for especially travel and general photography. There is much to be said for travelling light. Let's couple the new lens up with the 42MP Sony A7R III body and see how it fares across various Yorkshire locations, including Whitby, Pickering and Hutton-le-Hole, both in rain and sun.

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Handling and Features

First, our tour of the lens, starting with the provided petal lens hood. This bayonets cleanly into place and remains firmly attached even without any locking catch. Within the bayonet fit for the hood is a standard 67mm filter thread, a size that many Tamron zooms have in common. The front element is treated with a Fluorine coating to help repel dust, grease and moisture. The lens is weather sealed and it stood up well to the usual Whitby rain.

This Sony FE full frame version weighs in at a modest 565g. The Nikon Z version weighs slightly more, at 575g. Dimensions are 80.6mm x 119.2mm (FE) and 80.6mm x 121.5mm (Z). 

 

 

The manual focusing ring has just the right amount of resistance, electronic in operation and so, as might be expected, utterly smooth. Behind this is the focus set button and also a three position switch to allocate three custom settings. Closest focus is 0.22m at 35mm, for a maximum magnification of 1:3.3, and 0.65m at 100mm, for a maximum magnification of 1:5.9. AF is driven via Tamron's VXD motor, which stands for Voice coil eXtreme torque Drive. This is virtually silent and locks on with speed and accuracy.

The zoom ring does extend the lens, but is still impressively smooth and does not upset the balance of the camera/lens combination. There are clear and accurate markings at 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 85mm and 100mm. Whilst it is no doubt true that the range is somewhat narrower than many options, we gain close focusing, a compact form factor and a fast and constant f/2.8 maximum aperture. If the need was felt, then a small prime wide angle could be the most obvious choice for a companion lens. In use, the need for this was not felt and choosing the shooting position appropriately seemed more than satisfactory.

 

 

Optical construction is 15 elements in 13 groups, including 1 XLD (Extra Low Dispersion), 2 LD (Low Dispersion) and 3 GM (glass moulded aspheric). There are 9 blades to the diaphragm and the result is a very well rounded aperture, even when closed down. Tamron's excellent and well proven BBAR-G2 multi-coating is utilised.

There is also a USB-C connection, and as is increasingly the case, this allows the lens to be customised and operated via the Tamron Utility App, for iOS, Android and PC. The PC version allows firmware updates. As well as a cable connection, the new Bluetooth device TAMRON-LINK can be used to connect remotely. This is unobtrusive and may be a more convenient way to connect.

Although designed for Sony or Nikon full frame mirrorless cameras, the lens can also be used on the crop sensor bodies. The “35mm equivalent” would then be 52.5-150mm. This is arguably not as useful a range, but it is technically possible. As it is, the balance of the lens on the Sony A7R III is excellent and the operation is smooth and faultless. For general shooting, it works well and produces some gorgeously crisp, colourful images. 

Now on to the technical tests to see how the lens performs.

 

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Performance

At 35mm, central sharpness is excellent from f/2.8 right through to f/11 and remains very good at f/16 and f/22. The edges are excellent from f/2.8 to f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16 and fair at f/22.

At 70mm, central sharpness is excellent from f/2.8 to f/5.6, very good from f/8 to f/16 and still good at f/22. The edges are likewise excellent from f/2.8 to f/5.6, very good from f/8 to f/16 and good at f/22.

At 100mm, central sharpness is very good at f/2.8, excellent from f/2.8 to f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16 and fair at f/22. The edges are very good from f/2.8 to f/8 and fair from f/11 to f/22.

This is a superb performance that is also well maintained even close up. Kudos to Tamron for producing such a well balanced and high quality optic.

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD MTF Charts Previous Next

How to read our MTF charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A7R III body using Imatest. Want to know more about how we review lenses?

 

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very impressively under control throughout the range and further correction in software is unlikely to be necessary. There is virtually no sign of colour fringing.

Distortion is very close to zero. Some barrelling can be measured, but the figures are very low, -0.24% at 35mm, -0.09% at 70mm and -0.06% at 100mm.

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Chromatic Aberration Charts Previous Next

How to read our CA charts

Chromatic aberration (CA) is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A7R III body using Imatest.

 

Bokeh is the smoothness of gradation in the out of focus areas in an image. This is an aesthetic judgement rather than a measurement, but we know attractive bokeh when we see it. Here we find really very beautiful, smooth out of focus backgrounds, relaxed and natural with not a trace of raggedness. To combine this smoothness alongside the very high degree of sharpness at the focused plane is a skilled trick to carry off, and Tamron's designers seem to be able to hit the spot with consummate ease.

The flare performance is also excellent, clearly the design, internal baffling and coatings are all combining to do an excellent job of suppressing internal reflections. 

Vignetting is very well controlled.

 

Aperture 35mm 70mm 100mm f/2.8 -1.6 -1.3 -1.3 f/4 -1.3 -1.2 -1.1 f/5.6 -1.3 -1.1 -1.1 f/8 -1.2 -1 -0.9 f/11 -1.2 -1 -0.9 f/16 -1.1 -1 -0.9 f/22 -1.1 -1 -0.9

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Sample Photos Previous Next

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Aperture range Previous Next

You can view additional images in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own reviews, photos and product ratings.

 

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  Value For Money

The [AMUK]Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD|Tamron+35-100mm+f/2.8+Di+III+VXD[/AMUK] lens is priced at £799.

A few possible alternatives, but with a variety of different specifications. FE lenses are for Sony full frame and Z lenses are for Nikon Z full frame. 

• [AMUK]Samyang FE 35-150mm f/2-2.8|Samyang+FE+35-150mm+f/2-2.8[/AMUK], £854
• [AMUK]Sigma 28-105mm f/2.8 DG DN Art|Sigma+28-105mm+f/2.8+DG+DN+Art[/AMUK], £1399
• [AMUK]Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM|Sony+FE+50-150mm+f/2+GM[/AMUK], £3699
• [AMUK]Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS|Sony+FE+24-105mm+f/4+G+OSS[/AMUK], £899
• [AMUK]Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II|Sony+FE+24-70mm+f/2.8+GM+II[/AMUK], £1899
• [AMUK]Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD|Tamron+35-150mm+f/2-2.8+Di+III+VXD[/AMUK], £1599
• [AMUK]Tamron 20-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DG Contemporary|Tamron+20-200mm+f/3.5-6.3+DG+Contemporary[/AMUK], £799
• [AMUK]Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S II|Nikkor+Z+24-70mm+f/2.8+S+II[/AMUK], £2299
• [AMUK]Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S|Nikkor+Z+24-120mm+f/4+S[/AMUK], £849

VFM does include price, performance, handling and is not just a question of one of these. Overall, the new Tamron lens looks excellent VFM in all of these different respects.

 

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Verdict

The lens acquits itself extremely well as a travel companion and general purpose optic. It can cover events, portraits, small groups, close ups and even maintains its performance when shooting flat text or documents. The offset is, of course, a relatively restricted focal length range, taking us back to the long gone days when 35mm was considered the standard wide angle lens. Wide angle photographers might just look for a different lens, or carry a small, wider prime lens to cover situations where 35mm is just not wide enough. Likewise, at the telephoto end, if it isn't long enough, then perhaps a different choice.

Having said that, as a travel companion that delivers superb quality in a compact package, these things may not in reality be much of an obstacle. This reviewer found the lens to be a very likeable companion and not at all restrictive in terms of focal length. The results were beautiful and obtained without carrying around a mass of kit.

Combining ease of use, value for money, a compact form factor and superb results, the lens has to be an Editor's Choice.

