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Check Out These Tutorials To Add Magic To Your Wildlife Photography

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Wildlife photography is capturing photos of birds, animals and other critters in the wild, in their natural habitat. It is completely different from capturing photos of animals or birds in the zoo. Wildlife photography is not easy and requires a lot of patience and skills. It also needs educating oneself about different animal behaviours and having great respect towards wild animals.

Photographing wildlife will require special gear like a long lens and a camera that has continuous autofocus and can shoot in burst mode. In this article we have put together a set of tutorials that will help you to get started in wildlife photography.

Photo by Pieter van Noorden

Wildlife photography is one of the most rewarding genre in photography and working with such stunning subjects requires a lot of observational skills, research and understanding of the subjects, to get the best shots. Scouting for locations, working with the light and elements and wisely choosing compositional techniques are some of the most important factors that will help to capture the best wildlife photos. In this article, we have put together some tips that will help you to capture beautiful wildlife photos.

Photo by Jeremy Hynes

Wildlife photography is quite different compared to other genre of photography in the sense you cannot always predict the behaviour of your subjects and it is also difficult to spot them in the wild. You may have heard of wildlife photographers who have spent days, weeks and months looking for their favourite or a particular subject. Besides you will need to take into account a few other factors as well in order to capture the best shots. If you are a beginner in wildlife photography, this article will help you get started.

Photo by Harsh Singh

In the early days into wildlife photography, you may be practicing with a smaller lens like your kit lens that came with your camera. Most of the time when this lens is used with a crop sensor camera, it will work well for shots of bigger animals that are not too far away and also for good environmental shots. Wildlife photography can be done better with the right gear if you are planning to take it up seriously and this article discusses the gear you need to get started.

Photo by Polina Koroleva

Some wildlife photos can be done better if you take care of some little things when out in the field. All animals portray attitudes and behaviour and capturing these against a good background can result in compelling photos. You just need to move around a bit and look at your subject from a different angle and perspective. This article provides some tips to add a wow factor to your wildlife photos.

Photo by Frida Lannerström

You may have started wildlife photography and shot a few photos but found that they are not very interesting. Following a few tips and techniques can help you capture better wildlife photos. This article talks about research, patience, backgrounds, light, settings for creative shots, composition, ethics and gear for wildlife photography in the form of short tips.

Photo by Alpha Perspective

If you are someone who lives in urban areas, you would have come across a few species off wildlife in public places. Photographing these wildlife is a way to get started in wildlife photography. Most of the urban wildlife are not very shy and come quite closer to humans compared to the animals and birds in the wild. Practicing wildlife photography in an urban area, is a great way to start wildlife photography. This article gives a few tips to shoot urban wildlife

Photo by Max Zaharenkov

There are times when photographers plan safaris or other wildlife expeditions and they will need to be in locations where they will need to work with the gear in hand for a few days or even more. Even if you go out for a day safari or wildlife adventure, you will need to pack the necessary gear in order to capture the shots without any stress. This article talks about the gear you need to pack when you go out for wildlife photography.

Photo by Debjoy Biswas

Once you have captured your wildlife shots, you will need to edit them to give the image a pop and the right colours. Remember to always shoot raw for effective post processing. A slight adjustment in exposure, contrast, adjusting the white balance, highlights and shadows will help to bring out the best from your raw files. Depending on the files, you may need to make further adjustments like vibrance, sharpness, clarity etc. This article talks about editing wildlife photos in Lightroom for visual impact.

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18/09/2025
These Tutorials Will Help You Master The Art Of Flower Photography

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Flowers are colourful and come in all shapes, sizes, textures and colours. They are also used to celebrate important moments in life and as a daily addition to brighten up spaces. If you are a beginner in photography, flowers are great subjects to start with. Whether you have a camera or just your phone, you can use it to capture beautiful photographs of flowers.

If you are someone who prints photos to hang in your space, flower photos truly work as great printed pieces and can add a pop of colour to your space. A basic camera and your kit lens or a 50mm lens or even your smartphone, are all you need to get started with flower photography. You can also capture interesting macros of flowers that can be both abstract and intriguing. In this article,, we have put together a set of tutorials that will help you to master the art of flower photography.

