Category: Back to Basics

How to take better pictures: Getting great colour with White Balance

 Gavin   Back to Basics, Techniques
How White Balance Affects Colour

Do you want to learn how to instantly improve your pictures? Have you ever wondered why some photographers’ images just look so real? This article is for you.

How to instantly improve your photos…

What would you say if I told you there is a magic button on your camera? A magic button that will instantly improve your pictures. A magic button that will make the colours in your camera so much more real and lifelike?

Well, there is. Only it’s not called the magic button, it’s called “white balance” and it’s really simple to use. Many photographers won’t change their camera’s white balance for fear of being unable to recover its original settings. Some worry they’ll forget to change it back and still more don’t even know what it does.

In this article I’m going to dispel a few myths and get you to step outside your comfort zone. I’m also going to keep it light and non-technical so stay with me and hopefully you’ll learn something along the way. Continue reading How to take better pictures: Getting great colour with White Balance »

Announcing theLightMatters Photography Training and Workshops

 Gavin   Back to Basics, Courses, Journey, Strobist, Studio, Techniques, theLightMatters, Tips

I’m really excited to announce the launch of my new photography training, photography workshops photo-shoot experience days through theLightMatters Workshops.

It’s not just a photography workshop though. It’s the foundation of a local photography community, centred around Guildford, Surrey. My vision is to create a lively and exciting group with a varied repertoire of subject matter. We’ll be shooting in the studio and on location. We’ll be using many different kinds of light from pure, natural light to speedlites to studio flash and mixing them up a bit too. Oh yes, and we’ll be making some great images along the way.

My goal is to run a mixture of group shoots and workshops, Continue reading Announcing theLightMatters Photography Training and Workshops »

Back to Basics: Key Components of Exposure

 Gavin   Back to Basics, Techniques

Following on from last week’s article on exposure and likened it to fillling a bucket of water, this week I’d like to talk a little about the key components of exposure and more importantly how they combine together to let us fill our bucket and how we may balance one against the other. Continue reading Back to Basics: Key Components of Exposure »

Back to Basics: Photography for Beginners Series

 Gavin   Back to Basics, Techniques

In the last couple of weeks I’ve started to write a new series of blog posts for theLightMatters. It’s aimed at beginners and people who would like to improve their photography, taking it up to th next level. It will cover many basic and fundamental topics in a lighthearted and non technical way. It’s a series for beginners written without the clutter of unnecessary jargon. There will be jargon as it’s important to use the right terminology but hopefully not to the extent that it turns people away. If it does, please let me know because that is specifically something I wish to avoid. My back to basics series is geared specifically to provide clarity with easy to understand terminology and everyday concepts.

The first two articles in the series have been posted and I’ve included a comprehensive but unfinished list after the jump. I’ll be updating it from time to time as my ideas gel so it’s not definitive, exhaustive or contractual in any way.

Continue reading Back to Basics: Photography for Beginners Series »

Back to Basics: Exposure

 Gavin   Back to Basics, Techniques
Basics of Exposire
Examples of Exposure: Under, Over and Correst

Exposure is one of those fundamental concepts of photography that many people struggle with. Get it right and you have a beautifully lit image. Get it wrong and you end up with a ruined shot because it is either too bright, pure white in extreme cases or too dark, maybe even black. We’ve all had them.

The big question is what causes under or over exposure and how can it be avoided? Continue reading Back to Basics: Exposure »