Learn Digital Photography

Photography Lessons Online – Going Digital

2010-05-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

Digital photography removes the pain out of photography in several ways: No film means no mess and less expense. No lenses equals no clutter, and once you get used to using a digital camera, digital photography can even help you take better photos. Ever taken a photograph you didn’t like? A digital camera lets you review the shot on an LCD screen on the back of the camera right after you snapped it, and delete it. Read on through this weeks free Online Photography Lessons and discover the real advantages of going digital.

Are you looking for a fun little camera to take pictures of family celebrations and get togethers? Or, are you more interested in developing your photography skills and becoming proficient at photo shooting and editing? No matter what your photography goal, you want good, clear pictures and a camera that is easy to use.

The four basic styles of digital camera are:-

1) Ultra-compact- about the size of a credit card, and fits easily into the front pocket of your jeans.

2) Sub-compact- will fit easily into a shirt pocket.

3) Point and Shoot-normal size camera with more features, and needs a camera bag.

4) Single Lens Reflex (SLR) – high quality camera. It has the look and feel of a 35 mm, with a detachable lens.

Digital cameras give you photos that are extremely portable. You can download your shots to a computer to email or edit with programs like Adobe’s PhotoShop, print them out, or create slide shows – all without having to drop off film and pay for developing it. Some digital cameras even let you shoot quick videos.

Nowadays, even PDAs, cell phones and watches have entered the world of digital photography. Below we’ll talk about the fundamentals of how digital photography works. This will be important when choosing a camera.

Pixels

A digital image, or photo, is made up of millions of tiny dots. The number of pixels determines the quality – also called the resolution – of the image. With digital photography, when you click the camera’s button, a computer chip called the “charge couple device” (CCD) inside the camera instantly records the location, color, and brightness of each pixel. Put all those pixels together and you have the photograph!

Resolution is an important factor when buying a camera. Higher resolutions cost more, but also result in images that can be enlarged digitally without losing quality. When shopping for a ‘point and shoot’ digital camera to use for fun look for cameras with a resolution between three to five mega pixels will let you print nice quality 4″ x 6″ up to 8″ x 10″ prints.

Batteries

The decision about what type of battery your camera takes is an important one. Alkaline AA batteries don’t hold a charge as long as lithium batteries do, particularly if you are using your flash. However, the ability to purchase AA batteries anywhere can be important, especially if you travel.

Lithium batteries last a long time, but they are expensive to replace. Nickel Cadmium batteries are rechargeable. You must fully discharge them prior to recharging, or you will get very poor performance. Another type of rechargeable battery is the Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH). They come in all standard sizes, and last about 400 charges. These are probably your best buy. Lion (Lithium Ion) batteries last about twice as long as the others do, and are usually purchased as an ‘extra’. They are newer, not available in all sizes, and not as widely available as the others are.

Memory

Another important consideration for digital photography is the size of the memory card in the camera. The memory card is what stores your photo inside the camera – think of it as the camera’s hard drive. Digital images of high quality take up a lot of space. You can fit more low-resolution than high-resolution shots on to a single card.

You can carry multiple memory cards, but who wants to line up that perfect shot and realize the camera has suddenly run out of room? If your camera shoots between three to five mega pixels, a memory card with 128 MB to 512 MB should keep you shooting until your fingers get tired.

Some other great features to consider before deciding on your new camera include size and weight. A heavier camera is easier to hold steady, a lighter camera is easier to store and carry. Some cameras offer a multiple exposure option that will let you take a preset number of exposures when you press the button. A self-timer will allow you to automatically shoot a picture after a preset period. The remote control option will let you operate the camera from a distance. Other options include date and time indicators that stamp the image, and display the information when viewing the picture through the camera or software, and sound recording, which lets you add captions to your photos.

Most cameras come bundled with software that allows you to edit your photos. The type of software varies with each camera, and it should be a consideration when buying the camera.

There is no such thing as the ultimate camera. You have to consider your photography goals, your budget and your experience level to determine what camera options will be the best for you.

Online Photography Lessons have really been revolutionized by Dan Feildman as illustrated in his free Digital Photography Report, that will even help a complete beginner take really awesome digital photos in no time at all.

Review: Your Guide to Digital Photography

2010-05-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Seller: Learn digital photography now

Summary: The “Your Guide to Digital Photography” by Dan Feildman is a downloadable guide for digital photography beginners and those looking for better results from their digital photography.

Product Details: There are a number of components to this learning product including –

- “Your Guide to Digital Photography” - a 75-page guide that includes a variety of tips and advice for the beginner to advanced photographer. Some of the topics are:

- Taking your first pictures

- Different kinds of digital cameras

- Professional technology at affordable prices

- Finding the right low end digital camera for those on a budget

- Exposing digital photography myths.

