General Photography

Learning all aspects of photography

Fuji Exposure Centre – Education, inspiration, and insight for a range of novice to expert. Obviously with a Fuji bias but good for general photography too (USA based website)

Nature and Wildlife

How to photograph various fauna and flowers, trees etc

Nature TTL – Many video tutorials on multiple wildlife and landscape photography 

Fungi (text)

Bluebells also see local bluebell spots here

Shooting macro with white background using a simple portable “field” studio

Creative Wildlife Photography free 1.5 hour video from Adorama TV. Good for creative wildlife and other genres. Gerry van der Walt has shared his Presentation Slides with our club.

Landscape

Nature TTL – Many video tutorials on multiple wildlife and landscape photography 

Mist and fog photography  web

Photograph the Waterfalls of the Brecon Beacons

Find the no parallax point, AKA (incorrectly) nodal point, with your tripod. Perfect your panoramas with help from Hudson Henry

Tides and Water Temperatures for most places around the world by Ryan Blundell Tideschart.com

How to Shoot Sunrises and Sunsets (Skylum)

People

Photographing the children in your family – good ideas from Jayne Odell

Street

Hitting The Pavement ( Street photography talk by Derek Fahsbender, free You Tube video, B and H USA, 1hr 43mins)

“I snap the poodle” – Starting out in street photography – a novice’s approach, start a project to focus the mind

Beginner’s Guide to Street Photography & Photographing Strangers – Good 13 minute video by Pye Jirsa, SLR Lounge for Adorama on approaching strangers to take their photograph

Macro

Expert Photography – 137 Macro Tips – Expert Photography has many other topics and market their more comprehensive courses

Using the Tools

How to use the camera, lens, tripod etc

Depth of Field – Simulator. Select camera, lens, aperture, distance and framing to visualize how a lens will affect your final image.

Creative and Abstract

Creative Wildlife Photography free 1.5 hour video from Adorama TV. Good for creative wildlife and other genres. Gerry van der Walt has shared his Presentation Slides with our club.

Expert Photography – 30 Creative fun Ideas – Expert Photography has many other topics and market their more comprehensive courses

Glenys Garnett   Highly creative nature images, YouTube channel of 5 to 30 minute videos

Doug Chinnery – Creativity in a Crisis

Valda Bailey – Creativity in a Crisis

InnerVisible Exhibition – Abstract video, 5 speakers (Doug Chinnery, Mark Littlejohn, Valda Bailey, David Ward, Graham Cook) 2 hour video

Image Editing

Adding texture to backgrounds Photoshop Web

Lightroom – Free OU video course (more here) from New City’s Learn page (N.B. this is for Lightroom 4, an older version of the software)

Photoshop – Adobe TV

Julieanne Kost’s Lightroom and Photoshop videos Evangelist and Complete Picture

Glyn Dewis – no list is complete without a link to Glyn’s brilliant videos and articles on using Photoshop in the real world

Photoshop – PSD Stack by Bunty Pundir (India) who has created an excellent resource of articles and links, see his list for 100 Tutorials from Basic to Advanced

Blending Modes in Photoshop – Photoshop Training Channel  short video  and   longer video

Photoshop portrait retouching – 30 min video, also see Glyn Dewis’s alternative methods. Anthony Morganti has several “Learning Photoshop” tutorials on YouTube

Piximperfect – YouTube channel of Photoshop and Lightroom techniques by Unmesh Dinda

Compositing – Part 1 of 3 Photoshop CC with Jesús Ramirez. Excellent 90 mins tutorial, Parts 2, 3 and many more videos from January 2019 Adobe Live

Ken Payne Digital – Ken is a judge known to Bedford CC. Ken has many good Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom and other tutorials on his web site

Dodge & Burn – Enhance images by part darkening and lightening; increase 3D/pop, make subjects look thinner or fatter. Fstoppers 3-part article from 2014

Photoshop and PS Elements blend mode recipes for various effects, PDF by Ann Miles

Crop Tool tutorial – Notes by John Pegram on how to crop images in Photoshop after John’s talk in April 2020

Colour, Mono, IR and UV

Tests for colour vision – I can’t say how valid these are but they are good fun, includes tests on how well you perceive hues and saturation

Understanding Colour – Dave Morrow (video, web page and PDF)

Colour Management and Printing – Cambridge in Colour (concepts, correction, calibrate, soft proofing etc)

Advanced Colour to Mono Conversions – John Paul Caponigro

Infra-red and Ultra Violet (IR and UV) Photography – Infra Red Camera Conversions is a conversion business but has useful information on their site

Studio and Lighting

Lighting 101 – David Hobby (AKA The Strobist) a series taking you through using a flashgun, light modifiers and  setting up a small studio, also follow-ons 102 and 103

Canon Radio Speedlighting ( 600EX-RT and 430EX-RT III with Syl Arena – other speedlight users will also learn from this free You Tube video, B and H USA, 1hr 48mins)

Using a Flash Meter: Don Giannatti (video, free, 2 hours)   –   Gavin Hoey (Adorama, free video, 11 minutes)

Photograph a car by light painting (web site)

White balance, why, when and how to set (free video)

Lighting Essentials – A free, online workshop course by Don Giannetti. Tutorials and assignments. 

