Thursday, January 31, 2008

Lightroom Getting Started Guide


From PhotoshopSupport.com:

"Adobe has posted an excellent 41 page PDF booklet that is a super helpful quick reference guide to have around while learning the program. It's filled with some appealing photography and there's an index at the end that makes it very easy to find specific Lightroom help."


Lightroom Getting Started Guide – high resolution (PDF, 64 MB)

Lightroom Getting Started Guide – low resolution (PDF, 5.4 MB)

PhotoTools 1 Professional Edition


If you're like me, you are always on the lookout for things that can speed up your work flow and, at the same time, boost the finished quality of your work. I've just started working with PhotoTools 1 Professional Edition and liked it enough that I wanted to tell all of you about it. Here's how the onOne Software folks describe their new Photoshop Plugin:

"Jack Davis (Photoshop Hall-of-Fame member and instructor) and Kevin Kubota (renowned professional photographer and Photoshop instructor) have teamed up with onOne Software to bring you this indispensable Photoshop Plug-In that includes over 250 photographic effects. But there is much more to PhotoTools Professional than just effects. Select, preview and stack multiple effects to get the perfect one-of-a-kind look and then start up the powerful PhotoTools batch processing engine to quickly enhance an entire shoot at once."

Click here to find out more.

Click here to watch a demo video.

In the coming weeks, I'll post a few photographs here that I tweak using this plugin...

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The First Month Of Kelby Training

I signed up for Kelby Training Online as soon as it was announced and have been very impressed with the content -- and stunning quality of the video presentations. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to swing by and take a look. Along with having a growing collection of world class presenters, what I especially like is being able to pick and choose the subjects you are interested in -- and then watch them at your leisure. Here's a quick excerpt from Scott Kelby's blog concerning this new service:

"In our best case scenario, if everything came together just right, we were hoping to have 300 subscribers at the end of our first month. If we somehow hit 500 subscribers by month’s end, it would have been nothing short of an absolute grand slam home run. Here’s what we hadn’t counted on; More than 2,200 subscribers!!!! We are just floored!

"The word of mouth from our students has just been incredible, and I’ve been getting email after email from our students raving about their experience, and how over the top they are about this amazing faculty of instructors (I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to hear your stories; how it’s helping you in your careers, and in your passion for creating great images).

"This incredible jump start has helped us to move further ahead on a variety of new training projects, and thanks to your response we’ll be announcing a number of new world-class instructors who’ll be joining our faculty, and bringing their talents to you in just the next few months (this has me totally psyched!)."


Click here to read Scott Kelby's complete report.

Click here to visit Kelby Training Online.

Great Photographers: Joe McNally

Great Photographers: Joe McNally




Tuesday, January 29, 2008

DPReview Announces Lens Reviews

"Dpreview is pleased to announce the launch of a new section dedicated to testing and reviewing digital SLR lenses. Designed to offer the same class-leading testing standards as its legendary camera reviews, dpreview’s new lens reviews are the result of months of intense research, development and testing, including the development of new test charts and proprietary analysis software designed to overcome the limitations of existing systems."

Matt Kloskowski's Aged-Texture Tip

Click here to download Matt's texture and read how to use it. Click here to see the texture at work in before and after photos.


Great Photographers: Zena Holloway

Great Photographers: Zena Holloway



Nikon D60

Nikon Announces New D60. Click here for details.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Female Soldiers In Israel

From The Rachel Papo: Serial No. 3817131 Website

Excerpt:

"The life of an eighteen-year-old girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism. 'I solemnly swear…to devote all of my strength and to sacrifice my life to protect the land and the liberty of Israel,' repeats the newly recruited soldier during her swearing-in ceremony. She enters the two-year period in which she will change from a girl to a woman, a teenager to an adult, all under a militaristic, masculine environment, and in the confines of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict.

"I decided to portray female soldiers in Israel during their mandatory military service as a way for me to revisit my own experience. I served as a photographer in the Israeli Air Force between 1988-1990. It was a period marked by continuous depression and extreme loneliness, and at the time I was too young to understand these emotions. Through a series of images showing female soldiers in army bases and outside, individually or in groups, I attempt to reveal a facet of this experience that is generally overlooked by the global community..."




