Digital Photography

Boudoir Photography is creating quite a cyberspace buzz these days. Many models consider sensuous images a critical element in their portfolio. Playboy photos have illustrated the beauty of the female body since Marilyn Monroe appeared on the cover of Playboy in 1953. Men and women alike have enjoyed them. Modern-day culture has moved beyond the strictures Queen Victoria laid on her subjects for over a century, and most adults today have room for a healthy dose of sexuality in their lives, including sensuous pictures. So what makes the difference between quality **** pictures and trash? Continue reading »

Tags: Boudoir, Lingerie

We can get a glimpse of fashion photography almost everywhere we look on TV, newspapers, internet and all media. Dazzling women with long legs and tanned skin scream for attention on news stands all over the place. It is the fashion photographer who is primarily responsible to bring those photographers to us, the everyday people. Unlike what one often imagines, there is more to fashion photography than a glitzy life style, fun and happening models. In fact there is a lot of planning involved behind every single fashion photograph that we see. Continue reading »

Tags: Fashion, Photographic Style

Just the mere mention of “boudoir” photography and you immediately get the vision of sensual, elegant photos that leave much to the viewer’s imagination, and accomplishing the task of making him want more.

In the 1700’s, the term “boudoir” referred to the dressing and bathing room of a woman, complete with romantic furniture, floral arrangements and beautiful fragrances; the boudoir was a place for women to pamper themselves and indulge in feminine luxuries. Today, boudoir, a term derived from a French verb, meaning, “to pout,” has become one of the most popular forms of personal glamour photography. Continue reading »

Tags: Nudity, Wearing Lingerie

Landscape photography is essentially all about ones ability to see. No matter what camera you might have, unless the photographer has the ability to see the essence of a landscape, he or she will never end up with any images out of the ordinary. This ability to see, distinguish, and isolate the extraordinary from the ordinary, and then have the technical knowledge to be able to capture it photographically, is what separates the best photographers from the crowd. Too many people get obsessed with the equipment, and it tends to distract them away from what photography is really all about, which is seeing. Continue reading »

Tags: Landscape, Magic Hour, Panorama

Your wedding day is a day that will live in your memory for a lifetime; but it will also live in the pictures captured throughout your wedding ceremony and reception. Choosing a photographer for your wedding is more than deciding who you want to be with you throughout the day; it’s choosing the style in which you want your wedding pictures to be presented. And many modern brides are choosing contemporary wedding photography. Continue reading »

Tags: Formal, Wedding

Macro photography is one of the most attractive and popular forms of photography. According to some experts it is very easy to master the art and techniques of macro photography and that is, perhaps, the secret behind its fame. Continue reading »

Tags: close-up, Macro

There are a wide range of options and features available for DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras and it can be confusing if you are buying this type of camera for the first time. This guide will help you decide which features are important to you and hopefully help you to choose your ideal DSLR camera. Continue reading »

Tags: DSLR, Image Stabilisation

Canon has always been associated with some great futuristic technology in camera. In 2005 they had announced a new DSLR category when they had introduced their EOS 5 D model. This model was compact and had a full frame sensor. However, with the introduction of new cameras from Sony and Nikon, Canon has introduced an upgraded model namely the Canon EOS Mark II. Continue reading »

Tags: Canon Cameras, Canon Eos, Comparison, D Camera, Nikon D3

Camera is an option of capturing the beautiful moments of life. Many years ago, capturing the beautiful moment was not easy. Users or photographers had to set the camera and after a boring process it was possible to capture the pictures. Now everything has changed. Continue improvements of camera have changed methods of capturing. Photography used for professional or entertainment is easy now. Digital camera has changed the methods of capturing photos and videos. Continue reading »

Tags: Nikon Cameras, Professional Cameras

Ever wondered how a photographer is able to get blown up pictures of a frog that is less than an inch long? What about a close up picture of living tissue or a postage stamp?

