Helpful Photography Cheat Sheets to Make Your Life Easier

by Bill Jones

Being one of our most popular posts and the anniversary of its publishing, we thought we would share this one with some of our new readers.

Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned professional, sometimes we all need our memory jogged. It’s never a bad idea to have some convenient references handy just in case. I have listed what I think are some helpful cheat sheets to keep in your camera bag.

Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet Card

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

The Photographic Cheat Sheet by Gordon McKinney

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

49 Photo Tips Cheat Sheet

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

Light Falloff Cheat Sheet Card

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

Photography Cheat sheet

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

PhotoBert Cheatsheets

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

Reflector Card Cheat Sheet

Helpful Photography Cheatsheets

If you have any other recommendations for helpful photography cheat sheets please leave a comment below.

12 Extremely Helpful Photo Editing App Cheat Sheets

Helpful Tools for Creating, Sharing and Discovering Lighting Diagrams

A Helpful Collection of Digital Post Processing Tutorials

DIY Home Studio Photography Projects

20 Useful Photoshop Actions to Make Your Post Processing Easier

Like Our Site?

60 Comments

@todayinart said:

Awesome stuff Bill, Thanks!!
jmleclercq said:

Thanks a lot for sharing !
Bill Jones said:

Your welcome!
Dumitru Brinzan said:

Thanks, time for me to start using reflectors :)
Nate Kay said:

Great post Bill. I’ll definitely keep these cheat sheets handy.
Saad said:

Interesting..
Thanks!
kimcav said:

very helpful, thanks!
Imran Subhani said:

I am not a professional photographer but I am sure using tips in your post makes my regular photography a bit better
Toronto Photographer said:

Thanks, now I know what I should expect :)
Ray said:

Thanks your web site was very helpful, I would like to learn more about lighten effect
audrey said:

One thing I know. I know nothing about photography. That’s why I don’t understand a thing about this cheat sheet.
Hamadi said:

Great post! Thanks a lot :)
Kadri said:

Buddy, that was really helpful.

keep the good job
photografied said:

Very good info. i think i’m gonna make a little booklet out of these
West Midlands Wedding Photography said:

Very useful. Thank you.
Christopher said:

Outstanding!!
Keep up the great work!
Amy B. said:

Great information and links!
Karen G said:

Great Stuff
Jason said:

Thanks for the referral link and my apologies to those who were unable to download from the free downloads page. After a lot of requests to fix the link, I decided to put it back live, so if you would like a copy, it’s available from the store page as a “Dollar Download Deal”! Enjoy! http://www.canonblogger.com/store/
kelowna photog said:

Thanks for the cheat sheets, these will come in handy.
mystery said:

i have to show this to chloe!!!
chris seddon said:

really simple things, but really effective. i’m just starting out and i’m thinking about creating my own versions of these cards. something productive to do on one of those rainy days! :)
hendrik said:

I was really interested by the 49 tips cheat sheet, but unfortunately, the page it links to no longer has the tips posted… anyone know where else to find them?
Tommy said:

This is great stuff. Thanks. Printing and laminating now…
Nathan Ciurzynski said:

Thanks for this! This is a big help.
Ogwen Evans said:

wow, these cribsheets are great!
KPD said:

Great tools! It’s nice to have them listed in one place too. Thanks so much!
Waldo said:

http://www.canonblogger.com pdf re-uploaded for your (free) enjoyment
http://docs.google.com/View?id=d4f6chb_316hrx222cz
Jason said:

Hey Hendrick:

It’s actually been moved to the eStore (attachments on teh blog get deleted off archives after 30 days of free access. It’s still only $1.99 in the store: http://www.canonblogger.com/store/
EntityPhoto said:

Very informative!
Nate said:

Awesome resources. Thanks a bunch
Monte Pope said:

I can always use great tips
doublemadforit said:

brilliant cheat cards….i feel that i’ll be using this bookmark often
Ronald Holst said:

Thank you For the cheat sheets they are great.
Jen Weiss said:

Great resources, will use it in the future, thank you
Eugenio Losneck said:

I loved this post a lot. Do you mind if i put your website in my directory?
James said:

Wish I had these during classes!
Yetz said:

Grezt stuff! Thanks for sharing.
David said:

Thank you for your help.They are great.
sharin_sg said:

These are great resources. Thanks.
Judy Lee said:

WONDERFUL resources!!!

Thank you!
Linda Achenbach said:

Very Cool !!!!
Great Tool’s for the artist….
Trudy said:

Ooo wee this is fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
Kris said:

Great tools! Thanx!
Damian said:

so many resources..so little time.
thanks 1000x Bill
thomassabo-charm said:

Thx.That is very interesting and useful!
Brett Widmann said:

Great set of resources. Thanks for sharing!
Matt Sandy said:

Thanks for these, I will probably send this page to my friends if they keep asking about how to take fancy looking photos.
Michael Higashi said:

Very informative post. Certainly a lot of useful information. Glad I found your blog. Will bookmark it and return for more info.
wes eubank said:

I believe the light falloff cheat sheet is wrong. The top row is arranged backwards! The closer the light, the softer the light. At a distance, you will have a point light source, and there will be no diffusion.

Reverse the sequence of the top photos and you will be fine.
Catherine Hadler said:

very helpful sheets – thanks for sharing
Christina Lucido said:

Thank you for sharing – those are very helpful sheets!
Scott Bird said:

Great stuff! Inspiring me to make one that I need all the time – basic camera setup! I bounce from sports to low light to flash to portrait. Each requires a different setup for shutter, ISO, aperture, mirror lock, cable release, white balance… It seems like I’m always clicking off the first few and missing good shots due to basic errors. Anyone got something like that?
Theo said:

Thanks for the great resources!
dave said:

Great compilation…Thanks
DandyDLR said:

Thanks for sharing this useful info. I love quick references like this you can print off and carry around in your pocket out in the field.
Jade said:

Great work, Thanks for sharing these awesome cheatsheets. Saves me the time to search and assemble a set on my own.
Rob said:

A suggestion
A chart where one axis is a range of apertures, the other axis a range of focal lenths and in each box of intersection the depth of field and it’s starting distance from the film plane.
Rob g
Doug said:

There seems like something is amiss in the light fall-off card. The further away your light gets, the more fill it has, and the softer it looks. The opposite should be true. This leaves me thinking perhaps your light is bouncing around your studio and thus increases the light’s size and fill.
John Clement said:

Thank you so much for these. I’m in Botswana and I’m always looking for resources for our training projects.