Buying a Digital Camera? Understand the Basics and Find the Best Equipment For Your Needs

Writen by Dave Saunders

It seems like everyone has a digital camera these days and digital cameras have revived the art of photography as a hobby. As digital camera manufacturers improve equipment in quality and price, more people are embracing the benefits of digital photography and putting their film cameras on the shelf. If you’re looking to make the move to a digital understanding the basics of a digital camera can help guide you through understanding how the differences and similarities with film cameras can provide you with a digital camera that fits your needs.

My first digital camera has a 640 by 480 pixel resolution and saved images to floppy disks. It was a little clunky, but it worked well and I was happy with the results. Today, the quality of that camera would barely qualify as a web cam for some people. The technology curve continues to move along for digital cameras but today most digital cameras should be able to provide you with a simple “point and click” experience and provide enough resolution to print 4 by 6 inch prints that you’ll be happy to archive in a scrapbook.

The resolution of most digital cameras is measured today in “mega pixels.” This is a measure of the number of dots which are available to digitally describe the image as a computer file. A digital camera with a 3.1 mega pixel resolution is usually enough to produce pictures that look like a film print on a 4 by 6 print. Moving up to a digital camera with a 5.1 mega pixel resolution will provide a sharper image at the same print size. Can everyone tell the difference? No they can’t. When shopping for a camera, don’t be mesmerized by claims that you must have the very highest resolution to be happy with your digital pictures. Look at samples and select the camera that meets your price range and quality desires.

Generally, digital cameras with a resolution lower than 1 mega pixel are good for images you plan on emailing to people, or posting on the web, but the resolution is not high enough for quality prints. If you plan on making film-style prints of your pictures, you should make your minimum 3.1 mega pixels.

The next issue with digital cameras is how it gets the electricity it needs to function. Many cameras today use rechargeable batteries but some still use AA size batteries. If you plan on taking lots of pictures, a camera that uses disposable batteries can become a very expensive camera, but if the camera has a rechargeable battery with a short life between charges, you might find yourself without power when a great photo opportunity presents itself or you may be stuck buying an extra, and often expensive, rechargeable battery which is custom designed to only fit that specific camera. When you have made you short list of digital cameras meeting your quality requirements, be sure to compare battery life statistics from the manufacturer.

As with film cameras, most digital cameras have automatic settings that adjust to provide a “point and shoot” experience. Some cameras also have manual settings which mimic advanced film camera settings such as aperture and exposure. Digital cameras often have additional features which allow for special effects and even picture taking in very low light settings. These features may or may not be important to you in a digital camera. How often did you load black and white film in your film camera? Chances are these nice-to-have features are not a high priority for most digital camera owners.

Most of the digital cameras feature an LCD view screen. This lets you shoot the image perfectly and then to check it. and is probably one of the most appreciated features of a digital camera over a film camera. The LCD does use up electricity though and by turning your camera off when you are not shooting pictures will preserve battery life.

Most digital cameras use a removable memory card on which pictures are stored. If you have a computer with a built-in reader of a memory card, checking to see if the digital camera uses a compatible type of memory card can make it much easier for you to transfer images to your PC and reduce the expensive of a separate memory card reader. If your digital camera comes with a data transfer cable, keep in mind that the memory card readers are usually much faster and provide greater flexibility. It’s best to keep the data transfer cable in the box.

Overall, most digital camera manufacturers have done an excellent job in making the transition from film cameras to digital cameras a painless one. By knowing some small details about the minor differences, you should have no problem finding a digital camera that you will enjoy and use frequently.

Dave Saunders is a certified nutritional educator and lifelong technologist. He lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife, Irene and writes about his many passions. While pursuing his own enjoyments in broadly experiencing life, Dave Saunders specializes in creating bridges between technical matters and practical application through his writings and lectures to help others create context and see new discoveries and technologies in more a practical light. You can find out more about digital cameras and digital photography at http://www.aboutdigitalcameras.com

Picture Frames – Make or Break an Art Piece

Writen by Lucy Bartlett

One ancient proverb says a picture is equal to thousand words. What about picture frames. The main function of a picture or photo frame is to protect and highlight the content it holds. A beautiful work of art can be made to look drab by framing it improperly, using wrong materials. Similarly an excellent frame can definitely enhance the beauty of the picture it holds.

