Friday, February 11, 2011
Bad Weather, Good Light: The Art Of Being Flexible
We’ve all sat, staring out of our window and cursing at the rain poring down or the flat, grey sky that just happened to cloud over on few hours we’ve managed to set aside in our busy schedule to head out and shoot some photos. But all is not lost for the opportunistic and well prepared photographer.
Be Patient
After many rainfalls or storms, comes a spectacular burst of light. Often this light lasts only momentarily, but is worth waiting for. But you’re never going to catch it if you’re still staring out of that window. Part of making good photographs is being an opportunist. Weather reports are easily accessible through the internet, over the radio, and in newspapers, often with detailed information. You might be able to find out if the cloud cover or storm is about to pass. If not, head out anyway. Yes, it might all be in vain and remain gray and unappealing until nightfall and be a complete waste of time, but what if it isn’t? If you speak to, or read any book written by a successful landscape photographer, they will tell you stories about how they visited a place dozens of times and waited for hours before getting that one in a million shot. Have a look at that shot. Was it worth the time? Chances are it was. Imagine the satisfaction gained from someone looking at your photo and letting out a breathless “Wow!” Then you’ll be the one telling the stories.
A simple way to think about it is that you get out what you put in.
Be prepared
Have you done any research on your subject? Have you visited your location at this time of day before? Do you have a list, or at least a mental outline, of the photos you want? Have you considered the equipment you might need to take? Answering these questions will take you a long way to being able to seize the moment when it does eventually arrive. Instead of fumbling around trying to attach lenses, tripods, filters and any other gadgets that might be necessary, (and I do mean “might”), you will simply be able to step out of your car, or hiding place, gear in hand, and calmly collect the images you’ve been imagining. A little foresight in taking care of these things beforehand allows you to focus completely on taking photos once in the field. As with anything else, if you can concentrate completely, you’ll likely do a better job.
What’s your purpose?
Think about what you are actually trying to achieve with these pictures. Do you even need blue skies? Many a moody, muted landscape has been created using the worst weather conditions. If you have an interest in shooting black and white images, you could be in for a real treat. Many subjects, such as outdoor portraits, can work better in overcast conditions, enabling you to pick up the lines in someone’s face and add character to the portrait without having to worry about your subject squinting their eyes from the sun or dark shadows appearing over half of their face.
Most successful photography, like anything else, comes from having a clear goal and taking the steps necessary to achieve it. It also comes from working with the elements and planning for various possibilities. Open yourself up to new ideas and you will find that your photography improves markedly.
Be Patient
After many rainfalls or storms, comes a spectacular burst of light. Often this light lasts only momentarily, but is worth waiting for. But you’re never going to catch it if you’re still staring out of that window. Part of making good photographs is being an opportunist. Weather reports are easily accessible through the internet, over the radio, and in newspapers, often with detailed information. You might be able to find out if the cloud cover or storm is about to pass. If not, head out anyway. Yes, it might all be in vain and remain gray and unappealing until nightfall and be a complete waste of time, but what if it isn’t? If you speak to, or read any book written by a successful landscape photographer, they will tell you stories about how they visited a place dozens of times and waited for hours before getting that one in a million shot. Have a look at that shot. Was it worth the time? Chances are it was. Imagine the satisfaction gained from someone looking at your photo and letting out a breathless “Wow!” Then you’ll be the one telling the stories.
A simple way to think about it is that you get out what you put in.
Be prepared
Have you done any research on your subject? Have you visited your location at this time of day before? Do you have a list, or at least a mental outline, of the photos you want? Have you considered the equipment you might need to take? Answering these questions will take you a long way to being able to seize the moment when it does eventually arrive. Instead of fumbling around trying to attach lenses, tripods, filters and any other gadgets that might be necessary, (and I do mean “might”), you will simply be able to step out of your car, or hiding place, gear in hand, and calmly collect the images you’ve been imagining. A little foresight in taking care of these things beforehand allows you to focus completely on taking photos once in the field. As with anything else, if you can concentrate completely, you’ll likely do a better job.
What’s your purpose?
Think about what you are actually trying to achieve with these pictures. Do you even need blue skies? Many a moody, muted landscape has been created using the worst weather conditions. If you have an interest in shooting black and white images, you could be in for a real treat. Many subjects, such as outdoor portraits, can work better in overcast conditions, enabling you to pick up the lines in someone’s face and add character to the portrait without having to worry about your subject squinting their eyes from the sun or dark shadows appearing over half of their face.
Most successful photography, like anything else, comes from having a clear goal and taking the steps necessary to achieve it. It also comes from working with the elements and planning for various possibilities. Open yourself up to new ideas and you will find that your photography improves markedly.
Travel Photography – Packing Your Accessories for the Journey
Taking your camera with you on holiday provides a great opportunity to capturing on film new landscapes, different cultures and their landmarks.
Whether you are at a beach, rural or city location, the pictures will provide a record of the memorable experience whilst building your photography skills and expertise.
It is always worth learning a few new tips to improve on those skills and make those pictures more rewarding.
Before you travel
Get to know your camera and film well before packing all your accessories to travel with. Be sure to test all your equipment before you leave. Once you’re there on your travels you may not be able to repeat the visit for some time.
Your film sees things slightly differently from you so get to know the characteristics of the type of film you use.
This will help in predicting any differences, in doing so prevent any unpleasant surprises. After booking your travel carry out some research on the area you are travelling to, making a list using travel guides, magazines and books will help plan for the location you are going to visit.
Try relevant web sites, online communities and newsgroups provide more up-to date information to get some first-hand information, travel tips and advice on finding some scenic spots.
This will save precious time when you are there and also help with the type of shots you may wish to take when you are there, nature pictures of animals feeding, sunsets, historical buildings or even fireworks.
Charge camera batteries before you leave, again this saves time. Take an extra memory card with you and clear the memory on both cards before you leave, this will help as with the modern digital camera holding so many pictures you can shoot lots of pictures of the same subject. Wait till you get home before deciding on and sorting out the good from the bad before printing them.
Try learning some of the language. Even a few phrases can go a long way with people as in many countries people do not expect visitors to be able to speak their language and are pleasantly surprised as this shows that you are taking an interest.
What to pack
Make a list of items you want to bring with you before travelling. You’re guaranteed that whatever you leave behind will be the travel accessory you need when you are travelling.
Aswell as your camera, keep in mind the following accessories to travel with:
Batteries, extra batteries, battery charger, memory card(s)
Film (be careful, film purchased abroad may have been stored under the wrong conditions)
Portable storage device, external flash
Tripod (useful for low light situations or when using a strong telephoto lens)
Power adapter (if travelling abroad)
Camera case, waterproof if going to a wet location or beach (purchase silica gel packs from your camera accessories store to reduce moisture further)
Underwater camera if you are travelling to a beach location (even a small disposable underwater camera will capture great shots)
Get a wrist strap for your camera, helps against the possibility of losing your camera.
Using a flash, as fill flash can be more helpful in broad daylight than at night. Typically an in built camera flash
will have a range of only a few metres.
Wide-angle lens, monopod zoom lens
Purchase the best lens you can afford, these are more important than a camera with many features.
Take as many spare parts as you can, for example: second camera body, small pocket tripod, wide angle lens and
50 mm lens incase light conditions are bad. You can always keep these spare accessories at the hotel if you plan ahead for your day trip.
Filters
To reduce contrast use a neutral density grey filter to cover the bright parts of the picture
When using filters, always take an unfiltered version of the picture aswell (except for UV or daylight filters).
A polarising filter may eliminate reflections and enhance saturation.
Airport X-rays
On flights, never check in film with your main luggage there is the possibility that the strong X-ray machines at airports that scan checked in luggage may damage your film. Hand baggage would be a safer option.
The damage can range from a lack of sharpness or a cast to severe damage.
Whether you are at a beach, rural or city location, the pictures will provide a record of the memorable experience whilst building your photography skills and expertise.
It is always worth learning a few new tips to improve on those skills and make those pictures more rewarding.
Before you travel
Get to know your camera and film well before packing all your accessories to travel with. Be sure to test all your equipment before you leave. Once you’re there on your travels you may not be able to repeat the visit for some time.
Your film sees things slightly differently from you so get to know the characteristics of the type of film you use.
This will help in predicting any differences, in doing so prevent any unpleasant surprises. After booking your travel carry out some research on the area you are travelling to, making a list using travel guides, magazines and books will help plan for the location you are going to visit.
Try relevant web sites, online communities and newsgroups provide more up-to date information to get some first-hand information, travel tips and advice on finding some scenic spots.
This will save precious time when you are there and also help with the type of shots you may wish to take when you are there, nature pictures of animals feeding, sunsets, historical buildings or even fireworks.
Charge camera batteries before you leave, again this saves time. Take an extra memory card with you and clear the memory on both cards before you leave, this will help as with the modern digital camera holding so many pictures you can shoot lots of pictures of the same subject. Wait till you get home before deciding on and sorting out the good from the bad before printing them.
Try learning some of the language. Even a few phrases can go a long way with people as in many countries people do not expect visitors to be able to speak their language and are pleasantly surprised as this shows that you are taking an interest.
What to pack
Make a list of items you want to bring with you before travelling. You’re guaranteed that whatever you leave behind will be the travel accessory you need when you are travelling.
Aswell as your camera, keep in mind the following accessories to travel with:
Batteries, extra batteries, battery charger, memory card(s)
Film (be careful, film purchased abroad may have been stored under the wrong conditions)
Portable storage device, external flash
Tripod (useful for low light situations or when using a strong telephoto lens)
Power adapter (if travelling abroad)
Camera case, waterproof if going to a wet location or beach (purchase silica gel packs from your camera accessories store to reduce moisture further)
Underwater camera if you are travelling to a beach location (even a small disposable underwater camera will capture great shots)
Get a wrist strap for your camera, helps against the possibility of losing your camera.
Using a flash, as fill flash can be more helpful in broad daylight than at night. Typically an in built camera flash
will have a range of only a few metres.
Wide-angle lens, monopod zoom lens
Purchase the best lens you can afford, these are more important than a camera with many features.
Take as many spare parts as you can, for example: second camera body, small pocket tripod, wide angle lens and
50 mm lens incase light conditions are bad. You can always keep these spare accessories at the hotel if you plan ahead for your day trip.
Filters
To reduce contrast use a neutral density grey filter to cover the bright parts of the picture
When using filters, always take an unfiltered version of the picture aswell (except for UV or daylight filters).
A polarising filter may eliminate reflections and enhance saturation.
Airport X-rays
On flights, never check in film with your main luggage there is the possibility that the strong X-ray machines at airports that scan checked in luggage may damage your film. Hand baggage would be a safer option.
The damage can range from a lack of sharpness or a cast to severe damage.
Choosing A Subject
How do you know what photos you will take? Are you going to a family reunion? Are you going out for a hike and hope to see some wildlife? There are many questions when it comes to photography. You will want to have a basis of photography techniques to provide the best photograph and once you learn those techniques the subject will be up to you. Most photographers whether they are professional or amateurs like you will have a medium they work with. It is the same with other artists; you have painters, sculptors, sketch artists, and much more. Photography is art and therefore requires an eye for the right photograph.
How do you know what subject you will shoot? This is where your interests lie. If you wish only to take pictures of wildlife then you will have to wait for the subject to come into view. Obviously you can go to a wildlife park such as the Rocky Mountain National Park and hope to find subjects. Most often it will depend on the time of year. Elk and Deer are more prominent when they come down the mountains to mate and eat. Birds will always be available, but the type of birds will vary. If you are in Alaska chances are you will have several chances of shooting a Bald Eagle, while in Florida you may find heron or cranes.
When you are practicing techniques you will have to choose your subject accordingly. A lot of us are regulated to the area around us. Landscape photography requires the use of the land you have around you, unless you are going on vacation to some place new. This is another important fact to choosing a subject. You are either limited or you have the whole world at your feet. It will depend on your traveling abilities. For now we will stick close to home.
Once you choose your medium you will then go in search of subjects. The subject that speaks to you is what you should choose to shoot. If a tree and the knots it’s formed interest you, you will want to check the lighting of the area. Deciding which angle to shoot from will also make the decision on the subject. The lighting may not be right for the subject you have chosen and the other side of the subject may not yield the best picture.
To choose a subject you will need a good eye for detail and observation. Often the best subject is not the one you can see with a plain eye. Have you ever looked at a tree and found a spider web hiding in the leaves? If you look closer you might even find a spider. A spider web can make a great picture not only because of the technique required to have the web show up in your photo with the silky threads, but also the pattern of a spider web. We are fascinated with an organism that can create a symmetrical pattern.
Again your eye is the best tool for finding a subject. How you choose the subject will depend on what is available, the angle and the light. Moving slowly through an area such as landscape will help you determine the subject. Looking under leaves or rocks is often beneficial to finding something new and different. You never know where you will find a picture just waiting for you to click a picture. Some people and animals do things that will never again happen and this is when you want to have camera available. Most people interested in photography carry a camera with them everywhere they go. If this sounds like a habit, a real habit turns into a hobby and a possible income if you become good at taking the right pictures. As you get better at taking the pictures, you can then start displaying your pictures for others to see and possibly buy.
How do you know what subject you will shoot? This is where your interests lie. If you wish only to take pictures of wildlife then you will have to wait for the subject to come into view. Obviously you can go to a wildlife park such as the Rocky Mountain National Park and hope to find subjects. Most often it will depend on the time of year. Elk and Deer are more prominent when they come down the mountains to mate and eat. Birds will always be available, but the type of birds will vary. If you are in Alaska chances are you will have several chances of shooting a Bald Eagle, while in Florida you may find heron or cranes.
When you are practicing techniques you will have to choose your subject accordingly. A lot of us are regulated to the area around us. Landscape photography requires the use of the land you have around you, unless you are going on vacation to some place new. This is another important fact to choosing a subject. You are either limited or you have the whole world at your feet. It will depend on your traveling abilities. For now we will stick close to home.
Once you choose your medium you will then go in search of subjects. The subject that speaks to you is what you should choose to shoot. If a tree and the knots it’s formed interest you, you will want to check the lighting of the area. Deciding which angle to shoot from will also make the decision on the subject. The lighting may not be right for the subject you have chosen and the other side of the subject may not yield the best picture.
To choose a subject you will need a good eye for detail and observation. Often the best subject is not the one you can see with a plain eye. Have you ever looked at a tree and found a spider web hiding in the leaves? If you look closer you might even find a spider. A spider web can make a great picture not only because of the technique required to have the web show up in your photo with the silky threads, but also the pattern of a spider web. We are fascinated with an organism that can create a symmetrical pattern.
Again your eye is the best tool for finding a subject. How you choose the subject will depend on what is available, the angle and the light. Moving slowly through an area such as landscape will help you determine the subject. Looking under leaves or rocks is often beneficial to finding something new and different. You never know where you will find a picture just waiting for you to click a picture. Some people and animals do things that will never again happen and this is when you want to have camera available. Most people interested in photography carry a camera with them everywhere they go. If this sounds like a habit, a real habit turns into a hobby and a possible income if you become good at taking the right pictures. As you get better at taking the pictures, you can then start displaying your pictures for others to see and possibly buy.
The Art of Portrait Photography
Portrait photography can be indoors in a studio setting or outside in natural light. You can also take full body shots, half body or head anf shoulder shots. It is important to plan your shoot before actually getting into it.
When the location has been decided you should establish what source of lighting is available and from which direction it will be coming, or do you need to provide your own lighting. From there you can determine what camera is best suited, which lenses to bring and what other props are required.
So you have now scoped out the scene, gathered your equipment and are raring to go.
But wait there is something equally as impoerant that is you need to develop a close rapport with your client. It is imperative that you put your client at ease. Find out there likes and dislikes, discuss the procedure and reassure them that everything will be fine.Keep a close watch on their mannerisms and look for their best side and recognise their natural smile
Most clients are nervous at first and usually try to hard, as the shoot procedes they will relax and better shots will be taken.
If you are wondering what to talk about with your clients then the answer is anything that will show you something distinctive for that person. Try to look for different face expressions and eye or mouth movement. When you see something beautiful keep it in mind and later capture it in your portraits. Believe me that studying the subject before making the portrait photography is the biggest secret in this art.
I advice you to always use natural light if it’s possible. Choosing the background is very important. If the picture is to close then the background looses any meaning, if it’s to far then the background will overwhelm the subject. So try not to merge the subject with the background in an indistinguishable shape.
From my perspective portrait photography has it all. You have the subtlety og lighting, angles, poses expressions and character traits that all form part of the storey.
