Love Digital Photography? Then Choose Your Camera Carefully

If you love digital photography, then you will find that one of the first questions that pop into your head will be "which digital camera is right for me?"

No matter where you go and whom you ask in the digital photography world, you will not find a single answer. You see in digital photography choosing a camera is about as personal and individual as choosing a car, or a career. And just like a car or career, a digital camere should give you satisfaction and great results with mininimal headaches.

To get started on working out which digital camera is right for you here's a good start:

1. How much can you afford to spend?

Hey, we all want the latest canon Eos 5D, but lets face it not all of us have that money to spend our digital photography passion. Some of us have only $500, or $1000 or less. Cost is a huge factor in digital photography because you'llfind, like anything the higher up you go, the better lens and functionality of the digital camera. That doesn't mean to say the $500 is rubbish compared to the $1000 digital camera. It just means there will be less things it can do.

2. What do you want to do in digital photography?

Its great, in digital photography, to have the latest "whizz-bang" lens with all the bells and whistles, but if you just want to take family photos at home, you will probably find that the lens on most semi-pro digital cameras are pretty good for basic digital photography techniques. However, on the other hand if you want your digital photography to be complete with telephoto capabilities, macro functions and everything in between, the semi-pro digital camera's lens won;t be enough. Sure it'll have a basic optical zoom and a "close up" setting but to get professional digital photographs, you'll need attachable lenses. And you can only attach external lenses onto a digital slr, in other words a professional digital camera.

3. How durable do you need the digital camera to be?

If you want your digital photography experience to be complete with long life battery capabilites, a sturdy body and light weight for easy handling then this needs to be assessed accordingly. Its not good having a digital camera that's sensitive to a lot of handling if you want to use it at football games, for travelling and for anything else. Choose a body that's pretty sturdy and where you can easily and safely store it out of harms way.

4. Match and Challenge

Its no good in digital photography, if you buy a digital camera that has settings and buttons you have no idea what they mean. An associate of mine bought a Nikon D70 about 3 years ago and his photos were terrible. He only bought it because it had just come out at the time. But he spend top dollar just to have the image of a good camera. Digital cameras have many functions and settings, so make sure that if you are going to get a professional digital slr camera, that you know how to use it. Or else aim for something smaller and easier to understand. If you intend to "upgrade" your digital photography knowledge, then great, go for the complex camera, but if not, don't get something you really don't need; match your knoweldge to the digital camera.

5. Read Digital Camera reviws

The first thing I did when I decided to upgrade (I upgraded as my photographic skills and understanding increased) was head straight to reviews of digital cameras. In a nutshell I wanted to know others peoples experience with certain cameras. I made an assessment that I wanted the top lenses in a camera- that was very, very important to me. So I looked at the Canon D series. You see the people in the shop will never tell you anything else but how that camera is THE one that will solve all your photographic challenges. But don't fall for it; they're not photographers, they're retail people. They are still valuable but they are not an expert in what you are looking for.

Okay so that's a good start with your digital photography. Just remember to asses what your digital photography needs are and work from there. Don't be swayed by opinion, be condfident in your own abilities.

Best wishes,
Amy Renfrey

www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

Digital Photography - People In Black & White

People photographs in Black and white are often the best and most visually pleasing. If you’re using digital set the camera to black and white mode, which is the easiest, or you can add the black and white look in digital editing software via converting selected photos to grey scale mode. (Believe me, it’s a lot easier to simply change the settings on your camera if you can.)

Why is it so popular and appealing? What does it offer the viewer?

Black and white people photography offers you something that standard colour does not. A good black and white people photo can really create a positive and gentle feeling of that person. They become more appealing, and easier to look at that sometimes colour. We can see another side of someone’s personality with black and white photography. The enhancement of grayscale in a lures us into a natural focus on peoples good energy, and if two people, their relationship to one another.

People look fantastic in black and white and you don’t need colour to create a great photograph. The absence of colour gives the photo of your person more impact. Rather than purely noticing skin colour we tend to look at the shape and tone and depth of the face so much more. We tend to look at the detail. It’s like we are forced to notice another side of things, such as form. And when you notice form a lot more, it gives you a different feeling and impression about the subject. Black & white photographs have an enduring, timeless quality – and that's why the medium is so fascinating.