There are frames and there are frames but to select which is most suitable for the picture or photograph it is going to be a very difficult job. A wrong choice and you lose the contented feeling you get when you look at a work of art.

Occasionally, pictures are abnormal in size so you need custom picture frames which are quite expensive. To complement the picture, to get a perfect look and merge with ambience of the room where the picture is display one should be willing to commission a professional to build the perfect frame. For more information visit www.pictureframeheaven.info

Picture and photo frames of standard sizes are not expensive and they can be bought from your neighbourhood shop. To suit our individual style and also to enhance the quality of the pictures, care should be taken to incorporate these factors when we select standard picture or photo frames.

Picture frames come in hundreds of colours, different shapes and a wide variety of materials which will complement the interior decoration.

The photo frames are made of pewter, stainless, ceramics, composites and crystal. Your budget is the only criteria to select the best available design and material.

Picture frames can be artful in their own right with wide borders, bright and bold colour. Try to avoid a picture frame which overwhelms the image it carries.

For the contemporary home select metal frames in darker shades such as black, copper, gold or silver. To get a Mediterranean style select bold white frames. To create an antique Victorian look ornate gilded frames are the best choice to highlight beautiful art and special prints.

The children’s room will get a youthful atmosphere by using plastic frames in vivid colours.

Avoid metal frames to encase valuable pieces of art. They are priced moderately and sold as kits with their backs open. This makes the contents exposed to dust and moisture.

With proper tools and after little practice you can make your own wooden picture frames and it is a correct choice for original arts, limited edition prints and other valuable photos.

Lucy Bartlett is a proud contributing author. Find more articles here. For more info visit Picture Frames or Custom Frames

Your Guide To Buying A Digital Camera

Writen by Thad Pickering

Almost everyone agrees that digital cameras offer plenty of advantages over film cameras, and consumers are voting with their wallets as they continue to buy digital cameras in record numbers. Some of the advantages of digital cameras over their film counterparts is the ability to immediately see the images you have taken instead of waiting to have film developed first, and also being able to transfer your image files to your computer where you can edit, print and store them as you see fit. But what should you look for when buying a digital camera?

Well, first of all decide how you plan on using the prints that you will make. Will they mostly be 4 X 6 snapshots, or do you plan on making enlargements on up to 11 X 14 or so? This will determine how much resolution that you need to buy when you get your digital camera. For snapshots, a 4 -6 megapixel camera should do the job just fine, but if you want to make larger prints you may want to look for a 6 – 8 megapixel camera instead. And if you plan on doing lots of photo editing that can involve zooming in and cropping a small portion of the image, you may even want a 10+ megapixel camera for that kind of heavy duty work.

Most fixed lens digital cameras come with a zoom feature, but you should know that there are two different types of zooms that are used. One is an optical zoom that relies on the lens for it’s magnification, and the other is the digital zoom that enlarges the image already captured by digital means instead. The optical zoom is far more preferable than the digital zoom as it will produce sharp and clear zoom shots throughout it’s entire focal range. The digital zoom is only magnifying the resulting image and so it can produce less sharp, grainy pictures instead when used at the higher end of the focal range. So try to get a camera that has as much of the zoom range that you want being handled by the optical rather than the digital zoom.

If having the best image quality is important to you then you want to look for digital cameras that save their files in TIFF, GIF and RAW formats as these do not sacrifice any image quality when compressing the image file for storage. On the other hand, the JPEG image format that many cameras use will cause some loss of image quality in the file compression part of saving the image file.

When deciding what digital camera to buy, much of your decision will revolve around how you plan to use the camera and the resultant image files, and what features are most important to you and the way you shoot your photos. The tips given above should help you though to be more informed about how to select the digital camera that fits your photo style best.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including digital photography. You can find top selling digital cameras and cannon digital cameras by visiting our Digital Photography website.

Color Management, the Digital Darkroom, and Adobe Photoshop

Writen by Nigel Lew

Preface

In order to understand color management, it is important to get your hands around some of the workflow. It is also important to understand a little bit about the ICC itself. The ICC or “International Color Consortium” was created in 1993 by a number major corporations with the goal of assisting end users in creating consistent color throughout the entire reproduction process. ICC profiles are a means by which one device can translate the same color information to another. This process is applied in graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, and created in color management systems like X-rite’s Pulse or ColorVision’s Spyder software.