There is no magic to how this is done. An ordinary 35mm. camera can do this but if the hobbyist wants to get down on things, using something that is 100mm. or higher is better. This art is known as called macro photography or “photomacrography.” Continue reading »

Tags: Macro

Basic Specifications of Sony Alpha DSLR-A900
Style : Digital SLR
Megapixels : 24.6
Resolution : 3:2
File Formats : JPEG/RAW
Memory Cards : CompactFlash MicroDrive Memory Stick Duo
Shutter Speed : 1/8000 - 30 seconds and bulb
Sensitivity : Auto 100 - 6400 Continue reading »

Tags: Sony Cameras, Sony Dslr

The Nikon D80 digital SLR camera is perhaps not exactly what Nikon fans were expecting. It’s meant to replace the D70, yet it’s strikingly similar. This brings to mind an interesting issue. All companies, electronics or otherwise, are under constant pressure from their shareholders to release new products. Even you produce the enormously popular “super widget” your stock holders will darn well expect you to produce “super duper widget” in the next fiscal year. In this sense, the D80 might be Nikon telling us that the D70 was a great camera that needed few improvements. Continue reading »

Tags: Digital Slr Camera, Nikon D80, Nikon D80 Dslr Camera, Review

One of the most satisfying forms of photography, and one of the easiest to master is macro photography.

A practical way for defining macro photography is by the strength of the lens, or how nearby it can focus. For true macro photography, you’ll want to have a lens that focuses down to a 1:1 range. For example,for 35mm film,your camera has to have the ability to focus on an area at least as small as 2436mm ,because this is the size of the image on the film.After having the film developed,the picture of the subject on the negative or slide will be exactly the same size as the subject photographed. Continue reading »

Tags: DSLR, Macro, Macro Lens

Japan based Nikon Corporations rule the digital photographic devices market for its razor sharp clarity and fineness. Nikon’s trustworthiness and creativity with its products coupled with strategic marketing propelled it to the top. It’s the obvious virtue of customers to expect very high quality stuff with simple operability and Nikon supersedes all expectations with lan. Continue reading »

Tags: DSLR, Nikon, Review

Depth of field is one of the most important aspects of photography you can learn. Use depth of field well in your photography and you can gain immense control over the look and impact of your photos. Unfortunately, depth of field also seems to be one of the toughest aspects for beginners to learn and master. Continue reading »

Tags: Depth of Field

Biznets asked:


subject is reproduced in a photograph can be very different from how it looked to you as you took the picture. When you cast your eye over a scene, everything in it seems more or less equally sharp, but sometimes in the finished shot only part of the subject appears acceptably sharp.

This zone of sharpness is called the depth-of-field, and it extends in front of and behind the point that you actually focused on. The size of the zone is determined by three key factors - the aperture of the lens, the focal length of the lens used, and the distance you are from the subject. Varying these three elements allows you almost complete control over the depth-of-field in a picture.

When most of the picture is sharp, we say there’s lots of depth-of-field. When only part is sharp, we say depth-of-field is limited. As we’ll see later, whether you go for extensive or limited depth-of-field depends upon the subject matter and how you want to depict it

Three main factors that can be used to control depth-of-field



1 The aperture.

There’s a simple, direct relationship between aperture and depth-of-field - the smaller the aperture, the more extensive the depth-of-field.

So if you want to keep as much as possible sharp, you should set as small an aperture as possible - preferably f/16, or even f/22 if your lens offers it.

Depending on lighting conditions and your film stock, you may need to use a tripod or some other form of support at such small apertures, as the resulting long shutter speeds create a risk of camera-shake.

If, however, you want to concentrate attention on just one part of the scene, and throw the rest out-of-focus, you should select a large aperture. Exactly how large this can be depends on the maximum aperture of the lens you’re using. On a 50mm standard lens it will be f/1.7, f/1.8 or f/2, but on a standard zoom it will typically be f/3.5 or f/4.5.