- Understanding the features of your digital camera

- Tips for taking better digital pictures

- Pet photo tips

- Night photo tips

- Horizons and sunglasses

- How to share your digital pictures

- Printing your pictures

- Choosing a printer for you digital images

- Editing your photos.

- Understanding white balance so your photos look good in all lighting.

- Interpolation and digital zoom to improve detailing in pictures

- Finding free photo editors for your Windows computer

- Using your flash effectively

- Understanding and making the most of your memory cards

- Important equipment to take when traveling.

- Battery options and your best bets.

- Making money from your digital photography hobby.

- “Photography Quick Tips” – 37 pages showing you how to make the most of your pictures. It includes practical tips for:

- Night photography

- Action photography

- Landscapes

- Sunsets and sunrises

- Beach photography

- Desert photography

- Sports photography

- People and pets

- Street photography

- Fog & Mist

- Waterfalls & Running Water

- Rain & Snow

- Fireworks

- Picasa Tutorials – There are 8 video tutorials (you can view them online or download them to your computer) to show you how to use the free Picasa software to organize, edit, create and share your photos. The videos include:

- Downloading and installing the program

- Editing photos with Picasa

- Creating collages

- Blogging with Picasa

- Backing up your photos

- Printing your photos

- Posting pictures to your web album

- “Your Top Digital Photography Questions Answered” – This 26 page guide answers 20 common questions about digital photography including:

- What is the biggest mistake made by beginning digital photographers?

- How to decide on the right digital camera.

- How to decide is a picture is worth taking.

- How to get the white balance right.

- How to take clear shots for indoor sports.

- Advantages/disadvantages of raw vs. Jpeg format photographs.

- What are the best settings for low light/nighttime conditions?

- What is hyperfocal distance?

- How to take a photo of a glass sign or a framed picture in glass

- How to get high contrast natural light black and white pictures.

- Time lag from the time you take a picture until it is on the memory card.

- How to avoid redeye in dim light.

- Small object close up pictures.

- How to photograph gemstones and jewelry.

- How to take a picture with both strong sun and shade.

- Capturing personality in photos of people.

- How can I understand depth of field?

- Settings and techniques for photographing birds and wildlife.

- How to take pictures into the sun and avoid lens flare.

- How to take good pictures in the snow or on the beach.

- “Buying a Digital Camera” Video – This video shows you how to use the Internet to conduct research from unbiased sources.

- “An Experiment in Photography. What Exactly Happens When You Change the Settings on Your Digital Camera?” – This 12 page guide shows photos of the same object (a house, in this case) with different camera settings resulting in very different photos.

- “Secrets of Night Photography” – A quick 6-page guide with concise advice about nighttime photography. It includes information on:

- Trails of Light (Cars)

- Trails of Light (Stars)

- Weather and Exposure

- Horizons and Sunglasses

- Tripods

- Low Cost Filtering

Format:

The main guide is a PDF ebook. There are extra guides (PDF) and videos (free Flash & Shockwave required). If you’re not sure how to use these files, don’t worry, all the download information is carefully explained and any software you may need is free and safe to download.

Thoughts on the Product:

This package covers a lot of ground on the topic of digital photography. All of the advice is very step-by-step and detailed, but doesn’t include unnecessary filler. Even for someone who has never used a digital camera before, the information is clear and concise enough to take that person from buying a camera to taking their first shots and being proud of their work.

The product can be downloaded instantly upon purchase, so you don’t have to wait for a bunch of books and videos to come in the mail. For those who are new to online downloads, full instructions are included.

Where to Learn More: Learn digital photography now

92/100

Greetings Harpy

Better Pictures with Your Digital Camera

2010-05-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Better Pictures with Your Digital Camera

Article by: Dan Feildman

Photography is both about knowing how to use a camera and also knowing how to make decisions. Today's media projects images that can be difficult to understand, and learning photography can help you to understand what you're being showed every day on television, on the internet, and in movies. Photography is a good way to occupy your time, especially if you are a teenager, as it is fun and harmless. Besides that, it's a great way to bring a community together for a project, such as photographing activities and gatherings.

When you buy a digital camera, you have to know how to take care of it to keep it in its best condition. In order to have the clearest photos possible, you must make sure to regularly clean your optic lens and keep from leaving fingerprints on it. If this happens, parts of your pictures will be blurry, and dirt can build up over time. Not all cleaning products are suitable for a camera lens, so make sure that you don't use tissue paper, any household cleaning solutions, and definitely not saliva. Instead, you should buy the proper products at a camera store, in order to keep your camera at its best.