How is a profile created?

In order to have a fully color controlled environment you must have all devices displaying or printing color, profiled. How is this accomplished? Color management software (CMS) takes readings from your specific devices and compares their color with reference files of what color “should be” as defined by the ICC. For example, to profile a scanner you would scan in what is called an IT8 target. This scan is then compared with a reference file by the CMS. The differences between what the reference file says the color should be, and what the color your device actually output is meat of the profile. Basically, a profile says what’s not perfect about your particular device. If your scanner always seems to scan things in a little green, or your printer always seems to print things with a magenta cast-these are the things that are taken into account when color profiling your devices. To complicate matters a little further, this process also takes into account the differences in color between various paper and ink combinations.

Understanding Your Environment.

Color Model: When you hear the term color model we are referring to the method from which we define or classify the color we are to work with. Examples of such are RGB, LAB, CMYK, etc. Color Space: A color space is simply a variation of your color model. For instance, within your RGB framework some common variations are, sRGB, Adobe RGB, and so on. Some of these spaces are better for display e.g. sRGB and Wide Gamut RGB while other color spaces are more suited to printing e.g. ColorMatch RGB and Adobe RGB.

Now, it is important to note that every device in our workflow utilizes it’s own unique color space. Meaning, while your monitor, scanner, and printer will base their color spaces basically on what we can see their actual gamut (range of colors) will differ. This is where we lose our consistency across devices. This is the problem we must attend to.

Color Management Using Adobe Photoshop: Step-by-Step

Okay, so now we’re ready for the whole process-it’s a big one, so keep with me. In this section I will describe how color management works with entry-level CMS’s like Monaco EZ Color or ColorVision’s Spyder2-programs like these >b>utilize actual hardware colorimeters for monitor calibration and a reflective target for scanner calibration. Scanning the printed target with your home scanner creates the printer profile. Entry-level programs like these generally retail between $150 and $500.

Step One: The Monitor

This step is quite easy and is generally conducted entirely in the CMS program of your choice. The CMS will guide you through the process of adjusting you monitor brightness and contrast to its proper settings and then, with the hardware colorimeter, take readings of the colors your monitor can produce. Your CMS should also set this profile as your default profile for your operating system. Take note if your CMS doesn’t already explain it, you should remove Adobe Gamma Loader.exe from your Startup folder after creating a new monitor profile. AGL is a very minimal monitor correction tool and will conflict with your newly created profile.

Step Two: The Scanner

For the scanner profile you will be using an IT8 target. This is a printed color reference of approx. 250 color patches. These targets are manufactured under strict controls and are measured by ICC approved methods to produce accurate reference files. Kodak, Coloraid, and Fuji are the major manufacturers of IT8 targets and should be included with your CMS package but may be a required separate purchase. There are two forms of IT8 targets: reflective and transparent. Reflective targets create a generally consistent profile for scanning reflective images. Transparent IT8 targets are printed on to the specific film to be profiled and therefore cannot be used as globally as reflective targets.

Profiling of the scanner involves scanning the IT8 target under the same conditions that will be used to scan originals. This has to be taken to the nth degree, as every setting in your scanner software needs to be exactly the same for scanning the target as it is for every other original that you will scan. Turning all hue/saturation/brightness/contrast controls off in your scanner software generates the most effective profile. Any auto correction adjustments need to be turned off so the same conditions the profile gets generated under will apply to each consecutive scan.

At this point you will scan in the IT8 target, most likely at 200 dpi, and save the file. Some CMS’s will have you scan the IT8 target out of their own interface, but I would recommend scanning the target with the same application that you will be using in the future-if possible. When scanning into an application like Photoshop, remember to save the image without any profile attached (in Photoshop when saving you will see a checkbox under Save Options>Color that is labeled ICC Profile-make sure this is not checked). Now load this image into your CMS, it will take this image and calculate the differences between what your scanner sees compared to what the colors of the IT8 “really” are.

Step Three: The Printer

Now, the last piece to the puzzle, printer targets. Like transparent IT8 targets, printer targets are more complex. Similar to film, different papers or media can produce incredibly different color results. This has to be taken into account in the profiling stage. When creating a printer profile, you are essentially creating a description of the differences between what is ideal color and what is the result of the specific paper/ink/quality setting you choose. A profile created for a professional glossy photo paper will generally not produce good results if used to print on a matte heavy weight paper. The same holds true for differences in ink or quality/speed settings.