17 Stunning Wide Angle Images

From the Digital Photography School Website.


Thursday, January 24, 2008

Best Photoshop Noise Reduction Plugin

Scott Kelby reports on his blog today:

"Digital Photography magazine (another UK-based photography magazine), did a shoot out of noise reducing Photoshop plug-ins, and their winner was a plug-in I’ve never heard of before called 'Neat Image.' Here’s what Digital Photography said, 'Neat Image scooped the first prize due to its simplicity, features, and impressive results' and they praised it for its ability to reduce noise without making the image blurry. The other programs in the shoot out were Noise Ninja and Noiseware Pro (the plug-in I use for noise reduction)."

The Neat Image plugin can be downloaded here.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Lightroom Help Home


The new Lightroom community help system, which provides core documentation for Lightroom as well as links to additional learning content both within and outside of Adobe.com, is available here.

Animoto Mojo

Now here's an online service to get excited about. It's called Animoto and it creates MTV-style movies out of your photographs, music, and video clips. Writes EMorton, G4TV:

"It's like tossing a bunch of steel, glass and leather into a box, shaking it up and then opening the box to find a brand new Ferrari."

I agree. It's beautiful, well-designed, and exceptionally user-friendly. And your finished video can be posted all over the Net -- on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Blogger, and gobs of other websites that support embedded videos.

The only downside I've discovered is that Animoto, which is still in beta, has a few bugs -- the biggest being that it doesn't always render your Oscar winning slideshow in a timely fashion. Sometimes, in fact, it doesn't complete your product at all. But judging by how professionally Animoto has been put together, how quickly their support team responded to my emails, and how well it works when it does work, I expect this bug to be ironed out quickly.

Here's an example I created to showcase my wedding photography:



The cost: $3.00 per video, or $30.00 a year for unlimited videos. Here's how the folks behind Animoto describe themselves:

"Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out.

"Their first release is Animoto, a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

"The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film.

"Based in New York City with an office in San Francisco, the founders of Animoto include veterans of the entertainment industry and have produced shows for MTV, Comedy Central, & ABC, studied music in London, and played in indie rock bands in Seattle. They continue to innovate in the field of creative artificial intelligence. They plan to acquire Google next year."

Classical Lighting By David Ziser

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Nikon D Series Highest In Customer Satisfaction


Excerpted From January 2008 Rangefinder Magazine (pdf):

According to J.D. Power and Associates, Nikon's D-series cameras rank "Highest in customer satisfaction with digital SLR cameras." Using a 1000-point scale, the 2007 Digital Camera Satisfaction Study found that Nikon's D-series digital SLR cameras earned a score of 822 index points, making them the highest-ranked camera line among digital SLRs in four areas of customer satisfaction: picture quality, performance, operation, and appearance and styling. The popular D series includes the D200, D80, D40x and D40, as well as profsional models such as the D300 and D3 digital SLR cameras.

J.D. Power and Associates Press Release (August 29, 2007)

Friday, January 18, 2008

Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote In 60 Seconds

For those of you who are fans of Apple like I am (my business and personal life is entirely Apple based), here an extremely abbreviated version of Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote. While the new MacBook Air was the big announcement, I was more interested in Apple TV 2, being able to rent (versus buy) movies via iTunes, and the new GPS-like mapping feature that the delightfully dazzling iPhone now offers.



His complete presentation can be found here.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The American Society of Photographers


I love this photo. It is from The American Society of Photographer's Website. They have six loan collections, from 2002 to 2007. This particular image is from the 2007 series.

Another Photo From Syndie & Scott's Wedding

Here's another image from Syndie and Scott's December 2007 wedding, which had a Scottish theme, complete with bagpipe player. A few previous images can be found here.

Professional Wedding Photographer Fees


What are professional wedding photographers around the world (and in your part of the country) charging for their services? The Wedding Photojournalist Association provides a helpful list of information about their members, including:

- Digital Shooter
- Digital Only Shooter
- Negatives Available
- CDs/DVDs Available
- Base Prices

Check it out.

