Photo How To

Many of you are familiar with the Eve Arnold quote, “It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.” But let’s face it: If you haven’t set up your camera correctly, it’s pretty difficult to capture great photographs. 

We like to keep things simple after hectic holiday weekends; so today we’re bringing you three quick “five tips“ tutorials that will improve your photography without a huge learning curve. In this first video, you’ll pick up one pro’s five favorite camera hacks in just two minutes.

There’s an old saying that you’re not a “real photographer” until you switch the camera’s mode dial from Auto to Manual. While we think that notion is somewhat overblown, there are definitely advantages to manual photography.

Stephen Wilkes carried the idea of day-to-night images for a long time. The seed was planted when he photographed the cast and crew of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet for Life magazine.

“Every Picture Tells a Story.” You’ve no doubt heard Rod Stewart’s song, but, as you head out the door with your camera, do you ever stop to mull over what these words mean? What, you ask yourself, am I saying with each frame? Do I need to shoot more frames to fashion the message I want the world to see and hear? And finally, you may be asking yourself, do I need to bathe the pictures in a wash of words or should I let them speak for themselves?

Just because you have a camera with a fast and accurate autofocus system, and a bag of lenses to match, that doesn’t mean you should simply depress the shutter button half-way and wait for the green LED to light up. As you’ll see in this tutorial, there’s a lot more to sharp photos than that.

In an age when fast food coffee cups are marked “Caution: Hot” it’s unfortunate that some of the hidden hazards photographers encounter don’t have warning signs. Forewarned is forearmed, as wise men say. Or as I like to say, sometimes the difference between a disaster and a minor annoyance is knowledge, experience and preparation—or accidentally stumbling upon some obscure piece of advice on the internet.