In your CMS you should be given the option to save your printer target for printing within your chosen graphic app. If asked choose not to apply a profile when opening. In Photoshop choose File>Print with Preview. Change the Output dropdown to Color Management. Under Source Space choose Document. Under Print Space choose Profile: Same as Source. You are now set up in Photoshop to print your profile target. You aren’t done yet! Now go into your printer driver software and set any color options to none, or zero, or whatever shuts off any color changes by the driver. Now print your target.

This is where professional level CMS’s and entry level ones differ. At this point with the entry level you will scan in the printed target and the CMS will actually use the before generated scanner profile to correct the scan, so it can the correct your printed target. A professional level CMS will have a separate hardware device designed specifically for reading printed media targets.

Step Four: Utilizing the Profiles

Okay, now that we’ve created all of the profiles, time to implement them. You monitor profile should be getting applied upon startup by your operating system, so let’s move on to your scanner. Scan in an image-once again using the exact same settings that were used to create the profile (other than resolution). In Photoshop choose Image Menu>Assign Profile. Then choose Profile: Your Scanner Profile. Having done all of the previous steps in Photoshop correctly, you should now be amazed at how your image colors changes to appear incredibly like the original that you’ve just scanned in.

From here go to Image Menu>Convert to Profile and choose working RGB from the profile selections. This will convert your document to the native RGB working space of Photoshop. When printing you will apply the printer profile by once again choosing File>Print with Preview, select Document as your Source Space (which this time should be your Working RGB space) and in your Print Space choose Profile: Your Printer Profile. Remember once again to disable any color options in your printer driver. Finally, Print!

Other Notes on Profiling

I would recommend using Relative Colorimetric as your Rendering Intent when doing the Convert to Profile step and when printing with Print with Preview out of Photoshop. Rendering intents control how the profile is applied to either the scanner or printed image. Relative Colorimetric has proven to be the best in my testing. Read the documentation that came with your CMS in order to learn more about the other available rendering intents.

Profiles are only as accurate as the CMS that generates them and the size of the targets that are used to generate them. Packages in the $150-$500 price range generally have around 75-250 patches, while $2000 and up gets you 729 patches or more. Also, the more expensive packages rely on physical hardware devices to generate printer profiles, while the less expensive packages use your scanner as the print colorimeter. In addition, the more expensive packages have numerous options for the edition of the profiles you create.

Sources cited in this column are:

Adobe

Low Light and Night Photography

Writen by Eric Hartwell

As the light fades, do thoughts of photography wane also? If that’s the way you think then read on as we will be showing you that low light photography is awash with opportunities!

Images, whether from film or digital cameras, need one ingredient… light. How then can photographers get good images in low light conditions? Using flash would be one way. But even the most dimly lit scene has some light – and that means the potential for a great photo!

What equipment will I need?

Well, you will need a camera as well as charged batteries, that’s for sure. Also, a tripod is invaluable for exposures lasting greater than 1/30th second (1/60th in some cases). A torch, a decent lens and think about a remote shutter release – using long shutter speeds means the potential for camera shake and blurred images is even greater than usual (the alternative is to use a self timing mechanism to trip the shutter).

What about white balance?

Night time often means scenes lit with artificial light. This will inevitably give a colour cast to your shots although this can be pleasing sometimes. There are many types of lighting (tungsten, halogen, fluorescent) and they will all come out with different colour casts – live with it! Try different white balance settings to see what effect it has on the final image.

How do I calculate the exposure?

This can be difficult. But with modern digital cameras you can see the results immediately and therefore make any adjustments straight away. Your meter may lie! Be ready to change the settings (and give a longer exposure). Night time shots can be very contrasty (bright lights and deep shadows) – the camera won’t be able to cope with the extremities of exposure so just change the settings yourself until you are happy with the results! You may need to use the “B” or “Bulb” setting to hold your shutter open for long periods.

What can I photograph at night?

Virtually anything! The choices are almost limitless. We suggest you consider:

Buildings
Lights
Signs
Bridges
Cars / vehicles
Lit houses / pubs / shops
People (motion blur can be a useful effect)
Street illuminations
Fireworks
Bonfires
Fairgrounds
Reflections in lakes, pools

Look around for other ideas. Don’t forget if there is any light at all, it can be turned into an image.

