If you want to get sharp photos in low light without raising the ISO too much, a tripod is an essential accessory. It will also allow you to experiment with long exposure photography, where you leave the shutter open for seconds or even minutes at a time, which can make for some amazing effects when photographing things like cityscapes or rivers and waterfalls.

When purchasing your first tripod, there are a few things to consider such as weight, stability and height. Weight is important because you’ll be carrying the tripod around with you and don’t want anything too heavy, but it also needs to be stable enough to support your camera and the lenses you plan to use. You can hear more about what we recommend for upgrading your photography gear with our blog.

Lighting can make or break a photo, and the early morning and evening are widely thought to be the best times of day for taking photos. In photography, the hour just after the sun rises or before it sets is called the “golden hour,” because the sun is lower in the sky and the light is softer and warmer.

Whether you’re shooting landscapes, portraits or still life, using the early morning or evening light can give your photos a serene feel with its warm glow and the long shadows it casts. Of course, the golden hour is not the only time you can get good outdoor photos, but it does make it easier.

Once you start shooting in RAW, post processing will become a must rather than an afterthought, so you’ll need to invest in some photo editing software that will allow you to perform basic editing tasks such as cropping, adjusting exposure, white balance and contrast, removing blemishes and more.

Most professional photographers use programs like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, but if you want something a little less pricey to start with you can try Photoshop Elements, Picasa or Paint Shop Pro.

It’s important to realise that every photographer, no matter how experienced or talented, gets some mediocre shots. The reason that their portfolios are so impressive, however, is that they only display their best work; they don’t bore you with ten photos of a nearly identical scene.

So if you want your work to stand out when sharing your photos on Facebook, Instagram or photo sharing sites, try to narrow it down to just a couple of very good photos from each shoot. You may have shot hundreds of photos at your friend’s birthday party or your son’s football match, but by displaying all of them, you’re obscuring the five or ten really great shots that you got.

Getting overexposed, blurry or badly composed photos can be frustrating, but rather than letting such photos discourage you, use them as a learning tool. The next time you get a bad photo; don’t immediately hit the delete button. Instead, spend some time studying the photo to work out what went wrong and how you could improve it.

Most of the time there will be a simple solution such as trying a different composition or using a faster shutter speed, but if you see any recurring problems, you’ll have a chance to study up on specific aspects of photography and strengthen your weaker areas.