Autumn is a perfect time for all photographers, professional and hobbyist, to travel the countrysides to capture the spectrum of fall colors that abound for a brief t...]]> Amateur Photographers:You Can Make the World a Happier Place by Knowing Where to Share Images

Writen by Carl Chesal

Autumn is a perfect time for all photographers, professional and hobbyist, to travel the countrysides to capture the spectrum of fall colors that abound for a brief time each year. Point your lens anywhere during this cavalcade of color and, like a finger print, you will get at least one shot that is uniquely yours!

It is said that the best picture images are those that amateur photographers have not shared with others. This is the case with my own passion of Photographic Art. I was encouraged for years by family and friends to ‘Sell My Stuff. I ask you to consider sharing with the world the beauty you have captured on film or through your digital photos! The world has enough dark and dread already. You can help tip the balance in favor of beauty and brightness! Share your delightful images with the world in all its autumn splendor.

How? You ask?

Would you like to share your camera images with a minimum of text? Well, there is www.Flickr.com, an easy place to load up your choice images for the world to view and on which to comment. Or www.Photosite.com is another choice photo sharing site. Search on Photo Sharing and you will see numerous FREE image and video hosting websites. You will find other photographers are very liberal in their praise of a ‘great shot’. It can be a very encouraging and supportive community. If you can take constructive criticism then, you, too, will thrive in this learning environment.

Currently (September 2006) I am in a beta test environment of Google’s latest effort – Picasa Web Albums. I am an avid user of Picasa. Yes, as a professional photographer, most of my wedding and landscape images have been cataloged and adjusted using the power of Picasa. Adobe Photoshop has been relegated to only specific special effects.

If you wish to add a story or more detail behind the images, then I encourage you to use one of the many BLOGS (weB LOGS) that exist. But choose one or two of them that allow images to be uploaded to accompany your text. The newest BLOG site by Google, www.blogger.com/start, is such a site that allows you creative license. In fact, you can post multi images per BLOG article. With some of the other BLOG sites you can overcome the shortcoming of not being able to integrate images; simply by referencing your related images posted in Flickr or Google Picasa Web Albums.

Most BLOGS have an ‘Insert HyperLink button’, but a simple piece of html code inserted right in your article is all that is required:

1) Open a new browser window and go to the specific site and location of the group of pictures you which to ‘hyper link’ from your BLOG article

2) Copy the URL found in the menu line at the top of the browser window

3) Return to your article, locate your cursor at the place you wish to reference your image web location

4) Type and paste the following:

A) type: <

B) immediately type: a href=”

C) paste the url you just copied from your photo image website

D) type: “>Look at my images here (or some description)<

E) immediately type: /a>

People reading your BLOG will now be able to hyperlink to your expanded collection of photo images.

Google’s Blogger gives you the ability to integrate multiple images with your posted BLOG and then you can easily hyperlink your Posted Article Title to even more images on Flickr or (soon) Google Picasa Web Albums. Isn’t the internet grand!

You have questions on exactly how to do this? Take a look at a few of my BLOG articles (bizbites.blogspot.com). Still have questions? E-mail me through one of the websites below.

Get out there and do your part to make this world a brighter and happier place to live!

Have you ever noticed how some black and white photos just stand out? And when you go to try and take the same kind of photo it just doesn't do the same thing?

There are a couple of starting pointers that I want t...]]> Simple Tips To Enhance Your Photography

Writen by Amy Renfrey

Have you ever noticed how some black and white photos just stand out? And when you go to try and take the same kind of photo it just doesn’t do the same thing?

There are a couple of starting pointers that I want to share with you about black and white photography with a digital camera. The first thing I can tell you is that to make a good black and white photo you must have good texture. Texture, or what something is made of, seems to be enhanced with grey scale.

Certain textures, such as natural textures seem to respond well in black and white. Black and white is all about capturing a sense of the dramatic, so if your subject has texture that is naturally dramatic, then you have the first step to a good b&w photo. Textures such as wood grain, stark metal, repeated patterns in nature such as waves or spirals seem to work well in black and white.