To calculate exposures you can use a rule of thumb – see below for rough examples of exposure times. However, each circumstance will require a different approach so you can expect to adjust things frequently!

Night (assume f16 ISO 100)

Town / City 20 sec
Signs / Lights 2 secs
Streets 20 secs
Streets 20 secs
Churches 30 sec
Fairgrounds 10 – 15 secs
Candlelight 60 secs
Fireworks 1 – 60 secs

One interesting aspect of night photography is the recording of moving trails of light. Cars, buses, trains, bikes will have bright headlights and tail lights which will record as trails across your image if you shoot them whilst they are moving with a slow shutter speed of anything from 2 – 20 seconds. Try it! The same goes for fairground rides. And don’t forget that you can create your own trails with statically lit objects by zooming in or our during a long exposure or even panning the tripod head.

Bracketing

By taking a shot of a scene with, say, as stop of under exposure and a stop of over exposure, you will be more likely to capture an image that is correctly exposed. Bright lights tells the camera to underexpose. Many cameras will have automatic exposure bracketing to allow this to be done with minimal fuss! You are trying to record some detail in the shadows without burning out the highlights. If you take an image of a scene at 4 second exposure, take the same scene with 8 seconds and 2 seconds. In this way you will be likely to get the exposure you are looking for.

Night photography “feels” different. Different sights, different sounds, different locations and different camera settings. Nobody is an expert – we all have to experiment. With modern digital cameras this is something that can easily be achieved.

Have fun!

Eric Hartwell is an enthusiastic photographer and owner of the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and discussion forums at http://www.theshutter.co.uk/forums.

Photography 101 Part 2

Writen by Kelly Paal

Basic Composition

Now that you are beginning to understand how your camera works you can begin to understand basic composition. I know that many people that I’ve talked to think that photography is just pointing your camera and taking a photo but it’s more than that. After you understand how your equipment works you can begin to get into the real art of photography and that art is called composition.

Basic principles:

1. Use all of your available space. Fill the image with the image. If the reason that your taking the photo is your daughter’s beautiful face then get closer. If you’re taking an image of the breathtaking valley before you. Fill the frame with the valley. Keep distractions out of the frame. They’re called distractions for a reason.

2. Look at the forms in your image. You almost have to look at the people or the landscape before you in their simplistic geographic forms. A good way to learn form is to practice taking photos of still life objects, that you can arrange into pleasing forms. A good photo is always a beautiful arrangement of form. Whether it’s the beauty of a woman’s face, her features being forms, or a wonderful landscape, trees, rocks, and hills being forms.

3. Line or direction, motion. The direction of the forms in your photos is very important. Never have action or motion moving outside of your image. It will direct the eye away from your image. Diagonal motion lines are good, curves and “s” curves are better. The last two is probably way landscape photography is so popular nature is full of curves. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame.

4. Contrast, the difference between black and white. Now it is possible to have a beautiful photo with little contrast if that is your intention, this works best with color. But a lot of shots, some really beautiful shots have a nice balance of black, white, and grays. This can be manipulated for artistic purpose of course, but in the beginning you want to focus on trying to take shots with equal amounts of black, white, and shades of gray. (Shoot a roll of B&W film to really learn this principle.)

5. Color, you may have to familiarize yourself with the color wheel. (See my article Graphic Design Using Color for more information it’s for graphic design but the first couple of paragraphs talk about basic color theory) Whether you’re shooting nature or setting up your own shots in a studio you need to know what colors go together and why. Many of us have an instinct as to what looks good. When in doubt follow your instincts. Start out by taking shots of things that you think have pretty or beautiful colors. Show the photos to others and see if they agree. Photographers learn not only what they think is beautiful but what is universally beautiful as well.

Now the hard part practice all these principles at the same time. It’s not easy! Now you really know why photographers take years to really learn their craft.

