Outdoor Photography Essentials

Easy to follow tutorials on exposure,

camera settings, composition and light.

Barry O’Carroll

© Barry O’Carroll
 If someone ever tells you ….

“Your camera takes really nice

pictures.”

Just reply ….

“Thanks. I taught it everything it

knows”
 To my good friend José

who introduced me to photography.

Gracias mi amigo.
 About the Images in this Book
All of the sample photographs in this book were
taken by me unless otherwise stated. The photos
were taken on a variety of devices including APS-C
DSLRs, full frame DSLRs, compact cameras and
mobile phones.
All of these images are the property of the
photographer and may not be used or
reproduced without express permission. Visit
bocphotography.com for print sales or to enquire
about commercial, editorial or other licensing.
You can also email me at bocphotog@gmail.com.
The diagrams and stock images were purchased
from Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. A small
number of images were downloaded from
Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons. All
photographs that are not my own are labelled
with attributions. The photograph “Behind the
Gare Saint-Lazare” by Henri Cartier-Bresson was
licensed from Magnum Photos.
 Introduction
Welcome and thank-you
for purchasing my eBook. I
am a Dubliner with a love
of photography and travel.
My wife suggested writing
a book most probably as a
way of stopping me from
rambling on to her about
apertures and shutter Yup, that's me.
speeds. One day as I was
extolling the virtues of full frame cameras she told
me to I should sit down write a book……. or
maybe it was to get out and shut up. Either way,
here’s my book.
In it, you’ll find a series of easy to follow
photography tutorials based on the presentations
and talks I give at libraries and photography clubs
around Ireland. I really enjoy teaching others
about photography and sharing my passion for
the craft. Amazingly, there are people out there
who actually want to listen to what I have to say!
Photography enthusiasts are an odd bunch I
guess.
Writing the book has also given me the
opportunity to share some of my own
photography from my travels as well as from my
wonderful home city of Dublin. As well as learning
about photography, you’ll find some background
information and stories from the places I’ve
photographed over the years.
The idea behind this book is simple. I tried to
write the book I wish I'd had when taking my first
steps in photography. Although many of the
books I read back then were very good, a lot of
them focused very much on the technical side of
things. There was only ever a cursory nod to the
“rule of thirds” or a few other composition
techniques. The subject of light was barely given a
few pages in many cases.
This book is divided into four sections. The first
two deal with the technical side of photography:
exposure and camera settings. Parts 3 and 4
however are completely dedicated to the more
creative side of things: composition and light.
It is often said in photography circles that there
are three elements that make a great
photograph: interesting subject, interesting
composition and interesting light. With this in
mind, half of this book is dedicated to two of
these elements: composition and light. The word
“Photography” comes from the Greek for
“Drawing with Light” after all.
I've done my best to inject some humour into the
book too. Many photography books can be quite
dry and technical. I do apologise in advance
however for my often cringe inducing "dad jokes".
As already mentioned, I have also recounted
some of the stories behind some of the photos in
the book. There were occasions when I went to
great lengths to get the shot. There were other
occasions I got into trouble for getting the shot!
The final point I'll make about the book itself is
that it was laid out specifically to be read on a
Kindle, tablet or mobile phone. Many
photography books convert very awkwardly to
this format so great care was made to make the
layout clear and easy to follow on digital devices.

With my friend José in Malaga, 2005

Neither of us had grey hair yet …… since then,
we’ve became dads. The thing I remember most
about this restaurant was the stunning view of the
mountains from the toilets. No really.
I’ve always enjoyed travel but only took up
photography during a trip to Andalusia many
years ago where my good friend José taught me
the basics with my little Olympus 3 megapixel
digital camera. I don’t think my poor wife has ever
forgiven him.
Since then, I’ve spent years learning all I can
about photography. I joined my local photography
club to meet some fellow oddballs……. I mean
photographers. I have since served as chairperson
of the club, possibly as punishment for sins in a
past life!
Reading the book “Waiting for the Light” by
English photographer David Noton was a
watershed moment in my photography
education. His focus on the importance of waiting
for the most interesting light completely changed
my approach to my own photography.
It also meant I had to start getting out of bed a lot
earlier if I wanted to get better shots. This does
not come naturally to me. Most mornings I look
like I need serious medical intervention to be
woken up. My preference subject wise is for
urban landscapes. I love exploring new cities,
towns and villages with my camera at the ready.
Thankfully for me, photography and travel are
made for each other.
I also enjoy street photography and shooting
landscapes in nature when I can. My favourite
time for taking photos is early in the morning
when only the real weirdos….. I mean dedicated
photographers are out. It is a wonderful
experience to have a city almost to yourself at this
time. The evening blue hour is also a fantastic
time for urban photography as the ambient light
fades and the city lights begin to come to life.
One thing you won’t find in this book is lots of
content about photographic equipment. I’m a bit
of a minimalist when it comes to gear. Right now,
I own a Canon 6d Mk ii camera with a couple of
lenses, a sturdy tripod, a travel tripod, a few
filters and a Black Rapid camera strap. All of this
fits neatly inside a Think Tank Airport Essentials
backpack. There’s even room for a spare pair of
underpants when I’m travelling.
I also have compact Panasonic ZS100 that I keep
in my pocket pretty much all the time. You never
know when a photographic opportunity will arise.
The smaller camera is excellent for street
photography too. It’s also easier to hide from my
eternally wonderful and patient wife. “No dear.
No photography on this trip. I promise”.
I'm not a believer in spending a fortune on gear.
Gear acquisition syndrome (G.A.S.) is a common
affliction among photographers. New gear rarely
makes you a better photographer unless you
know how to use it to achieve your creative
vision.
I've seen plenty of photographers with all the
latest gear but whose photography is mediocre at
best. I've known others who can take superb
shots with the most basic of equipment. A simple
camera phone is enough to get you started with
the tutorials in this book.
How do you know when it's time to upgrade your
camera or buy a new lens? Again, the answer is
simple: when your equipment can no longer keep
up with your creative vision for the photograph
you wish to create. When your gear cannot
capture the photograph you have in your mind,
then it's time to think of upgrading.
On that note, I’ll leave it there. I hope you enjoy
the book and that it helps you bring your
photography to the next level.

Barry
You can view more of my photography
and writing on my website and blog.

Portfolio/Prints:
bocphotography.com
Blog:
photographywithbarry.com
 Section 1

Exposure
 Introduction to Exposure
Welcome the first section of the book. I
mentioned in the introduction that it is often said
that there are three elements that make a really
great photograph: an interesting subject;
interesting composition and interesting light.
While there is certainly validity to this theory, the
simple fact is that a photographer also has to
understand the technical side of things to be able
to produce great images.
The first step in understanding this technical side
is learning about photographic exposure. The next
series of tutorials will cover the three elements
that make up the so called exposure triangle:
aperture, shutter speed and ISO: what they are
and how they affect your photographs.
We'll also take a look at some of the most
common exposure issues and how to avoid or
work around them.
 What is photographic exposure?
Exposure is the amount of light that enters the
camera lens and hits the digital sensor or film.
We can control the amount of light entering the
lens by adjusting two settings: aperture and
shutter speed (or exposure time). A third setting,
ISO also has an effect on exposure.
Together, aperture, shutter speed and ISO form
what is called the “Exposure Triangle”. We will
look at each of these three elements in more
detail in the tutorials that follow.
Underexposure and overexposure.
If not enough light enters the lens, the photo will
be too dark or “underexposed”. Conversely, if too
much light is allowed to enter the lens, the photo
will be too bright or “overexposed”.
How is exposure measured?
Exposure is measured in stops. A stop is a
doubling or halving of the amount of light let in to
the lens when taking a photo.
If you find that your photograph is underexposed,
you will need to increase your exposure by a stop
or more.
If your photograph is overexposed, you will need
to do the opposite and decrease your exposure by
a stop or more.
Stops can also be divided into 1/2 stops or 1/3
stops for more detailed adjustments.
There is no such thing really as the “perfect”
exposure, only the right one for the scene you are
capturing. Some photos like night shots are
supposed to be dark. Photos taken in bright
sunshine or in the snow are bright by their very
nature. Photos taken on an overcast day will lie
somewhere in the middle in terms of exposure.
What is a histogram?
A histogram is a graph that displays a visual
representation of the spread of tones in a
photograph. These tones range from the darkest
shadows on the left of the graph to the mid-tones
through to the brightest highlights on the right.

Adobe Stock
Clipped shadows and blown highlights.
The histogram allows you to check if any areas of
the photograph are so dark that they are pure
black and contain no detail whatsoever. These are
known as “clipped shadows”.
At the other end of the scale, the histogram will
reveal if any areas of the image are so bright that
they are pure white and also contain no detail.
These areas are known as “blown highlights”.
It is important to note that there are times when
clipped shadows and blown highlights are
unavoidable. Perhaps there is a dark corner of a
cathedral or the bright lights of a street lamp in
the frame. Remember that the histogram is only a
guide.
Very generally speaking, you will want to try avoid
clipped shadows and blown highlights where
possible. That said, I personally don’t mind a little
clipping in the shadows as it adds some punch to
the image.
R.T.F.M.
All digital cameras will allow you to display a
histogram when reviewing your photos on the
back screen. Check your camera’s manual to see
how to switch on this feature.

Adobe Stock

There was a member of my photography club

who used to tell the newer members to R.T.F.M.
This stands for “Read the Manual”. I’ll let you
figure out what the “F’ stands for yourself.
Examples of underexposed, overexposed and
correctly exposed photographs.

Underexposed Photograph
This photograph of Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin is
too dark. It is underexposed by about 2 stops.
Note how the histogram is bunched up to the left
hand axis of the histogram.
There are a lot of clipped shadows especially
running through the middle of the photograph.
 Overexposed Photograph
This time, the same photograph is overexposed
by roughly 2 stops.
Notice how the histogram is now completely
bunched up towards the right hand side of the
graph as a result.
There are a lot of blown highlights in this
photograph. Some parts of the buildings to the
left and areas of the sky contain no detail
whatsoever.
 Correctly Exposed Photograph
This version of the photograph has the correct
exposure for the scene in question.
The histogram displays a good spread of tones
from the shadows on the left through the mid-
tones to the highlights on the right.
This time, there is plenty of detail visible in all
parts of the buildings and sky.
What is the highlights warning tool?
There is also another tool available on all digital
cameras that will help you avoid too many blown
highlights. This is called the “highlights warning
tool”. R.T.F.M. to learn how to activate it.

This is a feature that makes the blown out areas

of your photograph flash in black on your back
screen. This is a particularly useful tool as blown
highlights are quite difficult to recover in post-
processing. I keep this tool turned on all the time.
 What is aperture?
The aperture is the opening in the lens that
allows light to enter the camera and onto the
sensor or film.
The size of this opening can be adjusted by
changing the aperture settings.

Adobe Stock

Lens Aperture
Take a look at the picture of a lens aperture
above. Notice the adjustable blades that can
move to adjust the size of the opening through
which the light enters the lens.
How is aperture size measured?
The size of the aperture is measured in f-stops.
Here’s where things get a bit weird though. The
smaller the f-stop value, the wider the aperture.
Conversely, the bigger the f-stop value ….. you’ve
guessed it, the narrower the aperture.
There are very reasonable and logical
mathematical reasons for this which I have no
intention of going into here simply because I am
really terrible at maths. I used to think
multiplication tables were something you bought
at IKEA.
Alternatively, we could just blame the French who
invented photography. You see, they like to make
things as complicated as possible just to confuse
people from other countries.
As I am married to a French woman, I can confirm
that this is indeed the case. Their word for 90 is
quatre-vingt-dix (4 twenties and ten) for crying
out loud!
 Adobe Stock
Take a look at this chart above which illustrates
aperture values. Notice how the aperture value of
f1.4 represents a very wide opening in the lens
whereas the aperture value of f16 represents a
much smaller opening.
Each value from left to right represents a
doubling of the amount of light entering the lens
for a given time the shutter stays open (shutter
speed). If we go from right to left they represent a
halving of the light for the given shutter speed.
These are standard values used on all cameras.
You will often see other f-stop values in between
the values shown on the above chart such as f3.5
and f10. These allow us to be even more precise
in our choice of aperture and resulting depth of
field which we will know look at.
What effect does our choice of aperture have on
the look of our photograph?
The most obvious effect the aperture setting has
on our photograph is the depth of field. In simple
terms, this refers to how much of our final image
is acceptably sharp.
In slightly more detailed terms it refers to the
distance between the closest and farthest areas in
a photo that appear acceptably sharp.
If you set a wide aperture, the depth of field will
be shallow. This means that only part of your final
photograph will be sharp and the rest will be out
of focus and blurred.
If you set a narrow aperture, the depth of field
will be deep. This means that all of your
photograph from the foreground to the
background should be acceptably sharp.

Aperture: f22
This is very clear in the example above. When I
used a narrow aperture of f22, the wine bottle
and background are both sharp (deep depth of
field).
 Aperture: f1.8
When I switched to wide aperture of f1.8, the
bottle is sharp but the background is now blurred
(shallow depth of field).
In both photographs, I focused on the bottle
itself. The change in look resulting from using a
very different aperture each time is very striking.
Both shallow and deep depths of field have their
uses which we will look at a little later
Wide Aperture / Shallow Depth of Field

I set a set a wide aperture of f3.5 when I took this

photograph of a cat. I then focused on one of the
cat’s eyes. This resulted in the cat being sharp
while the background is out of focus and blurred.
This can be a very useful technique when you
want to separate your subject from your
background. This is a technique that is frequently
used by portrait photographers.
 Shutterstock

Take a look at the diagram above. You will see

how I set a wide aperture of f3.5. I then focused
on the cat’s eyes. This resulted in a very shallow
depth of field.
In this case, the depth of field extended from the
tip of the cat’s nose to the back of its head.
Anything in this zone is sharp. Anything in front or
behind it (such as the leaves in the background)
will be out of focus.
For very wide apertures such as f1.2, the depth of
field may be no more than a few millimetres. This
can make focusing very tricky especially if the
subject (or photographer) is moving even slightly.
A sturdy tripod and/or avoiding too much alcohol
can be useful in this situation.
You might notice that there is about double the
amount of depth of field behind the point of focus
as in front of it. We will come back to this point
shortly.
Although using a wide aperture to create a
shallow depth of field is often used by portrait
photographers, it can also be used creatively in
other situations.
Here are some more examples of photographs I
took using a wide aperture in order to create a
shallow depth of field for creative effect.
The Eiffel Tower – Miniature and Real
For this shot, I bought a small (and very classy)
souvenir Eiffel Tower that lit up in a tasteful pink
neon glow.
I placed this on a wall and set up my camera and
tripod. I set a fairly wide aperture of f4 and
focused on the souvenir Eiffel Tower.
This resulted in the mini tower being sharp while
the real Eiffel Tower in the background is thrown
out of focus and appears blurred.
The Eiffel Tower has been photographed millions
of times so it can be difficult to try to find a new
way to capture this iconic symbol of Paris.
This was a fun shot to create and now I have a
very tasteful and elegant pink neon mini Eiffel
Tower sitting in the centre of the mantelpiece.
My wife is less enthusiastic about it funnily
enough. Apparently, it lowers the tone of the
room and clashes with the décor. Pffft.
 Flowers by a Romanian Farmhouse
I used a similar technique in this photo taken
outside a Romanian farm house. I set a wide
aperture of f4 and focused on the yellow flowers.
The flowers closest to me where I set focus are
sharp as a result and the farm house in the
background is out of focus.
Flowers and plants are an excellent subject for
shallow depth of field photography.
Narrow Aperture / Deep Depth of Field

Dublin Docklands
In this photo taken in the Dublin Docklands, I set a
very narrow aperture of f16. This resulted in the
entire scene from the dock cleat in the
foreground to the elegant Samuel Beckett Bridge
in the distance being in focus.
Narrow apertures are often used in landscape
photography when we want the entire scene to
be as sharp as possible.
In the cat photo, we focused on the eyes as this is
the area we wanted to be the most sharp. Where
do we focus in a scene when we want everything
to be sharp? The answer is about 1/3 the way up
from the bottom of the frame.
This is because (as I mentioned earlier), there is
twice as much depth of field behind the point of
focus as in front of it. Focusing a third the way up
from the bottom of the frame maximises the
depth of field. In the last photo, I focused where
the red dot is.
In the photo on the next page taken in the
beautiful medieval city of Bruges, I wanted both
the bridge and the buildings in the background to
be sharp.
A fairly narrow aperture setting of f11 was
enough to ensure that the entire scene was
acceptably sharp. For this shot, I focused on the
top of the bridge where the red dot is.
Groenerei Canal in Bruges
Mid-Range Apertures
We’ve now had a look at very wide apertures and
very narrow apertures but what about the
apertures that lie in the middle?
I often use these apertures when I’m shooting
hand held for something like street photography
in the daytime.
Aperture affects shutter speed and a mid-range
aperture gives me enough depth of field
combined with a fast enough shutter speed so
that I don’t blur the photos through camera
shake.
I will discuss shutter speed and its relationship to
aperture in more detail a little later in the book.
For now, just know that wide apertures tend to
result in faster shutter speeds and narrow
apertures tend to result in slower shutter speeds.
 Women by a Bridge in Venice
While walking around Venice during the day, I set
an aperture of about f8 for most shots like the
one above. This allowed for fast shutter speeds
and enough of depth of field to keep the entire
photo acceptably sharp.
It should also be noted that it is at these mid-
range apertures that lenses are often at their
sharpest. When I want everything in a scene to be
sharp, I try to use an aperture as close to these
mid-ranges as I can. Funnily enough, if you go too
narrow with your aperture, your photos can
actually become a little less sharp due to
something called lens diffraction.
For this reason, I tend to avoid going narrower
than f16 (or f22 at a push). You can see in the
bridge photo from Bruges that f11 actually
allowed for more than enough depth of field to
ensure the whole scene was sharp.
I once accidentally set my aperture to an
extremely narrow f32 while photographing the
Eiffel Tower. I spent about half an hour taking
photographs in the most beautiful morning light
imaginable.
You can imagine my disappointment when I
realised that none of the images were sharp
enough to use due to lens diffraction.
Lesson learnt. Always double check your settings!
 Adobe Stock

The chart above gives a visual representation of

how your choice of aperture will affect the depth
of field in your photograph.
Notice how the narrower the aperture, the
sharper the pyramid in the background is while
the wider the aperture, the more blurred it is.
 What is shutter speed?
In the last tutorial we learnt that aperture
referred to the opening in the camera lens that
allows light to enter the camera and onto the
digital sensor or film.
The shutter speed refers to the amount of the
time the aperture actually remains open to let the
light in. Shutter speed can also be referred to as
“exposure time”.
This can range from extremely fast shutter speeds
such as 1/10,000 of a second to extremely slow
shutter speeds where the aperture can remain
open for several minutes.
How does your choice of shutter speed affect the
look of your photograph?
The most obvious effect your choice of shutter
speed will have concerns any motion in the scene
you are capturing. Fast shutter speeds will appear
to freeze motion. You will often see this in sports
photography for example. Slower shutter speeds
will do the opposite. They will blur motion.
Rather unsurprisingly, this is known as motion
blur.
Both fast shutter speeds and slow shutter speeds
can be used to great creative effect in many
genres of photography.
Wikimedia Commons

1/500 sec 1/30 sec 1/4 sec

Let’s take a look at these three photos of a

colourful windmill. A different shutter speed has
been used in each one.
In the first version, a fast shutter speed of 1/500
of a second has completely frozen the motion of
the windmill. It looks as if it has completely
stopped.
In the second photo, a much slower shutter speed
of 1/30 of a second has been used. Now 1/30 of a
second may seem like a very fast shutter speed. In
fact, it is slow enough to blur the motion of the
fast spinning windmill.
In the final photo, an even slower shutter speed
of 1/4 of a second has made the spinning
windmill look like a complete blur of colours.
Slow shutter speeds that create this motion blur
effect can be a great way of portraying movement
in an otherwise static image.
Using Fast Shutter Speeds to Freeze Motion
Here are some more examples of how a fast
shutter speed can be used to freeze a moment in
time.
 Cyclist on Merrion Square in Dublin
I generally use fast shutter speeds when shooting
street photography. Street photography is often
about capturing a precise moment in time.
The French street photographer Henri Cartier-
Bresson called it capturing the “decisive
moment”. I will cover this idea in the final
“Composition” section of the book.
In this case, a shutter speed of 1/400 second
froze in time the cyclist as he passed the historic
Georgian buildings on Merrion Square on the
Southside of Dublin City.
 Rugby at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin
As already mentioned, fast shutter speeds are
often used in sports photography to freeze a
precise moment in the game.
In this case, a shutter speed of 1/500 second has
captured the exact moment the ball was thrown
into the air at this lineout during a rugby match
featuring the mighty Leinster against Scarletts.
Leinster won the match but I must admit that the
Welsh were far more talented singers!
 Seagull by the River Liffey in Dublin
Wildlife photographers often use fast shutter
speeds to freeze animals in motion and show the
detail of the animal itself. I rarely take pictures of
animals but this seagull in Dublin proved to be an
interesting subject.
A shutter speed of 1/400 second ensured I
captured all the detail in his feathers. The cheeky
b#####d stole my bag of chips a few seconds
later.
Using slow shutter speeds to portray motion

Sonsbeek Waterfall in Arnhem

As we saw with the windmill photographs earlier,
slow shutter speeds can be used to blur motion.
In this photograph of a waterfall in Arnhem, The
Netherlands, a relatively slow shutter speed of
1/3 second is enough to blur the flowing water to
create a pleasing hazy effect that portrays this
sense of movement.
 Grafton Street in Dublin
In this photograph of a very busy Grafton Street in
Dublin around Christmas time, I wanted to
portray the movement of the people on the street
as they milled about.
A slow shutter speed of 1.6 seconds was enough
to blur the people to achieve this. As mentioned
earlier, capturing motion blur is an effective way
of portraying movement in an otherwise static
photograph.
 Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels
Very long shutter speeds can be used creatively to
capture light trails.
In this case, a long shutter speed of 30 seconds
has caused the lights from the moving cars to
leave white and red streaks of light as they sped
along the motorway below me.
This is a commonly used technique in urban
landscape photography. The low light at night
time makes very slow shutter speeds possible.
 Boat on a Beach in Hammamet
Sometimes, we can use filters to slow down our
shutter speed dramatically to create even more
extreme effects.
In this photo, I used a 10 stop neutral density
filter to reduce the amount of light entering the
lens down to 1/1000 of what it would be without
the filter.
This allowed me to set a very long shutter speed
of 160 seconds. I used a rock steady tripod for
this shot as well as a shutter release cable in
order to prevent shaking the camera when
pressing the shutter.
The almost 3 minute exposure time blurred the
movement of the evening clouds as they moved
slowly across the sky creating a very dramatic
effect as well as blurring the water of the sea.
Anything that wasn’t moving such as the boat
remained sharp.
The Importance of a Good Tripod
When using slow shutter
speeds, a high quality solid
tripod is essential. I’d almost
say it’s the most important
piece of equipment for
landscape photographers
(who tend to use slow
shutter speeds a lot).

