The holidays may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get some use out of all your holiday trimmings. If you received any presents wrapped in colored cellophane this year (or if you happen to have a little extra cellophane kicking around the house) then you can create some neat and inexpensive gels for lighting.

Sometimes we’re too perfect in our judgement of order. Even though the world has a wonderful orderliness about it, the real challenge is to view and arrange objects into basic elements to create a visually stunning image. By understanding four basic principles of composition, we can see the landscape in a totally new and exciting way.

In our changing photographic arena, what filters should we buy?

One of the most oft-employed filters is the polariser. Every photographer should have one. When light is reflected from a surface it travels in a single plane, unlike normal daylight which vibrates in all directions.

Warming Filters come in different strengths and are otherwise known as 81A, B, C and EF according to strength. As their name suggests, warming filters are particularly useful for enhancing skin tones in portraits or for counteracting the cold, blue light of flash or the winter outdoors.

Shelton Muller discusses one indispensable filter for the landscape shooter – the Grad…