This website started as a hobby to explain the more technical aspects of photography. The original articles are below.

Aberrations: Spherical & Chromatic

Aberrations are imperfections in the optics of the camera lens and result in image deterioration. Different lenses will…

Autofocus: Phase & Contrast Detection

There are two main types of autofocus—phase detection and contrast detection. Generally speaking, phase detection is used in…

Back Button Focus: Why You Should Be Using it

Many cameras these days give you the option to reprogram some of the buttons in the custom function…

Binary

Binary code is simply a string of 0’s and 1’s. The number of ‘bits’ represent the number of…

Bit Depth & Image Posterization

The bit depth of an image determines how many unique colours are available to create the image (even…

Camera Settings

Once you’re familiar with the exposure triangle, you’re ready to switch out of Auto mode. No matter what brand…

Crop Factor & Sensor Size

With 35mm film cameras, the “sensor” size was the size of the film negative itself—36 x 24mm (incidentally,…

Depth of Focus

Depth of field refers to the distance behind and in front of the point of focus that appears…

Diffraction in Camera Lenses

The effects of diffraction can be seen in the right-hand image below (point of focus was identical in…

Dynamic Range & Clipping

The dynamic range of a camera (or printer, or monitor) is the ratio between the minimum and maximum…

Electromagnetic Spectrum

The visible spectrum represents only a tiny proportion of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. There are three important properties…

Exposing to the Right

Exposing to the right (“ETTR”) is, in some circles, a pretty contentious issue—in part because there have been…

Exposure Triangle: The Basics of Photography

Despite the huge technological advances in digital imaging in the past few decades, the basic mechanics of taking…

Extenders & Teleconverters

Teleconverters or Extenders are attachments placed between the camera and lens that increase the focal length of the…

Filters: Advancing Your Photography

Filters are pieces of glass or plastic that are inserted in front of the lens to produce photographic…

Histograms in Photography

The histogram is one of the most under-utilised photographic tools. It shows the relative distribution of tonal values…

Image Stabilization: Lens & Sensor

Image stabilization in a wider sense simply refers to the methods or techniques applied to still the camera…

Live View: Why It Matters

Live View or Live Preview is a function on just about all modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras which…

Megapixels: Why More is Not Always Better

Walk through the camera department of any electronic seller and the first statistic you will see next to…

Metering in Photography

First of all, we need to make a clear distinction between reflected and incident light, which is best…

Metering Modes

There can be up to four metering settings in DSLRs: Evaluative, Centre-Weighted, Partial, and Spot. Below are the…

Mirror Lock-up

Mirror lock up is feature on most higher end DLSRs to reduce (minor) vibrations produced when the mirror…

Moiré, False Colour & Anti-Aliasing Filters

There is a trend among manufacturers—beginning really with Nikon and the release of the D800E in 2012—to remove…

MTF Curves Explained

Modulation Transfer Function curves are helpful indicators of the performance of a lens. Seen for the first time…

Noise in Digital Photography

In digital photography noise is typically associated with the mottled image we get when taking shots in the…

Polarization: Linear & Circular Polarizers

Light that enters the lens is, in certain cases, partially polarized. The correct use of polarizing filters allow…

Understanding Colour Temperature & White Balance

Colour temperature is an important aspect of photography in ensuring accurate colour reproduction in a scene. Incorrectly setting…

Understanding Gamma in Photography

Gamma—or more precisely, gamma-correction—simply refers to the operation to encode the linear values the camera records into a…