Digital Shutters

If you post a lot of images on your personal web site and are trying to make money from them then the last thing that you want is to have someone steal them. Image theft is very big and many photographers find their images stolen and sold elsewhere. Because the Web is so big it can be very costly to pursue legal action and most do not, so for this reason thieves take advantage of this. If this happens to you and you find your image on some website you can contact the web administrator with proof that you took the photo and most will remove the image from their site.

To help prevent this from happening to you there are 2 ways that you can help protect your images, one is shrink them to a small size before loading them. Do not rely on thumb nails. If someone right clicks it’s easy to steal and the file size you uploaded is the file size they will download.
But the most secure way is to add a watermark to your image. Watermarking is a way of telling everyone that your image is copywrited and it is illegal to download it. Also if you water mark an image it is hard is erase the watermark.

Most photo editing programs have a watermarking filter you can apply. If you have a logo that would be the best image to use as your watermark; or you can use copy write, the year you took the picture and use your name.
When watermarking an image what you are doing is placing a transparent image over the photo an protecting it on the web. This is what most professional photographers will do on the web to prevent the image from being stolen.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
In this image I added text to the photo turned opacity to 50% and tilted the text. I saved under a different file name and flattened the image.

Camera HP 315 point and shoot.
Refernces:
Candeekis.com
Uconomix.com

tips, digital photography, copywrite, watermark

A nicely posed pet portrait is worth framing and hanging with the family photos. But very few snap shots of your pet find their way to the walls. You can create a professional looking portrait of your pet with a few simple tricks and items you already have.

Items to use in setting the scene:
• Your pet’s favorite blanket
• Its favorite toys
• Its bed
• The couch or a chair with a nice throw blanket
First choose a background that is familiar to your pet. Clear the area of all clutter that you do not want in your portrait. Set up your camera on a tripod at pet level and focus on the spot you will be photographing. Place your pet on the area and let it clam down. You will be able to get a better photo. Once the pet has calmed down set the scene, put one on its favorite toys with it, attract your pet to look in a certain area and snap the photo. Try to avoid using the falsh as this will cause red eye, or have your pet look away from the camera.

It is not recommended to put your pet in an area where it will be uncomfortable, or it is unfamiliar. This will only distract the animal and you will not get a good photo.
Be prepared to take several photos to get the perfect one and remember to be patient, if you start to get frustrated by making a posed picture your pet will sense this and will also get frustrated.

In the first photo, He is with his favorite toy on his pillow on the couch and he is looking at the camera. This photo was taken with an HP 315 point and shoot.

In the second photo, I set her favorite blanket on the floor draped over the couch. Here she is appearing to be smiling at the camera. This photo was taken with and Olympus E-500 DSLR.

pets, portrait, digital camera, tips

As the craze in digital photography grows the technology grows with it. The cameras have gotten better; there is less shutter lag than when they first came out. There are all kinds of built in features to help you take the picture you want.
The first thing you need to do when you buy your new camera is read your manual. Find out what your camera is capable of doing. Experiment and try out all the features available this will help you familiarize yourself with your new gadget.
Check online with the manufacture and see if there are any new tips available.
With a digital camera you can use the disk over and over again so check out your images and find out the best way to copy them to your computer. Once copied erase them from the media disk. This will help eliminate duplicate pictures on your computer.
Some basic feature of almost every digital camera
• Focus lock – you will be able to lock the focus of your picture by pressing the shutter halfway before you snap the photo.
• LCD monitor – this will let you view your images and erase the ones you don’t want before you copy them to your computer.
• Auto Exposure – Your camera has sensors that help determine the correct exposure of your picture.
• Media Cards – this is basically the film of the camera, and it is reusable.
• Auto Flash
• Built in scenes – This helps with exposure by letting you tell the camera what type of picture you are taking

Reference:
Photography review

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Coast Guard Helicopter
Camera
Olympus E-500
45 – 150mm lens
UV and Polarizer Filter

digital photography, digital camera, tips

When taking pictures most people want to be up front and center. This is great for portrait photography but sometime a different angle can be more dramatic. Stand above them, get on the ground, don’t frame them center but off to the side, don’t have them look right at the camera but at a different object. If you have more than one person in a group have them look anywhere but at the camera, no two people will pick the same spot to look at. This will give your shot a unique look on its own.

This photo taken with my HP315 point and shoot from the window of the house of my son at Holoween hanging out laundry before going to his party.

If you are taking a picture of a giant object stand under it and show off its height.
If you are taking a picture of a unique building take the picture from the corner going the length of the building, or frame the image so the corner is off to one side and get the angle of the front and side of the building.
Stairs are good to take from the top looking down or the bottom looking up.

This photo of the seawall stairs gives a better angle standing in the middle of them and taking the photo along the length.

Different angles to try, lay or crouch on the ground or climb above the object, frame the object off center.
Choosing your angle should be as much of your composition as the objects you are photographing.

Reference:
Digital-photography-school
Livingroom.org

As I talked about yesterday your camera is an investment. It has highly sensitive sensors and with proper care can last a long time. Of course you know that it is delicate and you avoid dropping and banging it. You keep it from getting wet and try all around to avoid damaging it. One thing that people often over look is the media card.
This to is a delicate piece of equipment and should be treated as such. There are contacts on the media cards that should be kept clean and dry. The media card should be treated as you would a roll of film. After all it is your film so to speak.
Do not remove it from your camera until the pictures are finished writing; and Likewise for your computer. Do not remove it until the computer has finished writing and transferring the images. Many media cards are damaged by removing them to soon or improperly removing them from your computer. Your computer has a program that allows you to safely remove detachable storages devices from it and that is the proper way it should be removed.
Another common way media cards are damaged and this is probably the most common, is people have a tendency to just drop them in their camera bags without properly putting them back into their cases. This can scratch the contacts, or crack the disk itself. If you do not want to use the plastic case or you loose the case that your media card came with buy a multi disk case to hold your cards. I have several of these cases and they do take up less room than the plastic cases that came with my disk. Most do not cost very much and will hold about 4 to 6 disks.

References:
PC World
Picstop

PHOTO OF THE DAY
Access road along I-37 in Corpus Christi, TX
With all the rain in Texas and Oklahoma at the end of June and the recent rain in South Texas, almost a month later, the Nueces river is still over flowing its banks.
Camera
Olympus E-500
14-45mm lens
UV Filter

digital photography, media cards, tips, flooding, Corpus Christi TX

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