Entering photo competitions is a great way to practise and improve your photography and have some fun in the process. One of the greatest morale boosters a photographer can get is to win or even placed in a highly regarded competition. It means that others have seen your work and judged it worthy. There are a few pointers that you need to know about competitions that will increase your chances of winning however

First find your competition. Luckily photographic competitions can be found in many places such as in magazines (both photographic and other specialities), local newspapers, local promotions as well as here on the Internet. Why do people run competitions and give away lovely prizes? Well photographic clubs use competitions as one of their chief sources of entertainment and encourages the members to take photographs. Competitions are also used as promotional or advertising tools for products or companies.

The prizes offered can vary from cash, certificates, film, photographic goodies to cars and exotic holidays. Some photographers make a handy bit of extra cash by entering competitions on a regular basis. Though prizes are a definite draw, many just enter competitions to test their skill against others.

If you are thinking of entering a competition or you have had little success before, here are a few tips to set you on the right track toward entering and hopefully winning a photographic competition.

Shoot for the competition!

The best pictures in a competition are often those that are shot especially for the competition in question. Most competitions have a theme and certain guidelines to be followed. Sometimes even the organisation running the competition must be considered before even composing that winning shot.

The Theme - This is the most important thing to remember. Most competitions have a theme or a specific subject they want portrayed. For example, entering a dog picture for a landscape is a sure fire way of joining the rejection pile. Far too often shots are sent into competitions which, seen on their own merits are technically superb and artistically excellent. But, if the picture doesn’t fit the them then the judges have to reject the image.

The Organisation - Often the company or organisation running the competition will conjure an idea of the type of images they want to see. For example, a travel business that runs a competition for the best holiday snaps. They are probably expecting to use the winning images to promote their business. So knowing what holiday destinations they cover and supplying nice bright images of those destinations will probably score higher than others.

Use Impact in Your Entries
When you enter a competition just think how many other may or will be entering. It could just be a few entries in a local camera club competition or it could be thousands in an international competition. Whatever the numbers your image must stand out amongst them. In order to achieve this the subject of your photo must have an eye catching feature or form of impact.

Landscapes for example are a popular subject for competitions, everybody knows what a landscape is and can usually find a nice location not too far from home. But to stand out from the crowd you have to consider the impact and with landscapes its all about the lighting. Sunsets are pretty, and can be spectacular but if the judges have seen hundreds of them then the sunset is very ’samey’ as all the other sunsets and become mundane.

For other subjects for impact use colour, shapes or creative lighting, try unusual angles for shooting common subjects. You must find something that will make your image jump out from the crowd.

Technical ability
The last important aspect of your entry is purely technical. If the image is badly exposed, has washed out highlights for example or is out of focus or exhibits camera shake then the image will be rejected.

So with all the above in mind, happy shooting and just remember, shoot for the competition and go for impact with nice sharp well exposed images and you will increase your chances of winning those prizes.

Good luck

David R. Butcher Bsc., LRPS has over 35 years experience in photography and is a co-founder of School of Photography.com (http://www.schoolofphotography.com) established in 1999. He has been awarded the Licentateship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.

Remember the good old photography days?

Film camera in hand, you would see that perfect landscape, seascape or sunset and shoot off several shots.

Perhaps a couple of weeks later, once you had returned home and finally finished that 24 or 36 exposure film, it was off to the photo-lab to get the film processed.

You eagerly open the packet of photographs, looking for that superb seascape you took, knowing that it would almost certainly be taken up by National Geographic for their monthly magazine spread.

What do you find?

A not too bad photo, but the seascape horizon is crooked, here’s your excuse, I hear you say.. “Well when I took the shot I was standing on the side of a sand dune and quickly trying to get that perfect shot while the little sailboat was still in view”.

Does this sound familiar to all you budding Adam Ansels and/or Lord Snowdons?

The photo is relegated back to the packet never again to see the light of day.

I had many of those packets of not so perfect photos until the digital photography age arrived.

The Digital Darkroom has arrived

The advent of the digital camera and in fact, before that, computerized image manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop has completely revolutionized the way we can now resurrect a stunning image from what at face value might have appeared to be just one of those snapshots to be relegated to the shoebox under the stairs.

