What does a lens hood do?

A lens hood has a couple different jobs

You cameras lens hood can help to shield the front of your lens from the sun rays, or other bright unwanted light, from directly hitting the front lens element and scattering the light creating sun/light flares, those are the rainbow colored streaks and hexagonal colored shapes created when the sun reflects off the aperture.

Another job of the lens hood, or shade is it helps to prevent, minimize any damage to the front of the lens from the elements or in my case from slipping in the mud while out on an outdoor photo-shoot.

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Helpful Photography DIY accessories

What is the use of a flash diffuser? And how can I make one.

A flash diffuser, as it describes, defuses the light. In other words it softens the light that is sent from your flash to your subject.

This is going to sound odd but, one thing that I used for many years when I first started using flash in my photography, was to cover the flash with a piece of tissue held on with an elastic band. 

You can also use a piece of white copy paper cut to size and taped over the pop up flash.

Another option I learned about making a flash diffuser was to cut a piece of plastic from a plastic milk jug and form it around to flash.

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Camera Buttons and Dials

Different settings and buttons, what do they do?

So with the variety of different digital camera models and brands on the market the basics are the same just where the buttons are, and the menus are, differs. We are going to take a look at a Nikon d5300 just to give you a better idea of what does what.

Below we will work on helping you to better understand your camera

So let’s start on the top of the camera there you will see the buttons generally used most often and ones that you wish to have at easier access.

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Beginner photography gear – what to start with

To start out you need some basic beginner photography gear

Starting with the camera, one that fits your budget and has the features you can understand and features you can grow into. You do not necessarily need to purchase a new camera.  There are many good site and shops that you can purchase a well taken care of used or refurbished camera.  This is what I did when I started out.

A sturdy tripod, one that is not to heavy, yet stable enough to hold your camera steady in varied terrains. One that is easy and fairly quick to set the legs out. The  one on the left is a compact easy traveler yet sturdy and the one on the right is a heavier and larger style tripod. Continue reading “Beginner photography gear – what to start with”

How to use the camera with a tripod – stable camera helps to achieve sharper images

How to use camera with tripod

Tripod use sounds pretty simple but there are a few important things that you should take into consideration when using one. To start, how to use the camera with a tripod so that it stays stable and safe. Your camera is generally worth considerably more money than the tripod so you want to make sure it is very stable.

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