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Pros

• Excellent sharpness
• Minimal distortion
• Fast, accurate and virtually silent AF
• Excellent flare resistance
• CA well controlled
• Moisture and dust sealing
• Magnification 1:3.3 at 35mm
• Modest vignetting
• Beautiful bokeh
• Affordable pricing

 

Tamron 35-100mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Cons

• Modest focal length range

 

[REVIEW_FOOTER]R_features=4.5|R_handling=5|R_performance=5|R_value=5|R_overall=5|A_level=5|A_text=Editor's Choice – A high class performance from this versatile, compact and fast zoom lens, perfect for travel, sports and people.|E_id=8027[/REVIEW_FOOTER]

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1. Why Use A Frame? 

Frames are a great tool for drawing attention to an image. Be it a frame we hang on the wall, one we create on the computer, in-camera or with the elements in the scene we are photographing, frames are a very effective tool that all photographers can use.

 

2. Adding A Frame In-Camera 

Frames created while taking your shots will help lead the eye through the shot, add depth to images and help give a photo context. There's also the added bonus of using frames to hide objects you don't want to appear in the shot and they can make your images generally more interesting. They can also be used to give the viewer more information on the location you've taken the shot in. 

 

 

3. What Can Be Used As Frames? 

Windows and archways are obvious choices for frames but tree branches and leaves can also work well. Frames don't have to cover four sides either - one or two branches curving around part of the image can work just as well. It's also worth considering if you want the frame to be in focus or not. If you're at a party, why not use people as your frame to draw attention to a particular person or group? You can also use frames which are positioned towards the back of the shot to frame foreground interest, too. 
 

4. Frames Don't Always Work

There are times when creating a frame within your image won't add anything to the shot so do think about your composition and if you really do need a frame before hitting the shutter button. You don't want the frame to pull attention away from your main subject either so do make sure it's not too distracting. 

 

 

5. Creating A More Traditional Frame

More traditional style frames can be added during Post Production and ePHOTOzine has various tutorials on adding a variety of frame styles to shots in the technique section of the site.

There's also a third option and that's to add a frame to your image in-camera from one of the various creative filter options cameras offer. Apply built-in frames, use vignettes or why not combine multiple shots in one frame? 

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

 

Public gardens are bursting at the seams with blooms of colour and as most are free it means you can spend a few hours taking great floral photographs with no extra cost.

Public gardens vary in size and some even attract photographers because they are home to a particular species of flower. When's the best time to visit will depend on what flowers you're trying to capture in your images but generally there's something to capture all year round. Don't overlook photographing topiary, water features, ponds and streams too. 

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What Camera Gear Will I Need? 

When you're heading out the door, make sure you have your camera bag because as well your sandwiches and a flask of tea, you'll also need a few lenses. As you could find yourself changing lenses frequently a sling bag with side access could make it easier and quicker to reach for a particular piece of kit but a camera backpack that's designed to carry several lenses, camera body and accessories will also be fine. 

When it comes to lenses, a wide-angle lens will give you sweeping shots of the colourful gardens while your telephoto will get you close and your macro lens even closer still.

Pack a polariser to stop glare and help enhance the colourful blooms and a reflector will bounce light where it's needed. If it's shade you need your own shadow will work perfectly well but a piece of plain card will also do the trick.

Take a notebook and pen along too as once you're back home all those Latin names will be long forgotten and you'll need to know them so you can title your images correctly.

 

Make Sure You Contact The Garden Staff

If you give the public garden a quick call you'll be able to find out what's blooming and when. You'll also be able to check if there are any restrictions such as: do you need to always stick to the path? Or, can you get close to take a shot of a flower head that completely fills the frame? And, are tripods allowed? If not, you'll need a sturdy hand and very still air to stop blur spoiling your shot. You could also pack a beanbag or use a wall, bench or another type of support that you'll find in the garden.

 

 

What's The Best Time Of Day?

Make sure you arrive early as the light's better, there's less chance of breeze and there will be fewer people to get in the way of your shot.
 

What Type Of Images Can I Take? 

It's very easy to be lazy in a public garden and stay in one place but there's lots of space and plenty to see so make sure you take advantage of that.

Change your focal length, create a different angle and move your point of view. Use a wide-angle to establish where you are but then move in closer for frame-filling shots that burst with colour and detail. Think out of the box a little and be different if you can. Set your camera up on a tripod (if allowed) and shoot a time-lapse series of a bud opening or find some plants which are dying to give your flower photography a different slant.

Look for paths that will draw the eye in and gateways that will frame your shot. These patterns and props are fun to look for but if you ask the garden's staff or do a quick search online you'll soon find a few tips that point you in the right direction as well.

 

 

How To Deal With Wind & Shake

As with all types of flower photography, the wind is your enemy (that's unless you want to create blur of course). A tripod will help reduce camera shake when the wind's blowing and a cable release or the camera's self-timer will also help you take a steady shot. If tripods aren't allowed you'll just have to sit and admire the garden until the wind stops blowing. You could hold the flower steady with a piece of wire but this might be frowned upon so check first.

 

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© Alison Tuck / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

 

Nikon is pleased to announce the winner of the STERNA People’s Choice Award in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, with the accolade awarded to Alison Tuck’s highly comical 2025 image titled ‘Now where is my nest?’

The People’s Choice Award is a separate category where the Nikon judging panel takes a back seat and the public gets to decide. The hilarious photo of a windswept gannet in Yorkshire on the Bempton Cliffs was the most popular among public voters, beating forty other jovial images shortlisted in the 2025 Awards.

Alison Tuck says: “Winning the STERNA People’s Choice Award means a lot to me. It was really exciting to get into the finals with my gannet, and I was honoured to get a Highly Commended. However, being awarded this category is something else and I am really grateful to all the people who voted for me - not forgetting to mention how much fun I had - it is the Nikon Wildlife Comedy Awards after all!”

A devout Nikon camera user, Alison loves taking wildlife pictures on her Nikon Z8, which “makes capturing wildlife in motion so easy.” The award also comes with a series of prizes, including a ThinkTANK photography bag, as well as a special print of the image on Hahnemühle matte white paper, courtesy of category sponsor STERNA.

STERNA’s mission it is to highlight the uniqueness of wildlife and nature through creative editing and producing Fine Art Prints.

Alison Tuck continues: “I love taking lots of photos especially of wildlife, from a tiny ant to a large elephant on land, a small crab to an orca whale in the sea or a tiny sun bird to a soaring raptor in the air, they all have their own history to tell within the world and for me capturing their stories is something very special.”

Stefan Maier, Nikon Europe, Senior General Manager Marketing says: “We’re delighted to see Alison Tuck’s image recognised as the People’s Choice Award. It captures a moment of pure, universal humour, reminding us how powerful photography can be. Nikon is proud to be part of the Comedy Wildlife Awards, demonstrating how storytelling through images can entertain, inspire, and bring people closer to nature and remind us of our shared humanity.”

Nikon congratulates Alison and all of the finalists for their excellent nature and wildlife photography. The 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards is currently open for image and video entries until 30th June. The competition is free to enter for everyone globally through the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards website. There are numerous categories to enter and a host of spectacular prizes to win including Nikon cameras and lenses for the Nikon-sponsored categories, plus a week’s safari in the Masai Mara with Alex Walker’s Serian for the Overall Winner.

For more information, please visit the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards website.

 

At springtime our thoughts naturally lean towards flower photography, and none more so than bluebells, either as individual subjects or in carpets of blue. Often, but not exclusively found in woodlands, bluebells offer a magnetic attraction to photographers and as almost anything can be used to photograph them, from wide-angles to long telephotos, compact cameras to full-frame DSLRs, it's something photographers of all levels can have a go at. 

 

1. What Type Of Shots Should I Take? 

 

How you treat them photographically depends on how densely-packed they are growing. In a woodland where they provide a carpet of blue flower heads, wide-angles can exemplify the extent of the blooms, and shooting with a small aperture will give a huge depth of field, rendering all the flowers in focus. A macro lens can hone in on details and individual flowers, wait for an insect to land on a bloom to give added interest.

