If you are into photography there is a good chance that you have seen what is called HDR before. You know those strangely good looking pictures with very high dynamic range (that’s where hdr comes from)? The basis is simple, you ask you camera to take 3 shots in a row with two having a very high or low exposure.

The second part is two import those shots in a software that will merge then for you. The best and most commonly used at the moment is called Photomatix. It is a very simple yet fully featured software that gives great results. Try it out!

Getting enough light into your cameras lense is very important if you want the sharpest of images.

Using your cameras flash doesn’t count as light!

If you are in the sun, don’t take a shot into the shade, try and get loads of light without flares to mess up your shots.

Think of it as twining but a bit more complex.

If the effect is carried out correctly, then big effects can be achieved.

If you research the uses of certain action script functions you will find that delay will be amongst a popular and normally missed function.

Try it on your next flash adventure to see the results it can bring to your animations. I think you will be surprised at the results.

The main 2 which have been demo’d on Adobes site are content aware fill and puppet mode.

Content aware fill allows you to select an area of a picture to remove, and photoshop will try and fill in the blanks. This is useful for quick simple edit’s such as removing a person from a photo or removing litter from a park.

The puppet tool allows you to add fixture points to a photo which allows you to move certain elements in an angled motion much like an arm of a puppet.

Photoshop’s trial weighs in at a gig in size, so just for the broadband users.

Although if you like what you see, be prepared to pay of upwards of 1,500$ for the full thing.

Ever wondered how photographers can take elements out of their photos?

Don’t liek this lampost, or random stranger in the corner of the picture? Then use the clone tool.

First select the clone tool by pressing the key “S”.

Now select a starting point. This starting point will be a reference which will then be used to replace another part of the picture you would like to remove.

Now after you’ve selected this reference point, click on the point of the photo near by that you want to remove an element from such as a piece of litter on the ground. The clone tool should automatically fill in the area so the litter appears to have disappeared.

And there you have it!

1. Lighting – Make sure you get this right, if you are in a studio, you will need studio lighting reflecting correctly off the next point which is..

2. Backdrops – A good backdrop which can correctly reflect the studios lighting will provide the perfect backdrops on your shots putting the focus on your photo targets.

3. Keeping everyone in line – Keep everyone in the shot occupied to limit movement and bad positioning. If theres children, try and attract their attention to the camera for some priceless shots.

1. Light

Make sure there’s lots of it, don’t go using a flash either outdoors. If there’s more light in one corner of the garden than the other, relocate your tripod!

2. Equipment

Make sure your camera choice and camera lense matches what photos you are taking, whether it’s more macro shots or whether it’s landscape focussed shots.

3. Software

For post processing, make sure you get some decent software which will allow you to subtely enchance your shots lighting, scenery, blemishes etc.

4. A good scene

Make sure what you are taking a photo of actually is interesting. Everyone seems a close up of a bumble bee!

5. A story

A nice story to go along with where your shots came from can always help set the scene and add definition to your photos.

It’s these shots that you then want to open up in a photo editing program and do some post processing work to make them perfect.

A list of great photo editing suites are as followed:

1. Adobe Photoshop – The king of Photo editing and manipulation. There are also other Adobe programs to assist you including aperture and lightroom.

2. Paint Shop Pro – Another windows based program which provides a lot cheaper alternative to photoshop. The support for PSP will not be as good as for photoshop.

3. Gimp – A multi OS program which started out it’s days on the linux platform. The Gimp is very similar to Photoshop and other advanced photo programs and won’t take much getting used to if you are after a free alternative.

Acheiving this correctly is oftenly the difference between having an amateur looking photo to a more professional looking photo.

The most important thing is planning after you’ve found the perfect scene to take a shot of.

By using a tripod and a remote you can keep the camera 100% free from any feedback from yourself and any other movements that might occur.

Try lining up your photo to create symmetry and any other interesting patterns to make your photos stand out from the crowd.