With black and white, try to keep some symmetry in your texture. Its easier to create stunning black and white photos when you have symmetry in your texture because it can sometimes be lost in color. Symmetrical textures in black and white are consistently beautiful and offer something the eye cannot capture as well when working in color.

Grey scale is not just the absence of color, or everything taken in shades of grey. To understand and master black and white photography with your digital you must understand the concept of grey scale.

Grey scale is a spectrum of black, lots of grey and white, like the colours of a rainbow but in a series of black and white and grey tones. You see a black and white photo is not really only black and white; it is actually lots of different shades and different depths of grey. So when we talk about grey scale it just means the way we measure tones of grey. Included in the grey scale is of course black and white.

This sounds odd to say, but when finding what looks good in black and white you can start with high contrasting colors in your every day subjects at home. Stark colours such as red, deep purples and bright yellows can make a really good starting point. With bold colours such as these, your camera will interpret them differently. It’s almost as if the camera leaves out what the eye distinguishes as that particular color and keeps the intensity there. I won’t go into the technical jargon now, but for now, just try experimenting on those colors. If you can’t find these colors around your home, try going out into the garden and taking flowers that have these colors, or go to a nursery, plant store or public gardens.

You see black and white is not just ‘no colour’. Its so much more, so much deeper then that. The purpose of black and white nowadays (as opposed to when it was the standard and people had no choice) is that it creates a sense of stillness in time, and with the right perspective, a great story.

Best wishes, Amy Renfrey

http://www.digitalphotographysuccess.com/ http://www.beautifuloutdoorphotography.com/

No one wants to go broke trying to convert all of the digital photos that are stored on their computer into picture form. The price of a good digital camera is enough already for the average person and expensive prints ar...]]> Where’s Cheap Digital Photo Printing?

Writen by Mindi Haehl

No one wants to go broke trying to convert all of the digital photos that are stored on their computer into picture form. The price of a good digital camera is enough already for the average person and expensive prints are just not an option for the vast majority. What about simply printing all of those digital images out on the desk printer? Well if you’re trying to get quality prints and save on money, this definitely isn’t the answer. So where can cheap printing be found if making digital photos on the desk printer is not a valid option? Actually, cheap photo printing can be found just about anywhere if a person is really interested in finding it.

Probably the best place to begin searching for cheap photo printing is online. There are lots of websites that are constantly in competition with each other in terms of price. This is an excellent thing for consumers as the competition really drives photo printing prices down to a level that is pretty much affordable for all. Some sites even offer prices as low as 9

I love panoramas. There's something very appealing about their shape. It's probably because we see the world more in these dimensions than the near square format of standard film/sensor frames. It might also ex...]]> Taking Panoramic Landscapes – The Easy Solution

Writen by Gary Nugent

I love panoramas. There’s something very appealing about their shape. It’s probably because we see the world more in these dimensions than the near square format of standard film/sensor frames. It might also explain the upsurge in the popularity of widescreen TVs!

Panoramas have a reputation of being hard to take. There are dedicated panorama cameras available but unless you’ve got at least a thousand dollars to spare, you probably can’t afford one! But you can take panoramas with any kind of camera.

All a panorama is, is a sequence of images where you turn slightly for each different frame. In the old days, before PCs and the likes of Photoshop were around, you’d take your prints (there wasn’t much point in shooting panoramas on slide film, for obvious reasons), lay them out on a table and position them over each other where they overlapped. A bit of sticky tape held them together. [As a side note, this technique was used by NASA to build up mosaic pictures of the planets and satellites their spaceprobes visited, up till the late '70s/early 80s when computers were introduced to make the process less laborious].

Now that PCs and image manipulation packages are easy to come by, high-quality panoramas can now be created by anyone. If you’re shooting slide or negative film, you will need to have your images scanned before you do anything else.

