Helpful handy photography checklist for photographers

Are you getting ready for another adventure, excursion or getting ready for a wedding photography session and don’t want to repeat those mistakes you have done before? It is very common that you missed an amazing shot because you forget to change correct ISO, Shutter Speed or aperture. So our suggestion is to take a look at your photography checklist to avoid those silly mistakes. You should use the photography checklist to be sure that all your photography equipment are okay and ready to go and you are ready to do the job flawlessly.

What is a photography checklist?

Photography checklist is a helpful guide to follow before photographing anything. A useful guideline or a to-do list which will guide you for a particular photography session. A photography checklist includes those below points:

• Lists of Gears and Lenses needed for the particular session.
• Is all equipment are okay to go?
• Selecting background and overall location.
• Making a written manual checklist if needed.
• Weather protection equipment.
• Focusing, Cropping and Framing

Why photography checklist?

Using photography checklist means getting ready before any photography session. You have to check things before shooting photos. Suppose you are going out for a weeding photography session then you may prefer a prime lens than a kit lens. A photography checklist is a plan that can suggest you to do things according to the plan so that you never miss any opportunity.
Different points of photography checklist

Helpful handy photography checklist for photographers:

We generally make mistake in some common points. Sometime we forget to bring the correct lens or during photography session we notice that the battery level is low. Sometime we miss an amazing picture for not selecting the correct shutter speed of ISO. So we have to keep the checklist in mind to avoid these mistakes. Here we will discuss about two different points to check photography checklist.

• Before leaving the house
• In the shooting location.

Before leaving home for a photography session:  

We have to check few things before leaving for photography. Just keep an eye on the checklist to be sure that everything is fine. We have to check:-

• Is correct lenses are packed?
• Is there enough space in memory card?
• Did you recharge your batteries?
• Are you taking weather Shields for your gear?
• Are you missing any essential accessories?
• Did you clean your photography equipment properly?

Check the lenses: 

I love landscape photography and portrait photography. What is your passion? What are you going to photograph? Is it a wedding photography session or wildlife photography session or portrait photography session? You have to check your gear box closely. If you are going for a wedding photography session then you can take 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens, 50mm f/1.2Lens or 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens and if are going out for wildlife photography then you can better take 600mm f/4L IS II USM Lens or 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lenses. Those lenses are high budget lenses. There are also low budget lenses those you can prefer instead. Take a look into your gear list and pick the correct lenses for a particular photography session.

Check memory card status: 

Our suggestion is to keep at least two memory cards and format your memory card before you go out. If there is no image or video files in memory card, system files can take some spaces, so it’s better to format the memory card to get the full card space. If you want to buy a new memory card then our suggestion is don’t buy a cheap worthless memory card. Check the memory card class before buying it. You should go for at least class 10 memory card. Class 10 memory card give you a high speed (about 10 mbps) of copying and smooth browsing experience. You can’t record a continuous 1080p HD video without a class8 or class 10 memory card. So a top brand high quality memory card is a must.

Check for batteries life: 

You should keep two batteries in your gear box. If you are going out for videography then keeping extra batteries is a must because videography can drain your battery life. On the other hand if you to use a lot of flash (insufficient light source/low light photography) in your photography then you should take an extra battery with you.  Don’t forget to take the battery charger and if you have a battery grip don’t forget to take it.

Check for weather Shields: 

This part is very important for wildlife photographers as well as other photographers. Weather shields is very important for outdoor photography during rainy season. Weather Shields price is affordable so we suggest you to keep it in your box. Lens hood helps your lens to avoid direct sunlight so you should keep it also.

Check for photography accessories: 

It is a very common habit to forget taking some important accessories in the camera bag. So before you leave check whether you take all your accessories in your camera bag. Main camera accessories are Camera flash, wireless flash triggers, photo bokeh paper, camera remote shutter releases, tripod, light meter, battery grip, lens cap holder, UV lens filter, camera polarizing filters, Camera Color Filters etc. You don’t need all of them at the same time but check for all important accessories you need for a particular photography session.

