On a recent backpacking trip through Europe, I made a decision to forego use of my bulky Minolta camera and decided instead to use my cell phone camera.  I wholeheartedly expected the photos to end up in the trash.  After enrolling in my local community center class and receiving some expert advice, I was able to produce memories worthy of framing. 

Keep Your Subject Still

We have all witnessed the fuzzy photographs unsteady hands produce. Phone cameras will experience a delay from when you press the capture button to the time your picture is actually taken.  Have your subject remain as still as possible.  Use a mailbox, table, ledge or other sturdy structure to support your arm and hand.  This allows for a much cleaner photo.

Experiment with Multiple Shots

You are not paying for film so take as many shots of one subject as you prefer.  Multiple shots taken from different angles with different lighting will give you a wider choice when editing the photos.

Get Next to Your Subject

Due to the low resolution cell phone images are already small. Do not stand too far away from the object you wish to photograph.  Cell phone cameras often end up taking tiny snapshots because we fail to use the entire view finder to capture our subject. 

Use The Light Wisely

As most of my photos were taken in the bright outdoors, lighting was not an issue. Make sure your subject is well lighted.   For those indoor shots we captured at dinner time we snapped on an extra light.  Make sure you do not shoot directly into bright lights or your camera subject will be silhouetted.

Chose Your Subjects Wisely

On my trip I found many people were glad to allow for a fun photo opportunity.  I photographed kids at lunch in Berlin, pastry chefs in France, limo drivers in London and even a priest enjoying an afternoon ice cream in Italy.  Occasionally I came across a person who did not want to become part of my photograhic memories.  They respectfully declined and I politely agreed to their request.   Entertainment venues, theaters and other places of formal gathering often forbid use of a camera phone so please ask before you begin to shoot.

Push the Boundaries of Composition

Photos that are slightly off center are often more visually appealing. Don’t think you have to put your subject matter squarely in the middle of the picture frame.   Get up on a chair, lie on the ground, peek from behind a gauze curtain or stand on a tabletop to find different ways of capturing a person, place or thing.

Protect Your Phone and Camera Lens

During my overseas travel my phone spent a lot of time in my backpack and often became grimy.  Frequently wipe your lens clean of greasy fingerprints and dirt.  A soft cotton cloth works fine; a glass cleaning cloth works better. My sister used a plush cell phone cover in the shape of a bulldog that actually protected her phone from nicks and scratches.  While shooting in an empty church, she dropped the phone over a balcony and it survived the fall without mishap.  Many other tourists commented on how surprised they were the phone was still intact.  We ended up with a treasure of wonderful photograhs, all captured with our little cell phone camera.

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About the Author:
Kenly Taylor is Social Marketing Director for Fun Friends, Inc. (www.funfriends.com).  Kenly is a leading expert in the use of social media for large and small businesses alike.  She authors a world recognized blog and a TV podcast series that she directs.  Kenly has penned over 20 publications for major magazines and online resources.
 
 
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Imagine taking the best picture of your life.

And, while you are imagining, imagine that your picture wins a local photo contest in your city. It is selected for entry into a nationally published photography magazine, and photographers all over are emailing you to tell you what a wonderful photo you have taken.

Meanwhile, back on earth, you realize you need that DSLR camera to take such a picture. And Canon is your final choice. (Excellent decision, by the way). Now all you need to do is decide between the TWO Rebels that are at the top of the entry level DSLR market.

First, there’s the Canon Rebel XSi (aka Rebel 450D), and then there is the Canon Rebel T1i (aka Rebel 500D). Both cameras are highly rated by people who bought them. Very few buyers have been dissatisfied with their purchase. You can find that out by going to amazon.com or B&H Photo and searching for one of the cameras. You will find that there are user reviews there, as well as testimonials from camera buyers. The reason buyers are so happy with their choice of Canon DSLRs is that these cameras are masterfully manufactured and they take amazing quality pictures. The differences between the two DSLR cameras are fairly basic and easy to understand.

The difference in megapixels is not as significant as some might imagine. When you are talking about 12.2 vs 15.1 megapixels, it is like a drop in the megapixel bucket! You can produce a huge print from either camera… larger than 9 by 13 (which is the largest image that can be printed on most home printers). By the way, the T1i has the 15.1 megapixel image sensor, and the XSi has the 12.2 megapixel sensor.

