In photography, some of the accessories you accumulate can be essential to improving your shots. They can improve your mobility, compositions, usability of your camera and reduce unforseen weather and unknown location annoyances. But, figuring out what accessory is used for what and which one is a good fit for you as a photographer (especially when many are expensive) can seem daunting. Here are some, but by no means all, of the accessories you might find helpful when shooting in different situations.

Continue reading: Photo Accessories-How to Use Them and Which Ones Are For You?

If you’re not ready yet to take the plunge with a dSLR, you’d be happy to know that a simple point-and-shoot camera can produce a great photograph too. With thousands of choices in compact digital cameras, how do you pick the perfect one? Hopefully, with these 5 easy-to-follow tips, you’d end up with the right one that suits your requirements.

1.) Have a budget

A compact digital camera can cost anywhere from $100 to even over $500. If you walk into the store without a budget in mind, you will end up spending more than you can afford with features and extras you don’t need. On average, you can find a very decent compact camera for around the $250 mark. Compare prices and reviews online.

If you’re tight with money, look out for used cameras on auction sites, trading posts, forums and second-hand camera shops. A tip is to check after the Christmas period as a lot of people start posting “unwanted” gifts and you can be lucky enough to grab yourself a new camera for half of the retail price.

Continue reading: How to Buy the Perfect Compact Digital Camera: 5 Step Guide

Photography has always been somewhat of a cool hobby to have. With DSLRs being a lot more affordable compared to a few years ago, amateur photographers are jumping on the DSLR bandwagon. However, after the initial excitement wears off, most of these DSLRs would end up sitting somewhere collecting dust.

You don’t need to have a DSLR to be a good photographer, and having one doesn’t automatically make you take better photos. Here are five questions to determine if you really need a DSLR.

Continue reading: Do You Really Need a DSLR Camera? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

My dream came true when Canon and Nikon released their DSLR cameras with HD video possibility. For people whose lives consist mostly of perceiving life through visual contact this option allows to look outside of the borders of still image. But there are some things that you should know if you want to make good video shots.

Continue reading: Guide: Start Shooting Video With DSLR

I have many times been asked what some of the terms in photography mean and how they affect a photograph. I have also heard many of the terms used incorrectly. They are heard so often in advertising and even in passing that people use them in every day speech without really knowing how they are used functionally in photography. It can only make you a better photographer by understanding your camera and its tools better. Most of these are most likely a refresher for many photographers but for some people, they do not come into play consciously because of the usability and function of their camera. Many “point and shoot” cameras use these but do all the figuring out for you. This adds a sense of freedom but also less control over each shot.

Continue reading: Photography Terms: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO

Guest post by: Brad Nichol from 01imaging.com

This is the first instalment in a three part series I am presenting on the theme of how to get the most out of your iPhone photos. In this instalment we will concentrate on the characteristics of the iPhone 3GS image quality with a view as to how we may both work creatively with those characteristics and work around them when needed.

Frankly as a camera the iPhone has some pretty serious flaws, which is fair enough, it was after all designed to be a phone first and foremost. Some of its flaws are unique to the iPhone but most are just typical of the phone camera breed. None of the flaws will prevent you from taking terrific images with your iPhone! If your image is strong enough it probably matters little what is used for the capture and it is possible that the flaws can be turned into assets if you know what you are doing.

So let’s pull the iPhone image quality apart and see how it pans out as a creative camera tool.

Continue reading: Image Characteristic of the iPhone Photos

Lens hoods are annoying to lose and even more annoying to replace. For a bit of plastic, they can range from $20, to even $600 (Canon lens hood for the EF-600mm IS USM lens). What if I told you that you can make your own lens hood for less than $5 and in less than 15 minutes?

This is a short but nifty tutorial thanks to Paul Mutton from Lens Hoods. His site offers lots of free printable lens hoods for various cameras and models.

Continue reading: Camera Lens Hood For Under $5, In Under 15 Minutes

How good would it be if you could just shoot, view and share your photos instantly? Or maybe when you’re out, you want to make space on your memory card without having to permanently delete the photos? Well, the newly released Eye-Fi WiFi lets you do all that and much more.

Continue reading: Eye-Fi WiFi Review: Transfer Your Photos Even Quicker And Easier