Photography tutorials and how-to articles

Articles aimed at helping you improve aspects of your photography

There are a growing number of entirely free tutorials and ‘how to’ articles on this site. This page provides links to all of them.

They range from photo composition to ‘photo-hacks’ or building your own specialist lenses from discarded camera equipment.

Many of our articles and reviews are also written to help explain how and why you would use different equipment and techniques, not just a list of a product’s functionality.

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If you think of something that might be useful, please let Keith know – many articles have come from questions asked by readers.

The sections below split all the articles into three broad categories.

Specialist index pages

• Keith’s photo blog
• Articles and Reviews
• Camera and printer rumours
• Digital Black and White
• Colour Management
• All about using tilt and shift
• Photography book reviews
• The business side of photography
• Keith’s ‘gear list’ for his work
• Gallery of some of Keith’s prints
• Some of Keith’s travel blogs
• Some of Keith’s link choices

For even more detail, check the category listings and search box at the right of the page

Editing your photos. Tools and tips

• Close up macro – the Canon MP-E65 lensA short review of Canon's specialist macro lens the MP-E65. Offering up to x5 magnification. Tested on a Canon 1Ds mk3 full frame camera
• 3×3 quick tips for improving your black and white photographyA collection of quick tips that can help improve the quality of your black and white photography. Simple steps to better monochrome pictures
• Photographing tiny thingsPhotographing small electronic components with a macrophotography setup. TS-E90mm lens and extension tubes
• When Hyperfocal focusing is no goodWhy hyperfocal focusing often fails to give the depth of field that some suggest. A much simpler method that can be of more general use
• Printing greyscale images and removing unwanted colour tintsAddressing problems with black and white printing. Some subtle changes in print colour casts with lighting changes, and removing colour tints from monochrome prints.
• Which side of the paper to print onSome fine art papers look almost the same on each side. How to tell which side to print on if you are unsure
• Photography training directoryPhotography training directory - professional photographers who offer photography training and courses. Submissions welcome
• Full width printing Epson 3800 and OSX 10.6Solving full width (17") printing problems with the Epson SP3800 and Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard). tested with Epson Traditional Photo Paper

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Using equipment in non-standard ways. Hacks and mods.

• Jessop zoom slide duplicator lensTesting a 35mm zoom slide copier on a modern digital camera with some slides from the 1970's. Includes image processing and lighting concerns and a quick look at photo image quality from the 70's
• Using old lenses on a modern DSLR/mirrorless cameraLens adapters allow you to use old lenses on a modern DSLR or mirrorless camera. Many old lenses work very well if you can live without autofocus. Performance varies, but it's possible to learn lot of use for the rest of your photography
• Using effects lens filtersAfter being given some assorted lens filters dating back to film days, Keith wonders if they are still of any use with modern digital cameras and how B&W film 'emulation' has its limits.
• Adapted lens – Soligor 300mm f5.5Adapted lens experiments - Soligor 300mm f5.5 on an RF mount EOS RP mirrorless camera. Using adapters on a manual focus telephoto from 1975 on a modern mirrorless camera
• Fotodiox tilt-shift lens adapterReview of the Fotodiox TLT ROKR tilt-shift lens adapter for mounting medium format lenses on mirrorless cameras. M645 to Canon RF tested. Available also for M645 to Nikon Z along with many other lens/body combination.
• Canon SDK updatedCanon Europe announces a new SDK and API Package for Developers. Software Development Kit (SDK) adds SX70 HS to supported cameras. incl. camera control API
• Lighting CRI with i1Profiler and the i1ProLighting CRI measurement using X-Rite i1Profiler software and the i1Pro spectrophotomenter, with the free Osram LED ColorCalculator software
• Book Review: 52 Assignments Experimental PhotographyBook Review: 52 Assignments, Experimental Photography. 52 project ideas to help you explore different aspects of photography, film and digital. with low and high tech ideas and hacks

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Ideas for developing photographic skills and aspects of photographic composition.

• The Paragon 500mm f8 lensTesting a manual focus Paragon 500mm f8 long focus lens on a Canon RP mirrorless full frame camera with adapters. Is it worth the few pounds paid for it
• Upsizing and sharpening for making a printEditing, sharpening and upsizing part of an old digital photo from a 10MP camera to make an A2 sized print. Image resizing for larger prints and why your editing workflow matters.
• Book Review: 52 Assignments Landscape PhotographyBook Review: 52 Assignments, Landscape Photography. A collection of 52 project ideas relating to Landscape photography. Lots of suggestions to help expand your photography and experiment.
• Book Review: Everything about taking PhotographsBook Review: 'Everything you always wanted to know about taking better photographs', '50 images and 50 explanations' by Antony Zacharias. £12.99 Ammonite press October 2019
• Detailed Panasonic S1R camera reviewPanasonic Lumix S1R usage review. Using the 47MP full frame mirrorless camera with special emphasis on the 187MP multi-shot high resolution mode and support of third party specialist lenses.
• Reverse grad filter 100x150mmUsing the K&F Concept Reverse graduated neutral density GND8 3 stop filter 100x150mm. Rectangular filter with graduated filter density
• A simple black and white printA simple black and white print workflow aimed at showing just how easy it is to create a black and white landscape print, with a few simple edits.
• What are you doing with your photosHow do you decide what to do with all the photos you take, why did you take them and who gets to see them. A process any photographer should think about. Yes, this means you...

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Training – for companies

These are aspects of training that I provide (on location, not at our offices) as part of Northlight’s business.

We also have a training directory that is freely available for any professional photographer who offers training.

It’s arranged by location, so as long as you are a pro photographer, a free link is available

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Other areas of our site that may be of interest...

All the latest articles/reviews and photo news items appear on Keith's Photo blog 

We've a whole section of the site devoted to  Digital Black and White photography and printing. It covers all of Keith's specialist articles and reviews.
For All about using tilt and shift - articles/reviews about tilt/shift lenses

Other sections include Colour management and Keith's camera hacks - there are over 1100 articles/reviews here...

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