Archive for the “Tips & Techniques” Category

Tips for Street & People Photography

Here are some tips gathered to help you get great shots on the street. These are geared to help people interested in getting into into Street Photography.

So here it is:

1. Off the Beaten Track – don’t just go to all the touristy shots – try to get ‘behind the scenes’ and ‘real life’ scenes.

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2. Stolen Moments – anticipate moments between people before they happen.

3. True Colors – black and white is often where it’s at with street photography but at times colorful situations arise and can really make a shot – be on the look out for these.

4. In the Background – what’s going on behind your subject can actually ‘make’ the shot. Billboards, signs, graffiti and other visual elements can really make a statement in a shot.

5. Dare to Go Diagonal – don’t just hold your camera horizontally – experiment with angles. Street photography is a less formal medium – make the most of it.

6. Opposites Attract – shots which challenge the ‘norm’ in terms of composition and story/subject matter can be powerful. Look out for ‘surprising’ subject matter and composition.

7. What a Performance – street performers, parades and other street entertainment can be great subject matter on the street.

8. Off the Streets – other places where people gather in number can lead to great shots in this genre – zoos, fairs, shows, parks, sporting events etc all can be worth trying.

9. New Angle – find ways to get up high or down low – these new perspectives on subjects that are familiar can lead to eye catching shots.

10. Fortune Favors the Brave – sometimes the best thing you can do is to get close to your subject – this can be a little confronting but will produce powerful images

11. Fun in the Sun – often we try to avoid shooting into the sun and the shadows that direct sunlight can produce – in street photography breaking these ‘rules’ can lead to great shots.

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12. Ready to Pounce – have your camera out and ready to shoot at all times. Things can move quickly on the street so if you’re not ready you’ll miss lots of opportunities.

13. Revise the Revisit – street photography is not all about spontaneity – if you see a scene with potential don’t be afraid to keep coming back to it until you get the shot.

14. Frozen Motion – the street is a place of movement – to capture it and still get sharp shots make sure your shutter speed is fast enough. 1/125 or more with an ISO of 400 is what this article recommended as a base. I also think it can be fun to experiment with slower shutter speeds on the street – capture the movement as blur.

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15. Street Wallpaper – blend in with the scene – shoot unobtrusively and unnoticed.

16. Life Through a Lens – ‘exaggerating perspective will help set your subject in context and provide a more forgiving ‘depth of field’ – a wide angle lens is useful here.

17. Expect the Expected – people can be suspicious of street photographers so shoot in places where people expect to see people doing photography. Smile, be polite and be willing to delete images if people protest.

18. Location, Location, Location – really this is what it is all about. Choose places where people interact with one another and times when they are present.

19. Less is More – don’t take too much equipment and travel light. It’ll make you less obtrusive and you will be able to move around for the best shot quickly.

20. Practice makes Perfect – over time and with practice your photography will improve. You’ll not only get better at technique but also spotting the things to focus upon on the street.

And to add one of my own:

Be invisible: a wide angle lens can do this for you. At 28 or 35mm you can be including people in your frame, but if they look at you, your camera appears to be pointing elsewhere!

What would you add or remove from this list of Street Photography Tips?

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August 6, 2009 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

Simple Basic Digital Photography Tips For Wedding Photography That Everyone Should Know.

Nearly all new married couples these days are spending a fortune on hiring the expertise of professional photographers to capture there big occasion. Hopefully with the few digital photography tips below i can help you also to capture great wedding day pictures that will save you money.

Nearly everybody that now goes to a wedding will use a digital camera to capture the wedding day shoots, even the professional photographers. The main reasons for this is that digital quality photographs are much better than the traditional images and also the digital photos can be modified and helped on a computer.
Another reason is that the photographs can be stored and shared in online albums so that your friends and family can access them online. Globally your friends or family around the world that couldn’t make it home for your big day can also share in your special moment.

Below are some digital photography tips to help you get great pictures on your wedding day.

1. Background.

Choosing the correct background can make the picture special. If you are taking the photographs at the wedding then arrive before the guests and take a look around. Check to see if there are any nice flower arrangements or decorations in the church that would make a nice background.
Take a walk in the close area of the church to see if there’s a river or forest that would create a nice background.

When taking the wedding photographs don’t stand in the same location you can move around and still use the same background. It will give the photographs a different angle and perspective. A good photographer can sometimes make the simplest background look great just by changing the angle.