For general picture-taking, when you want most of the picture to be in focus, you might want to set a middling aperture of around f/8 to f/11.

This is what a program exposure mode sets when left to its own devices Whenever possible you should take control of aperture selection and use either an aperture-priority or manual mode.

Four common techniques using depth-of-field

Use these four common approaches when planning a shot to ensure depth-of-field works for you

1 Everything sharp.

With subjects such as landscapes, groups, interiors and travel you’ll usually want to keep everything sharp. Using a wide-angle lens set to a small aperture will give you extensive depth-of-field, perhaps from around one meter through to infinity. But there will be times when foreground interest is closer than that. Here you need to resort to a neat little technique called hyperfocal focusing that allows you to increase the depth-of-field.

As a rule-of-thumb, there’s twice more depth-of-field behind the subject than in front of it. So if you photograph a distant subject such as a landscape and focus on infinity you waste lots of depth-of-field. By focusing a little closer, you’ll extend the depth-of-field at the front so it comes nearer to the camera, while still making sure that infinity falls within the depth-of-field behind the actual point of focus.



You can guess the hyperfocal focusing distance, but life is much easier if your lens is marked with a depth-of-field scale. This used to be regarded as an essential feature, but with the development of wide-ranging zooms many manufacturers now omit one. If you do have such a scale, simply line up the infinity mark against the mark for the aperture you’ve set and, although the image in the viewfinder will look out-of-focus, the finished image will be sharp from front to back.



2 Main subject sharp with background completely out-of-focus.

There are some subjects where you want the main subject to stand out strongly from an out-of-focus background. Portraiture, where the emphasis is on the person, rather than the location, is probably the most popular area. What you need here is a use a telephoto lens at its widest aperture. It’s also worth moving the subject as far away as possible from the background - in cramped studio situations this is often impossible but outside against a wall or foliage it’s usually easier. Take care, though, that you focus accurately, as the limited depth-of-field will be unforgiving of any focusing errors. For portraits focus on the eye for the best results.



3Main subject sharp, with background out-of-focus but still recognisable.

Sometimes throwing the background completely out-of-focus is going too far. You want to show the subject in its natural environment, but with the background toned down to it doesn’t compete for attention. A person on the beach, for instance, an animal in the zoo, or a flower in a garden. Here a standard to short telephoto lens, somewhere from 50mm to 135mm, is ideal - especially if it’s coupled with a middle range aperture of around f/8.



4 Zone of sharpness deliberately limited.

Occasionally you may want to limit the depth-of-field to a very specific zone. Maybe in a portrait you want just the eyes in focus, and not even the ears or the tip of the nose. Here, once again, a depth-of-field scale on the lens helps, or, failing that a depth-of-field preview facility on the camera, This will give a visual indication of what will and won’t be in focus by manually stopping down the lens.



Summary

Overall, the practical use of depth-of-field can be summed up as follows:

To maximise depth-of-field and have as much sharp as possible use a wide-angle lens, set a small aperture and stand back from your subject

To minimise depth-of-field with only a small zone of the scene sharp use a telephoto lens, set a large aperture, and get closer to your subject.

27/08/2008 http://8×10cameras.com





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Tags: Control, Depth of Field, Limited Depth Of Field

There are many photographers in this world who seem to favor landscape photography more over any of the other types of photography. Personally speaking I like it when my photographs have some element of life in it be it human or not, but I can see where sweeping shots of rolling hills, toiling seas and endless skies does have an impact on the viewer.

To my mind there are two distinctly different types of landscape photography around. That of the natural landscape photography, and that of the urban landscape photography. Both have their pros and both have their cons, and its really up to the photographer and their sense of imagination to get across to us a grand scene.

Be that as it may though, to get a decent landscape photography shot you dont need to travel to far and distant lands, in fact you dont even need to leave your home.