What I’m going to show you in this article is just one method of taking a mundane snapshot and producing a great shot in as little as five minutes.

The example I’m going to use, is one that I have seen so many times, and have already mentioned above, namely, shots that have crooked horizons, whether this be a landscape, seascape, sunset or whatever.

The source of the image may have come from a scanned negative, scanned print or digital camera image all converted to an image format (most probably .JPG pronounced “jaypeg”) that can be opened in your image manipulation software.

Correcting a crooked horizon

The human eye is remarkably perceptive at picking out features in a photograph that are made up of essentially straight lines and that those lines are not parallel, either horizontally or vertically, with the overall print itself.

These straight lines may well be the horizon, but they may also be an object in your photo that has straight lines such as buildings or walls etc…

I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS, but almost all other image manipulation software packages have similar tools so the method described should be repeatable with your own software package.

The method used will employ a little known relationship between two Photoshop functions, the Measure tool and the Rotate Canvas command.

Step – 1
Open up your image in your image editor (in our case Photoshop) and select the Measure tool which if not visible on the Photoshop toolbar can be found by hovering your mouse over the Eyedropper tool and “left clicking”.

Watch the other options window “fly-out” and select the Measure tool.

Step – 2
Interestingly enough, we are not actually going to measure anything in the real sense of the word, nor use the Measure tool as it is usually used (i.e. measuring the distance between two points within the photograph).

With the Measure tool active, “left click” and “hold” on a spot on the left hand side of the photo (remember our example is a seascape) where the horizon meets the sea.

While still “holding down” the left mouse button, drag to the right hand side of the photo and find a corresponding point where the horizon meets the sea and then release the mouse button.

What happened? .. Well you will see that a white line has been drawn on top of the photo with what looks like little ”+” anchors at each end. The line is parallel with our crooked horizon.

Step – 3
Now the marvel begins!! Select the Image->Rotate Canvas->Arbitrary … command and the Rotate Canvas pop-up window will appear.

What you will notice (in the case of Photoshop anyway) is that it has ”pre-filled” the pop-up rotate options with the exact rotation information to correct the crooked horizon, 1.5 degrees counter-clockwise in our example on our web-site. Click OK and see what happens ..

The photo has been magically rotated the right amount to correct the crooked horizon!

Step – 4
All that is required now is to do a tight “crop” on the overall photograph and save it.

And there you have it!!
Less than five minutes of digital image manipulation to take that mundane snapshot into a photograph that is very pleasing to the eye.

If you find the steps taking are a little hard to understand in this text based article, you can click on the link at the end of this article to see the same method explained on our website with the aid of example graphical images.

© Gary Wilkinson 2005 - All Rights Reserved

You can see this correction method complete with example images at Correcting Crooked Horizons in Photos

Feel free to re-print this article provided that all hyperlinks and author biography are retained as-is.

Gary Wilkinson is a photographer, photographic restorer and the owner of a photographic retail business.

He is also the publisher of the http://www.restoring-photos-made-easy.com website, where other methods of correcting common photographic restoration problems are discussed.

The AV700 with its amazing 7” LCD widescreen and 480×234 pixels is your media companion. This is by far the largest viewing screen of all the Multimedia players and the AV700 is less than an inch thick. A 100GB capacity in an 8-inch machine is amazing! You have the power to store 400 hours of video, 250 movies, 55,000 songs or 1,000,000 photos! record and play 1000’s of TV shows and movies. The AV700 lets you get video and music content from Microsoft PlaysForSure websites. Now you can take all your entertainment with you everywhere you go. Using the Archos AV700 rechargeable battery, you’ll get up to 30 hours of life for music and up to 4 hours for video playback. Transfer via a USB 2.0 connection. Then organize your photos and watch slide shows on the unit’s screen or any TV. Weight 210oz, Dimensions: 4.2”x8.2”x0.8”

The Archos AV700 100GB Mobile Digital Video Recorder Specifications:

