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Photography Starter Guide and Checklist booklet surrounded by photography tips, sample images, and learning worksheets

Want to learn photography but have no clue where to begin and what to learn next??!

Steal my Photography Learning Blueprint and get the clarity, checklist and step by step game plan to help you get photos you love - quickly!

YES! GIMME THAT FREE GUIDE!

Audrey Murray 2/15/16 Audrey Murray 2/15/16

8 Top Beginner Photography Tips

Get started on your photography journey with these top photography tips for beginners!

If you are brand new to digital photography, I know it can seem a little overwhelming with everything you need to learn. So here are 8 beginner photography tips which will get you started on the right path, and help you on your way to taking beautiful pictures in no time. Each tip has links to further reading too, so you might also want to pin / bookmark this one for future reference!

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6 Low-Cost Ways to Learn Photography

Photography can be a very expensive hobby - the gear alone can run pretty steep, and once you add on things like editing software and so on, there sometimes isn't a lot left over to use on learning how to use the darn things! However, at all ages and stages of your photography journey, you will want to keep learning! The good news is, there are lots of ways to learn photography that don't cost the earth, or even better, are free! Here's six of them:

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Making the Switch From JPEG to RAW

When shooting with a DSLR, you have two choices of file formats in which to take your image - RAW or JPEG. Most amateurs shoot in JPEG. If you do, and are happy with the results you are getting, then of course by all means you can continue to do so! However, if you worry about not getting your settings right, or you want to improve the final look of your images, then I strongly suggest giving shooting in RAW a chance. Although it’s not a magic pill for getting good images, shooting in RAW can help enormously as it gives you another chance to get it right! You get much more leeway once you come to edit the photo in RAW, you will be able to bring up under exposed photos without introducing wonky color casts and grey skin, or bring back highlights and detail in images that you have over-exposed.

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How to take a Self Portrait

I have to say, I find self portraits quite hard going! I'm much more comfortable being on the other side of the camera, for sure. There’s nothing really more complicated about self photography than ”normal” photography, the biggest problem is the logistics of getting yourself behind the camera, and making sure that you are in focus (and not feeling silly having a camera trained on you!) and actually pressing the shutter!

Here's a step by step guide to taking your own self portraits.

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All You Need to Know About White Balance

White Balance can be a source of huge frustration in photography! I've written quite a few posts on white balance previously, showcasing some different ways to set it and so on, but I felt it might be useful if these were all together in one place, so you could learn all about white balance from start to finish in one single post. Let's start with a quick recap on white balance actually is.

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8 Steps to Creating Your Photography Portfolio

A portfolio is simply a collection of images that you bring together to show a body of work. You can create a portfolio for several reasons, for example, to show to prospective clients your style on your photography business website, or to apply for work, or just to accepted into a body of professionals. If you are a hobbyist, don't for one second think that you can't have a portfolio! It's a great way of seeing patterns in your work both good and bad. It can show you what you need to work on, or whether you have a style that you didn't even know you had! In short, a portfolio is for any photographer, at any level.

Here's what to do to create a portfolio:

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How to Choose Your Settings in Manual Mode

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10 Things You Wish You Knew About Shooting In Manual Mode

It's been quite a few years now since I made the switch from Aperture Priority Mode to shooting in Manual Mode, and it was one of the BEST things I ever did to improve my photography skills.

It was like a whole new world opened up to me, and I started TRULY understanding exposure, and in turn, getting the images that I wanted.

Of course, there was a lot to learn, and there are some things I wish I had known before I started!

So, here are 10 things about shooting in Manual Mode that you might just wish you knew…

4 Reasons You Should Be Editing Your Photos (and how to do it)

If there is one thing that comes up again and again when we talk about photography, it's EDITING - the steps you take AFTER you have pressed the shutter and uploaded your images. It's a whole other world of things to learn and master and as such it can be quite overwhelming for new photographers.

Because it's yet another thing you need to add to your "to learn" list, it can be tempting not to bother doing it, or slap a action / preset on and call it a day. However, editing your images is an important part of the photography process and one that I believe you should at least start to learn as soon as possible.

In this post I'm going to share exactly WHY you should edit your images, what programs you can use, and the order in which you should learn everything in.

Ooooh, that sounds like a lot to get through! Best get started then :)

11 Things All New Photographers Should Know

I’ve made more mistakes that I can count over my 11 years in photography, and I definitely took longer to get where I wanted to be because of them!

I’m going to hazard a guess that actually, you’re a lot like me back then - you want to get great photos, and you want them NOW.

101 Things to Photograph (with examples & exercises!)

Today, I’m sharing 101 things to photograph when you feel you’ve got absolutely nothing in front of you you can take a picture of!

This post was inspired by one of my Auto to Awesome students, who wrote to me saying she didn’t feel she had anything “good” around her to take photos of.

And she’s most definitely not alone - we’ve ALL had that feeling like there is absolutely nothing around us to photograph (or that we’ve just photographed it all already) so we need to get ourselves off to an exciting location, or visit a new place just in order to find something.

The truth is, there is always something to photograph, both at home, or in your local area. It doesn’t matter where you live, what your house is like, or whether you live in a built up location like a city or near a park; there WILL be countless things worth taking a photo of….you just have to open your eyes to them!

Example Photos With Camera Settings (& Why I chose them!)

Have you ever looked at photos from other photographers and wished that they would share their camera settings as well?

I know that I certainly did!

Which is why today I'm going to share with you some example, photos, along with the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings that I use, but most importantly, why I chose them.

8 Child Photography Poses For Stunning Kid Photography!

Want some child photography poses that are quick, easy and downright cute? Then I have 8 pose ideas for you, along with example photos for each one, that are tried and tested and will give you great photos of kids.

You can use these poses on your OWN kids, or if you’re business, you can use these for ideas during a paid kids photoshoot too.

You can also vary these standard poses greatly, so you’ll never run out of ideas again!

As usual, we have two ways to enjoy this - either watch the video below, or scroll down to read the blog post and see all the child photography poses in action!