Digital Shutters

You’ve invested a lot of money in your camera and taking care of it is important. If you live in a humid climate then one of the possible problems to affect your camera is lens fungus. This will cause your pictures to become cloudy or cause strange lines on the images.
You can prevent this form happening by cleaning and inspecting your camera on a regular basis. Do not leave your camera in your car, or in an area where the moisture can build up. After a shoot, clean your camera and let it rest and dry out before storing it. If you do not use your camera that much then do not store it in its bag, or do not seal it up so that your camera will not collect moisture.
If your camera does get fungus on the lens then it is recommended that you have it professionally cleaned

References:
C/Net
Chem.Helsinki

PHOTO OF THE DAY
Orange Flowers
Camera
JCV Camcorder

fungus, lens, optics, digital photography

When taking photos of people and animals one of the biggest problems that occur is red eye. This is actually caused by the built in camera flash. Some tricks to follow to reduce the appearance of redeye is to have you subject not look directly at the camera, turn off your camera flash, use a hot flash. A lot of newer cameras also have redeye reduction built into the camera.
If redeye still occurs, it can easily be removed using your photo editing program.

Photoshop CS3 has a quick tool to detect and remove red eye a selection of the healing options on the toolbars.

Paint Shop Pro 7 has a similar Under Enhance Photo option. When opening the tool you will need to select the area in the main screen that needs to be removed. Adjust the box and align it over the pupil of the eye and review what it will look like in the preview window. When it looks good to you click ok and you are finished.

If you do not use these programs and use the photo kiosk at your favorite store, the kiosk will have a program to help remove the redeye. Ask for assistance if you need help.

References:
C/NET
Kodak
Adobe

red eye, digital photography, Adobe, tips

These days art comes in many forms and Photography is becoming a popular art form. One of the images that is popular as modern art is light images.
Using a camera and light to create unique shapes; there is two methods camera tossing or light painting.

The first camera tossing, although this is a quick way to ruin your camera if you drop it, and not highly recommended but it needs to be mentioned; you need to be careful that you catch your camera or hold tightly onto your camera strap so as to not drop it. With this method set your camera to night shooting, in a dark room set up different colored lights. With your colored lights on press your shutter and toss the camera in the air. The shutter speed is slow so as you toss the camera the lights will be blurred and streaky, creating light art.

The next is light painting, set your camera on a tripod with the same settings. Choose colored lights or use small pen flashlights. In a dark room set your camera to point at the area where you will stand and set the self timer. Move the lights in a patterned configuration. The effect will be the same, as you are moving the light the shutter will be slow so your image will be light streaks.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

This is was done with a pen flashlight and a red laser pointer. I started at the bottom and moved the 2 back and forth while I moved the lights up.
Camera
Olympus E-500
Tirpod
lens 14-45 mm
settings night scene

Reference:
Popphoto.com
Lifehacker.com
Digital Photography Webblog

camera tossing, light painting, digital photography

You will read from a lot of photographers to use a tripod for a sharp clear photo. But do you really need one? You think they are too bulky to carry and for the most part you are only taking snapshots.
While I am an avid user of my tripod, I do take a lot of photos without it. When I am taking snapshots of my family and pets I do not use a tripod, a lot of my landscape photos are taken without a tripod because there is not much difference in the quality of the photo.
When taking photos without a tripod you will have the risk of camera shake. If you decide not to use a tripod one way help avoid camera shake is to use the view finder instead of the LCD Monitor. This will actually help brace the camera against you face.
Rest your arms on the hood of your vehicle or a stationary object. If you are taking photos out the window of your vehicle it is advisable to shut the vehicle off, the vibration of the engine will cause blur on your photo. You may not feel the vibration but the camera sensors are very sensitive and will pick it up.

For my professional shots I will always use my tripod.
There are some shots that you will need a tripod for
• Low light where the shutter speed will be slow.
• Night scenes
• Shooting fireworks
• Portraits
• When using a heavy telephoto lens
• If you are doing a professional photo shoot, unless it is with a model and there will be a lot of movement and turning of the camera.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
While on vacation We saw these big horn sheep while driving by the Rio Grande River. I did not have the opportunity to get out of the vehicle and use my tripod and we did not shut off the vehicle. I used the open window to brace my arms but as you can see the vibration of the vehicle caused camera shake and the photos came out not so great.

Reference:
1milliondollarphoto.com
Communitymx.com

tripod, camera shake, digital photography

A unique project is to take one of your photographs and divide it into sections to create a bigger photo. This is a popular decorecting effect for designers and here is an easy way for you to create the same look for your home.

I used this photo of a group of sea shells using the guides in Photoshop CS3 I divided it into 4 sections.
Opening a new page into Photoshop I cut each section out and pasted them onto the new page leaving a 1 inch space between each section.

How to do this…..
• Select the photo you want
• Using the guides divide your photo into 4 sections. Either Long ways or into squares.
• Next open a new Photoshop page set new guides for the first image at 1 in from the top of the page and 1 inch from the side of the page.
• Going back to your original photo and select the first section of the photo and copy it.
• Going to your new image paste it at the guides, set new guides at 1 inch from the edges of the first section of your image.
• Repeat the copy and paste for each section using the guides to position each section 1 inch from the other sections.
• When all sections are pasted onto the new image crop your new image where you have a 1 inch border around the edges of the section.