  2. How Can I Focus On Individual Flowers?

 

Telephoto lenses used at wide apertures can also give a narrow band of sharp bluebells amongst a sea of blur, with telephoto compression adding to the effect. This works best from low viewpoints, often only a few inches above the ground. Or your long lens can be well used to isolate individual flowers from their surrounds; often in a mass of bluebells, there will be some rogue colours – the most common being pink and white – focusing on these with a long telephoto at wide aperture will highlight the different colours, making them stand out among a sea of blue.

 

3. How Can I Get Creative? 

 

For a different effect, try experimenting with camera movement, by setting a small aperture to enable a long exposure and panning the camera vertically through the exposure. Try smearing petroleum jelly on an old filter (NOT on the lens itself!) and swirl it round to give an abstract effect. You can also leave a clear patch in the middle to give an area of clarity in the picture, amidst a swirl of colour.

So...no excuses...no special equipment needs, just get out there, find some bluebells and interpret them in countless different ways.
 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

 

Photographing birds of prey in the wild isn't something that's easy to do, however as the UK is home to some excellent birds of prey centres where photographers have the opportunity to shoot up close with these majestic birds when armed with the right kit and technique. 

At centres, the birds are trained to fly close to visitors which gives photographers, with a bit of patience, the chance to capture images of birds of prey in flight as well as photos of other natural behaviour they demonstrate.
 

1. What Gear Will I Need? 

Thanks to the close range, photographers can generally capture shots of larger birds of prey with shorter lenses, however, for shots of birds in flight, you'll need a lens that has a longer reach.

For portraits, use a tripod but when in flight you may find this kind of support doesn't give you the fluidity of movement you need. Plus, these centres are popular locations and you can find yourself in a crowd where tripods won't be a welcomed feature. If you do have room for a tripod, put a ball head on it as this will allow you to adjust the position of the camera quicker and easier. A pistol grip could also be useful as they are ideal for pursuing and capturing fast-moving subjects.

Some places have hides which offer enough space for tripods so you won't be fighting for elbow room. 

 

2. Make Sure You Follow The Centre's Rules

Centres have different rules when it comes to displays. Some allow you to move around while others don't so do check before you start taking your images. It's important to pick a good shooting spot before the display begins so do have a scout around the location well before the scheduled start time.

 

 

3. Capturing Shots Of Birds In Flight

Photographers with fast prime lenses are at an advantage with this but this doesn't mean you shouldn't try if you have a different piece of kit. It can be a little hit and miss and will take some perseverance to get right but there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of capturing a good shot.

Birds tend to take off and land into the wind so if you can position yourself so the wind is blowing from behind you, chances are you'll be able to capture a head-on shot of your subject in flight.

It's also worth manually focusing on a spot you know the birds will fly through/into as with some practice, this should improve your chances of capturing a good shot.

A bird flying across you is easier to track the path of than one flying towards you as you can pan with its movement and its path won't change as quickly. Continuous shooting will increase the chances of you capturing a shot with the bird in-frame, but depending on your camera autofocusing may struggle. 

Aiming to capture a shot just before a bird lands tends to be a little easier, as Linda Wright explained in a previous article: "Birds stall just before they land – slowing almost to a stop and spreading their wings wide – so this is a good moment to aim for and easy to predict."

Do remember that each subject flies at a different speed and often has different characteristics of flight. Understanding this will help you improve and modify your technique accordingly.

For more tips on capturing shots of birds in flight, take a look at this article: Photographing Birds In Flight

 

4. Master Your Shutter Speeds

When it comes to shutter speeds, faster is good, although slower speeds can result in some interesting blurring of wings if you want to take a more artistic approach.

Check your exposure, taking a reading from roughly where you'll be aiming before the action begins can help, and go for a higher ISO rather than risking a wider aperture if you find light levels to be too low. 

 

 

5. Check The Position Of The Sun

Note where the sun is for when you're shooting with your lens towards the sky as you don't want to pan and find it's shining down your lens. It's dangerous to look directly at the sun and can be very painful so do take care. 

 

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This is something everyone can have a go it. It doesn't matter if you live in a mansion or a flat or usually shoot landscapes or portraits as this will give you the chance to think out of the box a little and really help you improve your photography.

Of course, if you live on the coast or in the Highlands or Lakes, you have got it slightly easier than some. But there are pictures to be captured everywhere, you just have to get out there and find them!

If you really don't fancy shooting near your home pick a location you love or know well and see how only having a few meters to work in will make you think differently.

  Gear Suggestions

 

If you're not travelling far you can set out your full array of lenses on your side and return to pick up what you need although your standard zoom will do a perfectly good job.

If you do have a variety of lenses to pick from your macro lens will be good for giving the ordinary a unique twist while a longer telephoto will get you close to birds in the garden without having to be sat on the branch next to them. If you're out in the garden you may need a tripod when using a longer lens but otherwise working hand-held will be fine.

 

What To Shoot?

 

Look at everyday objects differently. See how a fork, TV remote or even a shoelace look close up through a macro lens. Or try setting yourself a little challenge: shoot household objects, certain packets or how about items beginning with a particular letter or number? Try shooting candids of neighbours or how about limiting the number of pictures you take?

You can go on a mini safari in your garden, photograph birds from your window or shoot the flowers that are now decorating our beds. Have a go at photographing micro landscapes on dull days or how about capturing raindrops as they fall down your windows or land on plants? If you don't mind early starts, you can shoot some photos of morning dew or spend some time with your pets, photographing their antics.

 

As the months warm-up you'll be able to spot Ladybirds to photograph but while the weather's still chilly, why not stay indoors and shoot some still life work: kitchen utensils, cutlery and food.
 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

    We've spoken before on how lines are great tools for guiding the eye through an image but don't think these have to always be horizontal or vertical as quite often, diagonal lines can add more interest and depth, guiding the eye across the image.
  1. Where Should I Look For Them? 

Rivers, walls and cracks in the ice are just three examples of how you can create diagonals within your landscape shots. Just remember you may have to alter the angle, height or position you're working at to see these natural elements take on the shape you need.

 

2. Use Diagonal Lines As A Guide

The eye often looks at the bottom left of an image first before working across the shot to the top right corner so by having a line which follows this path, intercepting interesting elements as it goes will unknowingly guide the viewer through your shot. They're particularly useful in shots where you have lots and lots of different elements that without a 'guide' would just look chaotic and the eye wouldn't know what to look at first. Try using multiple diagonals to guide the eye to one spot in the image by intersecting them where you want the attention to fall.

 

 

3. Don't Split Your Shot Into Two

If you position your diagonal so it flows from one corner to another your shot can look like it's split in two and won't work right compositionally. Instead, try shifting the line up slightly so it starts just above the bottom corner instead.

 

4. How Many Are Too Many?

Don't get too carried away using too many diagonals as your shot will just end up looking busy and the eye won't know where to focus. However, a few repetitive lines such as those left by a tractor in a field or the shapes left in the sand by the wind can work well as abstract landscape shots. Just shoot from a higher viewpoint and use a longer focal length with a smaller aperture to maximise depth of field. At the coast, try photographing footprints left in wet sand or the patterns left by the tide as it moves down the beach.

 

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Fish Eyes by Sophia Spurgin

 

Winner of the 2026 London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year, Sophia Spurgin, has  today collected a Canon RF 400mm prime lens from the LCE team at their Strand, London store.  Sophia beat 14,500 entrants to take top honour in this year’s competition with her stunning image  ‘Fish Eyes’ captured on a trip to Vietnam on a Canon EOS R5 Mark II camera. 

A retired teacher from Hertfordshire, Sophia is  a keen outdoor photographer, and the Canon RF 400mm F2.8L IS USM was top of her wish list. A super-telephoto model offering a fast f/2.8 aperture, exceptional portability and optical IS, the RF 400mm is an outstanding low-light performer, perfect for wildlife, sports and action photography. The much sought after lens is rarely in stock at UK retailers and required shipping directly from Canon in Japan.