Clean all your photography equipment: 

Check if you cleaned all your gear and accessories properly. A dust spot in your lens can ruin a beautiful photo. Especially when you capture bokeh then a dust spot can spoil all your bokeh in a single frame. Once I had this experience. I captured a lot of bokeh with a Canon 50mm 1.8 II lens which has some dust spots inside the lens (I didn’t notice before) during a travel and the result was Ouch… I managed to recover those pictures with the help of Adobe Photoshop but this is too much annoying.

You can use lens cleaning tissues, Microfiber cleaning cloth, Liquid cleaning solution, Lens cleaning pen and dust blower to clean you gear and accessories.

Checklist to follow in the shooting spot

You have to check few things before taking photos in the shooting location. Most of the tips in this section are related to photography tips but they are very essential to remember and very crucial to check before you start shooting photos.

• Take a close look at your subject/ is your subject ready?
• Check ISO settings
• Check for correct exposure
• Don’t miss the correct focus
• Check the background
• Framing

Take a close look at the subject: 

Are you photographing a wedding couple or shooting wildlife photos of animals or shooting landscape? You have to think about the subject. Is your subject ready for shooting? The subject of the photo is the main element of photography. To be successful I think subject should be clear, well focused and sharp. I know in creative shooting focusing the actual subject isn’t necessary all the time. This is a general rule for all photographers. And I believe if you know all the photography rules well you can then break all the rules for a creative shot. That’s exceptional.

Check ISO Settings: 

You have to change the ISO depending on the time and lighting conditions. ISO settings differs in open shade, heavy overcast, very cloudy, sunny day or in low light conditions. Learn Sunny 16 Rule to apply it properly. But remember the lower the ISO the better the picture is. Higher ISO produces grainer images. So try to keep it low always. But in low light condition you have to increase the number.

Check for correct exposure: 

If you have a light meter then measuring correct exposure is easy for you but if you don’t have it then you have to understand exposure well. Learning exposure will help you to shoot photos without a light meter. Correct exposure is a perfect combination of ISO, Aperture and shutter speed which ensures your image is not going to be underexposed or overexposed.

Don’t miss the correct focus: 

Suppose your camera is set to manual focus and you are in outdoor for capturing some flying birds. It is quite impossible to shoot flying birds with manual focus because the subject is changing its position constantly. So check the focus mode in different photography scenarios whether it is set to manual or auto-focus.

Check the background: 

Background is very important for creative photo-shoots. Good depth of field gives high quality portraits. During wedding photography and wildlife photography, photos with green blurry background looks very outstanding and creative.

Framing: 

A nice framing idea can change the whole picture. Framing is basically concerned with the subject position and perspective of the viewer. The main objective here is to gain the viewer’s attraction. Learning Repoussoir, Depth of field, white space and Rule of Thirds can lead you better results.

Hope you will follow these photography checklist next time you go out for photography. This checklist will not take too much time to learn but if you learn it from heart then it will help you help you next time from missing any precious moment. This way you can note down your wedding photography checklist or any other general photography checklist and but make sure to use the checklist before any photography.

That’s all from us. If you have any additional idea then share with us in the comment box below.

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Best Online resources for learning photography

You can join photography courses at any reputed photography institute or photography schools at your area or you can join any online photography courses or you can find useful photography tips, tutorials and photography resources on the web to build up your photography skills. But how to find useful photography content or online photography resources? Yeah, torrent is a great source if you use it wisely. Except that there are hundred photography websites and photography resources sites to learn photography and collect contents that you need.

Best Online resources for learning photography:

There are many online resources where you can find useful photography software, guidebooks, pdf books and other photography documents. You have to be little tricky about finding those materials. Do you know that you can only search for PDF or excel file or you can exclude some websites/include websites from google search result? Searching in a specific way in google (Advance google search tricks) can lead you better results. I am sure you'll never regret learning this. We can get photography contents from various online sources.

