This August, Kate and Phil took their baby Fiona on her first trip to Paris. Together with our photographer Elena Usacheva they walked around the Eiffel tower, enjoying the sunny summer morning, and ended their session by having a little picnic in the parc, where Fiona got the biggest croissant ever!

Contrast is a powerful photographic tool that helps to draw viewer's attention to the subject. In black-and-white photography, tonal contrast refers to the different in tones of the image: from white to grey to black. In colour photography, contrasting colours are used to make the subject stand out. And in the larger sense, contrast is any striking difference that gives added emphasis to the subject. Let's have a look at some examples of how contrast can be effectively used in photography in a variety of ways.

After a romantic portrait session in Paris last year, Paolo and Melissa decided to do it again, this time in London. They met our photographer Hermione McCosh for a classic walk around Big Ben with traditional English symbols in the background, and then continued towards Notting Hill with its charming flea markets and red brick walls. Now they have great memories from both cities to bring back to their native Peru!

Paris in June is a perfect idea not only for watching Rolland-Garros tennis tournament, but also for spending a romantic honeymoon. Paola and Joe, both avid tennis fans, decided to do both during their stay. They met our photographer Nadia Gric on Bir Hakeim bridge for a stroll in the area around the Eiffel tower and later continued their portrait session at the elegant Palais Royal and its gardens, full of blooming roses, perfectly matching Paola's lovely dress. Such a gorgeous and happy couple!

This summer, Prague comes to Paris, as seen through the eyes of the most important Czech photographer of the XX century, Josef Sudek. This is the first exhibition of Sudek in France. It is composed of a selection of a personal donation of some 3,000 original prints, previously unseen by public, and is exhibited in Jeu de Paume gallery in Jardin des Tuileries. "The Intimate World of Josef Sudek" is a chronicle of Sudek's life-long commitment to photography, of his incredible sensitivity to light and shadow, to everyday objects and to poetry of daily life, and a tribute to his work as an exceptional printmaker.

Compared to previous versions, Lightroom 6 (or Lightroom CC) has several new features that can make wonders with your travel photos. One of them is Haze/Dehaze. As the name suggests, it removes or adds haze to an image, and it can be used both for its direct purpose or creatively. So let's explore the possibilities of Haze/Dehaze, discover how it works and what is the difference between Dehaze and other editing options.

In part I, we looked closely at the exposure bracketing function and how it can help in photographing high contrast scenes. Once you have three or more photos of the same view with different exposures, the next step is to merge them into one High Dynamic Range (HDR) image with details in both shadows and highlights. While bracketing is easy to do in camera, until recently creating HDR images in Photoshop was quite a challenge. Luckily, the newest Lightroom CC offers a new feature of merging HDR images that is surprisingly easy to use even for a beginner photographer. Let's have a look at the workflow.

There are several ways of dealing with high contrast scenes and get all parts of the image correctly exposed: come back at a different time of day, shoot from a different angle, or use bracketing + HDR (High Dynamic Range) technique. Bracketing is available in virtually every camera (not necessarily DSLR), and the HDR process has now become surprisingly easy with the help of Lightroom CC. It may all sound a little too fancy in the beginning, so let's go through these two techniques step by step. In part I we will start with bracketing and its options, and we will dedicate part II to creating HDR images in Lightroom CC.

Sunny day in London? Time for a family portrait session in the charming little streets of Notting Hill! Denise and Brian and their three children Lillian, Catherine and Harris met our photographer Hermione McCosh for a lovely stroll exploring the famous Portobello market and nearby streets, full of colourful shops and typical English brick walls. Good mood is all it takes to create great memories!

What happens when two Italian friends go to Paris on vacation? They have lots of fun! Valeria and Barbara did everything possible to make their portrait session in Montmartre unforgettable: dressed in lovely 50's dresses, they posed and giggled, bought fresh baguettes from the bakery and tasted eclairs, sipped coffee in a café and exchanged jokes with painters on Place de Tertre, and finally ended up spinning on the carousel! They are already planning a new session with our photographer Nadia Gric for their new trip to Paris!

As soon as you get your first DLSR camera, you start looking at various lenses to go with it. At Better Travel Photos, we often get questions as to what lens to buy before a trip or which ones to bring on a photo tour. A zoom or a prime, wide-angle or telephoto, standard or macro? There are lenses for all purposes, tastes and wallets. Which one to choose? How not to get lost in the variety of lenses the market has to offer? Let's have a look at some key points to consider when buying a new lens.

One of the most common composition tips that any beginner photographer receives is to get the subject out of the "dead center". Indeed, placing your subject right in the middle of the frame is probably the easiest and most obvious thing to do, which often results in boring and uninteresting photographs. Does that, however, mean that one should never center the subject? Of course not! Centered composition is something very easy to do, however, it is hard to do it really well. Let's see how to create an exciting centered composition.