A crash course in controlling your camera

I've recently begun a writing a short course aimed at people who own a DSLR but have never managed to get out of automatic mode. You can get started by clicking here. It takes a fair bit of work to master your camera but I'd highly encourage all of you to do it, as it's immensely rewarding. As a bit of motivation, here's a giant sunset panorama of Edinburgh :)

Correcting for cheap filters

Just before going travelling, I bought a cheap(ish) 10-stop ND filter and a remote timer with the intention of getting some long-exposure shots whilst abroad. As I have the Canon 24-105mm lens I need a 77mm filter, which is unfortunately rather expensive (Bigger filter = more glass = more monies), so I wasn't expecting much out of one which cost me only £29. Unfortunately, as you can see below, I was right. However, with a little love and attention you can correct pretty much all the faults caused by a cheap filter, and end up getting some really great photographs.