David Ziser's Blog

I've been in the process of tracking down the best photo blogs on the Net. Here's another one: David Ziser's Blog. Along with lots of great news, tips, tutorials, and other information, Ziser also posts many of his gorgeous photographs, including the technique and camera settings he used to get them. Very informative and inspiring.




Monday, January 14, 2008

Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcasts


Subscribe to the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast with tips and tutorials by Terry White, with a special focus on Photoshop and InDesign.

Visit Adobe Creative Suite Website

Subscribe To Podcasts Via iTunes

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Cleaning Digital Camera Sensors

You would think cleaning the sensors on digital cameras would be easy and straightforward. But it turns out that there are a lot of different thoughts on cleaning, as well as products for getting the job done. And if it isn't done right, you could end up having to send your camera in to have its sensor replaced -- a costly and time-consuming proposition.

The best, most comprehensive and unbiased directions for cleaning your sensor that I've found are on the Cleaning Digital Cameras website. Among other things, they explain the pros and cons of many different ways of cleaning sensors, provide a list of sensor cleaning products, and even list the ways that camera manufacturers conduct in house cleanings (see below). How did they come up with their recommendations? They claim to have used over 150 different sources, including the repair departments of seven DSLR manufacturers, to come up with their information.

The information on their website led me to Photographic Solutions, a company that specializes in lens cleaning products. And once there, I found two videos that demonstrated wet and dry cleaning methods. While both of these videos are promoting products from Photographic Solutions, other products, from other companies, are used in similar ways.

Video One: Demonstrates Wet Cleaning


Video Two: Demonstrates Dry Cleaning


............

How do Canon, Nikon, and the other major manufacturers clean cameras in house? Here's a quick list from the Cleaning Digital Cameras website:

• Canon - Blower and a Kimwipe, held by tweezers. They do not like to use fluid but when necessary they use either 90% isopropyl alcohol or a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and Windex.

• Fuji - Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs™ and Eclipse™

• Kodak - Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs™ and Eclipse™

- Leica - Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs™ and Eclipse™

• Nikon - A commercial grade lens tissue wrapped around a chopstick style piece of wood with medical grade methanol. Several forums have posts where readers have been to Nikon Service outside the USA and reported seeing the technicians using Sensors Swabs and Eclipse.

• Olympus - A Kimwipe held by tweezers and Olympus Proprietary Solution (dries quickly without streaks and is bio-degradable).

• Pentax - A special lint free cloth (provided from Japan) folded into a small square and held with a pair of tweezers as a swab moistened with a freon derivative.

• Sigma - Uses a special vacuum cleaner that was provided by Japan.

• Sony - Uses Sensor Swabs™ and Eclipse™ by Photographic Solutions.

Note: Only Kodak, Leica and Fuji support the consumer in using the same method that they themselves use for cleaning the low pass filter. All the others manufacturers only support the non-physical contact use of a hand blower. If Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax or Sigma, can tell that you have touched the low pass filter, your warranty is void. On the other hand, Photographic Solutions Inc., guarantees that you won't damage your camera, if you use their Sensor Swabs™ and Eclipse™.

Joe McNally On YouTube

I just discovered that Joe McNally has a web page on YouTube. Among other things, his YouTube page includes the video that introduced his new book, "The Moment It Clicks".

Interview With Joe McNally On Nikon D3

The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation


From The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Website:

"When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

"This is the place where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

"The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of nearly 3,000 volunteer professional photographers in the United States and eight International countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby."


Visit The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Website

Ken Rockwell's D300 Page


Ken Rockwell has consolidated all his D300 tests, observations, news, opinions on one page. Excerpt:

"The Nikon D300 is the world's greatest amateur camera. The Nikon D300 is far more revolutionary than its specifications suggest. I've never said this before of any other camera, but the D300 actually makes it easier to create significantly better images than with earlier cameras.

