photography beginner tips

Ceiva Digital Photo Frame

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:18:00 +0000

Ceiva Digital Photo Frame displays your photos without a computer! Just insert a memory card, and observe a slideshow of your favourite pictures on a high resolution, LCD widescreen. Its contemporary design is ideal for practically any room in your office or home.

Ceiva Digital Photo Frame incudes:

- High resolution 7-inch, active-matrix digital LCD screen, that you can view from any angle.
- Built-in card reader, compatible with the most common digital memory cards
- Easy-to-use, on-screen menu and display modes: photo rotation and deletion, slideshow transitions and timing, on and off times, brightness and contrast, etc..
* Wi-Fi and Broadband Ready

Automatic Daily Photo Updates Includes 3 months of PicturePlan Free!

The CEIVA Digital Photo Frame comes with 3 months of PicturePlan: an optional service that allows you to receive new photos automatically from anyone, anywhere in the world.

Your PicturePlan provides additional features:

- Receive photos without a computer every day from friends and family
- Send photos directly from a camera, phone or anywhere online
- Process and send photos directly to any CEIVA frame
- Upload photos automatically from a card reader over Wi-Fi and Broadband connections
- Store unlimited photos on the CEIVA Network for free
- Access free channels for daily updates of weather, sports, news and more

The CEIVA Digital Photo Frames will always display memory card images, with or without a PicturePlan.

How does it work: The CEIVA frame displays photos directly from a memory card. With PicturePlan, CEIVA frame connects to your existing phone line, then dials a local number every evening to check for new pictures. There's no interruption to your existing phone service, and no charge to your line. Each morning, new images appear automatically.

Wi-Fi and Broadband Options: Add a CEIVA Broadband or CEIVA Wireless adapter to connect to a home network and your CEIVA digital frame will automatically send pictures from your memory card to your personal albums in the CEIVA Network. Thus every picture you take is ready to share!
Reconnect loved ones near and far with a CEIVA Digital Photo Frame™.

Art Prints, T-shirts, Calendars and Greeting Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:57:00 +0000

RedBubble is a global art gallery and creative community. It offers framed prints, canvas prints, posters, greeting cards, calendars featuring illustrations, paintings, t-shirts, drawings, printmaking, and photography by more than 100,000 artists. Over the last few months, RedBubble has shipped hundreds of thousands of items of art to many different countries including the US, Australia, UK, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, etc.. Satisfaction is guaranteed.
Sell or buy artworks here.

Explaining Exposure in Digital Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:18:00 +0000

Exposure is the quantity of light collected by the matrix in your camera during a single shot.

If the photo is exposed too long the photograph will be too bright. If the photo is exposed too short the photograph will appear too dark. Almost all digital cameras today have light meters which measure the light in the given shot and set an the exposure automatically.

Most photographers depend on the light meters which is fine, but if you know how to control your exposure you can get more creative pictures.
The two primary controls your camera uses for exposure are shutter speed (the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light) and aperture (the size of the lens opening that lets light into the camera). Shutter speeds are measured in seconds and more commonly parts of a second. (1/3000 of a second is very fast and 15′ seconds is very slow). Aperture is measured in f/stops (a very wide aperture is f/2.8 and a very small aperture is f/21).

So why isn't there just constant shutter speed or constant aperture so that we would only have to consider one setting? The reason is that even though they both control the amount of light getting to the sensor they also control other aspects of the picture. Shutter speed for example can be used to freeze subjects in the air when fast shutter speed is used or it can be used to blur water with slow speed.

Aperture influences the depth-of-field, which determines what is in focus in the shot. Aperture can be used to draw attention to one subject by blurring the background with a wide aperture (low f/stop). Aperture can also be used to focus everything in a picture with a narrow aperture (high f/stop).

On most digicams today you can change the sensitivity of the sensor when collecting light which is called the ISO. The most common span of ISO speed is 100 to 2000. The higher the ISO speed the faster the camera collects light but it also adds more digital noise to the images than the low speeds.

For instance if you're trying to take pictures in scarece light without a tripod you might want to raise the ISO speed in order to get a picture that’s not out of focus. Most of the time you should keep low ISO speed if there is enough light, it makes a big difference though, when there isn’t.

The best way master shutter speed and aperture is to experiment with them.

Creating Better Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:52:00 +0000

Creating and Processing HDR Images with Photomatix

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:50:00 +0000

Removing Digital Noise in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:33:00 +0000

If you take pictures in low-light conditions, by all means you'll to encounter digital noise. There's nothing worse than these large red, green, and blue dots that appear all over your photo The digital noise (often called "Blue channel noise", "high ISO noise" or "color aliasing") can be removed. Here's how:

First:
Open a image with visible digital noise

Second:Under the Image menu->Mode->Lab Color. Switching to Lab Color is a non-destructive mode change, and won't damage your RGB picture — you can switch back and forth between RGB and Lab Color any time. You won't see any visible difference in your photo on the screen, but if you look up in the title bar for your document, you'll see "Lab", to let you know you're in Lab Color mode.