DIY Panoramas
The idea behind taking panoramas with SLR cameras is that the camera is rotated around its nodal point during each successive exposure. What’s the Nodal Point? It’s the point inside your camera where the light rays converge and flip over. It’s different for different focal lengths (on zoom lenses) and for different prime lenses (fixed focal length lenses like a standard 50mm lens). It’s important to rotate about this point to eliminate image mismatches due to changes in parallax. Parallax is the apparent shift of an object against a background due to a change in observer position.

Just to be clear, the Nodal Point is not the same as the film/sensor plane. Generally, for most SLR cameras and lenses, the Nodal Point is located somewhere towards the center of the lens barrel and lies in front of the image/sensor plane.

The Problem With Parallax
Parallax is easily demonstrated by a simple experiment. Hold up your finger about 1 foot in front of your face and alternately open and close your left and right eyes. You’ll notice that your finger shifts left and right with respect to the background depending on which eye is open. Try another experiment: With your finger still raised, close one eye and turn your head from side to side. Notice how your finger moves with respect to the background. This relative movement is due to the fact that you’re not rotating your head around your eye’s nodal point, which is somewhere in the center of your eyeball. Instead, you’re rotating about your spine which is several inches to the rear and off to one side. It is this relative side-to-side motion that we try to eliminate when setting up a camera for panoramas. [If you want to read up more about parallax, Wikipedia have a good explanatory article.]

Now, if you consider a camera held up to your face – it will suffer even greater parallax errors as it’s farther from your spine (the point of rotation of your head) than your eye. It’s surprisingly common for people to take panoramas in this fashion and then find the individual pictures don’t match up.

So use a tripod and rotate the camera on the tripod. The parallax errors will be significantly smaller but there will still be some error involved. However, the images will match up better than with the head rotation method.

Mechanical Contraptions
What perfectionists strive for is to have the camera rotate about the nodal point. There are brackets and contraptions available that will let you offset your camera from the tripod’s axis of rotation and with a little experimentation and trial and error, you can position your camera so that its nodal point is directly over the axis of rotation of the bracket. Getting this spot-on means your images should line up perfectly.

A few months ago I bought such a bracket – the Kaidan Kiwi. This comes in two halves which produce an L-shaped bracket. Its instruction manual explains how to set it up and find the nodal point for your camera and lens. However, you have to get your tripod perfectly level before using it, otherwise you end up with a curved panorama rather than a straight one.

I’ve had good success using this bracket, but it is large and heavy and certainly a bit too cumbersome to be carrying on long walks or while away on vacation.

AutoStitch To The Rescue
Then I recently came across a free bit of software called AutoStitch. Written by a couple of students at the University of Columbia, this takes all of the heartache out of creating panoramas. All you do is select the size of the final image and tell it what images you want it to stitch. It then goes off and produces your panorama.

It really is that simple. Unless successive images are radically different in exposure (i.e. one image to too light or dark compared to another), it seamlessly blends them. It performs all the warping of the images necessary to get them to align (other software I’ve used can cause ghosting in the overlap areas where it hasn’t quite aligned the images). It also aligns multiple rows of images rather than just a single strip.

Even better, it doesn’t require you to set up your camera to rotate about its nodal point. When I was in Crete last year, I tried shooting a few panoramas with my Canon EOS 300D held up to my eye (I didn’t have a tripod with me). When I got home, I tried stitching the pictures together using various bits of software (including software dedicated to stitching images together) and didn’t get satisfactory results. I knew, though, that it was because I’d swivelled the camera about my spine. But I tried these images with AutoStitch and they came out perfectly. See for yourself here.

I went walking up the Wicklow mountains in Ireland no too long ago and up to a high point called Djouce which offers a view over the rolling hills south of Dublin. As an experiment, I shot 8 frames while rotating my head about the scene (camera to eye as per normal). I wanted to see if the Crete photos were a fluke as the panoramas from there were composed of, at most, 3 frames each (sometimes 2).

Conclusion
What can I say? I plugged 8 frames into AutoStitch and after a bit of time processing the images, it produced a perfect panorama with no ghosting I could see in the overlap reasons. I like software like that. It may only do one thing but it does that one thing very well.