THE major difference is that the T1i can take video while the XSi does not have video capability. And the T1i does not just take video, it takes HD quality video. While it is not as good as a dedicated camcorder, the quality is very good indeed.

Another major difference is Creative Auto. This feature is available in the T1i but not the XSi. Creative Auto is similar to features on some of the better point and shoot cameras. It allows the photographer to take more creative shots using camera settings rather than relying on the individual’s own photographic knowledge. Canon’s claim is that the beginning photographer can take better shots while learning to use their DSLR. The last difference in this DSLR shoot out is price. In this category, the Rebel XSi is the clear winner, coming in at about $150 below the Rebel T1i.

The bottom line: Do you need video and creative auto? Would you like to save about $150 that you could use to get a special lens? Go to http://www.squidoo.com/canon-rebel-xsi-x1i to discover more about the Canon Rebel XSi vs. T1i debate.

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About the Author:
I love photography and all things related to it. Cameras, camera gear, and image editing software fascinate me, so I am either buying the newest piece of equipment (or software) or researching my next purchase. Be sure to visit the Cameras-N-Stuff Blog.
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Tags: photography, camera, digital camera, news, photo, digital photography, technology, cameras

A good photographer should have sound and in-depth knowledge of a good composition. Preparing a good composition does not involve fixed set of rules. The composition is a task of creativity and    .. more …

A good photographer should have sound and in-depth knowledge of a good composition. Preparing a good composition does not involve fixed set of rules. The composition is a task of creativity and imagination on the part of a photographer. There are five essential basics or elements in photography. These are the elements such as pattern, texture, symmetry, depth of field and lines.

Pattern: While photographing a subject you can highlight certain patterns that can create visually appealing shots. For instance, a person can photograph a building in a slanting position with a few persons peeping out of the window of the building.

Texture: The texture is another element of the picture making. It means one can play with light and shadows in the picture making. The light hits the object or subject and this creates either two-dimensional or three-dimensional impact on a particular picture. For instance, a person can photograph a sculpture in the evening light falling on the sculpture.

Symmetry: You can play with the light and shadow for the purpose of giving an implication of different moods.

Depth Of Field: The depth of field is another kind of element used in picture making that plays a role in creating an emphatic image. The depth of field refers to the filed in an image on which you want to focus. For instance, if you want to focus on the shoes lying on the grass, you can focus on the shoes and leave the back portion of the picture.

Lines: Last but not the least, composition of lines can be used by a photographer to communicate messages to a viewer. For example, you can use light rays of the street lights in the night in a picture. This can have several implications such as fast pace of metropolitan life.

All these are the unique elements used in picture making. Such elements are mainly used by professional photographers for the purpose of film shoots or magazine shoots along with other tools used like green screen. You can use these forms of composition for advertising or modeling. All these kind of pictures has the potential of creating emphatic and impressive picture making. They can be used for the purpose of creating powerful pictures.

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About the Author:
Myself webmaster of 123videomagic.com providing green screen software, video green screen software, chroma key software, video editing software that helps in customizing video and images by replacing their background to make them look more appealing.
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Tags: cameras, news, digital camera, camera, technology, photography, photo, digital photography

PC Magazine – Given the ever-increasing number of digital cameras that can shoot video – to say nothing of all the video cameras that can capture still images – it makes sense to have photo and video editing tools in one place. That’s exactly what Corel has done with its latest release, Digital Studio 2010.

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If you are looking for a guide on how to edit your digital photos, I came across this article today.  If you are like me, I am not an expert when it comes to editing photos.  I am not that artistic so my imagination never takes over when I am trying some clever way to show off my pictures.  I thought this guide was easy to follow.  Also there is a great ebook called Digital Photography Secrets that reveals tips only the pros know about taking great photos.  If you find this article useful, share this link and this author with others.

Adobe’s Photoshop software is a very powerful image editing program that is by far the market leader for editing image files. I use Photoshop extensively when creating, and editing images for the web sites that I design. Almost all professional photographers and printers also use Photoshop to create all of the wonderful images that appear in magazines, billboards, and even on television. I am not the best artist in the world, but with Photoshop I have enough power to create brilliant images with tools that are built-in to the software. The coolest thing about Photoshop is that even as powerful as it is out of the box, there are many different plug-ins to make Photoshop even more powerful. The Photoshop plug-ins can be grouped into a few major categories which include 3D, color management, digital asset management, photographic, retouching, and special effects.

