Minor site updates 12/12/18

These updates are now live. Any issues please post into the forums Profile page loading size and speed has been reduced significantly Profile page pagination now works correctly FED fixes to image comments Passwords should now change correctly from the settings menu 5. Images should no longer be cropped in the feed and profile feed 6. Header images on profile pages are now a fixed height

How to Become a More Confident Photographer

Improving your skills as a photographer takes time and effort. You need to study your craft and learn the key principles, as well as practice a lot. However, one aspect that’s often overlooked is confidence. No matter what skill you’re learning or perfecting, confidence plays a significant role in your progression. This post looks at five ways in which you can improve your skills as a photographer through increasing your confidence. Plan Properly As with any skill, you need to properly plan for your excursions. Although part of the joy of photography is that it can be organic and spontaneous if you’re going out on a shoot, you need to be prepared. It gives you the security and confidence to walk onto your location or meet with your model and know you have everything under control. Make sure that you have all your equipment organised, including having your cameras and lenses ready to go, and your batteries charged. You’ll also want to take a spare battery and memory cards if you know you’ll be on a long shoot. Take an ideas book with you, so that you have a sense of the kinds of shots you want to take on […]

Featured Photographer : Alan Knight

I was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and am now residing in Edinburgh after a long period away working as a freelancer in London and elsewhere. My photography life started at a pretty young age. At around 16 years old, I started taking photographs around my home near Glasgow, then when given a Pentax 35mm SLR I started taking it seriously. I was always interested in art; my last couple of years of school were dominated by my painting and sculpture classes, and this continued at home where I enjoyed creating still life paintings in oil and water colour. Then photography took over once I started getting more familiar with the medium, and with the realisation that I was never going to be an artist. I eventually studied the subject at art college, and became fascinated by a book about the History of Photography. Eventually I stumbled upon urban street photographs by an American photographer called William Klein, and I was hooked – this was the genre that interested me. I discovered other American and European photographers, such as Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Friedlander, Brassai, Andre Kertesz and many more. I’ll always be grateful for this early education from these […]

Clickasnap Site updates 03/12/18

These updates are now live. Any issues please post in the forums All users can now connect their Facebook and Twitter accounts so uploads are automatically posted to your Facebook page and Twitter timeline when an upload is performed. This is accessible under ‘Settings’ Pro accounts can now set a time period of between 30 minutes and 1 day and a random image will be distributed via their social media at each time interval. You can learn more about this here Settings, total earnings and general information is now accessible on mobile under ‘Settings’ in the drop down menu You can now control what email notifications can be sent to you, likes, shares, comments and frequency There is now a default header and profile image. You can change this Changing the profile picture no longer causes a redirect to the subs page Total earnings are now shown in a modal Save button should no longer disappear after saving your profile picture Search filter is now fixed Search filter in marketplace is now fixed on mobile

Camera Settings – Do they Matter?

Photography amateurs will often become obsessed with knowing what the ‘right’ settings are for a composition. They will look at other photographs and settings and want to know which aperture, shutter speed, and ISO were used to capture the results. But is knowing this information useful? Someone else’s camera settings usually don’t matter. When you see stunning photographs, the way the camera is set up to take it is entirely dependent on the conditions at the time. The lighting and the picture make the settings, not the other way around. In this post, we look at what is important when you’re learning photography. Know Your Conditions When you’re composing a shot, you need to know how the conditions you’re shooting in affect your settings. Don’t forget, these conditions are dynamic and often change continuously. When you’re shooting during the day, the light will be different depending on where you’re stood and what time it is. You need to know how to account for these changes in your photography. There are no specific settings you should use for certain conditions. They also depend on the composition, your subject, and the effect you’re trying to achieve. You have to adapt to your […]