Give AutoStitch a try. It’s free and, so far, it produces the best panoramic results of all the panorama/stitching software I’ve tried.

One thing to remember when taking panoramas is that the exposures of each frame should be the same. So if you make your first exposure at f/8 and 1/125 of a second, take them all using those settings. Yes, you will have to put your camera into manual mode. Otherwise, you run the risk of having radically different exposures for your images. For example, if you’re panning over a landscape that contains water, like a lake, any sunlight reflected off the water may make your camera take a shorter exposure than for the other frames in your sequence. Setting your camera to manual mode will prevent that.

Gary Nugent is a software engineer by profession and has been in the business for over 20 years. Photography has been a hobby for an even longer period of time and he’s now even more passionate about it since making the switch to using a digital SLR camera. He runs the Great Landscape Photography website: http://www.great-landscape-photography.com

Once you obtain your new-fangled digital camera, a reasonable chance is you're not fairly sure how to use it. For this reason a digital photography guide can be practical when you're le...]]> Following a Digital Photography Guide and Learning Your New Camera

Writen by Trond Kristiansen

Once you obtain your new-fangled digital camera, a reasonable chance is you’re not fairly sure how to use it. For this reason a digital photography guide can be practical when you’re learning about your new-fangled toy. If you want a digital photography guide, here are some options you have:

Internet – the essential source

This days, the Internet is efficient as the central source for any query, trouble or interest you may have. If you are sprouting an interest in digital photography, the Net is a superior way to find what you need in a matter of seconds. Simply types in the words digital photography guide in any search engine, and you will be redirected to a number of websites that can help you with digital photography. Search engines such as Google.Com, about.com, and yahoo.com is wonderful gateway into answering your question or queries.

Your Neighborhood Bookstore

If you don’t have access to the Internet, or like to find things simply, than going to your neighborhood bookstore is a good way to find a digital photography guide. There will be an overflow of books on how to use your digital camera, how to successfully take digital photographs, and how to edit them on your computer. Using a book to guide you are beneficial, as you could get it wherever you go with your camera, and even refer to it as your successfully taking pictures.

Taking a photography course

Another alternative for a digital photography guide is successfully taking a course. If you are passionate enough about learning the famous art of digital photography, and don’t would appreciate to do it on your own, then think about signing up for a class. Many community colleges offer ways once or twice a week, flexible to your schedule to learn this craft. The sections may charge a bit more than a book or using the Internet, but you’re given the opportunity to learn your hobby in-depth, and have an instructor to give you guidance and constructive criticism along the approach.

Not every person is born technically gifted. Some of us need a little push to assist us understand the unknown devices that are popping up in all places. That is why a digital photography guide is practical and vital. Whether you prefer to just surf the Internet for the information you want, read a notebook or even take a section, learning the photography of digital photography is well suited time and money spent.

You are now prepared for your first fantastic shot with your new Digital Camera. Remember, lots of light and gets close to the object before you snaps you first photo. A good rule of thumb is that if the object you are photographing are more than 4 meters away.

Once in while I receive e-mails or phone calls from aspiring or beginner wedding photographers asking me for advise on how to become successful in the wedding field. My first question ...]]> Wedding Photography: How to Become a Successful Wedding Photographer

Writen by Juan Carlos Torres

Once in while I receive e-mails or phone calls from aspiring or beginner wedding photographers asking me for advise on how to become successful in the wedding field. My first question is always what their motivation is to become a wedding photographer. Some will reply that they heard from somebody that it is easy money, or that they got a cool camera that takes great photos or that they would like to make some money on the side etc. While it is true that wedding photography can be a very profitable business achieving success in the wedding industry is not just a matter of getting a camera and start shooting. Wedding photography involves artistic talent, human sense, complete mastery of photographic techniques, business knowledge, and a strong desire to learn and deliver the best to the wedding couple.