2. Timing

Most people would call this luck but I’ll label it as timing for the article. This really is what people call a candid moment, where people are un-aware that you are taking a picture. This catches people acting natural and gives a warm and non staged feeling to the photo.
Sometimes its just nice to have people acting normal and unaware in a wedding photograph album. Whether its chatting, dancing or being caught pulling a funny face, remember that all the pictures don’t have to be the staged kind with people smiling and staging at the camera lens

3. Glass

Always be on the look out for reflections from glass at weddings. We all know about crystal vases for flower displays, large windows in reception halls and wine glasses, which can all make a mess of photographs.On a sunny wedding day always make sure to check for light being reflected from glass especially at the all important toasts.
If you are having problems with light reflection then try changing your angle, either by looking sideways or downwards at the reflecting object.

4. Preparation

Your at a wedding which will be one of the most important days of a couples life. Don’t run out of battery life or space on your memory card. Even turning up late or at the wrong reception is a no-no.
Always try and think ahead and bring spares for anything that can go wrong especially batteries. Make a list and be prepared. Your reputation as well as the couples big day is on the line.

I hope that these few digital photography tips will help you the next time your at a wedding.

If you would like to read some more digital photography tips like the ones mentioned in this article, you can do so here: digital photography tips

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August 20, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

The Amusement And Excitement Of Digital Photo Keychain

If you value working with hi-tech video cameras, you might like to purchase a digital photo keychain to show off your pictures. The photo keychains are usually useful little products that will hold several photos and display them at the touch of a button.

Some of the models could store as many as 30 images with a storage capacity of 8MB. With today’s advancements in technological products, it was only a matter of time before there would be a small pocket device to store photos with.

Having this integrated into the design of a keychain means you can have access to your photos wherever you go.

The Tao 800001 1.5 inch digital unit can hold 31 photos and has an LCD screen for easy viewing. It also comes with a rechargeable battery and is compatible with both PCs and Macs. The units connect to a standard electrical outlet or a computer to charge their batteries.

A very good quality electric battery could last up to 2 and 1/2 hours from a one-time charge. The Tao unit generally retails for about $40. You can also locate more affordable priced units that perform the same as the higher priced ones.

The Innovage digital photo album keychain sells for about $10 and has a 1.4 inch LCD color screen. The unit can support both jpeg and bmp types of images so it is easy to transfer the images from your computer to the device.

The unit is able to hold as many as 60 color photos and has a rechargeable battery that can last up to 3 hours. You can also run a slideshow through the unit, which will run through all the photos you have stored on it in one continuous cycle. This effect is great for showing your photos to other people.

If you have a color digital camera you use on regularly, in that case you probably have a vast assortment of photos as well. The vast majority of photos finish up on the computer waiting for printing. If you want the convenience of having the ability to show your works with your family and friends then having the keychain for photos is most likely the solution.

They come with usb cords that can be plugged into the laptop or computer for easy transfer of images. The designs and colors of the units differ depending on the type and model you purchase.

The digital photo keychain would also make a wonderful gift for anyone that has digital photography as his or her hobby. Consider being able to devote time over the holidays with friends and family and taking pictures with your digital camera that you could transfer to your pc and then to your keychain all-in-one quick session.

You’ll have those holiday photos ready to share the very next time you visit. The photo device makes the moments in your life more accessible to share with others. You will want to look over the different attributes the unit comes with before buying to make sure it is compatible with the type of computer equipment and software that you use.

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March 18, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

Why Everybody Must Own A Water-resistant Digital Camera

More and more experts are shopping for these impermeable digital cameras to capture a world in that new encounters are created day after day. In the past notso long ago these amazing things of recent creation was once so big and heavy that it required extraordinary care to move them from place to place. Currently thanks to knowledge our engineers can build new Rainproof Digital Camera with smaller components to accommodate the electronics. In time the only factor that may stick out and be an eyesore would be the standard water proof lens used to capture the underwater world.

Everybody should own a Rainproof Digital Camera not for showing off however solely to seizure what your eyes see. Every camper who either goes camping in the hills beside a running river or to the sea out on a ship definitely needs to possess a water-resistant digital camera. It’s not only bad not to have one but silly if you have left home without one.

The pioneer invariably encompasses a recording medium to catch those moments for eternity and what better approach than with a water-proof digital camera digital. These marvels don’t need to be pricey. As a matter of fact they are not much more completely different then those that are not impermeable digital cameras. The costs of watertight digital camera has come back down thanks to competition and customer purchase strength.

