The biggest mistake that first time photographers make is that they pay too much attention to the main subject of interest with little or no regard for the objects surrounding the primary object of focus. Photographers forget that photography is about story telling. It’s a visual language that should communicate ideas to people. This means, that like painters, photographers need to put great thought into composition and framing. However, unlike painters, photographers don’t have an endless amount of time to make decisions. As the direction and intensity of light changes, as people move, and expression change, so will your photograph. You need to think quickly and frame your photograph even quicker.

The two best tips to give amateur photographers is to firstly, pay special attention to all of the elements which make it into the 4 walls of your photograph and pay extra attention to the area around the 4 walls of your photograph. “Amputating” parts of objects with one of the walls of your photograph is a dead give away that you were not paying attention. Either an object makes it into your photograph or your reposition yourself to get rid of the object. Secondly, you need to find a way to place emphasis on your main object. However, this is much more complex than it sounds. Too many people just place their main object dead center and click. However, your main object doesn’t have to be center, or the biggest element in the photograph. You can use lines, shapes, colors, or contrast to draw attention to your main area of interest (All of these concepts are discussed more in our online photography school), but for now just practice using the rule of thirds and proper object organization to help better your photography framing.

Proper photography framing is not easy task. You can spend a lifetime experimenting with different framing techniques. Just enjoy yourself and have fun along the way.

While these are not necessary add ons to increase the quality of your work, if you’re getting bored of the current photographs you’re taking these camera add ons can create a dramatic difference and help re-inspire you to get out there and take photographs.

1. Polarizing filter: the polarizing filter is very cheap and can often be picked up for $10 - $30 for a starter filter. What the polarizing filter does is helps takes the glare out of non metal surfaces and it helps exaggerate the blue of a blue sky. You’ve often seen photographs that look absolutely spectacular with their fluffy white clouds and brilliant blue skies. This effect was created with a polarizing filter and no photographer should leave home without one.
2. Wide angle lens: this lens can often be purchased for digital cameras as an “accessory lens” which simple means that it isn’t a proper attachment in and of itself, but instead attaches onto a pre-existing lens to create a similar effect of a traditional wide angle lens. Alternatively if you have a digital SLR (DSLR) or a regular SLR (Single Lens Reflex) you can but high quality wide angle lenses that can help fit more of your foreground and background into your photographs.

The polarizing filter and the wide angle lens are two add ons that will inspire even the most burnt out photographers to keep taking new pictures on a daily basis. They are also to the two lenses that have dramatic effects while still ensuring the photograph remains “real” looking. Not only this but based on current rating systems on internet photography websites it seems that audiences rate photographs taking with cameras that use the polarizing filter or wide angle lens very highly.

The other day I was in a camera shop and overheard a customer talking with a store clerk about the differences between digital cameras and digital SLR cameras. I have both and use both for varying reasons. But it was nevertheless interesting to hear how store employees tried up-selling a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera over a regular digital camera.

For starters, digital SLR cameras are really starting to become quite the rage. High quality, entry level cameras are now available for less than $1000 and include starter lenses so you can go out and start taking pictures right away.

Buying a new camera is a tough decision. Obviously price plays a big factor as does camera and picture quality.

If you are looking for a good quality SLR camera you can buy a non digital one used for less than $100. The quality will be fantastic but you’ll be shooting film (which is a wonderful world to discover). But you won’t have the obvious digital picture storage benefits of a digital camera. So SLR cameras with the ability to add and detach lenses (wide angle, telephoto etc) are possible on most SLR cameras.

Today, for about $600 and up you can get a digital SLR. The biggest benefit to a digital SLR over other digital cameras is the ability to add and detach lenses. You can buy or often even use lenses from regular SLR cameras. If you’ve been taking pictures for a long time you’ll start to want to experience with different lenses at some point. I remember using a wide-angle lens the first time and remembering how much it changed my perspective of the art. Shooting urban landscapes and nature landscapes became, one again, enjoyable for me and renewed my sense of passion for this art form.

