Photography... Just a hobby or something?

Some interesting question with the answer

2006-07-26T23:43:00.001+07:00

Equipment for Photographers

Q. I
am an amateur photographer, and I am interested in some of the
technical aspects. I imagine that all of your photographers now use
digital cameras. If so, do they use 35mm format digital cameras, or a
larger format? What format do you receive these photos in -- RAW or
JPEG?

-- Patrick Reardon, Fort Worth, Texas

A. Yes,
all of our photographers are equipped digitally. We currently use
35mm-format Canon Mark II's and 5D's with a variety of lenses from 10mm
to 600 mm. We have Hasselblad and large format equipment that shoots
film. Our photographers are also equipped with lighting equipment -- 2
strobe heads, battery packs and filters.
We receive the photos in JPEG format. Good luck shooting!

Photographing the Person in the Story

Q.
I read a lot of newspapers. I've even worked for a few. I love the NYT
for its quality of writing, reporting and photography, so this is a
very small complaint: It seems that more often than not when a story
starts with a "person," the main photo is of someone different. As a
former reporter, I know that it can be difficult to always coordinate
with the photographer. And sometimes, the best shot is not the person
used in the lead.

But
it really does seem like the NYT has a particular problem with this. Is
it because the paper is just too big and reporters/photographers just
don't work together? As a reader, it's very distracting and frustrating
to read a lead, wonder what the person looks like and then see the
photo, which is of someone who is buried elsewhere in the story. Like I
said, small complaint. Keep up the good work.

-- Joe Kolman

A. First, thank you for the compliments.

This
happens for a couple of reasons. Sometimes the reporters work on a
story for some time and request that we shoot a variety of subjects,
not knowing at that stage who will be the lead of the story. We try to
shoot who they think will be important, but as they report and work out
the details, and write the piece, things change. Sometimes the more
interesting picture is not the lead, and we would like to engage the
reader as quickly as possible. The reader frequently goes to the
picture first, then to the caption and then to the headline.

Fuzzy Color Photos

Q.
Why are so many color photos out of register in the print edition? This
has been going on for years! I would rather see a clear black-and-white
photo than one in color that is seriously out of register, which most
of them are. Doesn't the technology exist to correct this problem? If
not, let's go back to black and white.

-- Ann Kirschner, Brooklyn

A. A
picture is "out of register" when the color plates on the printing
press are not perfectly aligned. With four separate plates (cyan,
magenta, yellow and black) running at super high speeds, they
occasionally fall out of alignment. When this happens, the picture
appears out of focus or badly executed. Keep in mind that our printing
presses are bigger than two-story houses, while it only takes a few
millimeters to have something end up out of alignment. We go to great
lengths to minimize the number of out-of-register copies of the papers
that go out, but the reality is that some do.

more at
newyorktimes

H. J. Heinz Chief Executive William R. Johnson in his office in Pittsburgh

2006-07-26T23:10:00.000+07:00

H. J. Heinz Chief Executive William R. Johnson in his office in
Pittsburgh, Tuesday, July 25, 2006. Johnson defended his company's
restructuring efforts in recent years and dismissed as unrealistic
profit demands by a group led by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz in
an interview with the Associated Press Monday.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

H. J. Heinz Chief Executive William R. Johnson in his office in Pittsburgh, - Yahoo! News

Taking a Digital Photo, Confused?

2006-07-20T14:26:00.000+07:00

What goes through your mind in the moments as you raise your digital camera up to take a shot and before you press the shutter? If you’re like many digital photographers you’re not thinking about too much - you just want to capture the moment and then move on.

However getting in the habit of asking some simple questions can help take your images to the next level. Here’s 10 questions to get in the habit of asking while framing your shots. I’ve included links in each one to further reading on the topics. I hope you find them helpful:

Photo by Tim Gruber

1. What story am I telling?

This is an important question and one that should help you to make any number of decisions in terms of composition, framing, exposure etc. In essence what you’re asking is ‘why am I taking this shot? What is it’s purpose and what am I trying to convey?’ Is it purely a way to keep a record of a moment, are you trying to capture the emotion of a moment, is it possibly a shot to give to someone, is it part of a larger series of shots or will it be the only shot to commemorate the moment etc. Read more on telling stories with photos

Photo by H@Ru

2. What is the visual focal point of this shot?

What will viewers of this picture naturally have their eye drawn to in this scene? Once you’ve identified this focal point you can think about where to place it in the frame (consider the rule of thirds for example).

There are a variety of ways that you can enhance a focal point - some of which we explore here.

Image by MoonGirlNYC

3. What competing focal points are there?

Once you’ve identified what you do want your viewers eyes to be drawn towards and have placed it in the frame - scan your eyes over the shot and see if there are any competing focal points and ask yourself whether they add to or take away from the image? Secondary focal points can add depth to shots but they can also be very distracting and so you might need to reposition yourself or adjust your focal length and/or depth of field to accommodate or remove them from your shots (read more on removing clutter from photography). Also keep in mind that if your shot has more than one focal point that it might be worth taking two shots, one of each focal point, in order to keep things simple.

Photo by Keith Morris

4. What is in the background and foreground?

One of most common places for distractions in digital photography is the background of your shots. Run your eyes over the space behind your subject to see what else is in the image (do the same for the foreground). Consider whether you want the background in focus or nice and blurry.

5. Am I close enough?

Another common mistake in digital photography is taking shots where your subject is too small in the frame. Shots that fill the frame with your subject tend to be much more dynamic and show a lot more detail of your subject. To get this effect you have the option of moving yourself closer, moving your subject closer or using a longer focal length to give the effect of closeness.

6. What is the main source of light?

Always give consideration to how your subject is lit. Without light you’ll lose detail and clarity in your image and your camera will have to compensate by doing things like increasing ISO and lengthening shutter speeds (which could lead to noisy and blurred images). What is the main source of light, where is it coming from, is there enough light, do you need artificial light sources (flash etc), do you need to stabilize your camera on a tripod to stop camera shake due to low light etc. Read more on using artificial light here and here as well as photographing moving subjects in low light conditions.

Image by Darren Rowse

7. Is my Framing Straight?

It’s amazing how many otherwise good photos are spoiled by framing that is slightly offline. Sloping horizons and slightly leaning people or buildings should always be in the back of your mind to check. Read more on getting horizons horizontal and getting other lines straight.

Also related to this question is that of ‘Am I holding my Camera correctly?‘ Many people don’t and as a result suffer from camera shake and framing mistakes.

Photo by Andrew Morrell

8. What other perspectives could I capture this subject from?

Put 10 digital camera owners in front of a scene and most of them will take exactly the same shot from the same position. Make your images stand out from the crowd by challenging yourself to not only take the standard shots that everyone else will get but to find creative and fresh angles and perspectives to shoot from.

Image by Darren Rowse

9. How would holding the camera in the other format change this shot?

Many photographers get into the habit of always holding their camera the same way (horizontally/landscape or vertically/portrait). While it’s OK to have a preference one way or the other it’s also worth remembering that changing the format can drastically change the impact of the shot. Don’t forget you can also hold your camera at an angle for an effective result too.

Photo by A is for Angie

10. How will the eye travel through this image?

This is related to asking about focal points but gets in touch with the fact that while you’re photographing a still image your viewers eyes don’t remain still as they look at an image. People tend to follow lines and are attracted to shapes and colors so considering all of these different visual elements and cues can help improve your shots considerably. Read more on horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines and how they impact a shot.

Of course you probably won’t remember all the questions and you’re unlikely to go through each of them with every shot you take - however next time you head out with your digital camera concentrate on asking yourself at least one or two of them as you take your shots. As you do you’ll find that they become more automatic and in time you’ll naturally take digital photography shots that take into account all of these elements.

Taken from

10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo

Photography Technique - Another ones

2006-07-20T14:17:00.000+07:00

Technique

Technique Select a heading below, then look for links in the left column. Light The word "photography" derives from the Greek and means, literally, "light writing." But what is light? How does it behave? What should photographers know about it? Composition A composition that conveys a photographer's intended meaning is an effective one. One that doesn't or that confuses the viewer is not. This section, one the site's most important, is intended to help you properly compose your photographs. Flash There is probably no type of photography that is more disappointing to the beginner than flash photography. This section explains some of the mysteries of flash and simplifies its usage. Night photography When that big light in the sky goes down at dusk, photographers have to rely on other light sources to obtain their images. This is the world of slow shutter speeds, artificial light and a different way of seeing things. Winter photography How'd they do that? Occasionally you come across a photograph that contains a seemingly impossible element and you'll wonder how it was taken - food that looks overly tempting, fences that disappear, smoke from a hot sauce. Displaying your pictures Wacky tips that work What's wrong with this picture? Panning Here is how to properly take a picture while moving the camera so it tracks with the subject's movement. The darkroom The ideal darkroom is pitch black, but total darkness is sometimes difficult to achieve in the home, especially if you have commandeered a room that also serves other purposes.

Beginning Photography Tip #5: Focus on Your Subject

2006-07-20T10:37:00.000+07:00

Heidi
Focusing on Your Subject
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Practice shooting with different apertures and monitor the results afterwards to learn how depth-of-field affects your photo.

You will find that a smaller depth-of-field (and smaller f-stop #) focuses all the attention upon your subject. This is great for taking a picture of your child, your dog, or your husband - subjects stand out against a blurry background.

Likewise, you will find that a greater depth-of-field (bigger f-stop number) will make everything from here to eternity appear in focus. This will help make those landscapes fascinating and lovely.

Pool at Hearst Castle
Using Deep Depth of Field
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

You will also want to become familiar with the way your camera focuses. If it is a simple point and shoot camera, you will likely indicate which part of the picture to focus on by following these steps:

Aim so the object you want in sharp focus is in the center of the viewfinder.
Press the shutter button down half-way and hold it.
Move your camera until you have the composition you like best.
Press the button down the rest of the way to take the picture.

Photo could be world's largest

2006-07-20T01:04:00.000+07:00

What is believed to be the world's largest photo was successfully created in a hangar that had been converted into a massive camera at the former El Toro Marine Corps base.

read more | digg story

Beginning Photography Tip #4: Be Selective

2006-07-20T00:37:00.000+07:00

Detail Photo of French Breakfast
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Discern what you are really interested in and center your efforts on getting the best photo of this subject, whether it a still life, your funny cat, your doggy, a friend, a family matter, a mood, a place or culture.

Then be sure to keep anything that would distract out of the picture. Go as far as Ansel Adams did to remove unwanted elements.

The easiest way to do this is to watch your borders - the edges of the view you see through the camera's viewfinder. Then recompose if anything - such as an unattractive telephone wire, an old soda can, a distracting sign, your finger, or your camera strap - hangs into your picture.

It can become more difficult if you want to, say, shoot a San Francisco cable car without a single distracting telephone line. But even in such a difficult case, you have many options.

You can:

Focus in on a close-up that tells the whole story;
Move around until you arrange the telephone lines into a neat pattern that leads to the subject; or
Take a panning shot that makes the cable car remain in focus while the background goes blurry.

Panning Shot of a Bicycle Racer
See More Bicycling Pictures
at my Deluxe Web Site
BetterBicycling.com
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Beginning Photography Tip #3: Compose Your Picture with Care

2006-07-17T10:34:00.001+07:00

Touch of the Past
Balanced Composition
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Even if you don't plan on selling your photo to the Smithsonian, make every effort to keep it balanced and beautiful. On one level or another, everyone responds better to a picture that has all elements in balance.

Strive to lead the eye along an interesting path through the photo, with the use of strong lines or patterns.

Keep the horizon level;
Crop out extra elements that you are not interested in (more on this is the next tip);
Consciously place your subject where you think it most belongs rather than just accepting it wherever it happens to land in the photo;
Play with perspective so that all lines show a pattern or lead the eye to your main subject;
Work with the Rule of Thirds.

Top 10 Beginning Photography Tips

Beginning Photography Tip #2: Be Quick

2006-07-14T07:59:00.000+07:00

Suzy
For This Pic, I Had to Shoot Quickly
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

If it is at all possible that your subject may move, bolt, fly away, stop smiling, or just get tired of waiting for you to take the picture, shoot once right away.

Practice getting quicker and quicker to the draw.

Do not worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you're absolutely certain all the knobs and buttons are in their correct position.

As the motto of one of BetterPhoto old t-shirts states, "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later."

For a great example of the rewards that can be attained by being able to work quickly, check out how Ansel Adams got "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico."

Top 10 Beginning Photography Tips

Beginning Photography Tip #1: Move in Closer

2006-07-12T11:43:00.000+07:00

Sailboat and Sunrise
Too Far Away
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Sailboat and Sunrise
Becomes Better by Moving in Closer
© Jim Miotke 2005
All Rights Reserved

Each time you spot a subject, snap a shot and then move in closer for a better shot. Having your subject almost fill the frame helps your viewer understand and appreciate your photo. Also, details are often more interesting than an overall view.

Keep moving in closer until you are sure the photo will successfully represent your subject.