Photo by Zoe Richardson

When photographing flowers, people may not consider it as a very serious subject and approach it without much thought or any other creative techniques in mind. For example for closeup details of textures on the flower you will need to use a narrow aperture and get quite close to the subject and for a photo where you want the flower to stand out from the background you will need to shoot using a wide aperture. This article provides a detailed guide on how to photograph flowers for great results.

Photo by Stux

We cannot imagine a world without flowers, can we? Flowers add a lot of beauty colour and magic to landscapes and gardens. Flowers come in all shapes, colours and sizes and they can be photographed in different ways If you take a little care in terms of light, composition and techniques, and you can create stunning results. This article discusses 8 tips that you should embrace to get the best out of your flower photography.

We would all imagine that flower photos can only be captured with a wide or moderate focal length lens, but there are times when flowers may be high up on a tree or in a location where you may not be able to get close to the flower/s. Besides, using a telephoto lens for flower photography will also help with achieving various looks and effects in the resulting images. this article discusses how to capture great flower photos using a telephoto lens.

Photo by Cristiane Teston

Flowers are attractive and they most of the time attract birds and other critters with their vibrant colours. There is a lot of science behind why certain flowers are evolved to be in terms of their colour size, form and shape. When the colour is removed you can look deeper into the textures and other details of a flower. Here is a collection of black and white flower images with a small write up of what the author feels about black and white flower photography.

Photo by Erik Karits

Have you looked at flowers up close? Observed their intricate details? There are a lot of beautiful textures, and even some forms that can be observed, which can go unnoticed otherwise. Macro photography of flowers is something that will help you to capture these stunning details. If you take care of the lighting, composition and a few other factors, you will have beautiful resulting images and this article discusses those details.

Photo by Rapha Wilde

One of the best subjects for macro photography is flowers. Macro photos of flowers can be captured when in the fields but there are times when the weather may not be favourable, especially if it is windy and in those situations, the flower can be brought indoors to capture its minute details. Unless you have good window light that can illuminate your subject, you may need to use some kind of artificial lighting setup to capture sharp details. This article discusses how to set up a lighting studio to capture macro photos of flowers.

Photo by Danielle Stein

Flowers are brightly coloured and they bring in a lot of cheer to the place they are in. Some flowers are very brightly coloured and they just bring a pop and mood to a spot or surroundings. When capturing or editing flower photos one does not always need to stick to the bright and cheerful style but can also lean towards the dark and moody vibe which works great for flower photography. When capturing images for this style, and during the editing process, some care needs to be taken, which may be slightly different. This article talks about capturing and editing dark and moody flowers or in general flora.

Photo by Charles Smart

Most of the time, we may be photographing flowers in our own garden. When doing so we have a number of opportunities to capture the flowers differently. The tools we use in the garden and other garden features can serve as interesting backdrops or props and this will help to capture interesting storytelling images. This article was written after taking inspiration from my small garden and explains how to capture photos in your own garden for stunning results.

Photo by Sheen

There are many types of flowers on this planet – some big, some small and others very tiny.. There are times when you may come across a field of a particular flower and you may be running out of ideas to photograph in that location. It may look too busy or you may be confused but the right choice of focal length, and composition can help you capture beautiful shots. This article discusses how you can photograph the gorgeous looking sunflowers in different ways. This can also be applied to other flowers.

Photo by Sheen

Here is another article that talks about capturing a particular flower – Dahlias. Dahlias come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes too and choosing the right combination of colours will work great. If you love dahlias and are interested in capturing their beauty, then this article talks about the different ways these flowers can be photographed, creative post processing including black and white, lens choices and more.

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10/09/2025
Nervous About Bird Photography – These Tutorials Will Help You Get Started

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When it comes to wildlife photography, birds, especially the smaller ones are the most difficult to photograph. In general, birds are the most difficult subjects as they are small, stay in between the foliage most of the time and are always moving or flying around. Bird photographers make it look easy and a lot of YouTube videos (not all) also make it look quite easy but practically being in the field, carrying a heavy lens, focusing through the natural obstacles and capturing the right moment, can all be quite a daunting experience.