Adobe Stock
Even the slightest movement of the camera
during a long exposure can cause camera shake
and ruin the shot.
A good heavy tripod also acts as a handy weapon
when photographing the dodgier parts of a city.
How do I know if a shutter speed is fast enough
to hand hold without worrying about camera
shake?
There are times we don’t have a tripod with us or
perhaps we are not permitted to use one at a
particular location and we have no option but to
shoot handheld.
There is a simple trick to work out if your shutter
speed is fast enough to do this without risking
camera shake.
Take a look at your focal length value on your lens
(Focal length is covered in more detail in a later
tutorial). This is a measure of the angle of view or
how much you have zoomed in or out.
It is measured in millimetres with lower values
signifying wider angles and higher values showing
that your lens has zoomed in closer to the
subject.

Adobe Stock

24-105 mm Lens
Simply take your focal length, multiply it by 2 and
then divide by 1. For example, a focal length of 60
mm multiplied by 2 is 120. This means that a
shutter speed of 1/120 of a second is safe enough
to prevent camera shake at this focal length.
That said, many modern cameras and lenses have
image stabilisation features that actually allow
you handhold your camera at much slower
shutter speeds without risking camera shake.
Be careful while typing.
Adobe Stock
At this stage, I would like
to point out the
importance of being very
careful when typing the
term “shutter speed”.
I was giving a presentation on this topic one
evening at a photography club and was
wondering why the audience looked perplexed
and a little disturbed as I put up the title slide.
My first slide had just informed my audience in
giant letters that I was going to give them a
detailed presentation about “Shitter Speed”.
In my defence, “u” and “i” are right next to each
other on the keyboard.
 Adobe Stock

The chart above illustrates the effect your choice

of shutter speed will have on capturing motion in
the scene you are photographing.
Notice that the faster shutter speeds freeze the
motion of the person running while the slower
exposure times blur the motion.
 How do Aperture and
Shutter Speed Relate?
In the last two tutorials, we looked at aperture
and shutter speed and how they affect the look of
your photographs. In this tutorial we’re going to
have a look at the relationship between aperture
and shutter speed and how changing one affects
the other.
Let’s use a bucket of water as a way of illustrating
this. Say we fill the bucket with water and then
make a small hole in the bottom and let the water
pour out into a basin underneath. Because the
hole is quite small, the water will be relatively
slow to fill up the basin.
Let’s try again, this time with a larger hole in the
bucket. Now, the water will pour out of the
bucket much faster and also fill up the basin
below much faster.
 Adobe Stock

So, what on earth does this have to do with

aperture and shutter speed?
Think of the water as the light and the basin as
the digital sensor. The hole we make in the bucket
is the aperture.
  With a small hole in the bucket, the water
takes a relatively long time to fill up the
basin.
 With a larger hole in the bucket, the water
takes a relatively short time to fill up the
basin.
The same principal applies to photographic
exposure.

 A narrow aperture in the lens means the

light needed to make the exposure takes a
relatively long time to enter the lens and
reach the sensor. This results in a slower
shutter speed.
 A wide aperture in the lens means the light
needed to make the exposure takes a
relatively short time to enter the lens and
reach the sensor. This results in a faster
shutter speed.
In a nutshell, we have learnt that generally
speaking:

 Narrow apertures will result in slower

shutter speeds and wide apertures will result
in faster shutter speeds.
 We have also learnt that I have ruined two
perfectly good buckets and should probably
go and buy new ones before my wife finds
out.
Let’s take a look at this in practice. I took the
following series of photographs in a little park
near my home.
You will see that in each photograph, I have used
a different combination of aperture and shutter
speed. Despite this, the exposure/brightness in
each one is roughly the same.
Take note of what happens to the shutter speed
each time the aperture changes in the series. I
started with a narrow aperture of f22 and finished
with a wide aperture of f4.
You will see that setting narrow aperture of f22 in
the first photo resulted in a shutter speed of 1/40
second.
In the second photo, I set a wider aperture of f14.
With a wider aperture now set, the shutter speed
is now a much faster 1/125 second.
At f8, the shutter speed is faster again at 1/320
second.
Finally, with a wide aperture of f4, the exposure
time is now a very fast 1/1,600 second.
This tells us that different combinations of
aperture and shutter speed can result in the same
basic exposure/brightness. In certain photos
however, there would be noticeable differences
in terms of depth and field and motion blur.
We also learnt that my wife will kill me if she finds
out what I’ve done to those two buckets. I’d
better go to the bucket shop A.S.A.P.
 What is ISO?
We’ve already looked at aperture and shutter
speed in the previous tutorials. In this one, we are
going to look at the third element of the exposure
triangle: ISO. We will learn how the ISO setting
works and how it affects your photograph.
ISO is a tricky one to explain without getting into
some very technical jargon. In this chapter, I will
do my best to avoid this jargon.
Let’s get technical…… not.
I’ve written tutorials online about ISO before and
received long, detailed and even angry messages
from certain photographers who took serious
issue at my explanation of ISO! Some people
really need to get out more.
One such person told me in no uncertain terms
that I was an idiot and was completely wrong
about ISO and that this was in fact the correct
definition:
“ISO works by having amplifiers in the image
sensor’s circuitry increase the gain before sending
the analogue voltage read from the photon well
to the A/D converter to be digitised. E.g.: If at ISO
100 the signal is 100 mV, we can get ISO 200 by
using an amplifier to boost it to 200 mV. For ISO
1600, we can five-double it to 1600 mV, and so
on.”

So….. eh, what he said. I mean he’s not wrong but

talk about taking the fun out of photography! I’m
going to try to explain ISO in much simpler terms.
Also, knowing the above does not necessarily
make you a better photographer.
So…. what is ISO?
Increasing the ISO creates the impression that
your camera’s sensor is more sensitive to light. It
is in fact a little more complex than this.
Most cameras have an ISO range that starts at a
base of 50 or 100. This can then be increased into
the thousands on most cameras.
 Adobe Stock

Increasing the ISO value on your camera is bit like

using an amplifier and microphone to make your
voice sound louder.
The loudness at which you actually speak doesn’t
change but the amplifier takes the sound of your
voice and makes it sound louder or “amplifies” it.
ISO works in much the same way. When you
increase the ISO value, the amount of light
entering your camera remains the same.
However, your camera now amplifies this light in
the same way the amplifier amplifies sound. This
means that less light is now required in order to
make the correct exposure for the scene you are
photographing.
This allows us to use much faster shutter speeds
than if we were just using the base/lowest ISO of
50 or 100.
The higher the ISO, the faster the possible shutter
speed is. This can be useful when we are shooting
in low light and don’t have a tripod.
This could be at a location where tripods are not
allowed for example. In these cases we have no
choice but to shoot handheld.
We saw in previous tutorials that low light can
mean that the shutter speed becomes too slow to
shoot handheld without risking camera shake.
Increasing the ISO is a way around this.
As we also learnt in the last tutorial, using a wider
aperture is another way of allowing us to use a
faster shutter speed. If it’s too wide however we
risk running into issues with not having enough
depth of field to keep everything sharp enough.
Increasing the ISO can be used in a number of
situations:

 If you are shooting in a location that doesn’t

allow tripods and the light is too low to
shoot handheld.
 If you simply don’t have a tripod with you in
a low light situation.
 If you need to increase your shutter speed
significantly in order to freeze motion in a
low light situation.
 When using a wider aperture to increase
shutter speed is not an option due to depth
of field issues.
So why not just increase your ISO all the time to
ensure fast shutter speeds?
In theory this sounds great. I can finally ditch the
heavy tripod! The thing is that while increasing
the ISO amplifies the light entering the camera
and allows for faster shutter speeds, there is a
trade off in terms of image quality.
Let’s go back to the sound amplifier analogy from
earlier. The amplifier will certainly make my voice
sound louder but if I increase the volume settings
too much, the sound quality will begin to
degrade. The sound will be less clear.
This is not so much of an issue for me as my
singing voice sounds like a goose farting in the fog
anyway.
The same principal applies to ISO (not flatulent
geese). As you increase the ISO value, the image
will become “noisier” or grainier. Random specks
of colour will begin to appear and degrade the
image quality and detail.
Take a look at the following photos of a wine
bottle photographed at different ISO settings:

The first one above was taken with the lowest

possible ISO setting of 100. The shutter speed in
this case was 1/40 of a second.
This would actually be too slow to handhold
without risking camera shake. I used a tripod so
this was not an issue.
In this second photo, I’ve increased the ISO
setting to 3,200. Now my shutter speed is a much
faster 1/1250 of a second. I would have no
problems handholding the camera at this speed.
However, if you look very closely at the photo,
you will see that the image quality has degraded
somewhat. There is a lot of digital noise visible
especially in the background. There is also a
noticeable loss of clear detail.
Increasing the ISO is a balancing act. Sometimes,
I’d rather have a reasonably sharp but slightly
noisy image than a shot that is completely
unusable due to camera shake.
Digital noise can also be reduced to some extent
in post-processing. Lack of sharpness due to
camera shake however cannot be fixed
afterwards.
After taking the above photos I drank the wine
that was left in the bottle. This had the effect of
degrading the image quality from my own eyes
quite significantly.
Shutterstock

The chart above shows the effect increasing the

ISO setting has on the digital noise levels in a
photograph.
Does this mean I should avoid using very high
ISO settings?
Absolutely not; a lot of modern cameras actually
handle high ISOs very well and produce high
quality images with minimal digital noise. This is
especially the case with full frame cameras.
Take a look at the following photographs taken
with a high ISO setting:

Staircase at Belfast City Hall

Belfast City Hall has a stunningly beautiful
interior. Tripods are forbidden however.
By increasing the ISO to 1,600, I was able to
achieve a fast enough shutter speed of 1/100
second to be able to take this photo handheld.
The full frame camera handled the high ISO very
well with very little digital noise visible.
On the next page is a photo I took while walking
through the Temple Bar area of Dublin. I saw a
musician playing under Merchant’s Arch and
though he would make for a good subject.
The area he was standing in was quite dark. It was
one of those times when setting up a tripod may
have meant missing the moment completely, so I
just increased the ISO to 3,200 and took the
photograph handheld.
This enabled me to set a shutter speed of 1/400
second and avoid camera shake. As with the
previous photograph, the full frame camera
meant that the image quality suffered very little.
Merchant’s Arch in Temple Bar, Dublin
Section 2

Settings
 Introduction to Camera Settings
Now that we've gotten to grips with the exposure
triangle, we need to learn how to put it all into
practice on your camera. In this section, we will
look at the various semi-manual and manual
camera modes and how to use them properly.
Then, we move on to some of the other
important settings such as metering modes, white
balance, focusing methods, focal length and drive
modes.
Remember though that every camera brand
works a little differently when it comes to these
settings. Make sure to check your manual after
you've read each tutorial to see how to adjust
each setting on your camera.
By the end of this section, you will hopefully have
the knowledge to enable you to take full control
of your camera's settings in order to create the
photographs you have in your mind.
Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and
Manual Modes
In this tutorial, we are going to look at how to use
aperture priority, shutter priority and manual
modes on your camera.
These are the three modes that will allow you to
take full control over the final look of your
photograph.
This is the part when we move away from the
theory and onto the more practical aspects of
photography.
Before that however, we need to understand two
important tools on your camera: the light meter
and the exposure level scale.
Light Meter
The light meter in your camera measures the
light from a given scene and lets you know if you
have set the right combination of aperture and
shutter speed in order to ensure a correct
exposure. Most cameras use a method called
through the lens (TTL) metering to measure the
light in a scene.
You can also buy a Adobe Stock
hand held light meter
for more accurate light
metering if you wish.
These are often used
by portrait and model
photographers who
take detailed readings
from a model's skin to
ensure the correct
exposure. Light Meter
We will take a look at the
various metering modes on your camera in a later
tutorial. For now, we will concentrate on how to
set the correct exposure with each of the semi-
manual and manual settings.
Exposure Level Scale
Adobe Stock

Your camera will display an exposure level scale

like the one above. This can be viewed on the
back screen and on the small screen on top of the
camera if there is one. It may also be visible when
you look through the viewfinder.

Adobe Stock

Each whole number either side of the zero

represents plus or minus a stop of exposure
(brightness).
In theory, when the right combination of aperture
and shutter speed has been chosen, the little
arrow/indicator will sit on the zero in the centre
of the scale. This means that your photo should
be neither underexposed nor overexposed. This is
not always the case but the scale acts as a good
guide and starting point.
Aperture Priority Mode
Shutterstock
Aperture priority mode
is one of the two semi-
manual modes. Put
simply, you set the
aperture manually and
your camera then sets
what it calculates to be the right shutter speed to
ensure the correct exposure.
The camera will set a shutter speed that makes
the little arrow/indicator sit on the zero of the
exposure level scale.
To switch on this mode, turn the dial on the top of
your camera to "A" or "Av" on Canon cameras.
You then turn the corresponding dial to set the
aperture. Different camera brands may use
different dials so check your manual.
This is actually the shooting mode I tend to use
90% of the time. As I shoot a lot of urban
landscapes, I usually set an aperture somewhere
between f11 and f16 to ensure plenty of depth of
field. The camera then selects the appropriate
shutter speed.

Urban Landscape – Pont des Arts in Paris

I do however keep a close eye on the shutter
speed set by the camera as I may want to avoid or
create motion blur in my photo. As we learnt in a
previous tutorial, setting a wider aperture will
result in a faster shutter speed whereas setting
narrow aperture will result in a much slower
exposure time.
It's a balancing act. Sometimes it takes a few
attempts to get the right combination for the look
you are hoping to achieve. The good news is that
this becomes more intuitive with time and
experience.
Shutter Priority Mode
Shutterstock
Shutter priority mode
is the second semi-
manual mode on your
camera. When using
this mode, you set the
shutter speed
manually and the camera sets what it thinks is
the right aperture to expose the scene correctly.
As with aperture priority, the camera selects an
aperture that makes the arrow/indicator sit on
the zero of the exposure level scale.
To turn on shutter priority mode, turn the dial to
"S" or "Tv" on Canon cameras. This stands for
"Time value". Then simply turn the corresponding
dial to set your chosen shutter speed.
This is a useful mode when shutter speed is
critical to your photograph. Perhaps you want to
ensure a very fast shutter speed to freeze motion.
Conversely you may want to ensure a longer
shutter speed to capture motion blur.
Exposure Compensation Tool
Although your camera's light meter does a
reasonably good job at helping you set the correct
exposure, it does get it wrong from time to time.
This is often the case with very dark or very bright
scenes. Your light meter tries to measure every
scene in terms of the mid-tones. This is fine on an
overcast day with even light.

St. Mary’s Church in Clonsilla, Ireland

Photographing a very bright scene like a snow
covered landscape however will often lead to
underexposure and grey snow! This is because
your camera wants to see most of the scene as a
mid-tone rather than the bright scene we can see
with our eyes.

Dark Passageway in Tunisia

The same is true of very dark scenes that the
camera will often overexpose as it tries to find
that mid-tone.
Scenes with high contrast containing both very
bright areas and very dark areas can also prove
tricky for your camera's light meter.
This is where the exposure
compensation tool comes
in. Press the button with
the plus and minus signs
like the one in the picture
to activate this tool.
Then, turn the dial to Shutterstock
adjust the exposure. Check your manual to see
which dial to turn.
When you turn the dial, you can set the arrow or
indicator on the exposure meter scale to plus or
minus half a stop or a stop or more depending on
whether you want to brighten or darken the
exposure. Most cameras work in 1/3 stops too.
Again, there will be a dial designated for this on
your camera.
Shutterstock

Exposure meter scale set to -1 stop

What happens when you use the exposure
compensation tool?
If you are using aperture priority mode, the
camera will keep the aperture you set and adjust
the shutter speed to allow more or less light in to
brighten or darken the exposure.
If you are using shutter priority mode, the
camera will keep the shutter speed you set and
adjust the aperture to allow more or less light in
to brighten or darken the exposure.
Manual Mode
Here's the scary one!
Manual mode.... Dun
Dun Dun! It's actually
not scary at all now
that you know how to
use the exposure level
scale. Shutterstock
To activate manual mode, turn the mode dial to
"M". On most cameras you then turn one dial to
set the aperture and another to set the shutter
speed. This time, you set both manually.

Adobe Stock

The best way to do this is to start with one or the

other depending on the photo you wish to create.
Often I will set my aperture first. Then I turn the
shutter speed dial until the little arrow/indicator
is sitting on the zero of the exposure level scale.
Sometimes I will make adjustments to both
settings if I find for example that the aperture I
set makes my shutter speed too slow or too fast
for the effect I want to create.
If after taking the photograph I find that it is
underexposed or overexposed, I reset my
aperture and shutter speed so that the arrow is
sitting on plus or minus 1 for example to brighten
or darken the exposure.
It's the same idea as the exposure compensation
tool except you can adjust both aperture and
shutter speed to your liking.
What is dynamic range?
Dynamic range refers to the range of tones from
very dark to very bright that your camera can
capture accurately in a single photograph.
Modern cameras tend to have very wide dynamic
ranges which mean you can capture high contrast
scenes without clipped shadows or blown
highlights.
Exposure Bracketing
There are times however when the range of tones
is simply too great for your camera to handle. This
is where exposure bracketing comes into play.
If I am photographing a high contrast scene such
as a cathedral with its dark alcoves and bright
windows I will often take a series of photos
ranging from -3 stops up to +3 stops. Individually,
most of these photos look completely
underexposed or overexposed.
When I blend them together in post-processing
however, I can create the perfect exposure that
avoids clipped shadows or blown highlights.
Take a look at this example where I blended six
differently exposed photos of the interior of a
cathedral to create one photo containing lots of
detail throughout.
Six bracketed photos ranging from -3 exposure
stops to +2 exposure stops
The final photograph consisting of the six blended
photographs
I was asked to leave the cathedral shortly after
taking these shots. Apparently it’s “inappropriate”
to wash your tripod legs in the baptismal font.
There are many excellent tutorials online that can
show you how to blend bracketed exposures
using Photoshop and other post-processing
software.
I often bracket my photos, taking three shots each
time: one at -2 stops, one at zero and one +2
stops on the exposure level scale. Most cameras
even have a mode that will do this automatically
(Auto Exposure Bracketing/AEB).