Top 10 Beginning Photography Tips

Eyewitness exhibit

2006-07-10T12:26:00.000+07:00

Sound familiar? But the year was 1775, and the war the American Revolution.

Gen. George Washington wrote on December 11, 1775, in the style of the times, “(T)he information I received that the enemy intended Spreading the Small pox amongst us, I could not suppose them Capable of — I now must give some Credit to it, as it has made its appearance on Severall of those who Last Came out of Boston.”

Washington’s letter is part of a new exhibit, “Eyewitness: American Originals from the National Archives,” that is designed to portray history in the words of the people who made it.

Writing to John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, Washington said every precaution was being taken to prevent smallpox from spreading to the Army and throughout the colonies. Smallpox claimed the lives of more than 130,000 people on the American continent from 1775 to 1782, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Were the British responsible? Susan Cooper, spokeswoman for NARA, suggested that, given the passage of more than 200 years, it was unlikely that anyone could be certain. Had there been any British statement of responsibility, she said, archives researchers would have found it.

For the “Eyewitness” exhibit, curator Stacey Bredhoff drew quotes from people of high consequence who made vivid reports. One is Thomas Jefferson, a future president who was serving as U.S. minister to Paris in 1789 when he witnessed a mob capture the Bastille, a fortress-prison of the French monarchy. It was the beginning of the French Revolution.

Jefferson reported in a letter to Secretary of State John Jay: “They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners & such of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury, carried the Governor and Lieutenant governor to the Greve (the place of public execution) cut off their heads & sent them through the city in triumph to the Palais royal.”

The material for the archives exhibit comes from letters, photos, paintings, and audio and video recordings, such as films taken by Apollo 8 during a voyage to the moon. Among the items is a transcript of a 1990 telephone conversation between President George H.W. Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on the reunification of Germany after 45 years of division that followed World War II.

Recently the archives invited Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, to give a live eyewitness account of the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to support voting rights for blacks.

Alabama state troopers had received the order to advance. After putting on their gas masks, “they turned toward us, beating us with nightsticks,” Lewis said. “Forty-one years later, I don’t recall how I made it across the bridge.”

A photograph shows Lewis with other civil rights marchers. But photography did not exist when Jefferson watched the bloody birth of French democracy, a moment in history represented by a painting of the mob at the Bastille.

Inscribed over the painting for the archives exhibit is a quotation from Jefferson: “Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness.”

The exhibit runs through January 1, 2007. Admission is free

Nikon Coolpix L2

2006-07-08T10:42:00.000+07:00

This is for UK readers only I am afraid. Over the weekend of July 14th, and only for that weekend, readers of various national newspapers will be able to claim a £50 cashback when buying a Nikon Coolpix L2 compact camera. This has a normal retail price of £179.99. Nikon is also offering £40 cashback on the Coolpix L3 camera (£149.99).

To claim the cashback customers need only send in a photocopy of their till receipt, together with sheet B of the warranty slip and a completed promotional voucher by 14th August 2006.

The following newspapers will be running the offer over the weekend of the 14th July 2006.

Daily Telegraph
Times
Guardian
Independent
Daily Express
Evening Standard

Kodak EASYSHARE P880

2006-07-08T09:55:00.000+07:00

Broaden your horizons. Literally.

	Fast f/2.8 24–140 mm wide-angle lens
	8.0 MP sensor for prints up to 30 × 40 in. (75 × 100 cm)
	Advanced video features
	Hot shoe flash connector and PC flash sync
	Program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, custom modes
	Proprietary RAW* file format
	Histogram technology with highlight and shadow clipping

Cyber-shot® DSC-H2 Digital Camera

2006-07-01T12:40:00.000+07:00

Product Description

Get closer than ever with the Cyber-shot® DSC-H2 digital camera from Sony. With its incredible 12X optical zoom lens combined with Super SteadyShot® optical image stabilization system you can capture stunning long-distance images with minimized blurring, even during longer exposures. It is conversion lens compatible so you can easily add optional telephoto and wide-angle lenses for even greater optical range.

Feature List

6.0 Megapixel Super HAD™ CCD:
Higher megapixels gives you more detail and definition for large prints and cropping in on your subject. Sony’s advanced Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss® 12X Optical/2X Digital Zoom/24X Total Zoom:
12X Optical Zoom helps the DSC-H2 bring distant subjects closer and lets you frame shots for better composition; Sony’s precision 2X Digital Zoom provides an additional 2X magnification to zoom in close without jagged edges.

52X Smart Zoom™1 Feature:
Sony's Smart Zoom feature lets you magnify your subject beyond the 12x optical zoom - to 16x (3MP), 20x (2MP), even 52x (VGA). By intelligently cropping into the central portion of the scene, it avoids the image distortion of other digital zooms.

Super SteadyShot® Optical Image Stabilization:
Super SteadyShot® Optical Image Stabilization fights motion blur, even during longer exposures at full zoom.

Flexible Exposure Modes:
Choose Auto or Program Auto for convenience, or get creative with Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority modes. Manual Exposure Mode provides extended control with 46-step adjustable Shutter speed (30 – 1/1000 sec.), and 10-step Aperture control (F2.8 – F8.0).

Large 2.0" 2 LCD Screen:
The DSC-H2 has a bright 2.0" LCD screen for setting up and viewing images -- with a one touch “ Play" button that makes it quick and easy to view your photos.

Simple Controls, Function Guide:
User-friendly controls and simple on-screen Function Guide text/icon display help you set up camera functions -- and you’ ll have greater creative freedom to adjust color mode (including “Natural" for subtle colors and "Vivid" for more intense colors), sensitivity, brightness and image size.

High Sensitivity Mode:
A new High Sensitivity Mode (ISO 1000) allows you to shoot with great results in low-light conditions -- and Sony’s original Clear RAW NR™ (Noise Reduction) image processing technology helps suppress the color noise that can accompany high-sensitivity shooting.

Stamina® Battery Power:
With its powerful Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries, the DSC-H2 can capture up to 4003 images per charge -- enough for a week of shooting. The compact BC-CS2 Battery Charger is also supplied for battery recharging on the go.

Capture Images In-Camera:
With 32 MB4 Internal Memory, the DSC-H2 allows you to shoot without a flash memory card --then transfer your images to optional Memory Stick Duo™ media, upload to your computer or make prints on your digital printer.

Memory Stick Duo™ Media:
The DSC-H2 has a built-in slot for optional Memory Stick Duo™ or higher-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media -- the ultra compact media for shooting, storing and sharing your photo images.

Photography - Arogant

2006-06-21T19:59:00.000+07:00

Photography - Lay

2006-06-21T19:54:00.000+07:00

Photography - Behave

2006-06-21T19:51:00.000+07:00

Photography - Think

2006-06-21T19:49:00.000+07:00

Photography - Sun

2006-06-21T19:45:00.000+07:00

Windows Media Photo Format

2006-05-29T06:44:00.000+07:00

MicrosoftMicrosoft have unveiled a completely new image file format, called Windows Media Photo (.wmp files), at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, which will apparently be of better quality at half the size of a comparable JPEG image.

"WMP captures more of the raw information of photos to enable better presentation, editing and compression. Crow said WMP will easily enable 25:1 compression ratios for most uses of digital photography. That compares to a maximum of about 12:1 for consumer JPEG images before images visibly degrade."

Do we need another file format for photography, or is the JPEG format good enough already? Will the .wmp format be supported by the camera manufacturers, or will it become a forgotten part of Windows Vista?

Photo in the News: Elephant Shuns Jumbo Treadmill

2006-05-26T06:43:00.000+07:00

You can lead an elephant to a treadmill, but you can't make her walk.

That's the lesson zookeepers are learning in Anchorage, Alaska, where they have been struggling to get the zoo's resident elephant to exercise.

Maggie, a 23-year-old African elephant (pictured here on May 16), is the only pachyderm at the Alaska Zoo, where she is kept indoors much of the time to protect her from the cold.

Critics have charged that Maggie should be moved to a zoo in a warmer climate, where she can enjoy the outdoors and the company of other elephants.

But rather than give her up, Alaska Zoo officials decided to build Maggie the world's first elephant treadmill.

The 25-foot-long (7.6-meter-long) apparatus was custom-made by an Idaho firm that constructs conveyor belts. But building it turned out to be the easy part.

Since the treadmill arrived at the zoo last September, Maggie has refused to use it, despite all kinds of tasty enticements from her handlers.

Zookeepers have used apples, carrots, birch-tree branches—and, yes, peanuts—to try to coax her onto the contraption. But so far she's gotten just three of her feet on the belt before backing off.

Still, Maggie's keepers are confident that she will come around in time.

"We have to be patient. Nobody has ever done this before," trainer Beth Foglesong told the Anchorage Daily News.

"The instructional video didn't come with [the treadmill]."

—Blake de Pastino
AP Photo/Al Grillo

Photography : Water Fall

2006-05-25T10:18:00.000+07:00

Photography : Fast to Faster

2006-05-25T09:47:00.000+07:00

Photography : Nature

2006-05-23T09:28:00.000+07:00

Here, i post fore you about photography nature. This is at North Bandung.

Photography : Step 2

2006-05-23T09:23:00.000+07:00

When we take traditional film photos, we always have them processed as 4x6 inch prints. Smaller 3x5 prints might save a dollar or two but the 4x6 size allows for a better scan with a low resolution scanner. There are scanners that will handle tiny 35mm slides and get fantastic results, but most consumers, like you and us, have scanners that work at no more than 600 dots per inch. The larger print size helps to improve the finished result you'll be viewing on-screen.

We achieve much better results scanning color prints than with our inexpensive digital camera, however there are trade-offs. When scanning a color print there are usually all kinds of flaws. The print itself may not be perfect. The contrast and colors might not be quite right. No matter how careful you are, there is almost always dust on the print that winds up being obvious on the computer screen.

Advantages of Adobe Photoshop

The first thing we do is scan the prints at the highest resolution possible and save in uncompressed tiff format. This makes for a huge file, but we have more to work with for a better end result...we’ll reduce the file size later. We then use Adobe Photoshop, to adjust and clean up each photo. Here some tips.

With Photoshop we rotate and crop each photo. No matter how careful we are when taking a picture we're usually off a few degrees from being aligned. We rotate the photo using the horizon in the distance or vertical lines of buildings or trees as a reference for what's supposed to be straight. Then we crop the photo to make it look appealing, sometimes removing a bit from side to side or top to bottom if there's something there that wasn't intended to be; say the tip of a finger in front of the lens.

Then we remove the dust or other spots that shouldn't be there. There are a couple of tools in Photoshop that achieve this rather well. (For the purpose of this article, we use Photoshop 3 on a Macintosh and/or Photoshop 4 on Windows. These methods might be slightly different in other versions.) The dust and scratches filter is good at removing multiple dust spots but we caution against using it on the entire image. This filter tends to remove important details of the photo if not used correctly. If you select only the part of the image that has severe dust on it, and then use the dust and scratches filter, you won't affect the rest of the photo. Another handy utensil for dust is the smudge tool. Dust is most often visible in the sky, and since there is little detail there, the smudge tool will wipe away the dust spot and not be noticeable afterward.

Eliminating Spoilage

After all the dust is gone we might remove other items that spoil the photo such as jet contrails or wires. The rubber stamp tool works well for this, as you can stamp a portion of the sky next to the imperfection and replace the undesirable part with what you just rubber stamped. Afterwards the smudge tool will help to blend the sky back to a natural look. Think of it like finger painting. (This gets a little trickier if the imperfection is in a detailed portion of the photo.)

Photography : Step 1

2006-05-23T09:17:00.000+07:00

You've heard of it, some of your friends do it, and you want to try it. Digital cameras and photography; what's it all about? It requires an investment; a new camera and memory for the camera; a computer, if you don't already have one, or a better computer if you have an old one; and software for editing your images, although most digital cameras come with minimal software.

Getting into digital photography also requires a willingness to learn new stuff. How does the camera work? How do the photos compare to what I got with my old film camera? How do I print the photos to show friends? How do I store my photos to show the kids when they're grown up?

Forget Everything You Know About Film

Let's start with the basics. Digital photography does not require film. When you use a digital camera you no longer need to buy film or visit the one-hour photo shop to get your pictures. Your pictures are captured by the camera and saved on some kind of digital storage device. Currently, popular storage media for digital cameras are (in no particular order) SmartMedia cards, CompactFlash cards, Memory Sticks and good ole "floppy" diskettes. Since high quality digital photos presently require a half megabyte or more of storage, floppy diskettes that hold only 1.4 megabytes are quickly becoming obsolete for this purpose.

Having said you no longer need to buy film, we should clarify by saying if you intend to take lots of pictures on your upcoming trip to Kathmandu, you'll need to stock up on memory. Initially, memory for your camera is more expensive than film but it can be used over and over. When you get home from your trip, you download the photos from the memory cards to your computer, erase the cards and plan another trip. How about Belize this summer?