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.

A great technique that helps photographers create eye-catching pictures is the rule of thirds. This is a composition technique, create a pleasing balance between the different objects in a photograph. In order to use the rule, divide your screen into six different parts: three horizontal sections, and three vertical. The focal points, where the eye is attracted when it first looks at a picture, are where the lines intersect. Placing the subjects of your pictures at or near the focal points can help create a balanced and attractive picture.

Landscape photos are very popular and can be very nice-looking. The whole photograph will need to be in focus, unlike some pictures where only a certain part is in focus. In order to have the picture completely focused, you'll need to have a short focal length. This will create a larger depth of field, and everything will be focused. In order to creating a pleasing balance between land and sky, or water and sky, you can use the rule of thirds. Furthermore, if you want a sense of three dimensions, you can have a subject in the foreground.

A tripod is a good investment in photography, especially if you want to take panoramic pictures. You'll have to set your tripod in a place where you can swivel the camera smoothly from left to right, and not up and down. You will have to figure out where you want your pictures to overlap, so that you don't have huge gaps in your resulting picture. Once you figure that out, you can swivel your camera in one direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, to take the pictures you want. Once you're done, all you have to do is put them together with a simple graphics program or photo-editing software.

Need to improve your digital photography techniques? Pick up your free digital photography guide for better photos…almost instantly.

Greetings Harpy

Top 5 Cameras for Digital Photography Beginners

2010-05-06T03:08:00.000-07:00

With all the choices available, shopping for digital cameras can be overwhelming. We've like to make it easier for you.

If you're in the market for a digital point-and-shoot camera for a beginner, here are 5 models we found which are highly recommended by the leading websites on digital photography.

These cameras are compact, easy for a beginner to use, yet has enough features for a budding digital photography enthusiast. They're also price reasonably for someone who's still exploring the world of digital photography.

Of course, the camera can only do so much; the quality of a picture still depends on the skill of the photographer. Make sure to claim your copy of Shoot digital pics like the pros to get professional photography tips and tricks. It's a totally f-ree report.

Here's our top 5 cameras for digital photography beginners:

1. Canon Powershot A1100 IS

A top choice in many digital photography sites. It takes 12.1-megapixel photos and includes all the features beginners will appreciate, such as shooting modes that automatically select the right settings, Face Detection Technology, and Intelligent Contrast Correction. Yet other modes will allow the shooter to select his own settings for exposure, shutter speed and other variables. And at only a little over $100, this is one affordable yet powerful camera.

2. Panasonic DMC-FS25

Another 12.1-megapixel camera that gets consistently high ratings from photography sites. Aside from face detection and intelligent ISO control, the Panasonic DMC-FS25 allows the user to lock focus on a moving subject. The shutter release is ultra-fast, with a time lag as little as 0.006 seconds. At the ISO 6400 setting, you can take pictures even in almost total darkness.

3. Casio EX-FC100

This 9.1-megapixel camera bosts of high-speed burst shooting, which lets the user take 30 shots per second - great for sports and other action-packed photography. It also records HD video and features fast uploading to YouTube.

4. Sony Cybershot DSC-W290

This camera's Intelligent Auto Mode, Intelligent Scene Recognition and Face Detection Technology make picture-taking foolproof even for the rank beginner. It even has Anti-Blink Function, which helps keep subjects from blinking, and warns the photographer when a subject has blinked. It has a range of other features, including 13 photo modes, image stabilization and a 9-point autofocus. This 12.1-megapixel camera also takes HD video.

5. Nikon Coolpix L100

This is a 10.0-megapixel camera with 15x optical zoom. The Smart Portrait System lets users take portraits without the dreaded red-eye, which the camera fixes automatically. It also has face-finding technology, so faces are always in focus, a Smile Mode, which shoots the picture when the subject smiles, and a Blink Warning, which lets the user know when the subject blinked. Other features include image stabilization, high-speed shooting, low-light shooting, and Sport Continuous Scene Mode of up to 13 frames per second.

Hopefully this list will help you find the perfect entry-level camera. Compare the features with your digital photography needs and, of course, your budget, to find the best point-and-shoot camera for you.

Even professional photographers use these compact cameras for situations when they cannot lug around a huge digital SLR camera. So don't think that using one of these makes you an "amateur."

The proof is in the picture. And if you'd like to take professional-looking pictures, then download your f-ree copy of the report, Shoot Digital Pics Like the Pros

Digital photography tips to get the perfect print

2010-05-06T02:41:00.000-07:00

Digital photography has taken a new course recently with many people choosing to just save their photos online, on their PC or on an external memory pack. This means less and less people are printing their pics and it is getting harder to find decent tips about how to get the perfect print.