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge

Besides the photography techniques part, learning about birds themselves can be very helpful in terms of photographing them at the right moment. Observe and study their behaviour and be very discreet when photographing them.

Wearing the right coloured clothing is also important for bird photography and wildlife in general. Most importantly, be patient and persistent – do not give up if you do not get good shots during your early days in bird photography.

In terms of camera settings, the one that has worked for me personally is, shooting in Aperture Priority mode using back button focusing technique and always shoot raw. Here are some valuable bird photography tutorials, that will help you get in the right direction.

Photo by Ingo Doerrie

When photographing birds, the images are more compelling and effective, if you capture their natural behaviour in the wild. Birds portray some very interesting behaviour and traits that if observed patiently, can be photographed as well. This article talks about bird photography basics followed by actions you can do in the field to create better photographic opportunities and a few tips on honing your skills.

Photo by Patrice Bouchard

Mastering bird photography is a long process that has a lot of factors that need taken care of. They are some of the most difficult and trickiest subjects to photograph and once you get the basics right, making use of the right settings is important for successful bird photography. This article discusses the best settings for bird photography.

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček

Birds can be photographed in many ways – capturing their actions, capturing their portraits up close or capturing an environmental shot that includes the environment they are living in, birds in flight, etc. Action photography can be quite difficult when compared to portraits, but again it depends on the type of bird and its behaviour. This article talks about two types of bird photographs that will help to improve your skills.

Photo by Jay Alexander

Wildlife photographs can boost any photographer’s portfolio because it is a genre admired the most by many photographers and non-photographers alike. In order to capture wildlife at its best, the photographer needs to have reasonable gear to start with. This article talks about the gear you need to pack when you go out for wildlife photography.

Photo by R. Mac Wheeler

Wildlife photography includes photographing birds, animals and other small critters in the wild. While bird photography may require slightly more skills with focusing and longer lenses, the techniques required are quite similar. This article discusses some quick beginner tips that will help you capture some stunning wildlife photographs.

Photo by Boris Smokrovic

Wildlife photography is not something that is commonly taken up by most photographers because they think that capturing wildlife is very difficult and that it needs very expensive gear. You can start off with the lens that you have in hand and then invest in a slightly bigger lens when you are confident enough in photographing wildlife. This article provides four tips that include emotion & attitude, nature’s frames & backdrops, unique features and taking advantage of the weather.

Photo by Rob Potter

Once you have come back from a bird photography session, you will need to check your images and make some edits before you can present them or even print them. Lightroom is a versatile tool that helps with culling images and also processing images easily and if you have a personal preset that you like to use for your wildlife photos, then that can cut down a lot of editing time. This article talks about editing your wildlife photos in Lightroom for magical impact.

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04/09/2025
Looking For Some Great Lightroom Tutorials – Check These Out!

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Lightroom is a versatile program that has evolved over the years and comes with amazing tools that makes it a one stop platform for most beginner and experienced photographers. Most professional photographers rely on Lightroom because of the efficiency in batch processing files, making it a great hit among many wedding and event photographers including others.

Besides, various features that help photographers organise their photos, sharing them as catalogs, using the creative cloud feature, etc., has made Lightroom a go to program for many photographers. If you are looking to improve your Lightroom skills or wish to learn more about the features that you do not use, here are a number of tutorials that will help you to understand Lightroom better.

Photography is about spending time capturing images with your camera and spending little amount of time post-processing the images. There are times when photographers may hate editing or maybe need a quick boost to their images without spending much time. Lightroom comes with tools that can make editing a breeze. Read to find more!

It doesn’t matter what program you use for editing, but it is important to have a specific workflow that can help you work faster and more efficiently to produce great results. Light room comes with rating systems, labels, tags, import settings, etc., that can make your work easier. This article shows how you can streamline your Lightroom workflow and save time.

Photographers have a huge collection of photos from each session most of the time and sometimes photos are also scattered across several hard drives. It would be great to organise the photos and find the ones we’re looking for easily, without having too much trouble. Here are some ways to organise your images using lightroom.

Lightroom comes with a lot of powerful tools, most of them packed in the “Develop” module and most of the time if the image is captured well in camera, there are only a few subtle edits one needs to do, to make an image presentable. Some tools like the clarity, texture, dehaze and sharpening, if not used well, can make the image look overprocessed or awkward. This article talks about five subtle tools you should learn to use in Lightroom.