This acts as an insurance policy if my middle

exposure (zero) has clipped shadows or blown
highlights.
In our next chapter, we will look at the various
metering modes on your camera.
 Metering Modes
In the last chapter, we learnt that the camera's
light meter measures the light in the scene you
are photographing. By doing this, it assists you in
setting the right combination of aperture and
shutter speed in order to expose the scene
correctly.
The light meter found in your camera is called a
"reflected light meter". This means that it
measures the light that is reflected off the
elements in your scene or the specific subject you
are photographing.
On most cameras, there are three different
metering modes:

 evaluative/matrix metering

 centre weighted metering

 spot metering
You can check your camera's manual to see how
to switch between the various modes.
Evaluative/Matrix Metering
Adobe Stock
This is the default
metering mode on all
digital cameras. In this
mode the light meter
divides the frame into a
grid of zones. It then
measures the light in
each zone and works out the exposure
accordingly.
Many cameras will also take into account which
zone the focus point lies in and give greater
importance to the light reading from this zone
when calculating the exposure.
This mode is ideal for most landscape
photography as it measures light coming from
different parts of the scene which may vary
greatly. You may have one area illuminated by
sunlight while another is in deep shadow. It is
most accurate however when shooting evenly lit
scenes.
This is the mode I use the vast majority of the
time when shooting urban and natural landscape
scenes.

Footbridge on the Rye Water in County Kildare

This scene contains a mix of bright sunlit areas
and dark shadows. The evaluative metering mode
has done a good job in assisting me to set an
exposure that captures enough detail in both
these bright and dark areas.
This photograph was actually taken on a golf
course. Shortly after taking this shot, a wayward
golf ball missed my head by about two inches.
Who ever said landscape photography isn’t a
dangerous activity? I required several whiskeys in
the bar afterwards to recover from the shock.
Centre Weighted Metering
Adobe Stock
When centre weighted
mode is activated, it will
come as no surprise that
your light meter will
give greater importance
to the reading from the
centre section of frame.
This mode can be useful for close up portraits or
photos where your subject takes up the centre of
the frame. This may be the case with product
photography for example.
In difficult lighting situations such as when the
subject is backlit, it allows you to expose the main
subject more accurately. It would however lead to
the background being quite overexposed.

Louvre Museum in Paris

In this photograph of the Louvre in Paris, I wanted
to capture all of the details in the building. Using
centre weighted metering made this possible as
the light meter measured the light from the
centre of the scene where the building is.
You will notice however that while the building is
well exposed, the area under the trees on the left
is quite underexposed with very little detail visible
in the shadows.
Spot Metering
Adobe Stock
When using spot
metering, the light meter
only measures the light
from a very small area in
the centre of the frame.
This area covers only
about 2-5% of the frame
depending on the camera.
On some cameras, the light meter will take its
reading from the small area where the focus point
was placed rather than simply from the dead
centre of the frame.
This is used when it is critical that a very particular
part of the image be exposed properly. This may
mean that the rest of the scene is underexposed
or overexposed though.
It is often used when photographing a dark
subject against a bright background or a bright
subject against a dark background.
This would be useful when photographing a spot-
lit musician in a dark theatre. If you used
evaluative metering in this case, the musician
would be completely overexposed.
Spot metering is often used by portrait
photographers to ensure that the person being
photographed is correctly exposed.
By using spot metering while photographing this
splashing strawberry, I was able to capture the
detail on the strawberry itself. It does mean that
the background is completely underexposed
though. In this case however, I think it works. I
wanted the background to be black to make the
red strawberry stand out.
Strawberry Splash
In this case I set the exposure using spot metering
before I dropped the strawberry into the water. I
simply photographed the strawberry in the same
lighting conditions and kept the aperture and
shutter speed settings I used for the subsequent
water splash shots. I made sure to set a fast
shutter speed to freeze the moment.
Which metering mode should I use?
As mentioned earlier, I tend to use
evaluative/matrix metering most of the time as I
mainly shoot urban and natural landscapes. I
would say that this mode will do a decent job in
most situations. If in doubt, it's the one to go
with.
That is not to say you shouldn't experiment with
the others depending on the scene or subject you
are photographing. They all do a good job in
different types of lighting scenarios.
 Colour Temperature
and White Balance
In this tutorial, we are going to take a look at the
white balance setting on your camera. In short,
adjusting the white balance allows you remove
unrealistic colour casts from your photos.
These colour casts can give your photos an
orange, blue or even green tint. This is caused by
differences in the colour temperature of the light
source(s) in your scene.
What is colour temperature?
Colour temperature is the measurement of the
hue of a given light source. This can range from
very cool blue tinted light to very warm yellow or
orange tinted light.
Have you ever noticed how in the evening or
morning time when the sun is low in the sky, it
often bathes a scene a very attractive warm
golden light? Candle light is also an example of a
light source with a warm colour temperature.
On the other hand, the light from the midday sun
will often cast a harsher and cooler blue tinted
light. Shaded locations can also cast a cool light
on the subjects you are photographing.
Fluorescent lights will actually lead to a green
colour cast in photographs! These colour casts are
particularly noticeable on anything that is
supposed to be white in the scene.
Take a look at the following photographs taken at
the same location. This first photograph of a boat
house was taken under a harsh midday sun at the
height of summer. Notice how the tones in the
image are quite cool.
In the second image, I photographed the same
boathouse in autumn in the morning when the
sun was low in the sky. Notice how much warmer
the tones are on the boat house in particular.
 Midday Sun

Morning Golden Hour

I have no idea if they caught any fish by the way.
I've tried fishing and the only thing I caught was a
seagull that flew into my line as I cast out.
Thankfully he managed to free himself but I
decided it was best to retire before I managed to
catch a swan or an owl or a possibly a badger.
Fishing is not where my talents lie.
Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, colour
temperature! We tend not to take too much
notice of colour casts as our eyes and brain do a
good job at neutralising them. We simply don’t
notice colour casts unless they are particularly
strong.
We can look at a white chair under a warm
incandescent light bulb and it will still appear
white to us.
Our camera however, may produce a photograph
where the chair comes out with an orange tint.
Take a look at the example below.
 Adobe Stock

In the first photo, the incandescent light bulb has

caused the whole scene to take on a very warm
orange tint.
In the second photo, this has been neutralised by
adjusting the white balance setting. The chairs are
now white again.

Adobe Stock
Different types of light bulbs can give off light
with colour temperatures ranging from a very
cool blue to a warmer orange.
Colour temperature is measured in Degrees
Kelvin with warmer light represented by lower
temperatures and cooler light by higher
temperatures. This might seem counterintuitive
at first (a bit like f-stops).
Adobe Stock

This chart shows a range of light sources and their

corresponding Kelvin temperatures. You don't
need to know the temperatures off by heart by
any means. It is a good idea however to know
what types of light lead to warmer or cooler casts.
Why is it important to neutralise colour casts?
Being familiar with the effects of colour
temperature is particularly important for certain
types of photography.
Portrait photographers are very careful to
eliminate colour casts so that the subject’s skin
tones look natural.
Eliminating colour casts is also important in
product photography to ensure an accurate
representation of the true colours of the product
in question.
Have you ever bought something online that
looks nothing like the colour you saw on screen
when you receive it? This may be down to the
photographer not correcting the white balance
properly. Alternatively, it may be an issue with
the white balance settings on your screen.
My sister is a wedding photographer and a good
knowledge of colour temperature is vital for her
work. She often tells me that if you get nothing
else right on camera, get the dress right! Indoor
lighting can often make a wedding dress look
orange in photographs.
It can also make a bride very unhappy with her
wedding album.

Adobe Stock

Don’t upset the bride.

Correcting these colour casts is an essential part
of her work. Nobody seems to care about the
poor groom though. He can look like a tangerine
and nobody seems to care.
How can colour casts be removed with the white
balance setting?
The auto white balance setting works by your
camera searching for what it thinks is a neutral
tone in the scene and referencing everything else
from that. This is not always particularly accurate
however.
When white balance is set to auto, your camera
will often exaggerate the warm or cool
temperature of the light source like we saw in the
photos of a table and chairs earlier.
Setting the correct white balance setting will
neutralise the light colour temperature so that
objects that are supposed to be white will actually
appear white in the final photograph.
 Adobe Stock
Here, you can see the main white balance settings
available on most cameras.
Let's say you are taking pictures of people
indoors. As already mentioned, incandescent light
bulbs tend to give off a very warm, orange tinted
light. This can cause skin tones to look very
unrealistic.
Switching your white balance to the light bulb
setting will counteract this by cooling down the
colour tones in your photos.
To neutralise colour casts and achieve more
natural and realistic tones, simply set your white
balance to the setting that best matches the
lighting conditions.
Grey Cards and Custom White Balance Settings
Earlier, we saw that capturing accurate colour
tones is very important in certain types of
photography such as portrait, wedding and
product photography. For this reason, some
photographers often use a tool called a grey card
to set a more accurate custom white balance.

Adobe Stock

A grey card is.... well it's a grey card. More

accurately, it is a card coloured with a mid-tone
grey. These can be as large as a bicycle wheel or
as small as a credit card.
There can also be black and white cards or sheets
with a whole range of colours in a grid. These can
also be used to correct the white balance
especially in post-processing.
In the tutorial on aperture priority, shutter
priority and manual modes, we saw that your
camera tries to see a scene in terms of the mid-
tones. Once it finds what it considers to be a mid-
tone it can use it as a reference to work out the
exposure for the rest of the scene.
White balance works in the same way. A grey card
acts as a reference for the camera letting it know
exactly what mid-grey in the scene should look
like. Once it has this reference point, it can work
out the other colour tones.
This works best in controlled lighting, such as in a
studio for example. Once you set the correct
white balance using the grey card, you don't have
to worry about it again unless you change the
light source.
Obviously, this will not be the case for outdoor
landscape photography when the light may be
constantly changing. There may even be several
different light sources in one scene. This can be a
particular challenge when it comes to setting the
white balance.
How do you use a grey card to set a custom
white balance?
Every camera brand does this a little differently
but the following description gives a basic idea of
how the process works.
1. Take a picture of your grey card in which the
card fills up the entire frame. This is easier
with larger grey cards obviously. The card
should be lit by the same light source you
will be using on your subject.

2. Go to the custom white balance setting on

your camera menu. It will ask you to choose
 a reference image. Choose the photograph
of the grey card you just took.
Adobe Stock

3. Set your white balance

setting to "custom" 
Your photographs should not have any unrealistic
colour casts if you have completed this process
properly. Some photographers repeat the process
a few times to ensure the settings are absolutely
accurate.
Check your user manual to see how this process
works on your camera
Changing the White Balance in Post-Processing
If you shoot in RAW format (and you should), you
can actually change the white balance setting
after you have taken the photograph. This can be
done in RAW processing software such as Adobe
Lightroom. I will discuss the advantages of the
RAW format at the end of the book.
A grey card can also be used in this situation.
Often a portrait photographer will take a
photograph of the subject while they are holding
a grey card. In post-production, they then use an
"eye-dropper" tool to click on this grey card in the
photo to let the software know where mid-grey is.
The software adjusts the white balance
accordingly. The photographer can then apply
these settings to all of the other photographs
taken during the session.
Product photographers use the same method by
placing a small grey card beside the product they
are photographing.
Do you always need to "fix" the white balance?
If you are a portrait, wedding or product
photographer, the answer will almost always be
yes. For outdoor landscape photographers
however, this may not necessarily be the case.
In many cases, I actually want to retain the warm
tones in a photograph for artistic and aesthetic
reasons. When photographing a sunrise or sunset
for example, I want to retain those attractive
warm tones.
The same goes for taking photographs during the
morning and evening golden hours. The warm
side lighting at these times can make a scene look
far more inviting and interesting than if
photographed under the harsh midday sun or on
a dull cloudy day.
If I am photographing a candle lit scene, I will
often want to portray the warmth and cosiness of
the candlelight as it casts its glow on the subjects
in the scene. There are occasions when
"correcting" the white balance is not the
preferred option.
There are other times you may just partially
correct the white balance to tone down
particularly strong colour casts.
Human beings tend to have a preference for
warm tones. Most of my best selling photographs
were taken in warmer toned light. That is not to
say that photos taken in cooler light are
necessarily less attractive. It all depends on the
mood you are trying to capture and portray.
Take a look at how different white balance
settings affect the mood of the scene below.

Adobe Stock

The photo becomes less realistic and cooler/more

blue the further to the left we go.
Here are some examples of photographs I took
where I deliberately did not correct (or not much
at least) the white balance in order to portray a
particular mood.

Grand Canal Dock in Dublin

In this photo from Grand Canal Dock in Dublin the
sun has just risen and is casting a golden glow on
the buildings along the water's edge. This is
typical "golden hour" light which we will cover in
more detail in the “Light” section.
 Bridges of Prague
This next photograph was taken from the hills of
Letna Park in beautiful Prague. Notice how the
cool blue tones of this overcast evening in Prague
contrast with the warm tones of the buildings in
the left of the frame. These are illuminated by
warm yellow tinted incandescent light. I like the
contrast between the cool and warm tones in the
scene.
Mixed light sources can often be a challenge
when photographing cities in particular.
 Notre Dame de Paris
Take a look at the next two photographs of Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris. The photograph on the
left was taken in the middle of the day when the
sun was high in the sky.
The shot on the right was taken during the
evening golden hour. What a difference in the
tones a few hours make! This is one time when I
definitely do not want to "correct" the white
balance.
As an outdoor photographer, what white
balance setting should I use?
Personally, I tend to simply use the auto white
balance setting when photographing outdoor
scenes. I always make sure to shoot in RAW
format.
I then adjust the white balance in post-production
to a setting that best matches the particular
mood I am looking to portray. This is very easy to
do using software such as Adobe Lightroom.
There is no right or wrong way to do this. You
may prefer to set the white balance in camera
rather than changing it afterwards. The best thing
to do is to get out and experiment and see what
works best for the type of photography you enjoy
doing.
In our next tutorial, we will look at focal length
and how it affects the look of your photographs.
 Focal Length
The focal length setting on your lens affects the
angle of view when you point your camera at a
scene or subject. This is measured in millimetres.
The focal length values are displayed on your lens.

Adobe Stock

Focal Length Values

Shorter focal lengths allow a wider angle of view
whereas longer focal lengths produce a narrower
field of view. This enables you to zoom in closer
to subjects that are further away.
 Adobe Stock

This chart illustrates the angles of view that

correspond with different focal length settings.
How is focal length measured?
The focal length is the distance between the lens
and the point where the light that enters the
lens converges before continuing on to the digital
sensor or film. Take a look at the diagram below.

Adobe Stock

This point where the light converges is called the

focal point. With zoom lenses, the focal length
can be adjusted by turning the zoom ring on the
lens to your desired setting.
Here are brief descriptions of the main types of
lenses and their focal lengths:
Wide Angle
Wide angle lenses as the name suggests allow a
wide angle of view. The focal length tends to
range from about 10 to 24 mm.

Adobe Stock

Wide Angle Lens (10-20 mm)

They are particularly useful for landscape
photography as they allow you to capture wide
vistas. I also use a wide angle lens for
photographing the interiors of buildings.
 Cividale del Friuli| 10 mm
A focal length of 10 mm enabled me to capture
the whole of the stone bridge in this scene with
the picturesque northern Italian town of Cividale
del Friuli in the background.
The bridge in this photo is called the Ponte del
Diavolo. Local legend says that the devil made a
deal with the townspeople. He would build the
bridge you see in the photo but in return, he got
to keep the first soul to cross the bridge. The
clever residents of Cividale del Friuli then sent a
cat across the bridge first much to the devil’s
annoyance! The lesson for photographers is:
Always check that your contract with a customer
is absolutely watertight!
Some lenses can produce an even wider angle of
view. These are known as fisheye lenses and can
have a focal length range of 8-10mm. They
produce much more distorted images though.

Adobe Stock

Fisheye Lens
Mid-Range
Mid-range lenses fall somewhere in between
wide angle and zoom lenses. They allow a field of
view that ranges from moderate wide angle to
moderate zoom, about 24-70 mm.
This range most closely matches the human field
of vision. It's without a doubt, the lens I use the
most often due to its versatility.

Adobe Stock

Mid-Range Lens (24-70mm)

Mid-range lenses have a wide range of uses from
landscape and street photography to portraits.
 Street Musician in Bucharest | 45 mm
Zoom / Telephoto

Adobe Stock

Telephoto Lens (70-200 mm)

Zoom or telephoto lenses have a much narrower
field of view. They have focal lengths that can
range from 70 mm up to several hundred mm.
Some super telephoto lenses have focal lengths of
several thousand mm.
Zoom/telephoto lenses are used to zoom in close
to subjects and scenes that are relatively far
away. They can also be used to zoom in close to a
subject to capture close up detail.

Island of Coin de Mire in Mauritius | 125 mm

A focal length of 125 mm allowed me to zoom
right in on this fisherman on a small boat and the
island behind him. I actually took this from my
hotel room terrace.
One issue that often arises when using telephoto
lenses is camera shake. Think about how difficult
it is to keep binoculars on your subject when you
have zoomed in on something very far away.
The same principal applies to a camera with a
long telephoto lens attached. For this reason, a
sturdy tripod is essential when using these lenses.
Prime
Prime lenses have a fixed focal length i.e. you
cannot zoom in or out. It's often said that you
zoom with your feet when using a prime lens!
They come in a range of focal lengths.
Prime lenses tend to be very fast due to their very
wide maximum apertures which are often as
wide as f1.2.
As we saw in a previous tutorial, wider apertures
allow for much faster shutter speeds. These
lenses also tend to be exceptionally sharp.
 Adobe Stock

50 mm Prime Lens
They can be used for a variety of subjects but they
tend to be quite popular among portrait
photographers in particular due to their
sharpness. 50 mm prime lenses (known as a nifty
fifty) are among the best-selling prime lenses.
The baby portrait on the next page was taken by
my sister with a 50 mm prime lens. It’s not just
any baby either. He’s mine! I won him in a raffle!*
*I did not actually win him in a raffle before
anyone calls the police or child services. It was
more like an auction type thing.
Louis | 50 mm (by Janet O’Carroll)
Macro
Macro lenses are used for taking extremely
detailed close up photographs of very small
subjects such as flowers and insects. You can
position the lens very close to the subject and
focus from a very short distance of only a few
centimetres.

Adobe Stock

100 mm Macro Lens

Macro lenses allow you to photograph your
subject with a 1:1 ratio which results in highly
detailed shots.
This means that the size of the subject in real life
is the same size as it’s reproduced on the sensor.
For example, a small flower measuring 20 mm in
diameter will still measure 20 mm in diameter
when projected onto a 35 mm sensor.

Adobe Stock

Water Droplet Macro (by Vera Kuttelvaserova)

All in One
The “all in one lens” is the "Jack of all trades" of
lenses. They tend to have very wide focal length
ranges often starting at a wide 18mm and go right
up to a moderate telephoto focal length of
200mm.
They are definitely useful for beginners who are
learning what different focal lengths are capable
of producing. They are also relatively inexpensive
to purchase.
The downside of “all in one” lenses is that they
don't tend to be quite as sharp as lenses with
narrower focal length ranges. They are also not
particularly fast with maximum apertures of
about f4.
Focal Length and Perspective
One of the most noticeable ways your choice of
focal length affects the look of your photograph
concerns perspective.
Wide angle lenses exaggerate perspective
making different elements in your frame look
further apart than in reality.
Telephoto lenses have the opposite effect. They
compress perspective making different elements
in the frame seem close together than in reality.
Take a look at these two photographs taken in
Venice to see this effect in action.

Gondolas of Venice | 20 mm
For this photo I used a wide angle lens and set a
focal length of 20 mm. I set up my tripod right on
the water's edge. The island and tower appear to
be quite far away across the Venice Lagoon.
 San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice | 60 mm
For the next photo, I set up my tripod about 50
metres back from where I was standing for the
first photo and zoomed in to 60 mm.
Even at this moderate zoom, the island and
church now appear much larger and closer to the
water's edge. The perspective has been
completely compressed. The elements in scene
seem to be "stacked" much closer together. I still
wouldn’t advise trying to swim to the island.
Focal Length and Depth of Field
In a previous tutorial, we learnt that your choice
of aperture has a major effect on the depth of
field in your photograph.
We saw that generally speaking, wide apertures
result in a shallow depth of field and a blurred
background. On the other hand, narrow apertures
result in a deep depth of field where everything
from the foreground to the background is sharp.
Your choice of focal length also has an effect on
the depth of field of your photograph.

 Short focal lengths (wide angle) allow for a

deeper depth of field even at wider
apertures.

 Long focal lengths (zoom/telephoto) result

in much a shallower depth of field even at
relatively narrow apertures.
 Belfast City Hall Council Chamber | 24 mm
In this photo of the interior of Belfast City Hall, I
used a wide focal length of 24 mm to include as
much if the council chamber as possible.
At this wide angle, a relatively large aperture of
f7.1 was enough to ensure that the whole scene
was sharp from foreground to background.
I used a wider aperture than I normally would in
this situation as I was shooting hand held and so
needed to ensure a fast exposure time to avoid
camera shake. I also used a high ISO setting of
3200 to guarantee a fast enough shutter speed.