Capacity: 100 GB hard drive store up to 400 hours of video, 250 movies, 55,000 songs or 1,000,000 photos.
The AV700 is available with a 40 GB hard drive store up to store up to 160 hours of video, 100 movies, 20,000 songs or 400,000 photos

Display: 7” LCD 480×234 pixels, 262 000 colors and TV output

Video recording:MPEG-47 SP and stereo sound, optimised resolution for TV up to 640×480 @ 30fps, in AVI format

Video playback: MPEG-47 SP with B-Frames with stereo sound. Near DVD quality up to 720×480 30fps (NTSC), 720×576 @ 25fps (PAL), AVI file format (including WMV9 SP protected files) up to 352×288 30fps and 800 Kbits

Music recording: From an analog source in stereo sound for WAV (PCM & ADPCM) format.

Music playback: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kbps CBR & VBR, WMA (including protected WMA files), WAV (PCM & ADPCM)

Photo viewer: JPEG or BMP AV connections: TV Docking Pod with video pass through, AV in & out cables and IR emitter cable for tuner control of VCR, cable box or satellite receiver. Earphones, Audio & Video line out. Travel audio-video kit in option to record audio and video analog source on the move.

Speakers: 2 built-in stereo speakers: USB 2.0 high-speed device, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac. USB Host port compatible Mass Storage Device.

Battery life: Up to 30 hours for music. Up to 4 hours for video on built in LCD. Removable battery (additional battery optional)

Scalability: Download firmware updates from www.archos.com

Power source: Internal: rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery. External: AC charger/adapter

Dimensions: approx.: 4.2”x8.2”x0.8”

Weight: 20.8 oz

Minimum system requirements: For TV, VCR, Cable box, or satellite receiver connection: Audio & video in/out RCA jacks (connection cables & TV docking pod provided in box

Minimum computer configuration: PC with Windows ME, or 2000, and USB 2.0 port. Macintosh G3 with MAC OS v10.2.4 or higher, and USB 2.0 port.

Minimum configuration for PlaysForSure: PC with Windows XP SP1 or higher operating system, Windows Media Player 10 or higher, and USB 2.0 port.

Package includes: AV 700, TV Docking Pod, remote control (with batteries), audio/video cables, USB 2.0 cable, USB host adapter, AC adapter & charger, stereo headphones, protective case, user guide.

Visit KISSERreviews.info to compare prices, read actual customer reviews or find accessories. You will also find KISSER reviews for the Apple iPod photo, Archos AV500, Epson P-2000 and P-4000, Samsung Yepp YH-999, SmartDisk FlashTrax, iRiver PMP-140, Creative Zen, Nikon MSV-01 CoolWalker and the JOBO Giga Vu. Also for Nikon and Canon Cameras, Epson and Canon Printers.

For helpful information about, How to Become a Freelance Photographer and Freelance Photographer Jobs, visit our unique Digital Photography Website at: DigitalPhotographyWebsite.com for great ideas. There’s are a lot of free photography tips, tutorials and travel information there.

I have been a professional photographer at western ski resorts. I started out at Grand Targhee, Wyoming. Where I landed my first professional photography job taking action photos of skiers on the slopes at Grand Targhee, it changed my life. I am currently a freelance photographer in Lake Tahoe, California.

As Selling stock photos is a long term investment,you’ll need an instant income.
You can make quite a lot of cash photographing local events,parties,functions
and of course weddings and Christenings.
(I even photographed a funeral once - by request !)
Portrait and child photography is fairly lucrative but you’ll have lots of competition
from those units that set up in major supermarkets.

Estate agents always need photographs of outside and inside properties and you can also offer a panoramic service using stitching software to give a better impressionof the interior of a house or office.These sell for around $1200.00 for enough photos to make a small foldout brochure.
Aerial photography is popular but you’ll have to fund the flight costs and then get them back from the customer.
Building Site stage construction photography is a nice addition to your income.
With this you photograph from the same spot a series of photos to show the property owner or the builder what is happening to their site. It can also be used to show local
authorities what is happening without the need for a field trip.

Talking of local authorities, most Local Authorities need photos for community projects and events so it’s well worthwhile networking with government officers to get
to know whats happening.

