Of all the different types of photography showcased on Smashing Magazine, underwater photographyis probably one of the most difficult to practice. It requires a veryspecialized equipment and the knowledge of some advanced techniques toget a perfect picture. You need to get the correct exposure, accuratefocus, controlled movement of your subject and a pleasing colorbalance; you also have to deal with low light. Underwater photos offensuffer from loss of color and contrast when taken at a significantdepth. Such photos are always adjusted with color balance to helpoffset the blueish tint of the water.

Because underwaterphotography is a specialized art, relatively few photographers attemptit. But it offers many exciting and rare photographic opportunities forfresh and truly different vivid images. Most often, photographers use atraditional film or digital camera covered in a watertight casing.Professionals prefer to use special underwater cameras.

Below, we present over 50 beautiful examples of underwater photos,created by artists and professional photographers. All works featuredbelow have the artists and photographers’ names linked to theirportfolios or websites. At the bottom of this post you’ll fine somelinks to Flickr groups where you can find more similar and excitingphotos.

Animal photography is probably one of the mostdangerous types of photography. The outcome totally depends on theskills of photographer and the time when the shot is taken. Aphotographer who uses good exposure, color and blur settings along withappropriate shutter speed and focusing techniques can produce stunningphotographs.

Animal photographers have to be prepared and beready for the unknown. They need to study action and language ofanimals to know every move. Many animal photographers use camouflage tohide themselves and to give photographs a natural and “natural” look.When shooting in wildness, photographers usually shoot with longtelephoto lenses from a distance.

Below we feature 35 beautiful examples of animal photography,photos of wild, tamed and other animals. All photographs are linked andlead to the source – the respective photographers. Do not forget toexplore further works of these talented photographers. Please noticethat the collection presented below is supposed to only give you someinspiration, it can and should be extended; please feel free to suggestlinks to further resources in the comments to this posts.

More people across the world are living in cities than ever before.Cities are both places of historical significance and the engines ofthe world’s economy. They’re also home to some of the greatesttreasures and buildings that mankind has created. Citiesare wonderful subjects for photography. They offer a variety ofsubjects suitable for both straight and HDR photography, includingarchitectural, street and night photography. The structure, angles andtexture you get with architectural photography make it unique and veryengaging.

From the energy of Cairo to the canals of Venice,Smashing Magazine celebrates the diversity of the world’s cities bypresenting you 35 beautiful city photos. Be sure tocheck out the portfolios of the talented photographers whose work yousee here. We’ve also included some useful links at the bottom of thearticle.

Over the recent months we’ve been presenting various showcases of photography– while many readers hated the showcases, most readers found theminspirational and perfect for a lousy workday’s morning. However, whatwe should have done in the inspirational posts is not just provide youwith some inspiration for your work, but also present useful photographic techniqueswhich can help you to achieve optimal pictures for your designs. And asrequested by many of you, now it’s time to correct our mistake.

In this post we present useful photographic techniques, tutorials and resourcesfor various kinds of photography. You’ll learn how to set up theperfect environment and what techniques, principles and rules of thumbsyou should consider when shooting your next perfect photo. Thisround-up isn’t supposed to be the ultimate one – please feel free tosuggest more useful articles in the comments to this post.

Amongother things, we cover high-speed photography, tilt-shift photography,black and white photography, motion blur, infrared, night, smokephotography, macro photography, HDR, panoramic photography, RAWprocessing and others. Hopefully, you’ll find many of the listedtutorials and how-tos useful for your regular work.