Using the vertical tool manually in Lightroom. By Jason Row Photography.

If you are someone who has interests in architectural photography, chances are that when post-processing, you will need to correct the verticals and remove lens distortions. This may also apply sometimes to other genre in photography. This article talks about the transform and lens correction tools in Lightroom and why you need to use them.

Lightroom provides a lot of tools to make a photographer’s workflow easier and faster. There are a lot of little things that photographers need to know in order to use this program efficiently. Who doesn’t love hacks in order to get editing jobs done easily? This article provides 10 hacks for Lightroom classic.

The recent updates over the past year use AI technology to reduce the amount of time required to work on certain tasks within Lightroom. Some of these tools were not available in older versions of Lightroom and they can come in handy if required. Here are some quick but useful Lightroom tools that you should know.

Lightroom as simple as it may seem, has some really powerful masking tools that make selective editing quite easier for photographers. Depending on what you need to mask, there are various masking options – using just a brush or select objects, subjects, sky, background, etc. Here is a quick guide on how to use the masking tool in Lightroom for the best results.

Besides the basic colour corrections and other important tools that Lightroom provides, there is a separate section to colour grade photos if you are someone who wishes to bring in a cinematic or another specific look to your images. Lightroom has three colour wheels, one each to control the colours in the shadows, mid-tones and highlights. Check out this article to find out how to use these wheels.

If you want to work faster in Lightroom, you need to get into your Lightroom settings and makes some changes to improve its performance. Many beginners may not be aware of these settings. Most of the issues arise when working in the develop module or even the simple process of scrolling across to the other images may be slower. Here are some ways to get better performance in Lightroom Classic.

Some users may not be aware of the fact that Lightroom can also be used to edit videos. Although it does not have any advanced tools for video editing, if you are someone who occasionally captures a couple of videos and wishes to make some basic edits, then Lightroom can be useful if you do not want to invest in other expensive video editing programs. Here are the pros and cons along with how to edit a video using Lightroom.

Lastly, if you are someone who likes to make edits on the go on your mobile device, Lightroom has a mobile app that can also sync your edits via creative cloud so you can continue from where you left, when working on this app from your computer. Here is a quick guide to using the Lightroom mobile app.

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29/08/2025
Follow These Long Exposure Tutorials To Make Your Ordinary Images Look Extraordinary

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Long exposure photography is a genre where you intentionally increase the exposure time to blur certain parts of the image but there is also night sky photography or other night photography where long exposure can be made to capture as much light as possible. When you capture long exposure images depending on the time of the day and amount of light, you may need to increase the exposure times and sometimes use an ND or Grad-ND filter to lengthen the exposure times.

Photo by Lopez Robin

Besides using ND filters, you will also need accessories like a stable tripod and a remote release to avoid camera shakes. Long exposure photography can be applied to many genre of photography besides the landscape photography where this technique is more commonly used. In this article, we have put together a bunch of tutorials for you to get an understanding of long exposure photography and improve your skills.

Photo by Gerald Berliner

When capturing long exposure images, a few factors need to be kept in mind. The light in the location and how it is illuminating the subject, the time of day and what the end results would be, stabilising the camera, using the right settings based on the light and other elements, etc. Besides, you will need to use required accessories to get the best results. Check out these four easy to follow tips that will help make your long exposure photos successful.

Photo by Nathan61

If you are looking for a few more quick tips on capturing long exposure images, the above article has a few tips on the factors and settings you need to consider for good long exposure shots. There is also a useful chart that will help you to calculate your applied settings for normal light situations into the language of long-exposure photography.

Image by BenFrantzDale

Capturing long exposure during the day time can be quite tricky because the light can be bright in most situations and you will need to cut down light based on how long you need the exposure time to be. This is where ND filters come in handy and they come in various strengths. Check out the above article to learn how to use an ND filter for day time long exposure photography.

Here are some more handy tutorials:

Photo by Jason Row

Architectural elements can be great subjects in a long exposure photograph. If shot under the right light conditions and other elements in the frame like clouds or light trails architectural structures can lead to very interesting photographs. The above article is a quick guide on long exposure architectural photography.