The problem with regular digital cameras is they often don’t have the ability to attach lenses which means you’re stuck with whatever lens is on there. In the world of digital cameras retailers often try to sell their customers on “megapixels” alone. While megapixels can be important, they are far from the most important element of a digital camera. Manual control is much more important. From being able to set your own aperture settings, shutter speed settings and adding or removing lens attachments is much more important.

So here is what I would recommend. If you are just starting out with photography a regular digital camera would be great. You can take over 200 pictures per day and practice the basic rules of composition and framing. You can really focus on the art of photography. These camera’s cost anywhere from $100 - $400 for very powerful cameras with lots of manual control (with the exception of lens changing)

If you are more advanced and want to play with lenses you should consider getting a digital SLR. This will allow you to take many photographs and have the ability to have full manual control of both camera settings and lenses. The downside that these cameras start at about the $600 range, but quickly jump up to over $1000 for entry level cameras.

However, if you just want the manual benefits of the SLR, consider getting a used SLR for the price of a basic digital camera. You will get full manual control and you’ll be able to add lenses. If in the future you upgrade to a digital SLR you could possibly even use any lenses you buy for your regular SLR and use them on your new digital SLR!

I hope this helps with your future purchase decisions.

The downside to buying cameras in this price range is that they are really point and click cameras with very little manual control. You will be able to change your cameras settings from landscape to night shot and other pre programs settings but manual shutter speed and aperture control are going to be hard to find in this price range.

This means that cameras in this price range are really glorified point and click cameras. That being said, they can be a great choice for people new to photography or just getting into digital picture taking. For less than $100 you can get the Nikon Coolpix L11 Digital Camera which boasts a price tag of $99.99 and offers many great features which I’ll outline below.

Features of the Nikon Coolpix L11 Digital Camera (approximately $99.99)

6 megapixels

Lets you shoot movies with sound

ISO sensitivity: Auto (auto gain ISO 64-800)

Built in flash

Lens: 3x Zoom-Nikkor; 6.2-18.6mm (35mm [135] format picture angle: 37.5-112.5mm); f/2.8-5.2; 6 elements in 5 groups; digital zoom: up to 4x (35mm [135] format picture angle: approx. 450mm)

However, there are many cameras that can achieve these goals. What I like most about his camera is the color it produces, the relatively high megaipxel count and the great reviews it’s received online and offline. It has a perfect 5 star rating on Wolf Camera with 9 reviews (to date). People’s expectations seem to be surpassed when they purchase this digital camera which costs them less than $100. Not a bad deal!

I like this camera the most out of camera’s in the price range for the following reasons. Firstly, I feel that too many consumers who buy cameras in this price range are overly focused on the megapixel count. They put all of their energy in finding the camera with the largest megapixel count with complete disregard for other features. I feel that as a photographer looking to do more with your camera than just point and click you should demand some manual control (above and beyond changing your setting from “portrait” to “landscape”). I’m talking about real control: Shutter speed and aperture control.

The FujiFilm FinePix A900 offers this manual control while still providing a high megapixel count (9 megapixels). Best of all the camera only cost $140 to $180 depending on where you buy it. Here are some other features of the camera.

Shutter speed: 4 sec. to 1/1200 sec.

Aperture: Wide-angle: F2.9/7.1

ISO 100/200/400/800

Self-timer: Approx. 10 sec./2 sec.delay

Digital Zoom: Approx. 7.6 X

It also has a perfect 5 star rating (with 13 reviews) as of today’s date. This is no small feature considering consumers are highly sensitive to new cameras and are happy to voice their negative experience with their cameras. This camera seems to exceed peoples expectations in terms of picture quality and color quality.

So there you have it. My recommendation for a good digital camera under $200.

I hope you find this blog and review helpful. Take care for now.