You can change the white background to a different color or use another background image for a different effect. Print you image and then matt and frame it.

image made with squares

image made with strips

One of the most difficult subjects to photograph is your family pet. Most family pet photos are blurry, someone is holding the animal, or it’s sleeping. Animals are like little children and the best shots are the candid shots. So how do you get that elusive family member photo in a natural moment to show their personality?
Thanks to technology, a lot of the cameras out today have scene settings that will stop motion. I have found that the best setting is the children setting. The camera is quicker to act at the focus and is ready for movement.
Also be quick on the button. If the animal I playing keep shooting, follow the movement with your camera trying to keep your subject into the frame. Break away from LCD monitor and actually look through the view finder. This will help you follow the movement.
Get as close to the subject as possible without interrupting the action. With digital it doesn’t matter how many shots you take because you will only keep the ones that you like the best and there is no lose in film.

Reference:
Lexar.com
Desertusa.com

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Two of our dogs giving each other kisses
Camera
Muskex camcorder, set on picture taking and not video.

photography tips, pets, family photos

When you buy your camera you will want to buy accessories to go with it. Determining the accessories you want at the time you purchase your camera will also help you choose the camera you want.
The most common accessories………

• The camera bag, make sure it is big enough to hold all the extra accessories you get plus your camera. Have separate pockets or compartments away from camera compartment. This is important so that they are not scratched or damaged and they do not fall out of the camera bag as you are removing and returning your camera. Also you do not want them bumping up against your camera and damaging it.
• Filters, the most popular filters are the UV filter and Polarizer filter.
• Extra batteries
• Extra memory cards
• Camera straps
• Extra lens, if your camera has interchangeable lens.
• Lens caps
• A tripod.
• A point and shoot camera if you purchase a DSLR.

Having the proper accessories can make the difference between a good photo and a great photo, and weather you will want to continue to take pictures for a long time.

References
Digital Photography
FMReviews

Photo of the day

Product Photography of a gold tone hat pin
Camera
HP315 , Macro +2.5 close up lens
shot on a mirror, diffused floresent lighting, black velvet background

digital photography, accessories, tips, product photography

I often like to check the status of the digital cameras on the market. I check the review sites and see where each brand stacks up against the others. This week I checked out Digital Photography Review. They have been a reliable unbiased source for some time now. One thing that is unique about this site is they have in place a counting system that counts the click through for the last 5 days. So according to their system the top 10 brands are as follows with their percentage of click through……
1. Canon – 35%
2. Nikon – 13.4%
3. Sony – 11.3%
4. Panasonic – 8%
5. Fujifilm – 7.4%
6. Olympus – 7.2%
7. Pentax – 3.3%
8. Kodak – 2.8%
9. Samsung – 2.5%
10. Leica – 2.1%
Although they go on to list every click through percentage until you have 100% I am just listing the top 10. If you don’t see your favorite brands go to the site and check it out. They also list the top 20 cameras by click through for the last 5 days.

Photo of the Day

A Herring with only 1 foot. Who knows how it lost its foot.
Camera
Olympus E-500
14-45mm lens
UV filter

camera brands, digital photography, reviews

If you’ve ever gone to the beach or to a river and saw a beautiful waterfall or splashing waves on the rocks and thought it would be cool to catch a picture of that with the waves up in the air.

Well it’s not that hard. It may take patience to capture it while waiting for the right shot and you may have a lot of photos that you don’t want, but that’s the beauty of digital. You can erase all those unwanted photos. For the most part you don’t need a fancy DSLR to take a great photo of the water; unless of course you want special effects. The quicker the shutter speed the better the stop motion of the water. This is true with any object you are trying to stop motion on. The photo to the right was taken with my HP315 point and shoot with a UV and Polarizer filter.

If you have a DSLR or camera where you can adjust your settings, you can achieve special effects by slowing down your shutter speed. This will blur the water motion and give is a foggy or hazy look this is a good effect if you are at a river or waterfall. Put your camera on manual settings and adjust your exposure time. If you don’t have manual settings use your night scene mode to help slow down the shutter. Take several shots to until you achieve the result you are looking for. Patience and practice will get you the effects you want. Art is the artist perception and you are the artist. Do what is pleasing to you.

References
www.photoblink.com
www.digit-life.com
www.hp.com

water, digital photo, tips, shutter speed, special effects

Welcome to part 3 of editing your background images. Today I am using Paintshop Pro 7.0 to edit my background image.
I will be editing the marbles
Quick color changes that you can do with this program

• Image 1. Colors > Negative, this gave the marbles a unique glowing pastel look with a grey background and black spots.
• Image 2. Colors > Adjust > Red, Blue Green> Levels 50% Red, 50% Blue, 0% Green. This changes the background to a purple hue.

Create a very different look by using

• Image 1. Effects > Geometric effects > Warp > size 75
• Image 2. Effects > Illumination effects > Kaleidoscope > petals 10

These are some fun effects that you can use for your web sites, family photo backgrounds, and any where you will want to enhance your projects.

Have fun with your images and photos.

References
diynetwork.com
photomemes.org

background, digital photography, photo editing