Flowers in my Garden | 70 mm
I used a focal length of 70 mm to zoom in close to
these yellow flowers in order to capture plenty of
detail.
Even though I used a narrow aperture of f16, the
depth of field is quite shallow with the flowers in
the background being out of focus and blurred.
Focal Length and Crop Factor

Adobe Stock
Digital camera sensors come in a variety of sizes.
Full frame sensors measure 36 mm on the longest
side. Full frame cameras tend to produce higher
quality results with plenty of detail. They also
perform very well at higher ISO settings.
Cropped sensors are smaller than full frame
sensors. The most common crop-sensor format is
the APS-C format which measures a much smaller
23.6 mm on its longest side.
This results a crop factor of about 1.5X. In practice
this means that a focal length of 24 mm on a full
frame camera will convert to 36 mm on an APS-C
cropped sensor camera.
Olympus four thirds cameras have a crop factor of
2X. This means that a focal length of 150 mm on a
full frame camera becomes 300 mm. This can be
useful for those who require plenty of zoom such
as wildlife or sports photographers.
Compact cameras can have even smaller sensors
with much higher crop factors and huge zoom
capabilities as a result. These cameras are much
smaller as well as more portable and discreet.
I often use a compact one inch sensor camera for
street photography for this reason. Large DSLR
cameras and lenses tend to scare people,
especially when thrown in their direction.
Smaller sensors however do not produce results
of the same quality as a full frame sensor. Digital
noise can be a much bigger issue with smaller
sensors especially in low light or at higher ISOs.
That said, as camera technology advances, even
smaller sensors perform better and better with
each new camera model.
Adobe Stock

Inside a Lens
I do not recommend doing this to your own lens.
In our next tutorial, we will take a look at the
various focusing modes on your camera.
 Focus Modes
In this tutorial, we are going to look at the various
focus modes and tools available on your camera.
We will also see which situations they are best
suited to.
Finally, we'll look at how to focus on a landscape
scene to ensure that everything from the
foreground to the background is sharp.
Autofocus Points
Adobe Stock

When you look through your camera's viewfinder

or at the back screen you will see a number of
autofocus points like the ones in the previous
picture. There can be anything from 3 to over a
hundred. You use these points to tell your camera
exactly where it should focus on in any given
scene.
If you set the autofocus point selection to
automatic, your camera will examine the scene
and focus where it thinks is the correct place.
When you half press your shutter you will see the
focus point(s) the camera has selected light up or
change colour.
This can obviously be a risky way of focusing as
your camera can get it wrong and you end up
with the most important part of your photograph
being out of focus. I much prefer to choose my
focus point manually to ensure that what I want
be sharp is actually sharp. Check your camera’s
manual to see how to do this.
Using this method, you simply select an autofocus
point that is closest to where you want the focus
to be. Hover that point over the exact spot you
want to focus on and half-press the shutter to
lock the focus on that location.
While keeping the shutter half pressed you can
then slightly re-compose the shot to create the
exact composition you wish to use. Even though
you have moved the camera slightly, it will stay
focused on the spot where you half-pressed the
shutter. Press the shutter fully down to take the
shot.
There are 3 main autofocus modes available on
most cameras:
Single Focus / One Shot Focus
This is the most straightforward of the autofocus
modes. You simply choose your focus point and
take your shot in the way I described above. This
is perfect for mostly static scenes such as
landscapes, architecture or me sleeping on the
couch after a large meal.
In this photo, I used single focus/one shot focus
mode and selected the focus point you see in
green. In this case the focus point was sitting
exactly over the spot where I wanted to focus. If
this was not the case, I could have slightly re-
composed after half pressing the shutter with the
focus point over the same spot.
Al Servo Focus / Continuous Focus
This mode is perfect for moving subjects. You lock
focus in the same way as before by choosing a
focus point and half pressing the shutter. This
time however, your camera follows the moving
subject and keeps the focus locked onto it as you
track it with your camera.
AI servo/continuous focus is particularly useful for
wildlife and sports photography where the
subjects can move quickly.
If you were photographing me playing football or
even just running however, single focus would
probably get the job done.

Adobe Stock

Al servo/continuous focus mode is an essential

tool for sports photographers (by Jeffrey F Lin).
Automatic Autofocus / AI Focus
This mode is a combination of the previous two
focus modes. The camera will use single focus
mode if it detects that the subject is static.
It can then automatically switch to Al servo /
continuous mode if the subject suddenly moves
or if you move your camera's focus from a static
to a moving subject or vice versa.

Adobe Stock

Baseball (by John Torcasio)

This mode could be useful while photographing a
batter at a baseball game (or batsman at a cricket
match for my English readers). The batter will be
relatively static while hitting the ball and then will
suddenly start running.
Automatic autofocus will switch from single focus
to AI servo/continuous focus at this point allowing
you to keep focus on the batter as he runs
without having to manually switch modes.
Being Irish, my knowledge of both baseball and
cricket is extremely limited. Cricket is the one
with horses right?
Manual Focus Adobe Stock

Autofocus/Manual Focus Switch

You can also switch your camera to manual focus
and focus by turning the focus ring on the lens
(pictured below). You can do this by eye and keep
turning the ring until your subject is sharp. You
need excellent eyesight for this however!

Adobe Stock

Alternatively, you can set focus by calculating the

hyperfocal distance and manually setting the
focus ring (pictured above) to this distance. This is
a more advanced technique however. For those
interested in learning how it works, I have
covered it in the next tutorial.
Diopter Wheel
Very few of us have perfect eyesight and this is
where the diopter wheel comes in. This is located
right beside your viewfinder. You can turn it until
the subject looks sharp in your viewfinder. It
basically adjusts your viewfinder until it roughly
matches your glasses prescription.

Adobe Stock
Live View Focus
Focusing with live view on the back screen is
another way of focusing on your subject. You
simply tap the location where you want the
focus point to be with your finger.
You can then move the focus point as required by
dragging it on the screen or simply by tapping on
a different location. I find this tool very useful for
landscape photography. It makes focusing on the
exact spot I want very easy.
Face Detection Focus
Adobe Stock
Most back screens also have a face detection
focus tool that will automatically lock focus on a
face in a scene. Many are so accurate that they
focus not just on the face but on the eyes to
ensure maximum sharpness.
Back Button Focus
The back button focus allows you to separate the
shutter button from the focusing process.
Instead of locking focus by half pressing the
shutter, you simply press the back button instead.
The shutter is then only used to take the shot.

Adobe Stock
Pressing the back button once, sets focus using
single focus mode. Holding down the back button
switches your focus to AI servo/continuous focus
mode. It could be used as an alternative option in
the baseball photograph example. The difference
is that you, rather than your camera choose the
moment you switch from one mode to the other.
Depth of Field Preview
This button will set the lens to your chosen
aperture as you preview the image through your
viewfinder or in live view on the back screen. This
gives you a more accurate idea of how the final
photograph will look.
This is especially useful when using a wide
aperture to achieve a shallow depth of field. It
allows us see if we have enough depth of field to
keep our main subject sharp while deliberately
blurring the background and/or foreground.
Where to Set Focus?
In the tutorial on aperture, we saw that setting
focus when shooting portraits, sports or wildlife is
relatively straightforward. We simply focus on our
main subject.
In the case of portraits, we focus on the eyes.
Often, we may not be concerned about the rest of
the scene being particularly sharp. In fact, we may
deliberately want the rest of the scene to be out
of focus.
When shooting landscapes however, we generally
want everything from the foreground to the
background to be sharp. Where do we set focus in
this case?
A good general rule of thumb is to set focus on a
spot that is about 1/3 up from the bottom of the
frame. We learnt in the aperture tutorial that
there is about twice as much depth of field
behind the point of focus than in front of it.
This means that setting the focus 1/3 up from the
bottom of the frame and using a narrow aperture
should result in the whole scene from the
foreground to background being in focus and
acceptably sharp. This is the method I use 99% of
the time.

For this photograph of a restaurant on St. Mark's

Square in Venice, I focused on the point where
the red dot is. This ensures that everything from
the restaurant chairs and tables to St. Mark's
Basilica in the distance is sharp.
Hyperfocal Distance
As mentioned earlier, calculating the hyperfocal
distance is another way of setting focus in this
situation. Done properly, it is a very effective and
accurate method of focusing.
It is useful in a number of situations when simply
focusing on a point 1/3 up from the frame may
not be accurate enough for the scene in question.
It may even be impossible to use autofocus if
using a very dark neutral density filter on your
lens.
We will look at how to calculate the hyperfocal
distance and use it to set focus in the next
tutorial.
 Hyperfocal Distance
This tutorial will explain what hyperfocal distance
is, how to calculate it and how to use it to set
focus. It is a little more advanced than the other
tutorials in the book but you didn't think I was
going to completely let you off without any of the
more technical stuff now did you?
For the vast majority of my urban landscape
shots, I simply use the focusing technique I
described in the previous tutorial i.e. I focus on a
point about 1/3 up from the bottom of the frame.
This works perfectly well in the majority of
situations when you want the whole scene to be
sharp. There are times however when using the
hyperfocal distance to work out where I should
focus can be very useful.
The hyper what now? If you are looking for a
tutorial full of complex mathematical formulae
and discussions of the importance of the
“circle of confusion”, you won’t find it here! My
aim is to create a very simple guide to using hyper
focal distance that won’t give you a headache.
What exactly is the hyperfocal distance?
In short, the hyper focal distance is a point a
certain distance away from your camera. If you
focus on this point, everything halfway between
the camera and this point and everything after
this point all the way to infinity will be in
acceptably sharp. Shutterstock

In the example above, the hyperfocal distance is

where the red dot is. This means that everything
from halfway between the camera lens (blue dot)
and the hyperfocal distance all the way to infinity
will be in focus.
The hyperfocal distance depends on the camera
model, the focal length, the aperture used and
whether or not there is a full moon. In a moment,
we’ll look at how to calculate the hyperfocal
distance using this information.
So why use hyperfocal distance to focus in the
first place?
Put simply, this is the most accurate way of
ensuring that you get the maximum sharpness
and depth of field possible for the aperture you
are using when photographing landscape scenes.

Landscape Photography at Glendalough in Ireland

How do you calculate the hyperfocal distance?
Calculating the hyperfocal distance is actually
easier than you would expect. You simply multiply
the focal length (in millimetres) by itself and then
divide the result by the circle of confusion
multiplied by the f-stop value!!! Easy eh?
While what I have just said is technically true, the
good news is that you don’t need a degree in
mathematics to work out the hyperfocal distance.
There are plenty of smartphone apps out there
that do all the calculations for you. All you need
to know is:

 Your camera make and model.

 The focal length you are using for the shot.

 The aperture you are using for the shot.

 Your mother in law’s maiden name and

blood type.
My favourite app for calculating hyper focal
distance is HyperFocal Pro. This can downloaded
for free from the Play Store or App Store. There
are others out there but I find HyperFocal Pro to
be very easy to use and it’s completely free. So,
how do we use the app?
I’m going to use a photo I took of the Charles
Bridge in the beautiful city of Prague to
demonstrate how to calculate the hyperfocal
distance using HyperFocal Pro.
After you have chosen your aperture and
composed your photo, just follow the following
steps.
1. Find your make and model in the drop down
list by tapping on the ‘camera’ field. In this
case, I was using a now prehistoric Canon
40D.
2. Enter the focal length in the ‘lens’ field. In
this case I was zoomed to 56 mm. You can
check this value by looking at the markings
on your lens.
3. Select your aperture value. In this case, I was
using f14.
4. Next, tap on ‘Subject Distance’, and then
simply tap the ‘use hfd’ button. You don’t
need to type in a specific value here when
calculating the hyperfocal distance. I’ll
explain what happens if you do type in a
specific value later.
You will see that the hyperfocal distance has been
calculated for you at the bottom. In this case it is
about 12.42 metres.
You can then focus your lens to 12.42 metres. You
can either use autofocus to focus on something
that is 12.42 metres away or you can manually
focus the lens.
This now means that everything from half of the
hyperfocal distance (6.21 metres) from the lens
all the way to infinity will be sharp. As you can
see, this is also illustrated in the diagram at the
bottom of the app display.
If you look at the photo above, you will see that
everything from the base of the bridge in the
foreground to Prague Castle in the background is
sharp.
An hour later, after several Czech beers and
something called ‘Becherovka‘, the scene seemed
strangely blurred, even to the naked eye. Not
even calculating the hyperfocal distance could fix
it. Believe me, I tried.
What happens if you type a specific distance into
the ‘Subject Distance’ field?
In step 4, I told you to ‘tap the ‘use hfd’ button’ in
the ‘Subject Distance’ field. This means the app
will calculate the hyperfocal distance allowing you
to get as much depth of field as possible.
What if you are not so concerned with the whole
image being sharp? For example, you are
photographing a deer with mountains in the
background. You obviously want the deer to be
sharp but maybe you're not so concerned about
the mountains. Let’s say the deer is 6 metres
away from you. In the example above, we type in
6 metres to the ‘Subject Distance’ field.
By doing this, the app no longer calculates the
hyperfocal distance. Instead, it gives us an idea of
how much depth of field we would have in front
of and behind the deer that we focused on.
In this case we focused on the deer, 6 metres
away. The app then tells us that everything from
4.05 metres to 11.55 metres from the camera
lens will be in sharp focus. Anything in front or
behind this will not be sharp. In this case, it
means that the mountains in the background will
not be in sharp focus.
This may not necessarily be a bad thing. In fact,
we may want to blur the background to make the
trees stand out. You can then change your
aperture to get more or less depth of field as
required. By now, the deer has probably
wandered away so work quickly.
How do I focus my lens to the hyperfocal
distance indicated by the app?
There are 2 methods for doing this:
1. If the hyperfocal distance is quite close (less
than 3 metres away), you can switch your
lens to manual focus and turn the focus ring
to the distance indicated.

2. If the hyperfocal distance is further away like

in our first example (12.42 metres), it is
easier to switch to autofocus and focus on
something which is that distance away.
How do we find something that is 12.42 metres
away? Well, it’s a bit tricky. You could measure it
out or simply make an estimate. I don't know
about you but I don't tend to carry a long
measuring tape with me at all times.
If you want a really accurate measurement, you
could use a rangefinder. I find that most of the
time, simply estimating the distance works well.
Note that most cameras have a depth of field
preview button which allows you to see exactly
how much of the scene is in focus. We mentioned
this in more detail in the last tutorial. Check your
camera’s manual to see how this works on your
model.
Many lenses often have additional guides that
help set the hyperfocal distance as accurately as
possible. Again, check your manual for more
information on how to use these guides.
Leica lenses come with a personal butler to help
you set the hyperfocal distance and make you tea
while you take photos.
Why not just set a narrow aperture and focus
one third up from the bottom of the frame?
I mentioned this method in the previous tutorial.
This is a good rule of thumb for focusing on a
landscape scene and will yield excellent results
most of the time. If you were to set a narrow
aperture of between f16 and f22 and focus one
third up from the bottom of the frame, you would
get a decently sharp shot almost every time.
That said, most lenses are at their absolute
sharpest when the aperture is set somewhere
between f8 and f11. If you can manage to use an
aperture value in this range and still achieve the
required depth of field, you obviously have the
best chance of creating the sharpest photo
possible. Calculating the hyperfocal distance using
an aperture in this range will let you know if it’s
possible to get everything you want in focus to be
sharp.
In an earlier tutorial, we learnt that at narrower
apertures, images can actually begin to become a
little soft. This is called diffraction.
Sometimes, you may not be able to use an
aperture in the f8 to f11 range as in the
photograph taken in Prague above. I had to use
f14 to get enough depth of field. I still got a very
sharp image though even at f14. High quality
lenses will still perform very well at narrower
apertures.
What are the advantages of using hyperfocal
distance to focus?

 It’s a very accurate way of ensuring

maximum depth of field.
 It gives you a better chance of setting your
aperture so that the lens is at its sharpest.
 When using certain neutral density filters,
autofocus does not work. The filter is often
simply too dark to focus through. Using the
hyperfocal distance to focus solves this
problem.
 Speaking about “hyperfocal distances”
makes you sound intelligent.
In our final camera settings tutorial, we will look
at the various camera drive modes and timers on
your DSLR.
 Drive Modes
In this tutorial, we will take a look at the main
drive modes on your camera and when to use
them. We will also cover the timer settings and
other tools such as remote shutter and mirror
lock up. These can all be used to ensure the
highest quality photographs possible.
There are two main drive modes you can use
when taking photographs: single shot and
continuous or burst mode.
Single Shot
Now pay close attention to
this. It gets complicated. In
single shot drive mode, you
press the shutter once and
the camera takes a single
shot. I need to go lie down Adobe Stock
to recover after that.
This is the basic drive mode most photographers
use most of the time. One click, one shot - simple
as that.
Continuous/Burst
In continuous or burst
mode, you press
down the shutter but
this time you keep it
pressed. Your camera
will keep taking
photographs until you Adobe Stock

take your finger off the shutter or the

buffer/memory becomes full.
There are often two continuous/burst drive
modes: low and high. In high continuous/burst
drive mode, the camera will take the photographs
faster. The maximum speed it can take
consecutive photos and amount of photos it can
take at a time depend on a number of factors:

 The shutter speed used

  The camera's buffer/memory size
 The file size of the photograph
 The speed of the memory card
Continuous/burst drive is particularly useful in
wildlife and sports photography. If you start
shooting the moment a player takes a shot in a
football match, the camera will keep taking
photographs until the ball is in the back of the net
or if I am playing, stuck in a bush several metres
to the left or right of the goal.

Adobe Stock

Continuous/burst drive used to capture a

skateboarder jumping off a kerb.
You can also use continuous/burst drive when
you want to capture a series of images
documenting a particular moment. You often see
this in (bad) movies when private investigators
take a series of photos in quick succession to
catch their target in the act of cheating on a
partner or some other nefarious activity.
For this photograph, I used continuous/burst
drive to capture the exact moment the lemon
landed in the water.
Timers
Adobe Stock
All digital cameras
come equipped
with several timer
options: usually a
10 second and 2 second timer. The 10 second
timer can be useful when you want to include
yourself in a family or group photo for example.
Once you press the shutter, you then have 10
seconds to get into the frame yourself before the
shot is taken. Usain Bolt only needs to use the 2
second timer to do the same.
Personally, I use the 2 second timer whenever I
am taking a long exposure shot using a tripod.
Even pressing the shutter can be enough to cause
camera shake and ruin your photograph. By using
the 2 second timer, your camera has a chance to
settle again after you press the shutter.
I often combine this with the auto exposure
bracketing tool that I covered in the tutorial on
aperture priority, shutter priority and manual
modes.
Once the 2 second timer is activated, I press the
shutter and the camera then takes all three
bracketed photos one after the other. I however,
only need to press the shutter button once.
I can then merge these three shots in post
processing to achieve a better exposure with less
clipped shadows or blown highlights. Take a look
at the example below.
In this case I used the 2 second timer combined
with auto exposure bracketing to take these three
bracketed shots of the Charles Bridge in Prague. I
then blended them together to create the final
image you see below. We saw this shot in the last
chapter.
 Charles Bridge - Prague
Shutter Release Cable / Remote Control
Another way of avoiding camera shake is to use a
shutter release cable or remote control to take
your photo. This avoids touching your camera at
all when taking the shot. The shutter release
cable simply attaches to your camera via a wire.
The remote control activates the shutter
completely wirelessly.

Adobe Stock

Shutter Release Cable

Some cameras even come with an accompanying
smartphone app that allows you to control your
camera from your phone.
Not only can you control the shutter button from
your phone, you can even see a live view of what
your camera sees. You may even be able to focus
and change the exposure settings such as
aperture and shutter speed remotely from your
phone.
My dad had a box brownie camera that didn't
even have a viewfinder! You just pointed it in the
general direction of your subject and hoped for
the best! Camera technology sure has come on a
bit since then. If ten years ago, someone had told
me cameras would soon be able to fly on remote
controlled drones, I'd have said they were crazy!

Adobe Stock

Box Brownie Camera / Drone Camera

I wonder what amazing technological advances
are coming next: a camera that makes phone
calls? That would be so cool. We can always
dream I guess.
Mirror Lock Up
When you press the shutter button, the mirror in
your camera lifts up to allow the light that enters
the lens to reach your sensor. Even this tiny
movement can be enough to cause camera shake.
By activating mirror lock up, the mirror is moved
out of the way and locked into the “up” position.
You can then take your shot as normal although
you will no longer be able to see scene through
your viewfinder.
Silent Shutter / Quiet Mode
Many cameras have a silent shutter or quiet
mode for those times you need to be more
discreet, at a wedding for example.
I once (deservedly) received a smack to the back
of the head by an irked elderly gentleman after I
rather noisily took a photograph inside an
otherwise silent Orthodox church in Romania.
I might have avoided bodily harm had I
remembered to activate the silent shutter mode.