Well for those of you who are at this stage, I have done a little groundwork for you and searched for what I think is one of your best options for a mid range priced camera with a lot of great features.

I have both searched for user reviews online and have gone into some big chains (best buy, future shop etc) to scout out what I think a good camera would be for both beginner and advanced photographers.

I found the “Canon PowerShot SX100 IS” to be a really good overall deal. In Canada it is currently selling for about $350 and in the US it’s about $299 (But like always, prices vary). It’s a good deal for what you get and it provides loads of great features. Let me give you the basic run down of some of the more important elements.

Aperture Range
f/2.8 - f/4.3

Digital Sensor Size
8.3MP

Digital Zoom
4X

Exposure Compensation
+/- 2EV In 1/3 Steps

Flash Range
1.6′ - 9.8′ (W), 1.6′ - 6.6′ (T)

Focus Range
0.39″ – Infinity

Included Digital Media
16MB

ISO Rating
Auto/80/100/200/400/800/1600

LCD Monitor Size
“2.5″

Movie Mode
Yes

Optical Zoom
10X

Shutter Speed
15 - 1/2500 Seconds

Best of all it has some great features that most film cameras have that I love so much. For example, as you’re learning how to take pictures it’s good to practice with shutter speed and aperture control independently of each other. This camera offers both aperture and shutter speed “priority”. This means you can manually control your shutter speed while the camera automatically adjusts for the property aperture control or you can play around with depth of field by manually controlling your aperture while the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed to ensure you get the proper exposure.

However, for advanced users, you can set it to complete “manual” allowing you great creative freedom to control both the shutter speed and aperture control.

Overall the “Canon PowerShot SX100 IS” is a great $300′ish camera deal giving both the beginner and advanced photographer great value for their money.

However, higher film ISO speeds often lead to a ‘grainier’ look due to a difference in film construction. Often this look is desirable and adds to the overall feel of a higher ISO speed photograph if the photographer is using film.

With digital photography a higher ISO speed also allows you to take photographs at night making the CCD chip in your camera more sensitive to light. And like film cameras the digital camera which uses a higher ISO speed will also have a ‘graininess” look to it. The major difference with digital photography graininess is that it looks terrible. If you were to enlarge a photograph which was taken with a high ISO speed from a digital camera you would notice that the graininess isn’t so “grainy” at all. In fact, it looks like little bunches of random pixelated colors. It’s nothing more than picture distortion.

For the highest resolution possible using digital cameras (even cameras with a low megapixel count) try using the smallest ISO speed possible to ensure you get rid of this color distortion.

As a photographer you need to make quick decision. Lower ISO speeds are not always possible in low lighting situations. Sometimes you’ll just need to use higher ISO speeds in order to make your CCD chip more sensitive to light. The alternative is using a lower ISO speed and using a longer shutter exposure time. This obviously won’t work if you’re trying to capture a moving object but it will be helpful if you’re trying to capture a static object by allowing more light in to “expose” your CCD chip for a longer period of time.

I hope this helps.

(The first image is an ISO 50 image and the second was taken in the same lighting but used ISO 800. Both photographs are blown up 500% to help show the effects of ISO speed).

Okay, well finding these solutions should be simple enough right? Wrong. After much searching online the only options which were showing up were photography templates which were not flash based, poorly designed flash website templates or “pay for use” template providers. 

The pay per use template providers seemed like the best bet. For between $30 and $60 you could get a pretty decent looking flash website to host your photographs on. When I told the group of photographers about this option they were hesitant. They wanted a free photography website template.

Realizing I took the easy way out, I went back to the drawing board (Google) to try and find them free options. After some deeper searching I found a really interesting option.

Art Tight Interactive

This website offers free flash photography websites. They sites are simple and elegant and incorporate a minimalist approach to design. I’m not sure if you can insert any text but the final website results are impressive.

