Photography News

Most articles like this one will tell you about Portrait mode. You know about Portrait mode. 

Depending on which iPhone and AirPods you own, you may be able to default the camera to a 35mm-equivalent view, use your earbuds as a remote shutter, and change several settings that affect how your photos are captured and processed. The features and technical details below are documented by Apple. The practical recommendations are mine.

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Pocket cameras have always asked you to accept a wide-angle-only view and hope your footage looks acceptable after the fact. A dual-lens setup with a detachable screen and optical zoom pushes against nearly every one of those limits at once. 

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Photography has a fantastic ability to isolate things: details, shapes, colours or patterns. You can remove a subject from its distracting surroundings in just the same way that you can place it there; by thoughtful framing. During your travels see if you can find patterns in the places you visit that will remind you of the trip later.

 

1. Gear Choices

There is no special equipment needed to photograph pattern, though standard and slightly longer lenses can make the framing easier, but you do need to look carefully at what you are shooting. Very long lenses are also useful since they will flatten the perspective of distant shapes which often uncovers the patterns they make. Try and fill the frame aligning the pattern carefully. A tripod makes this easier but is not essential. You can crop out distractions later, but it is better to get it right ‘in camera’.

 

2. Patterns Are Everywhere

 

Patterns can be quite addictive: once you start seeing them it is hard to stop. Look for quantities of a single item and see how they fit together, regularly or random. In nature, this could be stones on a beach or marks in the sand, clouds or a flock of birds, even the leaves on a tree. In towns, look along streets at how the buildings fit together, sometimes just the steps leading to the door of a building make a good pattern.

Markets and Souvenir Shops are great places to find patterns: stockpiled high or artfully displayed is a gift to a photographer. Whether it is tourist tat or delicious-looking local produce it is likely to work as both a reminder of your holiday and an interesting composition. Look out especially for shops selling lots of versions of a similar thing; they often fit together really nicely. Don’t be afraid to get right in close.

Buildings and architecture by their very nature are full of patterns, but look beyond the obvious: bricks and tiles work, but so do whole buildings if viewed from the right angle. If you can get above the roof level of a town the rooftops will often make beautiful patterns. The great thing about patterns is that they do not have a particular scale; they can be vast or macro, but to make a good picture out of a pattern, the pattern needs to be the star.

 

3. How To Capture Patterns Successfully

 

There are no rules other than that you should crop tight to fill the frame. You may like to avoid irregularities (though I rather like them since they seem to emphasize the pattern). You can shoot square on or oblique and, if you are shooting oblique, you can shoot wide open to isolate a detail in the shot or stop down to keep it all sharp, so set the camera to aperture priority to make life easier. Whatever you choose make it a definite choice, very narrow depth of field or very deep, otherwise, it won’t look intentional.

You will generally only need to add a little extra contrast to emphasize the pattern, this can be achieved with a simple curves adjustment. But the graphic nature of patterns means that they are often ideally suited to image manipulation if you want to.

Even the most mundane subject can give you a good picture; you just need enough of it to make a strong pattern.

 

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The advice that stuck with a photographer after 40 years behind the camera has nothing to do with gear or settings. It comes down to a simple rule about what you look at when you're not shooting. 

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The Lumix S9 launched as one of the smallest full-frame mirrorless cameras you can buy, and then sat there without a lens small enough to prove the point. Now a metal pancake the size of a lens cap has arrived in L-mount, and it fills that gap. 

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An exciting black and white shot of a little girl that's full of energy with a great sense of speed has won our 'Photo of the Week' (POTW) award on ePHOTOzine.

'In a Spin' was captured by PeterDavidson and we loved the spot-on timing, composition and genuine feeling of this fun action portrait. The fast motion blur in the background makes it stand out and conveys thrill and excitement in a very authentic way. It hooks you immediately and once you spot the image in the Gallery, you naturally keep looking right at the girl's wide-eyed face. There is often beauty in a candid moment and this photo is an excellent example of this.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2027, we'll crown our 2026 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards! 

Want to be our next POTW winner? Just upload an image to our gallery where you'll also find all of our past POTW winners.

The Fujifilm X-H2 packs a 40-megapixel sensor, in-body stabilization, and a modular design that accepts a cooling fan and a broadcast-level file transfer grip, yet it sits in the shadow of the cheaper X-T5. That gap says a lot about who each camera is actually for. 