The Offending Photograph

We now move away from the technical aspects of
photography and on to the more creative side of
things. The next tutorial is the first in a series on
composition.
 Section 3

Composition
 Introduction to Composition
When I teach people about composition in
photography, I don’t really like to talk about
“rules”. Nobody likes rules except maybe the
heads of human resources departments or your
old school principal.

Adobe Stock

You won’t get called to the principal’s office for

not following composition rules. I promise.
What I am presenting here is a list of composition
“ideas”. They are designed to give you some ideas
for arranging the various elements in your frame
and how to use those elements to create
interesting photographs.
What follows are not hard and fast rules that
must be followed all the time and I would
encourage you to find your own way to create
interesting compositions.
That said, many of these ideas in this section have
been used in art and architecture for millennia
and provide a good starting point to creating
attractive and engaging compositions in your
photographs.
Many of these composition ideas can be used in
combination with each other. Others seem to
completely contradict each other and that’s ok.
None of these ideas are more important or better
than the others. After all, there is more than one
way to cook an egg. Poached egg is obviously the
best way though and I’ll fight anyone who says
otherwise.
 Rule of Thirds
In my introduction I said I don’t like to talk about
“rules” when it comes to photography. I then
start my tutorial with the “rule of thirds”. Hey, I
didn’t come up with the name.
This way of composing your scene involves
dividing the frame into nine equal rectangles, 3
across and 3 down.
The idea is to place important elements in the
scene such as the horizon or your subject along
one of the lines. Placing your main subject on one
of the points where the lines intersect is
particularly effective too.
People have a natural tendency to place the main
subject right in the centre of the frame. This
seems logical after all. Using the rule of thirds to
place it off centre however can often result in a
more pleasing and dynamic composition.
Take a look at the following examples:
 Maynooth - Ireland
In this scene, you will notice that the horizon is
sitting on the bottom horizontal line of the grid.
This does not have to be exact by the way. It’s
only meant to be a guide. The biggest tree in the
scene is then aligned with the right hand vertical
line.
Many cameras allow you to activate a rule of
thirds grid on your back screen when using live
view as an aid to composition.
 Temple Bar – Dublin
In this example of a street photograph, I’ve placed
the woman walking along the street on the point
where two of the grid lines intersect.
The cobbled street roughly occupies the bottom
third of the frame; the building fronts occupy the
middle third and the upper floors of the buildings
occupy the top third.
Having the rule of thirds grid activated in live view
really helped me when I took this photograph.
 Old Town Square – Prague
In this cityscape taken in the beautiful Czech
capital of Prague, I placed the horizon on the top
horizontal line this time as most of the interesting
elements in the scene are in the bottom portion
of the frame.
The Church of Our Lady before Týn sits where two
lines intersect. Personally, I want to know what
happened to Our Lady after Týn. I also want to
know what Týn is.
 Centred Composition and Symmetry
Now that I’ve told you that it’s a good idea to not
place your subject in the centre of the frame, I’m
going to tell you to do the total opposite.
There are plenty of occasions when a centred
composition can be very effective. This is
especially the case in scenes that are symmetrical.
Architecture and engineering are often excellent
candidates for a centred composition.

Ha’penny Bridge – Dublin

This view of the Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin is the
perfect candidate for a centred composition.

Maynooth University – Ireland

Centred and symmetrical compositions often
work very well in a square cropped frame.
 Dublin Docklands
We often think of symmetry in the vertical sense
of the term. Don’t forget that symmetry can also
work horizontally.
Reflections offer are a fantastic opportunity for
horizontal symmetrical compositions. Morning
and evening time are the best times to capture
reflections like this. As the air cools at these
times, the wind tends to drop.
The next photo is an example of a centred
composition of an architectural interior of Belfast
City Hall in portrait format.
Belfast City Hall Interior
 Golden Triangles
The golden triangles composition method works
in a very similar way to the rule of thirds. This
time we use a series of diagonal lines to arrange
the elements in the frame.
In this case we draw a diagonal line from one
corner to the other. It doesn’t matter which. We
then draw smaller lines from the other corners to
meet this line at a right angle as in the examples
below. Diagonals can be a powerful composition
tool as we will see in more detail later.
It is often said that diagonals add dynamic tension
to a scene. This is because diagonals are jarring to
our sense of balance. We are used to flat,
horizontal surfaces. This is what creates the sense
of visual tension.
You can also talk about dynamic tension to sound
intelligent (or annoyingly pretentious) in front of
your friends.
 O’Connell Street – Dublin
This photo of O’Connell Street in Dublin is an
example of using the strong diagonals in the
scene with the golden triangles principle.
Notice how the light trails and tops of the
buildings to the right align with the long diagonal
line. The shorter diagonal to the left roughly
aligns with the buildings on the other side of the
street.
As with the rule of thirds, this does not have to be
exact. The diagonals act as a basic guide for
arranging the elements in the scene.
 Eiffel Tower – Paris
This photograph of the Eiffel Tower is a subtle
example of the golden triangles principle in
action. The heads of the statues through to the
bottom left hand base of the Eiffel Tower itself
create an “implied” diagonal from one corner to
the other.
This is often the case with composition.
Frequently, the lines that link elements in the
scene are implied rather than explicit.
 Golden Ratio
What exactly is the golden ratio? Well it’s actually
quite simple: two quantities are in the golden
ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their
sum to the larger of the two quantities.
See, told you it was easy. Ok, maybe that is a bit
complex. Perhaps this mathematical formula will
help make things a little clearer:
Adobe Stock

What do you mean you’re even more confused

now?
The golden ratio can seem quite complicated at
first but it’s actually a lot simpler when it seems.
You don’t need to understand long winded
definitions and mathematical formulae to use it.
 Adobe Stock

The golden ratio is actually a slightly more

complicated version of the rule of thirds and
golden triangles combined.
Rather than dividing the frame into equal
rectangles, it is instead divided into a series of
squares as in the example above. This is known as
a “Phi Grid”. These squares are then used as a
guide to add a spiral known as the “Fibonacci
Spiral”. These squares, lines and spiral are then
used to lay out the elements in the frame as with
the rule of thirds and golden triangles.
The spiral is supposed to lead the eye around the
frame and show us how the scene should flow.
It’s a bit like an invisible leading line. We will look
at leading lines in more detail shortly.
Adobe Stock

A Blend of the Rule of Thirds and Golden Triangles

The similarities with the rule of thirds and golden
triangles becomes clearer once we add a few lines
to the diagram. The golden ratio also divides the
frame in to 9 parts although this time they are not
all the same size and shape.
The diagonals we saw in the golden triangles
examples can also be added here.
It is believed that the golden ratio method of
composition has been in existence for over 2,400
years having been devised by the Ancient Greeks.
It is widely used in many types of art as well as
architecture as a way of creating aesthetically
pleasing compositions. It was particularly well
employed in Renaissance art.
Adobe Stock

The Parthenon - Athens

It is believed that the golden ratio was used to lay
out the proportions of buildings such as the
Parthenon in Athens. Note how the golden ratio
grid and spiral can be placed in different
orientations.
Adobe Stock

The golden ratio is often said to be quite

prevelant in the natural world and that this may
be one of the reasons that compositions that are
based on it seem so attractive to us.
Now I have to admit something here. Not once
have I ever set out to deliberately use the golden
ratio in one of my photographic compositions!
As an exercise, I went back through my
photographs and discovered that I had used it
inadvertantly a few times. In reality, I was
probably just using the rule of thirds or golden
triangles and accidently stumbled into golden
ratio territory.

Women by a Bridge in Venice

Here is aperfect example of one of my accidental
uses of the golden ratio. The side of the building
lines up with the vertical line on the right and the
Fibonacci Spiral leads us from the bottom left
corner to the two women sitting by one of the
many bridges that traverse the canals of Venice.

St. Anne’s Square Belfast

Here is another accidental golden ratio example
from the city of Belfast. I meant it. I swear!
 Dancing in the Streets of Paris
In this case the Fibonacci Spiral starts in the top
right hand corner and finishes on the street
mucician’s face.
The fact that I accidently stumbled upon the
golden ratio a few times shows how many of
these composition “rules” may actually be
manifestations of our internal aethetic
preferences. Woah. Deep. It reminds us that
these should be used as ideas and not strict rules.
 Balancing Elements in the Frame
The first composition idea we looked at was the
rule of thirds. I told you that it was often a more
attractive composition when you place the main
subject to the side rather than in the middle of
the frame.
One issue with this is that on some occasions, the
image can then appear to be “unbalanced”. One
side of the frame is filled with our subject wheras
the other side is relatively empty by comparison,
creating a sort of lobsided feel to the image.
One of the ways of avoiding this issue is to place
another less prominent subject on the other side
of the frame to create a sense of balance in the
composition.
In the next photograph, the ornate street lamp on
the Pont Alexandre III in Paris dominates the left
hand side of the Frame. This is counter-balanced
by the distant Eiffel Tower in the otherwise
relatively empty right hand side of the frame.
Pont Alexandre III and Eiffel Tower – Paris
 San Giorgio Maggiore – Venice
In this photograph, a lamppost once again
dominates one side of the frame. The bell tower
of San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance creates a
sense of balance on the other side of the frame.
This also has a secondary effect on the
composition. The tower in the distance is
obviously much taller than the lamppost. It
obviously appears smaller in the photograph as it
it is in the distance. This perspective effect helps
add a sense of depth and scale to the scene.
 Fill the Frame
Filling the frame completely or almost completely
with your subject can be another effective
composition technique.
This is a technique I like to use in architecture
photographs in particular. By filling the frame
with the building, I am inviting the viewer of the
photograph to explore the details of the subject.

Notre Dame de Paris

In this photograph of Notre Dame Cathedral and
surrounding buidings, I have cropped my frame
very closely to the subject leaving very little space
around the buildings themselves. There is only a
small portion of sky visible.
When displayed or printed in a large format, this
allows us to examine the details such as the
balconies on the building to the right or the flying
butresses of Notre Dame Cathedral.
The next photograph features my cat, I have
completely filled the frame with his face leaving
absolutely no space around him. I have even
cropped out the edges of his head and mane.
I did this as I wanted to focus on the textures on
his fur and the details in his eyes. You may notice
that this photograph also uses the rule of thirds
with his eyes sitting along the top line of the rule
of thirds grid. The various composition ideas can
often be conbined like this.
He is a lovely pet but you should see the state of
our couch. He also loves children but he couldn’t
eat a whole one.
Matt the Lion
 Leave Negative Space
Having told you that filling or balancing the frame
works well as a composition technique, I am now
once again going to suggest you do the exact
opposite. I’d make a good politician I think.
Leaving empty or negative space around your
main subject focuses attention on the subject
itself. Negative space means there is little to
distract from the main point of interest.

Statue of Shiva – Mauritius

This photo of a giant statue of the Hindu god
Shiva in Mauritius is a good example of using
negative space. I have left plenty of space around
the statue filled only by the sky and clouds around
it. This focuses our attention on the statue itself
while giving the main subject “space to breath” so
to speak.
The composition also creates a sense of simplicity.
There is nothing complicated about the scene. It
is a statue surrounded by sky, that is all. Simplicity
is always a good idea when it comes to
composition as we will see in the next section.
The Tunisian flag in the next photograph is also
surrounded by plenty of negative space. This flag
sits on the walls of the beautiful Kasbah of
Hammamet.
There is a superb souk or market at the base of
the kasbah. I manged to find a genuine Billy
Vuitton handbag for my wife that the seller
insisted was made from his beloved late camel.
Tunisian Flag at the Kasbah of Hammamet
 Tree at Dawn – County Kildare
In this photograph, I made use of a very simple
and uncluttered background to focus attention on
the tree. This photo makes use of negative space
around the tree to add to this sense of simplicity
and minimalism.
Misty mornings provide excellent conditions for
leaving negative space as the mist often fully or
partially obscures potentially distracting elements
in the background.
 Simplicity and Minimalism
Simplicity itself can be a powerful compositional
tool. It is often said that “less is more”.
Simplicity often means taking photos with
uncomplicated backgrounds that don’t distract
from the main subject.

Water Droplets on a Leaf

In this first photo, I zoomed in on some water
droplets on a leaf in a garden. It’s such a simple
subject but is also very beautiful because of that
simplicity. A macro lens can be a very useful tool
for creating these types of photos.

Bench in Golesti – Romania

As with the water droplets photograph, a simple
subject can make for a very pleasing composition.
I this case, I noticed a simple bench at an outdoor
museum in Golesti, Romania.
I set up a very straightforward composition with
the two trees on either side to frame the subject.
 Black and White
Black and white photography by its very nature
simplifies a photograph by removing the
distraction that is colour itself. By removing the
colour from the scene, we can concentrate on the
textures, tones and shapes in the frame.
Take a look at the two versions of the same
photograph on the next page. They were both
taken on Grafton Street in Dublin during the pre-
Christmas shopping period when the street was
thronged with shoppers.
To me, the colours in the first version actually
distract from the content of the photograph: the
Christmas lights; the shapes of the shopfronts and
windows; and the people milling about. I think
that the black and white version works a lot
better in this particular case.
The shapes and lights in the scene stand out much
better. There is also more contrast between the
bright and dark tones in the frame which gives the
second photograph a stronger visual impact.

Grafton Street - Dublin

 Isolate the Subject
Using a shallow depth of field to isolate your
subject is a very effective way of simplifying your
composition and letting your subject stand out.

Curious Cat
For this photo, I set an aperture of f3.5 which is
very wide and results in a blurred background.
This focuses attention on the cat as the
background is now less distracting. This technique
is an excellent way to simplify a composition.
 Let the Background Provide Context
The background in your frame does not always
act as a distraction. Often, it can provide context
to the main subjects.

Seagull in Dublin
This photograph doesn’t contain any old seagull.
This is a Dublin seagull! The slightly blurred
O’Connell Street in the background gives the
subject some context.
The fact that he was eating a bowl of coddle and
drinking Lyons Tea when I spotted him also lets
me know that he was indeed a Dublin seagull.
 Dealul Mitropoliei – Bucharest
I took this photograph of a rose at a monastery
complex on the outskirts of Bucharest. Once again
I blurred the background slightly but there is still
enough detail to show the viewer the context that
the rose was photographed in.
This is a varioution of the “isolating the subject”
guideline. In this case, we also blur the
background to make the subject stand out but not
so much that we completely obscure the context.
Let the Eye Wander Around the Scene
This is the antithesis to the concept of simplicty
and minimalism. There are occasions I like to take
photographs with plenty happening in the frame.

Temple Lane – Dublin

This photograph taken in Temple Bar is full of
different characters and activity. In this case, the
eye can wander around the frame noticing all the
little details such as the flowers, the building
details and various people walking, exiting a
building or checking their phone outside a pub.
 Rule of Space
The rule of space relates to the direction the
subject(s) in your photo are facing or moving
towards. If you are taking a photo of a moving car
for example, there should be more space left in
the frame in front of the car than behind it. This
implies that there is space in the frame for the car
to move into.

Bateau Mouche and Conciergerie – Paris

In this photo, the boat is placed on the left hand
side of the frame as it moves from left to right.
Notice how there is a lot more space for the boat
to move into in front of its direction of motion (to
the right) than behind it. We can mentally
imagine the boat moving into this space as it sails
along the river.
We also have a subconscious tendency to look
forward to where an object is heading. In this
case we look from left to right and take in the rest
of the scene with the Conciergerie building along
the quay and the Eiffel Tower in the distance. If
the boat was up at the right hand side of the
frame, this would lead us out of the photograph!
In the next photograph, we see a gondola
travelling along a canal towards the Bridge of
Sighs. In this case, the gondola is at the base of
the frame and is moving away from the viewer
towards the space in the top of the frame.
As in the previous photograph of a boat in Paris,
the gondola has plenty of space in front of it to
travel into.
Gondola by the Bridge of Sighs – Venice
The rule of space is often applied in other
situations such as sports photography.

Aviva Stadium/Lansdowne Road – Dublin

I took this photo on my phone camera a few years
ago. Notice how the kicker (Johnny Sexton) is
placed to the left of the frame and the ball is
travelling into the space on the right. He made
the kick by the way.
As a kid my dad was able to lift me over the
turnstiles at the old Lansdowne Road without a
ticket. I don’t think he’d manage the same feat
today. Since then, I’ve gained a few pounds and
he’s had a hip replaced.
 Left to Right Rule
There is theory that says we “read” an image
from left to right in the same way we would read
text in a book or newspaper. For this reason, it is
sometimes suggested that any motion portrayed
in a photograph should flow from left to right.

Woman in the Tuileries Gardens – Paris

The photo above follows the “left to right” rule.
The woman walking in the Tuileries Gardens in
Paris is walking from the left to the right of the
frame. You’ll notice that the photo also adheres
to the “rule of space” among others.
This is all very well but it assumes the viewer is
from a country were text is read from left to right.
Many languages are read from right to left such
as Arabic for example. To be honest, I’ve seen
plenty of fantastic photographs that “flow” from
right to left.

Campo in Venice
This photograph of a woman walking across a
campo in Venice completely ignores the “left to
right” rule. I don’t think this is an issue at all.
To me, what is important in this scene is the
moment itself that has been captured, the
surrounding buildings and the warm evening light.
The direction the woman is walking didn’t even
cross my mind when taking the photograph.
I was once criticised by a judge for the fact that a
woman in a different photo I took was walking
from right to left. He told me it didn’t follow the
“left to right” rule.
I reminded the judge that the photo was taken in
Tunisia where people read from right to left. I
don’think he appreciated me challenging him and
unsurprisingly, I didn’t win.
This demonstrates why I’m very wary about
talking about “rules” when it comes to
composition. As I have already said several times
now, it is best to view these “rules” as guidelines
or ideas for composition rather than something
that needs to be adhered to without question.
Some also make more sense than others.
 Rule of Odds
Having just gone on a mini rant about “rules” in
composition, I am now going to discuss one more
of these “rules”: The Rule of Odds.
In the world of photography, there are certainly
plenty of “odds” but the “rule of odds” is
something different entirely. The rule suggests
that an image is more visually appealing if there
are an odd number of subjects.
The theory proposes that an even number of
elements in a scene is distracting as the viewer is
not sure which one to focus his or her attention
on. An odd number of elements is seen as more
natural and easier on the eye. As with the
previous “left to right rule”, I think there are
plenty of cases where this is not the case but it
certainly can be applicable in certain situations.
What if you have four children? How do you
decide which one to leave out of the shot?
 St. Mark’s Square – Venice
The photo above is an example of a time when
the rule of odds can be effective. I deliberately
framed the scene to include three arches. I think
that two arches would not have worked as well in
this case and may have indeed divided the
viewer’s attention. It also so happened that there
were three people in the scene.
The next photo was also taken on Saint Mark’s
Square. This time, it breaks the “rule of odds”
several times in the frame.
 St Mark’s Square – Venice
In this scene, there are two principal human
subjects, four street lamps and two ornate
columns, all even numbers. Does the photograph
suffer as a result? I don’t think it does.
It would also be a lot a trouble to get out my
angle grinder to cut down one of the street lamps.
As for the columns, I don’t know where I’d start.
I’d need a very strong rope and a heavy truck at
least. I could always ask one of the couple to
leave the scene or ask somebosy else to join them
I guess. Or I could just ignore the rule of odds.
 Leading Lines
Leading lines help lead the viewer through the
image and focus attention on important
elements. Anything from paths, walls, shadows,
or patterns can be used as leading lines.

Eiffel Tower from Palais Chaillot

In this photo of the Eiffel Tower, I used the
patterns on the paving stones as leading lines.
The lines on the ground all lead the viewer to the
Eiffel Tower in the distance. You’ll also notice that
I used a centred composition for this scene.
Tavira – Portugal
Once again, I have used the lines on the ground to
lead the eye twards the bandstand in this little
park in the Algarve town of Tavira.

St. Mark’s Square – Venice

In this case, the pattern on the ground again leads
us into the frame. The buildings lining the square
also act as leading lines. They all lead the eye
towards St. Mark’s Basilica and the Campanile at
the end of the square.
These three examples show us that centred
compositions are often very effective when
combined with leading lines.
Photos featuring leading lines do not have to be
symmetrical of course. The leading lines do not
even have to be straight.