This week’s assignment: Let’s break this down into four assignments. You’ll need four rolls of film. Roll one, fill your available space. Shoot pictures of whatever you like, but get closer. Eliminate distractions from your image. Keep the focus of your image on whatever it was that made you want to take that photo. Roll two, forms. Here’s an old stand by that I did in college. Get out an assortment of vegtables and fruit from your kitchen. Put a sheet down on your table, no distractions, shoot an entire roll of the veggies and fruit making sure that your rearrange with each shot. Make sure you study your results and see which forms looked best. Roll three, Contrast, you can do this in B&W film if you want to. Take a shot of the flower in your garden in the early morning, afternoon, and sunset. Shoot some portraits at the same times, by candlelight too. When you see the results you will be surprised. Roll four, color. Use the vegtables again, this time paying attention to the colors. If you can tell me why a red tomato looks best on a green bed of lettuce or the orange sunset with the purple clouds is so captivating then you’ve figured out some of color theory.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

About The Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design. kellypaa@kellypaalphotography.com

How To Avoid Or Reduce Red-Eye

Writen by Jakob Jelling

Photography with the aid of a digital camera is beyond doubt very fascinating. However, it also has many a nooks that the users of the digital camera must be aware of and also must be well educated to deal with in order to produce good photographs worth the most prized digital camera. Such a concept is that of the red eye! In order to understand what this red eye actually is, a little detailed introspection is necessary. Basically speaking red-eye is a function of at least three things, they are firstly, ambient level of light because stumpy light level causes the retina of the person to be photographed to open wider to admit more light thereby divulging open the iris, which is the primary part that reflects the red light hence giving the appearance of red eyes for the subjects. Also secondly the younger the person being photographed the wider remains the retina and hence the greater the effect of red eye in the picture. Thirdly, the reflection angle of the flash plays a vital role, as the light is recoiled back to the digital camera and the closer the incident light beam is to this reflected light beam, the greater becomes the red eye effect. To prevent this instruments such as flash brackets are useful to make the flash a bit removed from the propinquity of the lens. Thus the red eye effect is somewhat revealed till this part of this discussion. Now is the time to look into a greater detail in order to analyze the various aspects of the red eye effect and also find out ways of reducing the problem as far as possible.

It can be noted here that the only important thing is that the users must ensure that the proper fixing of the angle between the flash beam and the lens axis. The general rule here is that the photographer must keep the angle wide enough that the light beam from the flash does not reflect off the retina of the person being photographed and comes right back into the digital camera lens. A good idea is to make the red-eye reduction work by making the flash shine a light into the eyes of the person being photographed just before the flash is incident and the shutter is pressed. This causes the irises in the eyes of the person being photographed to narrow down or shrink. As a result of this the eye develops a smaller opening for the eye view of the digital camera and does not show off the blood filled retina. This light is called pre light! And very importantly this process works only if the person to be photographed is in point of fact looking directly at the flash for the pre-light to come.

Other factors influencing the red eye are the level of ambient light during the time when the photograph is being taken and how near the flash light is to the lens. The rule of thumb comes out that the brighter the ambient light; the lesser is the effect of red eyes, everything else being one and the same. As the flashlight goes farther from the lens, the fewer becomes the effect of red eyes, everything else being one and the same again. Thus the key idea is that red eye is not caused if the ambient light is comparatively high. And it does have a significant effect if the shooting area is dark. Many digital cameras have built in features for anti red eye that is used to reduce red eye when taking a picture of a person looking straight at the camera also. But manually, the best red eye reduction can be obtained with the help of an external flash as described.

The above discussion has dealt with the most important ideas regarding the red eye effect. The discussion has analyzed the inherent facts about the digital camera red eye effect, their causes as well as remedies. The only thing that remains is that the users must implement these ideas while shooting under circumstances discussed here so that the red eye effect cannot harm the beauties of art created with the aid of the fantastic device, the digital camera!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

Digital Tips For Your Baby Photos – Using The Sephia Setting

Writen by Vera Raposo

Film is so expensive now days! With digital cameras, you can take as many baby photos as you want and delete the ones you don’t.

You can save all the ones you like but only print out the ones you need, therefore you don’t waste any cash.

If you do not have a digital camera yet and are planning to get one, I suggest you buy a larger memory as well.

When you buy one, it will come with a very small memory but you will realize that fifty pictures can be gone at a drop of a hat, so I suggest you buy one to save you the trouble of coming back.

Since we are preserving time and memories, you might want to try the aged look. Sepia is a good one to use.

If you don’t know, sepia is like black and white but with tans or beiges. You might just like the way your baby photos turn out!

If you have a digital camera, you have the choice of turning the pictures black and white or sepia within the camera.