Digicams Are Not As Quick

Taking photos with a digital camera differs a little from a traditional film camera. Although they've been getting better, we've found it's more difficult to be precise about capturing photos at the instant you want. There is a slight lag from the time you push the shutter button until the image is captured. Further, it's difficult to capture multiple images in rapid succession since it takes a moment for the camera to record each image before starting on another. Most digital cameras have a "burst" mode to shoot pictures rapid-fire, but these are low-resolution images; hardly suitable for framing. If your photographic requirements are to capture a skier upside-down in the Olympic Freestyle Competition or to snap the finish line at the Indy 500, you better stick with a traditional film camera. The ones with auto-film-winders put digital cameras to shame in this regard.

Resolution, Parties, and More

Getting a little more technical, when deciding on a new digital camera, resolution should be the primary concern. A few years ago, in their infancy, expensive digital cameras barely captured a million pixels of data (one megapixel). The resulting photos were inadequate for most purposes. In the new millennium, the affordable standard seems to be about two megapixels. Better, but still not the quality of resolution you can achieve with traditional film. High-end consumer digital cameras now capture about three megapixels which is approaching the quality you would expect in order to be able to print your photos at full-page size. Recent advances suggest we'll soon be able to capture six, eight, ten or more megapixel images with reasonably affordable cameras. We wonder, though, if computer storage constraints will prevent this from being practical.

Most folks like to have prints of their photos to take to the party and show around. In its infancy this has been a problem for digital photography. It's very easy to show off your photos on the computer, but how many of us carry a computer in our pockets? Things are changing. There are inexpensive ink jet printers now to plug your memory card and push a button for a print of each photo on the card. Software improvements simplify this process allowing one to eliminate the unwanted images before the printing process begins. At this point, it's not quite as easy to get a handful of digital prints as it has been with film at your one-hour processor, but soon it will be.

We know what you're probably thinking by now. For someone touting digital photography, these guys sure are being awful negative. Just so you'll be sure, we LOVE digital photography. We want to warn you about all the little gotchas you can expect before you take Step One and go making the serious investment that digital photography requires.

So, Let's Get Positive

Speaking of prints reminds us ... there are positive aspects of digital photography. Have you ever received your prints from the film processing lab only to be very disappointed in their quality? You know you took some great shots of Niagara Falls but the prints are either washed out or too dark. Well with digital, you pretty much see on screen exactly what the camera saw when you pressed the shutter release button. You're no longer at the mercy of the photo print making machine that spits them out in assembly line fashion with no regard for your photographic talent. As always it's possible to make mistakes, like shooting toward the sun, overcompensating for tough lighting conditions, holding your finger in front of the lens, or moving the camera while snapping the photo, but we get many more good digital photos than we ever did with film. (Slides are a little different, they're not at the mercy of photo labs. That's why most professionals shoot slides.)

With careful ph even if your pictures aren't perfect, you have a lot of control to make them better. You no longer have to go back to the processing lab begging the technician to bring out more detail in your shot of the Statue of Liberty. You can sharpen, adjust color and contrast, lighten, darken and even crop out the tip of your finger. Most digital cameras come with photo editing software that is up to the task, so you won't need to spend a fortune on software unless you want. If you do, there is photo editing software that's almost like magic.

Right Here, Right Now

Another big positive for digital photography is "instant gratification." As soon as you get back from your hiking trip in the Grand Canyon, you can hook your camera up to the computer or to a television and view your photos immediately. No more trips to the film lab, waiting hours or days for the prints or slides to come back. With an inexpensive ink-jet printer you can produce high quality prints right in your kitchen, making enlargements of your favorites for a fraction of what you'd pay a lab.

All in all, you will discover as have we, that digital photography is the way to go! Be prepared for the initial expense; a good camera and printer will set you back up to US$1000, although you don't have to spend quite that much. Also, be prepared for the learning curve. The higher end cameras can be somewhat confusing at first and learning how to download and adjust your photos might seem a little daunting. But, when you see how much fun you're having and great picture with practice, you'll be glad you took the digital plunge. If you have made the decision, please continue with our other articles and tips as we delve into the details of how to enjoy this fabulous hobby to its fullest extent.

Top Ten Digital Photography Tips

2006-05-23T09:06:00.000+07:00

by Derrick Story, author of Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Edition

You've heard this before: Digital cameras do all the work. You just push the button and great pictures magically appear. The better the camera, the better the photos. Isn't that right? Heck no!

The truth is that you can make great photos with a simple consumer point-and-shoot camera, or take lousy shots with the most expensive Nikon. It's not the camera that makes beautiful images; it's the photographer. With a little knowledge and a willingness to make an adjustment here and there, you can squeeze big time photos out of the smallest digicam.

To help you down the road to great image making, here are ten tips that will enable you shoot like a pro (without maxing out your credit card on all that expensive equipment).

1. Warm Up Those Tones

Have you ever noticed that your shots sometimes have a cool, clammy feel to them? If so, you're not alone. The default white balance setting for digital cameras is auto, which is fine for most snapshots, but tends to be a bit on the "cool" side.

When shooting outdoor portraits and sunny landscapes, try changing your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. That's right, cloudy. Why? This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your camera. It increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer, warmer pictures.

Figure 1a is shot outdoors in a mountain environment with the white balance set to auto. Figure 1b shows warmer tones thanks to using the "cloudy" setting and a pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses over the front lens. (Canon PowerShot S200, Program mode)

Figure 1a.

Figure 1b.

If you don't believe me, then do a test. Take a few outdoor shots with the white balance on auto, then take the same picture again with the setting on cloudy. Upload the images to your computer and look at them side by side. My guess is that you'll like the warmer image better.

2: Sunglasses Polarizer

If you really want to add some punch to your images, then get your hands on a polarizing filter. A polarizer is the one filter every photographer should have handy for landscapes and general outdoor shooting. By reducing glare and unwanted reflections, polarized shots have richer, more saturated colors, especially in the sky.

What's that you say? Your digital camera can't accommodate filters. Don't despair. I've been using this trick for years with my point-and-shoot cameras. If you have a pair of quality sunglasses, then simply take them off and use them as your polarizing filter. Place the glasses as close to the camera lens as possible, then check their position in the LCD viewfinder to make sure you don't have the rims in the shot.

If your camera doesn't accept filters, then you can still achieve the effects of a polarizer by placing your sunglasses over the lens. Figure 2a is shot normally without any filtration. Figure 2b is shot during the same session, but with sunglasses placed over the lens. Notice the enhanced colors and deeper sky tones. (Canon PowerShot S200, Program mode)

Figure 2a.

Figure 2b.

For the best effect, position yourself so the sun is over either your right or left shoulder. The polarizing effect is strongest when the light source is at a 90-degree angle from the subject.

3. Outdoor Portraits That Shine

One of the great hidden features on digital cameras is the fill flash or flash on mode. By taking control of the flash so it goes on when you want it to, not when the camera deems it appropriate, you've just taken an important step toward capturing great outdoor portraits.

In flash on mode, the camera exposes for the background first, then adds just enough flash to illuminate your portrait subject. The result is a professional looking picture where everything in the composition looks good. Wedding photographers have been using this technique for years.

Figure 3. By placing the subjects in the open shade beneath a tree and turning on the fill flash, both the boys and the background are properly exposed. (Canon PowerShot G2, 1/250th at f-4, flash on)

After you get the hang of using the flash outdoors, try a couple variations on this theme by positioning the subject so the sun illuminates the hair from the side or the back, often referred to as rim lighting. Another good technique is to put the model in the shade under a tree, then use the flash to illuminate the subject. This keeps the model comfortable and cool with no squinty eyes from the harsh sun, and this often results in a more relaxed looking portrait.

Remember, though, that most built-in camera flashes only have a range of 10 feet (or even less!), so make sure you don't stand too far away when using fill flash outdoors.

4. Macro Mode Madness

Remember as a kid discovering the whole new world beneath your feet while playing on the grass? When you got very close to the ground, you could see an entire community of creatures that you never knew existed.

These days, you might not want to lie on your belly in the backyard, but if you activate the close up mode on your digital camera and begin to explore your world in finer detail, you'll be rewarded with fresh new images unlike anything you've ever shot before.

Even the simplest object takes on new fascination in macro mode. And the best part is that it's so easy to do with digital cameras.

Figure 4. Nature looks much different, and sometimes more compelling, at close range. (Canon PowerShot G2, Programmed exposure, spot meter, Close Up mode, flash off)

Just look for the close up or macro mode icon, which is usually a flower symbol, turn it on, and get as close to an object as your camera will allow. Once you've found something to your liking, hold the shutter button down halfway to allow the camera to focus. When the confirmation light gives you the go ahead, press the shutter down the rest of the way to record the image.

Keep in mind that you have very shallow depth of field when using the close up mode, so focus on the part of the subject that's most important to you, and let the rest of the image go soft.

5. Horizon Line Mayhem

For some mysterious reason, most human beings have a hard time holding the camera level when using the LCD monitors on their digicams. The result can be cockeyed sunsets, lopsided landscapes, and tilted towers.

Part of the problem is that your camera's optics introduce distortion when rendering broad panoramas on tiny, two-inch screens. Those trees may be standing straight when you look at them with the naked eye, but they seem to be bowing inward on your camera's monitor. No wonder photographers become disoriented when lining up their shots.

Figure 5. How do you square up an image in the LCD viewfinder so it appears "level" when you view it later on the computer? Look for nature's horizontal lines and use them as guides. Sometimes you can use the line where the sky meets the ocean, other times you can use a strip of land as your level. In this case I used the shoreline of a mountain lake to help me align this composition. (Canon PowerShot G2, Aperture Priority exposure set to f-8, polarizer filter)

What can you do? Well, there's no silver bullet to solve all of your horizon line problems, but you can make improvements by keeping a few things in mind.

First of all, be aware that it's important to capture your images as level as possible. If you're having difficulty framing the scene to your liking, then take your best shot at a straight picture, reposition the camera slightly, take another picture, and then maybe one more with another adjustment. Chances are very good that one of the images will "feel right" when you review them on the computer. Simply discard the others once you find the perfectly aligned image.

If you practice level framing of your shots, over time the process will become more natural, and your percentage of level horizon lines will increase dramatically.

6: Massive Media Card

When you're figuring out the budget for your next digital camera, make sure you factor in the purchase of an additional memory card. Why? Because the cards included with your new high-tech wonder toy are about as satisfying as an airline bag of peanuts when you're dying of hunger.

If you have a 3 megapixel camera, get at least a 256MB card, 512MBs for 4 megapixel models, and 1GB for for 6 megapixels and up.

That way you'll never miss another shot because your memory card is full.

7: High Rez All the Way

One of the most important reasons for packing a massive memory card is to enable you to shoot at your camera's highest resolution. If you paid a premium price for a 6 megapixel digicam, then get your money's worth and shoot at 6 megapixels. And while you're at it, shoot at your camera's highest quality compression setting too.

Why not squeeze more images on your memory card by shooting a lower resolution and low quality compression settings? Because you never know when you're going to capture the next great image of the 21st century. And if you take a beautiful picture at the low 640 x 480 resolution, that means you can only make a print about the size of a credit card, not exactly the right dimensions for hanging in the museum.

On the other hand, if you recorded the image at 2272 x 1704 (4 megapixels) or larger, then you can make a lovely 8- x 10-inch photo-quality print suitable for framing or even for gracing the cover of Time magazine. And just in case you were able to get as close to the action as you had liked, having those extra pixels enables you to crop your image and still have enough resolution to make a decent sized print.

The point is, if you have enough memory (and you know you should), then there's no reason to shoot at lower resolution and risk missing the opportunity to show off your work in a big way.

8: Tolerable Tripod

I once overheard someone say, "He must be a real photographer because he's using a tripod." Well, whether or not you use a tripod has nothing to do with you being a true photographer. For certain types of shots though, these three-legged supports can be very useful.

The problem is tripods are a pain in the butt to carry around. They are bulky, unwieldily, and sometimes downright frustrating. Does the phrase "necessary evil" come to mind?

For digital shooters there's good news: the UltraPod II by Pedco. This compact, versatile, ingenious device fits in your back pocket and enables you to steady your camera in a variety of situations. You can open the legs and set it on any reasonable flat surface such as a tabletop or a boulder in the middle of nowhere. But you can also employ its Velcro strap and attach your camera to an available pole or tree limb.

Figure 6. The UltraPod II is lightweight and affordable (less than $20 typically).

You might not need a tripod that often, but when you do, nothing else will work. Save yourself the pain and money of a big heavy lug of a pod, and check out the svelte UltraPod. Yes, then you too can be a real photographer.

9: Self Timer Fun

Now that you have your UltraPod in hand, you can explore another under-used feature found on almost every digital camera: the self timer. This function delays the firing of the shutter (after the button has been pushed) for up to 10 seconds, fixing one of the age old problems in photography: the missing photographer.