Portraits with Simple Gear – Don Giannetti, free 14 hrs video course on Udemy. Recorded in 2013 but still relevant

Softbox – Video by Tony Corbell on 10 ways to use one softbox

Portrait Photography – Monty Zucker articles and PDF Portrait Photography Handbook (124 pages from the master)

Profoto Videos – Not many of us can afford Profoto lights but we can learn from their excellent videos, e.g. Albert Watson‘s The Light AW Shapes and Steve Jobs

Northrup – Chelsea and Tony – inexpensive video courses and PDFs on lighting, Photoshop, Lightroom, Digital Photography etc. Free YouTube videos

Daniel Norton (Adorama) has many free, 60-90 minutes studio tutorials; live (real time issue solving), light-hearted, entertaining. Examples…

Lighting for Photography 101: OnSet with Daniel Norton

Fashion Shoot – Daniel Norton creates images on the fly with 2 models + 3 speedlights in a small studio space

Grey Backdrop – Daniel Norton creates “endless looks on a grey backdrop” with minimal lights

A Single Small Flash- Portraits On The Go: OnSet with Daniel Norton

Small Flash: OnSet with Daniel Norton

Single Light Portrait Techniques: OnSet with Daniel Norton

Headshots One.. Two.. Three! OnSet LIVE with Daniel Norton

Cleaning

Sensor Cleaning videos: Doug McKinlay (**) – Hudson Henry – Leica Clean – Philip Bloom

** Doug suggests checking for dust using the camera LCD, I prefer using Lightroom (link 1, link 2), ACR (link 1, link 2) or Photoshop

Sensor cleaning web site: Cleaning Digital Camera

Materials: Just Ltd (although you may find cheaper kits elsewhere)

Sensor loupes really help you see the dust on the sensor: Movo – Carson (the Carson fits standard DLSRs. Not sure about mirrorless which have a shorter depth to sensor, you could try handholding the loupe 1 or 2 cms above the camera or fit an inexpensive Nikon or Canon lens convertor.) 

Lens Cleaning: Lens Rentals

Ink Jet Cleaning – unblocking print heads etc Keith Copper – Northlight Images

Printing

How to size and order prints online for a BCC competition PDF

Two good videos from Glyn Dewis on profiling your printer using the X-Rite i1Studio, watch both parts, part 1 (starts 5 minutes in, 51 mins),  part 2 (41 mins)

The i1Studio is expensive, if you have only a few different paper types you can print test sheets and send them to a company who will email back the profile for that printer/ink/paper combination. Follow the test sheet printing instructions VERY carefully. Some paper suppliers will do this free for their own papers, there are other companies that charge per profile, usually around £15 each profile. Some UK profiling companies: Paper Spectrum, PermaJet, Colour Profiles, Colourphil, Tetenal

Jose Rodriguez has a comprehensive YouTube channel on all things to do with printing

John Paul Caponigro’s take on what to consider, including paper, pre-flight checklist, mounting etc (open a free account for some of the PDFs)

Soft Proofing –   using PS or LR to display a better impression of how your image will print when using your particular printer or print lab and paper – Glyn Dewis video and PDF

Photographic processes – V&A Museum Photography Dept – The A to Z of printing type, from Albumen Print to Woodburytype

Presentation and Composition

Archiving – Medium Photography’s “rules” for archiving your images

The Complete Guide to Photographic Composition  –  by Tony Worobiec, FRPS, excellent detailed discussion and examples

Understanding Depth of Field (DoF) – B&H Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Interactive DoF Simulator (observe how DoF changes for selected camera, lens and distance)

Composition – Notes on composition by BCC member John Pegram following John’s talk April 2020

Also see Web Galleries 

Competitions and Exhibitions

How to prepare and enter photographic competitions

What the Judges are Looking For – Advice from SWPP which can apply to any competition

A Beginner’s Guide to Photography Salons – explaining Salons (exhibitions) – good blog post written April 2015 by David Candlish

Tripods

Fluid Heads – Hudson Henry advocates using fluid heads for landscapes and wildlife photography, what you need and how to use them

Protect Your Tripod – Hudson Henry, leg wraps, replace feet, greasing

Tips to better Use Your Tripod – Hudson Henry, which legs to use, when and where, salt-water usage, closing, carrying.