Local newspapers ALWAYS need photographs - but the money is usually not great … unless you hit on a major incident
(but really regular so it is worth taking !) ALWAYS take a notebook and several pens
as you’ll need to get people’s names correct.
When I did this I always took along a digital recorder and got the people to spell their names for me.

Resource Section :
Keith Jones has been a Stock and Travel Photographer for over 40 years
His Website is at http://www.fotos4web.com
Where you’ll find lots of his photos and articles.
This article may be freely reproduced in print or on the world wide web providing : This resource section is also published intact and the article is not altered in any way.

Digital Photo Diary - memories that last a life time

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.

A digital photo diary keeps some of the big and little memories of our life. With it, you can look back on these pictures, and appreciate the richness of our past.

Let’s look at a easy and effective way to keep a digital photo diary:

Get a easy to carry, point-and-click digital camera

The key is to have a cameras when you want to capture the moment. Portability is more important than image quality. Also, remember to set the date & time on your cameras.

choose a site for store your digital photos online

MyPhotoAlbum.com seems to be a good choice at this moment:

MyPhotoAlbum.com let you choose your own look for your digital photo albums from its professionally designed styles. It also allows free and unlimited storage space.

Over here, you can personalize your online photo album using easy to remember, Internet address such as “http://yourname.myphotoalbum.com”

Take a few pictures every day

Make it a habit to take at least 1 picture every day. Take a picture of your son’s drawings, or even the tree outside your house. It does not have to have professinoal quality, just something to show what your day was like. While it might seem boring, you would be pleasantly surprise thatwhen you relook at these pictures later.

Upload your picture to your online album regularly - says, once a week.

Remeber to add a few words to describe the photo. Do keep it easy and simple. Do not write an essay for each photo.

See you digital diary grow

Over time, you’ll see your digital diary grow and become quite interesting.

Archive your digital diary

I always recommend that you burn your diary to CDs or DVDs. I usually burn it to at least 2 CDs or DVDs: Just to ensure that my memories will be safe for many years to come.

Other ways to share your digital diary

If you have a personal web site, you may post your digital diary on it. Making a hardcover photobook is also a great way to share it with others.

Digital photography should be fun! At digital-photos-fun.com, you’ll find tips and guides on how to further enrich your photography experience.

Disposable digital and film cameras (also called single-use cameras) provide a cheap and easy alternative for photographers. They offer an option for times when you don’t want to risk your expensive equipment but you do want to take some photographs. For example, what could be a scarier combination for a photographer than an expensive piece of camera equipment and water? While professional underwater photographers (or serious hobbyists) are willing to spend a lot of money on their underwater cameras, what about the rest of us? Disposable underwater cameras offer an inexpensive alternative. After all, we may only want to take pictures one time on a snorkeling vacation. Why should we have to buy or rent a lot of expensive equipment?

Disposable underwater cameras are ideal for a wide variety of outdoor adventures where water, sand and rough use might come into play. Use them underwater, (many models are actually waterproof from 15 to as much as 50 feet underwater) but also use them above water for many outdoor shots in sunshine or on a light cloudy day at the beach, the pool, or even the desert.

An underwater disposable camera can also be called an all-weather camera since it is ready for anything at anytime. It’s ideal for shooting outdoors in wet and even snowy conditions. Think of it as not only waterproof but also weatherproof, allowing you to use it to get some great shots in the great outdoors. Use it in the rain, on the slopes, on a boat or in the ocean. Use it while snorkeling, skiing, fishing, boarding, or surfing. Take great photos of sunsets, wildlife, waterfalls or crashing waves.

The disposable underwater camera you buy should be extremely durable and rugged. It should be easy to grip and take pictures, even with gloves on. It should fit in your pocket, beach bag or purse.

Most of these cameras are pre-loaded with 400-speed film with 27 exposures, and include a shock resistant, heavy-duty housing that floats. They are cheap (you can pick up a disposable underwater camera for about $6.00 to $20.00) and even cheaper if you buy them wholesale in quantity.

