October 1, 2008 at 4:16 pm · Filed under Online Photo Storage Front Page ·Tagged digital storytelling, free online photo album, free online photo storage, free photo editing, online photo sharing, uploading photos

5 Ways to Improve Your Travel Photos

September 2, 2008

Some of us can remember sitting through slideshows: Carousel after carousel of Uncle Herb’s bad photographs from his Mexico vacation. Slide projectors have gone the way of the dodo but the principals of good travel photography remain the same. You’re an avid and knowledgeable traveler, don’t let yourself become that dreaded relative.

The flip-flops you bought at the Chiang Mai night market will eventually break, the T-shirts you bought in Ibiza will fade, but your digital images and photographs, properly persevered, will stand the test of time. Use the following 5 tips for taking photographs and you will have travel images you are proud to show off, and unlike Uncle Herb, your friends and relatives won’t cringe when you bring them out.

Five Tips

1. Plan ahead
If you have the luxury of time, try to plan your photographic excursions. The best times to shoot are the morning and late afternoon. Between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm the sun is at its zenith and the resulting light is very white. It washes out colors and results in lackluster images.

Early morning and late afternoon light both have a special, warm glow. Work with it. If you have limited time, take a look at a map and try to anticipate which locations will be photographed best at each time of day. Early morning has another benefit: In large urban settings there is usually less haze during the early morning.

If you have a few days, do a little reconnaissance. Take a quick walk around the locations you want to capture. Look at the position of the sun, the shadows, and the layout of surrounding buildings. Make notes on your map and plan your return. A little planning will pay photographic dividends.

Plan to take the best photographs possible. Don’t say, “I’ll fix it in Photoshop.” Your aim should be to get the best image possible. Forget about your computer and image editing.

2. Go high, Go low
Look for an interesting perspective on the scene you are trying to capture. Try to get above it, or below it. If possible, kneel down and take your photo closer to ground level. Are there stairs nearby, a second floor café or balcony? Use it. The majority of photographs are taken from standing height. Boring. There are more ways to see the world than from 5′ 8″.

3. Get close
That’s right, get as close as you can without putting yourself in danger: Physical danger, or the danger of looking like a deranged tourist. Yes, your dandy digital camera has great zoom capabilities, but nothing beats getting close to your subject. The details and color will be better.

4. Capture faces
No one wants to see photographs featuring the backs of heads. ‘Get the face,’ was a rule an old photo editor drilled into me. A face, combined with your location, both tells a story and adds humanity to an image. If shooting in an exotic market, take photos of the merchants, not the backs of other travelers’ heads as they browse.

5. Consider the foreground and background
The way you compose your image says a lot. What’s in the foreground? What’s in the background? Considered using selective focus techniques. Have a subject in the foreground with the background blurred, or the opposite. Both techniques will tell a different story.

Many people are uncomfortable taking their camera out of “Auto” mode. Don’t be. Experiment. The great thing about digital cameras is the endless (and free) possibilities they provide. Experiment. Assess. Experiment again. This is best done before you set off on your travels. Knowing your equipment, what it is capable of, will also improve your travel photos.

Planning ahead is the key. Look at the scene and put some thought into your compositions before snapping away like a rabid shutterbug. Photography isn’t about cameras or expensive gear, it’s a way of seeing the world and relating that vision to others. Considering these 5 tips before looking through the viewfinder will help to improve your photographic memories.

Steve is an avid writer and photographer who spends his time teaching in China and photographing his experiences. You can find his blog and pictures at Asian Ramblings.

courtesy of the www.nomadicmatt.com

Camera lenses come in all sizes, speeds, and prices. No doubt you may have been shocked to see the sticker price for lenses after you bought your first SLR (or DSLR as the case may be).

So how does one decide which is the right size lens for you? Go with history and nature (or science as it were).

Photography History teaches us that the 50mm prime lens was once the “staple” of the photography industry and unfortunately may have fallen out of favor with the casual photographer. One has to ask why?

Zoom lenses, like the “kit” lens that came with your camera, “offer” more versatility because you are “combining” many focal lengths in one lens! Well, that’s what the camera manufacturers would have you believe. While zoom lenses certainly have their place (I would never give up my 2.8 70-200mm) they can really be quite skimpy on quality until you hit those “pro” prices.

The simple science behind the 50mm lens creates natural looking images, especially when creating portraiture. Often called the “standard” or “normal” lens, it renders images that closely match the true perspective of the human eye.

Here’s what you can do with a 50mm prime.