Third:
When in RGB mode, your picture is made up of three channels: Red, Green, and Blue. When they are combined, they create a full-color photo. When you convert to Lab Color, Photoshop composes your photo in a different way — though it looks the same, it's now made up of a Lightness channel (the luminosity of the photo, where the detail is held) and two color channels, called "a" and "b." Go to the Channels palette and you'll see these channels. Click on "a" channel .

Fourth:
Now that you're affecting only the "a" channel (which consists of color data), go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. When the Gaussian Blur dialog appears (shown at left), increase the Radius (amount of blur) until you see the dots pretty much disappear, and then click OK.

Fifth:
Now, in the Channels palette, click on the "b" channel. Press Control-F to apply the Gaussian Blur filter to this "b" channel with the exact same setting we used on the "a" channel. Because you're using the re-apply shortcut, you won't see the Gaussian Blur dialog box—it will just automatically apply the filter for you.

Sixth:
Go back under the Image menu, under Mode, and choose RGB to return to RGB mode. You'll notice that the spots are much less pronounced because they no longer appear in red, green, and blue. You blurred the color channels, and by doing so, you eliminated those colors that are distracting to the eye. The effect appears much more muted, and in some cases (depending on the photo) will nearly disappear.

Creating Intersting Picture Edges

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:04:00 +0000

Understanding Photographic Lens' Parameters

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:34:00 +0000

In today's digital cameras the lens is ranked next to the CCD matrix in importance. With the advancement of electronic technology the cost of CCD chips steadily decreases while that of quality optics does not change and now we can say that a good lens is the most expensive component in a digital camera.

It is possible that your digitalkamera is equipped with a good matrix 10 or 12 MP, but if the lens' resolution is insufficient, it wouldn't obtain the most out of this matrix. There are cheap 10 MP digicams, which provide much worse and unfit for printing image than some 5 MP cameras from the recent past with quality professional lenses.

What is important to know about the lens when you buy a camera?

Zoom (variable focal length)

Variable focal length allows you to maximize or reduce captured objects without physically approaching or moving away from them. When checking the values of the parameter zoom in promotional brochures, by all means notice whether it is a true optical or interpolated digital zoom. In the first case, you have real change in the size of objects in the picture, without loss of quality, while in the second the missing pixels are drawn by the camera according to a particular algorithm. Do not let yourself be mislead by the attractive values of digital zoom, optical zoom values are the ones that matter. Digital zoom, you can do later on the computer, with suitable editing program with even better quality than you would have on camera software.

As opposed to amateur film ones, digital cameras using matrices with different physical dimensions, require lenses with different focal lengths to achieve the same zoom, just as cars require different weight according to different engine power, in order to accelerate to the same speed for the same time. For this reason and for ease of comparison of the 35 millimeters equivalent parameter property of lenses of different digital cameras is used. Thus is called the equivalent focal length, which would lead to the same zoom in the classic film 35 millimeters camera.

Focal length is indicated on the lens itself in millimeters as follows f = 6 mm, f = 8 mm or when a zoom lens with a range for example from 7 to 21 mm is shown just 7-21 mm. This means that the lens is a 3 x optical zoom. If the matrix of the corresponding camera is a size 1/1.8 such zoom as scale and magnification of the image corresponds to approximately 35-105 mm camera with film. To the same equivalent focal lengths would correspond a lens 6-18 mm with smaller size of the matrix: 1/2.5. Or assuming that film cameras f = 50 mm focal length is the normal one, in which the image corresponds to what we see with naked eye, then our lens can depart the object approximately 1.3 times (wide-angle lens position) and magnify it around 2 times.

Relative Aperture

This is an important parameter because it determines how you can use your camera in challenging lighting conditions. Typically, a lens has an indication of relative units for a maximum aperture in the following form: 1:2.8, 1:4, 1:5.6, etc. The less the value of the denominator, the more the lens' relative aperture: digicam more suited to obtain quality images in poor lighting conditions. It's good to know that usually the relative aperture decreases with increasing the focal length when working with optical zoom. Therefore, the value of the light power can be noted as follows 1:2.8 - 1:4, meaning that it changes (decreases) 2 times in the longest focal position of the lens in comparison with the wide-angle one.

Optical stabilization

This is one parameter that we might call more "extra" and is common in amateur class digital cameras.
System for optical stabilization (Optical Image Stabilizer - OIS) is crucial for achieving sharp images when light is scarece or when we shot with big zoom when even the slightest twitch of the hand can spoil the picture. The principle of operation is as follows: the lens has a built-in sensors recording every twitch of your hand. They give signals to a system controlling a floating optical element in the lens, which moves for hundreds of a second and compensates for the hand vibration.
It's definitely worth paying a little more for such a function, which would improve the sharpness and quality of images in all lighting conditions.

Finally, speaking of lenses of digital cameras in the amateur class we should mention the possibility of adding wide angle and tele adapters to some digitalkameras. They change the focal length range and achieve greater zoom in or out the objects.

How to Use Curves in Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:33:00 +0000

Why Shoot in RAW

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Many amateur photographers having digital SLR cameras or some of the more sophisticated compact models often ask the question why you need to shoot in RAW. In fact it is a widespread belief that using RAW-format only complicates your life. This - of course - is only half true.