Technical Information

Good technical articles require careful reading to fully appreciate

Noise: Image sensor, ISO or light generated? DP Review Part 1 – Part 2 – Pixel Size (2015)

Noise, Dynamic Range and Bit Depth in Digital SLRs by Emil Martinec © 2008

Sensor Technology – albeit with reference to Canon developments this explains the current and future technology of most common camera sensors as at April 2019

Equivalence: understanding how a full frame camera (35mm) is compared to smaller (or larger) cameras like the Four Thirds system – Richard Butler (2014)

Depth of Field – explains focus, depth of field, circle of confusion, focal length and hyperfocal distance

Circle of Confusion, the Airy Disk and Diffraction – Martin Bailey on DoF and why very small apertures may not be as “sharp”

When to use a (UV) filter on a digital camera: Lensrentals articles worth reading in series:  Oct 2013, Dec 2016, May 2017, June 2017

Which circular polarizer filter should I buy, another good test from Lensrental

Hyperfocal Distance explained – 12 min video, technical and practical, light hearted, discover why smaller sensors have larger DoF

Windows 10 Explorer – Viewing RAW images within File Explorer, instal Raw Image Extension, NB some new RAW formats not yet supported, eg CR3 (as of 05/11/19)

Mechanical vs Electronic Shutter vs EFCS –  Pros and cons from Photo Review of each shutter type. Pick the wrong type and you could be harming your image quality.

Mechanical vs Electronic Shutter vs EFCS – Comparisons from Photography Life. This includes examples from each shutter type in different circumstances

Copyright – Easy to understand info-graphics explaining copyright and subsequent image manipulation to create new work. For the UK, USA and some other countries

Copyright UK Gov – Comprehensive info from the official UK government web site (e.g. UK copyright is automatic and it is illegal to remove META data)

Copyright Workflow – Procedures for those that need US copyright coverage

Miscellaneous

Create Sharper Images – FStoppers web page

Hold an Exhibition – Leanne Cole explains what you need to consider

Contribute

How to use your spare time and photographic skills to contribute, or give back in some way, to society.

This is a wide area and you can always generate your own projects by contacting organisations to see if they would be interested in you volunteering to photograph, e.g. a disabled riding centre, homeless charity, community group.

Some organisations that actively encourage contributions…

Historic England – Photograph buildings and other historically interesting things in your area. They welcome information and pictures to add to their archives

War Memorials Online – In a similar way to Historic England they welcome photographs and condition reports of any war memorials you may find

National Trust – Most N.T. locations have their own web page, e.g. on Facebook, and welcome photographs from visitors

Going Commercial

Exhibitions – Professional Gallery Exhibition 

Event Photography – How to Make Money. American but all relevant to the UK. Jay P Morgan is an experienced commercial photographer; he offers good, sound advice. When you think about it much of it is obvious but easily overlooked when starting out. Some not so obvious, e.g. when shooting for free it is always important to send an invoice for the breakdown amount you would have charged but marked “No Charge”, read why in his article. Posted Dec 2019

Video

As of 2021 the BCC is mainly concerned with still photography (print and projected image) and, at times, AV work. It does not really cover video photography. But our cameras and mobile phones come with excellent video capabilities which, too often, are never used.

In my experience making video films requires much more planning than still photography and often a small team effort, including the story, planning shots (storyboarding), continuity, costumes and locations, directing, “actors”, sound recording and video/audio editing. The stills photographer can apply their skill set to the composition, focus, lighting and colour, but now need to understand the additional aspects of the movie technology including audio, video panning, log recording, colour grading, time frames, follow focus and more.

In still photography, we often concentrate on processing RAW images. In movies, although a few cameras will record movies in RAW, it is not the same as still photography. The movie maker still needs to get the exposure correct in-camera. The normal equivalent approach is to use a log format, e.g. fLog, which is a flat, lossy, compression format, the movie equivalent to a JPG, but which can be better colour graded in post.

Just as in still photography, there is much to learn to advance beyond simple short home movies.

For still photographers wanting to try their hand at videography, there are some very good free resources to help you…

Fuji has an excellent presentation explaining video camera terminology (e.g. what is a Codec, why use strange frame rates like 23.976, various resolutions). The information applies to all brands, not just Fuji cameras. Video Tech and Terms (70 minutes, Youtube)

Once you have shot several video clips, you will want to edit, cut, apply effects and transitions, and assemble these into one film…

Photoshop now has a basic but useful video editing capabilities. If you already have Photoshop, would be worth exploring first to get a feel for using multiple video timelines, try Colin Smith’s brief introduction

DaVinci Resolve – By Black Magic. Professional editing, colour, effects and audio post. Process your video files, apply effects, cut and join sequences. You will need an app like this or, for instance, Adobe Premiere Pro, to polish your video shots into a finished film. The Resolve Studio version is expensive and designed for professional studio work but they offer a slimmed-down free version which is amazingly comprehensive and will be enough for most hobbyists. The free version is the bargain of a lifetime allowing you to work with a professional video editor.

If Resolve is too overwhelming then consider other simpler apps.

Movies incorporate image and sound and the audio is often more important than the image. It is said, “viewers will forgive a poor picture but never poor sound”. Search for Keith Alexander’s short talks from Adorama, e.g. Keith on Audacity, 

OBS Studio – Free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming. OBS for Beginners