Great Group Photos in a Snap

Use this portrait checklist from Ron Nichols, author of Picture - Taking for Mums and Dads, to ensure that this year's family photo is red-eye free and doesn't lop half of Uncle Sam out of the shot:

1. Try tiers. Arrange people at different heights, some on the sofa and some standing, for a more dynamic picture.
   
2. Ask "How's the view?" If someone can't see the camera, his face may be blocked.
   
3. Leave wiggle room. Keep a head's width of space between your subjects and the frame's edge in the viewfinder.
   
4. See the light. To banish red eyes, turn up room lights or, better yet, shoot in indirect sunlight. For consistent lighting, keep front and back rows less than 1.5 metres apart.
   
5. Watch your background. Avoid walls and mirrors, which can cast shadows and glare.
   
6. Click, click, click. Your subjects will relax without the pressure of just one "say cheese" moment. So snap at least five frames, and you're sure to get a winner.

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How to get a quick passport size photo?

Need a quick passport size photo? Simply take a digital photo of your face in front of a white background and upload it online to ePassportPhoto.com. You can crop it on the site and you'll get an image file to save back to your own computer. If you own a digital camera and color printer, the service will cost you noting. What's more, you can keep snapping photos until you're happy with the result. » Continue reading

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Tips for printing Digital Photos

Capture great memories and moments with tips on printing digital photos.

Fan your paper first
Before you put it into the paper tray, bend the stack and run your finger along the edge. This ensures the sheets feed flawlessly.

Select the right paper setting
Many HP photo printers with optical sensors for paper type allow you to select the actual name of the paper you are using. Use it to enhance paper feed and print quality.

Don't stack your photos
Don't stack your photos before they are totally dry. This may cause the photo below to stick onto the back of the one above.

Leave them to dry before storing
Resist the temptation to slot your phtos into a photo album the moment they are printed. Air them in a cool place to dry them before storing.

Keep them protected
Exposing your photos to air and moisture causes them to fade or turn yellow. Store your photos in an album or photo frame to protect them. » Continue reading

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Genius G-Shot D5123 5.0 megapixel CMOS digital camera

Genius' G-Shot D5123 is a new feature rich 5 megapixel four-in-one CMOS digital camera. Its slide cover and light body make it extremely portable. The G-Shot D5123, four-in-one includes functionalities like digital camera, digital video camera, web camera and storage drive. Although the camera comes with a 32MB memory card, it can be upgraded upto a 1 GB SD memory card.


G-Shot D5123 enables high quality images up to 12 megapixel by interpolation to be taken sharply in large size pictures of 12-inch x 18-inch. The built-in microphone provides voice for video in 640x480 (VGA) and 320x240 (QVGA). A 2.0-inch color TFT LCD screen make it easy to frame th subject when capturing images and also displays the image comfortably in playback mode. The 4x digital zoom can help focus on far subjects easily.

Choosing slideshow function in playback mode, one can share photos with family and friends immediately like a digital photo frame DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) function. One can specify the image and the number of prints while chiecking the image n the display screen. With 1GB external memory card one can store over 50,000 images.

It's priced at INR 6,900 (USD 172 approx.) » Continue reading

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Ancient Images

Behold the granddaddy of cameras! The 1839-model daguerreotype camera in the picture was the first camera to be sold commercially.

In a daguereotype the image is exposed directly onto a polished silver plate. It is a direct image-making process with no 'negatives' involved. It produced images 16.5 cm × 21.5 cm.

Named after French cmist Louis J. M. Daguerre, dagueeeotypes are preserved by sealing them in vacuum-sealed glass cases filled with nitrogen.

The warrantee label on the side of the camera was signed by Daguerre himself.

Photo courtesy of the JCII Camera Museum. » Continue reading

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Believe it or not: Iceberg Ahead!

Now you know why the Titanic sank. A rig manager for a marine drilling company in Newfoundland clicked this photo. Ships have to be diverted for miles away from these icebergs, which look smaller from above the water than their real size underwater. The weight of this particular iceberg is estimated to be around 300,000,000 tons! » Continue reading

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Click a photo from your window and win a digital camera!

If you are a pro photographer or if you have ever freakishly clicked a pro photograph of something from a window, this is your chance to get your hands on a digital camera worth several hundred dollars.