Photo by H Matthew Howarth

Just like how you capture long exposure photographs during the day time, you can capture stunning long exposures at night too. Remember that you will definitely need a tripod and a shutter release to capture sharp images without any blur due to camera shake.

Photo via Pixabay

Night time photography can be interesting if you add a dynamic element to the frame. If you can safely photograph the light trails from traffic or from other interesting subjects like a carousel or a Ferris wheel, these can add visual interest and a story telling factor to the image. Here are some quick tips in the article above.

Long exposure photography is so fascinating that it does not stop with capturing just light trails, moving water or clouds, star trails and so on, but can also be extended to capture sun trails. Here is an article that shares the work of photographer Kristian Saks and the process of how he captures these images.

Photo by Federico Alegría

Now if you are a street photographer, you are surely missing out on some creative photography if you do not capture long exposure street photos. Yes, long exposure is a great way to add a dynamic element to street photos and will help you to capture intriguing photos. The above article will help you with some tips to capture long exposure street photos.

Photo by Jason Row

There are times when we capture long exposure images that we think are technically perfect but the results may be very disappointing. The most common mistakes are camera shakes, colour shifts, noise, diffraction, internal reflection, etc. The article above will help you understand why these mistakes can happen and how you can rectify them.

Photo by Diego Vitali

Some situations will help some photographers capture long exposure images by just handholding their camera if they have a somewhat steady hand. But when you become quite serious about this craft and look to capture perfect and sharp photos, you will need to invest in some very essential gear. Here is what you need to capture the best long exposure shots both during the day and at night.

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09/08/2025
Check Out These Tutorials To Capture Unique Urban Photos

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Many photographers consider urban spaces as boring locations to photograph, due to the fact that they may be too busy and/or cluttered. Moreover, these places can be quite crowded most of the time and noisy too, but if you are willing to slow down, and take time to observe and photograph some unique and interesting shots, then urban spaces provide a lot of photographic opportunities.

Urban spaces or cities provide opportunities for several genre of photography like architecture, street, urban wildlife, etc. It is always recommended to scout locations beforehand, get to know the area and study how light falls in a particular area during certain times of the day, etc., so you can come back with very compelling photos.

Here are some tutorials that we have put together, so you can get some ideas and be inspired to photograph in urban spaces.

Here is a tutorial or a walkthrough for an interesting start on how urban spaces can be photographed. This article includes a lot of sample images with details along the way to give you an understanding of how light, perspective, angles, etc., can be used to capture interesting urban photographs.

Photo by Hongmei Zhao

When we hear the word landscapes, we immediately think about natural landscapes in the wilderness like the ones that have meadows, grasslands, hills and mountains, beaches etc. Landscapes can be also extended to urban areas where urban landscapes can be captured as they are quite interesting if you follow some tips.

Photo by Adam Borkowski

While many photographers choose to stay indoors on rainy days in order to protect their gear and themselves, these days provide great atmosphere for photography and many creative opportunities. Urban landscapes transform into magical spaces during or after a rain and with some precautions and safety measures, one can capture stunning urban photos on a rainy day. Here are some tips for rainy urban photos.

Photo by Gil Ribeiro

Cities are places where something keeps happening all the time – there are a lot of stories, events, cultural activities and so on, that can be photographed. Besides, cities provide great opportunities to capture architecture during various times of the day and seasons, street photography, environmental photos, etc. Here are some ideas to capture stunning city photos.

Photo by Jason Row

Street photography in a city can offer unique perspectives on what is happening in a city and the light falling through tall buildings and alleyways can offer interesting compositions and stories. Right from train stations to city centres, each space provides different stories and elements that can be used to capture the life in the city. A keen eye for details and a story telling mind is all that you need for capturing great street photos in a city. Here are some tips and ideas.

Photo by Marc Kleen

A lot of people choose to live in cities because of the vibe and the other interesting things they can experience there. Cities are also spaces that are filled with architecture and other structures, both new and old. It is not just about capturing the buildings in a city, but also the life there, that makes for epic cityscape photographs. Here are some ideas on how to capture cities in unimaginable ways.