• Photograph indoors without a flash

Speed is truly one of the biggest reasons to get a fixed lens. Even the entry level fixed focal length 50mm lenses clock in at around f1.8 which is plenty fast enough to use with limited available light. Getting away from using your on camera flash is the easiest way to eliminate “snapshot photography”!

• Better glass

You may often hear professional photographers discussing the quality of their “glass”. Think of the term “glass” as a general reference for the lens in it’s entirety. Essentially, photographers take many things into consideration when choosing lenses including but not limited to; speed, optics, and price. The optics of a 50mm lens are often times much better than a comparably priced zoom lens. It’s really just a matter of manufacturing costs. The more moving parts there are to a lens the more expensive it is to make. Prime lenses have much fewer moving parts than zoom lenses so the lens manufacturers can use better optics (sharper images) and offer lower prices.

• Become a better photographer

While I tend to shy away from saying that purchasing equipment will make you a better photographer, I truly believe that a prime lens can do that for you. It isn’t just about quality of images produced, it’s more about limiting your options and making you think. Without being able to zoom in and out to frame your image, you’ll actually have to use your feet to “zoom”. You’ll find at times this may limit you, which can be good because you will have to use that brain to creatively overcome whatever obstacle stands in your way.

Here’s the disclaimer part. DSLR’s using the smaller sensors (most DSLR’s) use a “focal length multiplier” of approximately 1.6 which turns a 50mm into an 85mm lens (approximately). No big deal really. It takes a little away from the “normal” human eye perspective, but not by much. You still get the benefits of better optics, a faster lens, and a cheaper price (plus prime lenses tend to be super sharp in comparison to their zoom brethren).

Here are a couple popular 50mm entry level lenses for your Canon or Nikon camera which should cover most of you readers.
(My apologies in advance for not listing every single alternative with prices and comparisons for every single make and model.)

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens Amazon $89.74 at time of publishing.

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras Amazon $108.95 at time of publishing.

While those prices are really great it isn’t much more to move up in quality. The optics get better and the speeds are faster which will give you more freedom in lower light situations and produce better bokeh, so don’t forget to explore those options as well.

Photograph The beauty and the bee by gaelv

Courtesy of the pcworld.ca

You've got a digital photo. How big should you print it?

In the old days, making prints was pretty easy. You'd take a roll of film to the corner store, and in an hour you'd get a bunch of 4-by-6-inch prints. If you especially liked one of them, you could order a 5-by-7 or an 8-by-10. That was pretty much all there was to it.

These days, it's not so simple. There's really no standard print size for digital photos--you can print at any size you want as long as you can fit the paper into your printer. And if you're using an online service like Shutterfly or Snapfish, the sky is the limit, with posters as large as 20 by 30 inches a real possibility. But how do you know what size to choose? What dimensions will work well with the images that come out of your digital camera? Keep reading to find out.

It's All in the Megapixels

The answer is surprisingly simple. The more pixels you have, the larger your print can be. For most home inkjet printers, you should assume that you'll get the best results when you print about 300 dots per inch, so just take the dimensions of your photos and divide them by 300 along both the horizontal and the vertical. Whatever you get is the largest size that you should consider printing. For more on megapixels, be sure to read Digital photography: Are megapixels really important?

Consider this example: You have a photo that's 2240 by 1680 pixels. Do the math, and you get an image size of 7.5 by 5.6 inches; in other words, with a little rounding, you can safely make 5-by-7-inch prints. Or how about a 3872-by-2592-pixel image? That's 12.9 by 8.6 inches, or, in terms we more commonly use, a standard 8 by 10.

Another way to think about this problem is by referring to the number of megapixels. The 3872-by-2592-pixel image I discussed earlier is from a Nikon D200, which makes 10-megapixel photos.

Here's a list that correlates megapixels to print size:

• 2 megapixels = 1200 by 1600 pixels = 4 by 5 inches
• 3 megapixels = 1536 by 2048 pixels = 5 by 7 inches
• 6 megapixels = 2400 by 3000 pixels = 6.5 by 10 inches
• 10 megapixels = 2592 by 3872 pixels = 8.5 by 13 inches
• 12 megapixels = 4368 by 2912 pixels = 9.7 by 14.5 inches

Okay, It's not That Simple

Now that I've given you a handy-dandy reference, let me add that it may not as simple as I've led you to believe.