Hey, just because you've been donned as the creative historian in your clan, that doesn't mean that your shining face should be absent from every frame of the family's pictorial accounting. You could hand your trusty digicam over to strangers while you jump in the shot, but then you take the chance of them dropping, or even worse, running off with your camera.

Instead, attach your UltraPod, line up the shot, activate the self timer, and get in the picture. This is usually a good time to turn on the flash to ensure even exposure of everyone in the composition (but remember that 10 foot flash range limit!). Also, make sure the focusing sensor is aimed at a person in the group and not the distant background, or you'll get very sharp trees and fuzzy family members.

Self timers are good for other situations, too. Are you interested in making long exposures of cars driving over the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk? Once again, secure your camera on a tripod, then trip the shutter using the self timer. By doing so, you prevent accidental jarring of the camera as you initiate the exposure.

10. Slow Motion Water

I come from a family where it's darn hard to impress them with my artsy pictures. One of the few exceptions happened recently when my sister commented that a series of water shots I had shown her looked like paintings. That was close enough to a compliment for me.

What she was responding to was one of my favorite types of photographs: slow motion water. These images are created by finding a nice composition with running water, then forcing the camera's shutter to stay open for a second or two, creating a soft, flowing effect of the water while all the other elements in the scene stay nice and sharp.

You can create a painterly effect with moving water by mounting your camera on a tripod and slowing the shutter to an exposure of 1 second or longer. (Canon PowerShot G2, Aperture priority set to f-8, shutter speed 1 second, polarizer filter, UltraPod II tripod)

Figure 7a.

Figure 7b.

You'll need a tripod to steady the camera during the long exposure, and you probably should use the self timer to trip the shutter. If you camera has an aperture priority setting, use it and set the aperture to f-8, f-11, or f-16 if possible. This will give you greater depth of field and cause the shutter to slow down.

Ideally, you'll want an exposure of one second or longer to create the flowing effect of the water. That means you probably will want to look for streams and waterfalls that are in the shade instead of the bright sunlight.

Another trick is to use your sunglasses over the lens to darken the scene and create even a longer exposure. Plus you get the added bonus of eliminating distracting reflections from your composition.

Photography Technique : Light - 2

2006-05-21T15:32:00.000+07:00

Fog/Mist

There isn't much to say here except make sure you have your tripod with you.

Street Lights

Street lights are not blackbody radiators so you can't even talk about their color temperature. They discharge in various narrow spectral bands and the color that this produces on film isn't very predictable or controllable. Usually you get an eerie green light, which I personally find kind of interesting.

The Kodak Professional Photoguide has a page devoted to filtration suggestions for street lights, but you have to know the brand of bulb in use!

Indoors -- Fluorescent Lights

Long-tube fluorescent fixtures are designed to offer diffuse unobtrusive light. As such, they make for reasonably good black and white photography. I find that in a typical office, I must use f/1.4 and 1/60th of a second with ISO 400 film.

For color photography, fluorescent lights have some of the same properties as street lights, i.e., they discharge in narrow spectral bands. You will get a rather green unappealing light if you don't filter with a "fluorescent -> daylight" filter (Tiffen calls this an "FL-D"). If you are using color negative film, photo labs can compensate to a large extent for this color cast in the printing, but I prefer to do it at exposure time with an FL-D filter.

Indoors -- Incandescent Lights

Standard light bulbs are much warmer than daylight, only about 2900 K for a 100-watt light bulb. If you are using daylight-balanced film, you'll get a very pronounced yellow cast unless you stick a blue filter over your lens (Kodak says 80A + 82B). An alternative is to use tungsten-balanced film. Tungsten film is really designed for 3200 K photo lamps but it is better than daylight.

Electronic Flash

Although I'm sort of proud that the strobe was an MIT invention (Doc Edgerton), there is no doubt in my mind that the electronic flash has done more to ruin the average photograph than any other new technology.

In the good old days, even amateur photographers were reasonably careful about light. You took your subject out on a high overcast day. You placed your subject next to a large window. You stuck your camera on a tripod.

What do we do now? Point and shoot without

Photography Technique : Light - 1

2006-05-17T08:25:00.000+07:00

Sunlight

"He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it."
-- Joseph Romm

You can get plenty of light out of the sun, that's for sure. However, you might have to wait a bit if you want the light to have the quality that you need for your picture.

At high noon on a clear day, the sun is extremely strong. It generates a hard light with deep crisp shadows. It also is coming from directly overhead.

Portraits in Sunlight

The hardness of the light will generate dark shadows. The direction of the light will place those shadows in unattractive positions underneath the subject's eyes and nose. One solution is to move the subject into the shade where he will be lit by skylight rather than sunlight. Skylight comes from a large source and is therefore diffuse. Diffuse light does not cast strong shadows. Skylight is also rather blue and, if you are using color slide film, you might have to place a warming filter (e.g., 81D) over the lens to get natural skin tone.

If your goal is to record a subject in front of a sunlit object then you can't move him into the shade. There is too great a difference in illumination between shaded and sunlit objects. Photographic film and paper cannot handle the same range of contrast as your eyes. A picture that is correctly exposed for the sunlight object will render the shaded portrait subject as solid black. A picture that is correctly exposed for the shaded portrait subject will render the sunlit background object as solid white.

The best solution is to wait for the light to be coming from a different direction and/or for different weather. Near sunrise or sunset, you might be able to get flattering light on both the portrait subject and the background object. On an overcast day, light from the sun will be sufficiently diffused that the shadows become faint.

If they couldn't wait, professionals would most often deal with this situation by dragging out diffusers and reflectors. In the diffuser case, an assistant holds a huge plastic-framed white cloth between the sun and the subject. In the reflector case, an assistant holds a silver, gold, or white reflector underneath the subject to push sunlight back up into the subject's face, filling the shadows.

Finally, there is artificial light. If you stick a powerful flash on the camera, pointed at the subject, then the light from the flash will augment the light from the sun. Because the flash light is filling in the shadows, this is known as fill flash. Electronic Flash, is the same color as the sun around noontime. If you use electronic flash closer to sunset or sunrise, when sunlight is redder, objects illuminated by the flash will look unnaturally cold. Professionals deal with this by carting around assistants who cart around colored filters to paste over the flash tube.

Overcast Skylight

A high overcast is perfect for a lot of photography. A studio photographer would think of this as "the mother of all softboxes". If you want to capture architectural details, an overcast day lets you do it without shadows obscuring anything. Overcast and/or rainy days are also the times to go into the forest and take pictures of trees. The one bad thing that you can say about an overcast day is that a big white sky makes a very bad photographic subject. Try to make sure that your photos have hardly any sky in them. Overcast skies are slightly more blue (7000 degrees Kelvin) than the color temperature for which daylight film is designed (5500 K; a mixture of direct sun and skylight). Officially, the Kodak Professional Photoguide will tell you to use an 81C warming filter. I wouldn't bother unless you are photographing clothing for a catalog. [For comparison, open shade from a clear blue sky is 11,000 or 12,000 degrees Kelvin and requires an 85C filter.]

If you wait long enough in New York City ... someone will probably steal your camera. So maybe it is best to just shoot in whatever light you can find. Here I used the fill flash on my point & shoot camera.

Below the town of Bomarzo, Italy (1.5 hours north of Rome). This was the park of the 16th century Villa Orsini and is filled with grotesque sculptures. Rollei 6008, Fuji Velvia, Zeiss 50mm lens, tripod. Probably f/22 and 1 second. Note that part of the foreground is unsharp. There wasn't quite enough depth of field. Note that the composition completely excludes the uninteresting overcast sky.

This article was taken from photo.net

Online Photo Sharing: Not Just for Family and Vacation Photos

2006-05-16T08:14:00.000+07:00

You may have joined the photo-sharing craze to share your family vacation photos, but have you thought about other uses for photo sharing?

Here are just a few ideas:

Scrapbooking:
Show off your creative projects. You can design scrapbook pages and enhance them with clipart using software like Paint Shop Photo Album or FotoFinish and then upload them to a photo sharing site for everyone to enjoy.

Hobbies:
Perhaps you belong to a cross-stitching club or the other end of the spectrum, a motorcycle or classic car club. You can share your best cross-stitch projects or pictures of you with your Harley or ’57 Chevy with other club members.

Class Reunions:
What better way to share reunion photos with former class members across the miles than in an online photo album, so all can view and reminisce.

Arts and Crafts Portfolio:
Do you design jewelry, paint or make woodcarvings or other crafts to sell? A digital photo gallery is a great way to show off your pieces, and you can add your own captions, prices, etc.

Genealogy:
If you are in charge of recording your family’s history, organize old family photos in a digital album to share with distant family members. Chances are, old photos will need some repair for cracks, fading, spots, etc. You can easily repair photos yourself using photo software like Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro.

School Events:
Create an online album for pictures of football or basketball games, proms, graduation parties and other school events to share with classmates.

Weddings:
You can design an elegant photo album and let those who couldn’t attend the wedding see the bride walk down the aisle and “virtually” experience the conga line at the reception. Weddings were made for photo sharing!

Rubber Stamping Designs:
A photo gallery of your rubber stamp creations is a great way to showcase them for fellow stamp artists.

Okay, you get the picture. Use your imagination and you’ll find dozens of opportunities for sharing your photos.

PHOTO SHARING SITES AND SOFTWARE

The next step is how do you do it? That’s easy too. With the digital camera craze comes a proliferation of photo sharing sites and software. The top sites include Ofoto, Shutterfly and Snapfish, which give you simple, free software so you can make basic edits such as adjust the contrast, crop and remove red-eye. You can quickly upload your images to their website and put photos in different albums, name the albums and add captions. Then you just email your friends the link to your album. The good news is it’s free; the down side is that some sites limit the number of photos you can share. These sites, of course, will also print your photos for as little as 22 cents each and mail them to you; those who view your albums can also order prints.

There are some great services dedicated to photo sharing that offer unlimited photo storage space for a nominal fee. These include Pixagogo, which is a web-based service for sharing, organizing and storing your digital photos inside instant albums that can be viewed by anyone you want. It's an easy way to share photos with others, and an excellent means of backing up valuable photos or publishing illustrations on a web site or a market place. For a $5 monthly membership fee, you get unlimited secure storage of your original images of any size for as long as you want. Pixagogo's features include easy drag & drop photo uploading, the ability to create elegant online albums and full screen slide shows, share selected album links with family and friends via a simple email link, and a self-organizing photo timeline. You can also order prints on Fuji paper at competitive prices.

There are also several inexpensive software applications for photo sharing on the web, including FotoFinish and the SendPix sharing feature of ACDSee 6.0. With both programs you can email photos directly from the application at sizes you specify. FotoFinish also gives you 20MB of free personal web space to upload and share your albums or individual photos. ACDSee lets you share up to 50 photos in an unlimited number of albums on their server at no charge for up to 30 days. It also has an HTML photo album generator so you can create web page photo albums to upload to your own site.

Whatever method you choose, sharing your pics on the net is a great timesaver with lots of opportunity for creativity.

Valerie Goettsch publishes the digital photography website http://www.digitalphotos101.com featuring reviews of photo editing and album software and digital photo printing services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Valerie_Goettsch

Another Host Photo

2006-05-14T09:06:00.000+07:00

Sharing and printing photos on the Internet has always been difficult for everyone. Trouble with attaching the photos when emailing as well as when uploading them inevitably occurs if you are trying to make it in the commonplace manner. Recently, the situation has improved by the appearance of online photo albums. There exists a large variety of different photo albums on the Internet. Their priority is to ease the process of photo sharing and printing. Online albums offer photo hosting for all kinds of photos. Both professional photographers and laics use the service to show their photos in publicity.

In what these photo sharing sites differ from the ordinary photo albums that people create on their web sites? The difference is only that online albums provide easier ways to share your photos. Many people in the past years became virtually fed up with life when they tried to upload their photos on a given web site. The procedure of uploading was so tediously long and took a really long time. First people had to scan their photos. Next, they had to convert them into a .gif or .jpg file format. They had then to resize the photo in case it doesn’t fit in the hosting services guidelines. Uploading it to the Web site's server was the next procedure. Another thing was to ascertain the URL for the photo. Additionally, a code on the page had to be put, so that the photo would show up. As this long procedure wasn’t enough, people also needed to create thumbnails for every photo on the site so that loading of the page became faster (of course, not forgetting to create links to each graphic from the particular thumbnail!). If there were too many photos, the site would take years to wholly load. Uploading digital photos is a little bit easier, as scanning and format converting are omitted, but there still remain the other exasperating procedures, which usually take forever to accomplish.

What are the priorities that photo hosting sites have over the commonplace photo albums on web sites?

Pixyshare.com is designed to accomplish the whole uploading procedure for you. Your photos will be uploaded in just a few clicks and their online display will not depend on your HTML abilities. You don’t need to know anything about uploading to use the photo hosting service that Pixyshare.com offers. Another point is that the visitors of your album will have full access to the photos, if you only give them one URL address.

