Digital Shutters

Back to school is just around the corner and you’ll be attending those school functions and that leaves a great opportunity to take pictures of those school functions.
There are many ways of going about taking the photos for a school function. First think about the event. Is it sports or a school play, maybe an open house or a science fair?
Then what are you going to do with the photos afterward? Is it for a scrapbook, to send to family and friends? A few tips to help make what ever the event a memorable occasion are
• See if you can take preparation shots before the event, like set up, decorations, practice, etc.
• Tell the school ahead of time that you want to take photo’s and see if it is alright to do so then find out if there is a special place you can stand that is out of the way of the rest of the attendees.
• Offer to give the school some copies of the photos you are going to take.
• The day of the event make sure you have all of your equipment ready and in good working order, packed for ease of access, extra batteries, and memory cards.
• Arrive early enough to let the person in charge know you are there and ask again the best place to be to take pictures.
• Ask if there are going to be any special things happening, like a solo, special award, a special presentation.
• If you arrive early enough ask if it is possible for a group photo.
• Get as close as you can without interrupting.
• When the event is over it is thank the person in charge and inform them as to how long it will be before they get their copies. DO not make them wait longer than a week.
Of course not all these tips will apply to the photos that you are going to take. If its only your child that you are concerned about taking photos of then the formalities aren’t necessary unless you leave your seat to get a closer shot. Next we will talk about taking the shot and the camera settings.

references
digital photography school

Photo of the Day

My son’s graduation

Camera: Olympus E-500, UV filter, 45-150mm lens

school photos, photography tips

If you ever pulled up a web site and it loaded slow then you know how it can be frustrating. But it can also be frustrating for the web site owner. Not only do they load slow they are placed low on the search engine lists, and this causes a drop in traffic. The top reason they for loading slow is the graphics and images.

One mistake the website owners make when they create the sites they do not resize their images before uploading them to the server. If you own a site or blog the best thing you can do to increase traffic is to reduce you images to the exact size you want them to be on the page.

When creating your site open you digital dark room and resize your images. In PhotoShop the steps are
Image > Image size > this will open your menu box. Select pixels, this is what the internet operates on. Adjust the image to the size you will want. A good rule of thumb to remember is that most monitors are set to 800 X 600 pixels. Although there are some out there bigger than that, you’ll want to keep your images to a reasonable size. A few suggestions for sizing are
• Thumbnails > 125 X ???
• Images inline with text 250 X ???
• Images to be centered on a line by themselves 400 X ???
An image 400 pixels across will pretty much take up half the viewers screen. Also if you are running a blog and use a program with sidebars such as Wordpress then the area for input is usually only 400 pixels across and you will lose your formatting if you go any larger.
Another thing is you want to keep your images that you are going to upload at 72dpi. This will optimize the image for your web site. Remember the web is different than print. For print you want the best you can get for the web you want optimization for page loading. In this day and time you will loose half of your views if they have to wait for an image to load.

References:
Webdevelopersnotes.com
Travelphoto.net

PHOTO of the DAY

Stormy weather on the way way to West Texas.
Camera: Olympus E-500, 14-45mm lens, UV filter

According to dpreview.com the most recent camera released is the Ricoh Caplio GX100. This camera is the successor to the GX8. A 10 MP, auto focus has a 3X zoom which gives you range of 24 to 75mm It has RAW and JPEG capture capabilities and a removable view finder!
This camera offers manual and program settings with twin dial control system, and both re-chargeable and AA battery capabilities.
Ricoh bundled accessories are
• USB CABLE
• AV Cable
• Rechargeable battery
• Battery charger
• Hand strap
• Lens cap
• Caplio software CD-Rom
• Users Manual

Ricoh, camera, review

Many people create projects and take photos of their progress as they move along capturing key points in the process.
When you are taking project photos for future reference or for a portfolio or what ever reason there are key elements that you need to watch for.
1. Check your lighting; you want a well lighted subject, without harsh shadows to distract from your subject. Many times I see real estate photos where the corners of the rooms are dark or you see light coming through the blinds. The bright areas in your photo will draw the views eyes to that area. So you want to make sure that you have even lighting over the entire subject area.
2. Check your angle; this is a time where you want to be straight on and level with our subject. If it is and item that is small a display stand is what will work best, I sometimes see shadows of people bending over an object that’s lying on a table, this not only blocks the lighting it can create unwanted shadows. If you are taking a picture of a room then you will want to stand in the door as you enter the room and take to shots or 3 shots pointing to your left, right, and straight ahead. I’ve seen real estate agents try and take a picture from the corner of the room to get the whole room in the view.
3. Check for main focal points that you want to emphasize. Step close to your subject and fill the frame. If you have a small object you do not want only the center of the photo to be the subject. A good rule of thumb if you are going to have to crop more than ¼ of the photo in your digital darkroom then you are not close enough. It in a fact you will have to edit your photo, but being as close as you can while still getting a good sharp image will show off more detail and be more pleasant to the viewer.
4. Take more than one shot. You’d be surprised comparing the side by side images of the differences they will actually have. Remember its digital and you can erase the unwanted ones later.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Government Bid Proposal Cover I did for an Engineering Firm.
As you can see by the photos on the cover the angle and content of the shots I took.
Camera was an HP 315 Point and shoot
I used Corel Draw 10 to create the Cover.

for client confidentiality I had to white out any identifing marks and logos.

Today I’ll talk about the digital scrapbook. Using your photos you will want to arrange the photos on a page in an organized fashion with text captions. Keep the pictures similar in content on each page. Using your editing program you can do almost anything, creating shapes, and backgrounds to make your photos pop!
You will want to create a theme and carry it out throughout your album.
• First create a background to carry onto each page and save it with a unique to use it over again. I save it under background and the name of the book. You will want to leave your background page editable so you can move and adjust your elements as needed.

• Next open your photos in a different window drop and drag to your background and size to fit your page. Add a frame around the photo and a drop shadow to give your page depth.
• Next add text.
• As you can see in this example I used children playing in the sand and sand castles. Each page the content can be different to match the photo subject.

scrapbook, family photos, digital photography

Now that you’ve taken your photos, its time to edit your photos in your digital darkroom. First view your photos and decide which ones you will be using. One thing to consider when choosing your photos is what you want to portray in your final scrapbook project.
First do an auto adjustment, if it’s still not quite right these are some of the things that you will want to manually adjust. Not all the adjustments will be necessary and once you like the adjustments you’ve made the photo is ready. Save it under a different file name so that you have the original photo for further editing.
• Color Balance – this is where you want to bring out the highlights, shadows, and midtones. Select you image adjustments and color balance filter, start with the highlights and make sure that preview is selected.
• Hue and Saturation – This is where you will adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness of the image. With the Hue you can actually change the base color in your image. Increasing the saturation of the colors will make them pop more. Be careful not to over saturate your colors, you will want your subjects natural. The lightness will help you correct any over or under exposure.
• Exposure – if the photo is over or under exposed you will want to adjust to correct this.
• Shadow and Highlights – This will also help if you think the photo is under or over exposed.
Tomorrow I will talk about how to turn these photos into a printable scrapbook or digital album.

References:
HP.com
webphotoschool.com

Photo of the day
Day at the Beach

family photos, digital photograpy, tips

When we have family get togethers a lot of photos are taken. One of my favorite things to make with my family photos is small scrapbooks and give them away as gifts; but the basis of a good scrapbook that your family and friends with appreciate are good photos. With this three part series I will take you from tips on taking family photos, to editing the photos, to making a digital scrapbook that you can print to give to family members.
With a digital camera you get the luxury of being able to delete the photos you don’t like and retake them.
Some tips on family outing photos
• With posed shots don’t bore your subjects with to many retakes.
• Limit the posed shots with children, they get anxious and don’t like to stand still very long.
• Candid shots are the best; you get natural actions in your photos.
• If you take shots of children get on their level.
• Step close to your subject and fill your frame this will reduce your digital darkroom time.
• For groups of people tell them to get close together. Get small groups together verses larger groups if possible.
• If the occasion is to honor someone make sure you get extra photos of that person both candid and posed shots.