"The D300 has better color, better highlights, better shadows, it's sharper because it fixes lens flaws, and its superior AF system and viewfinder free us to compose more freely. The D300 shares these innovations with its nearly identical $5,000 big brother, the D3. Compare their menus or read their users manuals and you'll see that they are the same on the inside! Owning both, I can confirm that they both operate in the same way and give the same look to their images. At ISO 200 with an exceptional lens, there isn't any visible difference I can see."

Friday, January 11, 2008

Carrying Lithium Batteries On Planes


Effective January 1, 2008, there are new rules for carrying lithium batteries on planes.

Excerpted from the safetravel.dot.gov website:

Effective January 1, 2008, the following rules apply to the spare lithium batteries you carry with you in case the battery in a device runs low:

- Spare batteries are the batteries you carry separately from the devices they power. When batteries are installed in a device, they are not considered spare batteries.

- You may not pack a spare lithium battery in your checked baggage

- You may bring spare lithium batteries with you in carry-on baggage -- see our spare battery tips and how-to sections to find out how to pack spare batteries safely!

- Even though we recommend carrying your devices with you in carry-on baggage as well, if you must bring one in checked baggage, you may check it with the batteries installed.


For more information, visit Flying With Fish (a blog written for photographers who fly).

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Nikon's New Auto ISO Feature


Michael Reichmann On Nikon's New Auto ISO Feature:

"Possibly the most advantageous feature for me that the Nikon D300 and D3 have, and most current Canon models do not, is auto ISO capability. The way Nikon implements it is to allow the user to set the lowest ISO that he or she wishes to use, and also the highest. The lowest shutter speed for the camera to automatically use also may be preset.

"From then on the camera, whether set to Aperture Priority, Manual, or full Program mode, the camera will adjust the exposure parameters as usual, but, when the light level falls so low that the camera's minimum lens aperture is reached, and the shutter speed is as low as you have set it to go, the camera will then automatically increase the ISO as much as needed to fall within these parameters. The ISO being set is always visible on the top LCD as well as in the viewfinder.

"Here's an example of the power of this feature. Imagine that you're walking down the street on a sunny day photographing people in the shade as well as bright sun. The camera is set to ISO 200, an appropriate sensitivity setting for the situation. All of sudden you look into the dark doorway of a building and see something worth photography. Maybe it's a simple still life tableau, or possible a murder under way, (Pulitzer prize here I come). With the Nikon you simply frame and shoot. If the camera needs to run the ISO up to 1600 or 6400, whatever is needed to give a usable exposure, you've got the shot. With the Canon and no auto-ISO, you need to take the time to judge what ISO setting might be required, to set it, and then to take the shot. Auto ISO is available on both the D300 and D3."


Read Michael Reichmann's Complete Article Here.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Michael Reichmann On Nikon Versus Canon


Michael Reichmann, of The Luminous Landscape, just posted an informative comparison between Nikon and Canon, with a special focus on how Nikon's new D3 and D300 cameras stand up against Canon cameras. Here are a few excerpts.

EXCERPTS:

"In this essay I look at the new Nikon D3 and D300 though the eyes (mine) of someone who has been shooting with Canon cameras for the past 8 years. Prior to 1999 I used Nikons, shoot film, and used them to make a living in photography for some 30 years. I also used (and still do) Hasselblads and Leicas, and as a magazine reviewer have probably tested and shot with almost every major camera system available since the mid-1960's. But for several decades prior to the advent of digital, Nikons were my 35mm tool of choice.

"In about 1998 I switched to Canon. The reasons were because Canon had fast USM autofocus, a line of Tilt / Shift and long Image Stabilized lenses that Nikon did not, and I found that these were all to my needs and liking. I also felt that I wanted a change, maybe even just for the sake of it, to learn and become familiar with something new and different. This type of change can often be creatively stimulating.

"As the new decade progressed and digital became dominant I never regretted my move to Canon. Though Nikon was first with an affordable pro DSLR, the D1, Canon quickly responded with the D30, 1D and their successors. Canon was then the first with a full-frame DSLR (1Ds) , and this plus the company's extremely clean and low noise proprietary CMOS sensors meant that there was little pull on me to return to the Nikon brand.