Inside every colour digital image there's a black & white masterpiece

With their timeless and classic look, black and white pictures of people work very well. Let's take a look at ways you can create your own black and white masterpieces. You will notice in many magazines it seems that all the classy photographs are in black and white. Black and White....In fact there is a magazine called exactly that, “Black And White” you can find information about it online at http://www.bandwmag.com.

It is exclusively black and white photography. If you are serious about black and white photography I suggest you buy a copy of this magazine and look at it from a technical and artistic point of view. Black and white often allows more scope for creativity than colour.

Strong visual impressions and emotional intensities can be enhanced by black and white photography. Sometimes no matter what you do to a subject, whether it is lighting alteration or composition, black and white just turns out better than colour.

Because black and white photography reduces everything to shades of grey, the attention of the viewer is drawn more to the underlying structure of tone, shape, texture, line and form, rather than the surface structure of the content. We tend to notice form in a stronger visual sense.

I recommend for every colour picture you take, quickly flip the settings to black-and-white and practice this way. It's a great way to get creative quickly and to look at an alternative light, a new black and white reality.

For a start, take some close-up shots in black and white of simple objects, such as the watch. But don't limit yourself - also try people. Black and white shots of people can be fabulous.

Try close-up shots of someone in your family, or even your self. At times when I needed a subject with which to practice and no one else was around, I simply pointed the camera at myself; although I don’t love taking photos of myself it was useful practice.

Best wishes,
Amy Renfrey

Click here to learn about how to get sensational photos with your digital camera.

How To Photograph Your Items To Sell On EBay

Digital Photography and Ebay; there are a few things you must know. When selling items successfully on Ebay becoming good at digital photography is a must. And the first point of call starts with the photograph. The first thing to remember that digital photography done right can pave the way to more bids, higher bids and repeat purchases. It’s all in the digital photography.

Too many times you will see an item not getting many (if any) bids. If you look closely at the digital photograph, you will see the digital photo is very poor. When I say “poor” I mean often too dark, has a contradicting background, and too many distracting, irrelevant items around it.

Let’s take for example the lounge suite. I have seen two types of “lounge suite” photos, and they both get a small amount of bids. (A small amount of bids usually means not enough interested buyers to push the bid price up- hence not enough money is received by the seller. When all they had to do was get their digital photography right in the first place.)

The first type of digital photo I have seen is one of ‘irrelevant background’. The lounge suite is carted outside and placed on the lawn and photographed outside. One of the secrets to getting excellent digital photographs is your background. The number one rule in this instance is to create some relevancy and consistency between the main subject and the background. People don’t sit outside on the lawn in their lounge suites. Your digital photo of your lounge suite will create much more interest if its places in the background environment is relevant- ie the lounge room.

The second type of digital photo is too dark- only using the flash indoors. What’s wrong with turning the light on to get light onto the sides of the lounge suite? The flash will only light up the very front of the lounge, not cast a beautiful even light over the sides too. Its important in digital photography to be very conscious of light, and lighting up the WHOLE photo, not just the front of it.

The third type of digital photo is one where other things are in the photo. These “other things” have nothing to do with creating a better look and feel for the lounge suite. These items are distracting and irrelevant. One killer to a good digital photo is having something in the back ground, or foreground, that has absolutely nothing at all to do with the main subject, i.e. a painting hanging on the wall behind the lounge suite.

Digital photos like this will often attract questions from potential bidders “does that painting come with the lounge suite?” To which the seller gets annoyed and says “no, lounge suite only.” To which the potential bidder thinks “well why the heck is it in the photo?”

Good point. Why IS that painting in the photo?

So remember, keep your Ebay item well lit, keep your backgrounds relevant and keep your distraction to a bare minimum. Once you apply these few things you will be well on your way to creating sensational digital photography for Ebay.