If you own a DSLR, not by accident and before posting or printing your image you'd like to get the most out of what your camera and your computer software are able of, and exercise some creative thinking, then the right question is not whether to shoot in RAW, but exactly how to do it.

Shooting in RAW gives the photographer the power of processing of the image after it has been captured by the digital camera sensor or the so called postprocessing.

RAW-files for digital photography are what unprocessed film is to the film ones. The dark room is actually the computer and the software you prefer to use. Shooting in RAW has many advantages, but the most important ones are:

* Editing the image without loss of quality and risk of disruption its original appearance
* Ability to make significant adjustments to the exposure so as to correct overexposed or underexposed images or parts of them
* Adjusting the white balance
* Ability to clear color noise, even before you open an image file from the RAW-file
* Ability to adjust chromatic aberrations
* Neglect of all camera settings, if necessary

RAW-image, is not actually an image - it is rather a set of data that the camera sensor has created based on the captured light. To see this image on your computer screen, the data should be transformed to the traditional RGB values so it can be stored as a TIFF, JPEG or any other image file format.

Adjusting your camera to shoot in JPEG practically means that you leave your camera to make all these adjustments for you: to "process" your "digital film" and turn it into a picture as "administered" by the pre-settings like contrast, white balance, sharpness and color. Shooting in JPEG, really means that you authorize your camera to be your photo laboratory. Once recorded in the JPEG-image, these settings are combined in RGB-data irreversibly and from that moment on your ability to influence in any way (especially non-destructive) the picture is very limited. If you've used the wrong white balance, this error will be seen in the final result and it will be far more difficult to repair compared to if you had the original "raw" data set from the sensor, where the information is not yet implemented. Yeah, right - no mistake - the RAW doesn't contain any attached information on color, contrast and sharpness. This information is only metadata that can be taken into account during the processing or ignored completely. The chosen by you settings are applied to the image only when it is converted to RGB-bitmap.

Unlike editing bitmap images when editing RAW-file we do not change the data in it, we just interpret it differently. This enables us to edit RAW-files as many times as we want, without the risk of immediate destruction of information and without loss of quality. Otherwise, it is enough to change the contrast or color of the JPEG-file, and save the changes and there's no way back if you have not made a copy of your file before the intervention.

Of course, shooting in RAW has it's price. You won't be able to simply send the contents of your card to friends without first complete processing, which will take much time, effort and computing power. RAW-files are usually large and require significant resources from your computer. A 6-megapixel Nikon D70s makes 6-megabytes per image file. With Nikon D2X, for example, we should expect no less than 19 megabytes file. Accordingly, you'll need a quite large memory card in order to shoot more than a few pictures.

AS far as different sensors and methods to interpret the data to RGB are used, each manufacturer typically uses a different RAW-format. Nikon calls its RAW-format Nikon Electronic Format or NEF as an abbreviation. This format offers as an option of "visually invisible "compression to reduce the file size. If you're shooting with a D50 or D70 you can use uncompressed NEF. With the DSLR-s higher-grade Nikon you can choose between compressed and uncompressed NEF. If you have a large enough memory card uncompressed NEF absolutely guarantees you the best possible image quality. In real tests, however, is virtually impossible to detect differences between compressed and uncompressed NEF, so that the use of compression should not bother you.

The software, which makes the bitmap conversion possible is called RAW-converter and is mandatory preliminary step before opening your photos in your favorite image editing software. Such tools are Adobe Camera Raw (plug-in to Photoshop), Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Pixmantec RawShooter, Bibble Raw, Phase One or such provided by the manufacturer of your camera.

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:02:00 +0000

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How to Retouch Like a Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Adjusting the White Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:25:00 +0000

One interesting and very useful setting of digital cameras is the "white balance" (in the menu on the camera is usually denoted as WB). As we know the intensity of light sources is different in different parts of the spectrum. Bulb emits mostly in the red and infrared part of the spectrum, such is the composition of the spectrum and at sunset and sunrise, noon and ultraviolet radiation predominates. Films in analog cameras usually have a sensitivity sensitization to daily light and reproduce colors correctly in this type of light. When shooting with film on electric lighting, the photos will have a strong yellow-red hue. There are special films for electric lighting and if we want to get correct color reproduction under such conditions should buy such a special film.

The big advantage of digital photography is the ability to tune the camera depending on the type and color temperature of lighting. This setting is called "white balance" and usually in amateur class cameras has several preset values - sun, clouds, electric lighting for incandescent lamps, neon lighting, flash and automatic mode. Most often we use the automatic mode that does the job in 90% of cases. Sometimes, especially in electric lighting it's best to use the setting for this type of lighting as the automatic setting does not always work correctly in such conditions. More expensive cameras that have manual controls usually have a full manual white balance adjustment setting. This is necessary for more complex lighting and greater accuracy.

