Ask any educator and they’ll tell you that teaching is usually a two-way street. While, as a teacher, you always hope to impart useful knowledge to your students, (and possibly even understanding) you almost always come away learning something yourself. For the last four years I’ve had the great privilege to work at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, an exceptional arts camp for 14 to 18-year-olds. And every year, our students remind me of some very simple, essential photographic tenets. If you’ve lately been feeling uninspired, or "stuck" with your shooting , perhaps some of these ideas will help you re-find your photographic footing.

One of the great advantages of a digital image sensor is its extreme capability in low light. With a digital image sensor, you can work at light levels far below what is possible with any type of film. This sensitivity opens up a lot of photographic possibilities, such as shooting landscapes by moonlight. However, while your camera can be very sensitive to low light, your eyes might have trouble getting by when shooting in the dark. As such, you’ll need to employ some specific procedures when working in low light.

The Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i/5000 Companion is now available. Much more than simply a manual replacement, this book is a complete photo class in a book. Like my other camera-specific companions, the Rebel T1i Companion walks you through everything you need to know to learn how to take good pictures. You’ll start by learning the basics of your camera’s controls, and move on to the rudiments of exposure theory. From there, you’ll build up your exposure knowledge and learn how to craft more advanced exposures using the cameras modes and settings. Composition, seeing, flash photography, shooting video, image transfer, lessons on shooting specific situations, and much more are all provided, and all are discussed specifically in terms of the Rebel T1i’s controls. Canon’s latest Rebel is a great camera, and this book will help ensure that you get the most out of it. Learn more here

There are a lot of Photoshop plug-ins out there, but not all of them are especially useful to photographers. Because Photoshop services so many different professions, a lot of plug-ins are designed to create the types of effects and functions that graphic designers, scientists, or filmmakers need. Fortunately, there are also packages like the Tiffen DFX Suite, version 2, a collection of Photoshop plugins that mimics many of the filtering and lighting effects that were traditionally performed with screw-on filters and light modifiers. Given that Tiffen is one of the leading manufacturers of glass filters, it should be no surprise that they’ve created a collection of filters that add real-world filtering effects to your digital workflow.