"But then in mid-2007 Nikon announced the D300 and D3, and just prior to the end of the year started to ship both. Even a cursory look at the features of these two cameras showed that Nikon was back in the game. This caught my attention, and for the first time in nearly a decade I decided to see what Nikon was offering. I also decided that the only way to do justice to the brand was to actually go out and put together a complete system and to start using it in the field.

"No -- this doesn't mean that I am switching from Canon to Nikon. But it does recognize that with more than 1 million readers a month from around the world I have a lot of people visiting the site who are interested in both camera platforms. It makes sense therefore for me to become conversant with both systems and to cover them equally from now on. So -- during November and December 2007 I purchased an almost complete Nikon system. It consists of Nikon D3 and D300 bodies, and a selection of lenses..."

............

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but after being away from Nikon for the better part of a decade and having been immersed in the Canon gestalt since then, I was frankly surprised at the extent to which current Nikon cameras offer feature and function advantages over Canon. While some of the ones mentioned above may not be relevant to any one photographer's needs, there are bound to be several which can be real productivity aids, if not just downright fun to have and use.

"As a journalist I really don't care which camera system is better than the other. I have no loyalty to either brand, or any brand for that matter. All I care about is features, functionality and performance...

"We now have a bit of a sea change happening. Nikon has flexed its considerable muscle and with the D3 produced a camera that sends a clear challenge to Canon's nearly decade-long dominance of the digital arena. The D300, though in many ways simply a logical progression from the D200, is a much better camera than its predecessor, and along with its superior sensor offers the pro and advanced amateur a set of features and functionality that is unmatched at the moment in Canon's line up.

"For its part the full-frame Nikon D3 is a direct challenge to Canon's 1 Series, which has dominated the pro marketplace now for more than half a decade. The 1D MKIII is right in the D3's bore sight, and the D3 matches it or surpasses it in IQ, sensitivity, and resolution..."


Read Complete Article.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Haunting Photography Of Chris Jordan


Photographer and digital photographic artist Chris Jordan specializes in creating images that highlight the breathtaking magnitude of consumerism. Says Chris, "Our consumption looks like something from a distance, and then, when you get up close, it looks like something very different. From a distance it looks like all these nice, shiny things that we get to own. And these great lifestyles that we get to live. When you zoom in close, and you learn about the toxic metals, and the world-wide pollution, and the details look different than it looked when you stood back at a distance... All of my work is meant to evoke a whole bunch of different layers of discord between the attraction and repulsion that we feel toward our consumer habits and our consumer lives. It's like there's this tremendous power in our culture that has a dark side to it that has surfaced lately. And that's kind of what I'm working with."

What does this mean? Visit Chris Jordan's website to see for yourself, or watch this PBS video where Chris explains his work and showcases his most well-known (and haunting) images.

National Geographic Wallpapers

Looking for some fabulous (and free) wallpapers for your desktop? National Geographic has a web page that allows you to view and download wallpaper photos, in various sizes, in the following categories:

• Adventure & Exploration
• Animals
• Nature & Weather
• People & Culture
• Science & Space
• Travel
• Underwater

Monday, January 7, 2008

The Drobo Drobolator


I noticed something called a "Drobolator" on the Drobo website, but didn't pay as much attention to it as I should have. A reader today (Rob), wrote in that the Drobolator "lets you calculate exactly what you get for the different drives you use in your Drobo". So I took it for a spin. By dragging and dropping your SATA drives into the Drobo unit pictured on the website, you are told exactly how much hard drive space you will have for your data, and how much Drobo will need to work its backup magic. My confirmation will be 4 500GB drives. According to the Drobolator, that will leave me with 1.8 terrabytes of storage space. That's a little more than I expected.


You can find my previous Drobo posts here and here.

National Geography Photography Tips


Excerpts from national Geographic's "Photography Tips From Our Experts":

How to Shoot a Portrait:

"Getting close to people is the best way to get close to a culture. The camera is a great tool for meeting people. I've found that in every country there are folks who love to be photographed. But there are secrets," says Catherine Karnow, who has been shooting for 20 years. Those secrets include:

• Take the time to develop relationships with people and the land.