Several individuals are owning a unit or two now. A number of these beauties come with ten mega pixel capability and over. As I said they are around the same worth range as the non-rainproof digital camera. Most brands are of equal par since the technology advances at about the equivalent rate for all manufacturers. My desired camera brand is the Olympus since they do have sameness in their expertise. But, Canon, Panasonic and different brands additionally have nice impermeable digital cameras.

Always have one handy ready and charged with further batteries to capture all those valuable moments to disk, but make sure you create a backup version of your photos when you get back home so that in the event of a hard-disk crash you’ve got a safe copy of your cherished photos and films.

One ought to also bear in mind that just because something is rainproof digital cameras will not mean that you should treat them with less protection. Although water is sort of a soft to touch form the identical can not be said of mud or sand. Thus do make sure to take care of your watertight digital camera.

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January 28, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

6 Concepts That Captures Human Interest

In this digital age, it seems as if a lot of things can be done and accomplished in just a snap. And if you’ll try to detail those wonderful advances, digital photography would certainly top the list. If you have a digital camera and are wondering what subjects are worthy and beautiful to shoot, you might want to consider tackling anything that concerns human interest. Now what contains human interest? From the name itself, it is anything and everything that grabs attention and sparks curiosity and awe. To further introduce you to the main topic, here are ways to capture human interest the perfect and seamless way.

Take a shot of people you meet along the way – There is nothing more interesting than faces of strangers that you’re able to rub shoulders with along the way. Apart from an outstanding keepsake to have, the idea of not forcing them to look at the camera and smile makes the mood more natural and the image more actual.

Human jobs – This is another subject that interests and moves people to catch a glimpse of. Taking photos of different people attending to different kinds of jobs make the entire look of the photo effortless, guileless and bona fide.

Silly pictures – Even these types of images deserve to be photographed. To make silly pictures more enjoyable to look at, all you need to do is capture it as it is and have fun while doing it. Photographing it with further effects and accessories is already overkill, so make it simple and you’ll surely come up with silly yet worthy images to boot.

The marketplace attack – If you want to capture colorful and interesting still life, the marketplace is the best place to tread on. Color is everywhere in this side of town and everything works perfectly,especially when wide-angle lens are used.

The fountain concept – Capturing images during the night is difficult, especially if you’re a novice photographer. But there is one thing that makes digital photography a good companion during the night – its the ability to take shots of theatrically lighted fountains. The dim light of the night hides unsightly backgrounds around the fountain making it a perfect subject for night shots.

Capturing the natural world – If you know how to shoot, any weather condition is not a hindrance to come up with a great picture. Although sometimes it’s merely the weather that really makes a photograph, still you can pull things off beautifully if you know how to take advantage of a beautiful sunny day or see attraction even during rainy days. Do you know that even a grimy, polluted road in the middle of nowhere can be a great storyline? Keep in mind, when you’re shooting anything in the natural world, each and every subject is precious.

Beautiful places, happy faces, moods, landscapes, marketplaces, relationships — all these are what makes up human interest. And if you’re able to capture any of those, you sure have a pleasing subject to fit in your digital image story.

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January 25, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

How To Get The Best Perfect Digital Shot

Digital photography concerns photographs in hundreds of thousands, or millions of tiny square picture elements, “pixel.” Computers and printers use these minute pixels to display photograph images. It’s compared to a painter who dabs small bits of paint on subject he expressed in canvas. 

Determining color and brightness is processed thru number-value counts of grid pixel from the digital photograph prints, after computer divides the screen and print page into grid pixels. Controlling grid of each pixel this way is bit mapping, and “bit-maps” are the produced digital images.

Purchasing a digital camera starts to digital photography.

Hundreds are available but the best digital cameras run down to a few top feature cost brands, guaranteed to produce best quality results with complete lighting kits. 

Combining passion in portrait photography skills, computer software applications, and digital technology completes the elements of digital photography. Putting into photos the perfect touch of light distribution and color is essential to a successful print copy. 

Taking pictures in most cases does not focus on the subject always. It’s up for the photographer to apply a situation best suited to time and place of photo sessions.
Manipulating control of lights is done either ways: under the direct heat of the sun, or in the interior of a closed dark room. A seasoned digital photographer can do both, finishing photos of standard quality.



Traditionally, people love to take a shot involving the full body into the background. Those that do this will realize that the image of those in the picture are too small so it is advisable to take an upper body shot or from the shoulders up. If this is too difficult for the user, another way to get the shot will be to put the people on the picture on the side rather than the center. The owner should just zoom in properly in order to get both properly. 