FuelMyBlog with Sponsorship from Sportingo is running a competition, where in you can submit a photograph that you have taken from a window of your home, office, car, hotel room or even a stadium and win a digital camera -- however which camera is not very clear, all they mention is a "digital camera worth several hundred dollars".

In order to enter the competition, you need to have a blog and write about the photograph you want submitted, in the competition, on your blog and submit the link to the post along with the photograph (sized 300x225 pixels) and a short description of why you took it and where.

Wanna go for it? Hurry up, submit now! Contest ends April 20, 2007. » Continue reading

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Shooting that perfect picture on a holiday

You may be proud of your vacation photos, but they may seem to fall short of the quality you see in travel magazines. To improve your photos, the Society of American Travel Writers offers these tips:

Shoot in early morning and late afternoon. It'll add more color and shadows to your photos, giving more definition to your subject.

Put locals in your photos. Ask permission first and don't make them pose.

Pay attention to background detail. Often, a tree or a telephone pole seems to be growing right out of your subject's head. Change your viewpoint or move the subject so as to avoid that.

Before you click, wait. for the clouds to clear, the truck to move away from the front of the cathedral or other distractions to pass.

For detailed shots, get closest to your subject so as to fill the frame with your subject

Show a sense of location. In the tropics, frame the photo with palm trees; in the mountains, frame it with pine trees.

Look for a new angle on the familiar: Shoot the beach on a foggy day instead of in the sun, or shoot bright colors on an overcast day.

Avoid facing the sun, especially when shooting people. If your camera supports force-flash, use it even under daylight, so as to eliminate shadows on faces. Also avoid wearing hats, which causes shadows on the face. » Continue reading

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The all new Camera Phone Kit from Sony Ericsson for Wanna-be pro photographers

Sony Ericsson has just announced a Camera Phone Kit, specifically for use with its Cyber-shot camera phones. The kit includes a Cyber-shot branded protective case for the phone, which can be attached to a belt using a belt clip provided along with the kit or kept in a bag, a micro tripod with flexible legs and friction feet that allows you to hold the camera steady for the self-timer and a tripod connector.

The tripod is 97mm high and the protective case weighs just 49 grams and comes in black.

The wanna-be photographers can now act a little too smart flaunting this micro tripod.

The Camera Phone Kit IPK-100 will be available globally from Q2 2007. You can buy it online from the Sony Ericsson e-shop. » Continue reading

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Deceiving the camera to get the desired color balance

White balance set to 'Daylight'-Neutral color balance

White balance set to lower color temperature, resulting in cooler color balance.

White balance set to a higher color temperature, resulting in warmer colors.

Higher Kelvin temperatures give 'Cool' colors whereas lower color temperatures gives warm colors. Yet, it is suggested that we set a higher color temperature on a digital camera to get 'warmer' colors.

We set White Balance on a digital camera to compensate for the color of the existing light source. If the color of the light is orange (as with incandescent bulbs), the subject will take on a orange color cast.

Since we don't want the color cast, we set the White Balance to 'Incandescent', thereby telling the camera that in this orange colored light, we want our whites as white. Once that happens, all other colors will reproduce correctly.

During daytime (say 11.00am), by setting your digital camera to a higher Kelvin temperature you are deceiving the camera in to believing that the available light is 'cooler' (that is, 'bluer') when actually it is not. So the camera, assuming that the light is 'bluer' (that is, 'colder'), compensates in the opposite direction by making the image 'warmer'. » Continue reading

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Profiling & Calibrating CRT and LCD monitors

Yesterday I discussed the importance of profiling computer monitors in order to get optimum printing results. Today let us look at the ways to get your CRT and LCD monitors profiled and calibrated.

The simplest way to profile your monitor is using Photoshop. If you are using Photoshop version 5.0 and above it comes packaged along with Adobe Gamma which can profile your computer monitor. However this isn't the best solution as it is too subjective and prone to user error.

The scientific way to get your monitor profiled is using a monitor-profiling package and a spyder - a tiny device that when attached to your screen works with the software to calibrate and profile your monitor. It produces objective settings for black point, white point and gamma as well as color balance. These packages are available for around US $300 and can save you a lot of time and money in producing accurate, reliably consistent prints.

How they work?

The spyder is plugged into a USB port and the software is installed and run. The software then asks to attach the spyder to the screen (or hold it in place). Once it is in place the program then proceeds to flash a series of colors for several minutes. The spyder reads these colors and informs the software of what it's seeing. The program then calibrates your monitor and creates a Profile based on this information. This profile is simply a text file which describes how your monitor displays various colors.