Photography Resources in Photography Forums:

Photography forum is a great place for photographers. You can learn, discuss, teach and sell yourself here as a photographer. There are so many categories in every photography forum. Pick the correct one that you need. Try this 15 best photography forums list to learn more about photography forum.

Photography resources in Torrent sites:

It’s not just simple to type “photography” in torrent search bar. You have to be little tricky this time. You have to be specific on you search query. Suppose you’re good at editing and want to have some Adobe light room presets then you can use the torrent search bar like “lightroom presets”. (See the image below)

You can find photography pdf books, video tutorial here. All you have to be more specific and tricky about what you’re searching. But which torrent websites you can trust or which torrent websites have more contents? See Top torrent sites those have more contents and seeders than other torrent sites.

Video sharing websites for Photography Resources:

YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion are great sources of photography tutorials. Apart from tutorials photographers visit these sites for camera, gear, photography gadget analysis and reviews. You can learn Advanced YouTube search tricks to get the most of YouTube.

Photo Editing Learning sites: 

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Light are the best photo editing tools out there I know that. But first you have learn editing like a pro. Some websites I know can help you with learning editing. Digital Photography School, creativeLIVE, Cambridge in Colour are some good websites to learn photo editing.

Photo sharing sites for photographers: 

You can make online photo album, upload pictures in photo sharing sites. Photo sharing sites like flickr, 500px, Imgur, DeviantArt, Photobucket, Viewbug have huge online photo storage. You can use it to store pictures and you can share it to social media or any other photography websites.

Best photography blogs and photographers: 

Learning from world’s great photographers is a key success point to armatures.  You can learn a lot visiting their websites, reading their tips and getting ideas about how do they do it. World class photographers like Joe Mcnally, David duChemin, Chase Jarvis, Scott Kelby, Karen Hutton,  Thomas Hawk can change the way you’re thinking about photography.

Social media as online photography resources:

Nowadays social media play a vital role finding photography materials, photography lessons and photography tips and tutorials. About 1.05 billion people visit Facebook each day. Other social sites like Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram, Digg, Reddit are also good sources of photography content. Social sites have photography groups, and photography pages. There are some groups and communities having more than 1000000 members. You can join and share your own work.

Photography Learning Tips for Amateurs:

• Join photography community and forums.
• Follow other photography websites by email or get subscribed.
• Join photography groups in different social sites.
• Like photography pages in Facebook, google+ and other social media.
• Follow professional photographers & see how they do things.
• Share your amazing photo with people by community or group.
• Interact with people by making a comment and if you need help or ideas don't hesitate to ask for some guidelines. 
• Find key persons or other moderators of the photography community or photography groups and try to make a contact to get some guidelines for you.

Follow and learn those online resources, photography techniques and photography lessons and enrich your career. Learning more photography ideas, lessons from online source will cost you nothing but time. And you have to give time to fulfill your passion.

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Top 15 Best Photography Forums

You may ask why photography forum when I have so many sites to learn and share different photography tips or tutorials. There are so many social sites to share your work and so many photography blogs and photography websites to learn about photography. But I think photography forums are one of the best option to interact with the people of your type and your niche. So the reasons to join in the best photography forums is different.

The main reasons behind joining any forum is to Learn, teach, and to sell yourself like a professional photographer.  At a forum there are so many topics to view and discuss. Pick the right topic or thread that you need. May be you have a photography blog site, or small business related to photography then communicating and making a strong network with people under your niche is very crucial for you. You can build you audience, learn more about photography tips, photography rules and guidelines from here.

You may like: Photography Rules- Sunny 16 Rules Photography
Also Read:   Photography Rules- Rule of Thirds in Photography

You can learn photography tips and tricks from various sources like blogs, website, video sites and forums. Now I’m going to share Top 15 Best Photography Forums with you.

I have uploaded a video on YouTube for this article. You can check it also.