Sophia Spurgin commented, “I’ve never owned a lens of such quality and wanted to mark my win  with something significant. I had never considered prime lenses previously, but now I’ve been able  to obtain this incredible equipment thanks to LCE. I’m looking forward to testing it out during my  travels this year.” 

 

Sophia Spurgin, LCE Photographer of the Year 2026 overall winner, holds her grand prize, the Canon RF 400mm f2.8L IS USM lens. © London Camera Exchange

 

LCE POTY comprises 14 different categories including the publicly voted ‘People’s Choice’ and  ‘Emerging Talent’ dedicated to photography students. Sophia was shortlisted in three categories  and was crowned winner of both the Travel category with ‘Fish Eyes’ and Wildlife category with 

‘Fighting Foxes in the Rain’ – as well as taking first place in the overall competition. She scooped a  total of £3,500 in LCE vouchers, to spend on equipment of her choice. 

Lee Harasyn, managing director of LCE, commented, “We’re thrilled that Sophia has been able to  acquire her dream lens as a result of winning LCE Photographer of the Year 2026, and can take  the next step up in her hugely successful photographic journey. We hope she’ll inspire others to  enter the competition next year and we can’t wait to see the images she’ll capture with this  fantastic piece of kit.” 

The LCE POTY 2026 Awards were presented in a ceremony at The Photography & Video Show at  the NEC, Birmingham. A gallery showcasing the finalists’ images was located close to the show’s  entrance and many of the shortlisted images were included in a special edition commemorative  book. Winners received a share of the £10,000 prize fund and a unique trophy to take home. There  are plans to tour the images at other locations around the UK this year. 

For more information, please visit the LCE POTY website.

 

About London Camera Exchange 

Founded in Guildford in 1956, London Camera Exchange is an employee-owned business and is  celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2026. With 26 high street stores nationwide, the company  delivers award-winning service and impartial expert advice. LCE stocks an extensive range of  cameras, lenses and optical gear from top brands – and is the go-to destination for trading in or  upgrading photographic equipment. Whether visiting in-store or online, LCE’s dedicated team is  always on hand to help customers capture their next great shot.

 

A mountain landscape that showcases the scale and texture of the Canadian Rockies has earned our Photo of the Week award.

Three Sisters by Jasper87 captures a snow-laden scene where the three peaks dominate the horizon. The tall evergreens sit in front of the mountains while the frosted branches of the trees on either side provide a fine texture throughout the scene. There is a great sense of balance in the image as the light shows the jagged surfaces of the rock and the heavy clouds gathering around the summits.

The detail in the icy branches adds a layer of depth that guides you toward the peaks. Small patches of blue sky break through the cloud cover to add variety to the palette of white and grey tones. This shot captures the quiet power of a mountain setting and serves as a wonderful example of landscape photography.

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. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards!

Make the most of the flowers currently in bloom and have a go at a bit of creative flower photography. Below you'll find links to flower photography tutorials with advice on using macro lenses, dealing with messy backgrounds, working on a budget and for when the weather turns, tips on photographing flowers indoors. Each feature also has a picture-perfect flower shot next to it for inspiration - enjoy!  

 

1. Backlighting Flowers For Photography

 

2. Four Ways To Shoot More 'Arty' Themed Flower Images

 

3. Flowers - An Alternative Approach

 

4. Six Outdoor Flower Photography Tips Every Compact User Needs

 

5. 3 Top Tips To Improve Bluebell Photography

 

6. Abstract Flower Photography Tips

 

 

7. 10 Top Tips On Photographing Daffodils

 

8. Take Better Photos Of Public Gardens With These 5 Tips

 

 

9. Eight Techniques To Improve Your Garden Photos

 

10. 4 Essential Tips On Photographing Snowdrops

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

Excire’s product range comprises AI-powered photo and video management software. Excire Foto 2025 is a really powerful standalone asset management software for Mac and Windows. It doesn’t have any editing capabilities, but it can manage and organise a large photo collection very efficiently. We tested it recently and you can check out that review here.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Excire Search 2026 has a similar feature set with excellent AI-driven image management skills, but it works differently having an intimate relationship with Adobe Lightroom Classic. So, for example, perform a search in Excire and the results are shown as a Lightroom Collection, which means you can then rate, select and delete as normal. It’s also worth mentioning that the Excire apps work locally so there’s no risk when it comes to privacy.

 

The Excire Search Panel shows as a separate window when Adobe Lightroom Classic is opened. The single image on view in Search 2026 is the one active in the Lightroom’s Library module and if it needs initialising a warning note shows.

 

Quick Verdict

Excire Search 2026 at £199 / $229 is a significant investment and whether it’s worth the cash is largely dependent on what you shoot and how you like to work. You could argue that Excire’s face and people search skills plus AI culling has more potential for productive people and social photographers than scenic shooters. 

What you shoot is one thing but so is how much you shoot. Frugal shooters probably have less to gain than those who are more trigger happy.

My photography covers a diverse range of subject matter and I shoot a healthy number of frames whenever I go out which makes keeping up with tasks such as keywording and image culling a challenge. Furthermore, while my workflow is reasonably well organised, finding a particular picture can be time-consuming. 

While I am relatively new to Excire Search 2026, using it for this review, I found it to be a very useful image management solution. Excire’s face search, people search and AI keywording tools are very powerful and I particularly enjoyed its Search by Text Prompt skills. Speed is also a virtue even working with large Lightroom catalogues.

 

+ Pros

• One-time purchase
• Easy to use
• Excire runs locally
• Search by Text Prompt is clever
• Face and people search
• Auto keywording works well especially with people photos and is a huge time saver
• Keywords and aesthetic ratings can be automatically transferred to Lightroom
• AI assisted culling 
• Some search tools work with videos

- Cons

• It costs £199 / $229 but that is for a lifetime licence
• Initialisation takes a while with large image collections, but it is a one-off process
• Auto aesthetic rating has limited appeal 
• Limited to single image view
• Auto keywording is less effective with scenes and locations but it still works

 

 

For photographers relying on Adobe Lightroom Classic as their workflow mainstay, Excire Search 2026 is a fully compatible plug-in and brings several great features to the party. Notably, powerful search tools and auto keywording which Lightroom Classic lacks. If you use another editing or workflow app, the standalone Excire Foto 2025 is the app for you. The two apps use the same AI technology so both perform to a high level and have broadly similar search features.

Both apps are available for outright purchase, costing £199 / $229 each or the bundle of the two is available for £299 / $329 instead of £398 / $458. Both are available on a free 14-day trial and there’s no subscription option.

 

The Excire Search 2026 interface is very simple. Across the top are various view controls including Highlight Faces while on the right are the apps’ search and culling tools in Lightroom. During searches a progress bar shows in Lightroom and the results appear in a Lightroom Collection.

 

Excire Search 2026 Getting started

Once installed, open Adobe Lightroom Classic and you can have the Excire Search panel appear as a separate window automatically, by using the drop-down menu (Library>Plug-in Extras>Open Excire Search Panel) or use quick keys Alt+X (Windows) / Option+X (Mac).

How you work with Search 2026 and Lightroom together is a personal decision and depends on your screen set-up. For single screen users, you can have the two apps side by side with the Lightroom side panels closed to save space. This works well especially during culling where you can view and check image sequences conveniently. When you’re not using Excire, hit the up arrow in the bottom right of the panel and it’ll close to an unobtrusive floating strip. If you have a dual monitor system, you can have Excire running on one and Lightroom on the other.

In Lightroom’s Library module (Excire doesn’t work with other modules), click on an image and it will appear in the Excire Search Panel. Using the left and right arrow keys, it’s possible to advance through images with each image taking less than a second to appear, so it’s respectably fast. However, it’s not possible to rate or star images through Excire.

There’s a selection of viewing tools ranged across the top of the interface so you can magnify images and pick out faces, and on the right side are the various search and culling tools. We will dig deeper into these features later in this review.