Not all underwater cameras come with a flash. To get really nice underwater images, your best bet is an external strobe so you won’t create “”backscatter”" (which looks like snow or dirt in your pictures). Also remember when taking your photos, especially when snorkeling, to keep the sun behind you and to take advantage of that beautiful blue clear water. With a disposable underwater camera you really can take great pictures anywhere and at anytime.

Disposable Cameras Info provides detailed information about digital, wedding, and underwater disposable cameras, as well as cheap and wholesale disposable cameras. Disposable Cameras Info is the sister site of Underwater Cameras Web.

You may have already started to make money from your photography, but if you are still a gifted amateur, then there are effective methods you can use to kick start your chances of making a profit. At the present time there has never been more opportunities for the photographer. New technologies in the form of digital cameras are changing the face of the industry. However that has always been the case for photographers, and it is no reason to get discouraged.

It has never been easier for the amateurs to take their own photographs. However there are certain circumstances where it is harder than others. An example here is pet photography. There are plenty of people living alone, who have pets, and whilst they can photograph their pets it is far harder to get a photograph of them with their pets. Advertise locally to take pet photos, or take a walk in your nearest park and ask people. If you use a digital camera, you can advertise to people that not only can they have a copy of their pets, as a photograph, but they can have it on their desktop as wallpaper. Digital online printing services will also print the photo on postcards. Get some done and then post them to friends or relations overseas. mugs and serve them in your house to pet owners and see how long it is before someone else wants one.

There are other possibilities, with the tee shirts and mugs, some people will want their own photographs on a tee shirt with perhaps their own caption, advertise these services locally through the means of small ads.

Have some business cards printed, and go and cover local sporting events and contests, there is always someone without a camera, especially if they win, they will want a photograph. Or you may like to consider joining a local society, and advertising yourself as a photographer, there is nothing as effective as word of mouth advertising, all the money paid for advertisements cannot beat it!

Be aware of local activities that take place in your area that you can capitalise on. Graduations are an occasion when people wish to have a more formal record. The cost of graduating itself is so high that what is the cost of a formal portrait in comparison. Especially if you have a digital camera and have no film, you can almost use it in a speculative manner. In other words there are a lot of people together who constitute a market. If you photograph them all then the chances are that you will sell about 40% of your work. There is always someone who has a jammed camera, or in the wrong place, or even proud grandparents who do not possess a camera.

Not everyone lives down the Road from the Taj Mahal, or Gracelands, but many of you will live near a landmark that attracts photographers. Many people will have their cameras but they will not necessarily be digital. If you have a digital camera you should be able to show people a photograph they want in front of something. These photographs, though time consuming to start with, are a start on the photographic market ladder.

Join a photographic club, and talk to other photographers who are making money now. Not only will you make contacts, but you will have the opportunity to refine your techniques. Even in this digital age, it is vital that you keep abreast with technology, and you will be able to compare the value of equipment, that is being used now.

If you have a digital camera, take it in your local nightclub, there is always one in any time, which are new and trendy, take photographs of the range of cocktails on offer. Attractive looking drink will sell better with a photograph, see if you can sell the photographs, or better still negotiate a price for new printed menus. Speak with other local businessmen and see if they can improve their marketing techniques with the use of photographs. A second hand car dealer can increase his business potential with the use of photographs.

Remember when you are starting to make money from photography that you may feel as though you will attract more market share if you sell your work cheaply. Before you take this strategy though, think about some of the implications. It will have a short-term increase that is for sure, but in the long term how many businesses and families want to hire the cheapest photographer in town. People know that they rarely get good quality for super cheap prices and photos,…well, they’re special items to most people. Don’t be too expensive but don’t be cheap either!

Your technical ability is sufficient to represent your client’s marketing in a visual statement, that requires more than point and shoot. Do not sell these skills short. You have to be aware of the hidden costs of doing business; all to often it is easy to absorb a little loss of profit, because it is only small. These costs can add up to a sizeable amount. Ask other local photographers price their market, this may seem a strange technique, but they have a vested interest in not letting a new comer under price their market.

Take into account your realistic overheads, that is the depreciation of your equipment, your insurances, legal fees, accountancy fees, repairs, travel time and costs, subscriptions, and possible rent, both of equipment and studio space. Educate your client explain to them what the higher technology costs, but also what it can offer them. All businesses have to be made more profitable, and it is difficult but not impossible to find a balance between the price you need to charge, and the price the customer will pay, the more the client understands new technology, the less likely they are to balk at paying for it. After all it is cheaper to ride a bike to work than invest in a new car, but who realistically wants to do it.

It is a good idea to sit down and write a business plan to define where you want to go and define your target audience. This is a good marketing strategy; it stops you wasting time effort and money, targeting areas that will provide you with little or no return.

Publisher & author: Roy Barker. A 40 page guide to many more important & exciting categories of potential photography businesses are revealed at http://photography-business.blogspot.com
Roy is the author of the popular ebook, Income from Photography - a downloadable ebook which guides the reader on how to easily start up and market your profitable photography business. It can be found at http://www.profitable-photography.com

A handbag is an item that is essential to many women. In fact, almost all women carry a handbag or a purse. There are many women who search multiples stores and catalogs just to find the perfect handbag. Selecting a handbag to purchase can be a difficult task, especially for those who are looking for something particular. What many women fail to realize is that they can create their own customized handbag. A photo handbag is one of the most popular customized purses on the market today.

A photo handbag is a handbag that displays a single image or a whole picture. Photo handbags are complicated to make. They can most easily be obtained by hiring the services of a professional. The photo handbag selection will all depend on the designer in question; however, there are some common photo handbags styles are in high demand.

Before selecting a bag style many individuals already have the photo that they would like to have constructed on the bag in mind. If you are interested in purchasing a customized photo handbag you will want to have a specific photograph in mind if you don’t already have one. Selecting the photograph before the bag will allow you to get a better idea as to how each bag will look with your photograph constructed on it.

Bucket and tote style handbags are the most popular types of bags that can be turned into a photo handbag. These handbags are likely to come in different sizes. It is likely that the larger the size of the handbag the more expensive it will be to have a photo constructed on it. In addition to the bucket and tote style handbags, it is possible to have a photograph constructed on a diaper bag or a beach bag.

It is also possible to purchase a smaller photo handbag. Petite handbags, also commonly known as coin purses or cosmetic bags, are a popular accessory among women of all ages. A cosmetic bag or a coin purse can be used to carry money, makeup, or other small items. Coin purses and cosmetic bags are often combined with a larger purse. As with all other photo handbags, you will be required to select the picture that you want your coin purse or cosmetic bag to display. It is not uncommon for a coin purse or a cosmetic bag to have a photograph constructed on both sides; however, as the purse owner you will have the final say.

No matter what style of photo handbag you select, you should be able to have your bag customized to meet your desire. This often allows you to not only select the photo to be constructed on the bag, but the exterior border and interior purse color as well. With the ability to design a photo handbag just about anyway that you want there is no reason why you shouldn’t at least consider owning one.

Joel Preston is a writer for Photo Blanket Gifts where you can find
more information about photo handbags and other personalized photo gifts.

There is so much to consider when looking for the best digital camera to suit your needs. It is important to decide what features matter the most to you. The main factors, apart from cost, in assessing which is the best digital camera for you are as follows:

• Size and weight
• Resolution
• Level of Control
• Options and features

The size and weight of the best digital camera for one person varies greatly to that of another. If you want a camera that is lightweight and will slip into a pocket or purse then a ultra-lightweight cameras will probably be the best digital camera for your needs. These are often the least complex of the digital cameras as they offer point and shoot simplicity and are the best digital camera for beginners. At the other end of the size and weight scale comes a bulky 1? pound SLR camera for the ‘serious’ photographer who wants the best digital camera with all of the accessories to take the perfect shot.

The resolution you need can narrow down which is the best digital camera for your requirements. The resolution affects the detail of an image for printing quality and the higher the resolution the greater the detail. The best digital camera for printing standard size pictures has a lower resolution than if you want to create oversize prints.

The best digital camera for being able to edit and manipulate your images is one with a resolution of 5 or 6 mega pixels so that you can crop the images with photo editing software and still print them out full size.

The amount of control that you have available will also be an issue in finding the best digital camera. Some people think that the best digital camera is one they can use in an automatic mode and let the camera do the work. Others choose the best digital camera that allows them more input in the creative process by manually adjusting the focus, speed, aperture and other settings. A simple point and shoot camera is the best digital camera for people not wanting to make any setting changes but the range of manual controls available on other cameras varies with make and model. The latter will require more research to find the best digital camera to meet your requirements.

The next part in deciding which is the best digital camera to buy is to assess what, if any, additional features you would like. Here are some suggestions:

• Audio annotation to add commentary to your images.
• Burst shooting which allows you to take multiple pictures in rapid succession for fast moving action shots.
• Macro photo capability that focuses on extreme close-up detail for images of flowers, insects, etc.
• Movie mode with audio to take short videos.
• Panoramic stitching function, often included in a camera’s software package, which joins individual images into a multi-photo panoramic picture.
• Weatherproof casing

The most important aspect in choosing the best digital camera for you is ensuring that you are comfortable using it and have some fun taking pictures.

Steve Gargin is the administrator of digital-camera-reviews.helper-guru.com/digital-camera-kodak-easyshare-ls753/index.html which is a great website dedicated to giving free advice on Digital Cameras.

One of the major problems of the larger cities of the word these days is crime. It appears that the larger the city the more-acceptable serious crime seems to be. If not because to the proliferation of serious crime then because the mindset of its citizens have been conditioned to accept the serious behaviour of a minority of its inhabitants.

So, how does this statement relate to infrared digital photography and the hobbyist or professional camera operator?

Not much escapes the all-seeing eye of the infrared camera of the police helicopter as it chases a carload of thieves down the freeway in the middle of the night. They will almost invariably be caught by the police when they exit their vehicle thanks to the thermal heat imaging of the helicopter’s infrared camera.

Likewise, your own infrared daytime photography should let no entity go unnoticed. After all – you’ve spent a lot of time setting up the shot and composing the image with just the right light, shutter speed and aperture. Your mindset should not be to simply accept inaccuracies and faults with your photograph, but to go that extra step to eliminate them altogether.

Just like the officers in the police chopper, why would you go to great lengths to capture that final important infrared image only to decide at the last second to give up the chase?

Digital infrared photography does have a few things that should be taken into account to ensure your image is as best as could be. The following combination of items will affect your image:

Light, Dust on the infrared filter, Type of infrared filter, Exposure setting, Aperture and Movement of the subject

The digital infrared images at Photo Shop Australia http://www.PhotoShopAustralia.com/ have varying amounts of light, shutter speeds and apertures.

Low light may require longer exposure times if you can’t get the aperture down low enough. This could have a dramatic effect on the final image – especially if you are shooting a subject that may move even slightly.

Dust on the infrared filter will affect the image by producing “blind spots” in the final image. A close inspection of your infrared image in your photo editing software will reveal these. The blind spots can be smudged out of the image easily, but if you have hundreds then it may be more worthwhile to recompose the image than to edit the digital photo.

The type of infrared filter will also determine the outcome of the print. The Hoya R70 filter seems to be the best-priced for digital infrared photography.

Exposure and aperture settings can be played with until you find the best combination for your camera. But keep in mind that usually the higher the F-stop the longer the shutter speed required. So shooting a moving subject at a long shutter speed can result in unwanted effects.

Long shutter speeds (of up to 15 seconds or more) of trees on a windy day can actually produce the most spectacular effects.

We’ve all seen those long exposure night photographs of cars moving along a freeway. Long exposure daytime digital infrared imaging can produce amazing results too. You just have to get creative with your camera and subjects. Think of the possibilities!

Be aware that adding an infrared filter may have serious effects on your camera’s electronics or lens. Consult your camera’s operations manual or manufacturer before fitting any infrared filter to your camera, and never look through an infrared or any other type of filter with your own eyes.

Phill Petrovic is the owner of Photo Shop Australia at: http://www.PhotoShopAustralia.com/
Photo Shop Australia provides unique and amazing Australian nature photography including macro, infrared and landscape images of Australia. Photo Shop Australia also has a page of totally royalty free images available for free download for businesses and personal users.