I used to be terrified of shadows when I was taking pictures!  I wanted the image to be as shadow free as possible, because dealing with the shadows are where they were falling on my subject was a nightmare I wasn't ready to contend with. 

But once you have got to grips with the basics of your camera, introducing shadows is an amazing way to make your images more engaging. 

Here's four reasons why shadows can add impact to your photos, and why you should start to try to incorporate them today! 

Once you switch from shooting in JPEG over to the RAW file format, you will notice that your images look a little flat and dull straight out of camera in comparison to how they used to look! 

That's simply because when you shoot in JPEG, your camera applies contrast, saturation and contrast, but the RAW file has none of that applied, which is why you need to add in some "pop" to images yourself! (You can read some more reasons why you should be editing your photos here - read it, then come back!) 

So, let's look at some really simply adjustments you can make to give your RAW images a bit of a lift! 

Welcome back for another creative challenge!  If you are new to the blog, every month for 2017 I will be posting a creative exercise / mini photography project for you to do.  So if you like the idea of a monthly flex of your photography muscles, come back on the first Tuesday of every month for your assignment.  

Yup. we've got another Scavenger Hunt, but this time for Fall. Now, this wasn't what I had originally had planned, but because I had so many people request it, via email and in our Facebook Group, I like to give you what you want! 

As per the Summer Scavenger Hunt, you've got a downloadable list of prompts, and all you need to do is go out is simply go out and capture what is on the list. 

You have no doubt heard, time and time again, that you should learn how to shoot in manual mode if you want to improve your photography skills - so many times that I bet you are probably sick of hearing it!) 

But exactly WHY is it so darn important? 

Well, that's exactly what we are going to dive into in this blog post :-)

One question pops up time and time again when people first consider moving to manual mode, which is:

"How on earth do I keep up with changing my settings when shooting in manual mode, and my kids are running about all over the place?!" 

I hear ya! 

It is a little bit more tricky to be sure, so in this post I'm going to give you a few tips that will hopefully help make the process of keeping up when shooting in manual mode just that little bit easier. 

In my free Facebook Group the other day, someone asked a question that I know pretty much everyone thinks when they are first starting out (myself included!) which was:

“Why do I need to worry about getting the exposure right in camera, when I can fix it in Lightroom / Photoshop / Post Processing?"

Such a great question! And it's true, with digital photography, we are very lucky to be able to fix a vast amount of mistakes in editing software, and exposure is definitley one of them.  

But there are few reasons why you will want to at least attempt to get exposure as close as possible to being correct in camera, and that my friends, is what we are going to go over today! 

Hey fellow Lightroom users!

As you are no doubt already aware, in order to use a photo for something we can't do from within Lightroom, such as sending to your favourite print lab, or maybe making a copy to post on your blog, we need to EXPORT it from Lightroom. 

Although it's pretty darn quick to export photos from Lightroom anyway, we can speed up this process even more by creating our own export presets, and that's what I'm going to show you how to do today! 

Hands up if you'e ever thought to yourself.....

"oh, well, that person shoots with a professional grade camera, that means I need to invest in gear to get good photos"  

or

"Well, this photographer I met in the park only shoots in AUTO so I don't need to bother to learn manual mode" 

or even

"I can learn this all by searching Google - it knows everything"   (😉)

Did you put your hand up? Yes? Well, don't worry, a few years ago I would have been right along with you!

That's why today we’re talking about all the myths that people believe about learning photography - and why you should ignore them! 

Welcome back for another creative challenge! If you are new to the blog, every month for 2017 I will be posting a creative exercise / mini photography project for you to do.  So if you like the idea of a monthly flex of your photography muscles, come back at the first Tuesday of every month for your assignment.  You can of course do these at ANY time, so at the bottom of this post you will find links to the previous challenges too!

For this month's creativity exercise, we are going on a Scavenger Hunt!

Yes, it's time for me to share my photography journey with you!

I realised that I have all these wonderful guests on the blog, sharing their stories, and I've never really shared mine.  So, I've taken the exact same questions I ask everyone else, and answered them!

Yep, I sat there and spoke to myself.

It was worryingly pleasant.

The headline says it all! Today, I wanted to show you 12 Lightroom before and after examples of images that have been edited exclusively with LIghtroom.

Why?

Because one common  misconception about Lightroom is that it is mainly for image management, or for making simple editing adjustments like exposure and white balance, but that you really need something like Photoshop to edit your images creatively.

Nothing could be further from the truth! 

Once you get to know what can be done in Lightroom. you will be amazed at just how much you can do in this program. So, yes image management is a HUGE benefit to using Lightroom, but don't make the mistake of thinking that is ALL it can do. 

I know that for many of you, your number one enemy in your photography journey is not having enough time!  I can totally relate to that, as I sometimes feel like I am trying to cram 50 hours worth of chores into one day.   I have spoken before about how I try to manage the time I do have for photography more effectively, so today I'm going to tell you about how Lightroom has also been a key part of helping me get more done, in less time. 

Welcome back for another creative challenge! If you are new to the blog, every month for 2017 I will be posting a creative exercise / mini photography project for you to do.  So if you like the idea of a monthly flex of your photography muscles, come back at the first Tuesday of every month for your assignment.  You can of course do these at ANY time, so at the bottom of this post you will find links to the previous challenges too!

For this month's creativity exercise, we are going to switch gears a little bit (again! I like to mix it up 😄) and consider how we can document our lives, or the lives of the people we love, through photography. 

Once again, it's a simple idea:  we are going to do this using a "currently" list.  It's such a wonderful way to document what your life looks like right NOW,  and not only that, but it will get your creative juices flowing as you need to decide how to capture these thoughts, feelings and actions.  So, it's documentary, but with a creative twist! 

Learning photography is so much fun, but it can also be hard work! There is so much to learn and take on board, that it can feel a little overwhelming. 

In this post, I'm going to give you just seven quick tips that you can take action on TODAY that will help give you better photos. So, for each tip, you also have an action item - there's no sitting around being an armchair photographer here 😀

Ready? Let's get stuck in!

We all know that learning a new piece of software can be daunting - this is especially true when we're talking about Lightroom, which has so many modules, panels, buttons and options that you might not even know where to start! 

It has taken me quite a few years to figure out Lightroom, and right at the beginning I really wish I had someone leading me through the process step by step - it would have saved me so much time and allowed me to concentrate on getting good  images, rather than sorting out my mess!