Digital Shutters

I have to appoligize to my readers for not posting yesterday. I recently pick up a new contract with a new real estate company and have been rather busy. But I have stoped what I’m doing to give you a few tips on how to touch up those summer photos. With the end of school there are a lot of snapshots taken that need touched up. And probably scrap books to be made. But you find that a lot of the pictures you have you don’t want to use because the colors just aren’t right. If you spent time at the beach and there are some of those photos with sun burnt faces you can take some of the redness from the photo with a little color enhancement. The quickest fix is using your hue / saturation filter. Open your program and the photos you want to fix.

• Choose your image adjustments menu and choose Hue /Saturation.
• In the drop down box you’ll want to choose the red color.
• Next move the slider of the hue to the usually to the right and reduce the reds until you have a desirable color.
• Choose the slider of the saturation and move it to the usually to the left and reduce the skin tones until they look more natural.
• Then you can apply a cooling filter to get an even more natural look. A I did in the photos below.

You can also use this technique to increase the blues of the sky, make the grass greener. Play around with your pictures and you will be surprised at how easy these simple adjustments are.

One of the best things that you can do with your digital camera is to keep a photographic record of your valuables. Lately with all this bad weather and flooding, it made me start thinking about updating my insurance records. For years I have always kept a digital record of the things I have in my house, I have saved them on disk and kept a printed record. The Insurance company would have a hard time disputing that you owned an item if you had picture proof of it in your home.

• Of course start with taking photos of everything you have. Start by taking pictures of the rooms in your house from each corner. This will be sure to get all the important items that you might miss otherwise.
• Next do individual photos of big ticket items.
• For things like videos, CD’s etc lay out a set to get as many in the photo as possible.
• Do not forget Jewelry; use a ruler to help show size.
• Take photos of your clothing, dishes, knick knacks, everything.
This may take awhile to do but it is the best record and proof you‘ll have for your insurance company. Once you have the photos taken save them to CD’s and make a print of all the pictures you’ve taken. After you’ve printed your photos it’s a good idea to write the serial numbers of the items like TV’s, Stereo’s, Computer’s etc on the back of the photo’s along with a list of the items and serial numbers. Make several copies and store them in a safe place away from your home
• Away from your home in a safe deposit box.
• A copy at your job
• Use an online photo storage place that is password protected.
As you get new items take pictures of those items to keep up to date. Being safe and keeping good records will help you recover quickly if there ever is a disaster.

Photo of the day

A Sapphire Ring I own. Notice how I got the detail of the ring to show exactly what it looked like. Close up like this is invaluable.

insurance records, photo tips, record keeping

On August 15th Samsung launched a new website for their consumers for just the digital photography buff. I know this is almost 15 days later but I like to give things time and check to see what’s happening to see if there is anything worth talking about.
There is an interesting flash entro that is hard to get past but if you like to see lions running through the Savannah, it’s worth the wait.
This site seems to focus on their digital cameras, which is good for the consumer who likes the Samsung name. Although I am disappointed in the text size which appears to me the size of a disclaimer notice. The site is well laid out with out a lot of clicking. The main screen door has 3 links SOA club, product, and customer service. Clicking one of them will take you to a beautiful room with lost of information, search capabilities and shopping cart. Although I did just a surface clicks the site is simple to navigate and you should have little trouble finding what you are looking for.
I would just like to say thank you Samsung for a beautiful site. Wish some of the other camera sites would jump in like this.

When you buy a digital camera, at the time you may not be thinking about the printer that you will be using. A lot of course use the local photo kiosk. But some want their own printer. So what are the printer options that should be considered?
If you are going to print photos you definitely want a printer with photo capabilities and that is determined by a few simple things the terms you will want to be familiar with are:
• CMYK – this is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These are your ink colors. Cyan is a shade blue, Magenta is a shade of red and the others speak for themselves. An inkjet printer can come in a single tank or multiple tank style. This is important to secede since multiple tank printers are known to give you crisper prints than single tank. There are several types of multiple ink printers. Some separate the black cartridge from the color and you have 2 tanks and some printers even separate the colors giving you up to 6 tanks. Multiple tank printers have a tendency to cost more with the multiple ink tanks. But in the long run buying the separate inks will save you money since you are only replacing the color you run out of. If you print a lot of black and white text, you do not want to throw away your colored inks just because you are out of black
• Ink Cartridge – This is the disposable tank that holds your ink. If you were to break this cartridge YES you would get ink all over yourself. As I stated above some manufactures put sub tanks in one cartridge giving you the convenience of buying just on cartridge for your printer or the flexibility of buying only the color you need. Deciding which is best for you should be determined how much you will print and what you will be printing. For the school student to do homework then a single tank is best. For the photographer ad full color printing I have an HP 1700 which is a 4 tank wide format printer.
• DPI – this is an acronym for dots per inch. This is how your printer puts the ink on the paper. Depending on the DPI will depend on the quality of the printed photo. If you want good quality prints then you want your printer to print the best that it can. Most printers have multiple print settings that allow you adjust the print quality. Remember the higher the DPI the better the final print.
• USB – this is the acronym for Universal Serial Bus. Most of the new printers these days use this instead up the bulky printer cables.

