tips
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Before sharing your digital photographs over email or on a public website, learn how to remove the camera EXIF data, GPS location and other metadata from these images. The iconic Situation Room photograph, captured by White House photographer Pete Souza, has now been viewed more the 2.5 million times on the web. The corresponding photo page on Flickr says little about the photograph but if you download the full-size version , you can get details about the camera model, the camera settings and even the software that were used to edit this picture before it was published online.
How to Remove Location and Camera Data (EXIF) from your Photographs
Learn to Master the Manual Modes on your Digital Camera
Learn to master the various manual modes of a digital camera with this online camera simulator – you can adjust aperture, shutter and other settings and instantly the results. Most digital cameras these days, including the consumer-level point and shoot models, offer manual modes to help you capture even better photographs. There’s Shutter Priority (Tv) that makes it possible for you to capture sharp images of moving objects (like a racing car) while the Aperture Priority (Av) mode helps you alter the depth-of-field in a photograph. Finally, if you want control over both aperture and shutter speed, you go with the Manual Mode (M). This Canon document explains Shutter and Aperture in pretty simple language: A fast shutter speed will ‘freeze’ movement, giving a crisp, sharp image of the subject.
While I’m not always a fan of sticking strictly to the ‘rules’ or ‘guidelines’ of photography I think they can be well worth knowing and keeping in the back of your mind as you shoot (whether it’s so you can follow them or break them for effect). Here’s four ‘rules’ for landscape photography that might be helpful for those just starting out (ie they’re not meant as a definitive guide but rather a starting point) : By positioning key aspects of a landscape on points of a geometric shape you can help create a balanced composition. Perhaps the most common and easiest way to do this is to use a ‘triangle’ shape between objects in an image with three objects in a frame positioned with one to each side and one more central. Using Geometric Shapes in this way isn’t something that I’ve done a lot of – but it is one technique to get balance in a shot and if you’re clever, to lead the eye into it (in a similar way to the diagonal lines rule above).
Landscape rules
One of the wonderful things about digital photography is the creativity that you can engage in once you’ve got your image on your computer and in Photoshop. All kinds of effects can be achieved to make your shots look any number of ways. But what about in-camera techniques for more creative and artistic shots? Here are twelve fun in-camera hacks to experiment with to get more abstract and artistic shots – the results are only limited by your imagination! 1.
Randomness & Creativity
Some other ways to ask the same question might include – What is the central point of interest? What will draw the eye of the viewers of this picture? What in this image will make it stand out from others? What is my subject? The reason a focal point is important is that when you look at an image your eye will generally need a ‘resting place’ or something of interest to really hold it. Without it you’ll find people will simply glance at your shots and then move on to the next one.
Using Focal Points
Rule of Thirds
Perhaps the most well know principle of photographic composition is the ‘ Rule of Thirds ‘. The “Rule of Thirds” one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots. I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting.I’ve noticed that my DSLR’s lens has lots of smudges on it that are starting to impact the quality of my images but I’m too scared to clean it because I’m worried about scratching it. Do you have any suggestions? – Chris Cleaning your camera’s lenses should be a regular (although not too regular) part of any camera owner’s maintenance. While you do need to be very careful during this process it’s not something to be frightened about.
lens cleaning howto
If you’ve got a DSLR you’ve probably had the experience of uploading your photos onto your computer after a long day of photography – only to find that there are dark ‘spots’ and ‘blotches’ on your pictures. These spots and blotches appear on all your shots in exactly the same position. They might be less noticeable on backgrounds with lots of detail (and more noticeable on plain backgrounds (like blue skies – especially when you have a small aperture) – but they’re there in all your shots (the picture to the left is one of the worst examples I’ve seen – and was the result of poor image sensor cleaning technique).
Avoid dirty Sensor
sdof howto
I’ve been taking a lot of portrait shots of our kids lately with my husband’s DSLR (Canon EOS 20D) and I’ve noticed that on some shots that I take the backgrounds is all soft and out of focus while in others it is completely clear. I’d like the soft background more but as I’ve been shooting in Auto mode I don’t know how the camera did it before. Can you give any suggestions?dof guide
from BC Blogcritics Magazine , 8/9/2008 If you want to have better control of your depth of field, if you want to have a tool small enough to fit in your shirt pocket, if you just want to get it right, then you need ExpoAperture. At $39.95 USD, the ExpoAperture is incredibly affordable, and is usually available for much less if you shop around.
Sharp Images howto
One very common question I get from photographers is why they can never get their images as sharp as the ones they see online. This is a loaded question, and it really made me think about all the things I go through to get tack sharp focus on my images. Sure there are the obvious tips like holding the camera properly, squeezing the shutter instead of stabbing it, tucking your elbows in, and so on. The truth is, that is just the beginning to taking sharper photographs.Do you want to know how to photograph fireworks ? With New Years Eve just days away I thought I’d refresh this article in which I give 10 Fireworks Photography tips to help you get started. Fireworks Displays are something that evoke a lot of emotion in people as they are not only beautiful and spectacular to watch but they also are often used to celebrate momentous occasions. I’ve had many emails from readers asking how to photograph fireworks displays, quite a few of whom have expressed concern that they might just be too hard to really photograph.
Fireworks howto
Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials
Each day we send out a quick email to thousands of DPS readers to notify them of updates. This email is just short excerpt of the first few lines of our latest post with a link if you want to read it all. You can unsubscribe from this this service at any time. This service is provided by a third party (Feedburner) and you can subscribe to it by leaving your email address in the following field and confirming your subscription when you get an email asking you to do so.Do you have a tripod? Do you use it? I suspect that many digital photographers could improve the results that they get out of their cameras simply by attaching it to a tripod. Over the next week or so here at DPS we’ll take a look at the humble tripod and will cover why they’re useful (read on in this post for more on that), how to shop for a tripod, the case for monopods and alternatives when you need a tripod but don’t have one handy. I hope you enjoy this series.