Another great article from Digital Photography School (I assure you, I do read other sites, but they have so many good articles).   This article is  about different stances and camera holding techniques that you can use to reduce camera shake.  This isn’t about special lenses or anything - this is purely a techniques article that everyone can use.

Read the Article:  How to Reduce Camera Shake - 6 Techniques

PS - I took a little license with the name of my post for clarity reasons.

A photo histogram is basically a graphical representation of the light distribution in a photograph. In its simplest form, it’s is an evaluation of light vs. dark areas within the drawing. There are more complex histograms that also analyze the distribution across a given color channel, but we won’t get into those today. Histograms are commonly misunderstood or even ignored among amateur photographers. For that matter, histograms weren’t available as a consumer tool until digital photography came onto the scene. Now, many cameras can generate an instant histogram from photos you’re taking in the field. This has helped many photographers make quick adjustments on site or in the studio. In this article, I will give a brief introduction to Histograms, and I will explain how they can help you improve your own photography.

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Photography 101, a series of articles at Digital Photography School, is back with it’s fourth installment: Exposure & Stops. As always, Neil Creek shares with us his expertise and wisdom about photography skills and technique. From the article:

In this series, we cover all the basics of camera design and use. We talk about the ‘exposure triangle’: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. We talk about focus, depth of field and sharpness, as well as how lenses work, what focal lengths mean and how they put light on the sensor. We also look at the camera itself, how it works, what all the options mean and how they affect your photos.

It’s a great series that speaks in simple terms and serves as a great starting point, or a refresher, for any photographer, regardless of their skill level. It’s a series I would recommend to anyone.

Read the full article: Photography 101: Exposure & Stops

Photography is the documentation of light. Documentation of light requires proper exposure of your shot. To achieve the proper exposure, one needs to meter the subject effectively. Thanks to technology, long gone are the days where a photographer is required to use an external light meter, apply some math and possibly some guesswork. The advent of in-camera metering and the improvement of lens technology has made the world of photography much easier for the hobby photographer.

Understanding how your camera’s metering system works will make a dramatic difference in you photography. There are generally three types of metering methods: Average Metering, Center Weighted Metering and Spot Metering. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each is important as a photographer. It will help you set up your shot properly and get the best exposure. Below is a break-down of each.

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One of the things you hear all the time is that cloudy skies are great for photography. The first question a beginning photographer might ask is: Is this true? Which would then be followed by the obvious question: Why? In this short article, I plan to answer both of those questions. But the answer to each depends on the type of photographs you’re taking.

Cloudy Skies and Portraits
Cloudy days are, in fact, quite good for portrait photography. Bright sunlight causes hard-lined shadows. The last thing you want in a portrait is a hard shadow. Soft lines are ideal for portraits. It gives a softer touch to your subject. In a studio, where we can control the light, we use diffusers to prevent harsh shadows. Outside, we don’t have such luxuries. Clouds, on the other hand, act as a natural diffuser. So pray for cloudy skies.

Cloudy Skies With Other Types of Photography

With Landscape Photography, shadows can may be part of your photograph. Depending on your goals, you may want harsh shadows, which means you want bright sun and blue skies. Hard-lines upon the leaves of a tree helps to give it depth. For that matter, cloudy skies won’t appear very interesting if they happen to become a part of your photo. In cases where architecture is your subject, hard-lined shadows will accentuate the lines you’re trying to capture on film, but diffused light might help in cases where shadows from other structures or plants might create distracting lines. Sunny skies or cloudy days may benefit equally.

Conclusion

Generally, the concept of cloudy skies being great for photography is a generalization that is limited to portrait photography. In most other cases, it depends on the effect that you desire. But unless you’re capturing portraits, when outside, you usually want sunny skies.