15 Best Photography Forums for photographers:

1. The Photo Forum

The Photo Forum

This is a very useful forum for the photographers. Most of the online photographers know this forum very well. The forum focuses on photography tips and various topics about digital photography. This forum has total 199,672 registered members and 3,394,465 posts so far. Main areas of this forum are TPF Photo Contests, Foundations of Photography, Camera Forum, The Business District, Film Photography, Digital Photography, DSLR Video, Photo Galleries and Forum Feedback and Testing with so many sub categories in every category.

2. DPreview Forum

DPreview Forum

The website Digital photography Review is the sole owner of 2. DPreview Forums.  This digital photography forum was established January 1999 and so far it has 3,774,262 threads and 40,395,690 posts. This forum has a large discussion topics about Photo Equipment with so many sub categories for different camera equipment’s. Other main categories are Computers and Printing, Photography and Techniques and many other subcategories including Landscape and Travel Photography, Portrait and People Photography, Black and White Photography, 3D and Stereo Photography, Nature and Wildlife Photography, Documentary and Street photography, Sport and Action Photography, Macro and Still Life Photography, Astrophotography Talk Forum, General Photo Techniques, DIY and Photo Experiments, Underwater Photography, Photographic Science and Technology. The Photo Equipment is large and covers most of the areas of photo equipment.

3. Photography on the Net

Photography on the Net Forum

I think this one is the most popular to Canon lovers. Main discussion topics of this forum is Photo Sharing & Visual Enjoyment, General Gear Talk, Post Processing, Marketing & Presenting Photos, Gear Reviews, Canon Cameras, Lenses & Accessories, Leica Cameras, Lenses & Accessories, Sony Cameras, Lenses & Accessories, Nikon Cameras, Lenses & Accessories and many more. This forum has 385,505 members, 17,718,199 posts, 1,412,305 threads, 2,034,240,812 thread views so far.

4. Photographycorner.com

Photographycorner.com Forum

This forum covers different types of photography with techniques. This forum has a different corner for premiere members so you have to pay to view this areas. The main areas of this forum are Photography Corner, General Photography, Photo Sharing Corner, Critiques & Feedback Corner, Photography Contests, Premiere Members lounge (Only for premiere members), The Marketplace and Feedback section. As of March 13, 2016 total number of Threads: 115,494, Posts: 808,275, Members: 47,925.

5. Photography Talk

Photography Talk Forum

Web design of this forum is not good enough but has huge topics and has a large number of audience every day. Main two section of this forum are Photography and Camera Forum, and General Discussion | Introductions | Off Topic Forum. Photography and Camera Forum has some useful category and subcategory like Beginner Photography Forum, Editing and Presentation of photography, Freelance Photography, Photography Challenge, Landscape, City & Architecture photography, Macro Photography, Sports and Action Photography, Nature and all Wildlife, Black and White Photography, Travel Photography any many more with a huge number of topics in every category. This forum has also different sections for each camera brand like Nikon Camera Forum, Canon Camera Forum, Pentax Camera Forum, Olympus Camera Forum, Sony Camera Forum and many more.

6. Digital Grin (DGrin)

Digital Grin (DGrin) Forum

Digital Grin forum has a user friendly design and has a large number of useful posts. This forum has different categories and some other sub forums that is very easy to use. Main focus areas of this forum are Gear, Low Budget Lenses, Digital Darkroom, Camera Accessories, Book and Gear Reviews, Tutorials, tips for choosing a location, photography techniques and different types of photography. As of March 13, 2016 this forum has 239,755: Threads, 1,982,973: Posts and 78,079: Members.

7. The Professional Photography Forum

The Professional Photography Forum

This one is a top-class forum and has some great features. There is a news section related to photography news and a business photography section named as The Business of Photography.  Areas of business photography section are Marketing, Running your business and Marketplace help and these guidelines will help new professional photographers a lot. So far the forum has 81898 Posts in 7393 Topics by 2608 Members.

