Exploring Light

When I was invited to create five lighting tips for this Exploring Light column, my initial thought was to avoid common lighting tips you’re familiar with and likely using now. Instead, I wanted to offer a few tips and techniques that have benefited me throughout my career while shooting portraits.

During this pandemic with less travelling and more time spent at home, it's a perfect time to dust off our macro lenses and shoot some gorgeous backyard macro photography. Even if you do not have an expansive garden, a deck or small patio will do. Here are five tips and tricks to get you started in shooting great macro photos at home.

(Editor’s Note: Exploring Light is a monthly Shutterbug column featuring tips, tricks, and photo advice from professional photographers in Canon's Explorers of Light education program. This month's column is by Michele Celentano on how to safely pose models in our time of social distancing.)

My early years as a professional photographer involved doing a lot of assignment work that required a documentary approach to photographing landscapes. Back then I was trying to produce straightforward, descriptive views of outdoor environments because the end uses of the commissioned photographs necessitated that style of photography. These days, however, my work features a more creative approach.

Over the past 40 years I’ve written articles on just about every photographic topic. Good fun for sure. In this article I’d like to share with you some of my favorite sunrise and sunset photograph tips that I have learned through my travels around the country and around the world.

While car races and commercials are fun and exhilarating, one of the things I most love to shoot are actually car shows and meets such as the popular Cars and Coffee events. It’s automotive photography at its most basic form. Not everyone can teleport themselves across the world to shoot exclusive events and races, but anyone can roll up to a car show and snap photos.