Ron Leach

Tripods tend to be standard equipment for wildlife photographers striving for optimum sharpness. But when photographing birds, these three-legged camera supports can often be an encumbrance— especially when shooting birds in flight.

The term “cinematic effect” refers to a popular method of editing photographs so they look like a frame grab from a movie. There’s no one “right way” to create this dramatic look, which is simply a style of adding mood, manipulating lighting, and imparting a film-like atmosphere to a photo.

The first thing most photographers learn is that a camera’s light meter is calibrated to deliver correct exposures of “average” subjects with a tone of middle gray. But what about bright scenes like a snowfield, or close-ups of dark subjects like a black cat? That’s where exposure (EV) compensation comes into play.

Portraiture is a very subjective endeavor, with almost as many styles of shooting as there are portrait photographers. And this quick tutorial is sure to raise a few eyebrows, as Manny Ortiz explains why he often purposely underexposes his images.