8. Digital Wedding Forum

Digital Wedding Forum

This forum is huge but main focuses on wedding photography, wedding photography tips, techniques and resources. Registered members upload their images and videos for discussion and criticism. Main areas of this forum are Marketing & Sales, Art & Shooting, Gear & Software, Portraits, Boudoir, and Fusion etc. This forum is not free to register. You have to pay to be a member here. As of March, 2016, it has more than 5,500 registered members.

9. Photomacrography.Net

Photomacrography.Net Forum

Photomacrography.Net has a total of 184655 articles and 5099 registered users. The forum has a user friendly design and some useful topics. Macro and Micro photography are the main focuses here. Main categories of this forum are Community Discussions and Announcements, Image Galleries, Techniques and Technical Discussions of photography and Beginners Forums. Beginners Forums has two sub sections. They are Beginners Macro and Beginners Micro. So to amateur photographer this is a perfect place.

10. The Australian Photography Forum

The Australian Photography Forum

Though it is named as Australian Photography Forum but it is open for all. The table of content of this forum is very well-designed. The forum is mainly related to tips and tricks of photography. There is also a category name Mobile Phone photography so mobile photographers get ready to learn some more tips. Main categories of this forum are Beginners Photography, General Photos, Landscapes, Nature, Portraits, Macro & Still Life Photography, Night Photography/ Low light photography tips, Art & Special Effects Photography and so many more. The Australian Photography Forum has total Threads 3,072 Posts 23,909 Members 19,927 and no of Active Members is 161.

11. Amateur Photographer

Amateur Photographer Forum

Amateur Photographer has about 47,614 members and has 1,350,246 total post which is huge. Apart from various categories of forum issues this forum also has a big Gallery of 29.5 GB with 867 albums in 242 categories. One can discuss here and sell himself here. Main categories of this forum are Forum Notices, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Amateur Photographer Community, Photography Equipment, and Technical Discussions about photography etc.

12. AVForums

AVForums

AVForums is huge in size and categories. This forum is not only for photographers but also for others. This is a big forum site and Digital Photography Forums is a sub-category under Tech & Gadget Forums which is also huge in size. All subcategories are not well designed but lots of people discuss here that’s why I have enlisted this forum here. AVForums has 336,552 total members and 1,795,185 total discussions.

13. PhotoForum.com

PhotoForum.com

PhotoForum.com is a forum for all type of Photography enthusiasts. So far as March 13, 2016 the forum has Members: 41,622, Threads: 76,872 and Posts: 486,658. Main discussion areas are Photography Discussions, Photography Tips, Photo Critique, People Photography, HDR Photography, Film Photography Forum and Photography Contests.

14. Luminous Landscape Forum

Luminous Landscape Forum

Luminous Landscape Forum 852123 Posts in 86183 Topics and 52357 Members. Main focuses area are Raw & Post Processing, Printing, Equipment & Techniques, The Art of Photography etc. This forum has a large discussion forum about RAW photography and post processing image which is very helpful to photo editors. Monthly subscription fee is 1$ which is affordable. So for the amateur photographers this is the right place.

15. ClubSNAP Photography Forums

ClubSNAP Photography Forum

Another large forum having 144,733 Members and 1,473,169 total Threads. This forum also has a large gallery for photographers. Main categories of this forum are Photoshoots, Workshops and Photo Tours, General Discussions, Photo Galleries, User group Discussions, Equipment Discussions, Alternative Photography, Moving Pictures, Virtual Shops and a FAQs & Feedback Channels. You will find lots of ongoing and upcoming photography workshop news here. You can choose a nearby location for this classes and learn some more.

Guidelines for participating in a photography forum: 

• You can’t go further ignoring the rules of any community.  So my first advice is to obey the guidelines. 
• Do not spam. That means do not post any irrelevant content in any thread. Some forums hate Spam / Advertising / Self-promote so be careful about posting anything.
• Do not post anything that violated the copyright of another person or company.
• Don’t post “offensive” posts, links or nude images.