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The longer reach of telephoto lenses is a brilliant thing for photographers who want to photograph shy wildlife, pull far away subjects closer or simply want to fill the frame to create an attention-grabbing shot. 

To show you just how versatile a telephoto lens can be, we've got a top list of 8 ways these long lenses can be used. Plus, should you be in the market for a new telephoto lens, we have quite a few top telephoto lenses featured in our top lists which include both Telephoto Prime Lenses and Telephoto Zoom Lenses. 

If you're not sure if you should purchase a zoom or prime lens, have a read of this tutorial: Prime Vs Zoom Lenses

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Here Are Our 8 Top Ways To Use A Telephoto Lens:
1. Bring Far Subjects Close

© Joshua Waller

 

The telephoto effect these lenses have make objects, that may actually have quite a lot of distance between them, appear as if they're sat close together. The longer your focal length, the more obvious the effect will be. It's useful when you have a city skyline or mountains in the background which will give you a more interesting and pleasing shot if they're pulled a little closer to the object closer to your lens e.g. the bridge, building or boulder that's your main point of focus.

 

2. Fill The Frame

© Joshua Waller

 

When you want to exclude some part of what's in your frame e.g. a boring grey sky that's in the background of your landscape shot, use a telephoto lens to focus in on the colourful tree line rather than having the trees and sky in shot. It'll also pull a distant subject closer to you, which means you can get frame-filling shots of shy wildlife or of a particular aspect of the landscape that's too far for you to get to.

 

3. Pick Distant Subjects Out

© Joshua Waller

 

If you want to draw attention to a particular aspect that would be lost if shot with a wider focal length, use a telephoto lens to isolate your subject. You can do this with shorter focal lengths, but the longer reach of a telephoto means you can isolate a subject that's some distance away from where you're shooting from.

 

4. Capture Shots Of Wildlife

© Richard Hanson

 

As a telephoto lens closes the distance between you and whatever you're photographing, it's an ideal lens for photographing wildlife. With a telephoto lens you'll be able to take shots that look like you were just a few steps away from your subject when really you were some distance away. This distance means your subject won't be scared off and if you're shooting what could be considered as a dangerous animal, the distance makes it safer for you.

    5. Photograph The Moon

© Joshua Waller

 

Your shots won't be as good as those who use telescopes, but you can still get excellent shots of the moon with a long telephoto lens. As well as a very long lens you also need a tripod, clear skies, good weather, remote/cable release, a few hours to spare and good technique. You can even take a number of shots, and combine multiple shots to produce a sharper image.

 

6. Portraits

© Joshua Waller

 

Shooting head or head and shoulder shots with a longer focal length can give a better perspective and allows for a tighter crop when working further away from your subject. This distance also means you don't have to work too close to your subject and as a result, they'll be more comfortable, and you'll have more natural-looking portraits. You'll also be able to capture shots without any distortion and backgrounds are more easily thrown out of focus, even when they are just a couple of meters behind your subject, meaning all focus falls directly on your subject. Just keep an eye on your shutter speed if working hand-held, though, as you don't want shake spoiling your shot. Find more tips on shooting portraits.

 

7. Shallow Depth Of Field

© Joshua Waller

 

As mentioned above, telephoto lenses make it easier to get the blurry backgrounds in photos that isolate your subject and really make them the focus of your shot. You don't want a distracting background detail competing for the viewer's attention and a shallow depth of field will make sure this doesn't happen.

 

8. Capture Action

© Joshua Waller

 

For fast-paced action that you can't get close to e.g. motorsport and flying events, you'll need the longer focal lengths telephotos give you as most of the time, it'll be impossible to get close to the action. To create a sense of pace, use your telephoto lens to shoot a few shots where your subject is sharp but the background is nicely thrown out of focus. How good you are at panning, what shutter speed you use, how fast your subject is moving and how much light's around will make this task harder / easier every time you head to the track, but do it a few times and you'll soon perfect your technique.

  More Top Tips

How about picking up some top composition tips that will help you perfect the shots you capture with your telephoto lens? There are also hundreds of top tutorials to read in our 'How To' section of the site. 

A used Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide for a Nikon DSLR is $97 right now. The nearest equivalent for a Sony APS-C body, the E 10-18mm f/4, is $433 on the same used shelf, and that single gap decides which system a beginner landscape kit should be built on. Here is the whole thing, camera through headlamp, itemized to $758.91.

 

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to TheShaker (Day 30 - 'Beautiful Bokeh').

