Photo How To

The Rule of Thirds is a very helpful compositional guideline that is a great reference point for beginner photographers or seasoned professionals. As with any photography rule, they really are meant to be broken, so take this as more of a general guideline than a defined rule.

In short, this eye-opening tutorial from portrait/street photographer Manny Ortiz is a visual examination of what could be called “the art of seeing,” Ortiz uses his compelling imagery to illustrate what accomplished photographers see upon arriving upon a scene, as opposed to how non-photographers (or less adept shooters) view the same location.

Cropping photos is easy, right? You start with either a horizontal or vertical photo and trim it a bit to get tighter or remove distracting elements. Of if you want to be really wild (and have enough resolution) maybe you crop in a way that transforms a portrait orientation into a landscape perspective.

White balance sounds like one of those concerns that vaporized with the advent of digital photography. In the days when film was king, you had to think about the color quality of light at the drugstore photo counter, long before you made any pics. You could either plan on shooting in the Sun, using a so-called “daylight” emulsion, or snapping your photos indoors, with a “T” or “tungsten” film stock.

Sooner or later every photographer hits the doldrums and their creativity temporarily runs dry. The quick video below will give you a heavy dose of inspiration the next time this happens to you.

We often hear people complain that there’s nothing interesting to photograph where they live. Well, one of our writers lives in the most densely populated state in America (New Jersey). Here are some of the images he captured during a two-hour period one Friday morning without traveling more than 15 miles from home. And to prove that good photos exist everywhere—if we just look—he used only one camera and one lens.

Some photographers are surprised to learn that all memory cards and card readers are not created equal. Not only do they come in different formats, but some are faster than others, and card capacity tends to vary with price.