PHOTO of the DAY

Camera Olympus E-500
314 DPI original file size 3264 X 2448
uploaded file size 350 X 263

The beauty of a digital camera is you can use it over and over for many years and erase the unwanted photos before downloading them to your computer. So why would a manufacture want to produce a single use digital camera?

There has been much controversy over this but in the last part of July, Ritz announced that it would be launching a disposal camera in its chain of stores under the Dakota brand name. This camera is a 2MP fixed focus and will give you 25 pictures. You are supposed to be able to delete any unwanted photos; this camera according to the press release is a perfect solution for first time digital user to try out before they go totally digital. It offers a self timer automatic flash, and metered exposure control. This camera is not available nationwide.

According to DP Review and man others it is probably wiser for the more serious digital user to spend a few hundred dollars to get a nice digital camera and media cards that will last a lot longer. And in the long run cost a lot less.

I would wonder what these would be good for. Not one to want to give a bad review for no reason, let’s try and think of the positive things that this camera could offer. If there is a function that you child wants to take pictures of and you don’t want to give up the good family camera. If you have a family function such as weddings, birthday parties, etc a bunch of these come in handy for candid shots, a nice alternative to the disposable film. I think I would have bought one of these for my son for his prom.

Photo of the day
storm rolling in.

I love clouds and nature. I couldn’t resist taking these photos of Hurricane Claudette rolling in in 2004.
Camera HP315
Auto focus.

Photography itself has many terms and words and with the onset of digital photography the words seem to have taken on new meaning. One of those terms which has been around for awhile is archival. Archival comes from the word Archive which means a collection that consists of records which have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation. In museums objects are care for and stored in protective cases to preserve them.

Although the meaning hasn’t changed over the years, in recent years we have come to think of archival in a different way, instead of the painstaking care and protection given to something, it now becomes digital. Your computer will ask you if you want to archive your email. All it’s going to do is store it in a certain area on your hard drive. Compact disks, DVD’s are all archival storage media devices.

As you know with any photograph your printed image only has a certain length of time before it starts to fade. Many people are now restoring those old family photos and scanning and storing them on disks then create reproductions locking the valuable original in a safe deposit box. So how does this apply to your digital photography and why would you want to archive your library of images?
First you spent a lot of time and effort taking these photos and you do not want to loose them. As any photographer would tell you should keep a copy of your image in a place where it won’t get destroyed. Traditional Film Photographers keep their negatives archived. So you want to put your images on a CD for backup. The reason for this is if something were to happen to your computer you do not want to loose your photos. When you upgrade to a new computer you want an easy way to transfer your images to the new machine. Also if you are like me you take a lot of photos and over the years it’s easy to fill a hard drive on a computer. If I were to download all the images I have (over 100 CD’s full) I would easily fill my 120G hard dive and still probably not be able to get them all downloaded. Also if you back up your images on a CD it is easy to keep them organized by subject. You will want to use either CD’s and DVD’s the recent scan disks are a good way to transport an image but are not designed for long term storage, so they are not “archival”.
One suggestion and this is how I use my disks. I organize them by
• Subject
• Date the photo was taken
• File type. I take photos in JPEG, TIFF, and RAW format
• If it is for a client it is on a disk by itself with the clients name and date photos were taken.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
flooding from all the rain we have been having this summer

Camera Olympus E-500
UV filter
14-45mm lens

Sometimes aspiring stock photographers make the mistake of over editing their photos for stock photo upload. The only problem with this is that the people who download the photos are usually graphic artist and want to edit the photos themselves so minimal editing if any is required. Actually over editing can lead to photo rejection.
The steps to take and consider are
• Determine what site you will upload your photo. do not be afraid to upload it to several of the sites. I have found that one may take the photo but another may not.
• Read their restrictions to make sure they haven’t changed any requirements. Recently one of the site changed file size on me.
• Make sure you have all your model releases signed.
Once the basis are covered. When in your digital darkroom you do not want to make any dramatic changes.
• Upload your photos and view them at actual pixels. All sites will not take blurry photos.
• Do a sharpen photo.
• Do a auto color correction; if it totally changes the photo undo it. Sometimes with my sunsets and sunrises Photoshop will change the colors I got from my camera.
• Check your file size and DPI. Most sites want you to up load at 300 or better. If you have this capability it will only increase your sales.
• DO NOT crop your photo. Remember a graphics person will be downloading and do the cropping.

As in this photo of the day I used a JVC Camcorder on picture mode.
I checked the photo in Photoshop CS3 and auto color correction and sharpened the image
This should show you don’t need a professional camera to take stock photos.

Terlingua, TX Big Bend National Park

terlingua tx, big bend tate park, photo editing, stock photos

When shooting outside there are some things to consider. And one of them is the time of day and the time of year you are taking your photos. Each time you bring your camera out there are different elements that you will have to deal with and different problems that occur. There is no best time to take a photo. So don’t miss the opportunity for that great shot by leaving your camera at home. A few simple tricks can over come most of the troubles you may encounter.
Here are a few tips for each time of day or season you might encounter. First thing to remember is that photography is about using light and shadow to obtain the concept you are trying to achieve.

