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The rules of composition are not rules. The rules of composition are guidelines, ideas, things that we can use to help us. But you need to know what the rules of composition are so you know which rules you are going to use, if any. You don’t have to use the rules of composition, and you will never use all of them. Certainly not in the same photo, but you will see why, so don’t worry. Find the ones that work for you, and they can help you get better compositions. And better compositions make better photos.

So, if you want to learn how to create better compositions, listen on.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What are the rules of composition?
• A big long list of the rules.
• Why they aren’t really rules.
• Why the rule of thirds is so important.
• What rules do I use?
• Some things that you can do – yes, you, dear listener

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• How you can ask me a question
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

Photography is about more than just taking a photo—it’s about taking the best photo you can every time. A rubbish composition will give you a rubbish photo. A great composition will give you a great photo.

Create better compositions, and you will end up with better photos – and in this episode, I help you to do just this – what is not to love?

So, if you want to learn how to create better compositions, listen on.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What is composition?
• What are the fundamentals of composition?
• Why the subject matter is so important.
• How light makes or breaks a photo.
• The other elements of a composition.
• Some things that you can do – yes, you, dear listener

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• How you can ask me a question
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

The single most important thing we can do to improve our photos is to think about what we are taking photos of before we take them. We need to take the time to get the best composition every time we take a photo. The success or otherwise of any photo starts and ends with what is in the photo.

Photography composition is what you include in a photo, what the light is doing and how the elements within the composition relate to each other.

In this episode, I tell you 

• Why this is important
• What I am looking for when I take a photo
• How I take photos of buildings
• How I photograph sunrises
• How I photograph an island
• What my photography superpowers are

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• How you can ask me a question
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 199 - Top Tips To Help You Manage Your Digital Photo Catalogue

You need to organise your photos on your computer so you can find any photo quickly and easily. Once you have done that, you have the small matter of looking after that precious collection of photos, which, as a photographer, is your everything. I don’t want to overstate this—as a photographer, your photos should be your everything. Without them, what have you got?

In this episode, I tell you 

• Why this is important
• Why you need to get rid of the rubbish (and what it is)
• How to add data to photos.
• How to use software tools to keep things organised.
• How will this help you today, tomorrow, and in the future.

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• And what I did (don’t do this)
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

You need to organise your photos on your computer so you can find any photo quickly and easily. You need to come up with a filing system that you can add to over the years as you take more and more photos. And you need to be able to keep track of all the photos in the catalogue so you know which photos you have edited, the good stuff you have not yet edited, your best stuff and any rubbish you might have. You need to get rid of any rubbish and any photos that you do not like or need. 

Yep, that is my one photo rule in twelve words. Splendid.

In this episode, I tell you 

• Why we need to organise our photos.
• How I organise my photos in a single catalogue.
• The folder structure I use for all my photos.
• Where my photos are stored.
• Lots of good talky stuff.
• What to do with the rubbish.

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

I want to get straight into taking better photos, beginning with taking fewer photos. We can all take fewer photos and, in the process, take better photos, and in this episode, I am going to tell you how. And yes, I will revisit my one photo rule. And here it is.

• “Take the time to take the best one photo of one thing.”

Yep, that is my one photo rule in twelve words. Splendid.

In this episode, I tell you 

• Where did my one photo rule come from?
• Why I only take two photos of a sunrise
• How I take fewer but better photos of buildings
• Why was I taking so many photos?
• How you can take fewer photos but better photos

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

I want to finish 2024 with a light-hearted look back at my favourite things from 2024. Why not, eh? So join me as I pick up on some stuff from the past year, which has been an excellent year for me and my podcast. so thank you for being with me, dear listener.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What was the most popular episode of the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• What was the least popular episode of the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• What is the oddest photography question I was asked in 2024?
• What was the best photography question I was asked in 2024?
• Who cares about all this photography stuff anyway?
• Rubbish photos
• RAW vs JPEG – I don’t know what I am talking about.
• What are irrelevant details in my world of photography?
• My one photo rule
• What are the recurring themes in the Photography Explained Podcast in 2024?
• Why you shouldn't use flash photography in museums

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

I have loads of rubbish photos cluttering up my computer, clogging up my hard drives, and preventing me from finding the good stuff that must be in there somewhere, surely?

We all take rubbish photos every now and then, so it’s okay—not every photo we take is a masterpiece. But if a photo is rubbish, get rid of it. If you have photos that you are never going to do anything with, why not get rid of them, too?

In this episode, I tell you 

• How this happened
• How many photos I have
• What I am going to do about it
• How this will help you

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• One good or bad related thing that I did once (yes, really)

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid! 

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

RAW and JPEG are file formats. Photographers use both. JPEG images have an amount of processing and compressing done to them when a photo is taken. RAW photos have no processing done to them other than creating the file, that is.

JPEG photos can be viewed by anyone straight off the memory card. To view RAW photos, you need specialist software.

JPEG files are smaller than RAW files, but RAW files contain more data to work with than JPEG files.

These are the main differences, but what does this all mean?

Do we need to know all this stuff? Yes, we do, dear listener.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What JPEG is
• What RAW is
• What the differences are in the RAW vs JPEG debate
• Why this stuff matters

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• One good or bad related thing that I did once (yes, really)

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick

Send us Fan Mail

Digital camera sensors are important, sensitive, expensive bits of kit that need looking after. There are things that we can do to protect them from bad stuff, but if bad stuff gets to them, there are things that we can do to remove that stuff.

This applies to all of us photographers at all times, so it is pretty important that we know this stuff.

In this episode, I tell you 

• How to prevent bad stuff from getting to your camera's sensor
• What to do when you get bad stuff on your camera sensor
• What bad stuff is that gets on our sensors
• Why prevention is so much better than cleaning

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos (just look)
• What I do

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid.

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Support the show

Get your question answered
This is what my podcast is all about: answering your photography questions. Just head over to my shiny new website to find out more about me, my podcast and my photography.

Thanks very much for listening

Cheers from me Rick