Pixyshare is one of the various photo hosting sites, but it offers many new extra features that other photo hosting albums lack. It is designed for photographers who like to display their photos on the Internet without having to bother about uploading procedures. For creating an account you only need to choose an username. Creating photo albums is easy and what’s more, it brings pleasure. In addition, there are no limitations about the amount of photos to be uploaded on a given album. In comparison to other photo hosting albums, which limit your files sizes up to few MBs, Pixyshare.com gives you the opportunity to upload a file with up to 10 MB in size. You may as well delete or compress original images, using our Original Image Processing tool, so that you have full control of your disk space. Another advantage of Pixyshare is the affiliate program, which offers a discount if your friends also become members. Any time a friend of yours becomes a member, you will be paid 6 $ for having asked him or her to use our service. Unlike most of the paid photo hosting sites that give you limited trial period, we offer you no time limitations when you want to try our service. Get your pictures online for as long as you like, and take your time to decide whether you like to join us.

Pixyshare is designed to make everything automatically - thumbnails, changing photo sizes and so on. You can add comments about each one of your photos. You may password-protect some of the photos so that only selected people can see them. You can choose the size of your photos: medium, small or large, depending on your preferences.

Pixyshare is the perfect photo hosting portal on the Internet if you want to discover the advantages of online albums. Just try it, without spending any money: the primary service is free and offers many extra features.

Article by Robbie Darmona - an article writer who writes on a wide variety of subjects. For more information click online photo album

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robbie_Darmona

Online Photo Sharing Tips

2006-05-14T08:55:00.000+07:00

This may come as a surprise for you as a single mum, but there are free image hosting places for you to create your own online photo albums... and yes... totally free!

Read on...

I understand how frustrating it can be just trying to find a place where you can share an unlimited amount of photos with whoever you want... without having to pay through the nose!

In this short article I'm going to show you what to look out for when choosing an image hosting service, how you can solve your image hosting problems for good... and how to have fun doing it all at the same time...

Free Image Hosting Tip 1

Make sure that whatever image hosting you sign up for provides an unlimited amount of space for you to host your images.

In other words, some services provide free image hosting but restrict you to a certain amount of images, or a certain amount of photo albums.

This is understandable, because all that space taken up by the images has to be paid for by the website owner... and unless they have some method to offset the running costs, they will soon find themselves in hot water!

That's why most will charge a premium when you require more space than the average user. So to avoid disappointment, be sure to read the terms of conditions before subscribing to any image hosting service.

100% free image hosting services are out there, but it's just like shopping, you'll have to look around for a while before you find the right one for your needs...

Free Image Hosting Tip 2

Look out for a user friendly interface.

It's got to be easy to login, upload your photos and share them with your friends, family or whoever.

When you find an image hosting service you like, sign up for a free trial and test out the waters.

Is it easy to sign up?
Is everything laid out in a simple fashion?
Is it easy to upload your precious photos?
What does your personal photo album actually look like?
Would you feel proud to share it with your friends?

These are just a few points to take into consideration when choosing an image hosting service for yourself.

Free Image Hosting Tip 3

Be sure that your photo album remains private!

This one may seem logical but you'd be surprised just how many people overlook this point.

Free image hosting can come with a price… such as revealing your private images to the rest of the online world. For some people this may not be such a huge issue, but for others the very thought falls nothing short of a personal nightmare!

Ensure that when creating your online photo album and sharing it with friends, that your images will remain private. In other words, only the people you wish to share your images with will see them... and no one else!

This point should be covered in the terms of agreement or the FAQ's of any seriously run image hosting service.

In summary, if you follow these tips I've just shared with you about free image hosting, you should be in safe hands. The general rule is to take your time when choosing an image hosting service, especially free ones.

They're some very good ones out there that cater to very specific niche groups like dog owners, cat owners, classic cars etc. And each one serves its own purpose.

Like myself, you too can have loads of fun creating and sharing your own online photo albums. They become great places for you and your friends to savor precious moments for life... regardless of where they live.

When will you finally download those photos from your camera or computer desktop and create your own fun-packed online photo album?

There is no better time than now to do it. It takes no less than a few minutes to get started and once you invite your friends to see your album, you'll find that they will want to have one too!

What are you waiting for? Join the thousands of people who are already taking advantage of free image hosting services and creating their own online photo albums at zero costs!

Stewart Alexander is the Author and Owner of The Single Mums Night Out Team...

They Provide Free Image Hosting for Single Mums. Click Here To Create Your FREE! Single Mums Photo Album With - Unlimited Space!...

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stewart_Alexander

Cheap Digital Camera 2

2006-05-13T11:46:00.000+07:00

Want a camera that gives you outstanding results and fits nicely in your pocket? The Photosmart M22 has 4 megapixel resolution and 6 x digital zoom for realistic-color prints and enlargements, plus a bright display for viewing images. You can automatically brighten dark areas of photos, remove red eye, preview and snap panoramas. Plus, the all-metal, weather-resistant case makes the M22 ideal for travel!

Cheap Digital Camera
Price: $108.00

Features/Specifications:
HP Photosmart M22 4.0 MP Digital Camera

General Features:
4.0 MP resolution
HP Precision lens
6 x Digital zoom (1 x Optical)
16 MB internal memory
1.5-inch bright indoor/outdoor-viewable color LCD
USB connectivity
SD/MMC card slot (card not included)
All-metal case, scratch-resistant, durability and weather resistant features
Runs on Two (2) AA Batteries (included)
PictBridge 1.0 support
Exif 2.2 support

HP Real Life Technology:
HP adaptive lighting technology
HP in-camera red-eye removal
HP Image Advice
Panorama assist and preview
Auto focus
Auto exposure
Auto flash
Basic manual controls for creativity
HP Instant Share

Regulatory Approvals:
FCC
CE
UL
C-Tick
Package Includes:
HP Photosmart M22 Digital Camera
Two (2) AA batteries
USB cable
Dock insert
User's Manual
Quick Start Guide
Software CD
Wrist Strap
Additional Information:

Notes:

Model: M22
Product #: L1892

Product Requirements:

PC Requirements:
Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP Home, XP Professional
Pentium II 233 or higher/64MB RAM for Win 98, Me
At least 128 MB RAM for Win 2000/XP
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
SVGA monitor (800 x 600, 16-bit color)

Macintosh Requirements:
Mac OS 9.2; Mac OS X v 10.1.5, 10.2, 10.3
500 MHz Power PC or higher
128 MB RAM
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
SVGA monitor (800 x 600, 16-bit color)

Cheap Digital Camera

2006-05-13T11:38:00.000+07:00

Create big, beautiful prints with 4.0 Megapixel with the Kodak Easyshare Z700 digital camera. With the 5 x optical zoom and 4 x digital zoom you can get those up close pictures!

Bring out your creative side with color modes such as color, sepia, and black and white. With the Kodak Easyshare Z700 you can capture life in motion with continuous QVGA (320 × 240 at 20 fps) video featuring audio capture and share universally with Quicktime Video Format. With the on-camera cropping feature you can frame your pictures on the spot!

Sharing is simple with the Kodak Easyshare Z700 digital camera. The Z700 is part of the Kodak Easyshare System, so sharing your pictures is one-button simple. Just press Share. Capture precious moments with this Kodak Easyshare Z700 digital camera.

Cheap Digital Camera
Price: $129.00

Features/Specifications:
Kodak Z700 4.0MP Digital Camera

General Features:
4.23 megapixels CCD resolution
4.0 megapixels image resolution
JPEG/EXIF v 2.21 still format
f/2.8 - 4.8 lens
5 x optical/4 x digital zoom
f/2.88 - 5.76 (wide), f/4.9 - 8.76 (tele) aperture
8 - 1/1600 seconds
Real image optical viewfinder
1.6 in. indoor/outdoor TFT LCD display
16 MB internal memory, SD/MMC card expansion slot
Built-in lens barrier
Tripod mount

Flash Features:
Auto, red-eye, fill, off
Wide—2 – 12.5 ft (0.6–3.8 m) range
Tele—2 – 7 ft. (0.6–2.2 m) range

Regulatory Approvals:
FCC
CE
C-Tick
BSMI
MIC
Package Includes:
Kodak Easyshare Z700 4.0 MP Digital Camera
Kodak rechargeable battery
USB cable
A/V cable
Wrist strap
Kodak Easyshare software
Getting started kit
Custom camera insert for optional Kodak Easyshare Camera and Printer Docks
Additional Information:

Notes:

Model: Z700
UPC: 0 41778 12778 0

Product Requirements:

Windows Requirements:
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
233 MHz processor or greater (300 MHz recommended for XP)
64 MB RAM (128 MB for XP)
Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher
200 MB hard drive disk space available
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
Color monitor, 800 × 600 display resolution, 16-bit minimum

Macintosh Requirements:
Macintosh OS X 10.2.3-10.2.8, 10.3 or greater
128 MB RAM for OS X
SAFARI 1.0 or higher
200 MB hard drive disk space available
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
Color monitor, 800 × 600 display resolution, 16-bit minimum

Tips For Great Digital Photographs

2006-05-12T23:41:00.000+07:00

Perhaps you never quite mastered your film camera, but that does not mean that you can not become the master over your digital camera. There are certain things about digital photography that make it easier than that “other” kind of photography.

For one thing, with digital photography, you don’t have to worry about wasting film. You can take as many photographs as you want with a digital camera and not worry about it – as long as you have enough memory in your digital camera. It is a good idea to have extra memory cards (or memory sticks, etc.), just in case. Another great thing is that you can relatively easily touch-up all of your digital photography on your computer.

That being said, you probably don’t want to have to touch up all of your digital photography, nor do you want to have to sort through a hundred similar photographs to find the one that really stands out. It is best to take good digital photographs in the first place.

If you want to warm up you digital photographs as you’re taking them, rather that on the computer at home, why not change your white balance setting from “auto” to “cloudy” when shooting outdoor photographs. This adjustment is like putting a mild warming filter on your digital camera – it increases the reds and yellows.

Polarized shots have richer and more saturated colors. But you may not have a digital camera that accommodates filters. So, instead, you can take a pair of polarized sunglasses and set them as close to the lens as possible. Voila! You will get deep, rich colors.

Another great tip for digital photography is to use your “macro” mode. This allows you to take great photographs from close up. You can get such a clear photo of a flower that you can even see its pollen.

Another great tip for great digital photography includes using a tripod. A tripod will keep your camera steady which will make your photos clearer. Also, play around with the fun things that you’re camera has got. Why not take some photos with the self-timer? Use the portrait mode when taking a portrait and the landscape mode when shooting a landscape. Work with what you’ve got now, and save yourself time fixing up your digital photography on the computer later.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching, gardening, and art. For more of her articles on digital photography, visit Digital Cameras and Accessories.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Clarke

Cheap Digital Camera 3

2006-05-12T11:50:00.000+07:00

Create big, beautiful prints with this 4.1 Megapixel HP Photosmart R507xi digital camera. With the 3 x optical zoom and 7 x digital zoom you can get those up close pictures!

Bring out your creative side with color modes such as color, sepia, and black and white. With the HP Photosmart R507xi you can capture life in motion with continuous video featuring audio.

Sharing is simple with the HP Photosmart R507xi digital camera with its included dock you can share your photos on the TV or hook it directly to your computer!

Cheap Digital Camera
Price: $198.00

Features/Specifications:
HP R507xi 4.1 MP digital camera w/dock

General Features:
4.1 Megapixel resolution
21 x total zoom
3 x optical zoom
7 x digital zoom
32 MB internal memory
USB interface
1.5-inch outdoor-viewable
SD/MMC memory expansion card slot
HP adaptive lighting technology
Video capture with audio
Pentax precision lens
HP photo share for hassle free picture sharing
Picbridge 1.0 support

Dock Features:
TV button
Print button
PC print button
Wireless remote control for dock
Extra battery charging slot
A/V out port
USB interface

Power Specifications:
100 – 240V ~ 50/60Hz

Regulatory Approvals:
FCC
CE
C-Tick
VCCI
Package Includes:
HP R507xi 4.1 MP digital camera w/dock
USB cables
Power adapter (100 – 240V ~ 50/60Hz)
Power cord
A/V cable
Remote control
Two (2) Li-ion batteries
User’s manual
Software CDs
Additional Information:

Notes:
Model: R507xi
Part: L1826A
UPC: 8 29160 33824 8

Product Requirements:
Windows Requirements:
WINDOWS 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 SP1, or XP OS
233 MHz processor or greater (300 MHz recommended for XP)
64 MB RAM (128 MB for XP)
INTERNET EXPLORER 5.01 or higher
200 MB hard drive disk space available
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
Color monitor, 800 × 600 display resolution, 16-bit minimum

Macintosh Requirements:
POWERMAC or POWERBOOK G3, G4, G5; iMac; eMac; or iBook computer
MACINTOSH OS X 10.2.3-10.2.8, 10.3 or greater
128 MB RAM for OS X
SAFARI 1.0 or higher
200 MB hard drive disk space available
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
Color monitor, 800 × 600 display resolution, 16-bit minimum

Digital Camera Care Programme

2006-05-11T22:30:00.000+07:00

A serious photographer means that a person will have to invest in high costing cameras and other equipment. These equipments and investments are no joke; they could really harm a person's pockets. That is why people who do invest in cameras and their equipments for a living should learn to take care of them. Taking care of the camera means prolonging the life of one's wallet too. Here are some tips to get the proper and best care to your camera.