Reference:
Maletips.com
Bestfamilyphotographytips.com

PHOTO OF THE DAY
Day of fishing

Camera, Olympus E-500 14-45mm lens, uv filter.

family photos, tips, digital photography

Yesterday I talked about your lens and gave a brief overview of what it is made of and how it works. Today I will give you a review of the best lens manufactures out there. As I said before I think that the lens is probably the most important park of the camera, It lets the light in to the sensors. Without a good clean lens your photos can come out blurry, have artifacts, or be grainy. So what is new on the market today in interchangeable lens?

According to popphoto.com got the reviews from Popular Photography and Imaging. I am only listing the first 5 they have listed on their site.

• Leica Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm f/4 ASPH – this give the user 3 different focal lengths There is excellent contrast and sharpness between the different focal lengths.
• Nikon 135mm f/2D AF DC-Nikkor – These are 2 different lens in this group both geared toward the portrait side of photography. Appears to have excellent softness in out of focus areas, this will help keep your touch ups to the minimum. Has a lockable front barrel DC aperture ring.
• Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AF – This is a wide angle lens. The Zukio lens are interchange able between the different types of Olympus cameras that use the Zukio lens. This new lens is lighter than previous versions. Excellent range and focus.
• Panasonic Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-150mm f/3.5-4.5 ASPH – This particular one being the lens of the year, (read the review) This one is soon to be released and is a new line up in almost a year for Panasonic.
• Canon 50mm f/1.2L USM AF – Is considered the fastest, a replacement of the Canon’s 50mm f/1.0L that was removed almost four years ago.

Much like a pair of glasses for your camera, the lens is made form a group of optical lens elements. The lens for your camera is the same as the ones used in a telescope and microscope. It is probably the most important part of your camera. The lens allows light to enter the camera body to the sensors.

Cameras today have what is called an iris to help adjust the amount of light that is allowed through the lens to the sensors. The sensors will adjust the focus of your camera (if on auto focus) to achieve the best picture possible. That is why many professional photographers will tell you to step closer to the subject as possible for the best results.
Using the auto zoom is great if you are not able to get close to the subject but the photos have a tendency to appear on the grainy side.

There are two different types of lens for a camera the interchangeable and the fixed. With the fixed lens you cannot remove it from your camera, and you are limited to the preset specifications of focal length set by the manufacture. With interchangeable lens you can go from a simple focal length to great lengths and capture some awesome shots. And within the two types of lens there are once again two types. There is the auto focus where you have no control over the focusing of the lens and the manual focus where you have total control over the focus of the lens. The DSLR camera’s have both features added to their lenses.

References:
Wikipedia.com

Photo of the Day
Orange flower
Olympus E-500, 14-45mm lens

One of the most fascinating forms of photography is Macro photography. Macro is where you take an extremely close up photo of an object. This is good if you have EBay items for sale that are little or you need to show off the detail. Or there is a beautiful flower or butterfly. What happens during macro photography, the cameras sensor will focus on the main subject blurring out the rest of the image.

Of course when you try this, the best place to start is your owners’s manual, also go to the manufacture site and look for tips. Being a professional photographer I have taken just about every kind of picture that I could with my cameras and part of my gear is my owner’s manual. I always carry it with me for a quick reference on how to achieve the best possible shot that I want.

What you will need for your macro shot will be your camera of course and macro lenses that will fit your camera. A macro lens is nothing more that a magnifying lens or filter for your camera. If your camera comes with removable lens then it is best to use a macro lens, if not, you can achieve nice macro images with a macro filter.

Depending on the magnification of the lens / filter will depend on how close up your photo will be of the subject. Some DSLR’s will allow you to take macro images your telephoto lens. Also with the technology out today a lot of the newer cameras actually have a macro setting.

Macro Photography isn’t a mystery, before shooting the macro image; know your subject and composition. That is the key to any good photograph. Check out the best angles to shoot from. A simple straight on shot can be beautiful but how would it look at a different angle? Check your lighting; with something that close improper lighting may cause the image to be blurry because the sensors are trying to receive enough light to get the correct exposure. Also if the lighting is in the wrong spot the camera will focus on the brightest area of the image. Center you subject and fill the frame. This gives the camera a better focusing point.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
This was taken with my Olympus E-500 using my 45-150 mm lens and the built in macro setting. Notice the angle of the shot actually shows the web and spider and of course its lunch!

References:
Pophoto.com
About.com
Goldprints.com

macro, digital photography, tips