County Kildare - Ireland

In fact curved lines can be very attractive
composition features especially “S” shapes. In this
case, the path leads the viewer to the right of the
frame before swinging in to the left towards the
tree. I also made use of the rule of thirds and
negative space when composing the shot.
 Patterns and Repetition
Human beings seem to be naturally attracted to
patterns. They are visually attractive and suggest
harmony. Patterns can be man made like a series
of arches or natural like the petals on a flower.
Incorporating patterns into your photographs is
always a good way to create a pleasing
composition. Patterns can often be used as
leading lines.
The photo on the next page was taken in the city
of Monastir in Tunisia. I’ve used the pattern in the
paving stones to lead the eye to the domed
building.
The building itself incorporates a pattern in the
form of a series of arches. The domed roof also
complements the rounded arches below.
High contrast black and white conversions of your
photo can really help emphasise any patterns or
textures in the frame.
Monastir – Tunisia
Another interesting composition idea is to break
the pattern. Take a look at the example below.

Adobe Stock

Odd One Out (By Martina)

Rules are made to be broken and so are patterns!
By making one candle a different colour and
height, the photographer has created an
interesting composition. This is a technique that
can be used to make one particular element in
the frame stand out. In this case, the eye
immediately focuses on the red candle.
 Diagonals and Triangles
I already mentioned in the section on “golden
triangles” that triangles and diagonals are said to
add add “dynamic tension” to a photo. My
mother in law also does an excellent job of adding
tension to any scene.
Horizontal lines and vertical lines suggest stability.
If you see a person standing on a level horizontal
surface, he will appear to be pretty stable unless
he’s stumbling out of a pub at 2am. Put this same
man on a sloping surface and he’ll seem even less
stable.
This creates a certain level of visual tension. We
are not so used to diagonals in our every day life.
They subconsciously suggest instability.
Incorporating triangles and diagonals into our
photos can help create this sense of ‘dynamic
tension’. Take a look at the following examples of
photos containing trianglular shapes and strong
diagonal lines in the composition.
 Samuel Beckett Bridge – Dublin
This picture of the Samuel Beckett Bridge in
Dublin incorporates plenty of triangles and
diagonals into the scene. The bridge itself is an
actual triangle (It’s actually supposed to represent
a Celtic Harp on its side). There are also several
‘implied’ triangles in the frame Notice how the
leading lines on the right of the frame are all
diagonal and form triangles that all meet at the
same point on the right hand side of the bridge.
 Hotel de Ville – Paris
In this photo of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, the
implied triangles and diagonals create sense of
dynamic tension. We are not used to seeing
buildings leaning at such angles in our everyday
life. It is slightly jarring to our sense of balance.
This is what creates the visual tension.
We also saw these “implied” lines in the section
on golden triangles. A wide angle lens in the shot
above has exaggerated the angles and diagonals.
 Foreground Interest and Layers
Including some foreground interest in the frame is
a great way of adding a sense of depth to the
scene. Photographs are 2D by nature. Including
foreground interest in the frame is one of a
number of techniques that can help give the
scene a more 3D feel.

Sonsbeek Waterfall – Arnhem

In this photograph of a waterfall in The
Netherlands, the rocks in the river provided a
perfect source of foreground interest. Adding
foreground interest works particularly well with
wide-angle lenses.

Dublin Docklands
The dock cleats along the quay provided the
foreground interest in this shot. I think it adds a
real sense of depth to the composition. The dock
cleat in this scene was only a few metres in front
of me when I took this photo. Including it in the
frame portrays a sense of depth by incorporating
an element that I was quite close to as well as the
bridge and buildings in the distance and
everything in between them.
A friend who was with me that evening tripped
over one of the cleats and almost ended up
getting a very close up view of the river. That’s
one way of adding depth to the scene I guess.
Foreground interest can be used as one as the
layers in a scene. These layers lead the eye from
the foreground through the middle distance and
through to the background.
In the next photograph of a canal in Bruges
(which featured in the aperture tutorial), the
bridge acts as foreground interest. The buildings
along the canal provide the next layer in the
middle distance.
These buildings then lead the viewer through the
image towards the more distant elements. Finally,
the bell tower from a distant church rises from
behind the other buildings in the background.
Groenerei Canal – Bruges
 Frame within a Frame
The “frame within a frame” is one of my personal
favourite composition techniques. I enjoy looking
for opportunities to put it into practice.
Including a “frame within the frame” is another
effective way of portraying depth in a scene. Look
for elements such as windows, arches or
overhanging branches to frame the scene with.
The next two images are examples of times I used
arches to frame my subject.
The first was taken on St Mark’s Square in Venice.
I used the archway to frame St Marks Basilica and
the Campanile at the far end of the piazza.
The use of scenery viewed through arches was a
common feature of Renaissance painting as way
of portraying depth.
In the second photo, I used a rectangular arch to
frame St. Anne’s Church in Belfast.
St. Mark’s Square – Venice
St Anne’s church – Belfast
Frames don’t have to be man-made objects such
as arches or windows. Trees and branches make
excellent framing devices. The “frame” does not
even have to surround the entire scene to be
effective like in the photo of a bench earlier.

Rye Water Bridge – County Kildare

In this scene, the autumn trees create a frame
either side of the stone bridge over the Rye Water
River in Maynooth, County Kildare. The frame in
this case does not completely surround the
subject. Framing a subject with two objects either
side can be a very effective framing technique.
 Colour Combinations
The use of colour itself is an often overlooked
compositional tool. Colour theory is something
that graphic designers, fashion designers and
interior designers are all very familiar with.

Adobe Stock

The Colour Wheel

Take a look at the colour wheel. You can see that
the colours are arranged logically in the segments
of a circle. Colours that are opposite each other
on the colour wheel are said to be
“complementary colours”. These colours when
used together can be visually very striking.
As photographers, we can look for scenes that
incorporate complementary colours as a way of
creating attractive and striking compositions.
Have you ever noticed how many movie posters
have blue and yellow/orange colour schemes?
This is done quite deliberately to create eye
catching adverts. Blue and yellow or orange are
particularly impactful when used together.
Take a look at the next photograph which was
taken in Paris. For some reason, the early night
sky in Paris often gives off a purple hue. This
actually contrasts very well with the incandescent
yellow hued lighting on the buildings that line the
River Seine, in this case the Institut de France.
This is because purple and yellow sit roughly
opposite each other on the colour wheel.

Pont des Arts and Insitut de France

The next photograph was taken at the Stephen’s
Green Shopping Centre in Dublin. The building
was lit up red for Christmas. This was very striking
against the deep blue of the early night sky.
I love photographing cities during blue hour. In
the section on “Light” we will look at the
possibilities of blue hour in more detail.
 Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre – Dublin

Customs House – Dublin

The early morning deep blue sky and yellow hued
lights on the Customs House in Dublin also make
for a very eye-catching combination.
 Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is very powerful composition tool in
photography. Juxtaposition refers to the inclusion
of two or more elements in a scene that can
either contrast with each other or complement
each other.
Both approaches can be very effective and play an
important part in enabling the photograph to tell
a story.

Paris Book Sellers and Notre Dame Cathedral

Take a look at this photo taken in Paris. In the
bottom half of the frame, we have the slightly
rough and ready book stands full of clutter with
posters hanging from the coverings.
Rising above all of this however is the magnificent
medieval Notre Dame Cathedral. This
architectural gem is the epitome of order and
structure unlike the unsophisticated but attractive
book stalls below.
They seem to be in direct contrast with each
other yet they work well together. They both
represent the city of Paris in different ways. They
tell a story about two different elements of the
French capital.
Contrasting the old with the new is another
interesting use of juxtaposition as a composition
tool. In the next photograph, we can see some of
the beautiful old buildings around the Hofvijver
area in The Hague. These include the superb
Mauritshuis Museum in the centre of the frame.
Rising above them however, are the modern
skyscrapers of The Hague’s business district.

The Mauritshuis - The Hague

I also like to contrast the natural environment
with the built environment from time to time. I
took the next photograph at the monastery in
Bucharest from earlier. In this case I contrasted
the natural flowers with the man-made church.
I used the pink roses as my main foreground
subject. I then set a wide aperture to slightly blur
the church in the background while still keeping it
recognisable.
Dealul Mitropoliei – Bucharest
 Meyssac – France
Juxtaposition isn’t only about portraying two
contrasting elements. The photo above was taken
in the picturesque little village of Meyssac in the
Correze region of France. In this shot, the old
Citroen 2CV car looks perfectly at home in front of
the typical French bar/café in the background.
The two elements complement each other
perfectly. The man with his back to us in the cafe
is the owner of the 2CV and he seemed surprised
when I asked if it was ok to take a picture of his
car. He asked why I’d ever want to take a photo of
“that old thing”. He didn’t seem to realise that he
had unwittingly set up a quintessentially French
scene by parking in front of that particular café.

Here is another shot I took in the same location.

In this case I blended the photograph with a
picture of some old paper in post-processing. This
gives the image a vintage or even painting like
feeling. Adding an old texture to a photograph
like this can lead to very interesting results.
 Add Human Interest
As a mostly urban and landscape photographer, I
sometimes forget how adding some human
interest to the frame can make a photograph far
more interesting as well as giving a sense of scale.

Cyclist in Bruges
This photograph taken on a misty morning in
Bruges would not be nearly as interesting without
the man crossing the bridge on his bicycle.
 Ponte Romana – Tavira
Including a person or people in the scene you are
photographing also gives a sense of scale to the
surroundings. The person at the end of the bridge
in this photo occupies a tiny part of the frame but
completely transforms the image in my opinion.
Including people in your composition often
requires patience and luck. For both of the
previous photographs, I had to wait for the right
people to enter the frame.
I will discuss this idea of waiting for the “decisive
moment” shortly.
 Change Your Point of View
Most photos are taken from eye level. In my case,
that’s barely over 5 feet! Getting high up or low
down can be a way of creating a more interesting
and original composition of a familiar subject. I’ve
often seen wildlife photographers lying in the
mud on their bellies to get the perfect shot.
Whenever I plan a trip to somewhere new, I
always research the possibilities to take some
bird’s eye photos. Most cities and towns usually
have a high building or bell tower you can climb
to get some shots from high above your
surroundings. Just make sure they allow tripods if
you plan to bring one.
The next photograph was taken from the top of
the famous Belfry of Bruges. Climbing this tower
allowed me to capture a spectacular wide angle
panorama of the square and rooftops of the
gorgeous gabled buildings below.
 Markt Square – Bruges
I had to work extremely hard to get this shot of
Markt Square in the heart of Bruges. For a start, I
had to lug my camera gear up 366 narrow steps
to the top of the Belfry.
Now thankfully I’m in shape. Well I mean, round is
a shape isn’t it? As I wheezed my way to the
summit, I think some of my fellow climbers were
worried I might require medical attention.
I actually met a guy whose office was right at the
top of the belfry. He told me that he made the
trip up and down the tower several times a day in
a suit whereas I looked like I’d just climbed
Everest, he barely broke sweat.
The viewing area beside the bells themselves is
difficult to take photographs from with a SLR as
each window is covered in chicken wire. This
meant I had to hold my camera high above my
head, pull in the chicken wire and shoot blindly
towards the square below all the while hoping the
security guard didn’t see me.
I took over a hundred shots like this, most of
which were very crooked or featured the chicken
wire as a major part of the composition.
I finally got the shot above after about half an
hour of effort that involved increasingly dark
muttering and cursing under my breath.
We go to Paris for the next two photographs.
Cities often look at their most spectacular at night
especially when photographed from above.
 Paris – City of Light
When you think of places in Paris to climb up
high, you immediately think of the Eiffel Tower.
The problem with shooting from the top of Paris’
most iconic structure is that you can’t include the
Eiffel Tower in your shot!
This is why the Montparnasse Tower in the south
of the city is a much better location to capture a
bird’s eye view of the City of Light. The
Montparnasse Tower is a pretty ugly building too
so being on top of it has the added advantage
that you can’t see it while you are up there.
This photograph was taken just after sunset while
there was still some colour in the sky. I waited for
the moment the Eiffel Tower sparkled as it does
for one minute on the hour, every hour
throughout the night.

Eiffel Tower Paris

I returned to photograph the Eiffel Tower several
years later. This time, I took my shot while
standing at its base and pointing my camera up.
This was also a perfect occasion to use a centred
composition due to the symmetrical subject.

Ballyhoura – County Limerick

Sometimes you have to go to great effort to get a
more interesting angle. In this case, I had to wade
into the stream in my wellies in order to
photograph this stream in County Limerick. The
water was freezing. I know because I stood in it
for half an hour waiting for the sun to come out.
 The Decisive Moment
The idea of the “decisive moment” in
photography is of course most associated with
the great French street photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson. But what did Cartier-Bresson
mean by the “Decisive Moment”? The great man
himself said the following:

“Your eye must see a composition or an

expression that life itself offers you, and you must
know with intuition when to click the camera”

In the case of Henri Cartier-Bresson, this meant

clicking the camera at the exact moment a man
leaped over a puddle behind Gare Saint Lazare or
capturing the fleeting cheeky expression of a
French boy as he joyfully carried a bottle of wine
in each hand through the streets of Paris.
The following collection of photographs
showcases a few examples of my own efforts to
capture some “decisive moments”.
 Behind the Gare Saint Lazare
© Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos
 Bruges – Belgium
In this photograph, a cyclist crosses one of the
many stone bridges that cross the canals of the
handsome medieval city of Bruges in Belgium.
This was one of those occasions when I had to
wait for that exact right moment to press the
shutter. I crouched beside a canal side wall,
composed my shot and waited…. and waited….
and waited some more.
Every so often, someone would cycle across the
bridge but the shot would be ruined by a car
coming in the opposite direction or perhaps the
cyclist would look too modern for the mood I was
trying to create in the final photograph - very
inconsiderate in my opinion!
Finally, after about 45 minutes, I saw the
gentleman you can see in the photo approaching
the bridge. I waited until he was right in front of
the light coloured building you see right behind
him so he would stand out and pressed the
shutter.
I knew straight away I’d gotten the shot I wanted
from this location. I think it was worth the wait.
This was by far my favourite photo from the trip.
I was quite lucky as there was a car coming from
the opposite direction ready to spoil my shot.
Thankfully for me the cyclist just beat him to the
bridge. I believe he will be taking part in the Tour
de France this year.
 Keizersgracht Canal – Amsterdam
I took this shot along Keizersgracht Canal in
Amsterdam. In this instance I wanted to capture
the light trails of one of the many boats that whiz
along the waterways of the Dutch capital.
Most of the boats made a slow left turn at this
intersection leading to some very awkward
looking light trails. Finally, one speedy little vessel
shot straight through the scene providing me with
the straight light trails I was looking to capture.
 Pont d’Arcole - Paris
The next shot comes from one of my favourite
photography locations: Paris. The French capital is
one of the places Henri Cartier-Bresson plied his
trade after all. It’s a superb location for street
photography.
In the shot above, I captured the moment a
couple danced to a street musician on the Pont
d’Arcole. This was one of those lucky moments as
I just happened across the scene as I was walking
towards Notre Dame Cathedral.
The guy with the cigarette leaning against the
railing between the guitarist and the dancers
seems completely unimpressed by the whole
thing. Maybe he just prefers Johnny Hallyday.

Phoenix Park Tearooms – Dublin

I was incredibly lucky to be in the right place at
the right time while taking photographs at the Tea
Rooms near Dublin Zoo. This Victorian era
building is an attractive subject in itself but as I
was framing the shot, an opportunity to capture a
very human “decisive moment” arose.
A young couple entered the frame and shared a
kiss at the entrance to the Tea Rooms as they said
their goodbyes. Capturing this momentary act of
tenderness turned a decent shot into something
much more special.
We move to North Africa for the next shot, the
entrance to the Souk of Hammamet in Tunisia to
be exact. This archway into the busy market area
seemed liked the perfect location to get an
interesting shot.
Again, this required some patience and a lot of
unsuccessful attempts to capture the right person
as they entered the souk. After about half an
hour, I finally managed to get the shot I was after.
Notice how the person is framed by the archway.
As I mentioned earlier, arches are perfect for
using the “frame within a frame” technique.
Hammamet - Tunisia
The idea of the decisive moment is a concept that
you should always keep in mind when you head
out with your camera.
Some of the photos in this series were captured
as a result of being patient and waiting for that
moment of interest to happen. Others were a
result of sheer good luck and being in the right
place at the right time.
Either way, there is always a great sense of
satisfaction when you succeed in freezing some
never to be repeated moment in time simply by
pressing your camera’s shutter at exactly the right
second.
The next time you are out taking photographs;
don’t just start clicking as soon as you find an
interesting location. Take a look around the scene
and see what the possibilities are for capturing a
“decisive moment”. I’d prefer to wait in order to
take one special shot than several mediocre ones.
 Conclusion
Several times in this section on composition, I
have told you that it is often possible to combine
two or more of the composition ideas I’ve
covered in one photograph.

Arcade du Cinquantenaire – Brussels

This shot taken in Brussels combines several of
the ideas we covered in this section: centred
composition, symmetry, rule of thirds, leading
lines, rule of odds, framing and colour theory.
Obviously, it would be impossible to have all of
these composition ideas in your head as you are
out shooting. Your brain would melt! However, a
good exercise is to try to use one or two of them
each time you go out with your camera
After a while, you’ll find that a lot of these
techniques become ingrained. You will begin to
use them naturally without having to think about
them. As you can see from the golden ratio, I used
one of them without even realising it!
I would also encourage you to ignore these
guidelines completely when you think it will make
for a more interesting composition. As I said at
the beginning, these are ideas, not rules that
must be obeyed at all times!
Many of the ideas here however will help you
come up with interesting ways of composing your
photographs.
In the next section we will look at light and how
the right light can transform your photographs.
Section 4

Light
 Introduction to Light
When is the best time of the day to take
photographs outdoors? What are the ideal
weather conditions for outdoor photography?
Why should I take photographs during golden
hour and blue hour? What can I photograph on a
dull cloudy day for example? What can I
photograph when it’s raining? How does the guy
who drives the snowplough get to work in the
morning? This series of tutorials on light and
weather conditions aims to answer most of these
questions and more.
Photography is all about light. To be more precise,
photography is all about the quality of the light.
This can be a particular challenge for
outdoor/landscape photographers. A
photographer photographing a model in a studio
has complete control over the lighting conditions.
Studio lights can be easily adjusted depending on
the desired result.
 Dublin Docklands in the Dawn Light
This is not the case for us outdoor photographers.
We regularly find ourselves at the mercy of the
weather and lighting conditions on any given day.
Coming from Ireland, where the weather can
change by the minute, I understand this challenge
only too well. I once came home from a 30
minute shoot soaking wet, freezing cold and sun-
burnt!
When the light and conditions co-operate
however, the results can be spectacular. It is the
quality of light that can turn a photograph from
decent to something special. Luck often plays a
role in this of course. Sometimes, a period of
beautiful light may only last a few seconds.
That said, doing some research in advance and
making the effort to be in a location at the right
time will dramatically increase your chances of
finding a quality of light that will bring your
photograph up a level or two.
In this series of tutorials, I’m going to go through
the different times of the day and explain what
type of light we might typically expect at that
time and what kind of photography produces
attractive results at these times.
I’ll also take a look at the types of photos that
work best in various weather conditions in
particular conditions that we would view as being
challenging for photography.
Some of the photos presented in this section have
appeared in previous tutorials to explain other
techniques. I have done my best however to
feature different photos where possible.
 Morning Blue Hour
We most often associate blue hour with the
evening but we often forget that there is a
morning blue hour too! This is the period when
the darkness of the night is beginning to lift and
the sky takes on a deep blue colour just before
the dawn.
Using the word “hour” is bit of a misnomer. Blue
hour can last from a few minutes to several hours.
Depending on the time of year and your latitude,
the morning blue hour can be anything from
about half an hour to several hours before
sunrise.
Blue hour is by far the best time to capture night
photos, especially in cities. There is just enough
ambient light to balance the city illuminations
with the darkness of the sky.
When the sky is black, there is often too much
contrast between the black of the sky leading to
exposure issues. The deep navy tones of the blue
hour sky also tend to provide a more attractive
background to the foreground scene.
Funnily enough, most of my Dublin night time
photos were actually taken in the morning!

Ha’penny Bridge – Dublin

The Ha’penny Bridge is one of the most
recognizable landmarks in my home city. I love
photographing cities during the morning blue
hour. Often, it feels like I have the whole place to
myself at this time. In this photo, the deep shade
of blue in the sky is very apparent. See how more
attractive this is than a pure black sky.

The Customs House – Dublin

The Customs House is another well-known
building in Dublin. Many people are surprised
when I tell them this photo was actually taken in
the morning! You can see the sky beginning to
brighten in the right of the frame as the sun
(although still below the horizon) begins to light
up the sky.
The next photograph was taken on St. Mark’s
Square in Venice during the morning blue hour.
St. Mark’s Square – Venice
St Mark’s Square is usually packed with tourists
and trinket sellers all day long. At 6 am however,
during the morning blue hour, I had the place to
myself. The only other people on the piazza were
another photographer and a man gently sweeping
the ground with an old-fashioned broom.
As my wife can confirm, I am not a morning
person but it really is worth the effort to drag
oneself from the cosiness of a warm bed to visit a
famous location before the crowds arrive.
I tried to visit the basilica later in the day with my
wife and two year-old son later on that day. It
turns out toddlers don’t really like dark medieval
churches all that much. He didn’t really
appreciate the Byzantine art and Venetian
architecture as much as I’d hoped. I don’t think
such screams had been heard in Venice since
Napoleon attacked the area over 200 years ago.
He much preferred chasing pigeons on St. Mark’s
Square (my son, not Napoleon).
Arc de Triomphe – Paris
The final morning blue hour photograph in this
series was taken on an autumn morning at the
Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Thankfully the
illuminations were still lighting up this impressive
monument at this time. This is not always the
case in the morning.
I was actually very lucky to get this shot. I had to
wait about fifteen minutes for an airport bus that
was blocking this view to move out of the way.
Being patient is a very important part of
successful photography.
The Arc de Triomphe was of course commissioned
by our pigeon chasing friend Napoleon to
celebrate his many military victories. He never got
to see his vision completed however as the arch
was not completed until 1836, fifteen years after
his death.
There was actually a plan (before Napoleon came
along) to erect a giant elephant in this spot. How
different my photograph might have been.
 Dawn and Sunrise
Dawn is a great time for natural landscapes. The
period just before sunrise is one of my favourite
times to take photos. Often at this time, the light
has a slightly more subtle almost pastel feel than
the time just after sunset for example. As the day
gradually moves from blue hour to dawn, the
lighting conditions begin to change dramatically.

County Kildare - Ireland

This photo was taken near my former university
town of Maynooth in County Kildare. As the
sunrise approaches, the sky often contains some
really beautiful colours. You can see the soft
orange glow of the soon to rise sun merge with
the soft pink tones of the dawn sky.
The ever brightening sky also allowed me to
capture a silhouette of the tree on the river bank.
Dawn is an excellent time for photographing
silhouettes.

Ha’penny Bridge – Dublin

This photo of the Ha’penny Bridge was taken
about twenty minutes later than the morning
blue hour example in the morning blue hour
tutorial. It was taken from the other side of the
bridge this time.
Although the sun is still just below the horizon in
this shot, its light has illuminated the clouds
above in an attractive pink hue. A little bit of
scattered cloud at this time is often preferable as
the light from the sun bounces off the underside
of these leading to some beautiful colours.
What a difference twenty minutes makes! As I
said in the introduction to this section, interesting
light may only last a few minutes or even seconds
in some cases.
This scene will look completely different later
with the harsher light of the midday sun….. or
under heavy rain as it’s in Ireland! It really is
worth it to get up early to capture a scene in such
interesting and attractive light.
 Eiffel Tower – Paris
As with St. Mark’s Square in Venice, the area I
took this photo from is usually crowded with
hordes of tourists. At 6 am however, I had the
place to myself with the exception of a very drunk
Parisian who would randomly wander into the
frame every so often.
Again, you can see how capturing silhouettes
against the colourful sky is often an option when
taking photographs at dawn.
As I was leaving, my drunken friend was chatting
up one of the golden statues. I hope he was
successful. I was certainly rooting for him.

Dublin Docklands
Shooting directly towards the area where then
sun will soon rise can produce dramatic results. In
this photo of the Dublin Docklands, I have pointed
the camera towards the mouth of the River Liffey
to the east. You can see the orange glow of the
sun on the horizon which contrasts really
beautifully with the purple hues in the early
morning sky. Think back to the section on colour
combinations tutorial in the composition section.
These are two colours that can be very striking
when featured together.

County Kildare – Ireland

Taking a photograph just at the moment the sun
is about to emerge from below the horizon can
produce stunning results if the conditions are just
right. In the photograph above, this light lasted
only a few seconds. I was also lucky that the
windless conditions created beautiful reflections.
 Arc de Triomphe
In the previous tutorial, I featured a photograph
the Arc de Triomphe taken during the morning
blue hour. The photograph above was taken from
a very similar angle about 30 minutes after the
blue hour one when the soft dawn light had taken
over the scene.
Again, I was very lucky to get this shot at all. The
illuminations on the monument switched off only
a few seconds after I took this photo.
 Morning Golden Hour
Most novice photographers know about the
virtues of shooting at golden hour and with good
reason too. The light at this time can help
produce stunning results.
The golden hour refers to the period just after the
sun rises or just before it sets. In this tutorial we
are going to focus on the photographic
possibilities during the morning golden hour.
I’m sure you’ve noticed how the light of the early
morning sunrise and its evening sunset
counterpart often bathe buildings or a landscape
scene in a beautiful golden glow.
This golden warm tone is due to the fact that the
sun is lower in the sky in the morning and
evening. This means its light passes through more
of the atmosphere which scatters the bluer cooler
light in the colour spectrum. This leaves us with
the warmer red, orange, and yellow tones.
 Notre Dame de Paris and Ile de la Cité
I took this photo from behind Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris just after sunrise. Notice how
the early morning sun bathes the whole scene in a
wonderful golden light. As the day goes on and
the sun climbs higher, the light loses this warm
toned quality and becomes harsher and cooler.
In the tutorial on colour temperature and white
balance, we saw a comparison of the façade of
Notre Dame Cathedral taken during the day time
and during golden hour. The difference in the
tones and overall feel of the photograph was very
striking. In that tutorial, we saw how different
light sources can affect the white balance and
colour tones in a scene. We learnt that often it is
desirable to keep these tones (especially warm
tones) rather than trying to correct them.

County Kildare – Ireland

Autumn/Fall is a particularly good time for golden
hour landscape photography. The golden light
really makes the already warm tones in the scene
really pop. Look at the light on side of the
boathouse. This shot was taken a few seconds
after the sun had risen when the light was at its
absolute warmest.

County Kildare – Ireland

This photo was taken at the same location as the
last one. The warm early morning light is really
evident on the bridge. I was very lucky that
morning as one of the local swans would
obligingly drift into frame now and then. I named
him Henry. He was very tasty.
 Grand Canal Dock – Dublin
The final morning golden hour photos in this
series all come from Dublin. In the photo above,
the buildings along Grand Canal Dock are bathed
in the early morning golden light.
The next two photos were taken on the same
morning a few minutes later at the nearby Samuel
Beckett Bridge.
In both images, the golden light on the buildings
is combined with some beautiful colours in the
sky created by the warm toned light from the low
sun bouncing off the underside of the clouds.

Sir John Rogerson’s Quay – Dublin

Samuel Beckett Bridge – Dublin
 Daytime – Sunny Weather
I take the vast majority of my photographs in the
morning and evening when the light is at its most
interesting. The midday light from the high sun
tends to be harsher and cooler than the softer
side lighting of the morning and evening.
Generally speaking, it tends not to be the best
time for outdoor photography.
This is not to say that there are no opportunities
to take excellent photographs during the day.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that there are a
number of situations where strong daytime
sunlight can be used effectively.
Black and White
Strong sunlight tends to highlight the tones and
textures in the scenes as well as creating strong
shadows. For this reason, high contrast black and
white photography is often a suitable option on
sunny days especially on sunny days when there is
plenty of scattered cloud in the sky. Take a look at
these next two photos I took on my phone
camera on a chilly January late morning.

Copper Coast – Waterford

This scene was photographed on a bright sunny
day along the Copper Coast in County Waterford.
The location was interesting and the composition
is solid with the arrangement roughly following
the rule of thirds. The colour shot is lacking
something though. The light is very harsh and is
quite cool in terms of colour temperature.
Look what happens when we convert the
photograph to black and white however.
Suddenly the contrast of the clouds against the
sky and the different tones throughout the image
become much more apparent and striking. The
second photograph definitely has more visual
impact. There is a more “dramatic” feel to the
shot.
This is a good example of how shooting with black
and white photographs in mind can be very
effective in strong daytime light. The next pages
contain a few more examples of black and white
photographs captured in harsh sunlight.
College Chapel at Maynooth University

La Conciergerie and River Seine - Paris

Long Exposures
I find that sunny days with plenty of scattered
cloud are an excellent opportunity to try some
long exposure photography. The photograph
below was taken using a 10 stop neutral density
filter. This allowed me to slow the shutter speed
down to a very long 55 seconds, something that
would normally be impossible in the daytime.

Upper Lake – Glendalough

The long exposure time of almost a minute
allowed me to capture the motion blur of the
clouds as they moved across the sky. Combining
this with a high contrast black and white
conversion creates a photo with plenty of impact.

Promenade in Hammamet – Tunisa

In this photograph, I used an infra-red filter. Not
only did this allowed me to use a slow shutter
speed of 22 seconds leading to plenty of motion
blur in the clouds. Infra-red filters create images
with a completely red hue in the colour version.
This can then be used to create a high contrast
black and white version of the photograph.
 Markt Square – Bruges
You are of course not completely limited to black
and white photography in the strong midday sun.
In the photo above, I again used a 10 stop neutral
density filter to capture the motion blur of the
clouds with a long exposure. It also has the effect
of making most of the people in the scene
disappear. Anybody moving the frame did not
show up in the photograph. Bold colours like
those on the beautiful Flemish style buildings in
the scene are accentuated by strong sunlight.
Bold Colours
As I have just said, subjects with bold colours can
be look very striking when photographed in the
strong direct light of the daytime.

Golesti – Romania
The strong midday sun has really made the yellow
flowers stand out in this photograph taken
outside a Romanian farmhouse. Getting the
exposure settings right can be tricky when there is
mix of strong light and deep shadows in a scene.
 Dealul Mitropoliei – Bucharest
As in the last photograph, we can see that the
bold colours of flowers are particularly vibrant
when photographed in strong sunlight. We saw
this photograph in the previous section on
composition. It was in a church very close to this
spot that I received a smack to the head by a
disgruntled worshipper. Later that evening I
almost got arrested for photographing the
Romanian National Parliament building. I don’t
think they’ll ever let me back in to their country.
Countries in Southern Europe with plenty of
bright whitewashed buildings with splashes of
colour are almost always bathed in bright light.

Castro Marim – Portugal

I like how the colour of the oranges contrasts with
the bright white of the church and the deep blue
sky in this little village in the Algarve.
Narrow streets are good candidates for daytime
photography as the high sun illuminates the
street which is usually in deep shadow.
Tavira – Portugal
Portugal also contains buildings with some really
beautiful colours. Again, the strong daytime
sunlight makes these colours pop as well as
bringing out the textures on the surfaces.

Tavira Portugal
I noticed this beautiful ochre coloured building in
Tavira while out for a walk and couldn’t resist
taking a photo of it on my camera phone.
Dappled Light
Searching for dappled light on a sunny day can
lead to some very interesting photographic
opportunities. Dappled light refers to that spotted
light which typically shines through gaps in a tree
canopy. This softens the harshness of the light.

Sonsbeek Waterfall – Arnhem

The dappled light in this wooded area of a park in
the Dutch city of Arnhem made for an attractive
photograph of this waterfall.
 Tavira – Portugal
The dappled light from the overhanging leaves of
a tree has created an interesting mix of light and
shadow on this little square in Tavira,
A lot of the photos I took in Tavira were actually
taken on my phone camera. It is often said that
the best camera is the one you have with you.
It’s actually quite a pleasant experience to go for
a leisurely stroll without all the heavy camera
equipment. I have since bough a compact camera
that I keep on me almost all the time in case an
interesting photographic opportunity crops up.
This camera has a one inch sensor which is
significantly bigger than the tiny sensor in a
phone which itself is capable of producing decent
results. This means I can take high quality photos
without being weighed down by lots of gear.

Cooley Peninsula – County Louth

The dappled light in this forest led to an
interesting photograph with plenty of contrast
between the light and shadow in the scene.
Shooting Architecture in Strong Light
Sunny days with a completely clear blue sky are
rarely conducive to capturing the more artistic
style photos. Aside from the harsh light, the
cloudless sky can seem uninteresting and devoid
of drama. Such days, however, can be very
suitable for architecture photography.
In this case, it is the form, shapes, angles, and
colours that are the most important elements of
the shot. A clear blue sky does not distract from
the main subject of the photo.
As we have already seen, the strong daytime light
accentuates detail, colours and textures in the
architecture being photographed.
The photographs of my local council building on
the next page were taken for use in brochures
and online. They are not meant to be framed as
art but rather to show off the architectural
features, textures and shapes of the building
being photographed.
 Fingal County Council Office – Blanchardstown
Notice how the shadows in the first photo lead
the eye to the buildings. In the second
photograph, the trees act as a framing device for
the building. There is also juxtaposition between
the natural trees and man-made building in the
second image. The person walking to the right of
the frame along provides human interest and a
sense of scale.

I quite like the “DNA” sculpture that rises from

the water. You will notice that this photograph of
the building contains plenty of strong diagonals
and triangles. We learnt earlier that this adds a
sense of “dynamic tension” to the scene. They
also contrast with the curve of the building.
These are all techniques we covered in more
detail in the composition section. I hope you were
paying attention!
Avoiding the Strong Light
Finding dappled light is a good way of reducing
the harshness of the midday sun. Another
method is to avoid it altogether. I know this book
is called “Outdoor Photography Essentials” but
that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t consider
moving inside or at least out of the strong light.

College Chapel – Maynooth

The strong sunlight streaming through the
windows of this church has created an interesting
contrast between the light and shadow in the
scene. Churches provide excellent subjects for
indoor photography when the light outside is too
strong or uninteresting.

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert – Brussels

Ornate covered galleries like this one in Brussels
are fantastic locations for daytime photography
or if it’s pouring rain as was the case when I took
this shot. Paris and London also have some
superb examples of these covered galleries.
The whole scene looks wonderfully grand and
genteel. It has the effect of transporting one back
to the nineteenth century.
I feel like I should be wearing a top hat while
sporting a magnificent handlebar moustache and
monocle as I stroll along with my carved wooden
cane. I don’t know how such a look would be
perceived back in Dublin. Although with all the
hipsters around now, I might get away with it.
The photograph on the next page was taken in
Bucharest. You may have noticed that a lot of
major cities and towns seem to have at least one
street that is covered by a canopy of umbrellas
suspended above it.
These streets can make for very interesting
photography locations in the daytime. The
umbrellas have the effect of softening the light in
the scene as well as providing a vibrant splash of
colour or multiple colours as in the next
photograph.
Piata Odeon - Bucharest
 English Market – Cork
Markets can be excellent locations for indoor
photography. There is always plenty of activity to
capture. Many of these markets take place in
interesting buildings such as the English Market in
Cork City above. I really liked the wooden beams
in the roof as well as the interesting patterns in
the paving. This is another shot I took on my
camera phone while out for a stroll.
Archways through buildings are another good
location for avoiding strong light.

Hammamet – Tunisia
The entrance to the souk of Hammamet provided
me with an opportunity to get out of the strong
North African midday sun. Being Irish; this was
probably a good idea anyway. After ten minutes
in the sun, I look like a beetroot with a fever.
In the next photograph, I captured a street
musician playing the saxophone in the archway
that leads into the Temple Bar district of Dublin.

Merchant’s Arch – Dublin

 Daytime – Overcast Weather
A lot of outdoor photographers often write off
cloudy overcast days. On a cloudy day, the light
tends to very flat and not particularly interesting
or dramatic. There was a time when I rarely took
out my camera on days like this.
I’ve come to realise however that there are in fact
certain types of photography that are very well
suited to overcast conditions. The flat light of a
cloudy sky can act as a giant soft box creating a
soft even light that makes setting exposure easy
and is perfect for a range of subjects.
Capturing Details
You can use these days to focus on details rather
than vast sweeping landscapes. The even light
makes it easier to capture small details in flowers
and plants for example without worrying about
harsh shadows obscuring part of the subject. The
next two photographs were taken in gardens on
an overcast day.
Water Droplets on a Leaf

Yellow Flowers
Street Photography
Capturing detail at street level is another great
option on a cloudy day. The even light makes
setting the exposure easy. You set it once and you
don’t really have to worry about it again unless
the light changes dramatically. This leaves you
free to concentrate on finding interesting street
scenes to capture such as these two women
sitting having a chat by a bridge in Venice.

Venice – Italy
 Bucharest – Romania
Cloudy days create the perfect conditions for
shooting environmental street portraits like this
one of a violinist in Bucharest. The cloud filtered
light is better than any studio lighting!
Overcast days are great for capturing the details
on building facades. The sky was not particularly
interesting the day I took this next shot in Venice
so I just left it out completely and concentrated
on this rustic house facade in a tiny courtyard.
 House Façade in Venice
Streetscapes are actually much easier to capture
in flat light. Take a look at the two photos on the
next page. They were both taken on Temple Lane
in Dublin. In the first one, the light was too strong
leaving one side of the street in deep shadow. In
the second one, the overcast light allowed me to
capture all of the detail in the scene.
This version has plenty of exposure problems with
clipped shadows and blown highlights.

The flat light allows all the detail to be captured.

 Venice - Italy
There is plenty of detail in all of the textures in
this Venetian streetscape thanks to the even light.
 O Donoghue’s Pub – Dublin

Merrion Square – Dublin

Black and white street photography is also a great
option on overcast days.
Wildlife Photography
The flat light of a cloudy day is ideal for wildlife
photography. Once again, the light on such days
lights the scene very evenly, making it possible to
capture plenty of detail. As with street
photography, you can concentrate your efforts on
your subject matter rather than fiddling with
exposure settings.

Phoenix Park – Dublin

I rarely photograph wildlife but I was lucky to be
there when this herd of deer crossed the Phoenix
Park in Dublin. One deer suddenly stopped and
looked back, possibly remembering he’d
forgotten to turn off the immersion that morning.
Minimalist Style Photography

Doge’s Palace and San Giorgio Maggiore – Venice

Featureless overcast skies are perfect for
photographers who prefer a more minimalist feel
to their images. The lack of detail in the sky above
focuses the viewer on the street lamp and the
church of San Giorgio in the distance.
I’ve become increasingly interested in this more
minimalist style photography recently. Most of
my photos feature plenty of detail and bold
colours. It’s nice to try something different every
so often and move out of your comfort zone.
 Evening Golden Hour
We now move away from the daytime and start
to take a look at the types of light we see from
late in the day until darkness falls.
Just like the period just after sunrise, the time just
before sunset is an excellent time for outdoor
photography. As is the case during the morning
golden hour, the sunlight has a warm, golden
quality during its evening counterpart.

Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris

Notre Dame Cathedral seems to glow during the
evening golden hour in this photo. The term
“golden hour” is again misleading. On the evening
I took this photo, the golden hour light only lasted
about 30 minutes.
The long days of mid-summer provide the longest
golden “hour” whereas, in the depths of winter,
the golden hour light may only last a few minutes.
My own frequently overcast country of Ireland
often gets no golden hour at all such is the cloud
cover! It’s useful to keep a close eye on weather
reports to increase your chances of being in
location when the light is likely to enhance your
photos. Sometimes it works out and at other
times it doesn’t. When it doesn’t work out, put
the camera away and simply enjoy the location.
As photographers we sometimes forget to put the
camera away from time to time and take in our
surroundings with our own eyes and ears rather
than through a lens.
 Mauritshuis – The Hague
The evening golden hour light casts a warm glow
on the Mauritsuis Museum in The Hague. This
superb little museum contains masterpieces such
as “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” by Vermeer as
well as works by Rembrandt and Rubens.
My sister lived in The Hague at the time and lent
me a bicycle to get around this very pleasant city.
Unfortunately, it was designed for a 6 foot 5
Dutchman not a 5 foot 5 Irishman. I struggled to
keep it under control at the best of times never
mind on the cobbled streets that are criss-crossed
with tram tracks. I managed to get the wheels
stuck in these tracks more than once. When this
happens, you have a simple choice to make: Do I
fall to the left or to the right? I tried both.

Doge’s Palace – Venice

The elegant Doge’s Palace in Venice looks even
more stunning than usual when its facade is
painted with the golden light of the evening time.
The wide angle lens has exaggerated the
perspective and angles. It can be tricky to keep
the verticals actually vertical with such lenses.
If you are very lucky, you might be able to capture
a golden hour sunburst in the evening.

Paris from the Montparnasse Tower

The photo above is a prime example of being in
the right place at the right time. I was having a
drink at the café at the top of the Montparnasse
Tower in Paris when I noticed a beautiful golden
hour sunburst over the city outside.
I knew this light wouldn’t last long so I had to run
up two flights of stairs with tripod legs flailing in
all directions, throwing several small children out
of my way as I did so. Thankfully, I just about
made it in time to capture the last of the sunburst
as it bathed the city below in its golden light.
Scenery also looks particularly beautiful during
the golden hour especially just before sunset.