The general rules:
Read the manual of the camera.
Handle the cameras carefully because the simplest knocks or jolts can damage it.
Don't leave the camera in a bright sunlight all day.
Protect the camera from thieves.
Protect the camera from water.
Avoid using the camera when in dusty places.
When your hands are wet and dirty, avoid using the camera.
When you plan to not use the camera fro weeks, remove the batteries.

Cleaning the Lens:
It is important not to get the lens of the camera dirty. Particularly finger marks should be avoided. However in some situations, this will be hard to avoid. So it is important to get a lens cleaning kit. There is always a kit that is for sale but it is better to get the items separately.

Purchase a blower brush because this helps blow the loose dirt away. Also purchase a lens cleaning cloth that will wipe the lens. While you're at it, purchase a small bag or a zip lock to place the cloth. Lastly, get a cleaning liquid that will be used sparingly on cloth.

Be careful when wiping the lens with the cloth. This is because some cameras have special surface coatings that can be damaged.

After each session of use, look at the lenses carefully, and clean them only if they are dirty. If they are dirty, blow the loose dirt with the blower. Then brush the lens gently for the dirt that hasn't been removed by the blower. If there is any dirt or grease that remains, use the cleaning cloth with a dab of cleaning liquid.

You may also consider buying a UV filter and leave it in place to protect the lens. The filter should be cleaned the same way as the lens. When damaged, don't hesitate to replace it.

This are the basic care tips that you should consider when handling your camera. Remember it is better to maintain it rather than replace it.

Online Photo Sharing

2006-05-10T11:53:00.000+07:00

What? You got so many photos in there. Why don’t you share with us. Sharing make anyone know what are you looking for, or what are you good into. Hm… I’m understand why you don’t get it. You don’t know where to post your photos. OK. Why don't you try good looking site, such as...

· Flickr - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world - has two main goals:

1. We want to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them.

Maybe they want to keep a blog of moments captured on their cameraphone, or maybe they want to show off their best pictures to the whole world in a bid for web celebrity. Or maybe they want to securely and privately share photos of their kids with their family across the country. Flickr makes all these things possible and more!

To do this, we want to get photos into and out of the system in as many ways as we can: from the web, from mobile devices, from the users' home computers and from whatever software they are using to manage their photos. And we want to be able to push them out in as many ways as possible: on the Flickr website, in RSS feeds, by email, by posting to outside blogs or ways we haven't thought of yet. What else are we going to use those smart refrigerators for?

Flickr is the WD-40 that makes it easy to get photos from one person to another in whatever way they want.

2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos.

Once you make the switch to digital, it is all too easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of photos you take with that itchy trigger finger. Albums, the principal way people go about organizing photos today, are great -- until you get to 20 or 30 or 50 of them. They worked in the days of getting rolls of film developed, but the "album" metaphor is in desperate need of a Florida condo and full retirement.

Part of the solution is to make the process of organizing photos collaborative. In Flickr, you can give your friends, family, and other contacts permission to organize your photos - not just to add comments, but also notes and tags. People like to ooh and ahh, laugh and cry, make wisecracks when sharing photos. Why not give them the ability to do this when they look at them over the internet? And as all this info accretes around the photos as metadata, you can find them so much easier later on, since all this info is also searchable.

Flickr continues to evolve in myriad ways, all of which are designed to make it easier and better. Check out the Flickr Blog to stay apprised of the latest developments. The fact that you've read to the end of this entire document and are hanging out at the bottom of this page with nothing but this silly text to keep you company is proof of a deep and abiding interest on your part. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

Snapfish - "Best Overall Photo Service: Snapfish delivered the best image quality plus the lowest price. Even after factoring in the $2 shipping fee—roughly equivalent to 10 miles of gas—Snapfish still ended up the cheapest." -PC World, June 2005 "Best Quality Photo Books: The true-to-life colors; sharp, full-page images; and top-notch paper in Snapfish's 11" by 9" book wowed our experts." - Good Housekeeping, June 2005 "Once you weigh price, speed, ease-of-uploading, and a few other considerations, some services stood out from the pack—in particular, Snapfish... Overall, Snapfish sent the best images. Its prints all had good exposure, contrast, and detail." - MacWorld, July 2005 Snapfish is a leading online photo service with more than 24 million members and one billion unique photos stored online. We enable our members to share, print and store their most important photo memories at the lowest prices - online or off. Snapfish offers professionally-developed digital camera prints as low as 10¢, film developing for just $2.99 per roll, free online photo sharing, unlimited online photo storage, free editing tools and software, wireless imaging services, and more than 80 personalized photo products, ranging from calendars, mugs and mousepads, to boxer shorts, dog leashes and teddy bears.

Based in San Francisco, Snapfish is a division of Hewlett-Packard, the world's foremost digital imaging company and one of the most trusted brands on the planet.

· PictureTrail - Launched in 2000, PictureTrail, Inc. operates a leading photo sharing portal where members share their photos online with family and friends. Image hosting and photo products are other major services offered to its members. The site currently accommodates over 3 million visitors per month with over a million accounts on its system. PictureTrail offers its members a wide array of features to customize their online photo albums with captions, music and background styles and provides different levels of accessibility to friends, family, business associates, online auctions and message board visitors.

The company is privately held and is currently expanding into digital image editing and wireless imaging applications. PictureTrail is also actively seeking new marketing and technology partnerships to further accelerate growth and expand its products and services. To contact the appropriate staff please click on the Contact Us link.

PictureTrail - Photo Sharing made easy.

· Photobucket - Photobucket provides a simple, fast, and reliable service that enables efficient sharing and publishing of visual digital content online. Images and videos can be directly linked from Photobucket to any site, including popular sites like MySpace, eBay, LiveJournal, Xanga, Friendster, and Neopets.

Photobucket was named the fastest growing site of 2005 according to Nielsen/Netratings and now ranks as a Top 100 site by traffic. The key to Photobucket's success has been its focus on delivering a simple and reliable service. Photobucket was profitable last year and has been funded primarily by earnings. As of March 2006, Photobucket had over 15 Million users growing by over 65,000 users per day. Photobucket serves over 50 Billion images/month. Founded in 2003, Photobucket is based in downtown Palo Alto with technology operations and development based in Denver, Colorado.

Locations

Denver, Colorado - Technology, Development and Operations Office

Palo Alto, California - Business Headquarters

Los Angeles, California - Business Development and Sales Office

Why Photobucket?

Photobucket essentially serves as a central "hub" for storing, sharing, and publishing visual digital media. In just the last 12 months, Photobucket has accelerated its organic growth to welcome more than 10 million unique visitors per month. This growth has been purely driven by word of mouth.

Most of our users publish their visual digital content, such as video, images, graphic art to 2 or more sites: saving time by uploading once to Photobucket and then publishing over and over again to many community sites.

How to Use Photobucket?

Sign Up by registering (Your albums are where you store all your visual digital media.)

Upload your images or videos.

Copy your Link directly under the image or video uploaded

Post your link onto your favorite websites.

Our Team

The Photobucket Team has vast experience in serving users on the Internet.

Black and White is Beautiful

2006-05-08T13:40:00.000+07:00

Think about Laurel and Hardy for a moment, or Charlie Chaplin, and even Harold Lloyd. All true examples of early cinema genius. Today’s DVDs offer the opportunity of not only watching these classics in their pure black and white format but also in the DVD provides a colorized version. Essentially though the colorized version never quite looks right, even though it’s meant to look more modern and more realistic to latter day cinema.

The point is this; these films were meant to be black and white because that was the level of technology of its day. But when you stand back and look at these films you can see that because the ‘life’ colour is stripped away they have in a sense become timeless and when viewed there is always something a bit special and different about them.

The same is true of a black and white painting, poster or photograph. A black and white photograph of an old wrinkly woman sitting by her doorstep is timeless, powerful and extremely though provoking. A picture of an old building or a city view in black and white has the same affect. Without colour you tend to look more closely at the subject and see a level of detail and arguably emotion that you may never spot with full colour. As mentioned before depending on the subject a black and white piece of art is essentially timeless.

Nostalgia is time and again the word expressed when these images are viewed. This is why so many people opt for black and white art within the home. A happy home with a touch of nostalgia is a magic recipe.

Michael Edwards owns BlackAndWhitePoster.com which offers a vast range of black and white posters and prints. Other galleries include sepia, vintage and surreal. You can find out more at: http://www.blackandwhiteposter.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Edwards

How a Digital Camera Works

2006-05-05T17:11:00.000+07:00

The digital camera is not something of a magic box that came out of the blue and made wonders! The digital camera is very much like the conventional analog camera, but the technology has been altered. It also contains most of the associated components that the conventional camera contains, like lens and a shutter for letting in light, however instead of reaching a photosensitive film, the light is made to fall upon array of image sensors or photosensitive cells. Much of the differences are like this, yet most of it still remains in oblivion for the ordinary people. And it order that the digital camera gets its true respect, it is necessary to explore these areas of truth and reveal them in light.

Looking a bit more in details about the working of the fantastic device, the digital camera. As a continuation of the above lines, it can be further investigated that the sensor array is basically a microchip about 10 mm across. Every image sensor is a charged-couple device (CCD) converting light into electric charges, and is essentially a silicon chip used to measure light. These charges are stored as analog data that are then converted to digital via a device called an analog to digital converter (ADC). Over the chip are present a collection of very small light-sensitive diodes, named photosites, or pixels that convert light (or more scientifically, photons) into electrical charges called electrons. The pixels are very much light sensitive, therefore with brighter light striking them, produces greater build up of electrical charges. Each 1000 array receptor creates 1 pixel, and every pixel corresponds to some information stored. The light enters the digital camera via the lens, which is the same mechanism as the conventional analog camera. And this light hits the CCD when the photographer presses the shutter button. The shutter opens and thereby illuminates every pixel, however with various intensities.

Taking a look apart, it can be observed that quite a few digital cameras use CMOS (meaning complementary metal oxide semiconductor, a technology of manufacturing these microchips) technology based microchips as image sensors. The basic advantage is that the CMOS sensors are appreciably cheaper and simpler to fabricate than CCDs. Another great advantage from CMOS sensors is that these take very less power compared to other technology, which adds up to the fact as to their extensive use, and can thus even support the implementation of additional circuitry on the same chip like ADC, some control units etc. Thus it can be stated that CMOS technology based cameras are small, light, cheap and also energy efficient, yet at the cost of some amount of image quality.

However the common trend remains that all cameras of the mega pixel range and higher up use CCD chips instead of CMOS. This is because of the fact of picture quality only, leaving aside the price differences.

This is basically the fact about how digital cameras work! Having known this much difference would not come in the photographing expertise of the users, but it always feels a kind of satisfaction on understanding the inner depths of a device that is so close to the eyes!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jakob_Jelling

Digital Camera Batteries

2006-05-05T17:04:00.000+07:00

Every device needs a driving force to operate, just as every living thing needs a heart to keep it alive! Basically electric power does this job for any kind of devices nowadays. Similarly for any digital camera too, a good battery is necessary in order to ensure an excellent performance from it as long as possible. Being such a crucial task as if searching for a good heart for a human being, perhaps the most tedious thing about digital cameras is the quest for their battery consumption and thereby finding a suitable one for any particular one. Yet a basic overview regarding this so important component of a digital camera makes the ventures of the users somewhat less complicated and makes life easier with a proper selection of the battery!

Leaving aside the ever power thirsty LCD screens and flashes, the digital cameras themselves exhaust batteries much faster than film cameras, due to their state of the art electronic designs and intricate circuitry. Many digital cameras run from AA cells, around 4, and can even drain a set of alkaline cells in less than 1 hour of working! For example, the Kodak DC120 draws about 210mA during start or switch ON, but progresses to around 1.3A with the association of the LCD fully working and can go ahead to about 2.1A while picture taking and after it too.

With all these nightmares regarding the batteries of the digital cameras, it is worthwhile to analyze and reveal some of the available batteries for the digital cameras in an effort to explore area of power consumption in this fantastic device. Coming to first one of these, like its great name suggests, it is the Li-ion (Lithium Ion). It is one of the latest cell types available to digital camera users. This has many advantages to its credit. It is light in weight and currently available for many commercial uses and thus being so the Li-ion (Lithium Ion) battery type is becoming quite popular. This has an added advantage of being able to endow with more power than any of the other main cell types available. It is also free from the problems of memory effect, hat some battery types do have, and maintenance is least in this type of battery. These are but real goodies about this Li-ion (Lithium Ion) battery. Yet it has one major disadvantage, that is, the price is usually significantly higher than conventional batteries, due to its sophisticated design and technology.