Here is an example of how a picture would look made in artificial lighting. At left is an automatic white balance, and in the right position "electric lighting" setting. Notice the white curtain behind the child. In the first picture it is yellowish-red, while in the second picture it is white -just what it should be. Thus comes the name "White Balance" - the white objects in the frame must be really white, to make sure that all the other colors in the picture are real. If your digicam has manual settings of the white balance, it is necessary to put before the lens a white sheet and press the button, to specify to the software that you want all colors to be set by the white color of the sheet.

This interesting feature can be used occasionally to create unusual color combinations and effects. For example, adjusting the white balance of electric lighting and shooting during the day, you will get photos with the bluish tint that creates a feeling of early morning. See examples of such a photo - on the left with white balance set for electric lighting and the right for a day. The photo was taken around 11 am before lunch, but thanks to the possibility of setting white balance, the left frame creates a feeling of early morning cold.

Maybe you ask yourself why we still see real colors at any time of day and any electric lighting? The reason for this is due to the fact that our brain processes information received from the eyes and its "white balance" is much more sophisticated than any digital camera software.

Portrait Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:22:00 +0000

Fashion Photography Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Depth of field

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Depth of field is an important concept in photography. It gives information about the part of the space around the plane of focus, in which objects are of sufficiently high sharpness, virtually indistinguishable from that of the main object in which the focus is set. Depth of field depends mainly on the lens’ focal length, the aperture and the distance to the object which is in focus. The larger the focal length of the lens, the less depth of field. Mighty tele lenses with focal length of 400-500 mm have a very small depth of field, while with the wide-angle 20-28 mm, it is big. Corelation between aperture and depth of field is also inversely proportional. As aperture is smaller (more closed), the depth of field is greater and vice versa. Using a blend of around 22, can provide a huge depth of field, but it is not 100% guarantee for sharp image, as in such apertures diffraction starts to show up and the image becomes softer. Biggest sharpness is usually achieved in 8-11 aperture. Finally, the distance to the object is just as important - the closer the object which is in focus, the less depth of field and vice versa.

We can not determine whether good depth of field is small or large one. In some cases small is better, while in others - large. So when shooting a close-up portrait, you should use a lens with higher focal length and with aperture wide open, in order to get a nice blurry background, without distracting objects irritating the eye. Most suitable lenses for portraits are from 85 to 135 millimeters. These lenses convey proper perspective, without the typical wide-angle lens distortion.

In this aspect we should not be fooled by the equivalent focal lengths of small amateur digital cameras, but we need to look their actual focal lengths. A digital camera lens with focal length 20 mm, although equivalent to a 100 mm film camera, is not ideal for where we want to achieve blurry background. It is good to have a lens with focal length 40-50 mm and at least 1:2 aperture to fully enjoy this effect. For the picture you see in the example is used 200 millimeters lens with aperture 2.8.

Sometimes we can get interesting close-up portraits, even when using lenses with small focal length. This depends on the objectives we had set. For example, if our goal is to capture the colors of the landscape behind the person we shoot, we will use wide-angle lens and a closed diaphragm.

The photo was taken with 18 millimeters wide angle lens with aperture 11.

Most often we strive for greater depth of field when shooting landscapes or group portraits in which we want to achieve sharp background. Then you have to choose a wide angle lens and use a closed aperture. Thus we make sure that everything in the picture will be in focus.

To know the dependencies between the aperture, the focal length and depth of field is essential. This gives us a preliminary idea of how much of what we see will be in the area of focus. You should know that the area of focus for each DOF is about one-third before the point in which we are focused and about two thirds after. So if focus on an object 1.3 meters from us and the DOF 1 meter focus will fall on all sites from one to two meters.

Knowing these dependencies, whether shooting a portrait of a friend, a beautiful landscape or sports competition, in every situation we can choose the appropriate lens or using the zoom settings to get the best picture possible.

Basics of Composition

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Digital cameras can automatically focus, determine the shutter speed, aperture values, white balance, sensitivity may even include a flash for you, when they light is scarce. Basically it can do anything to make a photograph technically good, but it can’t compose the shot for you. That is up to you. Therefore, the composition is one of the most important things in the picture. When we look at a picture, namely the composition sets our first impression, and only then we think about the idea of the author and the technical performance.

The rules for composing a picture are the same, as those for creation of a painting. Artists from long ago have discovered how to situate objects in their paintings to affect the audience as much as possible. In this respect, the masters of the brush are privileged, as they may change the shape, color, size and location of objects, even the prospect, while photographers must abide with realities. The only thing we can change is our perspective to the object and through the zoom expand or narrow the field of vision.

In most cases, composition is intuitive, but still in the process of shooting, we must learn to observe some basic rules to bring balance to the photo (or deliberately make it such that it is shocking for its disbalance) .

Of course, rules of composition are not dogma, they can be violated. But it is important to know them. Breaking them without knowing them is like not knowing how to play, but trying to do a jazz improvisation.

The basic rule is the rule of "golden mean". Mentally divide the frame into three vertical and horizontal parts. Where the dividing lines intersect are the most important points, you should place the main object in any of these points. In the photo with the pigeons, the author has almost achieved that: the object is in one of the points and the leading lines (the horizon and the iron sticks) merge with the dividing lines in the frame. Repeated identical elements create a sense of rhythm, symmetry and balance in the picture.

