Capture the Moment!
Since 2013, I’ve published hundreds of blog posts on all aspects of photography. Some are aimed at helping photographers with their technique, settings, and equipment, but others describe my exhibitions, workshops, and adventures in Africa, Antarctica and beyond.
Feel free to browse chronologically or click on the heading above any post for specific categories, such as Equipment, Trips or Hints and Tips.
If you’d like to write a guest post, I charge £50 + £10 per dofollow link. Please drop me a line on +44 7942 800921 or at nick@nickdalephotography.com.
(Please note that some posts contain affiliate links from which I can earn a small commission.)
How to Denoise Images: Four Pro Methods to Save High ISO Photos
You want to set up the ideal wildlife image, but you have little time to make adjustments because of the low light and quick movement. To get the shot, it's a good idea to increase your ISO. Grain, loss of fine detail and colour speckles are what you see when you examine the picture later.
Capturing the Decisive Moment: How Wedding Photographers Train Their Eye for Unrepeatable Shots
There is a photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson of a man leaping over a puddle behind the Gare Saint-Lazare. The man is suspended mid-air, his reflection caught perfectly in the water below. Cartier-Bresson did not ask him to jump again. He did not adjust his settings and wait for the next person. He saw the moment forming, raised his camera, and pressed the shutter at precisely the right instant. He called this le moment décisif — the decisive moment.
Advanced Photography Editing Techniques Every Design Student Should Master
Photography editing is often treated as the final polish applied to an image after the "real" creative work has finished. Design students quickly learn that the opposite is true. Editing is not decoration. It is interpretation. A photograph leaving the camera sensor is only the starting point of visual storytelling.
Top 5 Aspects of Photography Every Student Should Master
Most people who pick up a camera for the first time assume the hard part is choosing the right equipment. It is not. The hard part is unlearning the impulse to point and shoot without thinking, a habit smartphones have made almost universal. Photography, as a discipline, demands something different: deliberate attention. And for students stepping into it seriously, that shift in mindset is where everything begins.
How to Edit a Photo to Look Like Film
In recent years, film photography has experienced a remarkable resurgence. What was once considered outdated or impractical has returned as a powerful creative choice, embraced by photographers seeking authenticity, character, and emotional depth in their images. From fashion editorials and wedding photography to personal storytelling and lifestyle content, the film look has become synonymous with warmth, nostalgia, and timeless appeal.
From Strong to Award-Winning: Two Post-Processing Techniques Every Wildlife Photographer Should Master
Learn how monochrome conversion and distortion correction can elevate wildlife photos, refine realism, and turn strong captures into award-winning images.
Why Photographers Should Keep a Shooting Journal—and What to Write in it
For many photographers, improving their craft usually means upgrading equipment, testing new lenses, or experimenting with different lighting scenarios. Yet one of the most powerful tools for growth has nothing to do with gear—it is the simple, consistent practice of keeping a shooting journal.
Top Tips for Wildlife Photography at Dawn
There is something magical about the quiet times just before dawn — the world only half awake, the air sharp, and animals stirring. Taking wildlife photos in such conditions is highly rewarding and equally challenging. Animals are most active at dawn, and light shifts every minute. Every decision, from camera settings to position, affects how the story unfolds in your frame.
The Future of Photo Editing: How AI Transforms Post-Processing
Photography has always been about more than pressing the shutter. From the darkroom practices of the early 20th century to the digital workflows of today, post-processing has defined how images are refined, perfected, and shared. Now, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancing at a remarkable speed, photo editing is entering a new era. AI promises not only to automate technical corrections but also to fundamentally reshape creativity, accessibility, and authenticity in photography.
Top 100 Photos: Before and After
How important is editing? Some wildlife photographers religiously refuse to add or subtract anything, but photo software is so powerful these days that they might be missing out—especially if they don’t use generative AI! Do you believe your photos should be as representative as possible or as visually appealing? Are you a journalist or an artist?
Top Wildlife Photo Editing Services Every Photographer Should Try in 2025
Wildlife photography brings great rewards but also plenty of obstacles. Bright sunlight, sudden movements, and unpredictable surroundings can make it tough to get the perfect shot. Most images still need some fine-tuning later, which is why professional photo editing services are so valuable.
Editing Wildlife Photos: Beginner Tips
Learn how to edit wildlife photos with tips on noise reduction, colour correction and composition to make your images sharp and natural-looking.
How to Personalise Your Photos
Wildlife photographers sometimes talk about how flattered they are when someone tells them, “I knew immediately it was one of your photos.” I’m not sure how true that is (!), but it raises a few questions. Is it important to have a certain ‘look’? What should it be? How can you achieve it? Let’s discuss all those questions—and more!
Experiment with Lens Blur
Lightroom's latest release (13.0.1) has just come out, and it offers a cool new AI feature called Lens Blur that works with any image format. It's labelled 'Early Access', so it's experimental and doesn't (yet) work with masking or presets or include sharpening, but it's a great way to add creative blur in post.
First Impressions of Luminar Neo
I recently became an affiliate for Skylum’s Luminar Neo. This is post-processing software similar to Lightroom, and I thought I’d try it out to see what it was like.
A Lightroom Trick to Separate Subject from Background
Photographs are flat, 2D images, but how can you make them appear three-dimensional? Inspired by a couple of videos by Matt Kloskowski and Steve Perry, here are a few Lightroom tricks to create depth by separating your subject from the background.
Bulk Editing in Lightroom
Wildlife photographer Paul Goldstein thinks I take too many pictures, and he’s probably right. I once took over 38,000 shots of seabirds on a cruise ship one afternoon in Antarctica! Personally, I blame my Sony a1’s high frame rate—I mean, what’s a poor photographer to do…?!
Lightroom Presets
Everybody seems to be selling Lightroom presets these days, but I hardly use them.
The problem with ‘adopting’ someone else’s presets is that they probably won’t do what you want them to do. Yes, they could probably make a dramatic difference to some photos, but you lose control because they are almost always bundles of adjustments, not all of which are necessary.
How to Enlarge a Photo
Gigapixel AI is the ‘ugly duckling’ of the Topaz Labs suite of software programs, but it can be just as useful as Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI if you need to enlarge an image, say for printing.
How to Reduce Noise
I’ve recently discovered the Topaz Labs suite of software products that includes Sharpen AI, Gigapixel AI and DeNoise AI. This article discusses how best to use the last of these.