Photo by Abigail Keenan

Do you live in a city? If so, are you bored of photographing the place that you live in? We all have this habit of not photographing the places we live in, because we see it all the time and don’t feel that it has anything new or interesting to contribute. If that is the case, you are wrong. Your city has a load of photographic opportunities and you need to look at it with the eyes of a tourist. Read to find out how!

Photo by Michael Discenza

Have you seen wildlife in urban spaces? Unlike capturing wildlife photographs in the wild by staying very far away from the animals and birds, urban wildlife that are used to humans around them can be captured up close as they mostly stay close to human residents, parks, etc. The wildlife in urban spaces can be interestingly photographed against daily happenings in the cities and towns. This article gives you tips on how to photograph urban wildlife.

Photo by Luna Wang

Besides all the stunning subjects and cityscapes in urban spaces, if you are a photographer interested in capturing portraits, cities offer amazing opportunities to capture interesting portraits. Some very interesting geometrical compositions can be used to capture portraits in urban areas, Here are some tips to start with.

Also, if you are interested in learning about geometrical compositions, check out this article – How To Use Geometry For Creative Composition In Photography

Photo by greekfood-tamystika

We have all heard of the golden hour as the best time to photograph anything because of the glorious, soft but dramatic light the sun casts during that time. Do not pack your camera bags after sunset, because the blue hour is one of the best times to capture very emotive and soft photos especially in the city when the lights are just turned on. Here is how to shoot cityscapes during the blue hour.

Photo by Mick Haupt

If you are someone interested in urban decay, or wish to shoot something different in urban spaces,, then urban decay is a genre that will be of interest to you. Moreover these spaces will not be crowded, so you can take time to explore and capture them from unique perspectives and angles. Make sure you have permission to enter and photograph these spaces as some areas and buildings may have restrictions or may be private. Here are some tips for you to get started.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso

Finally if you are interested in black and white photography, urban spaces are great because of the light, textures and drama they can lend to great black and white photographs. Make sure that you have a good tonal range in the scene so the resulting black and white image is powerful. You need to learn to see in black and white in order to capture images to convert to black and white.

Photo by Jason Row

If you want to check out some creative urban photos, check out these “Urban Etchings” by Grant Legassick, which is a definitive study of an urban environment comprising multiple images layered over one another, giving the impression of a fine, delicate pencil drawing or metal etching. These images are mind-blowing and the photographer shares how these were made.

Photo by by Grant Legassick

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31/07/2025
Follow These Tutorials To Capture Night Sky Objects With The Camera You Have
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Night sky is an addictive subject to photograph and if you look closer, there are many night sky objects that you can photograph, other than the moon and the Milky Way. On very clear nights, you will be able to see a lot of nebulae, star clusters, cloud complexes and even a galaxy without the aid of a telescope.

Right now it is the Milky Way season in the Northern Hemisphere, but for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, there are many objects in the Winter sky that are worth photographing. If you are new to astrophotography, start by photographing the moon and then move on to photograph the Milky Way, before working towards photographing deep space objects.

Grab your Milky Way Photography Blueprint for free right here.

In this article here, we have put together a collection of tutorials that are highly detailed and provide you with every information you need to photograph the sky at night. Don’t forget to check out the “Further Reading” section.

Let us start with the Moon which is the natural satellite to our planet Earth and it is one of the closest and brightest subjects in the night sky, that you can easily photograph. If you observe the moon over a few weeks, you will get an understanding of the phases of the moon, its rising and setting time, etc. You just need to do a little bit of planning to get the best shot.

Graphic by Light Stalking

If you are wondering what if you do not have a camera yet, but only a smartphone that you use to capture photos right now? Smartphone technology has advanced quite a lot in the recent years and they can be used to capture beautiful images of the moon and some brighter objects in the night sky. Especially if you are a a beginner in astrophotography, with some practice and knowledge, you can capture interesting photos of the moon with your smartphone.

Photo by Dahlia Ambrose using Samsung Galaxy S22 – 20x digital zoom. ISO 25, 69mm, -0.2 ev, f/2.4, 1/583s. Cropped to fill the frame.

