Tools

Lists are a great way to track your ideas and thoughts, but they can also be a great way to inspire yourself for the future. There are two lists I use most of all: The Photo Bucket List and the Photo Theme List. Read on to learn how to fill your down-time with these great lists.

Histograms – nearly every camera offers them, every bit of photo editing software has them. But are they useful? Possibly more useful than you could imagine. But you must learn how to use them effectively. Read on to learn how to use this great tool to help improve your photography.

Depth of field is one of the most coveted tools in a photographer’s toolkit.  Creating a perfect depth of field – one with the right depth and focused just perfectly – is an essential skill.  Unfortunately, for many, learning how to predict and use depth of field most effectively is a difficult task.  The task is only made more difficult by the misconceptions about your viewfinder.  In short:  Your viewfinder cannot be trusted for Depth of Field accuracy. Why It Can’t Be Trusted… The viewfinder is a dark and cavernous space.  Well, not really, but it eats light all the same – even those with good quality pentaprims – the glass prism that bounces the view through the lens up to your eye.  Some entry level cameras use a pentamirror (mirror box prisms) – a reflection system made up of mirrors instead of glass – which tends to be less efficient with the light.  I could easily turn this into a discussion as to why you should get a camera with a good viewfinder, but that is besides the point.  While a good viewfinder certainly helps, the truth remains the same:  Light in the viewfinder is still a limited resource. …

Some of the best outdoor shots are accomplished during the ever-changing sunsets and sunrises. Figuring out when the sun rises or sets requires planning, but Sundroid – an app for Android Phones – can help you calculate the precise time.

So you’ve hit that point where your files have become too numerous to manage, and you really need a tool to help you out. Photo Mechanic just happens to be such a tool, and we got our hands on a copy to review. In true Shutter Photo fashion, we’ve played with it as much as we can, and we have a lot of features to introduce to you, and a lot of thoughts. Read on to hear what we have to say.

If you love photography, but don’t like the current offerings for photo sharing, 500px might be just the site for you. 500px, a photo sharing community designed for real photogaphers, is an up-and-coming site with lots of great features. We’ll tell you all about the site, it’s great features and why we think you’ll like the site as well.

Why join a photo sharing community? Why not? Well…if you’re still on the fence, we have several reasons to share. Read on…

Does digital note taking on your smart phone (or otherwise) stack up to pen-and-paper methods when it comes to documenting or brainstorming your photography? In this article, we explore the many benefits (and a few cons) of digital note-taking applications such as “Evernote”.

Lets figure out ways to create super tools together. I’ll share some of my favorite gadget combinations, and you share some of yours. Together, we will develop great tools to improve our photography.

There’s a new light modification system in town from ExpoImaging, the makers of the ExpoDisc. The product line, the Rogue FlashBenders, can be bent into a number of different shapes, giving you ultimate control. Shutter Photo reviewed the whole line in this in-depth review.