There is nothing more satisfying than to see the amazed reactions of your clients as they come face to face with themselves in a way that they have never seen before For many of us a realistic portrait gives the subject a degree of immortality.
When the location has been decided you should establish what source of lighting is available and from which direction it will be coming, or do you need to provide your own lighting. From there you can determine what camera is best suited, which lenses to bring and what other props are required.
So you have now scoped out the scene, gathered your equipment and are raring to go.
But wait there is something equally as impoerant that is you need to develop a close rapport with your client. It is imperative that you put your client at ease. Find out there likes and dislikes, discuss the procedure and reassure them that everything will be fine.Keep a close watch on their mannerisms and look for their best side and recognise their natural smile
Most clients are nervous at first and usually try to hard, as the shoot procedes they will relax and better shots will be taken.
If you are wondering what to talk about with your clients then the answer is anything that will show you something distinctive for that person. Try to look for different face expressions and eye or mouth movement. When you see something beautiful keep it in mind and later capture it in your portraits. Believe me that studying the subject before making the portrait photography is the biggest secret in this art.
I advice you to always use natural light if it’s possible. Choosing the background is very important. If the picture is to close then the background looses any meaning, if it’s to far then the background will overwhelm the subject. So try not to merge the subject with the background in an indistinguishable shape.
From my perspective portrait photography has it all. You have the subtlety og lighting, angles, poses expressions and character traits that all form part of the storey.
There is nothing more satisfying than to see the amazed reactions of your clients as they come face to face with themselves in a way that they have never seen before For many of us a realistic portrait gives the subject a degree of immortality.
Make Money With Your Photos
So you learned to take a great picture and now you would like to make some cash from them (and of course, share your artwork with the world). Here are three ways you can go about this without costing you a fortune.
–Create your own products using your photos, such as framed prints, greeting cards or t-shirts, and sell them on Ebay. Ebay receives millions of visitors eager to buy, provides easy step by step instructions on getting you set up (their website also offers advice and tips on selling) and costs are very minimal. You have the choice to auction your product or let your customer “buy now”. Your biggest investment in this is producing your products.
–Sell products on Cafepress. They provide the products (framed prints, t-shirts, coasters, mousepads, clocks, teddy bears and much more) which you will apply your photos to (just upload and add to the product you choose) and they provide complete service (orders, delivery, complaints). You build your store (through their website) either using one of their templates or you can customize your own using HTML. They have a base price for each product and you set the price above that. You are paid the price above the base price. You can open a free store or you can pay a small fee each month and receive more benefits. Thou your products will appear in their Marketplace (which they receive millions of customers) so will millions of other products. So your biggest investment here is to advertise your store. I am not going into advertising here but there are free and low cost ways of doing this (read articles regarding this matter).
–Submit your photos to online stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Fotosearch or iStockphoto. Stock agencies house large files of images and markets the photos to potential clients. You are paid a percentage or a set price of each sale. You give these clients permission to use your photo (such as in their magazine or on their personal website) but they can not resell to profit from.
Whichever way you decide to sell your photos, the better the resolution your pictures are, the better the quality. To achieve this, first you must have a high megapixel digital camera. This does not mean you need to buy the top of the line. A 5 megapixel is quite sufficient. Second, your picture should have a high DPI (dots per inch) such as 300. If you want a high quality 8×10 inch picture, you will multiply the DPI by the inch. For instance, 8×300=2400 and 10×300=3000 so you want your picture size (resolution) to be 2400×3000 pixels. You can always decrease the size of your picture but never increase the original size.
Before joining any program, be sure to read their terms carefully. I wish you much success!
–Create your own products using your photos, such as framed prints, greeting cards or t-shirts, and sell them on Ebay. Ebay receives millions of visitors eager to buy, provides easy step by step instructions on getting you set up (their website also offers advice and tips on selling) and costs are very minimal. You have the choice to auction your product or let your customer “buy now”. Your biggest investment in this is producing your products.
–Sell products on Cafepress. They provide the products (framed prints, t-shirts, coasters, mousepads, clocks, teddy bears and much more) which you will apply your photos to (just upload and add to the product you choose) and they provide complete service (orders, delivery, complaints). You build your store (through their website) either using one of their templates or you can customize your own using HTML. They have a base price for each product and you set the price above that. You are paid the price above the base price. You can open a free store or you can pay a small fee each month and receive more benefits. Thou your products will appear in their Marketplace (which they receive millions of customers) so will millions of other products. So your biggest investment here is to advertise your store. I am not going into advertising here but there are free and low cost ways of doing this (read articles regarding this matter).
–Submit your photos to online stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Fotosearch or iStockphoto. Stock agencies house large files of images and markets the photos to potential clients. You are paid a percentage or a set price of each sale. You give these clients permission to use your photo (such as in their magazine or on their personal website) but they can not resell to profit from.
Whichever way you decide to sell your photos, the better the resolution your pictures are, the better the quality. To achieve this, first you must have a high megapixel digital camera. This does not mean you need to buy the top of the line. A 5 megapixel is quite sufficient. Second, your picture should have a high DPI (dots per inch) such as 300. If you want a high quality 8×10 inch picture, you will multiply the DPI by the inch. For instance, 8×300=2400 and 10×300=3000 so you want your picture size (resolution) to be 2400×3000 pixels. You can always decrease the size of your picture but never increase the original size.
Before joining any program, be sure to read their terms carefully. I wish you much success!
10 Tips For Better Photography
The first most important thing to do is to read your cameras manual from cover to cover. Digital cameras today are an absolutely amazing tool and by spending a hour or so learning about all he features offered by your camera you will begin to understand how to use these features in taking your photos. No matter what level of experience you have there is always new features that need to be understood before you set out taking photos.
1. Don’t rely entirely on photo-editing tools to digitally enhance the your photographs. It is to easy to depend on this – in the back of the mind will always be the thought, “if it does not turn out, I can always fix it with software”. The pleasure of photography should begin with the way the picture is shot, along with its emotional connection, not the result of the digital manipulation with a half-done picture. There is nothing the matter with the photo-editing tools, only what we do with them to make our photos look good.
2. Avoid taking Underexposed Photos. Underexposure lacks color quality, so it really should be avoided. What happens is the sensors fail to read the colors that form the image. However, if given a choice, several photographers choose underexposing above overexposure. This is because even if underexposed, the details of the photograph are still recorded. In addition, it can still go into an editing program repairing overexposed photographs.
3. Digital cameras use millions of assorted pixels to produce the final image, with each sensor designed to capture a certain tonal range. When we do not allow full light to fall on the sensor, we are doing a great injustice to the image. Most of the pixels are unable to capture the tonal range in their full sweep and brightness, which ends up lowering the picture quality. The choice of sensor size is equivalent to choosing between assortments of formats – 35mm, medium and large format cameras. There are many different sensor size options regarding depth of field, image noise, diffraction, cost and size/weight.
4. When focusing on a subject, there are three factors which affect the depth of field: focal length of the lens; distance from the camera to the subject; and the size of the aperture or setting of the f-stop. You must focus on the subject, and not on people or objects around the subject. The subject at a greater distance will have greater depth of field than one that is close-up. This will reduce the noise level in your photographs. Also, less worry needs to be given to being out of focus, bringing in clarity and sharpness to the image.
5. When a picture is overexposed, too much detail is too high in tonal range. Just as under exposure makes a picture dark and toneless, over exposure makes colors too rich giving the picture an artificial hue – causing highlight to lose their detail. Over exposures also blanks out light and dark effects, along with the tones that give an image a natural look causing everything to look gray with less saturation.
6. Exposure warning lights have a purpose – with the word “warning.” We must learn to look and respect under exposure warning lights just like a red flashing light at an intersection. These are especially good for beginners who can change the exposure until the blinking areas disappear. Later, the user can start using their own insights in deciding the exposure levels.
7. The camera can take a great picture, but we as the photographer prepare before then. The best photographs are those whose parameters are decided by the human mind. No amount of automation can change this fact. We, too, should gradually move away from automated functions and start making our own combinations when it comes to exposure, color, noise etc. Only then will we find gradual, but unmistaken, improvement in the quality of photographs taken.
8. Thinking of the composition should be the focus before clicking the button. Composition is the art of focusing on the subject using frames, movement, lights etc. We can learn composition techniques either from a senior photographer or from a book. Then we should start practicing them with new techniques. We will find an automatic improvement in the quality of our photographs.
9. To constantly improve one’s photography skills, you must take as many different photos as you can – whenever possible. The more pictures that you can take will give you the experience to know how to make subtle changes which improve your photos.
10. The last ip is to plan ahead, think what you want to shoot, think how it is to be shot, think about its exposure, color, noise – all about visualizing the shot you want. We must learn to critically examine each image that we shoot as. Try to find the weaknesses of the photograph. Make corrections to your settings and Shoot again to remove the weaknesses – until we are completely satisfied.
1. Don’t rely entirely on photo-editing tools to digitally enhance the your photographs. It is to easy to depend on this – in the back of the mind will always be the thought, “if it does not turn out, I can always fix it with software”. The pleasure of photography should begin with the way the picture is shot, along with its emotional connection, not the result of the digital manipulation with a half-done picture. There is nothing the matter with the photo-editing tools, only what we do with them to make our photos look good.
2. Avoid taking Underexposed Photos. Underexposure lacks color quality, so it really should be avoided. What happens is the sensors fail to read the colors that form the image. However, if given a choice, several photographers choose underexposing above overexposure. This is because even if underexposed, the details of the photograph are still recorded. In addition, it can still go into an editing program repairing overexposed photographs.
3. Digital cameras use millions of assorted pixels to produce the final image, with each sensor designed to capture a certain tonal range. When we do not allow full light to fall on the sensor, we are doing a great injustice to the image. Most of the pixels are unable to capture the tonal range in their full sweep and brightness, which ends up lowering the picture quality. The choice of sensor size is equivalent to choosing between assortments of formats – 35mm, medium and large format cameras. There are many different sensor size options regarding depth of field, image noise, diffraction, cost and size/weight.
4. When focusing on a subject, there are three factors which affect the depth of field: focal length of the lens; distance from the camera to the subject; and the size of the aperture or setting of the f-stop. You must focus on the subject, and not on people or objects around the subject. The subject at a greater distance will have greater depth of field than one that is close-up. This will reduce the noise level in your photographs. Also, less worry needs to be given to being out of focus, bringing in clarity and sharpness to the image.
5. When a picture is overexposed, too much detail is too high in tonal range. Just as under exposure makes a picture dark and toneless, over exposure makes colors too rich giving the picture an artificial hue – causing highlight to lose their detail. Over exposures also blanks out light and dark effects, along with the tones that give an image a natural look causing everything to look gray with less saturation.
6. Exposure warning lights have a purpose – with the word “warning.” We must learn to look and respect under exposure warning lights just like a red flashing light at an intersection. These are especially good for beginners who can change the exposure until the blinking areas disappear. Later, the user can start using their own insights in deciding the exposure levels.
7. The camera can take a great picture, but we as the photographer prepare before then. The best photographs are those whose parameters are decided by the human mind. No amount of automation can change this fact. We, too, should gradually move away from automated functions and start making our own combinations when it comes to exposure, color, noise etc. Only then will we find gradual, but unmistaken, improvement in the quality of photographs taken.
8. Thinking of the composition should be the focus before clicking the button. Composition is the art of focusing on the subject using frames, movement, lights etc. We can learn composition techniques either from a senior photographer or from a book. Then we should start practicing them with new techniques. We will find an automatic improvement in the quality of our photographs.
9. To constantly improve one’s photography skills, you must take as many different photos as you can – whenever possible. The more pictures that you can take will give you the experience to know how to make subtle changes which improve your photos.
10. The last ip is to plan ahead, think what you want to shoot, think how it is to be shot, think about its exposure, color, noise – all about visualizing the shot you want. We must learn to critically examine each image that we shoot as. Try to find the weaknesses of the photograph. Make corrections to your settings and Shoot again to remove the weaknesses – until we are completely satisfied.
Promote Your Photography Site – Part 1.
You may have spent a great deal of time and money creating the perfect Website – your photography images may be superb, but if people cannot find your site your images and talent along with your business may become a white elephant.
Promoting your Website is not that difficult but will take up some of your precious time. My advice for you is to set out a few hours per week for this.
If your Website is new the chances are that Google, Yahoo or any search engine won’t index your site for a few months. And it may even take several months before they place it to appear when someone types in a search phrase that suits your site. So you need to give your photographs and business a reasonable chance of getting paying customers.
When a search engine index’s your Website it looks to see how many links point to your site. The more links you can create the better your site will rank, but only if they are the right kind of links. Don’t spend hours and hours online getting thousands of standard ordinary links. Get links that relate to your site. Get links from other photography sites.
Photography Directories are a great way of creating free advertisement for your site and also a great way of getting valuable links to your site that search engines will recognise.
Before you submit your Website to directories, research the correct keywords that best describe your site. If your photography site is Landscaped based you need to optimise your site correctly for the keywords Landscape photography.
Once you are happy with which keywords best describe your site start submitting your site to Photography Directories. Most photography directories require a return link so you should create a links page for this alone.
When you are submitting your website you need to use the correct keywords that best describe your site in the link title to your site. The link title will be the title on the submission form. You will also need to create a good definitive description for your site. This should be no more than twenty-five words and should start with the keywords that best describe your site. This is what people will read – this is where you sell your site – a good description will enable potential customers to enter your site.
Once you have completed the form click submit and move on to the next directory. There are many good photography directories online – some specialised in certain areas of photography, more cover all areas of photography. Once you fill out the submission form correctly you will start to see the rewards.
Some directories will charge you when creating a listing; my advice is to research such websites before you part with your hard earned cash. Stay away from link farms and link companies that offer you thousands of links – these sites don’t rank well with search engines and may harm your site in the long run.
While photography directories are just one way of promoting your site; they are the easiest and quickest way to get started. Creating good quality inbound links to your site will help you achieve excellent search engine ranking for your site resulting in more and more traffic entering your photography site.
Promoting your Website is not that difficult but will take up some of your precious time. My advice for you is to set out a few hours per week for this.
If your Website is new the chances are that Google, Yahoo or any search engine won’t index your site for a few months. And it may even take several months before they place it to appear when someone types in a search phrase that suits your site. So you need to give your photographs and business a reasonable chance of getting paying customers.
When a search engine index’s your Website it looks to see how many links point to your site. The more links you can create the better your site will rank, but only if they are the right kind of links. Don’t spend hours and hours online getting thousands of standard ordinary links. Get links that relate to your site. Get links from other photography sites.
Photography Directories are a great way of creating free advertisement for your site and also a great way of getting valuable links to your site that search engines will recognise.
Before you submit your Website to directories, research the correct keywords that best describe your site. If your photography site is Landscaped based you need to optimise your site correctly for the keywords Landscape photography.
Once you are happy with which keywords best describe your site start submitting your site to Photography Directories. Most photography directories require a return link so you should create a links page for this alone.
When you are submitting your website you need to use the correct keywords that best describe your site in the link title to your site. The link title will be the title on the submission form. You will also need to create a good definitive description for your site. This should be no more than twenty-five words and should start with the keywords that best describe your site. This is what people will read – this is where you sell your site – a good description will enable potential customers to enter your site.
Once you have completed the form click submit and move on to the next directory. There are many good photography directories online – some specialised in certain areas of photography, more cover all areas of photography. Once you fill out the submission form correctly you will start to see the rewards.
Some directories will charge you when creating a listing; my advice is to research such websites before you part with your hard earned cash. Stay away from link farms and link companies that offer you thousands of links – these sites don’t rank well with search engines and may harm your site in the long run.
While photography directories are just one way of promoting your site; they are the easiest and quickest way to get started. Creating good quality inbound links to your site will help you achieve excellent search engine ranking for your site resulting in more and more traffic entering your photography site.
Light for Photographers
Light is the essence of photography. It’s not things that we photograph, but the light they reflect. Without light, there is no photography and the way things look to us and the camera is entirely dependant on the light that reaches them.
People talk about the “quality” of light, but in fact this is a combination of four different things that all light sources possess. Every light has a level, a colour, a direction and can either be hard or soft. Unless you are working in a studio, where you have total control over the lighting, the first thing any photographer should do is to make an assessment of the light in terms of these four aspects.
The first one, level, is the simplest. Except for the fact that we are not really aware of it ourselves. We can easily move from outdoors to indoors without realising just how dark it is inside, but the camera can’t do that. Not without making adjustments. Fortunately, all digital cameras have an auto-exposure system that will make these adjustments for you, or you can go manual and do it yourself.