And, did you know that the moon is not just white, but has some colours due to the mineral deposits on its surface? If you zoom in on live view with a long lens, on a very clear night, you will be able to observe these colours faintly. You can photograph the moon and bring in those beautiful colours and this article will help you achieve that. It is interesting and can be done during any phase of the moon, but remember that you will have to take a series of shots to get the best results in terms of colours and details.

Photo by Dahlia Ambrose

We have heard of rules for correctly setting exposure for certain subjects in photography, rules that do not need to be followed as such, but rules that can help you get started initially and then can be refined further according to the situation. One such rule to capture the moon is the Looney 11 rule which can be a start to estimate exposure times. We will summarise the rule here:
- Set aperture to f/11 and shutter speed to the reciprocal value of ISO.
Check out the article to learn more about this rule.

Graphic by Light Stalking

We live in the Milky Way galaxy and it is one of the easiest subjects to photograph, after the moon. Depending on the time of the year, you will be able to photograph only specific areas of the Milky Way galaxy. The core is the most stunning region and it is above the horizon at night, a few months every year. So keep an eye on the weather forecast and find the darkest location possible and photograph the Milky Way with the camera you have in hand.

Photo by John Lemieux

If you want to go a bit further after some experience and photograph a nebula, the Orion Nebula is one of the easiest to capture and one that is most commonly photographed too. You can use the camera that you have in hand and a moderate focal length lens to capture the frames and then with some detailed post processing, you will have a beautiful image. You will need to capture a series of shots including calibration frames and everything is explained in detail in this article.

Photo by Dahlia Ambrose

Now, similar to the rule we mentioned above to set exposure for moon photography, if you are a beginner and not sure where to start in terms of settings for your night sky photography like stars, nebulae, etc., start with the 500 rule. It is not very accurate, but is a great start to get an image of the stars, galaxies and the Milky Way. Here is the rule summarised below:
- Set your camera to ISO 3200 or 6400, your Aperture to f/2.8 (or as wide as possible) and your shutter speed to 500 divided by the focal length of your camera, taking into account the crop factor of your camera.
There is also a 600 rule where you replace the 500 above with 600 and see if it works better than the above setting.

Snapwire at Pexels

With more advanced cameras and sensors, sometimes the 500 or 600 rule may not get you the best results, especially if you want to have a large print. Sometimes there may be some trailing in the stars instead of point sharp stars. To avoid this situation, the photographer needs to calculate exposure based on the type of camera and lens combination.

A formula was devised by Frédéric Michaud for the Société Astronòmique du Havre called the NPF rule which is quite complex, where
- N stands for aperture, the letter N is used to represent aperture in optics.
- P for photosites or pixel density or pixel pitch (distance between two pixels)
- F for focal length
If you have an app called PhotoPills, you can easily calculate exposure times using the NPF rule on that app.

Screenshot from PhotoPills App showing different exposure times for two different full frame cameras

Star photography is easy, but in order to get the best results like sharp and noise free images, there are a few things that you will need to keep in mind. It also requires you to choose the right location, weather conditions, keep an eye on the moon phases and use the right tools and accessories to get the best shot. Last but not the least, patience and practice is key to perfect star images.

Photo by Skeeze

Cameras come with noise reduction features called high iso noise reduction and long exposure noise reduction. Many photographers seem to be confused if they need to leave these settings on for astrophotography, in order to get the best results. Depending on what you are shooting, these features can cause some delay in sequences, can cause heat, and also remove faint star details. Read to find if you should leave these settings on or off for astrophotography and why.

Image by Benjamin Voros

When capturing night sky or dep space object, you are working with very little light and longer exposure times. Factors like heat due to long exposure and high iso can induce thermal and/or digital noise in these photographs that can leave unwanted effects/artifacts in the images that also greatly reduce the sharpness and quality of the image. Here are some ways in which noise can be reduced in your night sky images.

This is how noise looks in photographs – this is for illustration purposes only. Image by MartinThoma

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19/07/2025
13 Incredible Tutorials To Improve Your Black And White Photography

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This week we have been talking about black and white photography but since the early days, there have been many articles shared about black and white photography, by almost all writers here at Light Stalking. At some point, we all get into this genre and sometimes struggle to get the best out of a scene or situation, or get stuck during the post-processing part.