If you do not have a digital camera, you can just drop off your film and ask them to print them off as sepia.

Looking back on the pages you have finished, it probably brings you back to the time when the pictures were taken.

Enjoy preserving your baby’s time with pictures!

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas for your new baby in her newsletter http://www.baby-scrapbooking.com

Digital Photography: The Top Five Reasons Why

Writen by Robert Provencher

One thing I discovered during my experience with digital photography after 20 years of shooting film, and I teach this point in all the many seminars that I’ve put on to hundreds of other full-time pros, is that digital photography is very well suited for the portrait photographer. So why are we the last to jump on the band wagon? Many commercial shooters have known about and mastered the use of digital in their business’s for far longer than the portrait photographer.

My guess is that we’re afraid. Afraid of the learning curve and afraid that the quality just isn’t there unless we spend an ungodly amount of our hard earned cash on some scary looking gigantic array of confusing and awkward, let alone “how am I going to learn how to use this stuff” equipment.

Truth is, you can easily get away with as little as a 3.5 megapixel camera. I know, I used my Canon D30 for the first eight months of my digital journey. That camera created more memories, more sales and more wall portraits that I ever thought imaginable.

Whoa, wait a minute you say, wall hangings? Can’t be!! When I put on my seminars I routinely display many large wall samples for all to see, with some of the older samples I created with the 3.5 megapixel camera; and the reaction I get is usually disbelief.

Listen. The quality is there. I’ve proven it over and over and I know anyone can replicate the same results. Yes, even with a 3.5 megapixel camera.

You’ve just got be careful, that’s all. We have a collection of images at our studio, even large wall hangings captured with our dinky little D30, and they are “jaw-dropping” stunning. I know other photographers who have had amazing results as well. I know that it works and file size is secondary.

There are many reasons, but I’ll work with the main list. Here they are:

*Quality. The quality of images captured with a high quality lens, properly exposed and well posed is more than enough, even if you shoot JPEGS. Yes, JPEGS. Over 90% of the more than 30-40,000 exposures I put through my camera every year is shot in JPEG mode. Why? Why would anyone in their right mind shoot in such a “low quality” mode? The answer is simple: It works.

I like to compare JPEG’s to shooting with portrait film. It is slightly softer (although not even noticeable to the human eye) and muted, ideal for skin tones, right? Besides, we slap on “softar” filters in front of these outrageously expensive lenses and degrade the image even more. Don’t bother. Shoot with a good lens, in JPEG mode, expose properly, pose and create as usual, and it will all come together. Add any effects later.

Look at what else portrait photographers have been doing to their finished images besides purposely degrading the image with “softars”. We retouch the surface of the print, sometimes extensively. We canvas mount. Add texture sprays.Oils. Linen laminates…on and on.

My point is simple. Portrait photographers do not need to create the very sharpest, highest resolution images available. If they have in the past, they’ve always degraded the image through these other means. It’s kind of ironic don’t you think? You can still shoot in RAW mode if you wish, but it isn’t really needed.

If we needed the absolute highest quality image at capture we would have all been shooting with Kodachrome 64 or Velvia on a 4″x5 camera. But we don’t. JPEGs work. I have many 30″ prints, and even a 70″ print, that was captured in JPEG. And they look amazing. Your can too.

*Control. People want their photos fast. We live in a drive-through world and minutes count. In our studio we create a slide presentation for our sessions and we show them to the clients within 20 minutes of every shoot. Clients love it. They get to see the results instantly. If you fight this you’re fighting basic human nature. We want, want, want, and want to see it sooner than later. Sales go up, the client is already in the studio ready to see the images, and ready to spend. Their is ample evidence that when you show the images sooner, and you create large projected images, which is a cinch with digital, sales go up. Digital gives the portrait photographer more control over the sales process, and ultimately it means more profits.

*Retouching. Let’s face it, people want to look good. What used to take hours and whole lot of aggravation with spray booths, smelly and dangerous lacquers, is now possible with absolute ease. Even when I decided to farm out all my retouching because I had had enough, it still took weeks or months, and huge retouching bills.