• Focus on common experiences -- love, family, friends, death, celebration -- and appreciate the cultural differences.

• Keep your camera discreet, always ask permission, and photograph people unposed, ideally involved in a typical setting.

• Learn a dozen words of the local language. 'Please' and 'thank you' are good places to start. And be sure to smile.

• Learn as much as you can about a place before visiting and always respect local customs. If you're not wanted, quietly leave and move along to the next photo opportunity.

How to Shoot a Landscape:

"To take a good landscape you have to go about it as if you were taking a portrait," says Macduff Everton, who views sweeping vistas as individual faces, and composes his images with a focus on detail. Everton's steps to building balanced, graphically strong images include:

• Mastering light: Light is the most important and tricky element. It can make a photo mysterious -- or just plain boring.

• Choosing a good vantage point: With portraits you can often tell how tall the photographer is. It's the same with landscapes. So move around a bit; switch elevations, kneel on the ground, or walk around.

• Paying attention to everything in the frame: What's in the corner is as important as what's in the center; it's often the difference between an interesting photo and an interesting subject. Be careful not to slip power lines or half a person into the images because you're not paying attention.

How to Get the Best Light:

"Creativity is unpredictable, but craftsmanship is the essence of the art," says David Alan Harvey, who drapes his celebrated photographs of Cuba and Brazil in seductive, defining light. "The secret is to work the edges of the day. You have to push the envelope on light, particularly if you're working in color. Shoot at dawn and continue in late afternoon, into sunset's warm tones, and even half an hour beyond, to capture subtle flickering firelight. Experiment with exposure and film speed to make the most of available light." A few illuminating secrets:

• The best light is in the early morning and before sunset. But good light also depends on location and time of year, so plan your day well.

• Don't be afraid of bad weather: You can get a great light in fog and when the sky is dark and stormy.

• Resist the temptation to use higher ASA film when the light fades. Instead, work with higher contrast, slower-speed (50-100 ASA) film. You might get fewer good shots, but the ones that turn out will be spectacular.

Benefits of Going Digital:

"Digital cameras and instant online transmission have revolutionized photojournalism as well as amateur photography," says Traveler senior photo editor Dan Westergren. "But what's ideal for capturing news presents challenges for travel photographers, who demand high-resolution images -- and take loads of them on a trip, leading to a digital storage dilemma. Still, the benefits outweigh the costs." Here are reasons to go digital:

• Money savings: Although digital cameras are more expensive, you'll save over time by not paying film and processing fees.

• Instant results: View your pictures and shoot again to improve your shots.

• Less gear: A 64 MB memory card can store about 35 high-resolution images; a digital wallet (essentially a durable hard drive that clips to your belt) enables you to download and store these images while you're on the move.

• Photo sharing: Instant ability to e-mail favorite images to family and friends.

• Ink-jet prints: Print high-quality images at your home without the nuisance of scanning.

Professional Photographers Offer Tips for Shooting Digital:

"Digital is great for new photographers," says Raymond Gehman. "When I was starting out, film was so precious you might shoot one roll in a week. Now you can shoot a subject from every possible angle without hesitation. And the more you shoot, the better you get."

"Don't buy a camera with lots of megapixels for the bragging rights," says Jim Richardson. "What's out in front of you is more important than what's in your hand. There's no button to push that will make up for a dull, boring subject. Go someplace interesting and find something compelling to say with your pictures."

"Just as with transparencies, I expose digital for the highlights, letting some of the image be underexposed," says David Alan Harvey. "If you blow out the highlights in digital, same as with slides, they're gone."

"Digital allows you to forget -- or never learn -- the fundamental techniques of photography," says Farah Nosh. "Don't let that happen. Switch your camera into manual mode and, for example, play with the depth of field by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed to get different effects, such as blurring out the background of a portrait."

"The basic issues are still focus, exposure, and composition," says Will van Overbeek. "Step up close to your subject and shoot at the widest setting possible. As famous war photographer Robert Capa said, 'If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.'"

Read Complete Article.

Popular Photography: Best Photos Of The Year

Popular Photography's "Images of the Year Competition 2007". Click here to view the images.