Coming to the next one in the line, the NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride). This is a battery that is perhaps the most frequently under use for not only digital cameras, but also for other sophisticated devices like laptop computers! This has the advantage of being cheap in price due to the fact that it incurs cheap manufacturing costs, and thus a choice for many users! But this does have the problems of memory effect, and much more maintenance and care is required while handling this kind of battery.

Another such battery is the NiCAD (Nickel Cadmium) Battery. This is perhaps belonging to one of the older cell types generally available for older laptops and electronic devices. These batteries or cells have an aptitude for handling high power loads, and therefore is more frequently found in handy power tools and devices that require more amounts power to work efficiently and perfectly. Yet again, these batteries too have the problems of memory effect, and much more maintenance and care is required while handling this kind of battery.

Apart from the different batteries themselves, the selection should be based upon the charging techniques and the different charges available for all these digital camera batteries. Latest batteries come handy with charging free techniques too! So care needs to be taken in this area also, depending upon the requirements of the user.

With all the vivid conversation regarding the hearts of the digital cameras, their batteries, it is expected for every person going through the lines to have grabbed a significant amount of information in dealing with the intricacies of the purchase, and thereby also augment the ability of the person in using such a sophisticated device as a digital camera with a proper battery!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jakob_Jelling

Choosing The Right Digital Camera

2006-05-05T16:47:00.000+07:00

I've got some great article about choosing the right digital camera, hope it usefull.

Let's get something straight right out of the box. If you're looking to buy a new digital camera, you don't really have to be an expert in pixels and mega pixels and all that kind of stuff. If you expect to find that kind of deep technical discussion here, you're in the wrong place.

Actually, there's a whole lot of stuff you don't really need to know before tackling the daunting task of choosing the right digital camera for you.

First of all, forget all the high-tech jargon. It's mostly a lot of sales hype anyway. Choosing a good unit is pretty simple really...pretty much all you have to remember is that the higher the mega pixel rating on the front of the camera, the bigger picture you can make without it breaking up into little chunks (called pixels) and most likely the more cash it's likely going to pry out of your pocket. Each model has an array of techno-widgets that go by different names but they all have the same basic focus, to help you take a better picture.

I have a quick (and admittedly simplistic) overview of the pixel story. The shot on the left on my web page is one I took with a high pixel rating and the one on the right was with a much lower rating. They've been enlarged way beyond what you would normally do, but I do have a point to make here. If you look carefully you can see there's a terrific difference in the way they look or, in the 'resolution'. The image on the right has already broken up into small pieces (pixels) (I hope) you can readily see. The picture on the left was magnified several times more than the one on the right which should give you an idea of how big you can enlarge it and still retain a fairly decent result. By the way, these shots are of a very, very small piece of a picture I took of snapdragons in our front yard.

A camera with a 5.0 mega pixel rating or higher can produce a decent 16X20 print but one with a 2.0 mega pixel rating or lower should be restricted to a maximum of 4X6 prints. For the most part, you won't be happy with pictures any larger than 4X6 from the lower rated camera.

Okay, Let's Pick A Camera...

Well, I have my favorites and my not-so favorites.

When I looked at all the digital cameras available, I was more than a little astounded at the vast selection of available equipment. It seems that every company that’s ever heard the word “computer” has jumped on the bandwagon. It seems they lay their hands on some lenses, wrap a computerized box around them, added a few techno-widgets and bingo, instant digital camera! What can you say...it's money in the bank!

Where did I start looking? Well, I went back to my tried and true method of buying a film camera that I talk about later. It’s always worked for me and didn’t let me down this time either.

My personal digital camera finally wound up to be an Olympus C-5050. By the way, in my opinion Olympus didn't do themselves or their customers any favors by dumping the f1.8 lens on the C-5060.

I chose this camera for the fast f1.8 lens and ease of use. I'm lazy at best and wanted a unit that's going to do most of the work for me while leaving me with the option of doing what I want to do when I want to do it.

This unit has all the automatic features I'll ever need but I also have the ability to set up the camera completely manually. I can still do minimum depth-of-field work among other things. I never want to completely lose control to a mindless computer although they do have their uses at times.

The first thing I did after I opened the box was print off the user manual - all 265 pages of it! I figured I had done my duty by it and promptly ignored it.

After very quickly killing my first two sets of “high-capacity” alkaline batteries, I sprung for a couple sets of Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) rechargeables. Not only did they last longer but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing the alkalines every darn time I picked up the camera.

It boils me to have to admit this but I actually had to go back to the user manual. I wasn't getting the results I wanted and there was also some 'stuff' on the camera I had no clue about using. The moral of this story is that you're gonna have to at least have a nodding acquaintance with your user manual. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Back to choosing a camera...

Throughout the years I've learned that if a camera 'fit' my hand it worked well for me. It may sound a little strange at first but just think about it. If you're handling something that feels awkward, your results are going to look like it. I had a Mamiya RB-67 for a lot of years. It was a big, ungainly unit but it was a good 'fit' for me and produced a great image. I also used a Hasselblad for quite a while but I much preferred the Mamiya and it gave me better results than the Hasselblad. (Don't tell Hasselblad lovers I said this, they'll kill me!)

So, rule of thumb...if it fits your hand nicely, if the main controls are handy to your fingers, if it has the mega pixel number you want and falls within your budget, you can be pretty confident this will do the job you want it to do. Oh yes, if it's a brand you've never heard of before, be very, very wary. It may work well and it may not. If it doesn't, there may not be any tech backup for you to be able to access.

The major camera companies spend lots of money developing new photo technologies. Although the latest techno-widgets go by different names, they all have the same goal, to make your pictures look as good as possible.

Pretty well every company in the world that has even come close to producing a good digital camera has gotten into the "SLR Wars".

Single lens reflex cameras dominated the photo market for years until digital technology hit the market. Because of design and price limitations, SLR technology has not been widely available in the non-professional digital cameras until the last year or so.

The furious pace of technological developments has completely overtaken the market and even professional photographers are being boggled trying to keep up.

Remember the old Nikon F2? It was the major link in the Nikon chain of professional cameras for over 10 years! This was pretty much the norm until the computer hit the photographic industry big time.

Changes used to come slowly and deliberately and it wasn't hard to keep up with the latest and greatest when major new developments came along only two or three times in a decade. The battle now is to produce digital cameras that operate faster, can be sold cheaper and will produce a better picture. Severe competition even exists within the same corporate structure where teams of developers do their utmost to 'outgun' other camera designers who work in the same building as they do!

Nikon has a distinct advantage over many of the other manufacturers in that owners of some of the older series of Nikon lenses can use them with the new digital bodies, a tremendous dollar saving to the photographer.

Most of this rapid development is focused on the professional photographer. But, with technology changing as rapidly as it is, a camera technology that sells for several thousands of dollars today will undoubtedly become available to people like you and me in the next couple of years for a whole lot less money.

One of the hardest jobs a new camera buyer will have is determine which of the new techno-widgets does the best job and is the best value.

One thing to keep in mind about camera features…they all have the same job and that’s to help you take a better photo.

Picture this if you will. If you lined up 10 cameras from different manufacturers, each with similar basic features, took the same picture with each, I think even the camera manufacturers would have a tough time picking out which of the resulting photos came from their units.

Getting feedback from all kinds of users is one very excellent use of newsgroups. Serious photographers, amateur and professional both, love to talk about their latest 'toys'. This is a good way to spend time and a good place to ask questions and (sometimes) get intelligent answers.

Don't wait until you've made the investment to start doing your homework.

Another rule of thumb, if you're happy with a particular brand name already, my suggestion is to stick with it. You'll probably be more satisfied in the long run.

Now, having said all that, there are currently five search engine 'favorite' companies among the people looking for information on the Internet, Sony, Canon, Olympus, Kodak and Nikon in this order of popularity. Of this group, Sony is the only one with no prior experience in camera building before digital.

Understanding how to set your camera's resolution is absolutely vital. There's no shortcut and there's no way around it. This is the core of taking a good, reproducible photograph. If, for instance, your camera is set for 240X360, you can forget making any kind of decent print above a 'thumbnail' size.

The low-end cameras are not a bargain if you're looking for good photo reproduction. Labs are constantly arguing with customers who submit low resolution digital images from a cheap camera for printing and then aren't happy with the results. They simply don't understand why the pictures from their brand new digital camera are so lousy. Lenses and the type of digital image recording technology are also critical factors.

I won't get into the technical details of why but I will suggest you consider spending in the $250 to $400 range if you want something that will satisfy you.

Let’s spend a few minutes on lenses. Pretty well all of the digital cameras these days have a form of zoom lens. Most of the higher-end cameras have the capability for the user to add either an external telephoto or wide-angle lens. Depending on the type of photography you want to do will determine whether or not this is of value to you.

One thing to watch out for. The higher end cameras have very good glass lenses. It’s part of what you're paying for. The lower-end units have progressively less expensive lenses and consequently, a lower image definition.

There are both optical and digital zoom capabilities on digital cameras. The term "optical zoom" simply means you're using the glass lenses to do the magnification. "Digital zoom" on the other hand simply increases the size of the pixels to make the image larger. For reasons of image clarity, the optical zoom is a far better way to go.

One last note - if you run across the "best deal in town" on a very low-priced name brand camera, check to make sure it isn't badly out-dated. Buying well-priced clearance stock is okay if it isn't too old. In this computer age, pretty well anything over a year old is considered 'old technology'. As new technologies are developed the price keeps going down so you could actually be money ahead by investing in the 'latest and greatest'.

Always keep in mind the old adage that 'you usually get what you pay for.

If you go to a 'box' store looking for the best price, don't expect service. The folks there simply don't know what they're selling. Their job is to move as much merchandise as they can as quickly as possible. It's not to give you advice.

Go to the Internet to get the latest data directly from the manufacturers. It changes very, very quickly. When you do this, try to climb through all the sales hype to get to the 'meat' of what the cameras are all about. Newsgroups can also a very excellent source of advice for 'newbies'.

Most people will be very happy to give you their personal opinion of what you should buy. Just remember, they won't usually tell you what the downside to their purchase is. They don't want to look less than 'expert' in your eyes. Do your own homework. This is an investment you probably won't repeat for several years.

A specialty camera store on the other hand gives the buyer both service and product and usually very well. Keep in mind that the specialty store personnel are quite often very highly trained and will probably be well prepared to help you find the best equipment for you and will also give you a 'leg-up' in getting started using it.

We need to spend a couple of moments on storage media. Whatever size media card you stick in your camera will determine the number of pictures you can take and store. It's like a roll of film, the bigger the roll the more pictures you can take. Digital images are no different. The greater the number of available megabytes (Mb), the higher the number of pictures you can take.

A word of caution - never, never, never leave your media card in a photo lab. The incidence of loss is high and most labs won't replace lost cards. Quite frankly, I don't blame them. Far, far too many false claims have been made and labs now refuse to take any responsibility for your memory cards.

That’s it for now. Keep your film dry your lenses clean!

Gordon

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Gordon has been involved in the photo industry in one way or another for over 30 years. Long after he stopped using his mother's pie plates as developing trays in the family bathroom, among other things, he owned his own photo lab and professional studio for a number of years.

See more at: http://www.great-nature-photography.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gordon_Brenzil

Link to Others

2006-05-05T08:31:00.000+07:00

Family - WorldVillage is the web's leading site for family-friendly internet since 1995

Camera, analog or digital

2006-05-01T19:14:00.000+07:00

OK! That’s enough for the contents study. Let’s begin with something real. To take a photo, we should use some tools. What is that? This is what we call camera. It can be Polaroid camera, digital camera, and camera cellular phone or should I say camera phone, or something else that could take a picture for making photo. This is what we call taking picture.

In this chapter, I would like to explain another camera that we using today and maybe in the future. Yes, I’m using digital camera. Why? Let’s journey back. The last time I remembered, I was still holding a camera that uses films. Now those cameras are slowly becoming obsolete. They are now being replaced by the digital cameras. Look at the sentence of ‘replace’ and ‘obsolete’. That word tell us about camera film should take a break for some reason. ^_^ It is true that we are gonna missing him, but it could be the best thing to remember that someday we can talk to our children or grandchild when we were young it couldn’t simple as now to take a picture using camera. And bla…bla…bla…

The advantages of using camera digital are

Simply, we don’t need to use film, of course.
Give you instant feedback on your photographs as they are taken, allowing the photographer to see if the image they wanted was indeed captured as planned or not. If it didn't come out as expected for any reason, the bad photo can be just erased and the photographer can keep trying until the best results are achieved..
The ability to put plenty of image editing control in the hands of the photographer. With film, most image adjustments and edits would have to be made at the photo lab instead. Digital images though can be edited and adjusted in an almost endless number of ways in digital photo editing software that is widely available. This lets the photographer have total creative control over the finished product

Besides advantages, there are some disadvantages. Such as, the owners should know how to buy a great digital camera through the ability, not the large pixel, but other thing likes frame per second (fps), the lenses that are used for film photography, and many more. Those disadvantages can be decreased by buying a worthy camera which is expensive.