For starters, the list assumes that you're printing at 300 dpi--and if you do, you'll generally get great results. But the reality is that you can print at lower resolutions and still get fantastic prints. This is especially true of larger prints that you'll hang on the wall. If you're making a 20-by-30-inch poster, most people will stand back and look at it from several feet away. And the farther away you view a photo, the lower the resolution needs to be to give you great results. Think of your digital photo like a television screen--the closer you sit to it, the more obvious the imperfections are. From across the room, almost any TV looks great.

The lesson here is that you shouldn't be afraid to experiment. Try printing your photos at sizes larger than what I've suggested, and see if you like the results.

In addition, techno-purists will argue that there's more to print size than pixels alone--and they're right.

Your camera's sensor size, for example, affects picture quality. A small point-and-shoot might take the same 8-megapixel images as a more costly digital SLR, but the SLR probably relies on a physically bigger sensor. That adds up to a higher quality image, and the resulting prints will be better. As a result, you might have better results printing your point-and-shoot photos a tad smaller.

Your camera's exposure settings can have an effect on print quality as well. Remember that a high ISO will add digital noise to the final print. An ISO 800 photo will look better printed at 5 by 7 inches than at 8 by 10, even if you use a 10-megapixel camera.

*Courtesy of the pcworld.ca

What to Do with all Those Amateur Wedding Photos

(ARA) – Placing disposable cameras on reception tables has become a modern American wedding tradition. The cameras make guests feel involved because they are helping to create a photo record of the most important day of your life. Sometimes the pictures they capture are among the most heart-warming, moving images from your wedding day.

But what do you do with those hundreds of pictures once the honeymoon is over and the developing done? Will you let them languish – disorganized and unseen – in a shoebox or drawer? And what about the dozens of pictures guests will take with their own digital cameras or cell phones to e-mail to you later?

“The sad truth is many newlyweds simply don’t know what to do with all those pictures,” says Donna Burt of PhotosYourWay.com, a new social networking and photo-sharing Web site. “They hold on to them, but often not in a manner that allows the couple or their loved ones to enjoy these precious memories.”

A growing number of smart brides are turning to photo-sharing Web sites to preserve, organize and share amateur images from their weddings, and to create keepsakes like photo books and memorabilia. Most sites allow you to easily upload your images and make them available online for viewing by others.  Other options such as organizing and sharing vary considerably from site to site.

Here’s what you should know about photo-sharing Web sites before you choose one to host your precious wedding day images:

* There should be no charge for uploading, storing or sharing your images. “If a site wants to charge you for these basic services, look elsewhere,” Burt advises. “Sites make their money from prints and products. A handful also make a small percentage when you sell an image – through their site – to a third party like an advertising agency or online content publisher.”

* You’ll potentially be uploading hundreds of wedding images, so look for large storage capacity. For example, PhotosYourWay.com provides 7 GB of free storage, enough to upload and store thousands of photos.

* Look for a site that offers the greatest flexibility for organizing images. Seek a site that will allow you to organize those images in a variety of ways, such as by who took the pictures (Photos by Uncle Joe), subject matter (Who Danced with the Bride) or chronology (Pre-wedding Prep, Walking Down the Aisle or Post-Reception Partying).

* Consider how the site allows you to share images. Can you send e-mails inviting friends and family to visit and view your images? Can you designate your images “private” or “public” at the time of upload? Does the site allow you to launch your own “community,” where your pictures can be viewed by not only your loved ones but other Internet users who may share your interest?

* Comparison shop on prices for prints and other products, such as photo books, canvas prints, mugs, T-shirts and other memorabilia. Be aware of shipping charges, which can amount to more than the cost of the prints or products themselves.  

* Does the site allow those you share the photos with to download the images and print them on their own? Or will they be required to purchase prints through the Web site?  PhotosYourWay.com will allow you or any of your family and friends to download the photos themselves and print them on their own or wherever they choose.

* Does the site offer you the opportunity to sell your images online to third parties, like advertising or public relations agencies, online publishers and others who need stock photography? PhotosYourWay.com is one of the only sites that offer users the chance to make money from their images.

“There’s a huge demand for wedding-related images,” says Burt. “That adorable photo of your father dancing with your niece may warm your heart, but it could also make you some money if someone wants to buy or rent it for use in their marketing materials.”

To make money from your wedding photos, simply designate them for public viewing – and available for rent – during the upload process. The images will be funneled through PhotosYourWay’s sister site, ImagesYourWay.com, where clients who need a steady stream of fresh, quality images will have the chance to view and rent them. You will pocket 60 percent of the rental price for your photo – as much as $180 in some cases.

To learn more about organizing and sharing your wedding photos, visit www.PhotosYourWay.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent