5 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Taking a Photo

Do you ever feel like sometimes you’rre just winging it when you pick up your camera?

That you get all flustered and not quite sure what you should be doing….?

….So you end up just clicking and hoping?

Then this week’s blog post is for you!

I wanted to break down some of the things you should be thinking about when you take your photo - many of them before you even lift the camera to your eye - so that you can shoot more purposefully, and most importantly, get better photos.

So we’re going to go into FIVE questions you should ask yourself when you take your photo. There are more of course, but these are the big ones, the ones that can make or break your picture, so let’s dive into those now…

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnJune 4, 2019TIPS & TRICKS

5 Times You'll Need Photoshop over Lightroom for Editing Your Photos

It’s no secret - I freaking love Lightroom. I love how much you can do in the program, how fast it is for editing your photos, and the whole end to end organisation thing just makes me want to kiss my computer screen.

But that doesn’t mean it can do absolutely everything.

There’s a damn good reason why Adobe bundled both Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC together in their Photography Plan - because when you have access to both programs, you can do absolutely anything you’re little editing heart desires!

EDITING TUTORIALSAudrey AnnMay 28, 2019PHOTOSHOP

How to Use Lightroom: 3 Must Use Tools for Beginners

Lightroom is definitely the must-use photo editing software for both professional and hobbyist photographers, simply because it has absolutely everything you need to mange, edit and share your images in one place (and in waaaay less time than other software) .

Because it can do SO much, you can easily find yourself a little overwhelmed at first. But, as with everything else in photography, you can start by learning a few simple tools. And that’s what I what to cover here today!

EDITING TUTORIALSAudrey AnnMay 21, 2019LIGHTROOM

How to Choose the Best Lens for Your Photo

Whether you want to shoot a portrait or a landscape or a documentary-style photo, you’ll want to choose the best lens for the job!

With an array of lenses to choose from, it can be hard to know which one to pick, and which will suit your photo best. As I have far too many lenses to choose from, I thought i’d go through my thought process when picking out a lens for a particular photo. Of course, there may be other reasons why I pick a lens (versatility for going away on vacation, or weight if were going on a trek) but the two MAIN reasons are the focal length, and the aperture.

Let’s go into the four questions I ask myself (which you can totally steal, I don’t mind) for choosing the best lens for the job.

GEAR, PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnMay 14, 2019TIPS & TRICKS

Case Study: How I Went From Auto to Manual Mode With Auto to Awesome

One of the things I love seeing is the change in people’s photos as they are learning photography - where you can literally see the difference in the “befores” and “afters” - and I know this is inspiring for many of you too!

So today I’ve got a case study for you that I think you are absolutely going to eat up :-)

It's from one of my amazing Auto to Awesome students, Erica, and she’s put together some amazing before and after photos for us, plus some of her favourite photos. It shows two things - how learning photography doesn’t just happen overnight, and also that with the right training, you can absolutely take amazing images with an entry level camera. (Although she has since upgraded, Erica shot most of these images with an entry level DSLR and kit lens - proof that you don’t need the most expensive gear to take great photos)

For those of you who are already in Auto to Awesome, I hope it inspires you to keep going through the program! And if you’ve been thinking about maybe enrolling in Auto to Awesome, this is one blog post you’ll definitely want to read.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnApril 30, 2019BEGINNER

One Simple Aperture Exercise You Can Do Today!

Having a little trouble getting your head around Aperture and Depth of Field?

Don’t worry, it happens to us all!

But it’s SO worth taking the time to understand completely, because the aperture you choose can have a BIG impact on your images (as you’re about to see)

So what we’re going to do today is an exercise that can help you see how different apertures affect how your image LOOKS.

Ready? Let’s go!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnApril 23, 2019BEGINNER

How to Shoot in Aperture Priority Mode (+ Free Aperture Cheat Sheet!)

It can be a really daunting experience to move away from the AUTO modes on your camera, but you really must if you want to get great photos!

And the first step is to move to something called Aperture Priority Mode. This will help you get more control over how your images turn out, but as it still leaves you with the “safety net” of the camera balancing the exposure, so you don’t need to worry about that just yet 😉.

We’ve a lot to get through in this blog post, so let’s get crackin’!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnApril 16, 2019BEGINNER

What is Aperture? A guide for new photographers.

Have you heard the aperture when learning photography, and wondered what it is?

Or what that has to do with the term F-stop?

And just what the heck depth of field is?!

Then you’re in the perfect place! In this blog post we’re going to go over what Aperture is, what the term F-stop means, plus what depth of field is and how we can use it for creative photos!

Ready? Let’s dive in!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPSAudrey AnnApril 9, 2019BEGINNER

5 Exercises to Get You Out of A Creative Photography Rut

We’ve all felt it at one time or another - we’ve got no idea what we could even take photos of, every image we DO take seems boring and “snapshotty”, and we’re left wondering if our creativity has got up and gone.

For some, just putting down their camera works a treat, and for others, such as myself, a small but firm kick up the pants is needed.

These creativity exercises are those kick in the pants, so pick one, and get out there and start shooting!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS, CHILD & LIFESTYLEAudrey AnnMarch 26, 2019

5 Must-Read Tips to Improve Your Lifestyle Photography

Lifestyle photography is without doubt my favourite genre of photography - one where you can capture an everyday moment or scene beautifully, and freeze that moment in time.

On the whole, this is how I capture my family every single day, rather than waiting for milestone moments like birthdays or the one-a-year family photos (which I love too, but in a different way!)

But of course, lifestyle photography has it’s challenges too, so here’s my five top tips for getting better child and family lifestyle photos.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS, CHILD & LIFESTYLEAudrey AnnMarch 19, 2019

8 Ideas for Photographs of Your Children You Can Take At Home

I get it, we can all feel sometimes like it’s harder to take photos when we are stuck in at home, rather than in the great outdoors.

But there are loads of opportunities for capturing great photos of our kids indoors as well as out.

So today, I’ve come up with 8 ideas for photographs you take of your children at home, along with a few tips and tricks for each one.

Ready? Let’s go!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS, CHILD & LIFESTYLEAudrey AnnMarch 12, 2019TIPS & TRICKS

7 Deadly Lightroom Photo Editing Sins (and how to avoid them)

When I first started learning how to edit my photos, I followed a few different tutorials online, patched them together, and studiously applied them to each and every photo.

The result?

Eye blindingly bright, overly contrasty and saturated images, that looked like they had been edited by 10 different people.

(My eyes hurt just THINKING about those early edits 😎😵)

But you don’t have to make those mistakes too, because you’ve got me, and I’m not gonna let that happen!

So without further ado, here’s 7 deadly photo editing sins - and most importantly, how you can avoid them.

EDITING TUTORIALSAudrey AnnFebruary 26, 2019LIGHTROOM

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