Lighting still plays a factor whether using the old or the digital camera. This is because an image with the sun behind the subject will turn out to be a silhouette while the same effect with the light in front will make the person squint unless there are sunglasses on. 



Capturing Light Effectively



1. Direct Sunlight – The mid-day sun creates shadows immediately underneath a certain subject. Set some modifications to control bright sunlight in facing the reality, you can’t move the sun from its axis. 

Dark shadows that bounce beneath developed the harsh “raccoon” image on the subjects’ face, an ill effect-results of the whole process. If it can’t be avoided, placing a reflectors underneath the subject’s chin, takes instant neutralizing effects of unpleasant shadow, could lighten intensity. 

Other reflectors could cause eyes to be watery. Recourse is to use a white poster board also providing enough light to the shadowed face. Avoiding direct sunlight and be devoid from eye squinting that destroys beautiful facial expressions, is a shift to some shaded place with likewise shaded background. Bright backgrounds could result on the iris’ automatically turning the subject to silhouette form in effort to compensate the bright effect of the sun.



2. Orange Color – The hues of dawn and near twilight, best “peak setting” in photography. For best results in lighting about digital photos, do your shooting just after sunrise or just before sunset (at daytime and dusk, Orange disappears), when the color of orange around makes everything look better.

Your computer represents the dark room in digital photography, mediating to take the tasks necessary on adjustments you wish to achieve of images input after photograph sessions. 

Necessitates cropping, working on brightness, contrast, and color adjustments. You can add special effects in frames and shadowing to create a unique dimensional appearance, taught in multi-task image editing software.
More information about perfect digital shot click here

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January 23, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

Creating A Photographic Price List

For Photographers who are just starting out with their very own photography venture, it is frequently tough to know precisely where in your Photographic Niche you sit. One thing is for sure, is that you will need to create a Price List that is reflective of you and your new Photographic Enterprise.

Within that, you will want to make up a photography price list for the services that you will offer. You will need to have a list that you can present to future clients.

However before you set up your photography price list, you will have to do a little investigation so that you do not overprice or under-price your services. There are a few easy ways that you can work on making this photography list. It is important though to get a belief about yourself and your work before you actually embark on this task.

The reason for this? Picture your self standing in front of a prospective client, hesitant and irresolute about what you should charge. I believe that you are you liable to under price your work, yes? Now picture yourself full of self-belief, brimming over with sureness about your photography, your services, your market place and your place in it. Chest out and shoulders back. Now I expect that the next words out of your mouth will be more representitve of the real value of your work! Don’t you think?

Through some basic exploration and honest self assessment, you can realize all of this. You can get the information you need about the best ways to continue, for free, from Photgraphy resources. They have other resources freely accessible too, that you may find useful in your new career direction.

Amongst other things, in seeing what other photographers do, you will learn that prices vary crazily within the same niche. You will find that a number of Photographers do not even issue a price list (probably on the basis that ‘if you have to ask, you can’t afford it!’) Others present a pricing ‘guide’. Others are a bit too complete with the information offered, such as having lots of special offers with ugly little exclusions and disclaimers attached!

Wherever you are right now in your new photography business development, whether you want to run it as a home based business, or to run it from a studio, you need market information and certainty. Pick up the free E-Book at Portrait and Wedding Photography resources site. You will be in advance of yourself before you know it!

As a final note with all of this. The only way forward is to take action. By taking action, we invariably make mistakes! So, the more mistakes we make, the further we can go. Or so the theory goes anyway. It is only through making mistakes that we can grow…so lets put our best foot forward.

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January 21, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

Digital Photo Editing – What Is Pixel Resolution?

Ever been disappointed by a tiny printed image after editing a picture from your digital camera? Have you ever emailed a digital photo to your mother but the image file size was so big that her inbox rejected your attachment?

If you are just getting started with digital scrapbooking, then this short lesson is for you. It is a lot easier than you might guess.

Pixels and Resolution

The tiny dots that make up an image are called pixels. The word “pixel” is shorthand for picture element and generally is the smallest part of any type of digitally represented image. People are easily confused because the word pixel assumes subtle differences in meaning depending on the context in which it is used such as in printed images or the megapixels in a digital camera.

To simplify this discussion, just think of a pixel as a tiny point of light or color representing a very small component of a much larger image.

People also talk about resolution when referring to pixels. Resolution is the quantity of how many pixels fit into a certain defined space. You may have heard of “dots per inch” (DPI) or “pixels per inch” (PPI) and the meaning of these two terms adds to the confusion because once again it depends on the context in which the term is used.