There are a few formats for digital photography, different formats have their own advantages. For instance the jpeg format is the default format used by almost every digital camera ever made. Named after its developer, the Joint Photographic Experts Group (and pronounced "jay-peg") this format often lets you specify both image size and compression. At the moment you capture an image in this format a processing chip in your camera manipulates it based on the camera settings you used, and then compresses it to reduce its size. The changes made to the image cannot be undone later because it’s the final, altered image that is saved in the image file. Some of the original image data is lost for good. This is a handy format because it is the most basic and commonly used.

Image files are huge compared to many other types of computer files. For example, files captured by a 12 Megapixel camera can range up to 18 Megabytes. As resolutions continue to increase, so will file sizes. To make image files smaller and more manageable, digital cameras use a process called compression. During compression, data that is duplicated or that has little value is eliminated or saved in a shorter form, to reduce a file’s size. For example, if large areas of the sky are the same shade of blue, only the value for one pixel needs to be saved along with the locations of the other pixels with the same color.

When choosing between JPEG and RAW formats, here are some things to consider about each format. Because you can’t easily add pixels and retain image quality, or remove the effects of compression after the fact, it’s usually best to use the largest available JPEG size and the least compression available. If you have to reduce either, you can do so later using a photo-editing program. If you shoot the image at a lower quality setting, you can never really improve it much or get a large, sharp print if you want one. The only problem with this approach is that higher quality images have larger file sizes. RAW images are always captured at the largest file size, and any compression used is lossless. Images in this format used to require an extra processing step but since the latest programs such as Aperture and Lightroom were designed from the ground up after RAW formats were introduced they handle them as easily as they handle JPEGs.

Folders are used to organize files on a drive. Imagine working in a photo stock agency where you’re told to find a photo of "Yosemite" only to discover that all of the photos the agency ever acquired are stored in unorganized boxes. You have to pick through everything to gather together what you want. Contrast this with an agency that uses a well-organized file cabinet with labeled hanging folders grouping related images together. For example, there might be a hanging folder labeled California National Parks. If a further breakdown is needed, labeled manila folders are inserted into any of the hanging folders-basically, folders within folders. There might be one labelled Yosemite containing images of the park. With everything labelled and organized, it’s easy to locate the images you need. The same is true of your memory cards and drives on your computer system. Both are equivalent to the empty file cabinet-plenty of storage space but no organization. The organization you need to find things on the camera’s memory device (which we discuss here) is created by the camera, but on your computer, you have to create it yourself (as you will see later).

When an image is saved, the camera assigns it a filename and stores it in the current folder. Filenames have two parts, an 8-character filename and a 3-character extension. Think of them as first and last names. The name is unique to each file, and the extension, separated from the name by a period, identifies the file’s format. For example, a JPG extension means it’s a JPEG image file, TIF means it’s a TIFF image file.

Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a specification that spells out how information about a JPEG image is stored in the same file as the image. This information, including a thumbnail image, describes the camera settings at the time the picture was taken, and even the image’s location if the camera supports GPS (Global Positioning System). Digital cameras record this information as metadata in an area of the image file called the header. This information isn’t just for managing images, it can also be used by some printers to give you better results. Basically, any camera control set to auto at the time the image was taken can be manipulated by the printer or other device to improve results. Those set to one of the camera’s manual choices is considered to be a deliberate choice and is not manipulated.

Want to find out more about editing digital photographs? Don’t trust anybody’s advice until you have read this free report

Zandra Jones is a digital camera enthusiast and owner of the blog Digital Photo City.

Tags: technology, news, digital photography, photo, cameras, camera, photography, digital camera

Have you seen picture ads in magazines that look so nice that they don't look real at all? Some of them have been edited using photo editing software. But, definitely, most of them have been taken using a camera with a special kind of filter.

There are a wide variety of filters to choose from when adding to your camera equipment. There are filters for either color or black-and-white shots or both. Each filter has its own function, whether it be for enhancing the color contrast, improving sharpness, highlight flares and more. And there are filters for special effects like those photos normally seen in magazines and advertisements.

Here are some examples of filters that can be used to enhance the image by adding special effects to them.

Star and Cross Effect Filters

There are different star effect flares available such as Star-Six and Star-Eight. The Star-Six has six-pointed light flares, while Star-Eight has eight-pointed flares. These flares add more brightness to images. This filter is good when taking pictures of streetlights, theme-parks during the night or sun-reflections on glass structures.

