Seek out bad weather; it really is terrific good for your pics. Bad weather provides you with many opportunities with dramatic effects on the quality of light. Don’t avoid the rain, the cold, the misty morning, the snow and hail, the rough ocean and many of the other prospects bad weather offers.

Have you noticed after a storm the quality of light? You will often find warm, soft, pastel lighting with enhanced colors and a terrific complementary contrast range. This is lighting to kill for and it only comes after a storm.

Concerned about your camera and tripod? Easy fixed; a rubbish bag will take care of the tripod and give you plenty of room for maneuvers. As for the camera a small plastic bag with a cut out hole for the lens (tape it down so no leaks) and leave everything else encased. You will still be able to operate your digital SLR quite easily.

Fog
Fog and mist yields muted colors with soft lighting as it filters the light much the same as a diffusion filter, only much enhanced.

Wet Weather
After wet weather, the clearing sky yields a clean soft light as if the air has been washed of all pollutants. This lighting is one of the best presented.

Rain
Rain makes surfaces glossy and adds a sparkle to any highlights. Wet subjects add that extra punch to your photography.

Storm Clouds
Storm clouds provide bursts of strong light and drama is improved by exposing for the highlights making the clouds dark and ominous. These conditions are great for skyscapes.

Ocean Storm
Ocean storms are great for water motion shots and complemented by dark cloudy skies. Look for fierce swirling waters and slow it down.

All these circumstances will add far more to your photography than fancy equipment. Get down to basics and search out the fabulous lighting offered by bad weather.

The author, Roo du Jardin, is a photographer who runs an informational website about online photography courses Online Photography Courses. Read some more photography courses online tips, techniques and resources at Online Photography Courses blog.

One of the most complex areas in portrait photography is posing. What do you get your subject to do? I found this one of the most difficult skills to grasp at first and so do many beginning photographers. But this is a skill just like many other areas in photography and can be easily learned. And the best thing is, you can teach yourself; so read on.

With posing, you need to be able to relate to your subject, their features, flattering lighting, clothing as well as poses. This will all come with time and practice but you need a beginning point. A great way to start is to get some posing ideas together, as many as you can, and practice on friends and family.

Discover what works and what doesn’t. Identify what different features demand in terms of poses; file these away for future reference. I find the following system useful for teaching yourself portrait photography and posing; collecting poses.

Go to your local newsagent and buy a visual diary or something similar . Get a big one; you want to be able to file many ideas. Next, peruse magazines and buy ones where you find poses that interest you and want to emulate. Browse the internet for similar material, print it off and post in your dairy. Browse books, newspapers and any other sources you wish and keep posting to your visual diary.

Once you have enough material to keep yourself active, start analyzing the photos. What you need to know besides the pose is lighting. Discover how many lights were used and from what direction. Write this down next to the photograph. Also write down the names of people you think this particular pose would suit.

Now you have your ideas on how to pose and light your subject. Bring friends/family in one by one and try the poses in your visual diary. Open the diary to the page of a selected pose you are attempting; put the diary down in front of your camera so you can view it while still able to observe your subject. Make any additional notes with issues that come up so you know what to do next time you shoot this pose. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat until you’re happy with a good selection of poses. You should be now competent and confident to slowly move on to paying clients.

Still bring your diary out when you have a paying punter; put it where you can constantly refer to it; change poses to suit or modify ones that show promise. Make notes if you need to, nothing wrong with doing this with a client present. Some clients actually like to look through a compilation of poses and choose something that strikes them, so there are two benefits to maintaining your diary.

When you have used this system over and over you will probably end up not requiring the use of your pose file. But still maintain it, you will always find it useful as there is an infinite variety of poses, particularity when altering lighting to change the mood.

A reputable online photography course would provide training in how to pose your model and many other aspects of photography for beginners as well.

The author, Roo du Jardin, is a photographer who runs an informational website about online photography courses Online Photography Courses. Read some more digital photography courses tips, techniques and resources at Online Photography Courses blog.