Let’s simplify once again by saying that image resolution is an expression of how much detail an image holds.

Our televisions, computer displays, cell phones, and even digital photographs are full of pixels – thousands upon thousands of them all packed together so closely it tricks the human brain into thinking these tiny dots are a smooth image. These digital images appear just about anywhere we look in our technology filled world, from our PDAs to our car dashboard to the giant electronic billboards on display along the highway or in New York’s Times Square.

The more pixels inside an image, the smoother the photo looks. On the other hand, if the pixel count is too low, the image quality suffers. So you may be able to distinguish the individual dots in a microwave display but a printed digital photo looks as smooth as glass. When the pixel count is so low you can see the jagged edges, you’ve got a pixelated image.

Digital cameras have made sharing photos easier than ever. No longer do you have to get film developed and multiple copies printed. Today, many people share their photos through email and social network sites. However, before doing this the image taken from the digital camera is usually downsized.

Digital cameras are built to duplicate film camera quality and therefore capture images with a huge pixel resolution. Compare that to nearly all home computer screens that have a low pixel count, usually under 100 pixels in an inch. Displaying the former on the latter results in an image that appears much bigger on the computer screen. Digital cameras catch images at high resolution to permit photographic quality prints. But e-mailing this large image file will use megabytes of data and many e-mail users will disallow it.

Adjusting Resolution

The solution is to resample the image which is geek speak for altering the resolution. Decreasing the number of pixels will make the image appear normal on a computer screen. And this will let you e-mail Mom with the hottest family photos from your recent vacation. But after changing the resolution of the image, don’t think that you will still get a quality print any longer since you’ve taken out so many pixels.

So here is the fundamental point to remember. Digital images meant for printing need to be at a high resolution whereas images displayed on a computer screen need only a low resolution.

If you choose to do both of the above, make a copy of your original digital image for fiddling with. Besides preparing for both printing and viewing images correctly, this is also a highly recommended backup plan for all of your digital images.

Now that you know how pixel count affects digital images, you will enjoy complete success in printing and viewing any image you grab with your digital camera.

For a more thorough explanation of how to re-sample pictures and more topics on photo resolution, see Photoshop video tutorials at www.toNoodle.com.

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January 20, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More

Tips To Turn Your Photography Passion Into A Successful Home Business

If you love taking pictures and have a decent digital camera, computer and have access to the internet, you can easily turn your hobby into a nice source of additional income by selling online photos. Selling photographs online is a growing industry and a valuable source of income for many photographers, both hobby and professional. For some, it can even become a full-time home business.

For those just becoming interested or starting out in this business, though, knowing where to begin can be a bit confusing. So here are a few suggestions to help you break into the business of selling your photographs online.

1) Find the Right Place to Sell Your Photos Online. There are many different ways to sell photographs online. Most newcomers, however, will find the most luck with selling stock photos through online stock photo agencies. The biggest stock photo agencies have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of customers purchasing stock photographs from them daily. These photographs are used for a wide range of website content and advertising purposes, and the pay you receive will be dependent on the agreement you have with the agency and the rights you are selling. Often, however, you will be selling the same photograph time and time, and earn a small amount (for example, $1) for each sale. This may not seem like much, but if you sell one photograph 100 times, it adds up. And if you have 100 photographs that sell 100 times… well, you do the math!

2) Find the Right Photographs to Sell. Often it is not the most artistic photographs that are the most successful. Frequently, well taken photographs of common objects well sell the best with stock photo agencies. Taking photographs of people is always a bit more complicated, since model releases are required (although you can choose to use yourself as your subject, to make things easier). For this reason, sticking to photographs without humans in it may be easiest while you are still learning the ropes.

3) Make Sure Your Pictures are Found in Online Searches. You need to learn how to conduct research on what kinds of photographs are most in demand. Much of this will focus on the keywords that people are typing into search engines like Google.

4) Submit Only Quality Photos For Sale. Blurred, fuzzy or otherwise poorly shot photographs will not only not sell well, they will can also damage your relationship with the stock photo agency that is selling your photographs. Take the time to take quality photographs and only submit the best for sale.

5) Improve Your Photographic Quality Over Time. As with any business, the more you learn and the better your technique, the more profitable you will be. Fortunately, if photography is also a hobby that you love, learning more about it will not be a chore but and enjoyable activity.

To learn more about techniques to successfully sell your photos, you should also visit http://sell-your-photos.info.

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January 19, 2010 Post Under Tips & Techniques - Read More
Tips for Street & People Photography