• At dusk and dawn you will get the most color fro your photos. The shadows are more intense as well as the highlights. Your images will have depth and interest and using the shadows to play off your subject giving you a dramatic shot. The problem is some of the images can come out to dark and the shutter speed slows down so a tripod is recommended.
• Where as the middle of the day the sun is bright and your images will appear flat. You will have less shadows and contrast and there will be more photo-editing in your digital dark room. Your images can appear to have a haze. The use of filters can help correct this. UV, Polarizer, and color gradient filters are available for most cameras and their use can add to the interest of your images.
• Taking photos in the summer, the sun is high in the sky giving you greater blues and richer tones in your colors, but in mid day the images can appear flat and hazy. Filters can help fix this.
• In the winter months with the sun being low in the sky you may not get the rich colors but you will get the longer shadows, and more contrast to your highlights. Once again filters can correct this and you digital darkroom will help in the editing.
So as you can see there is no perfect time of day to shoot photos. A little photo-editing or filters can help with any image.

Now you have all you photos and its time to download to your computer and edit them. Here you can add special effects, crop, and correct the color.
• Set up a file on your computer before downloading that will be easy to find. I usually use the name of the event and the date. Inside that file set up another file and name it finished. This is where you will save the photos that you have edited in your digital darkroom with different file name. It is recommended that you do not save over your original photo as it contains all the data from the camera when you took the shot.
• Once downloaded view your photos and erase ay that are unwanted. Your windows picture viewer is good for this.
• Next open your digital darkroom and select the photo that you want to edit.
The things that you will want to do before adding special effects or text are: I will use the photo I used of my son’s graduation in part one. As you can see it has a green overcast and its not quite centered.

Color corrections > start with your auto color correction if this does not make the photo appealing to you then you will have to start correcting individually
• Hue and saturation Shadows and highlights
• Selective color > here you can pick a certain color to adjust, If you feel there is too much red, you can lower the threshold for that color.
• Color balance
Repeat as much as you want until the photo looks good for you. Sometimes you may do one adjustment then another step or two and then go back and do the first adjustment again.
Once you have your colors correct crop our image to center the main subject. Save the image in your finished file under a different file name. if your camera assigns numbers to your image then it is best to keep the same number system but add a letter on the end of it. Example File name 1234 becomes 1234a.
Then get creative and add text, frames, etc or leave it how you have it. If you do get creative save this file under a different name than the first one, Example 1234b. that way when someone sees it and wants a copy you can ask if they want the creative one or the plain one. Most of the time, they will want the plain one.

Finished Photo

digital photography, photo editing

Yesterday I talked about the preparations and some etiquette for taking pictures at school functions. Today we will touch on your camera settings, first and foremost check your user manual as to the manufactures recommendations for the type of photos you’ll be shooting; indoor, outdoor, etc. Get at the subjects level. If you are taking photos of children kneel down to their level, the shots will be better in the long run.
Indoor shooting:
• While it is recommended to use manual settings for indoor shooting to keep the room and people warm you may not have this liberty so choose your manufactures recommended auto settings.
• You will need your flash to avoid the yellowish tints that can occur from indoor shooting. Use your external flash and try and avoid the built in flash as this can cause red eye. If you do not have an external flash and need to use your built in flash, try and find the brightest spot in the room if possible to take your shot.
• Get as close to your subjects as possible, Try not to use your auto zoom if possible, since this may result in grainy pictures.
• Remember the darker the room the slower your shutter speed. There is a possibility for camera shake, although it will be hard to use a tripod and most of your photos will be hand held, find a table, or stable object to brace your arms on, or even put the camera on. Kneel down and use your knees to brace your arms.
• If there is a lot of action set your camera to action or children settings, this will help speed up the shutter for you.
Also remember that you can correct the majority of the photos in your digital darkroom.
Outdoor shooting:
While this is the ideal setting with natural lighting and there will be less color correction in your final editing process there are still a few helpful tips to keep in mind.
• For action shots, you want a fast shutter speed to stop action unless you want a motion effect.
• Use your UV and Polarizer filters. These will sharpen the colors. If you have overcast skies, you may only want to use you UV filter.
• Most of the time you will not need your flash for out door shooting unless you have overcast skies. But it is always best to have an external flash.
• If you are at sporting events you will probably not be able to get close to the action so use your zoom feature. Ask if you can stand on the side lines to take some shots if possible. If you have changeable lens use the largest one you have.
For action shots either indoors or outside:
• Find your location and snap off a few shots before the action starts that way you can get your focusing, and camera settings to your liking.
• Anticipate where the action will be within 1 second, hold your camera there and start shooting. You may take 5 or 6 photos that are not centered in the frame to get that one that is framed.
• If you are not for anticipating the shot then follow the action with your camera.
• It is always better to have more shots than needed to get that one good photo, and remember this is digital you will not be wasting money on printing any unwanted pictures.
• Wait until the action has stopped before you start checking the pictures that you took. You do not want to miss any good photos.
Next I will talk about editing the photos you took in your digital darkroom.

REFERENCES:
Digital Photography school
Photography on the net
oreillynet