 

On a single monitor set-up, having Lightroom and the Excire Search Panel sitting side by side is a good way of working. Here you can see the focus check feature working. The green boxes tell you focus is good with yellow and then red indicating a sharpness problem.

 

Excire Search 2026 key features

• Photo and video asset management app, no editing capabilities
• Excire Search Panel
• Only available with a lifetime licence, no subscription option
• Runs locally
• Range of search tools: Text Prompt, People, Face, Keyword, Aesthetic, Similarity, Duplicate Search
• Auto keywording
• Auto focus checking
• Recognises faces, objects, colours, emotions, abstract concept and famous landmarks
• AI-assisted culling 
• AI Aesthetic scores
• Supports Raw and JPEGs
• Available for Mac and Windows
• £199 / $229
• 14-day free trial version available
• excire.com

 

Initialisation is the process of Search 2026 analyzing images so its search functions work. Keywords and aesthetic scores are also generated, and these can be transferred automatically to Lightroom.

 

Excire Search 2026 Initialisation

Clearly, to start with, none of your images are initialised and that’s the first step. Do this in Lightroom by going to Library>Plug-in Extras>Initialise Photos. The process means images are analyzed to enable Excire’s search tools, plus images are automatically keyworded and given an aesthetic score, and you can choose to have these automatically transferred to Lightroom. Or you can do it manually afterwards.

In Excire’s Foto 2025 app, before initialisation, you have to choose where the Excire database sits. In Search 2026, there is no need for that as the database is stored in the same folder as the Lightroom catalogue.

The initialisation process takes time. For reference, a Mac Studio M2 Max with 32GB RAM running Tahoe 26.3.1 was used for this review. 

I started by initialising an existing Lightroom catalogue of 40,167 images and the whole process took just over five hours. If you’re working with larger Lightroom catalogues, it makes sense to run the process overnight and that’s what I did with my largest Lightroom catalogue, which comprises 127,232 images. While the process of initialisation takes time, you only have to do it once, so in that context it’s not an issue. 

Furthermore, once you’ve caught up and existing catalogues have been initialised, keeping the Excire database up to date is not too time-consuming. For example, a portrait shoot comprising over 3074 images - Raws and JPEGs, so 6148 files in total - took a little over 17 minutes to initialise.

 

A Search by Text Prompt using the word ‘bridges’ found bridges, details of bridges and piers. The search took around 15 seconds.

 

Excire Search 2026 Search tools

Search 2026 has an impressive line-up of search tools: Text Prompt, Duplicates, Keyword, Example Photo, Faces, People, and Aesthetics. Each has selectable parameters such as how strict or loose you want the search to be and the maximum number of images you want found. Depending on the tool, other filters such as similarity are also available.

Perhaps the most ingenious is Search by Text Prompt. In the text box, you can type in a specific subject such as bridge, insects, or trees, or a condition which might be sunset or night. But you can also use descriptions and abstract concepts so you can search for images that show happiness, tranquillity, or peaceful times, or depict a style such as psychedelic or film noir.

Searches are quick and depend on the catalogue size. In my 127,232 image catalogue, I did a search for bridges with the Restrictive/Loose slider at 50 and a maximum number of 1000 images. The search took 15 seconds and in that selection, most were bridges which included detail shots and general views but also I got other subjects including piers.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how Excire Search 2026 worked with locations. I searched for London and the limit of 5000 images was found in just under 30 seconds. A quick skim through the results showed that around 85% were of London, with the rest made up of shots of other cities including Venice and Newcastle. Next, I tried a search for Cambridge with the Restrictive/Loose slider at 1 and got 266 images with around 60% correct. I had not keyworded most of these images, so it was Excire’s advanced skills that did the work.

Essentially, Search by Text Prompt proved to be a very useful and effective tool and must be tried to be appreciated.

Cutting edge facial recognition technology is used by Search 2026 to find faces and people and even with large Lightroom catalogues, searches take seconds.

 

Of the search options, faces and people will probably be the most used, so I tried them next. Bring up the Search for Faces dialogue box and with its simple graphics, you can narrow down the search to the number of people in shot, their age, gender and whether they are smiling or not. My search for two smiling female adults found 655 images and I got a mix of street pictures and set-up portraits. Some shots were also of single people and I got the occasional bloke too, but again, the majority fitted the search criteria.

For the Search for People function, you need a reference photo to start with. So, with a face you’ve found using Search for Faces or a face you already have in Lightroom’s Library module, click on the reference image so it becomes active in the Excire Search Panel. Clicking on the Highlight Faces icon in the top bar brings up a focus box overlay so you can check sharpness and then clicking the Search for People icon brings up the dialogue box. Here you can set the similarity limit from Restrictive to Loose, filter by face count and keyword and use key qualities such as smiling and eyes open. Right-click on the magnifier icon and you can skip the dialogue box.

This is a very useful tool if you need to quickly find pictures for a client or of a family member. Setting the Restrictive/Loose similarity limit to a low figure helps with accuracy.

Finishing briefly with the last three search options, Search by Keyword works with Excire’s keywords and those you might have already applied in Lightroom, and it can even search for images with a dominant colour. The Duplicates and Example Photo are self-explanatory, and both have potential if you’re working with large catalogues.

Overall, Excire’s search tools proved themselves to be highly capable. They weren’t infallible but they were competent enough to save time and effort compared with manually searching through large catalogues.

 

Excire checks focus for you. The greener the box outline, the sharper the focus; with softer images, green gives way to yellow and then red. You can see here the box has a hint of yellow, so focus wasn’t spot-on; it was shot at f/1.4 so there wasn’t much depth-of-field.

 

Select the Sequences or Visual similarities culling folder in Lightroom and the Excire Search Panel Culling group view shows a single image from each folder. This also works on other culling group types, i.e., people. Click on a thumbnail and you see the contents of the folder back in Lightroom.

 

Excire Search 2026 Culling

Manually sorting out the best photos from a day’s shoot is a time-intensive process, but it must be done. Excire Search 2026 brings AI automation to the process so you can quickly funnel down thousands of shots to essential keepers for editing.

Excire’s culling tools are extensive and configurable. Hit the Start Culling Project button, and you’ll see a four-tabbed dialogue box and here you can decide what sort of images you want to end up with. 

Start with the Grouping tab, where you choose one or more grouping options and this works independently of the Smart Selection tab. People, content, visual similarity, date and sequences are the key options.

Then in the Smart Selection tab, pick the Relevant grouping in the drop-down menu and there are various attributes (People, Content, People + sequence and more) to apply to pick the best photos from each group.

Under the Rejections tab, Excire has the power to reject blurred, poorly exposed shots as well as those where the subject’s eyes are shut. 

Ultimately, what Excire’s culling process does is take a large batch of images – up to 10,000 – and breaks them down to more manageable, smaller groups to work with.

Let Search 2026 take the strain when it comes to image culling. Shown here are two of the four menus in the Start Culling Project dialogue box with the inset showing the resulting collection of folders in Lightroom.

 

I set Excire to work on 611 portraits of the same model and two minutes later, it had created, among other things, 88 sequences, two capture groups, rated five photos with five stars and rejected 103 shots. 

All the images are put into a Lightroom Collection that you can then check through, rate and process. Certainly, Excire 2026 did well and it did pick out poor exposures and eyes shut shots, but of course, it can’t appreciate what you were trying to do on a creative level, so it did reject some of my close-up profile shots that were deliberately slightly underexposed. That’s no problem, though, and checking through the Reject folder and hitting U in Lightroom to unflag those shots sorted that.

Of course, it’s important to check through Excire’s selections and groupings but even identifying the blurred shots and incorrect exposures saves time. Also, it’s no problem to run Smart Selection again with different criteria and there’s a button to do that.

 

Out of 611 shots of Dolly, Excire gave a rating of five stars to just five photos. Clicking on the Selection Collection in Lightroom means you can check the images and in Excire, you can see the green focus box if the Highlight Faces icon is clicked. Hit the thumbnail and you get a magnified view for a close check.