Here I have summarized some points that I believe will guide beginner wedding photographers:

1. Learn photography before anything else. A wedding photographer is expected to be a master of the craft. You will be in charge of capturing people’s most precious life moments. The wedding day is not the place to learn photography.

2. Just because you got a brand new camera it does not automatically make you an effective and reliable photographer. Photography goes beyond cool toys and gadgets. Learn composition and develop a unique artistic vision. Some of the great photographs of all time were taken with manual cameras.

3. Master the digital workflow, including color management, digital image processing, file management and image correction and enhancement.

4. Learn to love photography more than anything else. Don’t come to the wedding photography field with just dreams of making money. It is true that there are many successful wedding photographers that make a lot of money. However according to the Professional Photographers of America the average photographer in America makes about $24,000 a year.

5. Focus on delivering quality more than quantity. Seek with all your heart to capture unique photographs.

6. Develop a style that is recognizable and unique. Don’t try to be like somebody else. Clients look for unique photographers, with a unique vision.

7. Give wedding photography all your heart and effort. Long when you are gone your photographs will last forever. It is a great way to be remembered.

8. Open your heart and your mind and great photos will happen. Concentrate on the human aspect of weddings, the details, and emotions and be ready to capture them. Let the camera become an extension of you.

9. Share your technical knowledge and make connections with other wedding photographers.

10. Participate in wedding photography image competitions. It will give you the opportunity to have your work evaluated by peers and the motivation to improve your work quality.

11. Learn something new everyday. Take advantage of professional photography organizations such as Professional Photographers of America (PPA), WPPI, etc. Attend their seminars, workshops. Participate in Internet wedding photography forums and learn and share tips, tools and techniques.

12. Don’t neglect the business aspect of wedding photography. Learn to manage your business effectively. Take business courses and seminars.

Juan Carlos Torres is a very respected and awarded wedding photographer in Oregon. He has a Masters Degree in Remote Sensing with a strong background in digital image processing and photography. He is a member of the several professional photographer organizations including the Professional Photographers of America, the Professional Photographers of Oregon, the Wedding Photojournalist Association,and the Oregon Wedding Photo Guild. His wedding photographs are unique and very artistic and have been featured in national and international magazines. For a sample of his works please visit Portland Oregon Wedding Photographer and Eugene Oregon Wedding Photographer

For a discussion on wedding photography see our Blog at Oregon Wedding Photographer

Anyone with the ability to use a camera correctly has the potential to sell their images. Picture agencies handle images of every subject and are always looking for emerging talent.

Pictures libraries and s...]]> Did You Ever Try Selling Your Photography-Part 2

Writen by TJ Tierney

Anyone with the ability to use a camera correctly has the potential to sell their images. Picture agencies handle images of every subject and are always looking for emerging talent.

Pictures libraries and stock agencies are in the business of selling images. The don’t give you advice on how to take better images. Their purpose is business – they sell images to magazines, book publishers, the travel industry and many other industries that use images.

Many photographers look upon agencies as a last resort to sell their work; if you have been unable to sell any of your images, the chances are that most agencies won’t accept them.

If you are interested in an agency selling your images, you must be able to produce high quality images which are suited to the agencies market. Check out their website to view samples that are currently in use. If you feel your work meets their standards and suits their customers – then approach them by e-mail or by standard mail.

But, before placing your work at an agency make a short-list of the agencies that seem to suit your work. Contact each agency outlining your work and which magazines have already published your images. If an agency is then interested they will ask you to send them samples.

If an agency accepts your work, don’t take this as a guarantee that your images will sell.

Don’t approach an agency until you have a large collection of images. Minimum first submissions can consist of anything from 50 images to 500 and regular submissions are normally required thereafter. Most agencies work on a commission basis – 50 % being the standard rate. If an image sells for two hundred euro – the photographer receives a one hundred euro fee.

When an agency takes on a photographer’s work, they normally require a four or five year retention period. Agencies normally sell the reproduction rights of a pictures – the image being licensed to a buyer for a specified purpose.

