Ways to avoid unattractive backgrounds

Change your aperture
You can blur out ugly backgrounds in your photographs by selecting a wide aperture (low f-number). This will create a shallow depth of field and blur out anything you do not want your camera to focus on.

Find a new location
When choosing a location for your photo shoots, look for places with attractive, natural backdrops such as a pretty garden or field, or try to find a colourful and textured wall to place your subject in front of.

Create a backdrop
Try standing a plain piece of paper, card or wallpaper behind your subject to create a new background. Use a coloured backdrop that complements your subject and make sure there aren't any distracting joins or creases.

Change your position
If your current backdrop is unappealing, sometimes simply changing your position or shooting angle can help you find a new one. For example, you can get down low to use the sky as your background.

Enhance, sort and share your shots with Serif PhotoStack

Serif's new all-in-one editing software makes organising your albums simple and speedy

Serif has launched a brand new program for organising, editing and sharing your entire photo collection. PhotoStack lets you import thousands of photos and organise them in seconds. Once uploaded, photos can be tagged, rated or grouped into stacks to make it easier to find your favourite photo, and you can also browse images by their camera details. They can then be enhanced with just a few clicks using plenty of simple editing tools. It's also possible to add creative effects such as black and white, retro and sepia for arty images. Perfected photos can then be shared via email, Flickr, Facebook and Dropbox, or printed with easy control over size and layout. You can even geotag your shots and add them to Google Maps. PhotoStack is compatible with Windows 8/7/Vista/XP and available from £50

Pocket-sized manual control from Canon

Deuelop your photography skills whereuer you go with the new Canon PowerShot G16

You don’t need a big interchangeable lens camera in order to experiment with manual modes, as advanced compacts give you plenty of control over your shots too. The Canon PowerShot G16 has full and semi-manual modes as well as Auto all packed into a tiny body that you can pop into your bag or pocket. The 12MP sensor and wide-angle 28mm lens with a maximum aperture of f1.8-2.8 are on hand to help you take great quality shots even in low light, and zooming in for close-ups is easy thanks to the 5x optical and 10x digital zoom. You can shoot extra fast at up to 9.3fps and operation is also quick with lots of controls for easy one-handed operation. Intelligent image stabilisation keeps your shots and full HD videos steady and you can even shoot in the RAW file format to give yourself more control when postprocessing your images. The Canon PowerShot G16 will be available from October 2013 with an RRP of £530/$550.

Shoot for the stars

Brand new Star mode helps you capture the night sky, with Star Nightscape, Star Trails and Star Time-Lapse Movie presets

Switch to RAW

The G16 supports the RAW file format as well as JPEG, giving more control over your images when editing

Share on the go

Built-in Wi-Fi lets you share your shots on the move, and you can even geotag them using Canon's smartphone app

Fast focus

Improved autofocus speeds mean that the G16 is 41 per cent quicker than its predecessor, the G15

Reasons why we can’t wait to get our hands on this camera...

1. We'll see how easy this advanced compact is to use for beginners. Does it help with mastering manual controls?
2. We'll get to test out the new Star mode and see how the G16's image quality holds up in low-light conditions.
3. We want to know if the autofocus speeds are as impressive as they sound, and if they'll cope with 9fps shooting.