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 25

'Hot' Theme

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Day 26

Ruins

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Day 27

Big, Bold Skies

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Day 28

Black & White Buildings

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  Day 29

Eyes

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Day 31

'Yellow' Colour Theme

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You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

 

Always an interesting subject for photographers, standing stones and stone circles have fascinated people for centuries; but what is the best way to photograph them?

 

1. Lens Choice

Use a wider angle lens 16-20mm (about 24-30mm in 35mm terms)
 

2. Focus On Parts Of The Circle

Try isolating two or three of the stones and shoot from a low angle.

3. Get Up High

Find a vantage point at a distance where you can shoot the entire ring from a higher point to show its shape.
 

4. Check The Weather 

Shoot on a bright day for contrast and texture in the stones, but watch for shadows.
 

5. Get Down Low

Shoot from a low viewpoint to make the stones appear large and dominating.

 

 

6. Go Mono

Try switching to black & white or shoot in infrared for a more moody result.
 

7. Use Filters

Use a polariser to darken the blue sky to give the shot more impact.
 

8. Try HDR

Bracket the exposure and merge using HDR technique rather than using a graduated filter as the filter will darken the top half of the stone.
 

9. No People

Avoid shots with people if you don't want to date the photograph.
 

10. Create Scale

Include people if you want to show a sense of scale.

 

 

11. Look For Angles

Walk around a few times without taking pictures to get a feeling for the stones and the best angles.
 

12. Early Or Late?

Light is usually better at the start or towards the end of the day, however as fewer people prefer early starts, photographers tend to have to get up early if they want to capture people-free shots.
 

13. Think About The Sky

If you're trying to capture the whole circle, you'll need an interesting (large) sky to add balance to your shot as the foreground will appear to be long and thin.
 

14. Give Panoramas A Try

Try shooting a panorama where you take a series of images that can be joined in post-production (or most cameras have this feature built-in) to capture the whole circle.
 

15. Do Your Research

For inspiration and to find out the location of some of the most photogenic stone circles do you research before you leave your house. We have an article listing some of the most popular stone circles in the UK, you can read it here: Stone Circle Locations

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

Welcome to the August installment of the Critique the Community!  This month's critique theme is going to be "Minimally Edited Photos," and we want to see your best photographs that have hardly been edited at all.  Any raw file naturally has to be edited to some degree, so what constitutes a "minimum edit?".

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One of the joys of shooting with a Leica M is the incredible range of lenses available. The drawback for many of us, however, is that Leica’s own superb lenses are expensive. Once we’ve saved up for the camera, then we need to figure out what lens to buy. Leica lenses can cost more than some M cameras, and this is one of the main reasons many photographers who crave a Leica haven’t made the switch.

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A shallow depth of field ruins more portraits than a small aperture ever does. That claim runs against nearly everything you've been told about what makes a serious portrait setup, and it's worth sitting with before you spend money on another fast prime. 

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Most photographers rank a macro lens near the bottom of their wish list, filed under a specialty they'll get around to someday. That instinct sells short a piece of glass that can carry travel work, portraits, and landscapes all at once. 

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The biggest weakness of Sony's newest high-resolution camera turns out to be everything you expected of it before you ever picked it up. Expectations, not hardware, set the trap, and understanding that shift changes how you shoot with a resolution-first body in a market crowded with do-it-all machines. 

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A motion-activated camera captured the first confirmed images of a black-naped pheasant-pigeon since 1882. The rare ground-dwelling bird, known locally as Auwo, was photographed on Fergusson Island in Papua New Guinea only two days before the expedition was scheduled to end.

 

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It's the school summer holidays here in the UK which means many will be heading to the coast either on day-trips or for a longer holiday which gives us photographers the chance to capture a few coastal landscapes. If you do have coastal landscapes on your summer shoot agenda, here are a few tips to think about.

  1. Time Of Day

You can capture coastal landscapes at any time of the day, however, most photographers favour the light during the 'golden hours'. You get this light regardless of where you are, but it is where it falls that is important. On the east coast, the land gets warm light early in the day but not later when the sea gets the benefit. On the west coast, it is the other way round. But this is a massive generalisation because of the way the coastline is not made up of straight lines. Check an OS map to see the potential of the coastline you're visiting and do your research online to ensure you don't miss the best light.

It's also worth noting that everything from blue skies dotted with white clouds to brewing storm clouds can work well at the coast, you just have to be out at the right time of day with the right gear which includes waterproofs and protection for your camera gear if you're heading out when the heavens have opened.