Today’s Digital Photography Tips will be focusing on digital photo paper which really is the key for that perfect picture, but before that I would like to give you some tips for finding support for digital photography.

If you use Google to find whatever you are looking for then you may often become overwhelmed with all of the results given. In order to get better search results on Google, you need to use speech marks “”, so if you were looking for digital photography tips, then you would write “digital photography tips”. Try it and you will soon see that Google will soon begin to supply exactly what you are looking for.

So now onto those perfect prints, so photo paper or digital photo printing paper is a high quality print paper with different levels of gloss finish. Normal prints from film cameras and digital photo prints are similar to touch but follow entirely different processes.

For their digital photography, the professionals expect a true archival print media in a variety of weights and textures of surface. The photo Industry is providing acid free, one hundred percent cotton, hot press paper that is coated on both sides to get versatility.

Additionally the digital photo paper is also free from lignin and chlorine to retain the image quality over a longer period. The digital photo paper is specially coated to get realistic and vibrant color prints. The semi-gloss paper which comes as a sample along with the digital or laser printer produces good results but they are very expensive.

A good quality digital photo paper should reproduce true photographic gloss, white colors at its brightest and in highest resolution. They are capable of retaining a sharp and well defined image and text with colors appearing true to the originals and with excellent clarity.

Extreme care should be taken to use the correct type of digital photo paper which is most suitable for the printer being used.

Using the fuser technology, Laser printers use a heated roller to fuse the toner to the paper. When glossy photo paper is used in a laser printer there is a possibility of the fuser melting the glossy film covering the photo paper thereby ruining the paper and also causing damage to the printer. This might not happen every time but extreme care should be taken to use appropriate photo paper when a laser printer is used.

Photo paper contains seven layers. They are arranged in the order of a resin coated layer, base which contains a layer of high compressed paper, again followed by a resin coated layer, brightness controlled layer, whiteness controlled layer, color stabilized layer and image formed layer to get a perfect output.

Heavy weight photo paper normally refers to higher end photo paper having a thickness of 8mil or above

The usual terms to define photo paper finishes are semi-gloss, gloss and high gloss, each term referring to the surface shine of the photo paper. A less shiny coated finish is available in semi gloss surfaced photo paper which bears a satin finish.

Images which appear without any shine, non reflective and soft can be produced by using matte finished photo paper.

Whiteness of the photo paper gives brightness to it. Brightness of a photo paper is expressed as numbers starting from one to hundred.

One of the best digital photography tips I could give you right now would be to head straight over to learn digital photography and download the free report that reveals insider Professional tips and tricks for taking the most awesome photos with your digital camera.

Greetings Harpy

Digital Photography Lighting Tips

2010-05-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

Lighting is so important to get the best pictures possible, as the pros so very well know. Check out these Digital Photography Tips that explain how to use light to your best advantage for taking awesome pictures.

When the you flip through the pages of a magazine or see a billboard, you might think that it was done in just one shot. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Professionals use rolls of film and then after developing, decide on the right shot before having this done by the printers.

The main trick to get the right shot is having the proper lighting to get the best impact from the audience. This isn’t done by magic or something compared to rocket science. It’s basically just using the right tools available to get the job done.

Even amateur photographers know the simple rules of taking a picture. The camera must not be pointed against the sun and a flash must be used if the background is too dark.

Professionals have another technique to make this happen. There is the option to use natural light coming from the sun if it’s done on location or by using lights of different wattage to get the desired effect.

There are two kinds available. The first is called a hot light. Literally, this means using lamps that are very hot. The advantage of using this type of equipment is that you will be able to get the required brightness.

The problem is that such has been proven to be an inconvenience to the photographer and the models since both will sweat and it is hard to do a photo shoot under such conditions. The props used may also melt which is hard to replicate.

This brings the second option which is using cold light. This is very similar like the flash normally found in the camera. There are many brands available that are either heavy or lightweight. You should make sure that the system is compatible with the camera since these devices cost a lot which can help produce better shots in the long run.

Diffusers also help in lighting. They can be adjusted to certain angles to get the right shot. People once used umbrellas to make this work but this has changed to a soft box that diffuses the rays from the lamps.

Lighting is key when it comes to photography and can all be purchased from a specialty store. You should get the models out and only buy those that are known brands since this will assure that you get quality shots in the long term.

One of the best digital photography tips I could give you right now would be to head straight over to learndigitalphotographynow.com and download the FREE report that reveals insider Professional tips and tricks for taking the most awesome photos with your digital camera.

Greetings Harpy