When the light level starts to go down there are three things that can be adjusted. The ISO number represents how light-sensitive your camera is and setting a higher number will make your camera more sensitive. The aperture is a hole in your lens that you can make larger to let more light in. In this case, a lower number means a larger aperture. The third adjustment you can make is to the shutter speed, exposing the image for a longer time.
Whilst the ISO number and aperture have their effect on an image, it’s the shutter speed that finally determines just how low you can go in terms of light level, without adding your own light. Although you can set a shutter speed of half a second or longer, there is no way you can hold a camera steady for that length of time. If you try, you will get “camera shake” which hardly ever looks good. Even at 1/30th of a second, you will still get camera shake unless your lens is zoomed right out to its widest.
There is nothing stopping you taking photographs like this but you will need to use a tripod or other stable means of support to avoid camera shake. Alternatively, you can switch on your flash but that will now be the main light source and the photograph will look totally different. Change the lighting, change the picture.
The second aspect to consider is the colour of the light. This is similar to light level in that we are hardly aware of it and our cameras can be set to automatically or manually compensate for it. Daylight is blue compared to indoor artificial light, which is more yellow or orange in colour. It’s not usually a big problem because even if you or your camera get the colour setting wrong, you can still edit this after you have downloaded the images into your computer.
Where you really have to think about the colour is when you have mixed lighting. That is, your scene is lit by two or more sources of light that are different colours. Imagine a room with bright artificial light and a window. The light in the room is yellow and that coming through the window will be blue. There is nothing that can compensate for two different colours, you need to make a choice. If you were photographing someone in this room then where you placed them would alter their colour. The nearer they were to the window then the more they would be influenced by its blue light and vice versa.
Also, where you place the camera is important. If you are near the window, facing into the room, then your main light will be blue and the background of your subject will be yellow. If you are further into the room, facing the window, then the opposite will be true. Given that you, or your camera will adjust the colour to make the person look right, you are more likely to be aware of the background colour in the final shot. One thing that seldom looks good is when the window is at 90 degrees to the camera, one side of your subject will be blue and the other will be yellow and there is no way to compensate for that.
The level and colour of light are important, but these are things that you simply adjust the settings in your camera to compensate for. It’s when you start to consider the direction and softness of light that you can begin to get creative and really use the light. A light is called hard or soft because of the shadows it produces and the governing factor here is the size of the light source. The sun, a flashgun or a spotlight, being small, produce hard, sharply defined shadows. Whilst a cloudy sky, being big, is a very soft light source and produces hardly any shadows at all.
When you are making an assessment of the natural light around you, the first thing to realise is that there is never only one light source. All light travels in straight lines, until it hits something. It then bounces off. If it hits a shiny object, it will bounce at the same angle it arrived at, like a billiard ball off a cushion. If the object is matt (i.e. not shiny), it will bounce off in all directions and pick up the colour of whatever it hit.
A single bare light bulb will create a hard light directly on your subject. At the same time, it creates a soft light by bouncing off the walls, floor and ceiling. The lighter those areas are, the more soft light will be created. If one of the walls was white and the others dark, then most of the soft light would come from the direction of the white wall.
A hard light source will create very dark shadows, much darker that we see with the human eye. This can cause a problem for photographers because, at the correct exposure, it may not be possible to see any detail in the shadows. The two ways of dealing with this are to hide the shadows or fill them in. You hide shadows by keeping your subject away from any background and shooting from the same angle as the hard light source. That way, most of their shadow will be hidden behind them.
You fill in the shadows by using anything large, and preferably white, that the hard light is hitting. This will be a source of soft light and, if you keep it on the opposite side of your subject to the hard light, it will fill in the shadows, allowing you to photograph the details. It is always a good idea to take a reflector with you (anything large and white) when shooting on a sunny day.
As you might expect, the direction of a hard light source is much more critical than that of a soft one. In fact, changing the angle between your subject and the light source can totally transform the way it looks. If your subject has a rich texture, that can totally disappear when the light is square on to it. The more oblique the angle, the deeper the texture will appear.
For portraits, a frontal light will make people appear less wrinkled and happier. As the light moves to the side, they will look more serious. Light from above is seldom flattering and light from below makes people look downright weird. If you like landscape photography, try to visit your favourite spots at different times of the day and see for yourself the complete transformation that the angle of light makes to a photograph.
Using natural light doesn’t mean that you need to put up with bad lighting. By making a thorough assessment of the light sources around you it is possible to make the best use of what nature has presented you with.
People talk about the “quality” of light, but in fact this is a combination of four different things that all light sources possess. Every light has a level, a colour, a direction and can either be hard or soft. Unless you are working in a studio, where you have total control over the lighting, the first thing any photographer should do is to make an assessment of the light in terms of these four aspects.
The first one, level, is the simplest. Except for the fact that we are not really aware of it ourselves. We can easily move from outdoors to indoors without realising just how dark it is inside, but the camera can’t do that. Not without making adjustments. Fortunately, all digital cameras have an auto-exposure system that will make these adjustments for you, or you can go manual and do it yourself.
When the light level starts to go down there are three things that can be adjusted. The ISO number represents how light-sensitive your camera is and setting a higher number will make your camera more sensitive. The aperture is a hole in your lens that you can make larger to let more light in. In this case, a lower number means a larger aperture. The third adjustment you can make is to the shutter speed, exposing the image for a longer time.
Whilst the ISO number and aperture have their effect on an image, it’s the shutter speed that finally determines just how low you can go in terms of light level, without adding your own light. Although you can set a shutter speed of half a second or longer, there is no way you can hold a camera steady for that length of time. If you try, you will get “camera shake” which hardly ever looks good. Even at 1/30th of a second, you will still get camera shake unless your lens is zoomed right out to its widest.
There is nothing stopping you taking photographs like this but you will need to use a tripod or other stable means of support to avoid camera shake. Alternatively, you can switch on your flash but that will now be the main light source and the photograph will look totally different. Change the lighting, change the picture.
The second aspect to consider is the colour of the light. This is similar to light level in that we are hardly aware of it and our cameras can be set to automatically or manually compensate for it. Daylight is blue compared to indoor artificial light, which is more yellow or orange in colour. It’s not usually a big problem because even if you or your camera get the colour setting wrong, you can still edit this after you have downloaded the images into your computer.
Where you really have to think about the colour is when you have mixed lighting. That is, your scene is lit by two or more sources of light that are different colours. Imagine a room with bright artificial light and a window. The light in the room is yellow and that coming through the window will be blue. There is nothing that can compensate for two different colours, you need to make a choice. If you were photographing someone in this room then where you placed them would alter their colour. The nearer they were to the window then the more they would be influenced by its blue light and vice versa.
Also, where you place the camera is important. If you are near the window, facing into the room, then your main light will be blue and the background of your subject will be yellow. If you are further into the room, facing the window, then the opposite will be true. Given that you, or your camera will adjust the colour to make the person look right, you are more likely to be aware of the background colour in the final shot. One thing that seldom looks good is when the window is at 90 degrees to the camera, one side of your subject will be blue and the other will be yellow and there is no way to compensate for that.
The level and colour of light are important, but these are things that you simply adjust the settings in your camera to compensate for. It’s when you start to consider the direction and softness of light that you can begin to get creative and really use the light. A light is called hard or soft because of the shadows it produces and the governing factor here is the size of the light source. The sun, a flashgun or a spotlight, being small, produce hard, sharply defined shadows. Whilst a cloudy sky, being big, is a very soft light source and produces hardly any shadows at all.
When you are making an assessment of the natural light around you, the first thing to realise is that there is never only one light source. All light travels in straight lines, until it hits something. It then bounces off. If it hits a shiny object, it will bounce at the same angle it arrived at, like a billiard ball off a cushion. If the object is matt (i.e. not shiny), it will bounce off in all directions and pick up the colour of whatever it hit.
A single bare light bulb will create a hard light directly on your subject. At the same time, it creates a soft light by bouncing off the walls, floor and ceiling. The lighter those areas are, the more soft light will be created. If one of the walls was white and the others dark, then most of the soft light would come from the direction of the white wall.
A hard light source will create very dark shadows, much darker that we see with the human eye. This can cause a problem for photographers because, at the correct exposure, it may not be possible to see any detail in the shadows. The two ways of dealing with this are to hide the shadows or fill them in. You hide shadows by keeping your subject away from any background and shooting from the same angle as the hard light source. That way, most of their shadow will be hidden behind them.
You fill in the shadows by using anything large, and preferably white, that the hard light is hitting. This will be a source of soft light and, if you keep it on the opposite side of your subject to the hard light, it will fill in the shadows, allowing you to photograph the details. It is always a good idea to take a reflector with you (anything large and white) when shooting on a sunny day.
As you might expect, the direction of a hard light source is much more critical than that of a soft one. In fact, changing the angle between your subject and the light source can totally transform the way it looks. If your subject has a rich texture, that can totally disappear when the light is square on to it. The more oblique the angle, the deeper the texture will appear.
For portraits, a frontal light will make people appear less wrinkled and happier. As the light moves to the side, they will look more serious. Light from above is seldom flattering and light from below makes people look downright weird. If you like landscape photography, try to visit your favourite spots at different times of the day and see for yourself the complete transformation that the angle of light makes to a photograph.
Using natural light doesn’t mean that you need to put up with bad lighting. By making a thorough assessment of the light sources around you it is possible to make the best use of what nature has presented you with.
The Tripod – A Photographers Best 3-legged Friend
All a tripod actually does is to provide a stable platform for your camera allowing you to make long exposures without the risk of camera shake spoiling your picture. You could of course, just rest it somewhere but the tripod will allow you to lock your camera in virtually any position without the danger of it falling over.
So, how long is a long exposure? The governing factor here is camera shake. A long exposure is simply one that you can’t hand-hold steadily enough. If you are zoomed out to a wide angle, this can be around 1/30 – 1/60th of a second but, if you are zoomed right in on a long lens, this can be as short as 1/500th or even 1/1000th of a second. Not much of a long exposure you might think.
Perhaps a word for the tripod’s smaller cousin is required here. You have probably noticed that sports photographers doing long lens work usually have a monopod, rather than a tripod, attached to their cameras. This is not because a monopod is better (I’m sure they’d all rather be using a tripod), but because it’s convenience when changing locations quickly outweighs the advantages of a tripod. So, a monopod is only really useful if you need shots on a long lens quickly from different positions.
It’s using a long lens that requires the fastest shutter speed more than freezing any action. This is because the lens not only magnifies the image but equally, any camera movement. Even when using a tripod, it’s possible that the camera will move during the shot. This is because the very act of pressing the shutter may induce movement. Although this will be very slight, the magnifying effect of the lens will turn it into camera shake blur.
The best way to avoid this is to use a cable release or remote control when using a tripod. If you don’t have either of these, then you can use your camera’s self timer. Even if your camera moves when the shutter is pressed, it will have settled down long before the photograph is taken. Some cameras have a short self timer option for precisely this purpose.
The benefit of being able to use a longer shutter speed is that you can use a smaller aperture for greater depth of field or a lower ISO number for better image quality. However, this is minor in comparison to the psychological benefit that the tripod brings to the act of taking a photograph. Quite simply, using a tripod slows you down, and that’s a good thing.
How many times have you looked at one of your photographs and thought: “that looks great, except for this one little mistake, I wish I’d noticed it at the time.” Well, that’s one thing that using a tripod can help with. The reason you notice the problem in the final result is that you spend more time carefully looking at it. If you do that with the image in your viewfinder you are much more likely to spot any problems.
I’m not suggesting that if you see something interesting, you shouldn’t take a quick snap of it. far from it. But, having done that, you might consider other ways of looking at your subject or specific photographic techniques that might better suit it. This is where a tripod really helps because it gives you much more flexibility as to the camera settings you can use.
Not only that, but it separates the two different things you have to do when taking a photograph, namely camera settings and composition. Using a camera hand held means you always have to think about both of these things at the same time, making it all to easy to get a great shot spoiled by being on the wrong setting. With a tripod, you can decide on the setting depending on the type of shot you want, then fully concentrate on the framing and composition.
The opposite is also true. If you want to try different photographic techniques, you frame up the shot first, then start to work out the different settings you need. This way, you guarantee never getting the best setting when the framing is not quite right. Also, if you have taken one shot and decided that it could do with a bit of say, exposure or colour compensation, you can do this in the sure and certain knowledge that the framing won’t have changed.
Some techniques can only be done using a tripod, for instance 360 degree panoramas. Another is when dealing with very high contrast situations. Sunsets are a good example. You usually have a choice of either a good sky and black ground or properly exposed foreground and a bleached out sky. The only cure is to take both these shots and blend them together in a photo editing program. This will only work properly if both shots are identical in every respect except exposure, hence the need for a tripod.
There is a wide range of tripods available and what you tend to get more of the more you pay is a greater maximum height and more weight and solidity. From experience, I would say that height is probably more important than weight. A lightweight model is not any more likely to move than a heavy one, except in a high wind. For your own comfort, you should choose one that allows the camera to at least reach your eye level when standing normally.
The weight of tripod you need is largely determined by the weight of your camera. If you use a Dslr and big lenses, you need a fairly sturdy one. Under normal circumstances, you won’t need a top of the range professional model because most of their strength is to protect them from harsh treatment. They are much more sturdy than need to be just to hold the camera steady.
If you do use a heavy camera then even more important than the weight of the tripod is the strength of the pan and tilt head locks. With a long heavy lens fitted, they can be put under quite a strain. The strength of these locks is always the first thing you should check when getting a new tripod. Fit the camera and tighten all the locks. Gently try to move the camera to check for any play (like you would with a steering wheel). If there is any, check all the locks on the head, legs and column. It’s easy to forget the lock that fixes the column in place and the camera will not be secure unless this is done up.
In practice, the only rule you need to follow is never to move your tripod any great distance with a camera attached. The locks are designed for the tripod at rest. When you move it you apply odd forces at weird angles that could easily overcome the locks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The best way to use a tripod is to start by finding the camera position you want, either by eye or with the camera hand held. You then set up the tripod and tighten up all the locks. fit the camera and check the composition. If you have to slightly move the position, it’s OK, as long as you hold on to both the camera and tripod when doing so. You then fine tune the framing by releasing and tightening only one lock at a time.
With cheaper tripods you sometimes find that tightening the lock actually moves the camera. This is something to watch out for. Once you are happy with the composition and framing, take a step back and think about your camera settings and how they will affect the shot. If you are not sure then try lots of different settings and find out later. It will be a very good learning experience.
I hope that, after having read the above, you will understand why I would say that a tripod is probably the most useful photographic accessory of all. The best piece of advice I could give anybody looking to improve their photographic skills would be to get a tripod and use it.
So, how long is a long exposure? The governing factor here is camera shake. A long exposure is simply one that you can’t hand-hold steadily enough. If you are zoomed out to a wide angle, this can be around 1/30 – 1/60th of a second but, if you are zoomed right in on a long lens, this can be as short as 1/500th or even 1/1000th of a second. Not much of a long exposure you might think.
Perhaps a word for the tripod’s smaller cousin is required here. You have probably noticed that sports photographers doing long lens work usually have a monopod, rather than a tripod, attached to their cameras. This is not because a monopod is better (I’m sure they’d all rather be using a tripod), but because it’s convenience when changing locations quickly outweighs the advantages of a tripod. So, a monopod is only really useful if you need shots on a long lens quickly from different positions.
It’s using a long lens that requires the fastest shutter speed more than freezing any action. This is because the lens not only magnifies the image but equally, any camera movement. Even when using a tripod, it’s possible that the camera will move during the shot. This is because the very act of pressing the shutter may induce movement. Although this will be very slight, the magnifying effect of the lens will turn it into camera shake blur.
The best way to avoid this is to use a cable release or remote control when using a tripod. If you don’t have either of these, then you can use your camera’s self timer. Even if your camera moves when the shutter is pressed, it will have settled down long before the photograph is taken. Some cameras have a short self timer option for precisely this purpose.
The benefit of being able to use a longer shutter speed is that you can use a smaller aperture for greater depth of field or a lower ISO number for better image quality. However, this is minor in comparison to the psychological benefit that the tripod brings to the act of taking a photograph. Quite simply, using a tripod slows you down, and that’s a good thing.
How many times have you looked at one of your photographs and thought: “that looks great, except for this one little mistake, I wish I’d noticed it at the time.” Well, that’s one thing that using a tripod can help with. The reason you notice the problem in the final result is that you spend more time carefully looking at it. If you do that with the image in your viewfinder you are much more likely to spot any problems.