Not to mention the loss of control I had over the retouching aspects. It was up to the subjective interpretation of the retouching artist to enhance the images the way I wanted them retouched. Now, with a few basic skills, and all those years of retouching experience all transferred over to the new darkroom, my computer, I can easily retouch to any degree I like. In mere minutes. With absolute astounding results. This ultimately translates to satisfying a basic need that needs to satisfied in our clients, their vanity. They want to look good, and they want it fast.

*Innovation. I could go on for days when it comes to what new products, ideas, services, sales processes, packages, etc, etc…I have been able to create because of digital photography.

Suffice it to say for now that I am excited and alive again with passion about my photography and about the possibilities. When you apply the power of digital, and get a handle on it in your workflow, you can create new and exciting products like never before.

I’ve seen it and experience it every week in our busy little small-city studio. The proof ultimately boils down to net profits, doesn’t it?

After all, we are in business first, and creative artists second, right? Right? Are you with me on this one? We are in business to make money and survive. We need new and exciting angles, ways to stay afloat, so we can pay our bills, keep the bankers happy and provide for our families. No one can predict will total accuracy how digital photography will ultimately evolve, but my betting dollar is with it all the way. I’m not taking any chances.

Anyone remember when colour film and paper was introduced as a mainstream commodity? I don’t, I was just a wee lad, but I heard stories about the many studio owners closing their doors and packing it in because they didn’t want to keep up with the demand and latest craze that colour film and colour paper had created. Dinosaurs. Every last one of them. Their loss, all because of a thick head and mis-guided egos. Don’t be a dinosaur.

My biggest discovery: Who the true expert is!

Ultimately the true expert in our business is not ourselves, or our peers. The real expert is the client. They open up their hearts and wallets and fork over hard earned cash for the memories we create for them. Do they care if it is shot on a JPEG? In RAW mode? Do they care if we use the biggest, best, strongest, fastest computers and software?

Of course not. When you get into your clients head and listen to the conversation that goes on these things are totally irrelevant.

Far more important to her, and to us, is the fundamentals of good photography. In a whirlwind of technological advances nothing seems to ever stay the same. Truth is, the fundamentals of good photography will never change. That’s where is all starts.

Master that and you have 99% of your digital photography challenges mastered.

Robert Provencher has been a professional portrait and wedding photographer for over 25 years. Robert has authored several manuals on digital photography and photogaphy marketing. http://www.nobsphotosuccess.com

Fun Photo Projects For Children

Writen by Gary Hendricks

If you’re a teacher or parent, you may be interested in creating some fun digital photography related projects for children. I sometimes plan fun and interesting photo projects for my son so that he can learn about photography and have a whale of a time too.

In this article, we’ll explore 3 interesting photo project ideas we can prepare for children, so read on!

Idea 1: Make a Photo Journal
One interesting photo project is to let the child create a personal photo journal. Ask the child to hang on to the digital camera for a few days, snapping anything that captures his or her fancy.

At the end of that period, help him or her to upload the pictures to a computer, then add some good captions or funny quotes. A simple, easy activity to do, which is also rewarding for the family too.

You can use a program like Microsoft Powerpoint to maintain the photo album or print the pictures and bind them into a hardcover book.

Idea 2: Create a Nice Jigsaw Puzzle
Here’s a good project to undertake if your child likes jigsaw puzzles. Print out a nice, large format picture, then stick it onto a large cardboard. Next, cut up the cardboard into small curved pieces anf voila, we have a homemade jigsaw puzzle.

Another way to do this is to use a cool software I found called Brainsbreaker. This program allows you to turn any digital photo into a jigsaw puzzel which you can solve on the computer. Neat, huh?

Idea 3: What Could This Be? Another interesting photo project is to snap a picture of a common, everyday object – using a very odd angle or close-up view.

Entrust the digital camera to the kids, then ask them to sniff out ordinary objects to take photos of. Ask them to take the photos at weird, unusual, and otherworldly angles.

When they’re done, upload the pictures to the PC and start playing a guessing game. Ask the kids to guess what subject is being photographed in each mystery photo. You’ll be amazed at the answers you get! Snap a whole slew of such pictures and you’ll occupy the kids for the whole afternoon!

Conclusion
As you can see, there are many fun-filled photo projects you can create for kids. Take note of some of these ideas the next time you’re cracking your brains and thinking about how to occupy the children.

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on digital photography. Visit his website at Basic-Digital-Photography.com for tips and tricks on buying digital cameras, as well as shooting great photos.