A cross screen filter is similar to star filters except that the flare is four-cross. It also gives a dramatic effect to bright points in the image. It is ideal for taking photos of ladies wearing jewelry.

Spectral cross filter produces cross effects as well as soft-focus effects normally desired for portraits, outdoor shots with direct lighting or back lighting with increased cross effects. It is a filter with two transparent and colorless optical glass in a rotating frame with a black gauze-like fiber in between.

Vario cross filter gives an effect of four rays of light coming out from each light source point. It is a filter consisting of two glasses with parallel lines etched on each glass. The front glass can be rotated separately to modify the angle of the light rays.

Close-up Filters

As the name implies, these filters are for close-up photography which are better than zooms. These filters are available in +1, +2, +3, +4, and +10 diopters with the higher number giving a much closer shot.

Macro close-up filters are good for taking shots of small insects, flowers and other tiny objects at close-up. It has a +10 diopter rating with a 2-element, 2-group construction lens.

Split field filter takes a close-up shot of half of the image while the other half is normal. This is used for keeping in focus both close and far objects at the same time.

Multivision Filters

To create a fantastic effect of repeating an object in a single photo, multivision filters are used. These are available in 3PF, 3F, 5F, 6F, and 6PF where the number determines the number of times the object will be repeated. It works great with dark backgrounds or larger objects.

Multivision filters are made up of optical glass accurately cut into different facets. Color multivision filters add different colors to the image. There are two types available – 3F with three faces in red, green and blue, and 5F with five faces equally divided into orange and green colors.

Misty Spot Filters

This type of filters provides a blurring effect of the background of a clear and sharp central image. There are four types of these kind available.

A breezing filter gives unidirectional streaks of the blurred background. Gradual filter has streaks that seem to originate from the center image. The windmill filter has a blurring background that swirls about the center. The halo filter has blurring streaks that originate from a point at the edge of the field.

Diffusion Filters

Diffusion filters provide a soft focus effect on the image due to an irregular or uneven surface. This kind of filter is specifically used for portraits.

Center Spot Filters

The center of this filter has a clear spot that gives the center image a clear and sharp effect, while the background can have an effect of fog to make it romantic.

These are just some of the special effects filters available for professional and amateur photographers alike. It surely is nice to add even just one or two to your collection with the fabulous effects that it can provide on your shots.

Tags: cameras, technology, digital photography, photo, news, digital camera, camera, photography

Here are some photography class basic tips.  In the print media, pictures are used to break the monotony of a news page. Illustrations may be used as page decoration. If its only purpose is to create a favorable impression for the reader, it’s a valid function. After all, according to J.W. Click and Russel N. Baird’s book, “Magazine Editing and Production,” people hang paintings and photos on their walls for aesthetic reasons only.

Given that concept, one can surmise that photography is, indeed, a work of art captured in technicalities and presented in an exceptional manner. The total impression on the subject will always depend on the way the photographer wants to present his or her subject matter.

For this reason, special photography class is provided for those who wish to perfect their skills as far as photography is concerned. However, there are some basic tips that every budding photographer must know in order to succeed in this kind of endeavor.

Here is a list of some of the important pointers that are taught in every photography class:

1. Get ready

The key to good shots is to have all of your necessary materials ready. One of the basic skills needed in photography is the point and shoot. However, you can’t do this if you lack the materials that you need such as extra batteries (in case you run out of battery supplies), a tripod (for a steady footing), and other devices like the lenses that would aid your ability to incorporate the point and shoot skill.

Besides, you would not want to be wasting your time rummaging through your bag to find those additional lenses just to get a close up shot of your subject. Aside from time-consuming, your subject might lose interest or if it is a moving object, it might not stay longer than you have expected.

2. Be steady with your camera

One of the main reasons why pictures may come out blurred is the fact that some photographers can’t get a steady hand on their cameras. It would be better to avoid shaking your camera. If you really can’t avoid these, it would better to use a tripod or inserting your elbows to your sides so that you get a stable grip.

3. Focus on your subject

By attending some photography classes, you should be able to learn how to get the best angles to capture your subject. Just keep in mind to focus on your subject and not on anything else.

These are just some of basic tips that you will learn in a photography class. Just keep them in mind and you are on your way to your best shot.

Tags: photographer, digital photography, professional photographer, photography classes, professional photography, photo