 

Excire Search 2026 Keywording and Aesthetic rating

Keywording is time-consuming. Excire Search 2026 has AI-powered auto keywording that’s done during initialisation. There’s the option of having keywords show in Lightroom’s Keyword and Keyword List panels and are identified as Excire 2026 and sit alongside your own keywords.

In my shoot, I had a model posing with a wine glass, so the images were keyworded with Food, Drink as well as the attributes you would expect, so Portrait, Face and Adult were also applied. Interestingly, photos of models in a long, white frilly dress were keyworded Bride.

During initialisation, every image is also given an Aesthetic score out of 100, so the higher the score the more aesthetically pleasing the image, according to Excire. The score is produced by Excire’s AI technology which has been trained by expert photographers and hundreds of thousands of images. This rating appears in Lightroom in the Metadata palette (in the All Plug-in Metadata menu), although it doesn’t appear as a Library filter. That means if you want to sort images by Excire’s Aesthetic rating in Lightroom, you need to go to Library>Plug-in Extras> Search by Aesthetics, where you can search by the most or least aesthetic rating. You can also sort by Aesthetics with Excire's culling tools (though it can only be applied to a set of grouped images).

Excire generates keywords automatically during initialisation. To give you an idea of the breadth and depth that Excire goes to, here are the keywords under the headings of Animal, Architecture, Nature and People.

 

Excire Search 2026 Verdict

Excire Search 2026 is a very capable app and for busy photographers vested in an Adobe Lightroom Classic workflow, it represents a compelling proposition. Yes, at £199 / $229 it’s not cheap, but then you are paying for an outright purchase and it does bring powerful image management features to Lightroom and the two apps complement each other nicely. It’s only with culling that there’s any function duplication, but Excire’s version has more options.

On the whole, there’s much to appreciate and enjoy in Excire Search 2026, so do try out the free 14-day trial here and see what it can do for your workflow.

 

Excire Search 2026 Pros

• One-time purchase
• Easy to use
• Excire runs locally
• Search by Text Prompt is clever
• Face and people search
• Auto keywording works well especially with people photos and is a huge time saver
• Keywords and aesthetic ratings can be automatically transferred to Lightroom
• AI assisted culling 
• Some search tools work with videos

 

Excire Search 2026 Cons

• It costs £199 / $229 but that is for a lifetime licence
• Initialisation takes a while with large image collections, but it is a one-off process
• Auto aesthetic rating has limited appeal 
• Limited to single image view
• Auto keywording is less effective with scenes and locations but it still works

 

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1. Pick A Strong Subject

As silhouettes don't have any detail and are, essentially, just an outline, picking a subject that has a recognisable shape and strong detail around the edge will produce shots that are more interesting. Possible subject choices include:

• Big wheels at fairgrounds or those found in cities.
• Statues which can be found in most parks and gardens.
• Trees, particularly on misty mornings.
• Tunnels or bridges make great frames for subjects when silhouetted.
• People but remember that shooting them side on will show more shape when still. 
• People in action - if they're jumping or forming an interesting frame with their legs and arms, shooting straight on can work well.

  2. Choose A Light Source 

Any subject that is surrounded by bright tones can easily appear as a silhouette. The most obvious light source to use is the sun as you can use it at the beach, in town, in your garden or even inside as long as you're working near a large window or close to a set of patio doors. But really you can use any light source, you just need to make sure it sits behind your subject.

 

3. Switch The Flash Off

When you take your camera out of its bag and use auto mode to take a shot of your subject sat against a bright background, generally the flash will fire to lighten the foreground and even out the exposure. This is usually fine but as we want to deliberately underexpose our subject, you need to make sure the flash is turned off.

 

 

4. Underexpose Your Shot When working in auto mode, most point and shoot cameras will work out the exposure and where it needs to focus when you press the shutter button halfway. So to trick it into creating a silhouette, simply point the camera at the brightest part of the scene you're photographing, press the shutter halfway down and don't let go of it. Re-frame the shot then press the shutter button the rest of the way to take your shot. This should fool the camera into giving you the exposure you want but you may have to try exposing from different parts of the image to create the silhouette you're looking for. Try using the Sunset Mode too to further enhance the silhouette you're trying to create.
  5. Check The Shot's Focus

The problem with half-pressing the shutter button to get the exposure you need is that the camera will also focus on that spot too which can mean your silhouette can lack crispness. If this happens and you can adjust the focus manually, pre-focus before you take your meter reading. You could try using Landscape mode as this will let the camera know you want to use a small aperture so your shot has front to back sharpness. If your camera features exposure compensation you'll be able to select -1 or -2 to deliberately underexpose your shot. This means you shouldn't have any problems with focusing either as you won't have to move the camera.

 

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    Wonky horizons are the bane of many landscape and cityscape photographers as a horizon that's slightly off-tilt can spoil what's otherwise a perfectly good shot. Of course, there will be times when holding your camera at an angle so the horizon line is deliberately not straight but if you do want to do this, make sure it's really obvious as otherwise, it'll just look like you forgot to check your frame before hitting the shutter button.   How To Straighten Horizons    1. Line it up with the bottom or top of your frame   The easiest way to ensure you have horizontal horizons is to line it up with the bottom or top of your frame, either in your viewfinder or on the LCD screen. Some cameras also have a digital spirit level feature which will indicate to you when the camera is level  - both on the horizontal and vertical planes. It can be displayed in the viewfinder or on the back monitor when using Live View, along with all your other settings. When the marker is in the middle of the gauge and turns green, you know you're level.     2. Rule of thirds grid  If you don't have a digital spirit level, have a look in your camera's menu options to see if there's a rule of thirds grid. We know this isn't designed for this purpose but the grid will have horizontal lines on it that can be a handy guide when you're looking for a quick way to check the horizon.          3. Use a spirit level Another option is to purchase a spirit level that sits on your camera's hot shoe and to use a tripod as you're more likely to move / not hold the camera straight when you shooting hand-held.      4. Post Production  Of course, you can always straighten your images in whatever editing software you use as well but it's good practise to get it right in-camera whenever possible.    

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

 

With warmer weather finally arriving, it's a good time to take your camera on a planned photo walk. This, of course, could be on a paid-for type of course but you can also design your own. Staying as close or venturing as far as you like from your home.

 

1. Check The Weather

Have a look online and on the TV the night before you leave and on the morning of your walk. If you're off hill walking low cloud's not good news if you want to walk higher up and blistering, bright sunshine isn't a photographer's friend no matter where you walk. There's more chance of you dehydrating too on a warmer day so either wait for cooler temperatures or pack plenty of water if you're still going to head out in it.
 

2. Dress For The Weather

Stick your head out of the door and see what the weather's like and if it is sunny do still pack a waterproof just in case.
 

3. Tell People You're Going 

Make sure someone at home knows where you're going and give them an estimated time of when you'll be back so if you do get lost, they'll know to come and find you. Take your mobile with you so they can contact you but do remember you can't get a signal in some remote locations.
 

4. Plan A Route

Don't be over adventurous as you, plus kit and stopping to take photos means, generally, you won't have the time to walk very far. A quick, short route that circles back on itself will be fine, in fact, a one/two-hour walk that takes you into a town/village or just around the area you live in would be perfectly good if you've not tried a photography walk before. If you do want to venture into the countryside you might not want to climb up to many steep hills on your first walk but you don't have to get too high to shoot interesting sweeping vistas. Try walking along the side of a river or through the woods instead.
 

5. Capture A Variety Of Imagery 

Of course, there will be plenty of wide landscapes to capture out of the city but don't overlook shooting a few close up shots too. Look out for flowers, interesting patterns in bark and insects on your trail. If you see something in the distance, a waterfall for example, but don't have the time or energy to get closer to it use the pulling power of a longer focal length to bring it to you. This will help isolate it from the wider scene and also bring detail into the shot that may not have been seen if you shot it with a wide lens. Closer to home get up higher to stop problems with converging verticals and this will also give you the chance to capture some cityscapes. In between the buildings look for reflections and interesting detail/patterns roof tiles, brickwork, fences and other objects create.