Today we thought that we will put together some very useful tutorials on black and white photography, so you can refer to the ones that are really important or useful for you.

Many photographers may have a questions as to why one should shoot black and white, when there is colour photography. There are a dozen reasons why one might honour black and white photography and four of those are discussed in this article.

Photo by Reuben Mcfeeters

Black and white photos look surreal, they are emotive and they evoke a lot of emotions that sometimes a colour photo cannot. Shooting black and white photos can be quite tricky and the photographer needs to know when shooting the image, if a scene, subject or scenario will work well as a black and white photo. So, here are some ways to tell if a scene will make a great black and white photo.

Photo by Alex

Black and white photographs are beautiful and it makes many of us wonder how someone could have captured and post-processed such a stunning but simple photograph in black and white. This article discusses a few tips on how to capture and edit stunning fine art black and white photographs.

Photo by Etienne Delorieux

Some photographers convert an image to black and white, in order to hide the imperfections in their colour version. It may be fine to do this occasionally, but making it a habit is not the way to creating black and white images because creating great black and white photographs is an art. So, here are some things to think about when getting into black and white photography.

Here is another article that touches on this issue – Do You Still Make These 2 Mistakes When Working In Black And White?

Photo by Jason D. Little

Before capturing a shot, or after you have captured one, have you ever been caught up in a dilemma if the shot should be in colour or black and white? In the early days, photographers made the choice to shot either in colour or black and white film, but in the days of digital photography, we have the luxury to capture raw files and work on them the way we wish to later. So read to find out how you can make this decision between colour and black and white for a particular shot.

Also, for further reading – How to Use Your Eyes to Create Better Black and White Images

Photo by Jason D. Little

Photographers think that it is easier to shoot images for black and white but the problem arises when we try to convert an image to black and white. Most photographers think that removing the colours by bringing the saturation slider to the negative, or clicking on the black and white setting or applying a preset when post processing will help. The truth is, you need to capture images using a black and white film mindset.

Photo by Archie Binamira

We all would have seen the famous landscape photographs of Ansel Adams that are shot in black and white. Although we can see in colour and in these days photograph in colour too, we still feel the emotions better sometimes in a black and white photograph, especially landscapes that are vast and colourful. So, if you want to shoot black and white landscapes, here are five keys to improve your shots.

Photo by tombabich24

If you are someone who is interested in shooting dark scenes, then film noir photography is a genre that you can explore. These types of photos can be used to portray dramatic, mysterious scenes and it suits only particular types of situations, light and stories. Here are some tips and techniques to capture interesting film noir photographs.

Photo by Andrew Amistad

Not only do street photos or landscapes work well for black and white photography, even portraits become more beautiful when converted to black and white. It lets you focus on the subject and their characteristics, without any distraction. So here are some tips to convert a portrait onto black and white.

And here are “The Secrets to Compelling Black and White Portraits“

Screenshot by Federico Alegria

Once you capture the images for black and white conversion, you need to make some important adjustments when post processing your image for black and white. This article discusses the best monochrome practices for photographers in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

Photo by Jason Row

If you just shoot in black and white or convert an image to black and white by the click of a button or by desaturating it, you will nowhere be near to those images of olden days that were shot in film. The images will mostly look flat with not much contrast or tonality. Black and white film photographers used colour filters to give a punch to certain elements in their shots and these days, it can be achieved in Photoshop using the channel mixer tool. Read to find how to use it.

Photo by Jason Row

A lot of street photographers shoot in black and white and it is a very common thing for decades now. Most photographers really do not shoot in black and white, but instead shoot in colour and then convert their images to black and white and they think street photographs should be in black and white. Read to find why photographers make this decision.

Photo by Federico Alegría

And of course, street photographs also need some amount of post production, because we always advise to shoot in raw in order to get the best results in the final photo. A lot of street photographers also believe that the colours in the streets may not be always visually appealing to have the street photograph in colour. Here are some tips to convert a street photograph to black and white.

Image by Federico Alegría

If you would like some inspiration to shoot black and white photographs, here are links to dozens of quotes and images that you can refer to:

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04/07/2025