These are some basic guidelines for posting in photography forums. But every photography forum has unique guidelines. So please be sure to read the forum guidelines before posting anything at any forum. If you only want canon forum or Nikon forum then you can google it. You can use advance google search tricks to be specific on search results. If I miss any top photography forum in my best photography forums list then please mention it in the comment box below.

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Low Light photography EXPLAINED

Low Light photography Tips

Is Photography is about capturing light that emits from different objects? So what happens when the light is insufficient? Low light photography is a type of photography what every photographer must have to deal with. This kind of photography is a bit tricky and photographer needs to know some extra techniques to get it perfect. 




Sometime we avoid taking photos during dusk or low light. Photo under low light can be more precious than any other time if it is taken by a good photographer. When we shoot in the evening, during time of wedding photography or when we shoot photos of landscape in the dusk it opens a door of opportunity for us to take some creative shots.

Related: Sunny 16 Rule in Photography

Photography tips to learn photography in low light conditions:

Use wide aperture lenses:

Every lens has a hole inside that passes light through the lens. The wider the hole is, the more light is coming through the lens. And of course keep in mind that larger the opening = the lower the f-stop number. Lenses like Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM has a wider aperture.  And f/2.8 lens is slower than an f/1.2 lens. In tight budget we can go for a 50mm 1.8 Lens.

>>If you use wider aperture lens in low light you can set you aperture maximum. Thus   more light will come and you will be able to take photos in low light.

Use Lenses with Image Stabilization or VR Technology:     

If your Lens support image stabilization use it. Rule of thumb says if you want sharp pictures the shutter speed should not be slower than same fraction as your focal length (according to lens)– like, if you’re using a 50mm lens, set your shutter speed to 1/50 second. So if your lens supports image stabilization you can then slower shutter value two or three steps.

>>It will prevent you from taking blurry photos.

Use Higher ISO: 

I don't suggest you to higher the ISO all the time but in some cases when you are in a hurry you can do this. Normally I will not suggest you to use more than 400, but in some critical situations you can higher the number, but keep in mind to shoot photos at RAW mode because when you use higher ISO the grainier the picture is and if you shoot RAW there will be chance to edit it in post –processing mode.
>>Photos will be brighter.
>>You can choose higher shutter speed if you increase ISO then it you can avoid taking blurry photos.
>> Remember grainier images is better than blurry images.

Use a camera tripod: 

As I mentioned earlier I don’t prefer higher ISO. So what is the option? If we don’t use higher ISO then we must have to use slower shutter speed. And then we may get blurrier photos. How can we get rid of this situation? The solution is use a Tripod.


>>We can avoid blurry photos.
>>In some situation tripod is a must. Such as while we shoot light trail images, motion in water. (I will explain it in another article soon.)

Use Manual Focus: 

When light is low it is harder for lens to find specific focus you need. This time you try to focus something and your camera keeps shifting its focus without landing on a clear result. There are two option; you can lighten up your scene or you can use manual focus to find out the exact focus.

>> According to your lens focal length range you can choose any point and can take a clear shot.

Things you must understand for taking good shots at low light

*** Learn Proper Exposure:

One of the first things a photographer must learn is the exposure triangle: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. You must know this if you want to take quality photos. Proper exposure means correct ISO, aperture and shutter speed. A combination among the three factors. You have to ensure that the image is not going to be underexposed or overexposed. If you set higher shutter speed number then the picture may get darker or if you set ISO 6400 the picture may be grainier. So you have to keep the balance. And exposure is exactly that.

*** Shoot In RAW:

Though RAW file is huge in size, it offers a great flexibility while editing. Most low light photos need to be post-processed in some way so shoot in RAW for best results so that you can edit it later.

Related: Rule of Thirds Photography

(Important Note for Beginner Photographers) 

*** Photography Tips: If you don’t understand camera's Manual setting well go for AUTO mode or Creative Auto mode in some cameras. It is not a great idea but wiser than missing pictures of your precious moment that you need badly. Because time stops for none.

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