You can see two examples of their photography website templates here

Photography Website Template Demo 1 – Low Res

Photography Website Template Demo 2 – High Res

Check out both demos. The “low res” option shows how you can alter the design of the site. To be honest I might even like the design of the low res option a little better.

So there you have it. If your looking for a professional looking, elegant and simple flash photography website template this should do just the trick.

I hope this was helpful for those of you looking to put your photography portfolios online.

I couldn’t find any comprehensive stock photography case studies or reviews myself so I’m deciding to go at it alone. Here are the basics of how I plan to submit and monitor my photographs.

Project Outline

1. I will submit 10 images to 3 different popular stock photography agencies
2. I will monitor which of the images are accepted and which ones are rejected
3. I will provide commentary on issues such as royalty structure, submission delays and other important information to help photographers make informed decisions about where to submit their stock photography.
4. Lastly, I will provide an earnings report for each of the sites I submit to.

Updates

I will provide 3 updates within 30 days (space out by 10 days each) providing information on the process so far.

Stock Photography Website 1:

Website URL: www.shutterstock.com
Payout: .25 / download.
Sign up process: After veryifying my email it required that I upload a photocopy of my passport. You can’t upload photographs for 48 hours while they review your document. Mimum photo size 2.5 – 4 megapixels

Stock Photography Website 2:

Website URL: www.istockphoto.com
Payout: 20% (prices vary from $1 to $20) (.20 cents to $2 / photo)
Minimum photo size: 2.0 megapixel 1600 x 1200
Sign up process: Needed to read about 15 pages of ‘how to” information on submitting photographs to their site and pass a 13 question test on copyright issues, photo quality and topics about photography composition. They also required that I upload a .jpg of government issued ID. After I did that I needed to upload 3 samples of my work, after which they told me I may need to wait 2 weeks to have my application reviewed.

Stock Photography Website 3:

Website URL: www.fotolia.com
Payout: 33% (non exclusive rights) 50% -80% on exlusive rights (the more downloads you get the higher percentage you make)
Sign up process: Very quick and easy. No mandatory turorials, tests, or email verification. Just sign up and start adding photographs. Photos must be 2400 x 1600

Here are some different options for selling your photographs online.

Sell your stock photography through 3^rd party stock photography websites

http://www.photostockplus.com/

http://www.shutterpoint.com/Home-Photographer.cfm

http://www.fotolia.com/

If you sign up for photostockplus.com you’ll receive 85% commission plus be charged a small processing fee for each order that goes through. You’ll receive your own storefront and the website actively markets your photographs to corporate and individual clients. Like most stock photography companies, they don’t make money unless you do which means they have huge incentive to promote their photographers. They also handle all printing and shipping letting you focus on just taking photographs. You also have full control of print quality and the pricing structure for your photographs. They do provide pricing recommendations which range between $18 to $100 but in the end it’s up to you to set the prices.

Shutterpoint.com is very similar to the photostockplus. They will protect your images with watermarks and provide an ecommerce storefront that allows people to search through your photographs and order their favorite prints. They pay out between 70% and 85% of the purchase price to their clients.

Fotolia.com is another revenue sharing website that claims that “Almost 100% of all images uploaded* are online and generate revenue through direct sales or via our exclusive revenue sharing program from advertisement in the free pictures section.” You will have full control of pricing and this website which is a very popular stock photography website also allows for user and photograph ratings and they also have a high payout of 80% for the photographer.

Using these stock photography companies you can get the biggest commission (industry average is 52%) and you’ll get great exposure to your photographs and hopefully be able to earn some extra revenue through your hard work as a photographer.

Some photographers make a living selling stock photography. However, it usually takes years before your photography portfolio will be large enough to have the quality photographs within it for substantial commercial success.

However, selling stock photography is a great way to earn passive income (no mater how small the payments) and allows you to focus on photograph taking while the stock photography companies focus on website promotion and the business end of things.

Best of luck selling your photographs online.