 

2. Pack The Right Accessories

Wide-angle lenses will be what we tend to reach for first when landscapes are in-mind and a tripod is an essential piece of kit no landscape photographer should be without. As you could be working with lower light levels and slower shutter speeds you may want to consider taking a remote / cable release to reduce the risk of camera shake and make sure image stabilisation is switched off when supporting your kit on a tripod otherwise shake could be introduced. To balance the exposure, you may find an ND grad filter handy as the sky tends to be a lot brighter than other areas of your shot.

 

3. Foreground interest

There's nothing wrong with a photo of an empty beach stretching out for what seems to be miles but by adding some foreground interest you'll give your image more depth, help guide the eye through the shot and keep people interested in your photo for longer. A low angle and a wide-angle lens will help exaggerate the perspective of the shot and anything from rocks and wood that's washed up after a storm to jetties, lobster pots and patterns in the sand can be used to add interest the foreground of your shot. Just remember you'll need a smaller aperture to get everything from the front to the back of the shot in focus. This could increase the exposure time, particularly if you're shooting during the 'golden hours', so make use of your tripod.

Reflections can be used as foreground interest to add more depth to a scene. They'll also help brighten your foreground, making the overall shot more evenly lit. Look for puddles left by the receding tide or try using the water sat in rock pools to capture reflections of a cloud-dotted or sunset sky.

 

 

4. Long exposures

If you're working when the light's lower or just like the 'misty' water effect, you're going to need to use slower shutter speeds. For this, you need a strong, sturdy tripod and you must make sure it's not going to topple over if a wave circles it. Try pushing the legs into the sand slightly to anchor its position; just remember to wash the feet when you get home to get rid of the sand and salt. If it's a particularly bright day you'll need an ND filter to reduce the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor and remember to use low ISOs as well as a small aperture. If you don't want to capture the 'blurred' water shot, you'll need to use quicker shutter speeds, wider apertures and you may need to increase your ISO level. Alternatively, visit the location earlier / later (depending on the time of day) when there's still plenty of light in the sky.

A blurry sky dotted with clouds will give you the chance to create patterns as the longer exposures cause the cloud's movement to stretch across the sky and if you wait until the sun's set you could capture the movement of the stars as trails above the ocean, but this is a wholly different technique in itself.

 

5. Horizons

You don't want it to look like the sea and sand's about to slide out of shot so make sure the horizon's straight and don't put it in the centre of the frame. If the sky's more interesting move the horizon down but if there's more interest in the foreground lose some of the sky and move the horizon up. If you are going to deliberately slope the horizon make sure you make it obvious otherwise it'll just look like you've not looked through the viewfinder to check if the horizon's level or not.

 

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  1. What's A Catchlight?

A catchlight is simply a light's highlight reflected off the surface of your subject's eyes. They subtly breathe life into portraits by adding a little more depth to the eyes and are something that painters were using in portraits long before photography was a popular pastime.

 

2. How Do I Create Them?

What light source you're using, how strong it is and how far it is from your subject will change the shape and size of the catchlight. The larger the light source, the bigger the catchlight will be and if you have multiple light sources, you can end up with more than one catchlight appearing on the eyes.

You can use artificial or natural light to create catchlights, just remember that direct flash will produce a much smaller catchlight than flash that's reflected off a brolly and if you're working outside, the catchlights can have a slight blue tint to them. When working indoors with fill-in light as well as a key / main light source, your additional, fill-in light may create an additional set of catchlights in your subject's eyes. Some people like the effect so if you're one of these, just make sure one is dimmer than the other so they're not too distracting. You can always try removing one set in your editing software too, but it's always easier to get it right in-camera first rather than relying on Photoshop.

 

 

3. Where To Position The Catchlights?

If you look at the eye as if it was a clock you should try and get the catchlight to sit, ideally, at 10 or 12 o'clock but anywhere between a quarter to and quarter past should work just as well. Of course, this isn't set in stone and you may prefer to use a lower position. Placing your light source above your subject's head will also help you get the positioning of the catchlights right.

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

There is a switch on your telephoto lens that many photographers never touch. It sits in the bank of controls on the barrel, usually labeled something like FULL and 3 m to infinity, and it is one of the quickest things to check when you hit the most maddening autofocus problem there is: the lens racking back and forth through its focus range while the bird you wanted flies away. 

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