Best wishes,

Amy Renfrey

If you want to learn how to take sensational digital photography go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

How To Get Beautiful Autumn Digital Photos

Digital Photography and autumn (Fall) sometimes feel as if they’re made for each other. Autumn is natures clever way of providing us with a festival of colour. It’s a digital photography dream to capture to magnificent colours of the trees at this time. The blood red, the warm, vibrant yellows and the bright greens create the most magnificent contrast and complimentary colour forms so very pleasing to the eye. It’s almost as though nature has come into its own beautiful confidence all of a sudden.

So how do you capture the magnificence?

Firstly you must remember that all good digital photography is based on light. Your light will fall differently on things after summer. The light of summer is great, but it can create hard contrasting shadows. Now, with autumn, the light seems to soften, and depending on which part of the world you live in, this softening light can offer you some amazing digital photography opportunities not to ever be missed.

The main thing to remember here is that the colours contrast well. To create the bold contrast you can pick a clear day with blue sky and have a red and yellow autumn tree against it. You can also go macro and get a digital photo of contrasting colour in leaves; that also makes a nice digital photo.

Autumn provides many warm shades of brown too. The brown tones complimented with darker shades of red and yellows can create a delicate and almost feminine feel to your digital photography.

Don’t forget to use the autumn colours against not only blue sky but dark pavements, and pathways too. The dark brown/black of a pathway with vibrant dotted colours of red and golden leaves can create some stunning effects pretty easily. Just get your composition right and leave the rest to nature.

Now get that camera and go outside!

Best wishes,

Amy Renfrey

If you want to get your digital photos looking like they’ve just been taken by a professional, then just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

Picture copyrighted by Andrzej Pastuszak.

How To Photograph Babies & Toddlers - Indoors & Out

Digital Photography is one of the best and most fun activities to do. And this especially applies to children. And the younger, the more your digital photography really means something. Your digital photography almost becomes a necessity when you have children and want to photograph them. But just how do you get the ‘ideal’ digital photos of toddlers and babies? And how do professional photographers do it? What’s their secret?

Firstly the number one secret is to create an environment whereby the young child is playing, or is feeling happy and relaxed. This can mean setting up lots of toys at home on the living room floor, or if you are in a social situation (Saturday afternoon bbq for example) then perhaps interacting with other children or their own activities are the base starters for getting beautiful digital photos of your children.

Secondly you need to address lighting issues in digital photography. This applies to digital photography with toddlers and babies especially because they move (in artistic photographic terms) so fast. Let’s talk about this, because this is a really important point.

At home, you will be faced with indoor lighting. Indoor lighting in digital photography and toddlers and babies is a little tricky, because the kids move fast your shutter may not give you good, clear pictures because of the low light. To compensate for the low light inside the flash might cause a problem- it might be too bright and distracting. And the point is not to distract them- you want as relaxed and natural as possible. A bright flash going off in their small eyes can be overwhelming.

Make sure you have as much light as possible. Turn the over-head light on, place them under a window with sunlight coming in, and even use a standing lamp if necessary. Then adjust the shutter to a setting that allows for fast movement. And use the flash only if you have to.

Digital photography outside is not so bad, but it does have its problems too due to hard light. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, hard light means harsh, sharp sunlight that creates dark shadows, leaving a stark contrast between light and shadow in the one digital photo. In this case it can feel like its impossible to get any even, balance light over the scene.

Here’s a pointer to combat this:

If your child is outside with the sun behind them playing on a rug, for example, you’ll find the camera makes them look too dark, or the light around them blaringly bright. In this case you can let the camera create the darker shadows and use the flash on a low setting so the flash can fill in the darker areas. This is commonly known as “flash-fill”. It’s just a word meaning the flash lights up the shadowed areas. In an outside situation the flash won’t be as bright or distracting because it won’t feel as intense to the child, but do try to not over do it.

Last, but most definitely not least, you’ll need to work out what type of picture you want to create. If you want a fairly emotional picture that shows how beautiful they are, then decide on a fairly close angle. This means filling the frame. “Filling the frame” is a word that simply means; “don’t have any irrelevant, things in the photo that distract the eye.”

So there are a few things to think about with your digital photography. If you want to know more how to get clear digital photos with lots of sharp detail just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

This photo is copyright by AmyRenfrey.