How to use Darktable’s Mask Manager

When making local adjustments in Darktable, one of the ways to isolate a part of an image is to use drawn masks. These can be combined in a number of ways, more than you can accomplish directly in the module where you make them. They can also be reused in other modules, and organised in different ways. The masks can even be named, so you can easily see which is which. When you have just started out with Darktable it may not be that obvious. You see the drawn masks in the different modules, but there’s a limit to what you can do with them. Now take a look at the left side of the screen and you’ll find the Mask Manager. Starting to use this will open up many new possibilities for your drawn masks. It is important to keep in mind that the Mask Manager can not handle parametric masks. These are always dependent on current pixel values, so they can only be used when and where they are made. That said, I think I saw somewhere that the ability to store parametric masks may come at a later date. But for now it is all about your […]

Ten Top Tips for Using Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is one of the most powerful tools for photography post-production. There are many useful features that the software has, but some of them aren’t as obvious as others. In this list, we look at ten essential tips for making the most of this photo editing suite. 1. Auto Tone Auto tone is a feature that more experienced users may know about, but newcomers probably won’t. It’s a setting that allows Lightroom to choose what it considers to be the best settings for your pictures. As a starting point, it’s a really useful feature. It means you can make improvements from this base level. 2. Resetting Your Edits Although there is a specific reset button, this feature undoes every edit you have made to a photo. Sometimes, this is far from ideal. Instead, you may just want to undo a specific set of edits. To do so, you can double click on the effect that you’ve edited. This will reset that specific setting back to zero. 3. Grid Overlays When you’re trying to crop a photo, you can select either the crop overlay button or press the ‘R’ key on your keyboard. However, many people don’t know that by […]

Seven Tips for Better Camera Poses

No matter which side of the camera you find yourself on, it’s always useful to know how to pose properly. Whether you’re the subject of the shot or the one directing a model, it’s important that you know how to stand. Many people instantly stiffen up and look uncomfortable when a camera is pointed at them. To avoid this, you need to know the basics so you can relax, or direct someone with their posing. In this article, we look at seven easy tips for looking good on camera. Features Closer to the Lens Look Bigger This is admittedly more of a fact than a tip, but knowing it means you can pose correctly. Anybody part you place close to the lens will look proportionally bigger than everything behind it. So, if you put your head towards the camera, it will fill up the frame, while your body looks smaller. Use this technique to your advantage when posing yourself or your model for a shot. Pose in an ‘S’ Shape This tip is particularly relevant to female subjects. Posing in an ‘S’ shape will slim you down yet accentuate your curves. It’s also a traditionally ‘feminine’ look. To achieve this […]

How to Choose the Right Lens for Astrophotography

Astrophotography is a fascinating and often rewarding field of photography. Capturing the wonder of the Milky Way is incredibly satisfying, but it requires a lot of practice and technical knowledge. Most beginners assume that, if they have a good camera, astrophotography should be easy. In reality, the lens you use is just as important as the body. The technical quality of your photos is affected mostly by the lens you choose. In this article, we’ll look at how to select the right glass for the occasion. Aperture and Focal Length Two of the most important features for an astrophotography lens are aperture and focal length. They will determine how your pictures turn out. Aperture is a measure of how wide open the lens is. It’s measured in f/ stops, with lower numbers representing wider apertures. Focal length refers to the optical distance from the lens to the image sensor. It’s measured in millimetres (mm) and relates to how much of a scene is captured. The lower the number is, the wider the field of view. For Milky Way photography, you should opt for a lens with an effective focal length of less than 35mm. For an APS-C camera, this means […]

Promoting your photos, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

We all know what a huge amount of work is involved in just getting people to look at your photos let alone buy one is! With billions of images uploaded daily across the internet, on goodness knows how many platforms, standing out from the noise is difficult. Not only that, but when you’ve uploaded your photos, if you want more views you have to copy the link, go to your Twitter account, post a tweet, go to your Facebook account, post a status, and then you have to do this with every photo every time you upload! How many people can be bothered actually doing that? Very few i assure you! Add to that the average tweet only lasts 15 minutes and the average facebook post (assuming it is even seen these days) averages 6 hours means that you have to go and pick a photo and arrange for it to be tweeted at least every 30 minutes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to reach your audience. Lots of work right? Well, not anymore. We have spent the last 2 months developing a beta marketing system for all of our Pro users as well as some sharing […]