This is where we share what we've learned from years of shooting and teaching photography in London. You'll find practical guides on composition, light, and camera techniques. Whether you're working through the basics or looking to develop your own style, these posts are written to help you take better photos and understand why they work.
New articles are added regularly, covering everything from street and cityscape photography to gear comparisons and editing workflow. Browse the archive below, or check out our photography courses and one to one training if you want more hands on guidance.
Flash – Nikon vs Canon
When it comes to comparing the two biggest digital SLR camera brands, Nikon and Canon, it is almost impossible to separate them in terms of camera quality. We’re often asked to recommend one over the other, and usually give the answer that the choice is highly personal and often down to intangible things such as how the camera...
Strobist Technique – Background Light
One of the advantages of using flash when shooting on location is that they are small and portable, yet powerful enough to light a good portrait. Being small and portable means we can take them to some interesting locations without having to lug around lots of heavy and expensive lighting gear. This image by shows...
Lighting Technique – Accent Light
Good portrait lighting is as much about lighting the back of your subject, or what’s being it, as the front. In most cases it’s obviously important that your subject is lit so that you can see who it is in the photo, for this reason the initial considerations in a lighting set up are things...
Somewhere Up There, Watching the Shard Climbers
While the iPhone lacks an 800mm zoom lens to capture the vertigo inducing action of the Greenpeace climbers going up the Shard today, it is more than capable of capturing the unusual site of lunchtime workers around London Bridge enjoyoying the spectacle. A few of today’s Shard gazers… Photography by Andrew Mason
Behind the Scenes at a Portrait Photography Workshop in East London
The summer solstice brought us the longest possible day of cloud that the fabulous British weather could muster, plus a few showers, to notify us that we had reached mid-summer here in London. Models, cameras and photographers don’t like to get wet, so we moved our Portrait Photography Workshop indoors to 4th Floor Studios in Whitechapel. Once the...
Strobist Technique for Rim Light
One light is good, but two are better. Here’s a strobist technique for using off camera flash to create rim light. Using a second off camera flash to create a rim light is a technique which enables you to separate your subject from a dark background. Without the rim light, dark parts of your subject will...
Buy the Canon 100D if you want a Small ‘Proper’ Camera
DSLRs are what you might call ‘proper’ cameras because you get easy access to all of their controls which makes them quick and easy to use. They also have the widest range of lenses and other accessories. Generally they perform better too e.g. faster autofocus (important for animals, children and sports) and longer battery life. For this...
Same Scene, Lit Three Ways
In certain fancy restaurants you see things on the menu such as ‘Organic Rare Breed Worcester Old Spot Pig Three Ways’. On the plate you’ll get that unusual pig turned into a flavoursome sausage, it’s belly served slow roasted and succulent and also as a crispy crackling. What the chef is showing is how creative and skillful they are. She...
The Woman in the Red Beret
An image here by Adrian Gallop taken on our Creative and Street Photography Workshop. There is a lot to like about this photo. Firstly, notice the contrast in texture, colour, vibrancy and maturity between the grey hair and bright red hat. The composition provides lines and shapes forming a triangle in the bottom right, and the books give structure...
Lighting a Black Studio Background to Give it Some Colour
This sounds counter-intuitive, but you can light a black background and give it some colour. Here’s an example by John Jennings taken on our Studio Lighting Workshop. You might not believe it, but simply placing a coloured gel on a light pointing at a black background will project that colour onto the background. In this example...