 

 

6. Pack The Right Lenses

Wide-angle zooms are good for capturing sweeping landscapes with interesting foregrounds while telephoto zoom lenses are good for picking out detail and compressing perspective. To save on weight pack just one zoom lens that covers all the focal points you need. For close up work, pack a macro lens.

7. A Tripod Is A Must 

It's always a good idea to take a tripod along, particularly for landscapes, where the built-in spirit level will help you ensure your horizons are straight. You'll also need one if you're planning on stopping to shoot some slow shutter speed shots of lakes, rivers and waterfalls. If you're planning a long-ish walk you'll need a light-weight model. Pack your remote shutter release with your tripod too for those slow shutter speed shots where shake will really be noticed.
 

8. You'll Need A Good Pair Of Shoes

You need a pair of shoes/boots that are comfy, it's a good idea to make sure they're waterproof and you'll thank them at the end of your walk if they support your ankles. Having a good sole which gives good traction is also a must if you're heading off the pavement.
 

9. Remember The Filters

Find the room in your camera bag for a polarising filter and an ND filter as they don't take up too much space but are very helpful tools on sunny days when you need to use slower shutter speeds or when reflections are a problem. An ND Grad filter can be useful too for balancing out the exposure of the sky and ground.
 

10. Pick The Right Camera Bag 

If you're off on a long walk, as well as having space for your camera and lenses make sure there's room for spare clothing, water, food and a compass.  But don't carry a bag that's too big, though, as walking is tiring enough on its own without having to carry a large bag that's half empty.

 

 

11. Always Carry Spare Batteries And Memory

You don't want to run out of power or space to store your photos when you're only halfway through your walk so always pack extra.

 

12. Don't Forget The Torch

If you're planning on photographing sunrises you'll be setting your kit up and walking while it's still dark and without a torch, this can be a little tricky. So your hands are free, take a head torch with you to light the way. Of course, if you're staying closer to home you'll have street lights so this item's not something you'll need in your bag.

 

13. Other Essential Accessories You Will Need 

Take a lens cloth to wipe dust and moister off your lens, a lens hood will help stop glare, a compass will guide you along your chosen route and a map will stop you getting lost. If you're heading out for quite a few hours make sure you take food, water and plenty of snacks with you. Make sure the clothing you're wearing is lightweight and it's often better to layer up rather than heading out in just one coat. If it's a sunny day pack your sun cream as even if there's a slight covering of cloud, the sun will still get you if you're out in it all day.

 

14. Find A Friend To Walk With You 

Taking a short walk on your own is fine but if you're going on a four-mile hike take someone else with you so if you do get lost or worse still injured, you won't just have yourself to rely on. If you're going with a none-photographer they may also help you carry your equipment and hold your bag while you're taking your shots. Do go with someone who has a slight interest in photography though as they can help you look for good locations to shoot in/of and if they don't have an interest in photography at all they'll just get bored of stopping and waiting for you to take your photos.
 

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to p1yu5h (Day 3- 'Dandelions').

 

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 1

City Shoot

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Day 2

'Quick' Theme

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Day 4

Lighthouse In The Landscape

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Day 5

Trains

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  Day 6

Hedgerows

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Day 7

Seaside Captures

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Day 8

'Old vs New' Theme

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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.

 

Low-light photography always comes with a tradeoff: raise the ISO, and you get the shot, but also noise. In fleeting moments, whether shooting wildlife, handheld street scenes, or live events, there’s no second chance to adjust settings or reshoot. Capturing the moment comes first, and improving image quality happens later in post-processing.

While AI image denoisers are designed to reduce image noise while preserving natural texture, different tools strike this balance in various ways. To help you find the best fit for your workflow, I’ve tested several leading photo denoising software across common real-world scenarios, comparing how each handles the delicate line between noise removal and detail retention.

 

How AI Denoising Restores Images with Natural Details

Traditional noise reduction often removed grain through heavy smoothing, which could leave images looking soft and lose important texture, especially in low-light photos. Instead of simply blurring noise, modern AI tools like Aiarty Image Enhancer intelligently separate noise from real detail to preserve edges, texture, and structural integrity. It is designed for real-world photography workflows, helping recover clean image quality from high-ISO, low-light, or compressed photos.

 

Test methodology:

To ensure a practical comparison, all images were captured in real-world low-light conditions rather than a controlled studio:

• ISO range: 3200–12800 
• Formats: Mix of RAW and JPEG 
• Shooting conditions: Handheld, low ambient light, no additional lighting
• Aiarty is used as the starting reference in this testing. You can get a free trial to test it on your own files, with several other leading tools compared below to show how different approaches handle real-world denoising.

 

Case Study 1: Wildlife (Fur Detail Under Low Light)

Wildlife photography often requires high ISO settings during the "golden hours" of dawn or dusk. The challenge lies in separating fine fur or feather textures from noise, especially in underexposed areas. Traditional tools often smudge these textures, leaving backgrounds blotchy and subjects soft.

Using a squirrel image as an example, where noise appears in both the background and fur, Aiarty Image Enhancer maintains natural and detailed look of the squirrel’s fur, with clear texture instead of being turned into flat areas.

 

Testing Aiarty Image Enhancer: More-Detail GAN v3 model, x2 upscaled, 0.95 Strength

 

You can also control how strong the denoising is with the Strength option. By adjusting the Strength slider, photographers can retain a hint of organic grain for a more "atmospheric" shot or opt for a 100% clean, clinical output for high-end prints.

 

Testing Aiarty Image Enhancer: denoise strength 50% vs 100% 

 

Case Study 2: Low-light Indoor Photography

Indoor scenes with mixed artificial lighting, such as portraits or interior shots, frequently suffer from grain across smooth surfaces like skin, walls, and furniture. Aggressive image noise reduction often results in a "plastic" look where skin textures are over-smoothed and fabric details disappear. 

Aiarty Image Enhancer effectively reduces image noise while preserving subject detail and natural texture. It cleans up grain in low-light interiors without sacrificing the natural micro-textures of skin or wood, ensuring that lighting transitions remain smooth and balanced.

 

Testing Aiarty Image Enhancer: Real-Photo v3, slightly color corrected

 

Case Study 3: Night Photography (Gradient Noise and Color Artifacts)

Night photography presents a unique challenge: managing noise in vast, smooth areas like dark skies and deep shadows. High ISOs often introduce chroma noise (color speckling), which can cause banding in gradients and a loss of depth in the shadows.

While many photo denoising tools struggle with shadow depth, Aiarty Image Enhancer eliminates color artifacts while keeping gradients fluid. Skies remain clean and even, and shadows retain their tonal depth, preventing the "flat" look common in over-processed night shots.

 

Testing Aiarty Image Enhancer: More-Detail GAN v3, slightly color corrected

 

2026 Best AI Photo Denoisers Compared

Aiarty Image Enhancer is a powerful AI denoise and upscale tool. Designed for real-world photos, it effectively removes noise while preserving fine details and natural textures. 

That said, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for image denoising. Different image denoising tools are optimized for different needs—whether it’s RAW photo processing, fast batch cleanup, or advanced AI-driven enhancement workflows.