Look for natural leading lines in the frame. It may be a path, a river, an area illuminated by the sun or a deep shade etc.. Stand in such an angle that the leading lines point to the basic object in the picture.

Search for human presence in the frame. One building, a tree, rock or a lake, they themselves are very beautiful, but only human presence may give an indication of their size.

Choose simple, monochrome backgrounds, that contrast with the main object . Look for contrasting and opposite colors.

Avoid vertical frames, do not rotate the camera if not essential. Naturally, there are cases in which there is nothing else to do but shoot the object in a vertical frame, but generally a horizontal frame is a lot better accepted. This is related to human anatomy - both our eyes, arranged horizontally, give us a vision - more in width than in height. It is connected with our habits of viewing – movie theatre, TV, computer screen, are still frames which are horizontally oriented.

Diagonal compositions, such as the one with the cat, are infuiencial and emotionally loaded. Do not hesitate to experiment by turning and tilting the digicam.

The foreground of the picture is something that is very important for the scale. When you have the opportunity, strive to include objects in the foreground of the photo - branch, stone or some detail out of focus. This creates a kind of framework and adds depth to the frame.

Follow the direction of movement of the object or the direction of human eyes in the picture. There should be more space in the frame in the direction of movement or the direction of the look.

Look for details and characters. A tree, twisted by the wind, can deliver much more of the place’s character than a picture of the whole place taken with a wide angle lens all. Avoid acting like tourists who stand in front of an object and then seal it in the center of the frame. Always look for something special, unconventional angle, so your photos will be more interesting for people who watch them.

Look for symmetry in the frame and repetitive elements. In this photo, for example, the author saw three soldiers with hats and three rocks with hats.

The Importance of Digicam Matrix Size

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:32:00 +0000

In digicams, the role of light-sensitive film is played by a special chip with CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) matrix that contains millions of tiny elements, transforming light into electrical signals. Subsequently, these signals are processed and converted into digital image of a certain size. It is stored in the memory of the camera as a separate file and later can be transferred and edited on a computer or printed and published in the Internet. The number of sensitive elements constituting the CCD determines the image resolution and is therefore of paramount importance to its quality. That’s why, manufacturers of cameras always state it in the first place in the list of characteristics of their products. Some of the cheaper models still use CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensors. Select CCD instead of CMOS matrix, because the first has some significant advantages - high sensitivity, combined with lower noise levels (which leads to cleaner picture). On the other hand, CMOS sensors are much cheaper to produce and consume up to 100 times less energy in their work. They may be a good option when looking for cheaper digicam with longer battery life. Of course, this rule has exceptions, as far as leading companies in the industry are concerned. For example Canon use CMOS matrix for their highest class digicams with interchangeable lenses, but the hardware and software are at such level that all the shortcomings of the CMOS matrix are removed, leaving the big advantage of the low energy consumption.

The size of the sensor is important for the image quality, just as the size of your home speaker system is important for sound quality. The larger matrix size for the same number of pixels provides a purer image, the ability to work with higher sensitivity and better dynamic range.
The most common CCD matrix, used in compact cameras of amateur class are with 1/2.7 ", 1/2.5", 1/1.8 and 2 / 3” diagonals.

Very compact cameras use sensors of even smaller size. The price to be paid for this is the increased level of noise, which becomes visible when printing photos, worse dynamics and disability to achieve a satisfactory quality at low light situations.

Ask for the size of the matrix, when buying a digicam. In modern CCD chips 1/2.5” is a good size for 3-4 megapixels. 1/1.8 " for 5-6MP, and 2 / 3" for 7-8 MP.

8 tips for sharper photos

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:22:00 +0000

- Probably the most important premise for taking really sharp photos is shooting on a tripod. Keeping the camera still and steady is a tripod's only job, but when it comes to tripods, some do a lot better job than others. That's why you don't want to skimp on quality. If you’re on a budget, however, it’s better to have some tripod, than not have at all. So here is a selection of low-budget, 50$ to 200$ and high-quality tripods.
If you decide on a pro-quality tripod, you get just the tripod. It doesn't come with a ballhead affixed like the cheap ones do, so you'll have to buy one separately. Ballheads are wonderful because with just one knob they let you quickly and easily aim and position your digicam
accurately at any angle. Best of all, good ballheads keep your digicam locked down tight to keep your camera from slowly sliding one way or the other after you've set up your shot.

- Cable release - this is simply a cable that attaches to your digital camera and it has a button on the end of it. That way, when you press this button on the end of the cable, it takes the photo, but without you actually touching the shutter button on the digicam itself. So, why is this important? It's because when you press the shutter button on the camera, it makes the camera move just enough to spoil the shot, sometimes. Using it is easier than you might think, and these days most digicams support wireless remotes too. Now your photos are just that much sharper.

- If you don't want to spend money on a cable release (or wireless remote), or if you're out shooting and forgot them, then the next best thing is to use your digicam's built-in self timer. It takes the shot without you touching the camera.So, it pretty much does the same job of keeping your camera from moving.