Mediterranean Sea at Nabeul – Tunisia

The very last light of the day has illuminated the
rocks in the foreground with a soft warm light. A
few seconds later, the sun disappeared beneath
the horizon and the light was gone. It had only
lasted a few seconds like this.
 Sunset and Dusk
The few minutes just before the sun disappears
below the horizon is a fantastic time to capture
something special. Often, there will be a sunburst
on the horizon at this time.
It usually only lasts a few seconds though so it’s
important to have your shot set up in advance
and be ready to go at the “decisive moment”.

Hammamet – Tunisia
This photo was taken among the fishing boats by
the Kasbah in Hammamet, Tunisia. Sunny Tunisia
has some wonderful golden hour light almost
every single day.
As at sunrise, a little cloud is always welcome at
sunset as the low sun illuminates the undersides
of the clouds in a variety of warm tones. The
colours in the sky on this particular evening were
absolutely spectacular.
Dusk is the period just after the sun has set but
there is still some colour left in the sky especially
on the horizon where the sun has just set. Often,
we get an attractive orange afterglow and some
stunning colours in the clouds at this time. The
tones tend to be little more vivid at dusk than at
dawn.
The next photograph is a perfect example of how
cloud can add interest to a dusk scene. This image
would not have nearly the same impact if the sky
had been clear.
 Ponte Romana - Tavira
I took this photo near the Ponte Romana just
after the sun had set. The sun, though below the
horizon by now had painted the underside of the
clouds above in with a slight orange tint.
There is also a lovely balance between the light
left in the sky and the street lights and
illuminations on buildings such as the church on
top of the hill in the distance.
Don’t despair however if you are greeted with a
clear sky in the evening. The following shots from
Place de la Concorde and the Louvre Pyramid in
Paris were both taken on clear evenings as dusk
was descending on the city. Despite the lack of
clouds, they both work in their own way.

Place de la Concorde – Paris

Like at dawn, dusk is a perfect time to capture
silhouettes. This photo of one of the fountains on
Place de la Concorde was taken against the coral
tones of the post-sunset sky.
The silhouette of the Eiffel Tower in the distance
seems closer than in reality. This is due to the
effects of using a relatively longer focal length of
70 mm. We learnt about how zooming in on a
scene like this compresses perspective in the
tutorial on focal length.

Louvre Pyramid – Paris

The afterglow of the setting sun is clear in the
above photo. The sun had just set behind the
famous glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum
creating a pleasing silhouette against the warm
orange glow of the sky just above the horizon. By
now, the city lights were beginning to switch on
and dusk was beginning to gradually transition
into the blue hour phase of the evening.

Grand Canal – Venice

On the evening I took the above photograph, I
had taken a series of golden hour photographs at
the Ponte dell'Accademia over the Grand Canal in
Venice but was a little disappointed with the
results. The lack of cloud in the sky meant that
the images were a little lacking in drama. They
were fine but nothing particularly special.
I spent some time sitting on the steps of the
bridge deleting images from the camera to make
space and was about to head back to my rented
apartment when I noticed that the sky had turned
to a very delicate pastel tone of apricot. The
scene had been completely transformed once the
sun had dipped below the horizon.
I went back on to the bridge and took the shot
above. It goes to show once again that patience is
so important in photography. Just because the
light is not good right not does not mean it won’t
improve in even a few minutes.
One of my favourite landscape photographers
David Noton often speaks about the importance
of “waiting for the light”. In fact it’s the title of his
first book. I’d highly recommend that you check
out his photography and books. They certainly
had a big influence on my own photography.
 Evening Blue Hour
The evening blue hour is, without doubt, the best
time for capturing cityscapes. Although the
morning blue hour is also a fantastic time for
urban photography, often the lights that
illuminate the city’s landmarks have been
switched off by then.
As during the morning blue hour, there is still
enough ambient light to create a nice balance
between the sky above and the buildings below.
As mentioned earlier, the deep blue sky at this
time is arguably more attractive than the pure
black sky we see later in the night.
Earlier, we saw a photograph of the area around
the Ponte Romana in Tavira at Dusk. About
twenty minutes later, the blue hour was just
beginning to descend on the scene. Take a look at
how the scene has changed. I used a wider angle
lens this time to capture the drama of the
scattered clouds in the sky.
 Ponte Romana – Tavira
By now, the sky has begun to turn to a deep
shade of blue. There is a still a little light left from
the setting sun to give a pinkish tint to the
undersides of the clouds.
I first visited Tavira a few years ago with a group
of photographer friends. Our first night was spent
in a convivial local tavern were we sampled a
range of local Portuguese drinks purely in the
name of cultural discovery you understand. It was
all very civilised and only one of our party
suffered any injuries of note after tumbling on the
way home. Thankfully, her nose broke her fall. I
promise we didn’t nickname her “Potato Nose”
for the rest of the trip.

Grand Canal Dock - Dublin

Architecture looks fantastic at blue hour. The
contrast between the building interior lights and
the dark blue of the sky is very pleasing.
The next photograph has already been featured in
the tutorial on focal length. It was taken in Venice
and depicts a row of the famous city gondolas
with the island and church of San Giorgio
Maggiore in the distance.
 Gondolas of Venice
This well-photographed location in Venice is
frequently captured in the morning with the sun
rising in the background with stunning results. My
trip here at morning time didn’t really work out
due to a cloudy sky so I returned to try something
a little different at blue hour.
The low light of blue hour allows for longer
shutter speeds. I used this to my advantage in the
above photo to set a 30 second exposure time.
This allowed me to capture the motion blur of the
gondolas as they bobbed up and down in the
water.
 Belfast City Hall
I took this shot of Belfast City Hall on a freezing
February evening. Every time I look at this
photograph I can still feel the cold that I felt while
out with my camera that evening.
I mentioned earlier that the tones of blue hour
tend to make for more attractive photographs
than are possible later in the night when the sky
has turned to pure black. Take a look at the two
photos on the next page. They were both taken at
the same location in Bruges. One was taken when
the sky had turned black while the second was
taken at blue hour.
Burg Square late at Night

Burg Square at Blue Hour

Notice the relative lack of detail in the buildings in
the first photo compared to the second one.
There are a lot of overexposed areas too,
especially in the bright windows.
This is due to the high contrast between the dark
sky and brightly illuminated buildings. The camera
can struggle to capture the full range of tones in
this instance.
There is more ambient light left over in the sky in
the second shot making the scene easier to
expose for and allowing me to capture more
detail in the architecture.
In the second image, we can clearly see the
variety of textures and colours on the building. In
the late night image, the building appears a
uniform shade of yellow from the artificial light
illuminating the facade.
I also think that the deep blue sky of blue hour
makes for a far more attractive backdrop than the
solid black sky of late night.
 Night-time
I’ve been telling how the black night sky is not
particularly attractive for capturing urban
landscapes. This does not mean you should put
your camera away as the night gets darker. As
usual, I am about to tell you to do the complete
opposite of what I just said. There are still plenty
of photography opportunities at this time.
As was the case with strong sunlight, the pure
black of the late night sky often looks better in
black and white photographs than in their colour
counterparts.
The next photograph was taken on a narrow
street in Prague looking toward the tower of the
town hall.
In this case, the contrast of the illuminated
buildings contrasts well with the dark night sky.
Exposure can still be tricky at this time. I took 3
bracketed exposures to make this photo.
Town Hall – Prague
 Samuel Beckett Bridge – Dublin
In this photograph of the Samuel Beckett Bridge
and National Conference Centre in Dublin, the
strong geometric shapes of the bridge really pop
against the dark night sky. The colour version of
this shot does not work as well.
Colour photography is also a possibility at this
time. Often however, I tend to shoot at street
level in order to completely leave out dark sky
entirely.
The next photograph was taken in Venice outside
one of the fanciest restaurants in the city.
Ristorante Quadri – Venice
For this shot, I decided to focus in on a couple
who were watching a mini orchestra performing
outside the famous Ristorante Quadri. Dining at
this particular opulent eatery will require you re-
mortgage your home and sell your first born child.
Two coffees alone will set you back about €30!
A shutter speed of 1.3 seconds helped create
some motion blur as the violinist played. It also
makes it look as if he has two heads. After taking
this shot, I discretely listened in on the couple’s
conversation as they debated which of their
children they would sell to pay for their meal.
Personally, I’d go by future earning potential.
This being the city of Antonio Vivaldi, I expected
to hear the melodious refrains of “The Four
Seasons” filling the night air. Instead, they
appeared to be playing “Radio Gaga” by the
genius that is Freddie Mercury and Queen. I do
wonder what Vivaldi’s opinion of “Fat Bottomed
Girls” would have been though.
 Het Plein – The Hague
Leaving out the sky completely and focusing on
subjects at street level is a good option for night
photography. I really liked the warm glow from
the fire heater at this café in The Hague.
Only including a little of the dark night sky in the
frame avoids the issue of exposure difficulties
caused by too much contrast between the sky and
the scene below. This next photo of taken in
Belfast is an example of this.
 Cathedral Quarter – Belfast
I loved the red glow from the lights above this
street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.
 Rain
We often have a tendency to put the camera
away when it rains. Rain, however, can present
some great opportunities for some very
interesting and original photographs.

St. Mark’s Basilica – Venice

Rainy evenings are great for capturing reflections.
On my first evening in Venice, St Mark’s Square
was still covered in large puddles from the
previous day’s Aqua Alto (flooding) and rain.
In this shot, I was able to capture the reflection of
the exquisite facade of St. Mark’s Basilica in one
of the huge puddles that covered the piazza at
blue hour. I did ruin my shoes though.

Val d’Europe – Paris

The combination of wet paving, reflections and
evening sunlight can make for some very
interesting and unusual photos. I took this shot on
my phone at Val d’Europe near Disneyland Paris.
 Stormy Conditions
In the last photo, we saw that rare but beautiful
combination of a dark moody sky combined with
the golden evening light. It’s a really special
combination but it doesn’t occur too often.

Prague from the Town Hall Tower

I was lucky to capture this unusual combination of
light and dark while at the top of the Town Hall
Tower in Prague. This brief moment of light
contrasted beautifully with the dark stormy sky.
 Snow
I mentioned in the tutorial on exposure settings
that is often necessary to overexpose your shot
slightly when shooting in snowy conditions in
order to avoid the snow turning out grey in the
photograph.

St, Mary’s Church – Clonsilla

You don’t always have to travel far to take
interesting photographs. This church is only a
fifteen minute walk from my front door.
 Mist
There is nothing more atmospheric than a misty
morning. Having the opportunity to photograph a
scene bathed in mist can often be a simple matter
of luck. Keeping a close eye on the weather
forecast can increase your chances though.

County Kildare – Ireland

Morning and evenings tend to be the best times
for mist particularly in areas of grassland. On this
particular morning, I was lucky to find my
shooting location covered in a low lying mist over
the frosty grass. I sometimes refer to dawn as
“pink hour” for obvious reasons.

County Kildare – Ireland

This shot was taken on the same morning. The
ducks on the river are shrouded in the mist that
hangs over the water.
The next few photographs were taken on a misty
morning in Bruges. Black and white photography
works really well with moody misty scenes.
Groenerei Canal - Bruges
In this photograph taken along the Groenerei
Canal in Bruges, the stone bridge in the
foreground is well defined with plenty of contrast
whereas the buildings in the background seem
faded by the mist in the air. This layering of
stronger tones over faded tones can help create a
sense of depth in the scene.

Rozenhoedkaai - Bruges
In this photograph taken along Rozenhoedkaii
(Quay of the Rosary) in Bruges, the mist has made
the famous belfry on the right almost vanish.
 Gruuthuse Hof – Bruges
The misty early morning conditions combined
with completely empty streets gives an eerie feel
to this streetscape from Bruges. There is actually
a church tower in the background that has been
completely obscured by the mist.
Depending on where you live, misty conditions
like this don’t come along all that often so it’s
always exciting when it happens. It gives you the
chance to photograph a familiar location in a
unique way.
 Backlight
Photographing backlit subjects can lead to very
striking photographs. Getting the exposure right
can be very challenging though.

County Kildare – Ireland

Winter time can be a fantastic time of year to
shoot interesting photos during the daytime. In
winter time, the sun stays low in the sky all day
long. This means it casts long shadows and
creates interesting side and backlighting.
The photo above was taken late on a winter
morning well after the golden hour. Normally, the
best light is long gone by then. As it was winter,
however, the sun was still very low in the sky and
caused the trees to cast long shadows across the
scene.
I set up the shot with the sun positioned behind
one of the trees and took three separate
exposures at -2, 0 and +2 on the exposure level
scale. I then blended the three shots in post-
production.
This photograph would have been impossible to
create from a single exposure. The contrast
between the brightest areas and darkest shadows
was simply too great for the camera to handle.
A single exposure would have had a lot of clipped
shadows or blown highlights or even both
together. Blending multiple exposures is a way
around this problem.
Now, I’m no dendrologist, so I’m afraid my
descriptions of the trees I photographed will be
limited to ‘Yup, that’s definitely a tree alright’. I
may be able to say if it’s ‘big tree’ but that’s about
it I’m afraid.

County Kildare- Ireland

This shot was taken not too far from the last one.
This time I was out with the camera on a bright
autumn morning. Once again, I positioned myself
with the sun behind a tree to take advantage of
the backlighting.
This type of light can really make a scene like this
glow. It is particularly effective when combined
with the warm autumnal tones I encountered that
morning.
I can also confirm that these are indeed “big”
trees. They also have trunks, many branches and
a lot of leaves. Maybe I’m getting the hang of this
dendrology thing after all!
I actually studied French and History at nearby
Maynooth University many years ago but never
once bothered to make the twenty minute walk
to the Carton Estate where these photographs
were taken.
I must have been far too busy drinking beer and
partying studying very diligently and engaging in
deep discussions about eighteenth century French
literature and philosophy with my fellow scholars.
 St. Stephen’s Green – Dublin
The final example of a backlit photograph comes
from St. Stephen’s Green in the heart of Dublin
City Centre. Shooting into the light meant
underexposing the background in order to expose
for the water.
I think this is actually quite effective and allows
the golden glow of the backlit water fountain to
really stand out from the dark tones of the
background.
 Case Study: Rozenhoedkaai - Bruges
Let’s finish by taking a look at a selection of
photos taken at the same location at different
times of the day. This will allow us to see how
different light and conditions can dramatically
affect the look and feel of the final photograph.
The photographs that follow were all taken at
Rozenhoedkaai in Bruges. This is one of the best-
known views of this gorgeous medieval city.
It’s easy to see why this location is so popular
with photographers. A collection of pretty Flemish
brick buildings surround the waters of the canal
basin while the famous octagonal Belfry of Bruges
towers over the scene.
The Rozenhoedkaai area was a salt port during
the middle ages. Ships laden with salt would moor
here to deliver and load their merchandise. Salt
was an important and expensive commodity in
medieval times and no doubt contributed to the
wealth of Bruges. Today, the merchant ships
laden with salt have been replaced by small tour
boats laden with tourists, Bruges’s modern source
of wealth.
Version 1 – Daytime

This first shot which features one of these tour

boats was taken pretty much in the middle of the
day. It’s a decent enough shot but the daytime
light is quite harsh and not particularly
interesting.
It could work in a tourist brochure perhaps but I
don’t think that it is the type of shot I would
frame and hang on the wall.
It’s often in the evening time that things really
start to get interesting. This is when the most
interesting light and tones begin to appear in the
scene as long as the weather cooperates.
Unfortunately, the sky was covered in a layer of
steely grey cloud during the evening golden hour
so I headed to a nearby bar and hoped that the
clouds would clear in time for dusk and blue hour.
As luck would have it, they did. Luck often plays a
major role in capturing that special shot.
By now however, I had consumed quite a few
glasses of a local beer/rocket fuel called
Steenbrugge. I stumbled out of the bar into a
totally transformed scene. My sense of balance
had been totally transformed too. Thank
goodness for tripods.
With a rather diminished sense of coordination, I
somehow managed to set up my tripod and point
the camera at the ever changing scene in front of
me.
Version 2 – Early Dusk

By now the remaining clouds were painted in a

pink/coral tone by the recently set sun. As you
can see, this made for a far more attractive and
interesting photo than the daytime version.
This light only lasted a few minutes so it’s
important to be patient and ready to shoot when
the conditions are right. Not being drunk probably
helps too.
Only a few minutes later, the scene had changed
dramatically. The light had dipped and the sky
had turned a beautiful shade of purple. By now
the lights illuminating the buildings had come on.
Version 3 – Late Dusk

Version 4 – Blue Hour

About 15 minutes later and blue hour had
descended on the city of Bruges. There was still a
purple afterglow from the sunset but most of the
sky had turned a deep shade of blue.
These four shots all taken on the same day
illustrate just how much the changing light and
weather conditions can completely transform the
look and feel of the location you are
photographing.
5 Tips for Increasing the Odds of Getting that
Special Shot with Great Light
1. Check sunrise and sunset times at your
location. I like to be at a location about an hour
before sunrise or an hour before sunset. This
allows me to photograph the scene during the
best of the dawn, golden and blue hour light.

2. Check where the sun will rise and set at your

location. This allows you plan in advance where
to be positioned to capture the sunrise or
 sunset. You will also know from which direction
the golden hour light will be coming from.

3. Check the weather forecast in advance to

increase your chances of being at your location
when the light is at its most interesting.

4. Be patient. Sometimes a moment of great light

may only last a few seconds as the clouds
briefly clear and the sunlight peeks through.
Sometimes waiting for that magic moment
pays off. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s definitely
worth trying though.

5. Try to be reasonably sober when heading out

with your camera. Drinking several large
glasses of 6.5% proof Belgian beer beforehand
is generally not advisable.
These tips will increase your odds of being in the
right place at the right time. As we know
however, sometimes it comes down to pure luck.
 Conclusion
Congratulations if you made it this far. There is
absolutely no doubt now that you must be as
weird passionate about photography as I am. I
hope you enjoyed the book and that it helps you
bring your photography to the next level.
I’ll finish off with a few random tips to help you
continue to improve and enjoy your photography:

 Give yourself small projects based on the

tutorials in this book. For example, you could
go out with the intention of looking for
symmetrical scenes to practice centred
composition. You might also try finding
situations where using a shallow depth of
field could make in interesting photograph.
You could also pick certain subjects as a
project. I love photographing bridges for
example.
 Be patient. I covered this in more detail in
the tutorial on the "decisive moment".
Patience is essential to creating interesting
photographs. Slow down; think quality over
quantity.

Adobe Stock

 Plan ahead. Before heading out to

photograph a location, do some preparation
and research. Check the weather forecast as
well as sunrise and sunset times. Look up
 photographs that others have taken there as
inspiration. Exploring Google Maps and
Street View is a great way of researching
points of view in unfamiliar locations.

 Joining a camera club can be a great way of

improving your photography. It's also a great
social outlet and you get to meet people
who share your passion. You can spend
hours boring each other about hyper focal
distance metering modes!

 Don't worry too much about other people's

opinions of your photographs especially
online. There are some people out who love
to put others down especially anonymously
on the internet. Don't get disheartened by
these people. They tend to live in their
parent's basement anyway. If you like it,
that's what's most important.
 If ever you find yourself stuck in a creative
rut, take a break. Put the camera away for a
while and spend some time consuming
photography rather than creating it. Look up
different photographers and seek
inspiration. Before long, the ideas will start
flowing again. Creative ruts happen to all
photographers from time to time. Don't
worry when it happens to you (and it will).
They can actually be great opportunities to
come up with new ideas and bring your
photography in a new direction. Just be
patient.

Adobe Stock
 Shoot in RAW format. RAW files contain a
huge amount of information. Shooting in
RAW format allows you to recover more
details from shadow and highlight areas if
the exposure is tricky.

 Learn the basics of post-processing software

such as Lightroom and Photoshop. There are
tons of tutorials available online. Post-
processing can really enhance your
photographs. It can't fix a poor photograph
however.

 Don't take photographs in in Orthodox

churches in Bucharest. It's not worth the
bruising.

 Put the camera away from time to time. As

photographers, we sometimes forget to put
the camera away now and then and just
 enjoy the location. This is a common issue in
the era of smartphones. How many times
have you seen people at a concert watch the
entire show through their camera screen?
During every trip I go on, I make sure to put
aside plenty of time to fully experience the
place I am visiting with my own senses and
not just through my lens.

 Finally, enjoy yourself. Have fun when you're

out with your camera. Photograph subjects
that interest you.
Thanks for reading. Now get out there and turn
your creative vision into great photographs.
You've got this!

Barry
Portfolio/prints: bocphotography.com
Blog: photographywithbarry.com