What to look for when buying a monitor-profiling package?

Before you set out to buy a monitor-profiling package, read this "open letter to monitor profiling software manufacturers" by Ethan Hansen which will help you get the right monitor-profiling package suitable for your job.

Is there anything more that needs to be done after calibrating and profiling my monitor?

Once you have calibrated and profiled your monitor, you need to set up Photoshop to work properly. Computer Darkroom has some must read comprehensive tutorials by Ian Lyons that will help you get all the settings right in Photoshop 5, 6, 7 and CS (a.k.a. version 8).
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How important is profiling computer monitors in DTP

It is said that to get colors right, computer monitors need to be profiled. How important is this? Is it really necessary for me to spend a lot of money to get a device to profile my monitor? I have a home printer and I am quite satisfied with the colors but when I give my files to a lab, they often give me lousy colored prints.

Let us take a hypothetical situation and assume that your computer monitor has a blue cast, that you are unable to notice. Let's also say that your room is lit by incandescent bulbs (yellowish lights). The yellow light could cut the blue and that could be the reason you were not able to notice the blue color cast on the monitor. Now, if you were to give this digital file to a lab, you are very likely to get a print with a blue cast.

In this example, let us say that your room lighting is perfect (not giving any color cast). Your computer monitor is still giving a blue cast that you are not able to notice. When you print the file using your home printer, the print looks good - without any color cast. Does that mean that your system is perfect? Not necessarily. Your printer may be giving a yellow color cast that could be canceling the blue cast from the monitor! In this case, two wrongs seem to be making a right! As explained, such a situation does not mean that everything is OK.

To circumvent such potential problems, and if you are very particular about your work, it is very much necessary for you to profile your computer monitor as well as your printer. It is also necessary to profile the monitor/printer every month, as the calibrations do shift (slightly) from time to time.

There is one solution (?), though it is very unscientific and debatable. Don't try to compare the colors of your print to those on the monitor. If you are happy with the print colors (even thought they may not match the original scene), then be happy. Think of this in reality - can you hundred percent remember the multitude of colors that you saw in the original scene? Can any man-made imaging device (film or digital sensor) ever 100-percent match the colors provided by mother Nature? Mind you, I am not advocating that we do a sloppy job, I am merely indicating that trying to be 100-percent accurate in everything we do in life, is close to madness.

Tomorrow, I will talk about how to get your CRT and LCD screens profiled. » Continue reading

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Key to professional photography with your mobile phone

You might have the latest mobile phone with a 10 mega pixel camera, but do you have the skill to shoot great pictures? Having a good camera phone is just half way to taking good professional photos, the rest depends on how you use it and it's pro features.

Snap It! by Doug Harman will guide you in taking great pictures with your mobile phone, developing an eye for detail and working within the limitations of your camera phone. It does not only cover the basics of photography, but also teaches you to make optimum use of your gadget. Not just that! It easily slips in to your pocket just like your camera phone so that it is handy just when you need it.

The book begins with Camera phone features and composition to ensure that you get your basics right. Doug Harman then highlights other essential features such as zoom lenses, sensors, pixel count, etc. that will aid you in achieving professional-looking images. He packs hundreds of simple tricks like shooting indoors & outdoors, composition tips etc., which are explained through sections like Basics. The fun chapters to read are the ideas on capturing parties, people, holidays, pets and arty shots. The information on transferring your photos using Infrared technology, Bluetooth or WiFi proves to be extremely beneficial too.

The book is well balanced in terms of text and visuals. Though at times the text seems to get repetitive, for example in topics like macro photography and beaming. And talking about images, not all do justice to photography. Photos are not at their best, especially while addressing topics like landscape photography, shooting animals and portraits. But the commendable aspect about the book is that every featured photograph has an explanation, which helps gain a better understanding of the subject and the situation it was taken.

Remember, camera phones too can be an equally authentic means of visual documentation. So, whether you are an advanced photographer or a novice, following the simple guidelines in Snap It! will help you take better pictures. You will not get the detail and high quality prints like digital camera, but they will help you capture those candid moments and share them instantly with family or friends. So, grab this book as soon as possible and start experimenting with your camera phones.

Buy Snap It! at Amazon.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Amazon, Doug Harman or his Publisher at the time of writing this article and will not get a penny for the sales of this book. » Continue reading

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