I’m not suggesting that if you see something interesting, you shouldn’t take a quick snap of it. far from it. But, having done that, you might consider other ways of looking at your subject or specific photographic techniques that might better suit it. This is where a tripod really helps because it gives you much more flexibility as to the camera settings you can use.
Not only that, but it separates the two different things you have to do when taking a photograph, namely camera settings and composition. Using a camera hand held means you always have to think about both of these things at the same time, making it all to easy to get a great shot spoiled by being on the wrong setting. With a tripod, you can decide on the setting depending on the type of shot you want, then fully concentrate on the framing and composition.
The opposite is also true. If you want to try different photographic techniques, you frame up the shot first, then start to work out the different settings you need. This way, you guarantee never getting the best setting when the framing is not quite right. Also, if you have taken one shot and decided that it could do with a bit of say, exposure or colour compensation, you can do this in the sure and certain knowledge that the framing won’t have changed.
Some techniques can only be done using a tripod, for instance 360 degree panoramas. Another is when dealing with very high contrast situations. Sunsets are a good example. You usually have a choice of either a good sky and black ground or properly exposed foreground and a bleached out sky. The only cure is to take both these shots and blend them together in a photo editing program. This will only work properly if both shots are identical in every respect except exposure, hence the need for a tripod.
There is a wide range of tripods available and what you tend to get more of the more you pay is a greater maximum height and more weight and solidity. From experience, I would say that height is probably more important than weight. A lightweight model is not any more likely to move than a heavy one, except in a high wind. For your own comfort, you should choose one that allows the camera to at least reach your eye level when standing normally.
The weight of tripod you need is largely determined by the weight of your camera. If you use a Dslr and big lenses, you need a fairly sturdy one. Under normal circumstances, you won’t need a top of the range professional model because most of their strength is to protect them from harsh treatment. They are much more sturdy than need to be just to hold the camera steady.
If you do use a heavy camera then even more important than the weight of the tripod is the strength of the pan and tilt head locks. With a long heavy lens fitted, they can be put under quite a strain. The strength of these locks is always the first thing you should check when getting a new tripod. Fit the camera and tighten all the locks. Gently try to move the camera to check for any play (like you would with a steering wheel). If there is any, check all the locks on the head, legs and column. It’s easy to forget the lock that fixes the column in place and the camera will not be secure unless this is done up.
In practice, the only rule you need to follow is never to move your tripod any great distance with a camera attached. The locks are designed for the tripod at rest. When you move it you apply odd forces at weird angles that could easily overcome the locks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The best way to use a tripod is to start by finding the camera position you want, either by eye or with the camera hand held. You then set up the tripod and tighten up all the locks. fit the camera and check the composition. If you have to slightly move the position, it’s OK, as long as you hold on to both the camera and tripod when doing so. You then fine tune the framing by releasing and tightening only one lock at a time.
With cheaper tripods you sometimes find that tightening the lock actually moves the camera. This is something to watch out for. Once you are happy with the composition and framing, take a step back and think about your camera settings and how they will affect the shot. If you are not sure then try lots of different settings and find out later. It will be a very good learning experience.
I hope that, after having read the above, you will understand why I would say that a tripod is probably the most useful photographic accessory of all. The best piece of advice I could give anybody looking to improve their photographic skills would be to get a tripod and use it.
Commercial Photographer: Click To Clique
Ansel Adams, the renowned photographer from America, famous for his black and white photographs, had said, “Negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance”. And the performance of a commercial photographer is best judged by the response the client gets on any advertisement he places in any kind of medium. By response, we mean the acceptance and the action taken by the target audience, to whom the ad is directed.
The work of a commercial photographer is different from other kind of photographers in the same fraternity. And this difference arises chiefly due to the fact that the work is meant to impress a target audience. The entire work of a commercial photographer is surrounding the target group which is basically a group of consumers or potential consumers for a particular product. Each product, service or any idea has a particular set of target customers which differs from product to product or service to service.
What commercial photographer shoots is basically meant for promoting this product or service or idea to the people who form the target audience for it. Although this form of photography involves similar equipments and has similar elements as compared to the other branches of photography, yet there is a big difference in the work of a commercial photographer and that difference is that he shoots to impress people while most of the others shoot to impress themselves, satisfy their desire to capture moments from life, to inform or to promote the institution of photography.
Life of a commercial photographer is quite challenging but it is also full of rewards. And these rewards are more in monetary terms than mental satisfaction of the professional. If your clicks clique well with the target group, you can expect more work, more projects and therefore more money flowing in.
The work of a commercial photographer is different from other kind of photographers in the same fraternity. And this difference arises chiefly due to the fact that the work is meant to impress a target audience. The entire work of a commercial photographer is surrounding the target group which is basically a group of consumers or potential consumers for a particular product. Each product, service or any idea has a particular set of target customers which differs from product to product or service to service.
What commercial photographer shoots is basically meant for promoting this product or service or idea to the people who form the target audience for it. Although this form of photography involves similar equipments and has similar elements as compared to the other branches of photography, yet there is a big difference in the work of a commercial photographer and that difference is that he shoots to impress people while most of the others shoot to impress themselves, satisfy their desire to capture moments from life, to inform or to promote the institution of photography.
Life of a commercial photographer is quite challenging but it is also full of rewards. And these rewards are more in monetary terms than mental satisfaction of the professional. If your clicks clique well with the target group, you can expect more work, more projects and therefore more money flowing in.
Travel Photography: Creating Your Own Luck
Ok. So you’ve read up on the technical side of taking great photos. You know your aperture from your exif and you’ve experimented with shutter speeds. But there is something missing from the photos you’ve been taking. They’re ok, but that’s it. Just ok. Why? You wonder. Well, here’s a little secret: it’s all about luck. Well not really. More to the point, great travel photography is about creating your own luck.
Preparation
There is an art to being lucky in travel photography, and it usually involves a lot of hard work. Research is the key. Find out all you can about where you are going. Read travel guides, books, newspaper and magazine articles, scour the internet, watch television programs. Knowing a little about what life is like in that part of the world can go a long way to getting the most out of your time there. For instance, how would the locals react to someone trying to take their picture? Some cultures can be quite offended by having their photo taken. This is especially true of women in Islamic countries. At other times, people will practically beg you to take their picture. Sometimes, you will be expected to pay for the privilege.
If you are intending to photograph well known landmarks, there will be plenty of images available in the various media, so that you can get an idea of what it might look like during different times of the day or different seasons. This might help you in your planning. There is nothing quite as valuable in photography as knowing how to be in the right place at the right time.
Flexibility
Sometimes the shot you want is just not possible. You may be in a busy city square attempting to photograph a serene monument basking in the afternoon sun, but being interrupted by a stream of passers by wandering through the frame. Unless you are able to stop traffic, you are not going to get the shot you came for. This is where you might need to adjust your approach. Try to capture the feel of the place as it is. If the square is bustling with people going about their day, show it as such. Make your focus the intensity and speed of which life moves within the space. Be creative. Maybe use a bit of motion blur to capture the essence of a city in a hurry. You might also be able to return at a quieter time to capture that monument at peace. Again this comes back to preparation and research. Yes, I’m harping on about that again, but it really is that important.
The Wider Picture
Doubtless you will arrive at your destination with an intended subject. Maybe the local people, or architecture, or you’ve planned your trip around a particular festival that is taking place. However, do not limit yourself to this one subject. Instead of fixing your viewfinder on a subject and keeping it trained, try looking around you. Look up, down, behind you. You will be amazed at how much more there is to photograph. And how much more of a sense of time and place you will be able to show in your images. Isn’t that your purpose anyway?
Great travel photography does require great technical skills. Let’s not kid ourselves about that. But more often than not it’s about being in the right place at the right time and having the awareness to take complete advantage of it.
Preparation
There is an art to being lucky in travel photography, and it usually involves a lot of hard work. Research is the key. Find out all you can about where you are going. Read travel guides, books, newspaper and magazine articles, scour the internet, watch television programs. Knowing a little about what life is like in that part of the world can go a long way to getting the most out of your time there. For instance, how would the locals react to someone trying to take their picture? Some cultures can be quite offended by having their photo taken. This is especially true of women in Islamic countries. At other times, people will practically beg you to take their picture. Sometimes, you will be expected to pay for the privilege.
If you are intending to photograph well known landmarks, there will be plenty of images available in the various media, so that you can get an idea of what it might look like during different times of the day or different seasons. This might help you in your planning. There is nothing quite as valuable in photography as knowing how to be in the right place at the right time.
Flexibility
Sometimes the shot you want is just not possible. You may be in a busy city square attempting to photograph a serene monument basking in the afternoon sun, but being interrupted by a stream of passers by wandering through the frame. Unless you are able to stop traffic, you are not going to get the shot you came for. This is where you might need to adjust your approach. Try to capture the feel of the place as it is. If the square is bustling with people going about their day, show it as such. Make your focus the intensity and speed of which life moves within the space. Be creative. Maybe use a bit of motion blur to capture the essence of a city in a hurry. You might also be able to return at a quieter time to capture that monument at peace. Again this comes back to preparation and research. Yes, I’m harping on about that again, but it really is that important.
The Wider Picture
Doubtless you will arrive at your destination with an intended subject. Maybe the local people, or architecture, or you’ve planned your trip around a particular festival that is taking place. However, do not limit yourself to this one subject. Instead of fixing your viewfinder on a subject and keeping it trained, try looking around you. Look up, down, behind you. You will be amazed at how much more there is to photograph. And how much more of a sense of time and place you will be able to show in your images. Isn’t that your purpose anyway?
Great travel photography does require great technical skills. Let’s not kid ourselves about that. But more often than not it’s about being in the right place at the right time and having the awareness to take complete advantage of it.
A Few Basic Tips For Taking Digital Photos
My first tip for taking digital photography for anyone whether they are beginning, or have some degree of experience is “don’t be frightened of your camera”. Get used to handling your camera so that you feel comfortable with it. Make sure you know where all the controls are, and familiarise yourself with their functions. This is one of the basic beginning photography tips that often gets overlooked as it is such an obvious one.
Once you are comfortable handling your digital camera and have learnt how to use all the controls and functions, my next tip for taking digital photography is to take lots and lots of pictures. The beauty of digital photography is that you do not need to keep every picture that you take. You are not paying for a long processing sequence like you would be if you were using a camera that uses rolls of film, so you can be a lot more extravagant when it comes to taking pictures. Plus you may just take a prize winning photo purely by chance, and any photos you don’t want you can simply delete.
Another of the basic beginning photography tips that people often forget is to hold the camera steady. Again this may sound pretty obvious but it’s surprising just how many of us forget this simple little tip when we rush to get a good photo. It is important to actually practice holding the camera so that you automatically steady it for every picture that you take. How often have you seen the chance of a great picture only to rush it and ruin the shot? It’s far better to get one or two great pictures than dozens of blurred or poor quality ones.
My next tip is to always make sure that you have enough memory capacity on your digital camera. There is nothing worse than coming across something that would make a great picture only to find that you have no more room on your camera. Get into the habit of going through the photos stored on your camera on a regular basis, and deleting the ones you don’t want, and downloading and storing the ones you do want onto your computer, or have them printed off. Also buy a second card for your camera so that you always have a spare one with you just in case you need it.
Once you have got this far you should have loads of photos that you have taken, now is the time to study these and see if there is room for improvement. Maybe some of them are still coming out slightly blurred, so you will need to pay attention to your focusing. Remember that a digital camera has a tendency to take a little longer to focus when compared to a camera that uses roll film.
Maybe you are not happy with the lighting on some of your pictures, so try practising using the flash. The flash on a camera is not only designed to be used when taking photos indoors, it is also great for getting good sharp pictures outside as well, especially if the subject is in shade or if the natural light is low, like in the late evening.
I suppose that one of the most important beginning photography tips that I can give you is to “get out there and have some fun with your camera”. Take loads of photos and practice as you go. Use your camera as often and as much as you can. My last little tip would to be to get hold of a good book on digital photography, this way you will get all the tips for taking digital photography and learn all the usual mistakes to avoid right from the start.
Once you are comfortable handling your digital camera and have learnt how to use all the controls and functions, my next tip for taking digital photography is to take lots and lots of pictures. The beauty of digital photography is that you do not need to keep every picture that you take. You are not paying for a long processing sequence like you would be if you were using a camera that uses rolls of film, so you can be a lot more extravagant when it comes to taking pictures. Plus you may just take a prize winning photo purely by chance, and any photos you don’t want you can simply delete.
Another of the basic beginning photography tips that people often forget is to hold the camera steady. Again this may sound pretty obvious but it’s surprising just how many of us forget this simple little tip when we rush to get a good photo. It is important to actually practice holding the camera so that you automatically steady it for every picture that you take. How often have you seen the chance of a great picture only to rush it and ruin the shot? It’s far better to get one or two great pictures than dozens of blurred or poor quality ones.
My next tip is to always make sure that you have enough memory capacity on your digital camera. There is nothing worse than coming across something that would make a great picture only to find that you have no more room on your camera. Get into the habit of going through the photos stored on your camera on a regular basis, and deleting the ones you don’t want, and downloading and storing the ones you do want onto your computer, or have them printed off. Also buy a second card for your camera so that you always have a spare one with you just in case you need it.
Once you have got this far you should have loads of photos that you have taken, now is the time to study these and see if there is room for improvement. Maybe some of them are still coming out slightly blurred, so you will need to pay attention to your focusing. Remember that a digital camera has a tendency to take a little longer to focus when compared to a camera that uses roll film.
Maybe you are not happy with the lighting on some of your pictures, so try practising using the flash. The flash on a camera is not only designed to be used when taking photos indoors, it is also great for getting good sharp pictures outside as well, especially if the subject is in shade or if the natural light is low, like in the late evening.
I suppose that one of the most important beginning photography tips that I can give you is to “get out there and have some fun with your camera”. Take loads of photos and practice as you go. Use your camera as often and as much as you can. My last little tip would to be to get hold of a good book on digital photography, this way you will get all the tips for taking digital photography and learn all the usual mistakes to avoid right from the start.
How shutter speed affects photography results
knowledge of Shutter speed is important. What is shutter speed? It is the rate by which the shutter of the aperture closes.
Shutter speed determines how motion and movement show up in the photographic image.
Usually, a longer shutter speed will cause motion to show up as blurred portion of the photo. A higher shutter speed will allow sharper and more detailed moving elements to be recorded on the resulting shot.
Blurred images from longer shutter speed can be capitalized as special effects. We can sometime use longer shutter speed to create surreal and ethereal special photo shots. For instance, long night exposure shot of traffic can result in very interesting and beautiful neon-light streaks. These streaks are caused by the car lights’ path being capture faithfully.
On the other hand, very high shutter speed can capture details not normally seen by the human eye. For instance, water splashing from water droplets can produce nice droplets that float in mid air.
It is always fun and informative to experiment with various shutter speeds for creative photography.
Try it and you may be happily surprised by the interesting and varied results that can be generated for controlling shutter speeds.
Shutter speed determines how motion and movement show up in the photographic image.
Usually, a longer shutter speed will cause motion to show up as blurred portion of the photo. A higher shutter speed will allow sharper and more detailed moving elements to be recorded on the resulting shot.
Blurred images from longer shutter speed can be capitalized as special effects. We can sometime use longer shutter speed to create surreal and ethereal special photo shots. For instance, long night exposure shot of traffic can result in very interesting and beautiful neon-light streaks. These streaks are caused by the car lights’ path being capture faithfully.
On the other hand, very high shutter speed can capture details not normally seen by the human eye. For instance, water splashing from water droplets can produce nice droplets that float in mid air.
It is always fun and informative to experiment with various shutter speeds for creative photography.
Try it and you may be happily surprised by the interesting and varied results that can be generated for controlling shutter speeds.
Selling Your Photos: Stock Photography
Stock Photography agencies can be something of an enigma to beginning photographers. Unless you understand how they work, and what they expect from photographers, it can be difficult to begin selling your work through agencies. This article aims to give an overview of the stock photography business for those new to the industry.
What is a Stock Photography Agency?
Stock photography agencies are essentially a big library where buyers can search for a specific image they need to illustrate something, be it a magazine article or commercial advertisement. Buyers license the image and pay a fee to use it. The amount of the fee depends on the publication, size of the reprint, circulation and length of use. If your image is chosen, you receive a commission.
How do I start?
To begin selling your images through an agency, first they will have to accept you. This will usually entail submitting a selection of your images for assessment. If the agency likes what they see, they might offer you a contract.
From there on it’s a matter of submitting images regularly. Agencies need to keep their collections up to date to be competitive, and so expect regular contributions from their photographers.
One thing to remember is that, all things being equal, stock photography is a numbers game. The more images you have out there in the big wide world, the more chance you stand of making sales. Look at stock photography as a long term proposition. It can take a long time to build your collection and begin to make some sales. The good news though, is that everything you do is accumulative. And eventually, if you’ve put in the hard work, your stock collection could become a passive income, like having a share portfolio.
What do agencies expect?
All stock agencies expect images to be technically perfect. This means no dust or scratches, color casts and pin sharp. They can’t sell a sub standard image to a buyer and so won’t accept them into their library. Agencies also have differing requirements as to image size and file type that they will accept. It is important to read the requirements for image submissions carefully before sending in your own.
Agencies also differ in the amount of images they require from you. Some will state you need to submit a certain number each year, others will have no minimum requirement. All this will be written into your contract, which you should read carefully before signing to ensure this is the right agency for you. In particular, find out if the agency requires exclusivity (ie. You are unable to submit to any other agency) or image exclusivity (you are unable to submit the same image to any other agency). Also, find out what you need to do if you want to cancel your contract. What is the notice period you need to give? What happens to your images after your contract is cancelled? The last thing you want is to have your images tied up somewhere that isn’t working for you without anything you can do about it.
So how do I choose an agency?
You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned any agency names here. This is deliberate. There are hundreds of agencies all over the world to choose from and all of them are suited to different photographers. You may want the prestige of being with a big name agency but find that you have very little control over your images and how and where they are seen.
On the other hand, a smaller agency with fewer contributors may offer a better chance of your photos being seen and thus purchased. They might also offer higher commissions to photographers as they try to build their library and gain more market share.
It is important to look at an agency carefully before joining. Do your images fit the material they offer? Do they expect more than you can provide? Do they pay a suitable commission? What is their customer service like? If you ask a question, are they able to give you a useful answer?
Selling stock photography is a long hard road. It is competitive and takes a long time to see results. However if you stick at it and choose the right business partners, it can be very rewarding.
What is a Stock Photography Agency?
Stock photography agencies are essentially a big library where buyers can search for a specific image they need to illustrate something, be it a magazine article or commercial advertisement. Buyers license the image and pay a fee to use it. The amount of the fee depends on the publication, size of the reprint, circulation and length of use. If your image is chosen, you receive a commission.
How do I start?
To begin selling your images through an agency, first they will have to accept you. This will usually entail submitting a selection of your images for assessment. If the agency likes what they see, they might offer you a contract.
From there on it’s a matter of submitting images regularly. Agencies need to keep their collections up to date to be competitive, and so expect regular contributions from their photographers.
One thing to remember is that, all things being equal, stock photography is a numbers game. The more images you have out there in the big wide world, the more chance you stand of making sales. Look at stock photography as a long term proposition. It can take a long time to build your collection and begin to make some sales. The good news though, is that everything you do is accumulative. And eventually, if you’ve put in the hard work, your stock collection could become a passive income, like having a share portfolio.
What do agencies expect?
All stock agencies expect images to be technically perfect. This means no dust or scratches, color casts and pin sharp. They can’t sell a sub standard image to a buyer and so won’t accept them into their library. Agencies also have differing requirements as to image size and file type that they will accept. It is important to read the requirements for image submissions carefully before sending in your own.
Agencies also differ in the amount of images they require from you. Some will state you need to submit a certain number each year, others will have no minimum requirement. All this will be written into your contract, which you should read carefully before signing to ensure this is the right agency for you. In particular, find out if the agency requires exclusivity (ie. You are unable to submit to any other agency) or image exclusivity (you are unable to submit the same image to any other agency). Also, find out what you need to do if you want to cancel your contract. What is the notice period you need to give? What happens to your images after your contract is cancelled? The last thing you want is to have your images tied up somewhere that isn’t working for you without anything you can do about it.
So how do I choose an agency?
You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned any agency names here. This is deliberate. There are hundreds of agencies all over the world to choose from and all of them are suited to different photographers. You may want the prestige of being with a big name agency but find that you have very little control over your images and how and where they are seen.
On the other hand, a smaller agency with fewer contributors may offer a better chance of your photos being seen and thus purchased. They might also offer higher commissions to photographers as they try to build their library and gain more market share.
It is important to look at an agency carefully before joining. Do your images fit the material they offer? Do they expect more than you can provide? Do they pay a suitable commission? What is their customer service like? If you ask a question, are they able to give you a useful answer?
Selling stock photography is a long hard road. It is competitive and takes a long time to see results. However if you stick at it and choose the right business partners, it can be very rewarding.
Art Photography
The Saatchi Gallery’s artistic versatility dictates its open attitude toward art, and this attitude is present in its welcoming posture toward the work of photographers around the world. The gallery opens its doors to photographers who have been widely unrecognised in their circles and provides a source of promotion and exposure to these young, talented persons. This offer is inclusive of photo artists from countries all around the world. At Saatchi Online, artistic photographers are encouraged to upload their photographs and place them on display for the millions of potential art enthusiasts on the internet. Images must be uploaded as jpg files and the sizes of these files should be below 2MB. This opportunity given free of charge by Saatchi not only allows these photographers to increase their standing as renowned artists, but it also allows them to enter into the professional artistic realm by making (or arranging for) commission-free online sales.
Photographers are also free to create their own profile package online. Therefore, not only do viewers and potential buyers get the chance to review a wide range of their works (as many as eight pieces are accepted), but they are also able to offer the public significant information about themselves and their art. In addition to the services mentioned, Saatchi also allows the photographers to get messages from those interested in their art—such as viewers, fellow photographers, and even potential buyers. Therefore, this improves the artists’ ability to network in this scene where fellow artists, a potential source of inspiration, may be difficult to find. The Saatchi service to photographers may therefore be considered an ultimate method of artist promotion.
Photographers are also free to create their own profile package online. Therefore, not only do viewers and potential buyers get the chance to review a wide range of their works (as many as eight pieces are accepted), but they are also able to offer the public significant information about themselves and their art. In addition to the services mentioned, Saatchi also allows the photographers to get messages from those interested in their art—such as viewers, fellow photographers, and even potential buyers. Therefore, this improves the artists’ ability to network in this scene where fellow artists, a potential source of inspiration, may be difficult to find. The Saatchi service to photographers may therefore be considered an ultimate method of artist promotion.
Buying A Camera
One thing that puzzles most of us when buying a camera is which one to choose. There are hundreds of cameras on the market today, most of which are made by manufacturers with very good track records. All cameras will work well in most circumstances but we need to look at the finer details to get the best value for our money.
When I buy a camera the first thing I look at is the strength of the outer shell. The shell needs to be strong if you are out and about each day. Normally the weight of the camera will give you a good indication of the durability and strength.
There are many manufacturers to choose from, but if you are buying an SLR in digital or film format, Nikon or Canon are the main players. If you enjoy photography purely as a hobby and are planning to buy a digital compact camera, there are hundreds to choose from.
I normally stick to the main manufacturers, but before I buy, I read photo magazines. Most photo magazines carry featured articles about the latest equipment on sale and they are constantly testing them to give their readers accurate feedback. This may spare you a lot of money and help you decide which camera to buy and which one will best suit your needs.
If you are buying a compact camera I would definitely recommend checking out these magazines. There are so many to choose from and the prices can vary a lot. If you do decide to buy a compact pick one that accepts removable memory cards, other wise you may run out of memory taking holiday or family snaps. Also pick one that will offer you a reasonable size print. A 2-megapixel camera will allow you to print a good quality 10 x 8 inch print. Also make sure that the cameras software is suitable for your computer.
If you are buying an SLR digital or film camera you are moving more closely toward the professional end of the market where prices can be quite high. Most SLR will allow you to capture images that can be enlarged to a good size. You will also be able to use interchangeable lenses on most SLR and add a strobe unit where extra light is needed for accurate exposure.
For any photographer who works in a specialized area there are also specific cameras available. Photography manufacturers produce a range of cameras for professionals in digital or film format. Where large images are needed manufacturers sell large format cameras. These are ideal for landscape or advertising photography. There are also portrait digital cameras available for professionals.
Buying an expensive camera will not make your images better. Regardless of your equipment you should be able to take good images with any standard compact camera if you apply good photography techniques. A good camera will enable you to be more creative with manual settings and will give you a higher resolution image but your creative eye will still work the same.
When I buy a camera the first thing I look at is the strength of the outer shell. The shell needs to be strong if you are out and about each day. Normally the weight of the camera will give you a good indication of the durability and strength.
There are many manufacturers to choose from, but if you are buying an SLR in digital or film format, Nikon or Canon are the main players. If you enjoy photography purely as a hobby and are planning to buy a digital compact camera, there are hundreds to choose from.
I normally stick to the main manufacturers, but before I buy, I read photo magazines. Most photo magazines carry featured articles about the latest equipment on sale and they are constantly testing them to give their readers accurate feedback. This may spare you a lot of money and help you decide which camera to buy and which one will best suit your needs.
If you are buying a compact camera I would definitely recommend checking out these magazines. There are so many to choose from and the prices can vary a lot. If you do decide to buy a compact pick one that accepts removable memory cards, other wise you may run out of memory taking holiday or family snaps. Also pick one that will offer you a reasonable size print. A 2-megapixel camera will allow you to print a good quality 10 x 8 inch print. Also make sure that the cameras software is suitable for your computer.
If you are buying an SLR digital or film camera you are moving more closely toward the professional end of the market where prices can be quite high. Most SLR will allow you to capture images that can be enlarged to a good size. You will also be able to use interchangeable lenses on most SLR and add a strobe unit where extra light is needed for accurate exposure.
For any photographer who works in a specialized area there are also specific cameras available. Photography manufacturers produce a range of cameras for professionals in digital or film format. Where large images are needed manufacturers sell large format cameras. These are ideal for landscape or advertising photography. There are also portrait digital cameras available for professionals.
Buying an expensive camera will not make your images better. Regardless of your equipment you should be able to take good images with any standard compact camera if you apply good photography techniques. A good camera will enable you to be more creative with manual settings and will give you a higher resolution image but your creative eye will still work the same.
Digital Photographer – Or Digital Dummy?
Digital technology has taken over the photography world. The benefits are enormous, and advances in cameras and software have quickly overcome the weaknesses of early digital photography. But are modern photographers living up to the potential of their new digital cameras?
As the owner of a gallery, I have many conversations with digital photographers, and I am beginning to see problems, not with digital photography, but with the mindset it seems to have created. And I fear that photography as an art form may be the poorer for it.
One of the benefits that make digital cameras so attractive is the ability to see your results immediately, and delete a photo if you are not happy with it, at zero cost. Gone are the days of waiting until you finish a roll of film, then facing the expense of developing and printing before you get to see your results. With digital photography, you can take a shot without fear: if it doesn’t work, just delete it and try again.
Therein lies my biggest worry about digital photography. The ease with which a photographer can erase a mistake has taken away the need to think about what they are doing. Let’s face it, if you take enough shots of the same subject, eventually you will get it right accidentally.
When film was king, the delay in seeing your results, and the expense connected to each exposure, made it important to get it right, or at least try to do so. When a photographer had to wait until days later to view their results, the opportunity to try again had usually passed. Consequently, it was essential to really learn how to use your camera, and to put creative thought into every exposure.
Of course there was no such thing as a 100% success rate, and plenty of film was wasted, but with concentration and self-discipline, a good film photographer had a right to expect more hits than misses from each roll of film.
These days it is common for someone to want to show me their great new photo, but have to search through the other 50 failed attempts on the memory card to find it. In these cases, the question needs to be asked: was the digital photographer‘s eventual success due to good photography or good luck? Moreover, had they learned anything in the process? Presented with the same situation again, would they need to take another 50 photos to get it right the next time?
There are many situations where that approach is simply not good enough. In my field of nature photography, many opportunities last no more than a few seconds. Birds fly away, clouds cover the sun, the colours of a sunset change. Fleeting moments are not rare in photography, in fact for some artists they are what photography is all about.
So how does the random snapper cope in these situations? I suspect in many cases the tendency is to blame the bird for flying away, or blame the digital camera for not doing its job properly. The notion that the photo should be easy for someone who knows what they are doing would not compute. Why? Because the sheer convenience of digital photography, with its automatic features and ease of deletion, does not encourage us to actually learn how to use the camera.
Imaging software is part and parcel of the photography industry; I accept that. In fact, to get a truly high-quality print, even the best digital photographer has to do a little ‘work’ on an image from time to time. But computer wizardry should never replace skill with a camera. Sadly, these days many people are relying on software to fix their mistakes, instead of learning to take better photos.
I look at it this way: time spent fixing up a mistake using software ‘ minutes or hours. Time spent getting it right in the first place ‘ about 1/500 second.
If you have a good digital camera, I urge you switch it to manual and learn how to use it. Not much has changed since the old days. The main things you need to learn are still aperture, shutter speed, light and composition. Practice has never been cheaper, and learning from your mistakes has never been easier. A little patience and self discipline is really all it takes.
Go on ‘ make your camera proud!
As the owner of a gallery, I have many conversations with digital photographers, and I am beginning to see problems, not with digital photography, but with the mindset it seems to have created. And I fear that photography as an art form may be the poorer for it.
One of the benefits that make digital cameras so attractive is the ability to see your results immediately, and delete a photo if you are not happy with it, at zero cost. Gone are the days of waiting until you finish a roll of film, then facing the expense of developing and printing before you get to see your results. With digital photography, you can take a shot without fear: if it doesn’t work, just delete it and try again.
Therein lies my biggest worry about digital photography. The ease with which a photographer can erase a mistake has taken away the need to think about what they are doing. Let’s face it, if you take enough shots of the same subject, eventually you will get it right accidentally.
When film was king, the delay in seeing your results, and the expense connected to each exposure, made it important to get it right, or at least try to do so. When a photographer had to wait until days later to view their results, the opportunity to try again had usually passed. Consequently, it was essential to really learn how to use your camera, and to put creative thought into every exposure.
Of course there was no such thing as a 100% success rate, and plenty of film was wasted, but with concentration and self-discipline, a good film photographer had a right to expect more hits than misses from each roll of film.
These days it is common for someone to want to show me their great new photo, but have to search through the other 50 failed attempts on the memory card to find it. In these cases, the question needs to be asked: was the digital photographer‘s eventual success due to good photography or good luck? Moreover, had they learned anything in the process? Presented with the same situation again, would they need to take another 50 photos to get it right the next time?
There are many situations where that approach is simply not good enough. In my field of nature photography, many opportunities last no more than a few seconds. Birds fly away, clouds cover the sun, the colours of a sunset change. Fleeting moments are not rare in photography, in fact for some artists they are what photography is all about.
So how does the random snapper cope in these situations? I suspect in many cases the tendency is to blame the bird for flying away, or blame the digital camera for not doing its job properly. The notion that the photo should be easy for someone who knows what they are doing would not compute. Why? Because the sheer convenience of digital photography, with its automatic features and ease of deletion, does not encourage us to actually learn how to use the camera.
Imaging software is part and parcel of the photography industry; I accept that. In fact, to get a truly high-quality print, even the best digital photographer has to do a little ‘work’ on an image from time to time. But computer wizardry should never replace skill with a camera. Sadly, these days many people are relying on software to fix their mistakes, instead of learning to take better photos.
I look at it this way: time spent fixing up a mistake using software ‘ minutes or hours. Time spent getting it right in the first place ‘ about 1/500 second.
If you have a good digital camera, I urge you switch it to manual and learn how to use it. Not much has changed since the old days. The main things you need to learn are still aperture, shutter speed, light and composition. Practice has never been cheaper, and learning from your mistakes has never been easier. A little patience and self discipline is really all it takes.
Go on ‘ make your camera proud!
Red Eye
Red eye is a major problem for amateur photographers and occurs when a built-in-flash unit is positioned too close to the camera. This is down to poor design of cheap cameras, but can also happen with the built-in flash units in most SLR cameras.
Red eye is caused by light reflecting back off the retina at the back of the eye.
The chances of red eye happening and destroying an image are high if you are new to photography. One trick that usually works is to ask the subject to look at a bright light seconds before you take your image. The best way to avoid it is by placing your flash off camera and at a 45 degree angle to the subject.
One of the handiest tricks for avoiding red eye is to use the double flash technique. When you are ready to take your shot pre-program your camera to give a double flash. The first flash will make the eyes of whoever you are photographing react by narrowing their pupil size. The second flash is for the images that you are taking. Not all cameras have the pre-program for a double flash facility; but a flash on an old camera will do the same if you time it correctly.
Another technique is to angle the camera so that you are not shooting head-on portraits. This should also help to avoid any unwanted glare from the image. Some photographers use tracing paper to diffuse the light. The tracing paper is placed over the flash window. It is a method that can work, but it would be my least favourite.
While all the above may work well, the best way to avoid red eye in photography is by using a flash off camera or by bouncing the light of a surface that will direct the light back onto the subject.
Camera designers have gone to great efforts to minimize the effect of red eye, and there are many software programs that claim to remove it digitally. For those who are into digital photography and have access to Adobe Photoshop the red eye can be removed in two minutes.
To remove red eye in Photoshop follow these instructions.
1. Select the Red Eye brush tool from the toolbox.
2. Zoom in on the eyes.
3. You may need to click on the Default Colour button and reset the colours. Once done make sure that the Sampling tab is set to First Click.
4. Resize the brush tool to suit the image.
5. Place the brush pointer over the red eye and click.
This method works by changing the colours of pixels in the area affected. If it does not work completely the first time restart the process and set the Tolerance tab to a higher percentage. When the tolerance tab is set correctly all the red eye should be removed.
Red eye is caused by light reflecting back off the retina at the back of the eye.
The chances of red eye happening and destroying an image are high if you are new to photography. One trick that usually works is to ask the subject to look at a bright light seconds before you take your image. The best way to avoid it is by placing your flash off camera and at a 45 degree angle to the subject.
One of the handiest tricks for avoiding red eye is to use the double flash technique. When you are ready to take your shot pre-program your camera to give a double flash. The first flash will make the eyes of whoever you are photographing react by narrowing their pupil size. The second flash is for the images that you are taking. Not all cameras have the pre-program for a double flash facility; but a flash on an old camera will do the same if you time it correctly.
Another technique is to angle the camera so that you are not shooting head-on portraits. This should also help to avoid any unwanted glare from the image. Some photographers use tracing paper to diffuse the light. The tracing paper is placed over the flash window. It is a method that can work, but it would be my least favourite.
While all the above may work well, the best way to avoid red eye in photography is by using a flash off camera or by bouncing the light of a surface that will direct the light back onto the subject.
Camera designers have gone to great efforts to minimize the effect of red eye, and there are many software programs that claim to remove it digitally. For those who are into digital photography and have access to Adobe Photoshop the red eye can be removed in two minutes.
To remove red eye in Photoshop follow these instructions.
1. Select the Red Eye brush tool from the toolbox.
2. Zoom in on the eyes.
3. You may need to click on the Default Colour button and reset the colours. Once done make sure that the Sampling tab is set to First Click.
4. Resize the brush tool to suit the image.
5. Place the brush pointer over the red eye and click.
This method works by changing the colours of pixels in the area affected. If it does not work completely the first time restart the process and set the Tolerance tab to a higher percentage. When the tolerance tab is set correctly all the red eye should be removed.
Quick Photography Basics
Create better pictures with these simple tips and rules of photography basics. Creating that extraordinary picture will become second nature. But remember that every rule has an exception, so if you are wowed by a scene or a subject, don’t be afraid to shoot! Enjoy!
The Pause. Before pressing the button stop to look through the view finder to make sure you cannot improve on the shot. Check to make sure everything is in the shot you want and there is not too much clutter.
remove clutter. When shooting a person make sure that no objects are behind or around the subject’s head. For example look for anything like a lamp that is behind the subject’s head, which will distract from the person.
Point of View. Shooting from different angles not just straight on can create a unique point of view. Stand on a chair, or even lie on your back. Turn the camera 90 degrees and take a vertical shot. This technique works great with any subject.
Steady the Camera. Time lag is necessary between pressing the shutter release and the exposure, because the camera needs a to adjust for pre-shot calibration and balance colors. Use a tripod.
Manual Focus. If you’re going to take a lot of action shots or be shooting through glass override the auto focus. Even if your camera has a buffer, the auto focus may not react fast enough to give you sharp pictures if you shoot too quickly or the light is too low.
White Balance. The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends to be a bit on the “cool” side.
Outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes require that you change the white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That’s right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.
The Pause. Before pressing the button stop to look through the view finder to make sure you cannot improve on the shot. Check to make sure everything is in the shot you want and there is not too much clutter.
remove clutter. When shooting a person make sure that no objects are behind or around the subject’s head. For example look for anything like a lamp that is behind the subject’s head, which will distract from the person.
Point of View. Shooting from different angles not just straight on can create a unique point of view. Stand on a chair, or even lie on your back. Turn the camera 90 degrees and take a vertical shot. This technique works great with any subject.
Steady the Camera. Time lag is necessary between pressing the shutter release and the exposure, because the camera needs a to adjust for pre-shot calibration and balance colors. Use a tripod.
Manual Focus. If you’re going to take a lot of action shots or be shooting through glass override the auto focus. Even if your camera has a buffer, the auto focus may not react fast enough to give you sharp pictures if you shoot too quickly or the light is too low.
White Balance. The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends to be a bit on the “cool” side.
Outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes require that you change the white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That’s right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.
Photographing Cultures and People
As a travel photographer, one of the most interesting and rewarding subjects to capture is the many different cultures and people the world has to offer. Photographing people also brings its share of challenges. This article looks at some of things to consider when looking capturing a culture in an image.
Do your homework
Before starting out, ask yourself this question. Do I know anything about the people I want to photograph? If the answer is no, or not really, then do some research. A little homework and you can gain some helpful insights into how to approach your subject. For example, some cultures might take offence to having their picture taken, some will expect to be paid, while others will rush you begging for you to take their photo. Having some idea of what to expect gives you an advantage in considering how to approach people. Research can also give you insight into the culture of the people. You may discover a piece of clothing native to that part of the world and look for people wearing that piece of clothing. These small pieces of knowledge can make the images you come away with more authentic and real by being able to gain people’s trust and cooperation.
Model releases
If you intend to sell your images, you may need a model release. This can present some difficulty in language barriers and people being willing to give their permission for their image to be sold. It can be daunting to ask a stranger to sign a piece of paper allowing you to make money from their image. The best advice I can give is make it easy for them. Have your model releases easily accessible and make them easy to read and understand. Be patient and answer any questions they might have. Most importantly, be honest. Don’t hide your reasons for wanting permission. Most times, if people see you are being upfront with them, they are more likely to cooperate. There will however always be times when people will be unwilling to sign a release, or maybe even unable to sign because of illiteracy or language barrier. In these cases simply accept their decision with a smile. Arguing with them will not change their mind.
Be considerate, give something back
It is important to remember that wherever you are, you are a guest in someone else’s country, and to behave accordingly. To take great images of people, you need to get them to let their guard down, to relax and open up to you. You will never achieve this with a grab and run approach. Slow down. Stop and talk to people. Give something back rather than making your photography only an act of taking. This may be as simple as engaging in conversation with someone before asking to take their photo, or you might carry around small gifts to give people. Whatever your approach, you (and for that matter your subjects) will gain so much more from the procedure.
A little sensitivity can go a long way in photographing other cultures. It is a practice that will allow you to come away with more than great images. It will also allow you to gain an education. Which, at the end of the day, could prove much more valuable
Do your homework
Before starting out, ask yourself this question. Do I know anything about the people I want to photograph? If the answer is no, or not really, then do some research. A little homework and you can gain some helpful insights into how to approach your subject. For example, some cultures might take offence to having their picture taken, some will expect to be paid, while others will rush you begging for you to take their photo. Having some idea of what to expect gives you an advantage in considering how to approach people. Research can also give you insight into the culture of the people. You may discover a piece of clothing native to that part of the world and look for people wearing that piece of clothing. These small pieces of knowledge can make the images you come away with more authentic and real by being able to gain people’s trust and cooperation.
Model releases
If you intend to sell your images, you may need a model release. This can present some difficulty in language barriers and people being willing to give their permission for their image to be sold. It can be daunting to ask a stranger to sign a piece of paper allowing you to make money from their image. The best advice I can give is make it easy for them. Have your model releases easily accessible and make them easy to read and understand. Be patient and answer any questions they might have. Most importantly, be honest. Don’t hide your reasons for wanting permission. Most times, if people see you are being upfront with them, they are more likely to cooperate. There will however always be times when people will be unwilling to sign a release, or maybe even unable to sign because of illiteracy or language barrier. In these cases simply accept their decision with a smile. Arguing with them will not change their mind.
Be considerate, give something back
It is important to remember that wherever you are, you are a guest in someone else’s country, and to behave accordingly. To take great images of people, you need to get them to let their guard down, to relax and open up to you. You will never achieve this with a grab and run approach. Slow down. Stop and talk to people. Give something back rather than making your photography only an act of taking. This may be as simple as engaging in conversation with someone before asking to take their photo, or you might carry around small gifts to give people. Whatever your approach, you (and for that matter your subjects) will gain so much more from the procedure.
A little sensitivity can go a long way in photographing other cultures. It is a practice that will allow you to come away with more than great images. It will also allow you to gain an education. Which, at the end of the day, could prove much more valuable
Mistakes New Photographers Make
The biggest mistake that novices make photography is that they always have the subject in the center. You don’t always have to have the subject in the middle. It’s a good idea to test different angle so you comfortable with different shots. You can take pictures with the subject on the left or the right. You could even have them at the top or bottom.
Another thing to remember is that when ever you don’t use the center you can have other issues. What happens is when you do not center some new photographers may not give enough room on the side of the picture that the subject is pointing. Try leaving space when on the side that the person in the picture is facing. If you do not the picture may look wrong or have the feel of being closed in.
You also want to pay attention to the the background of the photo. Make sure the background does not look too cluttered. If you need to, find a different background or shallow depth to make a better photo. Make sure the subject does not blend in with the background. Find a background that is a different color than the subject. If they are both the same is can make the photo look confusing.
Another thing to remember is that when ever you don’t use the center you can have other issues. What happens is when you do not center some new photographers may not give enough room on the side of the picture that the subject is pointing. Try leaving space when on the side that the person in the picture is facing. If you do not the picture may look wrong or have the feel of being closed in.
You also want to pay attention to the the background of the photo. Make sure the background does not look too cluttered. If you need to, find a different background or shallow depth to make a better photo. Make sure the subject does not blend in with the background. Find a background that is a different color than the subject. If they are both the same is can make the photo look confusing.
Top Mistakes by New Photographers
With the new era of digital cameras, photography has become much more common. Almost anyone can afford a camera and most have at least one. Even many cell phones have a digital camera.
While most new cameras are also quite easy to use, there are still many areas in photography where you need to have the knowledge to succeed. These are some of the top mistakes made by new digital photographers. If you are an unpracticed photographer, these are the top mistake to keep an eye for.
Poor Camera
This is by far the most common mistake these days. Many cheap digital models are only good for either landscape or closeup photographs due to their poor focus. Know your camera: what it can do and what are its limitations. A $200 model should never be used for professional photography.
Lighting
Another common mistake is to forget lighting or believe the camera takes care of it all. You will seldom get as good images in dark conditions with a cheap flash than you could in plentiful natural lighting.
Cropping
While it is much easier to see what gets in the photo with today’s LCD displays than with an old-fashioned seeker, there are still plenty of mistakes you can make. One thing to remember is that you can crop the image on your computer. That means you will most likely want to include too much space around than too little.
Zooming
There are so make things that can go wrong with zooming. The number one thing to keep in mind is to always avoid using the digital zoom. It is a feature found in many cheap digital cameras that basically has the same result as cropping the image on your computer. If you need zoom, only use the optical zoom.
Camera Settings
If you are not sure about the settings in your camera, it may be best to use the defaults. If there are several modes, the ‘auto’ mode is usually the easiest to use. You should take care that you use a good format to save the images. Often the high detail mode with the highest resolution should be used, if you are not short on memory.
The bottom line is: if you are serious about photography, you must practice. Digital photography does not differ in that sense.
If you do not learn the skills in advance, you are going to have to learn them the hard way, and that will probably mean making some of these mistakes and more. It can also mean tens or hundreds of lost photos – shots that could have been excellent had you not made a simple mistake.
While most new cameras are also quite easy to use, there are still many areas in photography where you need to have the knowledge to succeed. These are some of the top mistakes made by new digital photographers. If you are an unpracticed photographer, these are the top mistake to keep an eye for.
Poor Camera
This is by far the most common mistake these days. Many cheap digital models are only good for either landscape or closeup photographs due to their poor focus. Know your camera: what it can do and what are its limitations. A $200 model should never be used for professional photography.
Lighting
Another common mistake is to forget lighting or believe the camera takes care of it all. You will seldom get as good images in dark conditions with a cheap flash than you could in plentiful natural lighting.
Cropping
While it is much easier to see what gets in the photo with today’s LCD displays than with an old-fashioned seeker, there are still plenty of mistakes you can make. One thing to remember is that you can crop the image on your computer. That means you will most likely want to include too much space around than too little.
Zooming
There are so make things that can go wrong with zooming. The number one thing to keep in mind is to always avoid using the digital zoom. It is a feature found in many cheap digital cameras that basically has the same result as cropping the image on your computer. If you need zoom, only use the optical zoom.
Camera Settings
If you are not sure about the settings in your camera, it may be best to use the defaults. If there are several modes, the ‘auto’ mode is usually the easiest to use. You should take care that you use a good format to save the images. Often the high detail mode with the highest resolution should be used, if you are not short on memory.
The bottom line is: if you are serious about photography, you must practice. Digital photography does not differ in that sense.
If you do not learn the skills in advance, you are going to have to learn them the hard way, and that will probably mean making some of these mistakes and more. It can also mean tens or hundreds of lost photos – shots that could have been excellent had you not made a simple mistake.
7 Digital Photography Tips For Beginners
Do you want to be an excellent photographer? These 7 digital photography tips you can get started on your way to become an excellent photographer if you’d like.
#1. Learn your cameras settings
Chances are you shoot most of your pictures utilizing your camera’s “automatic” mode. This will get you average results. If you are striving for great shots, you’ll need to learn about other modes too. Take the time to read your camera’s manual to understand when to use each shooting mode.
#2. Take more photos
Before going crazy buying the most expensive equipment right away, you had better take more photos because the more photos you take, the more you’ll know about what kind of camera to get when it’s time to upgrade. In other words, you can always delete the bad ones later.
#3. Busting the dust
Digital camera with removable lenses are prone to dust landing on the sensor. Static electricity around the sensor can possibly contribute to attracting dust particles, or other elements to this sensitive area of your camera. You can get rid of the dust is a camera blower brush, and tilt the camera down while blowing. Take care not to get any of the hairs snagged inside.
#4. Use a tripod
A tripod will keep your camera steady which will make your photos clearer.
#5. Shot your subject at different focal length, angles, and formats
Shoot your subject at different focal lengths – using the zoom on your photos will not only change how close your subject appears but it will also change the depth of field (ie the blurring of the background). It also allows you to shoot from different distances which can really impact how relaxed your subject is (there’s nothing better than a photographer in your face to make you tense up)
Shoot your subject from different angles – it’s amazing how much you can change a shot by getting on your knees or taking a few steps to the side.
Shoot using different formats – there are different ways to grip a digital camera. The two main ones are horizontally or vertically but you can also get into all kinds of diagonal ways to do it. Mix it up.
#6. Experiment with different ‘modes’
Even the most basic point and shoot cameras have different ’shooting modes’. These are usually things like ‘portrait’, ‘landscape’, ’sports’, ‘night’ etc. Sometimes it’s worth flicking through these to take shots at different settings. What these modes do is simply change the basic settings (like aperture, shutter speed, ISO) – all things that can change the look and feel of your shot considerably
#7. Play with your Flash
Try turning your flash off or forcing it to fire in shots. Sometimes adding flash to a scene where there’s lots of light behind your subject is essential (even though your camera might not think it needs it). This stops those silhouette shots where it looks like you’re trying to hide the identity on your subject.
#1. Learn your cameras settings
Chances are you shoot most of your pictures utilizing your camera’s “automatic” mode. This will get you average results. If you are striving for great shots, you’ll need to learn about other modes too. Take the time to read your camera’s manual to understand when to use each shooting mode.
#2. Take more photos
Before going crazy buying the most expensive equipment right away, you had better take more photos because the more photos you take, the more you’ll know about what kind of camera to get when it’s time to upgrade. In other words, you can always delete the bad ones later.
#3. Busting the dust
Digital camera with removable lenses are prone to dust landing on the sensor. Static electricity around the sensor can possibly contribute to attracting dust particles, or other elements to this sensitive area of your camera. You can get rid of the dust is a camera blower brush, and tilt the camera down while blowing. Take care not to get any of the hairs snagged inside.
#4. Use a tripod
A tripod will keep your camera steady which will make your photos clearer.
#5. Shot your subject at different focal length, angles, and formats
Shoot your subject at different focal lengths – using the zoom on your photos will not only change how close your subject appears but it will also change the depth of field (ie the blurring of the background). It also allows you to shoot from different distances which can really impact how relaxed your subject is (there’s nothing better than a photographer in your face to make you tense up)
Shoot your subject from different angles – it’s amazing how much you can change a shot by getting on your knees or taking a few steps to the side.
Shoot using different formats – there are different ways to grip a digital camera. The two main ones are horizontally or vertically but you can also get into all kinds of diagonal ways to do it. Mix it up.
#6. Experiment with different ‘modes’
Even the most basic point and shoot cameras have different ’shooting modes’. These are usually things like ‘portrait’, ‘landscape’, ’sports’, ‘night’ etc. Sometimes it’s worth flicking through these to take shots at different settings. What these modes do is simply change the basic settings (like aperture, shutter speed, ISO) – all things that can change the look and feel of your shot considerably
#7. Play with your Flash
Try turning your flash off or forcing it to fire in shots. Sometimes adding flash to a scene where there’s lots of light behind your subject is essential (even though your camera might not think it needs it). This stops those silhouette shots where it looks like you’re trying to hide the identity on your subject.
How to find good photography frames
How to find good photography frames. Art framing supplies can enhance the beauty inherent in your piece of artwork, whether a painting or a photograph. There are differences in framing paintings and photos, and you will want to choose your framing supplies accordingly.
Paintings can be brought to their full splendor by the use of custom wood picture frames. They can be ornately carved and thick, or they can be delicate and thin. Several different colors of wood are available for framing, to best set off your artwork. Another aspect of framing to consider when using wood frames is the mat board. Mat board comes in a variety of materials, such as thick Bainbridge cellulose fiber mats or mats made out of paper. They also come in a wide variety of colors, so that you can select those that complement or contrast your artwork. The mat can function as an extension of the artwork when such care is taken with its selection. You can also find mat board that is acid free, which will help to preserve your artwork blemish free for years to come.
Photographs, on the other hand, are often framed in a much different manner from paintings. Because the focus is on the photograph within the frame, photography frames are typically made of slender black metal and utilize a wide-width white mat board. This type of framing offers a sleek, contemporary look, and is one often utilized in art galleries. You might see several pictures, and not be distracted by the mat and frame but instead can focus your attention on the photo, which is one reason why they are attractive in this venue.
There are three other framing supplies that will have an impact on your framing choices for your artwork, and they are the mount board and how you will affix your art to the mount board, and the glazing. For the best preservation qualities, you will want to select an acid-free mount board, as well as mounting supplies such as photo corners, hinging tape or other types of adhesives. The glazing can protect your art from harmful light, and comes in glass or acrylic. The acrylic can be infused with UV-light and glare-reducing products, and makes a good and lightweight choice for framing applications.
Art framing supplies, chosen with an eye toward preservation of the artwork and allowing it to stand in unadulterated clarity, are a crucial component to the total look of your finished piece of art.
Paintings can be brought to their full splendor by the use of custom wood picture frames. They can be ornately carved and thick, or they can be delicate and thin. Several different colors of wood are available for framing, to best set off your artwork. Another aspect of framing to consider when using wood frames is the mat board. Mat board comes in a variety of materials, such as thick Bainbridge cellulose fiber mats or mats made out of paper. They also come in a wide variety of colors, so that you can select those that complement or contrast your artwork. The mat can function as an extension of the artwork when such care is taken with its selection. You can also find mat board that is acid free, which will help to preserve your artwork blemish free for years to come.
Photographs, on the other hand, are often framed in a much different manner from paintings. Because the focus is on the photograph within the frame, photography frames are typically made of slender black metal and utilize a wide-width white mat board. This type of framing offers a sleek, contemporary look, and is one often utilized in art galleries. You might see several pictures, and not be distracted by the mat and frame but instead can focus your attention on the photo, which is one reason why they are attractive in this venue.
There are three other framing supplies that will have an impact on your framing choices for your artwork, and they are the mount board and how you will affix your art to the mount board, and the glazing. For the best preservation qualities, you will want to select an acid-free mount board, as well as mounting supplies such as photo corners, hinging tape or other types of adhesives. The glazing can protect your art from harmful light, and comes in glass or acrylic. The acrylic can be infused with UV-light and glare-reducing products, and makes a good and lightweight choice for framing applications.
Art framing supplies, chosen with an eye toward preservation of the artwork and allowing it to stand in unadulterated clarity, are a crucial component to the total look of your finished piece of art.
On The Road To Success
Why modify this digital camera setting? Experiments in exposure time can produce dramatic effects. For example: Take a photograph of a roaring waterfall in a well-lit area and adjust your digital camera’s exposure speed to take pictures as quickly as possible. In great lighting, and with some modern digital cameras, you may be able to see the individual drops of water falling!
If the histogram is weighted towards the right side with vary little if any curvature near the left, your photo will most likely be overexposed (too light). Use your exposure compensation tool to darken the image. Consider a faster shutter speed to force less light to enter the camera lens. Exceptions can occur. Are you taking photos of a bright sunrise? Then your photo will come out bright and your histogram will shift towards the right. And that will be OK.
What do you do when you leave your tripod at home and you see an awesome shot? There are several things you can do, its not the end of the world. If you are using autofocus mode, your digital camera may have a shutter button that requires you to press halfway down to focus, then fully down to take the picture. If you are experiencing camera shake, get the camera to focus on the subject by pressing the button down half-way, then press the button down fully and keep your finger pressed on the button until the camera has taken the picture.
While sunrise and sunset photos are nice, unless the scene contains spectacular colors, huge clouds, or fast-rolling waves (at a beach), too many of these photos can be bland. Try to add a silhouette, such as: A person or people; An animal, such as a bird or a dog; A sailboat or other watercraft; Trees or shrubs; An expansive bridge To get certain subjects into your photo may require patience, but they help add depth and perspective to your photos.
If you have a good optical zoom, here is an experiment you can do while taking digital camera photographs. When taking pictures of homes, skyscrapers, cabins, etc., zoom in on individual pieces of architecture. Take a minute to really look at your subject, and you may be able to find individual engravings, sections of paneling, or dents and scars in the wood of a cabin that may result in interesting pictures. The trick to taking better photos is to really observe a subject and see it from all angles. Go downtown, find some office buildings, and really take a minute or two to study them. You may find engravings or sculptures on or around the buildings that you have never noticed before.
Don’t damage your digital camera equipment, or yourself, when traveling on double-decker buses! Some tour buses in large towns use double-decker buses for large groups. That way, those who want to take photos can do so without having to shoot through the glass of windows. While this offers a good opportunity for photographers, especially if there is ample light to take fast pictures to offset the speed of the vehicle, be careful with yourself and your equipment! Some of these buses may pass very close to low-hanging trees or stoplights. Thus, you should never stand up taking photographs while the vehicle is moving, no matter how incredible the subject. If you are not paying attention and stand up at the wrong time, a limb or other object could knock your camera right out of your hand, or worse, something can knock you in the head!
While you should always try to take digital photos at nighttime that avoid the blurred results of ‘camera-shake’ due to long exposures with an unstable digital camera, realize that blur is not always undesirable. Some blurring can be used creatively, such as that created by cars driving on an interstate at nighttime. This effect is best performed if the roadway is next to a lit skyscraper or cityscape. Frame a photo containing the cityscape and roadway, and take an exposure of half a second or longer as necessary (use a tripod!). The skyscrapers should look clear and crisp, and the roadways will turn into streams of light.
If the histogram is weighted towards the right side with vary little if any curvature near the left, your photo will most likely be overexposed (too light). Use your exposure compensation tool to darken the image. Consider a faster shutter speed to force less light to enter the camera lens. Exceptions can occur. Are you taking photos of a bright sunrise? Then your photo will come out bright and your histogram will shift towards the right. And that will be OK.
What do you do when you leave your tripod at home and you see an awesome shot? There are several things you can do, its not the end of the world. If you are using autofocus mode, your digital camera may have a shutter button that requires you to press halfway down to focus, then fully down to take the picture. If you are experiencing camera shake, get the camera to focus on the subject by pressing the button down half-way, then press the button down fully and keep your finger pressed on the button until the camera has taken the picture.
While sunrise and sunset photos are nice, unless the scene contains spectacular colors, huge clouds, or fast-rolling waves (at a beach), too many of these photos can be bland. Try to add a silhouette, such as: A person or people; An animal, such as a bird or a dog; A sailboat or other watercraft; Trees or shrubs; An expansive bridge To get certain subjects into your photo may require patience, but they help add depth and perspective to your photos.
If you have a good optical zoom, here is an experiment you can do while taking digital camera photographs. When taking pictures of homes, skyscrapers, cabins, etc., zoom in on individual pieces of architecture. Take a minute to really look at your subject, and you may be able to find individual engravings, sections of paneling, or dents and scars in the wood of a cabin that may result in interesting pictures. The trick to taking better photos is to really observe a subject and see it from all angles. Go downtown, find some office buildings, and really take a minute or two to study them. You may find engravings or sculptures on or around the buildings that you have never noticed before.
Don’t damage your digital camera equipment, or yourself, when traveling on double-decker buses! Some tour buses in large towns use double-decker buses for large groups. That way, those who want to take photos can do so without having to shoot through the glass of windows. While this offers a good opportunity for photographers, especially if there is ample light to take fast pictures to offset the speed of the vehicle, be careful with yourself and your equipment! Some of these buses may pass very close to low-hanging trees or stoplights. Thus, you should never stand up taking photographs while the vehicle is moving, no matter how incredible the subject. If you are not paying attention and stand up at the wrong time, a limb or other object could knock your camera right out of your hand, or worse, something can knock you in the head!
While you should always try to take digital photos at nighttime that avoid the blurred results of ‘camera-shake’ due to long exposures with an unstable digital camera, realize that blur is not always undesirable. Some blurring can be used creatively, such as that created by cars driving on an interstate at nighttime. This effect is best performed if the roadway is next to a lit skyscraper or cityscape. Frame a photo containing the cityscape and roadway, and take an exposure of half a second or longer as necessary (use a tripod!). The skyscrapers should look clear and crisp, and the roadways will turn into streams of light.
Mistakes Made by Photography Entrepreneurs
If passion equaled profits, then many photographers would be instant millionaires. Unfortunately for us photographers, this type of business is 20% photography and 80% business. That is why many phenomenal photographers don’t succeed at making their passion a profitable venture.
If you want to make money doing the things you are passionate about, you have to change your way of thinking. You have to start treating yourself like a business owner. When you are able to make that mental shift, your passions will help you produce income, and enrich your quality of life.
I want to help you avoid some of the mistakes that most entrepreneurs make. Surprisingly, these mistakes are often made in other types of businesses as well, not just by photographers.
Here are the most common ones that a lot of photographers make who want to change their hobby into a real money business:
• They don’t know where to start, so they never do.
• They are unclear on their direction.
• They are great photographers, but haven’t yet developed great business skills.
• They fail to find their niche.
• They don’t structure their business properly, exposing themselves to liability, increased taxes, and limited financial resources.
• They don’t market their talents to the right audience.
• They don’t build a brand from which they can eventually walk away.
It’s everyone’s dream to make money doing the things they are passionate about. My recommendation is to start by avoiding these common mistakes I mentioned above and you’ll be on your way to developing your photography business.
If you want to make money doing the things you are passionate about, you have to change your way of thinking. You have to start treating yourself like a business owner. When you are able to make that mental shift, your passions will help you produce income, and enrich your quality of life.
I want to help you avoid some of the mistakes that most entrepreneurs make. Surprisingly, these mistakes are often made in other types of businesses as well, not just by photographers.
Here are the most common ones that a lot of photographers make who want to change their hobby into a real money business:
• They don’t know where to start, so they never do.
• They are unclear on their direction.
• They are great photographers, but haven’t yet developed great business skills.
• They fail to find their niche.
• They don’t structure their business properly, exposing themselves to liability, increased taxes, and limited financial resources.
• They don’t market their talents to the right audience.
• They don’t build a brand from which they can eventually walk away.
It’s everyone’s dream to make money doing the things they are passionate about. My recommendation is to start by avoiding these common mistakes I mentioned above and you’ll be on your way to developing your photography business.
How To Create Beautiful Pictures
During photography‘s entire history, the amateur and the professional have represented distinct and often contrary approaches to photography, each battling for supremacy. Has the digital revolution tilted the field of battle irrevocably in the amateur’s favour? Or has it swept this traditional rivalry into the dustbin? Can anyone say? For the 19th-century practitioner, photography was fraught with personal and technical adversity. The darkroom environment was equally challenging: space was constrained, and in smaller field tents the photographer had to kneel or lie down to work. Ventilation was poor or non-existent, and lightproofing faulty. Digital photography is starting to become accessible to the average consumer. Camera prices are falling and image quality is improving. Compared to conventional 35-mm photography, there is no film or processing costs, and results are immediately viewable so a re-shoot can be made quickly if needed. Plus there are more and more applications where digital images are more convenient and cost effective.
If you use a flash in a dark environment, you often get a red eye effect. This is because the light of the flash is reflecting from the retina, which is covered with tiny blood vessels. The more open the pupils are, the redder eye effect you get in your photos. Red eye is more pronounced in people with light eye color. It is also more pronounced in people with blond or light-red hair and in children. Many cameras have a built-in red-eye reduction pre-flash that helps reduce the incidence of red eye. Red-eye reduction works by having the flash shine a light into the eyes of the subject prior to taking the picture. This causes the pupil to contract. However, you have to make sure the subject is looking at the camera. If not, this technique won’t work. Also be wary of using red-eye reduction feature when not necessary, because it may cause your subject to blink.
Understanding how your camera focuses will help you get better pictures. Just about all digital cameras these days have autofocus with two-step shutter release. In dark lighting, you will notice that when you press the button halfway down, a red light appears for a moment, but not in areas that are lighter. Then, when you press the button down fully, there is a flash. When you hold down the button halfway, that focuses the image, and when you depress it fully, the camera takes the focused image. If you want the subject of your photograph not to be in the center but still focused, first center them in the middle of the picture and focus the frame by pressing down halfway. Without removing your finger, reframe the picture with your subject in the right position, and take the picture. Your subject will still be focused. One aspect of taking a pleasing photograph is depth of field. When you look at a picture, you will notice that all the area surrounding the focused subject is also focused. This area is called depth of field. In order to change the way the depth of field in a picture is seen, focused, and lit, you must change the width of your lens. The wider the lens is, the smaller the depth of field will be. To decrease the depth of field you can also move closer to your subject. To increase it, you can use a smaller lens or move further away from your subject.
Color laser printers, once the stuff of dreams (or professional print shops); have rapidly become both more economical and more photo-friendly. The latest and greatest color laser printers cost under $300, produce high-quality color output, and features like PictBridge (that allows direct connection to many digital cameras) are starting to appear in this class. It’s looking like color laser printers may finally start to break into the huge home-office market, partly on their photo-printing strengths. Even without going to specialized photo paper, you can improve the quality of your printer’s output by careful paper choice. 24lb weight paper is best for most photo printing, though more expensive than normal 20lb paper, used for most printing. Lower weights will often bleed through too much ink; higher paper weights can cause reliability problems in typical home office printers.
Ironically, while cold prolongs the life of the battery, the cold, “slow” battery isn’t much good for use – the same process that slows the natural discharge of the battery slows the normal discharge during use, allowing the voltage to drop below usable levels even quicker. So, for batteries that are about to be used, warm storage (for example in a shirt pocket as opposed to a camera bag) speeds up the “metabolism” of the battery and keeps voltage higher longer – giving you more battery life. Common rechargeable batteries that lose a little power a day (often self-discharging in a month) can hold over 90% of their charge for several months if kept frozen. So, long-term cold, short-term warm: Just don’t give in to temptation when pulling those batteries from the freezer at the last moment and microwave them to get them in shape – that’s a story with a sad, sad ending, as if you’re very lucky the battery’s chemical storage mechanism will be broken down and the battery ruined. If you’re not lucky, you could burn your house down when the battery explodes. You may have recalled hearing somewhere about recharging batteries with microwaves – NASA has worked on exotic batteries recharged by directed microwaves, but both the battery and the microwave are very different from what you have at home.