To start your landscape photography you can just take a ride on out to your back, or front yard, and have a quick go there to see how well you can make this everyday setting into something extraordinary.

Of course the fun with traveling to far and distant lands to get your landscape photography shots is that most of the hard work has already been done for you.

The scenes have already been set to perfection and theres always going to be some really great vantage point that you can go to, to take your pictures.

The trouble with going it at home is that you need to set the shot up for yourself. You need to see the good in your yard and you need to be able to translate that into something that doesnt look like your back yard.

Landscape photography is not an easy task, but it is well worth the try as you open yourself up to the vast array of possibilities and you learn to think outside of the box. So the next time you go to far and distant lands you wont just be taking the same old boring shot that everyone before you has, instead youll be looking at the various possibilities to be had from different angles and how you can possibly accomplish landscape photography.

Like I said earlier there are two types of landscape photography and natural landscape photography is one of them. Landscape photography of this variety is what you see most of the time. Shots of lightning streaking down from the sky, tumbling waterfalls, roiling seas and densely packed green foliage from the middle of a rainforest, weve seen them all and yet we keep coming back for more. We never tire of seeing these glorious photographs, just as we never tire of seeing the more mundane landscape shots either.

The ones taken of the more tranquil scenes, of ponds filled with lily pads, of gardens filled with riotous flowers, and of mile upon mile of rolling farmland stretching out into the distance as far as the eye can see. These all appeal to us and what appeals to us most is what we will also try to photograph.

The urban jungle on the other hand is not something that appeals to everybody. Some find it to be too stark and prefer instead the landscape photography view of nature.

But the urban jungle is a truly magnificent place in which you can get lost and take the most amazing pictures. You just need to know where and how to look. There are so many interesting sights that we take for granted and pass by everyday without thinking twice about it.

Its only when the truly inspired landscape photographer takes a look into this little world of ours and sees it for what it is and shoots it, that we also see the beauty in it. As you can see, and as you have seen in the past, landscape photography doesnt need to be only about Natures landscapes, it can also be about the magnificence of man-made landscapes as well.

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Tags: Landscape

Where Do I Find Glamor Models to Shoot is the question I hear most in this genre. Glamour photography is **** and romantic-erotic without pornography. However, models for such portfolios aren’t easy to find. Glamour model wannabes are a dime a dozen. They generally lack experience, knowledge and the innate sense of what creates a great photo shoot with a great photographer. Some of them are on their way to becoming great, but just haven’t arrived yet. And others have made their way into the world of Boudoir Photography in their attempts to find a niche for their work.

Boudoir photography is generally reserved for the more intimate and sensual displays of a personal nature, such as the array a new bride might want to give her groom as a wedding gift. It revolves around romantic and sensual themes, and the emphasis is on personal. The female form is celebrated in a romantic and **** way. Taken a step beyond the personal portfolio a bride might want to create, a good glamor model will know how to create personal and inviting poses like those in a boudoir shoot, as she works with a good photographer who understands his business and has developed good photography skills.

The big question for photographers is, How do I get great models to shoot without having to pay high dollar prices for great models? Good glamor photography is generally handled and distributed by a few big names in the industry; their work is sold to magazines and publications. Good photographers attract good models. The problem is how to attract good models and build your portfolio without leveraging yourself beyond your means.

Mandarich Models has found some invaluable resources on the internet. Profiles, pictures and networking are all available on web sites such as www.modelmayhem.com and www.omp.com and www.myspace.com . Chatting with other photographers and models on blogs and in chat rooms helps identify potential models, or may simply open the door for networking with people and groups that will become resources in the future. And if you find a model that may help you create a great portfolio, a little schmoozing doesn’t hurt!

Glamour or Boudoir photography is different from other genres because it emphasizes the model rather than products, fashion or environment. Finding great models is the first step!