It may take as long as six months before an agency sells a picture belonging to you. First they need to scan your images if they are submitted by film; then they need to contact their clients and let them know that there is new material available – all of this takes time, so you must look at supplying a picture agency as a long term investment. It is only when you have several hundred images placed in a library that you’ll start to see regular sales.

Remember: agencies can’t sell images if there isn’t a market for them and placing images at an agency does not guarantee you sales.

TJ Tierney is an award winning Irish Landscape photographer and a freelance writer. If you are looking for some photo tips visit the photography directory he frequently writes for: http://www.goldprints.com To view some of his images visit his on line gallery @ http://www.goldenirishlight.com

You arrive at your photo shoot excited about the images you are about to take - that is, until you realize that you have left an important piece of equipment at home. You now will have to improvise, spend extra money or time to replace...]]> Photo Equipment Lists

Writen by Carolyn Wright

You arrive at your photo shoot excited about the images you are about to take – that is, until you realize that you have left an important piece of equipment at home. You now will have to improvise, spend extra money or time to replace the item, or go without it for the shot.

One way to help remember everything for the best photo shoot is to make a checklist of needed items. The lists can vary by the type of shoot, but always include certain basics. Following are some lists to get you started.

Wedding/Portraits

* Camera bodies

* Camera batteries (charged), including backup

* Camera plates

* Lenses (wide, mid-range and telephoto) with lens shades

* Filters (soft, star and other special effects; yellow, red for B&W film)

* Film or CF cards

* Flash

* Flash batteries (charged), including backups and battery pack

* Flash diffusers

* Flash synch cord

* Camera bracket

* Tripod

* Tripod head

* Stool/ladder

* Reflector/diffuser

* Business cards

* Tools (allen wrench, multi-function, blower, flashlight)

* Lens cleaner/cloth

* Props/blanket

* Light meter

* Camera and flash manuals

* Fanny pack

Studio Photography

* Wedding/portrait equipment plus:

* Backdrop

* Backdrop stands

* Reflector stand

* Studio lights/cords

* Soft boxes/diffusers

* Stool/posing table

* Electrical/duct tape

Landscape/Macro/Wildlife

* Camera bodies

* Camera batteries (charged), including backup

* Camera battery charger

* Camera plates (L-bracket)

* Bubble level

* Lenses (wide, macro, mid-range and telephoto) with lens shades

* Teleconverter

* Extension tube

* Filters (graduated ND, polarizer, color compensating)

* Film or CF cards

* Flash

* Flash batteries (charged), including backups and battery pack

* Flash battery charger

* Flash diffusers

* Flash synch cord

* Tripod/monopod

* Tripod heads (Gimbal, ballhead)

* Reflector/diffuser

* Tools (allen wrench, multi-function, blower)

* Camera and flash manuals

* Rain cover for camera

* Lens cleaner/cloth

* Sunscreen

* Bug Spray

* Hat

* National park pass

* Photo vest and/or fanny pack

Digital

* Laptop or storage device Charger for laptop or storage device (AC and/or DC)

* Card reader

* Blank CDs or DVDs for backups

Look at your own equipment needs to customize your lists. They will help you to remember all of the tools to help make your photo shoot the best. Just don’t forget the list!

Copyright 2005 Carolyn E. Wright All Rights Reserved

— ABOUT THE AUTHOR —

Carolyn Wright is a professional photographer with an active wildlife photography business. Shooting for 25 years, her award-winning images have been used in books and corporate marketing materials. Her photos will be included in the upcoming book, “Captivating Wildlife – Images from the Top Ten Emerging Wildlife Photographers” by Scott Bourne and David Middleton. She also is working with Scott Bourne on “Wolfscapes,” a photo book documenting the beauty and strength of wolves. Her wildlife images can be viewed at http://www.vividwildlife.com

On the faculty of Olympic Mountain School of Photography, Carolyn’s passion is enhanced when teaching photography. She enjoys writing and speaking on the subject, as well, and is a regular columnist for PhotoFocus, an online magazine for serious photographers.

For many folks buying a digital camera can be a confusing and bewildering purchase since there are so many models to choose from and so many different kinds of digital cameras too. Un...]]> Your Guide To Buying A Digital Camera That Matches Your Photography Skill

Writen by Thad Pickering

For many folks buying a digital camera can be a confusing and bewildering purchase since there are so many models to choose from and so many different kinds of digital cameras too. Unless you are a photography hobbyist you probably won’t be familiar with all of the acronyms and language used to describe the features of each camera either. So here is a general guide to help you know how to buy a digital camera that matches your own photographic skill level.

First of all, there is no one size fits all solution in digital cameras. It would be much easier to choose if that were the case, but it would also severely limit what each person could do with their own photography. And this means that is you aren’t a serious hobbyist, you probably don’t need to spend the extra money on digital cameras that have all the advanced features simply because you will probably never use them. And on the other hand, if you are a skilled amateur photographer, buying a simple point and shoot type of camera will not be a great decision either as it will not let you really be creative enough to satisfy your needs. So here are a few simple guidelines to follow.

If you don’t consider yourself a photographer, and you just simply want to take good pictures of family and friends, and maybe some special occasions, you can most likely do very well with a 4 – 6 megapixel point and shoot fully automatic digital camera. This will be the most inexpensive option and so will save you plenty of money initially by not purchasing features that you really don’t need. And the resolution of a 4 – 6 megapixel camera will let you make great prints on up to 8 X 10 or so.

If however, you know a little bit about photography and like to take some control yourself over the camera functions at times to create special photo effects in the composition of the photo, a more advanced digital camera that has fully manual features for exposure control, and allows you to save the image files in TIFF, GIF or RAW formats that do not lose image quality when compressed would be a good choice. Unless you do a lot of enlargements above 8 X 10 you probably can still get by with a 4 – 6 megapixel camera here too.

However, if you consider yourself a photographer of sorts and like to be creative with your photos, you probably should consider buying a digital single lens reflex camera(SLR) that uses interchangeable lenses, has full manual control capability, and advanced features that most serious photographers really appreciate. And if you like to do lots of manual cropping of photos and magnification of smaller parts of your photo images before you print, an 8 – 10 megapixel camera can be a good bet.

Of course, these guidelines and tips are just general suggestions but hopefully they can help point you in the right direction so that you can more easily select and buy the digital camera that will most closely match your photographic skills.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including digital photography. You can find the best rated digital cameras and buy digital camera online by visiting our Digital Photography website.

Have a look through your photographic equipment. Have a good look. Check through your cameras. Check through your lenses. Now the tripods, filters and flashguns. Check everything.

I'll bet there's things there you don't...]]> Unused Photographic Equipment

Writen by Eric Hartwell

Have a look through your photographic equipment. Have a good look. Check through your cameras. Check through your lenses. Now the tripods, filters and flashguns. Check everything.

I’ll bet there’s things there you don’t use. But more – I’ll bet there’s things there that you have never used – apart from when you first bought it.

Or worse – was “given” it. For the equipment we are the least likely to use is the equipment we are given. People mean well, and you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. But they don’t understand photography like you do. And they understand digital photography even less.

This year, I was given a lovely book on landscapes. beautifully illustrated and written by someone that is respected throughout the world in landscape photography. The problem was, it was exactly the same as the copy sitting on my bookshelf. I also got some cheap lens wipes and a few other trinket accessories. I will never use them.

And don’t go thinking that it’s what “others” buy us that goes unused. I have plenty of stuff that has laid pretty much idle since the day I bough it all. Fisheye converters, extension tubes. I own three flashguns, only one of which I ever use. I have several tripods and several cheap lenses. I don’t kniow why I don’t part with them.

I’ll bet you have stuff that you never get out let alone use. Can you part with it? Possibly, but for me, having this equipment tells me something about how I graduated in photography and how I have developed. But like an old favourite teddy bear, some things just have to be kept.

…. apart from my latest gifts from Aunt Audrey.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com