Explore different camera angles: Small kids have some interesting facial features. They have cute button noses, big eyes and cherry lips. Experiment with different points of view. Don’t be afraid to turn everything on its head to find the perfect way to express the moment. Take tons of pictures: Children change so quickly. Both in the long term and the short. They are so dynamic and can offer you tons of amazing opportunities for great pictures and incredible headaches. With this said, you can use this to your advantage if you just take tons of pictures. If not, you can expect hours of frustration caused by just missing or rushing the perfect shot.
These days in news photography you could be selecting that career. This is probably one of the most exciting careers a beginner photographer could embark on. These photographers bring in photos that are current and stay with today’s flow of news. The picture should have power and capture the reader’s attention. It is difficult to just start being a news photographer, it is better to have some experience in the field. It takes a lot of trial and error to become really good at this field. Here are a couple really good tips: You have to master the art of holding the perfect shot. You have to make sure that you hold the shot longer. You should know how to create intervals for every shot that you take. You should know the story and listen well in your interviews. Ask your reporter for instructions so that you can follow his insight on where he would like to go with the story. Always use a tripod in capturing shots. Many believe that a video camera should be held steadily in place. However, some photographers want to move freely in capturing their shots.
If you use a flash in a dark environment, you often get a red eye effect. This is because the light of the flash is reflecting from the retina, which is covered with tiny blood vessels. The more open the pupils are, the redder eye effect you get in your photos. Red eye is more pronounced in people with light eye color. It is also more pronounced in people with blond or light-red hair and in children. Many cameras have a built-in red-eye reduction pre-flash that helps reduce the incidence of red eye. Red-eye reduction works by having the flash shine a light into the eyes of the subject prior to taking the picture. This causes the pupil to contract. However, you have to make sure the subject is looking at the camera. If not, this technique won’t work. Also be wary of using red-eye reduction feature when not necessary, because it may cause your subject to blink.
Understanding how your camera focuses will help you get better pictures. Just about all digital cameras these days have autofocus with two-step shutter release. In dark lighting, you will notice that when you press the button halfway down, a red light appears for a moment, but not in areas that are lighter. Then, when you press the button down fully, there is a flash. When you hold down the button halfway, that focuses the image, and when you depress it fully, the camera takes the focused image. If you want the subject of your photograph not to be in the center but still focused, first center them in the middle of the picture and focus the frame by pressing down halfway. Without removing your finger, reframe the picture with your subject in the right position, and take the picture. Your subject will still be focused. One aspect of taking a pleasing photograph is depth of field. When you look at a picture, you will notice that all the area surrounding the focused subject is also focused. This area is called depth of field. In order to change the way the depth of field in a picture is seen, focused, and lit, you must change the width of your lens. The wider the lens is, the smaller the depth of field will be. To decrease the depth of field you can also move closer to your subject. To increase it, you can use a smaller lens or move further away from your subject.
Color laser printers, once the stuff of dreams (or professional print shops); have rapidly become both more economical and more photo-friendly. The latest and greatest color laser printers cost under $300, produce high-quality color output, and features like PictBridge (that allows direct connection to many digital cameras) are starting to appear in this class. It’s looking like color laser printers may finally start to break into the huge home-office market, partly on their photo-printing strengths. Even without going to specialized photo paper, you can improve the quality of your printer’s output by careful paper choice. 24lb weight paper is best for most photo printing, though more expensive than normal 20lb paper, used for most printing. Lower weights will often bleed through too much ink; higher paper weights can cause reliability problems in typical home office printers.
Ironically, while cold prolongs the life of the battery, the cold, “slow” battery isn’t much good for use – the same process that slows the natural discharge of the battery slows the normal discharge during use, allowing the voltage to drop below usable levels even quicker. So, for batteries that are about to be used, warm storage (for example in a shirt pocket as opposed to a camera bag) speeds up the “metabolism” of the battery and keeps voltage higher longer – giving you more battery life. Common rechargeable batteries that lose a little power a day (often self-discharging in a month) can hold over 90% of their charge for several months if kept frozen. So, long-term cold, short-term warm: Just don’t give in to temptation when pulling those batteries from the freezer at the last moment and microwave them to get them in shape – that’s a story with a sad, sad ending, as if you’re very lucky the battery’s chemical storage mechanism will be broken down and the battery ruined. If you’re not lucky, you could burn your house down when the battery explodes. You may have recalled hearing somewhere about recharging batteries with microwaves – NASA has worked on exotic batteries recharged by directed microwaves, but both the battery and the microwave are very different from what you have at home.
Explore different camera angles: Small kids have some interesting facial features. They have cute button noses, big eyes and cherry lips. Experiment with different points of view. Don’t be afraid to turn everything on its head to find the perfect way to express the moment. Take tons of pictures: Children change so quickly. Both in the long term and the short. They are so dynamic and can offer you tons of amazing opportunities for great pictures and incredible headaches. With this said, you can use this to your advantage if you just take tons of pictures. If not, you can expect hours of frustration caused by just missing or rushing the perfect shot.
These days in news photography you could be selecting that career. This is probably one of the most exciting careers a beginner photographer could embark on. These photographers bring in photos that are current and stay with today’s flow of news. The picture should have power and capture the reader’s attention. It is difficult to just start being a news photographer, it is better to have some experience in the field. It takes a lot of trial and error to become really good at this field. Here are a couple really good tips: You have to master the art of holding the perfect shot. You have to make sure that you hold the shot longer. You should know how to create intervals for every shot that you take. You should know the story and listen well in your interviews. Ask your reporter for instructions so that you can follow his insight on where he would like to go with the story. Always use a tripod in capturing shots. Many believe that a video camera should be held steadily in place. However, some photographers want to move freely in capturing their shots.
Lighting Tips For Better Photos
Have you ever taken photos that look dull and flat? And even after using photo editing software you still can get the look you were going for?
The number one reason for this is usually lighting. The secret for perfect pictures is to do it right the first time, so that you don’t have to use photo editing software. To achieve this you simply have to understand how light can effect your images.
Using the latest digital camera will not guarantee a good photo if you are not making use of the right strategies.
Professional digital photographers have come to realize that the digital camera is just one element. Another important element is lighting, which once learned can be used to maximize the impact of your photos.
Below are some tips for digital photography lighting:
1. During Sunrise and Sunset.
It is during these times that color is at its peak for taking photos. The colors that appears in the sky during these times adds a deeper dimension to the colors that your digital camera is capable of producing. Shooting at during sunrise and sunset will add another element of brilliant colors.
2. Sunlight.
You can use Sunlight to your advantage once you know how to modify your shots. Trying different angles and see if they look perfect once frozen.
When you learn to use the nuances of light your photos will take on a deeper and richer element, which will result in not needing to use too many tools or steps to clean up your shots in photo editing software.
The number one reason for this is usually lighting. The secret for perfect pictures is to do it right the first time, so that you don’t have to use photo editing software. To achieve this you simply have to understand how light can effect your images.
Using the latest digital camera will not guarantee a good photo if you are not making use of the right strategies.
Professional digital photographers have come to realize that the digital camera is just one element. Another important element is lighting, which once learned can be used to maximize the impact of your photos.
Below are some tips for digital photography lighting:
1. During Sunrise and Sunset.
It is during these times that color is at its peak for taking photos. The colors that appears in the sky during these times adds a deeper dimension to the colors that your digital camera is capable of producing. Shooting at during sunrise and sunset will add another element of brilliant colors.
2. Sunlight.
You can use Sunlight to your advantage once you know how to modify your shots. Trying different angles and see if they look perfect once frozen.
When you learn to use the nuances of light your photos will take on a deeper and richer element, which will result in not needing to use too many tools or steps to clean up your shots in photo editing software.
The Long-Term Value of a Photobuyer…Cultivate Them for Future Profits
No contest, right? Yet most stock photographers resort to the second scenario, or even a third: they wait by the phone and hope someone will call them.
In the early days of the California Gold Rush, the ’49ers who proved most successful were those that panned the creeks first to locate the gold, but then took one more important step. They followed the gold back to the source and then spent their time in the mine.
Too often, stock photographers will sell a photo to a buyer and consider the sale and relationship done. The photographer goes on to look for “gold” elsewhere.
FUTURE WORTH
Successful stock photographers, on the other hand, learn how to “mine their lode.” That is, they calculate the future net worth of each photobuyer (and the market he/she represents) and put the buyer into their marketing program, which includes systematic promotion. A buyer soon forgets a photo and a photographer unless you remind the buyer regularly of your work.
You can cultivate long-term working relationships with photobuyers at markets whose photo needs match your strong coverage areas.
Determining the future net worth of an editor or photobuyer is not difficult to do. Based on photobuyers at other, similar, markets, be it a book or magazine publisher, a corporation, etc., the photographer estimates the jobs, sales, and other revenue that can be obtained from the photobuyer over two to three years, and then projects what potential revenues will come in. Past experience shows that each buyer represents certain predictable variables: per-picture rate of pay, average number of pictures bought per transaction, frequency of purchase per year, spin-off to other photobuyers in the same publishing house/ad agency/ corporation. From this, it’s possible for the stock photographer to determine a fairly accurate future net worth of their new photobuyer.
The future net worth over a ten-year period of a typical low-budget buyer would be approximately $5,000. A mid-range buyer would be approximately $25,000, and a high range would be about $75,000. By the way, we have found ten years is an average length of time you can expect to remain with a buyer in the publishing industry.
PROMOTION
The critical factor is promotion.
If the stock photographer does not set up a regular and consistent plan of promotion, the new photobuyer could very easily be lost.
What does it cost to promote? If your costs to promote were just 10% of the expected gross revenue, it’s easy to see that promotion costs are irrelevant. The critical factor is to know who you should spend your promotional dollars on.
Which brings us to how to get good leads worth your promotion dollars (panning for gold along the creek). Obviously, the leads in your marketletter (PhotoDaily, PhotoLetter, or PhotoStockNotes/Plus) are the most cost-effective for you. If you spend $330 per year on a marketletter service, and obtain 10 excellent mid-range leads during that one year, you have a gold mine: 10 x $25,000 = $250,000 future net worth–at a cost of only $330, plus 10% to promote to them over a ten-year period. There are not many businesses that can realize that kind of cost-effective marketing strategy.
Begin today. Follow up with the photobuyers you’ve cultivated in the past. Start mining this hidden asset of yours.
In the early days of the California Gold Rush, the ’49ers who proved most successful were those that panned the creeks first to locate the gold, but then took one more important step. They followed the gold back to the source and then spent their time in the mine.
Too often, stock photographers will sell a photo to a buyer and consider the sale and relationship done. The photographer goes on to look for “gold” elsewhere.
FUTURE WORTH
Successful stock photographers, on the other hand, learn how to “mine their lode.” That is, they calculate the future net worth of each photobuyer (and the market he/she represents) and put the buyer into their marketing program, which includes systematic promotion. A buyer soon forgets a photo and a photographer unless you remind the buyer regularly of your work.
You can cultivate long-term working relationships with photobuyers at markets whose photo needs match your strong coverage areas.
Determining the future net worth of an editor or photobuyer is not difficult to do. Based on photobuyers at other, similar, markets, be it a book or magazine publisher, a corporation, etc., the photographer estimates the jobs, sales, and other revenue that can be obtained from the photobuyer over two to three years, and then projects what potential revenues will come in. Past experience shows that each buyer represents certain predictable variables: per-picture rate of pay, average number of pictures bought per transaction, frequency of purchase per year, spin-off to other photobuyers in the same publishing house/ad agency/ corporation. From this, it’s possible for the stock photographer to determine a fairly accurate future net worth of their new photobuyer.
The future net worth over a ten-year period of a typical low-budget buyer would be approximately $5,000. A mid-range buyer would be approximately $25,000, and a high range would be about $75,000. By the way, we have found ten years is an average length of time you can expect to remain with a buyer in the publishing industry.
PROMOTION
The critical factor is promotion.
If the stock photographer does not set up a regular and consistent plan of promotion, the new photobuyer could very easily be lost.
What does it cost to promote? If your costs to promote were just 10% of the expected gross revenue, it’s easy to see that promotion costs are irrelevant. The critical factor is to know who you should spend your promotional dollars on.
Which brings us to how to get good leads worth your promotion dollars (panning for gold along the creek). Obviously, the leads in your marketletter (PhotoDaily, PhotoLetter, or PhotoStockNotes/Plus) are the most cost-effective for you. If you spend $330 per year on a marketletter service, and obtain 10 excellent mid-range leads during that one year, you have a gold mine: 10 x $25,000 = $250,000 future net worth–at a cost of only $330, plus 10% to promote to them over a ten-year period. There are not many businesses that can realize that kind of cost-effective marketing strategy.
Begin today. Follow up with the photobuyers you’ve cultivated in the past. Start mining this hidden asset of yours.
Tips for Enhanced Digital Photos
Just bought a new camera ?? And very excited to start taking photos with your new gadget??
But Alas, why does the picture not look as good as you wanted to !! Fret no more, stay tuned below for 4 new tricks to taking more interesting and memorable photos.
Trick #1 – Try out different camera exposure settings
—————————————————
By exploring the exposure settings of your camera, you could have pictures looking more brilliant with 0.5 to 2 stops underexposed in bright surroundings, and scenes appearing more clear with some overexposure. Just by simple tuning of the exposure level, you can create pictures which can bring out different moods from people viewing it. Thats why the quote “A Picture Says A Thousand Words” is very true indeed ! For newbies, try out bracketing (i.e: Take the same photos with different exposure levels) and take your favorite pick from them.
Trick #2 – Bring out some creative blur in photos
—————————————————
By introducing some well-planned blur in photos, you can bring across certain important features, while using the rest as good complement, providing an overall nice touch. This can be done in 2 basic types.
First type is depth-of-field blur. Varying the lens aperture between 0.4 to 1.4 can create a lovely, soft background blur which bring sharp focus to the subject in the foreground.
Second type is movement blur. Done by setting the camera exposure on shutter priority, and keep it slow so as to capture interesting streaks as the subject moves in front of the camera.
Trick #3 – Create something out of nothing !!
—————————————————
What does it means? This exercise encourages you to take a step back and rethink how you can take wonderful pictures with things you already encountered on a daily basis.
One approach is to create your shot around the common elements around you such as lines, space and patterns. This can mean anything from the roads to the bridges, the trees, the railings, etc.. You start to see more possibilities and room for creativity.
Trick #4 – Take Unique Photos !!
————————————–
Try to avoid taking photos from already popular places where everyone else has taken before, it will not be fresh, and the excitement is also much diminished. Try out new extreme photography (for example: underwater photography), or it could be as easy as shooting through thick glasses for that extra 3D feel, or shooting reflections of objects in water or other reflective objects.
But Alas, why does the picture not look as good as you wanted to !! Fret no more, stay tuned below for 4 new tricks to taking more interesting and memorable photos.
Trick #1 – Try out different camera exposure settings
—————————————————
By exploring the exposure settings of your camera, you could have pictures looking more brilliant with 0.5 to 2 stops underexposed in bright surroundings, and scenes appearing more clear with some overexposure. Just by simple tuning of the exposure level, you can create pictures which can bring out different moods from people viewing it. Thats why the quote “A Picture Says A Thousand Words” is very true indeed ! For newbies, try out bracketing (i.e: Take the same photos with different exposure levels) and take your favorite pick from them.
Trick #2 – Bring out some creative blur in photos
—————————————————
By introducing some well-planned blur in photos, you can bring across certain important features, while using the rest as good complement, providing an overall nice touch. This can be done in 2 basic types.
First type is depth-of-field blur. Varying the lens aperture between 0.4 to 1.4 can create a lovely, soft background blur which bring sharp focus to the subject in the foreground.
Second type is movement blur. Done by setting the camera exposure on shutter priority, and keep it slow so as to capture interesting streaks as the subject moves in front of the camera.
Trick #3 – Create something out of nothing !!
—————————————————
What does it means? This exercise encourages you to take a step back and rethink how you can take wonderful pictures with things you already encountered on a daily basis.
One approach is to create your shot around the common elements around you such as lines, space and patterns. This can mean anything from the roads to the bridges, the trees, the railings, etc.. You start to see more possibilities and room for creativity.
Trick #4 – Take Unique Photos !!
————————————–
Try to avoid taking photos from already popular places where everyone else has taken before, it will not be fresh, and the excitement is also much diminished. Try out new extreme photography (for example: underwater photography), or it could be as easy as shooting through thick glasses for that extra 3D feel, or shooting reflections of objects in water or other reflective objects.
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