 

Tool Primary Focus Denoise Approach Price Aiarty Image Enhancer AI-based enhancement Noise reduction + detail reconstruction Lifetime license (with free trial) Adobe Lightroom RAW workflow Sensor-level AI denoise Creative Cloud subscription only DaVinci Resolve Signal processing Temporal + spatial noise reduction Lifetime license (Studio version) Topaz Photo AI Intelligent Automation Denoise + sharpen pipeline Subscription DxO PureRAW Camera calibration Camera-profile-based denoise Lifetime license + upgrade fee ON1 NoNoise AI General-purpose AI Adjustable AI denoise for RAW/JPEG Lifetime/subscription

 

Tips: To get the best results, match the AI image denoiser to your editing habits. If you want to avoid the "subscription trap" and prioritize long-term value, Aiarty Image Enhancer currently offers a 49% off lifetime license ($79, originally $155), available for 3 machines (PC/Mac), includes free lifetime updates, and is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

Adobe Lightroom

For those already within the Adobe ecosystem, Lightroom offers a seamless experience by integrating its AI Denoise tool directly into the familiar Detail panel. The workflow is impressively straightforward: a single slider adjustment generates a new, enhanced DNG file, allowing you to continue your RAW editing without interruption.

Under the hood, Lightroom performs sophisticated RAW-level processing that balances image noise reduction with color and tonal consistency. The results are highly predictable and professional, prioritizing a stable, clean output over aggressive texture reconstruction.

 

 

DaVinci Resolve (UltraNR / Neural Noise Reduction)

If you already use DaVinci Resolve for video, you’ll be pleased to know its new Photo Page brings that same Hollywood-grade photo denoising to your still images. It’s a fantastic "two-for-one" tool that lets you clean up noisy photos using the UltraNR engine without ever leaving your project timeline.

Rather than trying to "invent" new textures, the DaVinci Neural Engine focuses on high-end signal cleanup. It uses a mix of spatial and temporal analysis to remove noise from photos, effectively scrubbing away that gritty luminance and "rainbow" chroma noise while keeping edges like hair and eyes sharp. It’s particularly impressive in deep shadows or underexposed night shots, providing a clean, cinematic look that feels like a natural photograph rather than a digital reconstruction.

 

 

Topaz Photo 

Built around an all-in-one enhancement pipeline, Topaz Photo applies AI models to denoise, sharpen, and upscale images with minimal manual adjustment, focusing on fast automated results. The idea is straightforward: load a noisy image, let the model decide, and get a clean result quickly. Different AI models handle RAW and non-RAW images separately.

When applied to real images, it removes noise from images and produces clean results with minimal manual input. Because AI image denoising and sharpening are handled together, the final appearance can vary depending on how each model balances smoothing and detail enhancement.

 

 

DxO PureRAW

DxO PureRAW takes a RAW-first approach to image enhancement, combining camera and lens profiling with AI-based processing tailored to specific sensor characteristics. Within this workflow, DxO relies on DeepPRIME models to denoise images. Using camera and lens profiles together with AI-based processing, they handle image noise reduction, demosaicing, and optical corrections in a unified step. Newer versions like DeepPRIME 3 and XD3 further improve noise suppression and detail recovery in high-ISO images.

This calibration-heavy workflow delivers exceptionally clean RAW files with superior noise suppression, providing a purer "digital negative" that is particularly effective for high-ISO images shot in difficult lighting.

 

 

ON1 NoNoise AI

Available as both a standalone tool and plugin, ON1 NoNoise AI applies AI-driven noise reduction to RAW and JPEG files while offering adjustable control over detail preservation and smoothing intensity.

The tool uses AI-based noise reduction to clean up high-ISO and low-light images while attempting to preserve fine detail and sharpness, with adjustable intensity levels that allow users to control how aggressively noise is removed. While it prioritizes a balanced, natural look for everyday photography rather than deep texture reconstruction, it remains a popular AI denoiser for its ability to preserve color fidelity in challenging low-light shots.

 

 

Conclusion 

AI has transformed noise reduction from a tedious chore into a professional-grade shortcut. While tools like Lightroom and DxO focus on RAW consistency, and others lean toward automation, Aiarty Image Enhancer stands out for its superior balance of noise removal and genuine texture preservation.

For photographers who need powerful, easy-to-use image noise reduction that restores natural detail without complex manual steps, Aiarty is a top-tier choice. It offers the precision and speed required to turn noisy, low-light shots into clean, professional results with just a single click.

 

What Is Mood?

Mood essentially relates to the lighting in a shot. Giving something mood usually means we are trying to make it dark and brooding – making it moody. But mood can relate to any lighting situation, to give your photo any mood/feeling.

For landscape photography, mood usually relates to the weather. A cloudy, unsettled day will create mood in a way most of us expect it to be - dark and brooding. Although the opposite, where streaks of the sun break through the cloud to shine light on parts of the green landscape is equally as good, it's just the mood/feeling is different. 

 

Gear Choices

To take good moody landscapes, you're going to need a tripod as dark days may be good for the style of shot you're trying to create but the lack of light can lead to slower shutter speeds and working without a tripod can result in shake. 

 

 

Be Patient

This type of photography requires patience. To get the best shots, you need to wait until there is a break in the weather to get some really interesting lighting effects from the turbulent sky. Of course, mood doesn't have to be cloudy, but with landscapes, it's more of a challenge to portray mood on bright, sunny, cloudless days. 

When the right light does arrive, work quickly as it can be gone again before you know it. The key to this is always to be ready, having your gear out and framing in-mind before the right light does show its face. 
 

Be Prepared

Check the weather forecast the night before as there's no point heading out if you find the weather isn't going to be right. You also need to have the right type of location as you'll find some subjects will work better in dark, moody shots than others. 

 

 

Convert Your Shots

Black and white is another way to create mood in your photography. Taking photos of a gnarly tree, for example, in black and white will look so much more foreboding than a shot in colour. You can shoot black and white in-camera although, if you shoot in colour, you can convert your shots to black and white in your chosen editing software, giving you more control over the tones, highlights and shadows in the shot.

 

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Landscape photography's all well and good, but what do you photograph when the skies are leaden and the rain's really set in for the day. That's when I pick up a tripod and head off for a 'rust fix' and there are plenty of museums and collections around the country that are perfect for this type of day.

 

Think In Textures & Patterns 

The secret when visiting collections of rusty vehicles is to try to forget what it is you are photographing, by that I mean not to look at them as a lathe, excavator, or drill; but to view everything as simply shape, pattern and texture. Indoor locations such as old sheds and workshops should be explored, too, as even though they may seem to be filled with junk, if you look around carefully there will be a wealth of goodies to point your camera at.

It's worth leaving the camera in your bag and walking round for 15 minutes, just looking to see what might work photographically – pick out maybe a pile of spanners sitting on a workbench, or if outside, select one vehicle and look over it carefully, choosing details that will make strong, abstract, colourful and interesting pictures.

Raindrops on the surface add another texture, and wet paint and rust enrich the colours. If you are working inside using light coming through a window behind the items you are photographing, a reflector can be invaluable to bounce light from the window back into the shadows. Be careful not to rush around trying to photograph everything – you will more than likely be disappointed with the results, spend time working around each subject, trying various angles and looking close to create strong, abstract, colourful and interesting pictures.

 

Why's A Tripod An Important Tool?  

Because the 'undercover' work (and if it's pouring with rain, that's probably the best place to be) tends to be in darker locations, a tripod is an essential piece of kit. Lighting levels are low and shutter speeds can be quite long, but I'm not a huge fan of flash in these places – firstly, it tends to kill the natural lighting, second, if there other people looking around, a continual flashing can be annoying for them. I keep my ISO fairly low for this work, as non-moving subjects taken using a tripod are no problem up to 30-second exposures – or beyond if you have a remote release with a timer.
 

Work With Custom White Balance Settings 

Be careful of lighting – often there is a mixture of diffused daylight coming through the windows, and fluorescent lighting in the ceiling. The ideal solution is to turn off the lights, but this wouldn't go down too well with others, so make full use of your camera's custom white balance settings.

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to TheShaker (Day 18- Weather).

 

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 17

People In The Landscapes

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Day 19

Lighthouses

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Day 20

Numbers & Letters

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Day 21

'Arty' Theme

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  Day 22

'Fun' Theme

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Day 23

Flotsam

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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.