A final word for the average woman in our readership… You don’t have to be a model to love seeing yourself in a soft and sensual portrait. Whether the one holding the camera is a professional photographer or your friend or spouse or significant other, you love seeing your persona captured in a photo. You don’t have to be ‘beautiful’ as described by a beauty magazine. Photographing a woman in her natural state, with the emphasis on soft and sensual, good posing, carefully defined lighting and effective communication between picture-taker and model all results in incredible and tasteful artistic photos she will treasure forever.

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Tags: Glamour

Stock photography has always been considered the ugly stepchild of commercial photography. Originally stock photos consisted of out-takes from assignmentsthe seconds if you will. The strategy for success for a stock shooter was to get as much content into the collection as possiblenot a methodology for gaining a reputation for quality!

Bringing Quality To Stock

Along came Tony Stone (Tony Stone Imagesnow Getty Images) who changed the approach from how much material is in a collection to how good the material in a collection is. He pared down the number of images keeping only the very best, made lots of dupes of a given image (back then you had to send out transparenciesso with more dupes of a given image that image could be in front of more potential buyers at once), and became enormously successful. My original stock agency was a company call AfterImage. When Stone purchased it the first thing that happened was that they sent virtually all of my material back to me and only kept a handful of images. The second thing that happened was that my sales tripled!

Getty bought Tony Stone Images and began to apply business principles to stock photography. It looked as though stock my finally start to be looked upon with a little more respectthen RF happened. And again, the emphasis shifted to how much material one could get in. In some cases photographers would sell their entire archives for a set price.

The Saturation Of Images In Stock

Now stock photography is saturated with a gazillion photossome of amazing qualityand a huge number of well-executed but repetitive lifestyle and business image. With crowd sourcing and the entry of non-professionals into the market through agencies like Istockphoto, stock is still the ugly stepchild of commercial photographybut not to me.

Creative Freedom

For me, stock is the highest form of commercial photography. It gives the photographer something truly valuablecreative control. As a stock shooter I am able to choose whatever I want to photograph. I get to photograph my subject in whatever way I want to do it. Unlike assignment photography there are no limitsno Art Directors to satisfy (or rely on), no account executives to please, no clients to impose their own perceptions on your work. No limits!

That isnt to say there arent any challengesthere are challenges galore! While there is no client to impose limitationsthere is also no client to bankroll the shoot.

While there are no limits to what you can shootno one else is coming up with ideas for you. While there are no Art Directors to impose their visionsit is up to you to have that vision and be true to it.

The Challenges of Creative Freedom

Creative freedom is something that I think is a core need of every photographer. But along with that freedom comes challenges. Few things require us to use that creative muscles as much as stock. We need to be creative in coming up with what to shoot. We need creativity in virtually every aspect of stock. Creativity in how to arrange access to a difficult subject, creativity in how to shoot without the financial resources of a clientand creative decisions need to be made on where and how to place the work.

As I write this I have a list of a hundred or so images that I want to create for stock. Sometimes it takes me two years for my subconscious mind to finally figure out how to make something work under the budget and access limits that I have. That brings up another great point about stock. There are no arbitrary deadlinesonly the ones I set for myself.

An example of an idea that took time for me to solve the budgetary restrictions onand the need to exercise creativity in how to get the shots, can be found in a series of stock photos I did with elephants as the subject matter. I originally came up with the idea because I wanted to be close to an elephantto be able to touch one and just hang out with it for a while. So I came up with a few elephant ideas. When I found out it would cost me $5,000.00 just to rent one elephant I put the project on the back burner. A year ago I planned a trip to South East Asia. I was going to shoot in Myanmar (Burma) for a couple of weeks. I would be flying to Yangon, Myanmars capital, out of Bangkok. I began to wonder what I could shoot in Thailand as long as I was going to be there anyway. Then it popped into my headelephants! Perhaps it would cost less to rent one there. Yesone elephant cost me $450.00. For a whole day! Well, I got to hang out with, and touch, an elephant. And in the eight months that I have had the resulting images in the market place I have already earned almost $20,000.00 from those images!