- Lens’ sharpest aperture - Another trick the pros use is, when possible, shoot at your lens' sharpest aperture. For most lenses, that is about two full stops smaller than wide open (so the f-stop number you use will go higher by two stops). For example, if you had an f/2.8 lens, the sharpest apertures for that lens would be f/5.6 and f/8 (two full stops down from 2.8). Of course, you can't always choose these apertures, but if you're in a situation where you can, then shooting two stops down from wide open will usually give you the sharpest image your lens can deliver. Now, that being said, this isn't true for all lenses, and if that's not the case with your lens, you'll find your lens' sweet spot (its sharpest aperture) in short order if you keep an eye out for which aperture your sharpest images seem to come from. You can do that by looking at your photos' EXIF data (the background information on your shots embedded by your digital camera into the photos themselves). If you find most of your sharpest shots are taken with a particular aperture, then you've found your sweet spot.

- Avoid increasing ISO - When you're shooting on a tripod in dim or low light, don't increase your ISO (your digital equivalent of film speed). Keep your ISO at the lowest ISO setting your camera allows (ISO 200, 100, or 50) for the sharpest, cleanest photos. Raising the ISO adds noise to your photos, and you don't want that.

- Open your photo in Photoshop, then go under Photoshop's Filter menu, under Sharpen, and choose Unsharp Mask. When the dialog appears, there are three sliders for applying different sharpening parameters. Here are the best settings:
For people: Amount 150%, Radius 1, Threshold 10.
For cityscapes, urban photography, or travel: Amount 65%, Radius 3, Threshold 2.
For general everyday use: Amount 85%, Radius 1, Threshold 4

Photoshop does wonders for digital image editing. This and many more editing techniques you’ll find here.
- Continuous shooting - Well, the next time you're hand-holding in less than optimal light, and you're concerned that you might not get a sharp image, try a trick the pros use - continuous shooting (burst) mode. Hold down the shutter release to take a burst of photos instead of just one or two. Chances are at least one of those dozen or so photos is going to be sharp, and if it's an important shot, it can often save the day.
- Another trick the pros use (when they're in situations where they can't use a tripod) is to either: (a) lean themselves against a wall to help keep themselves steady.If they're steady then the digicam's more steady, or (b) lean or lay their lens on a railing, a fence, or any other already stationary object as kind of a make-shift tripod. So keep an eye out for these tripod substitutes.
So these are the basic sharp picture tips for beginner photographers. Liked that lesson? Learn many more digital photography secrets here.

Digicam Specs

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:31:00 +0000

So you are a photography beginner and have decided you need a new digicam. I guess you're quite startled by all the different camera specs and features. So check out the chart below for brief explanation of the most important ones.

sensor	A silicon semiconductor designed to capture photons (light) and convert them into electrons. Digital camera image sensor designs are based on either CCDs or CMOS. The pixel count, or resolution, of an image sensor has a direct relationship to the size image file that will be created and to the appropriate use for that file. 10 mega pixel or more is a common sensor size nowadays.
image sizes	depend on the sensor size (resolution)
movie clips	Most digicams record movie clips with sound. Some high cameras even can record full HD clips.
file formats	The three main file formats for digital photographs are RAW, TIFF and JPEG. Both RAW and TIFF formats do not apply any compression to the photo to save space on your memory card. When your camera saves a digital photo as a RAW or TIFF file (if it can), the photo includes all of the information captured by your camera's image sensor.JPEG is a far more common file format, and it does use compression. For best results you should use the RAW format.
lens	A photographic lens (also known as objective lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically. Prime (fixed) lenses have the advantage of being fast (bright) and very high quality by virtue of the fact that they can be designed just for that focal length. A zoom lens allows a choice from a continuous range of focal lengths.
image stabilisation	Image stabilization helps to steady the image projected back into the camera by the use of a "floating" optical element—often connected to a fast spinning gyroscope—which helps to compensate for high frequency vibration (hand shake for example) at these long focal lengths.
conversion lenses	Conversion lenses can be installed on some cameras with a built-in lens. They increase the capability of the lens you already have. There are three common types of conversion lenses: telephoto, wide angle and macro
digital zoom	Digital zoom is accomplished by cropping an image down to a centered area with the same aspect ratio as the original, and usually also interpolating the result back up to the pixel dimensions of the original. It is accomplished electronically, without any adjustment of the camera's optics, and no optical resolution is gained in the process. In most cameeras digital zoom is up to 4x.
auto focus	Autofocus (or AF) is a feature of optical systems that allows them to obtain (and in some systems to also continuously maintain) correct focus on a subject, instead of requiring the operator to adjust focus manually. Good digicams have different features of the autofocus such as face detection, TTL, 1-point AF, etc..
focus modes	Single (or one) area focus — Camera focuses on a subject in the central area of the screen. Continuous autofocus — Focuses continually on a subject; useful when shooting slow moving subjects. Spot focus — Camera focuses on a very precise center area of the screen. Multi area focus — Camera automatically focuses using multiple focus points. Face-priority AF — Face-priority is a special digital detection program that scans for facial details. Manual focus camera is one in which the operator has to adjust the focus of the lens by hand.
focus distance	determines the minimum focusing distance
metering	In photography, the metering mode refers to the way in which a camera determines the exposure. Cameras generally allow the user to select between spot, center-weighted average, or multi-zone metering modes. With spot metering, the camera will only measure a very small area of the scene (between 1-5% of the viewfinder area). This will typically be the very centre of the scene, but some cameras allow the user to select a different off-center spot, or to recompose by moving the camera after metering. In center-weighed metering, the meter concentrates between 60 to 80 percent of the sensitivity towards the central part of the viewfinder. Multi-zone metering - the camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene, and then combines the results to find the settings for the best exposure.
iso sensitivity	Digital cameras have an ISO rating indicating their level of sensitivity to light. The lower the sensitivity, the better the picture, but more light is needed. ISO 100 is the "normal" setting for most cameras, although some go as low as ISO 50. The sensitivities can be increased to 200, 400, 800, or even 3,200 for low-light conditions.
exposure compensation	Cameras include exposure compensation as a feature to allow the user to adjust the automatically calculated exposure. Compensation can be either positive (additional exposure) or negative (reduced exposure), and is commonly available in third- or half-step increments, usually up to two or three steps in either direction; some digital cameras allow a greater range. Camera exposure compensation is commonly stated in terms of EV
exposure bracketing	Exposure bracketing feature allows you to automatically take two or four more pictures: one slightly under-exposed (usually by dialing in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV, -1 EV, -2EV), and the second one slightly over-exposed (usually by dialing in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV,+1 EV, +2 EV), again according to your camera's light meter.
shutter speed	In digital photography shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor ’sees’ the scene you’re attempting to capture. Shutter speed is measured in seconds - or in most cases fractions of seconds. In most high-end digicams shutter speed values vary from 15 to 1/3200 seconds.
aperture	The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter speed will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter speed will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure. Exposure values vary from 2.8 to 22.
modes	Digital cameras can have automatic, semi-automatic, and manual shooting modes. The automatic are: portrait, macro, sports, landscape, night etc. where you adjust the mode according to the scene you're shooting. In semi-automatic modes (aperture priority, shutter priority, programme) you adjust just one feature and the camera adjusts all the others in order to achieve right exposure. In manual mode you have full control over your camera and need to think about all settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, flash etc. It gives you the flexibility to set your shots up as you wish.
white balance	White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. The basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras - auto, tungscreen, fluorescent, daylight, cloudy, flash, shade and manual on high-end cameras.
self timer	The main reasons a digital camera’s self-timer is used is to take photos of a group or scene, or when you want to take a self-portrait. The camera must be set on a tripod or level surface, then the self-timer released. When the shutter-button is pressed, the photo-taker scurries into position…hopefully before the shutter goes off.
continuous shooting (burst mode)	Camera feature that allows a camera to take several rapid-fire exposures when the shutter button is held down. This feature is useful for shots where there is quick action and you want to take multiple shots.
image parameters	The most common image parameters are: colour, black and white and sepia
flash	Automatic mode — Flash triggers automatically when the camera determines more light is needed in a scene. Red-eye reduction — Fires the flash several times just prior to exposing a photo. Reduces the reflection in a subject’s eyes that causes red-eye. Forced (fill-in) flash — Keeps the flash on in situations where automatic mode would keep it off. Used when additional illumination is needed. Suppressed flash — Turns the flash off. Slow sync (also called night scene)* — Use to capture a dimly lit background at night. The flash fires briefly to light the foreground subject. Rear-curtain sync — Similar to slow synch but flash doesn’t fire until right before the shutter closes. Flash exposure compensation – Used to increase or decrease the output of the flash; not all digital cameras have this feature.
hot-shoe	A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit. The hot shoe is shaped somewhat like an inverted, squared-off "U" of metal.
viewfinder	A viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the more complex single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main optical system.
lcd monitor digicam specs photography beginner	Digital compact cameras allow you to use the LCD as a viewfinder by providing a live video feed of the scene to be captured. The LCDs normally measure between 1.5" and 2.5" diagonally with typical resolutions between 120,000 and 240,000 pixels. The better LCDs have an anti-reflective coating and/or a reflective sheet behind the LCD to allow for viewing in bright outdoor daylight. Some LCDs can be flipped out of the body or angled up or down to make it easier to take low angle or high angle shots. The main LCD is sometimes supplemented by an electronic viewfinder which uses a smaller 0.5" LCD.

Examining the Parts of a Digital Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:28:00 +0000

If you’re very new to digital cameras, you might be wondering what all those buttons, LEDs, and windows are for. Here’s a quick introduction to the key components of the average non-SLR digital camera. Not every camera will have all these features, and some will have additional features not shown in the pictures below.

- Shutter release: Pressing this button halfway locks exposure and focus;
press all the way to take a picture.
- Control buttons: Miscellaneous control buttons might turn on/off close-up
mode, automatic flash, or other features; set picture quality; or activate
the self-timer.
- Shooting mode dial: Most cameras use this button or dial for changing
among different scene modes (such as Night, Portrait, or Sports), adjusting
automatic or manual exposure choices, selecting Movie mode, or
switching into close-up mode.
- Microphone: This captures audio for movie clips and voice annotations;
it can even activate a sound-triggered self-timer.
- Focus-assist light: This is an auxiliary illumination source that helps the
camera focus in dim lighting conditions.
- Electronic flash: This provides light under dim conditions or helps fill in
dark shadows.
- Optical viewfinder: This window, which doesn’t show exactly the same
view that the lens captures, is for framing and composing your picture.
- Zoom lens: This magnifies and reduces the size of the image, taking you
closer or moving you farther away.
- Lens cover: This protects the lens when the digital camera is turned off.
- Tripod socket: This allows you to attach the camera to a firm support,
such as a tripod or monopod, plus other accessories, such as an external
flash bracket.
- Docking port: Some cameras have a special dock that can be used to
transfer photos, recharge the batteries, make prints, or perform other
functions.
- Battery compartment: This contains the cells that power the camera.
-Power switch: Here is where you turn the camera on or off.
Indicator LEDs: These indicators show status, such as focus and exposure,
often with green and red go/no go LEDs (light-emitting diodes).
- LCD (liquid crystal display) panel: This shows the sensor’s view of
an image before exposure, shows preview images after exposure, and
displays status, photo information, and menus.
- Display control/Menu button: This controls the amount of information
shown in the LCD and produces menus. Some digital cameras have multiple
buttons for recording menus, setup menus, and special functions.
- Picture review: Press this button to review the pictures you’ve already
taken.
- Print/e-mail/share photos: Some digital cameras allow printing directly
from the camera to compatible printers or marking pictures for printing
or e-mailing later.

Digital Camera Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:56:00 +0000

The digital camera is one of the most remarkable instances of technological breakthrough because it is so truly different from its predecessor. Conventional cameras depend entirely on chemical and mechanical processes - you don't even need electricity to operate them. On the other hand, all digital cameras have a built-in computer, and all of them record images electronically.
At its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera. Just like a conventional camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data. All the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process.

Similarities between Photography and Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Photography is very similar to our vision. The lenses of our eyes project the incoming light waves onto the cone and rod shaped light-sensitive cells located on the retina (the internal lining of our eyes).
Similarly, a camera has a lens which projects the incoming light waves of photons onto a light-sensitive chemical film in a conventional camera or onto a matrix of sensitive pixels
But unlike the impressions captured with our eyes, the digital image or film can be used to make a more permanent representation of reality for future viewing and sharing with others, for example on a computer monitor which emits light (direct way of seeing) or via a printed copy which reflects light that falls upon it (indirect way of seeing).

How Cameras Function

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Photography is undoubtedly one of the most important inventions in history - it has truly transformed how people conceive of the world. Now we can "see" all sorts of things that are actually many miles - and years - away from us. Photography lets us capture moments in time and preserve them for years to come

The basic technology that makes all of this possible is fairly simple. A still film camera is made of three basic elements: an optical element (the lens), a chemical element (the film) and a mechanical element (the camera body itself). As we'll see, the only trick to photography is calibrating and combining these elements in such a way that they record a crisp, recognizable image.

There are many different ways of bringing everything together. Now we'll look at a manual single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. This is a camera where the photographer sees exactly the same image that is exposed to the film and can adjust everything by turning dials and clicking buttons. Since it doesn't need any electricity to take a picture, a manual SLR camera provides an excellent illustration of the fundamental processes of photography.

The optical component of the camera is the lens. At its simplest, a lens is just a curved piece of glass or plastic. Its job is to take the beams of light bouncing off of an object and redirect them so they come together to form a real image -- an image that looks just like the scene in front of the lens.

But how can a piece of glass do this? The process is actually very simple. As light travels from one medium to another, it changes speed. Light travels more quickly through air than it does through glass, so a lens slows it down.

As light enters the glass at an angle, it bends in one direction. It bends again when it exits the glass because parts of the light wave enter the air and speed up before other parts of the wave. In a standard converging, or convex lens, one or both sides of the glass curves out. This means rays of light passing through will bend toward the center of the lens on entry. In a double convex lens, such as a magnifying glass, the light will bend when it exits as well as when it enters.
This effectively reverses the path of light from an object. A light source -- say a candle -- emits light in all directions. The rays of light all start at the same point -- the candle's flame -- and then are constantly diverging. A converging lens takes those rays and redirects them so they are all converging back to one point. At the point where the rays converge, you get a real image of the candle.

Intro

noreply@blogger.com (Anne Claire) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Photography (from Greek φωτο and γραφία) is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium: a photographic film, or an electronic sensor. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects activate a sensitive chemical or electronic sensor during a timed exposure, usually through a photographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically.
The word "photography" comes from the Greek φώς (phos) "light" + γραφίς (graphis) "stylus", "paintbrush" or γραφή (graphê) "representation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light." Traditionally, the products of photography have been called negatives and photographs, commonly shortened to photos.