About how to choose great camera, we can talk about it later.

Feeling bored? Take this one!

2006-05-01T00:17:00.000+07:00

After you read all the info before, let's take a break. Here they are... yummy isn't it. What is that? Your saliva up to my table... hehehe...!

OK, i'd try to explain why this photo came up. First, the photo was taken by my friend when he took a vacation to Lembang (one of beautiful place in Bandung). At a moment, he and his friend have to take a place provide for the group to spend their vacation before the destination. It tooks a bunch of time to perform the food ready. So they took a brake, and walking around. When food comes, suddenly they forgot what should they do before eat. Yes, take the picture using digital camera. So, this is what i meant. Look at the food, it has been eaten a bit. ^_^

Famous Photographer

2006-04-30T18:22:00.000+07:00

Thinking of joining the ranks of the greatest photographers of all time? Well, it might be a good idea to check out a few of them and the works they've done so you know just what it is you're up against.

Probably one of the most famous photographers of all time was Ansel Adams. Adams was born In San Francisco California in 1902. He lived in Carmel until he died in 1984. His most popular photo was titled "Moonrise Over Hernandez, 1944". This is a breathtaking photo showing a beautiful night view and the small town below it. Other famous photos by Adams were "Clearing Winter Storm" and "Winter Sunrise". Adams did a lot of outdoor photography with some breathtaking views. His most popular photo has about 1000 copies in print. The price range of these photos, depending on condition goes from $5,000 to $175,000 if you can find one.

Moving from outdoor photography of landscapes to nude women on beaches we have the works of Jock Sturges. Sturges was born in the big city of New York in the year 1947. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington. His most popular images, all of beach nudes, are "Misty Dawn 1991" and "Northern California, 1991". His prints range in price from $1,000 to $3,000. His most expensive print sold for $4,000.

Herman Leonard was known for taking great photographs of jazz legends. He was born in Allentown, PA in 1923. He currently lives and works in New Orleans. His most popular images are photos of great jazz legends Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. Herman Leonard was one of the more active photographers even when not working at his craft. He often traveled with great entertainers like Marlon Brando, who he hung out with in 1954. His photos range in price from $950 to $5,500.

Another great photographer was Irving Penn who was born in Plainfield, NJ in 1917. Penn was actually known for a number of different styles of photography including fashion photography and provocative life style portraits. His most famous work was "Cuzco Children" which sold for as much as $175,000 at the turn of the century. Penn worked for some of the most popular magazines of our time including Harper's Bazaar, Saks Fifth Avenue and Vogue Magazine.

Another great photographer, who most people have actually heard of, was the one and only Helmut Newton, who just recently passed away in 2004. He was most known for photos involving fashion and nudes illustrating themes of mass media, glamour, sex and theater. Newton's work was often categorized as bizarre. He was once quoted as saying "My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain". He most certainly did that better than just about anyone else. His most popular image is "Sie Kommen I, II". His photographs are in such demand that some go for as much as $400,000 each.

The list of famous photographers goes on, literally forever. So if you are thinking of joining the ranks of these greats and many others, then you're going to have to work hard at your craft.

Very, very hard.

Michael Russell

Article Source: Thanks to Michael_Russell

History - part 3

2006-04-30T08:29:00.000+07:00

Compared with Daguerreotypes the quality of the early Calotypes was somewhat inferior. However, the great advantage of Talbot's method was that an unlimited number of positive prints could be made. In fact, today's photography is based on the same principle, whereas by comparison the Daguerreotype, for all its quality, was a blind alley.

The mushrooming of photographic establishments reflects photography's growing popularity; from a mere handful in the mid 1840s the number had grown to 66 in 1855, and to 147 two years later. In London, a favourite venue was Regent Street where, in the peak in the mid 'sixties there were no less than forty-two photographic establishments! In America the growth was just as dramatic: in 1850 there were 77 photographic galleries in New York alone. The demand for photographs was such that Charles Baudelaire (1826-1867), a well known poet of the period and a critic of the medium, commented:

"our squalid society has rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gloat at its trivial image on a scrap of metal."

Talbot's photography was on paper, and inevitably the imperfections of the paper were printed alongside with the image, when a positive was made. Several experimented with glass as a basis for negatives, but the problem was to make the silver solution stick to the shiny surface of the glass. In 1848 a cousin of Nicephore Niépce, Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor, perfected a process of coating a glass plate with white of egg sensitised with potassium iodide, and washed with an acid solution of silver nitrate. This new ( albumen ) process made for very fine detail and much higher quality. However, it was very slow, hence the fact that photographs produced on this substance were architecture and landscapes; portraiture was simply not possible.

Progress in this new art was slow in England, compared with other countries. Both Daguerre and Fox Talbot were partly responsible, the former for having rather slyly placed a patent on his invention whilst the French government had made it freely available to the world, the latter for his law-suits in connection with his patents.

In 1851 a new era in photography was introduced by Frederick Scott Archer, who introduced the Collodion process. This process was much faster than conventional methods, reducing exposure times to two or three seconds, thus opening up new horizons in photography.

Prices for daguerreotypes varied, but in general would cost about a guinea (£1.05), which would be the weekly wage for many workers. The collodion process, however, was much cheaper; prints could be made for as little as one shilling (5p).

A further impetus was given to photography for the masses by the introduction of carte-de-visite photographs by Andre Disdéri. This developed into a mania, though it was relatively short-lived.

The collodion process required that the coating, exposure and development of the image should be done whilst the plate was still wet. Another process developed by Archer was named the Ambrotype, which was a direct positive.

The wet collodion process, though in its time a great step forward, required a considerable amount of equipment on location. There were various attempts to preserve exposed plates in wet collodion, for development at a more convenient time and place, but these preservatives lessened the sensitivity of the material. It was clear, then, that a dry method was required. It is likely that the difficulties of the process hastened the search for instantaneous photography. Skaife, in a pamphlet, aptly commented (1860):

"Speaking in general, instantaneous photography is as elastic a term as the expression 'long and short.'"

The next major step forward came in 1871, when Dr. Richard Maddox discovered a way of using Gelatin (which had been discovered only a few years before) instead of glass as a basis for the photographic plate. This led to the development of the dry plate process. Dry plates could be developed much more quickly than with any previous technique. Initially it was very insensitive compared with existing processes, but it was refined to the extent that the idea of factory-made photographic material was now becoming possible.

The introduction of the dry-plate process marked a turning point. No longer did one need the cumbersome wet-plates, no longer was a darkroom tent needed. One was very near the day that pictures could be taken without the photographer needing any specialised knowledge.

Celluloid had been invented in the early eighteen-sixties, and John Carbutt persuaded a manufacturer to produce very thin celluloid as a backing for sensitive material. George Eastman is particularly remembered for introducing flexible film in 1884. Four years later he introduced the box camera, and photography could now reach a much greater number of people.

Other names of significance include Herman Vogel, who developed a means whereby film could become sensitive to green light, and Eadweard Muybridge who paved the way for motion picture photography.

Popular in the Victorian times was stereoscopic photography, which reproduced images in three dimensions. It is a process whose popularity waxed and waned - as it does now - reaching its heights in the mid-Victorian era.

<-- Back

History - part 2

2006-04-30T08:18:00.000+07:00

On 4 January 1829 Niépce agreed to go into partnership with Louis Daguerre. Niépce died only four years later, but Daguerre continued to experiment. Soon he had discovered a way of developing photographic plates, a process which greatly reduced the exposure time from eight hours down to half an hour. He also discovered that an image could be made permanent by immersing it in salt.

Following a report on this invention by Paul Delaroche, a leading scholar of the day, the French government bought the rights to it in July 1839. Details of the process were made public on 19 August 1839, and Daguerre named it the Daguerreotype.

The announcement that the Daguerreotype "requires no knowledge of drawing...." and that "anyone may succeed.... and perform as well as the author of the invention" was greeted with enormous interest, and "Daguerreomania" became a craze overnight. An interesting account of these days is given by a writer called Gaudin, who was present the day that the announcement was made.

However, not all people welcomed this exciting invention; some pundits viewed in quite sinister terms. A newspaper report in the Leipzig City Advertiser stated:

"The wish to capture evanescent reflections is not only impossible... but the mere desire alone, the will to do so, is blasphemy. God created man in His own image, and no man- made machine may fix the image of God. Is it possible that God should have abandoned His eternal principles, and allowed a Frenchman... to give to the world an invention of the Devil?"

At that time some artists saw in photography a threat to their livelihood , and some even prophesied that painting would cease to exist.

The Daguerreotype process, though good, was expensive, and each picture was a once-only affair. That, to many, would not have been regarded as a disadvantage; it meant that the owner of the portrait could be certain that he had a piece of art that could not be duplicated. If however two copies were required, the only way of coping with this was to use two cameras side by side. There was, therefore, a growing need for a means of copying pictures which daguerreotypes could never satisfy.

Different, and in a sense a rival to the Daguerreotype, was the Calotype invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, which was to provide the answer to that problem. His paper to the Royal Society of London, dated 31 January 1839, actually precedes the paper by Daguerre; it was entitled "Some account of the Art of Photogenic drawing, or the process by which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the artist's pencil." He wrote:

"How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed on the paper!"

The earliest paper negative we know of was produced in August 1835; it depicts the now famous window at Lacock Abbey, his home. The negative is small (1" square), and poor in quality, compared with the striking images produced by the Daguerreotype process. By 1840, however, Talbot had made some significant improvements, and by 1844 he was able to bring out a photographically illustrated book entitled "The Pencil of nature."

<-- Back

Next -->

History - part 1

2006-04-30T08:11:00.000+07:00

First, the name. We owe the name "Photography" to Sir John Herschel, who first used the term in 1839, the year the photographic process became public. The word is derived from the Greek words for light and writing.

Before mentioning the stages that led to the development of photography, there is one amazing, quite uncanny prediction made by a man called de la Roche (1729- 1774) in a work called Giphantie. In this imaginary tale, it was possible to capture images from nature, on a canvas which had been coated with a sticky substance. This surface, so the tale goes, would not only provide a mirror image on the sticky canvas, but would remain on it. After it had been dried in the dark the image would remain permanent. The author would not have known how prophetic this tale would be, only a few decades after his death.

There are two distinct scientific processes that combine to make photography possible. It is somewhat surprising that photography was not invented earlier than the 1830s, because these processes had been known for quite some time. It was not until the two distinct scientific processes had been put together that photography came into being.

The first of these processes was optical. The Camera Obscura (dark room) had been in existence for at least four hundred years. There is a drawing, dated 1519, of a Camera Obscura by Leonardo da Vinci; about this same period its use as an aid to drawing was being advocated.

The second process was chemical. For hundreds of years before photography was invented, people had been aware, for example, that some colours are bleached in the sun, but they had made little distinction between heat, air and light.

In the sixteen hundreds Robert Boyle, a founder of the Royal Society, had reported that silver chloride turned dark under exposure, but he appeared to believe that it was caused by exposure to the air, rather than to light.
Angelo Sala, in the early seventeenth century, noticed that powdered nitrate of silver is blackened by the sun.
In 1727 Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that certain liquids change colour when exposed to light.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Thomas Wedgwood was conducting experiments; he had successfully captured images, but his silhouettes could not survive, as there was no known method of making the image permanent.

The first successful picture was produced in June/July 1827 by Niépce, using material that hardened on exposure to light. This picture required an exposure of eight hours.

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What is this?

2006-04-29T20:26:00.000+07:00

According to wikipedia, photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. It involves recording light patterns, as reflected from objects, onto a sensitive medium through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices commonly known as cameras.

The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφις graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is a convenient abbreviation. Many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph. This term is neither more nor less correct than photograph, either in film or digital photography. (The term image is traditional in geometric optics.)

Photography can be classified under imaging technology and has gained the interest of scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used its capacity to make accurate recordings, such as Eadweard Muybridge in his study of human and animal locomotion (1887). Artists have been equally interested by this aspect but have also tried to explore other avenues than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Regular people have also used photography to preserve memories of favourites and as a source of entertainment.

Introduction

2006-04-29T16:31:00.000+07:00

Hi guys! Allow me to introduce my self to you.

My name is Alfa Gatriono Kencana, seem's weird name huh? ^_^ It doesn't matter for me even if someone call me with aLFa, aVanK, or anything else. Since they know me, that's enough.

After you know my name, the simple thing you should know is my address. Why? Because, how you gonna meet me if you don't know my place? Ok! I'll tell my place. You know Student Center? In my college, i used to lived in here, in the room of HMIF (Himpunan Mahasiswa Teknik Informatika) STT Telkom, together with my beloved 'Ninda' (my computer name).

I'm using this site for sharing with others about photography, why? because i loved that very-very much. This is my hobby and i want all people in the world know who am i. I'm not an expert, but another newbie in this world who want to know anything about world. Please, feel free to contact me at avank.st3@gmail.com

That's enough for me pals.