Because of stock I have had the opportunity to hang with a lion, a tiger, and an elephantIve had the chance to shoot a baboon in my studio too. Animals, of course, are not the only perks I have been able to enjoy from shooting stock. I spent a week (and made a nice a profit off of) one of the swankiest Penthouses in Buenos Aires, a magnificent casa in Mexico, heck, I have even rented a disco (also in Buenos Aires) and had a crazy fun time shooting what in effect was a private disco party complete with a crowd of dancers, throbbing music, and smoke machines. Cool!

For me stock is the highest form of commercial work. It requires discipline, creativity, and guts (heyit can take real guts to spend large sums of money on a speculative shoot). But as they say on late-night television infomercials; waittheres more! There is the friendship and fun factor. For me, it is a lot more fun shooting stock where there is no outside pressure to perform and no one but myself to answer too. Also, for a number of my shoots I have invited other photographers to join me. For the disco shoot I shot with three other photographers. We all shared in the cost and worked togetherbut each producing our own set of images. A creative way to reduce the expense of our shoot, to spread the production time and labor outand to get to work with some close friends. When was the last time you invited some close photographer friends to shoot with you on an assignment?

Well, there you have it. My view of why stock is actually the highest form of commercial photography. It is all on your shouldersand with the only limits being those you place on yourself. You dont have to add to those gazillion images of business people on cell phonesor laughing couples on the beach. Sure you canbut you can also allow give yourself amazing challenges with rewards that are commensurate.

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Tags: Commercial Photography, Stock Photos

Have your friends have told you how good your photography is? Are the prints you create appreciated by friends and family? Have they have suggested that you start your own wedding photography studio? If so, you may be asking what is your next step? Well, with a little help, you can get started in your very own business.

Wedding photography can provide you with an excellent income, either full or part time. Wedding photography has been the catalyst for many of the top professional photographers. Doing it for yourself of course, means that you get to keep all the money. But, please note that as the photographer, you will often be required to act as the wedding coordinator as well, as these days, most brides cannot afford one. And if there is no wedding coordinator, then it is usually the wedding photographer who will make sure everyone is where they should be most of the time. The downloadable course is designed to help you in all aspects of the days event. As the wedding photographer, you need to make sure that the bride and groom follow your directions. Make them aware that it is in their interest to follow your directions because they want a whole lot of great looking photos for their album.

As you prepare for an event, you need to make sure that all your equipment is ready, and that you have everything you need for the days event. If possible, be sure to have a series of back-ups, a spare camera body, a spare lens and a spare flash in case any of your prime units fails. You should always be prepared so that you never haver to come up to the bride during a wedding and try to explain that you equipment just broke and you cannot take any photos. Again, a death sentence. Your back-up units do not need to be identical to your prime units, but they should be at least close to the same specs. The camera needs to be able to take images at the same resolution as your prime camera, otherwise there will be a noticeable difference in quality of the final prints. The flash unit can be a smaller unit with a slightly lower light output, but if it happens, then this unit will have to do quite a bit of work, so be careful. Make sure that the spare flash is fully charged before taking photos. I have seen a number of photographers get excited about taking some pictures at an event, and they will often just fire away, taking picture after picture, not realizing that the flash is not fully charged for each picture, and so, most of the resulting images will have serious problems, that may not be able to be recovered on the computer. So, make sure that you have good back-up equipment.

Let me ask you, are you ready to take the next step? If you love photography and working with people, the let me ask you if you are ready to start your own wedding photography business? Then you will find that the wedding photography course is designed to get you off to a great start. Everything is in this course, including all the forms you will need. Business forms are provided for you as a computer file that you can edit and personalize to give them your very own identity. This alone will help you and your business look very professional and save you a lot of time and money, so you can get bookings and start making some money with your very own wedding photography business.

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Tags: Wedding