Photoscout

• Things to Consider when Buying Extras for your Digital Camera

  Usually, when you buy something, you are going to have to purchase additional items. If you buy a laptop, you will need a stylish but functional bag to carry it. If you buy a bicycle, you will have to buy a lock and a helmet. If you purchase a cell phone, you will probably pay for the case or memory card. The same thing goes for digital cameras. If you want to have it all and complete the set, there are many additional items you can purchase for your camera: reflectors, tripods, additional lenses, special lenses, etc. But aside from these, there are those basic necessities that you will always have to buy.

  Batteries

  Some digital cameras will only require special batteries manufactured by the same company that manufactured the camera, whereas other cameras will take AA’s. So what should you consider when buying batteries for your camera? First, you have to remember that buying cheap disposable batteries is not a good idea. Your digital camera will quickly suck them dry, probably much faster than a hungry vampire sucking blood. Rechargeable batteries are definitely recommended. Although they have a higher initial cost compared to AA’s, they are cheaper in the long term. Many people use rechargeable nickel metal hydrate (NiMH) batteries, finding them as the best solution. You will also have to purchase a battery charger when you buy rechargeable batteries.

  Camera bag

  You have to protect your digital camera. Looking for the perfect bag for your device should top your list of must-haves. Look for a water-resistant camera case and one with splash-guard zippers. Look also for one that is padded on the inside to avoid the scratching of camera lens. Consider camera bags with an adjustable strap and easily accessible mesh pockets perfect for water bottles and other things. If you are into wild settings, you may want to buy a camera bag built to safeguard your cherished cargo from nasty weather and other elements. In addition to being water-resistant, other bags also sport a rain cover. Other bags strap at both the waist and sternum for a more even distribution of weight when you are hiking the trails.

  Memory cards

  In almost all cases, digital cameras are sold together with a very small amount of built-in memory space. If you are lucky, you can have an external memory card good to hold 5-20 high resolution photos along with the digital camera. Buying a good memory card is important if you do not want to run out of space for those great shots. In digital photography, you can choose from a wide variety of memory cards.

  Most memory cards are based on “flash memory”, a kind of electronically-erasable and programmable read-only memory. It is a solid-state memory device. One of the major virtues of read-only memory that flash memory memory possesses is durability, non-volatility, and tolerance for high temperature and shock. One downside, however, is that it has a limited write-erase cycles. This problem can be addressed by wear management techniques.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  September 9th, 2008 / No Comments

• 4 Digital Photography Tips

  Many people believe that digital cameras do all the work in shooting digital photos. After all, you only have to push the button and amazing photos magically appear right before your eyes. This is not true, of course. You can make beautiful images using a simple camera or lousy photos using the most expensive digicam available in the market. The point is that fantastic shots are not due to the type of camera alone; the photographer is the one that makes the stunning images. With a willingness and a little knowledge, you can make great photography using even the simplest digicam. Here are four tips that will help you shoot photos like a pro.

  1. Know your digicam

  All too often when people buy a digicam, they excitedly rip off the box and then proceed to tinker with the gadget. They briefly browse through the manual and then never read it again. This is not a good idea at all. You have to understand how your digicam works. You need to know how to control the flash, how to play with different camera modes, and how to control exposure. The knowledge you obtain about your digicam will be priceless when you’re out there shooting special photos.

  2. Learn to use the flash

  Controlling the flash is an important thing you must know about digital photography. Photographers do not rely on the digicam’s automatic flash setting. You have to switch on or switch off the flash, depending on the situation. For instance, it is sometimes advisable to switch on the flash when taking outdoor photos. This is to illuminate your subject, particularly if the object or person is in the shade. Also, you can choose to switch off the flash when you are taking indoor shots since using the flash indoors sometimes results in unnatural skin color.

  3. Play with the macro mode

  Remember the time when, as a kid, you discovered an entire community of ants that you never knew existed while playing on the grass? Nowadays, you might not want to see yourself on all fours just to have a detailed view of flowers or insects. All you need is a digicam that has a close up mode and you are ready to explore the world in finer details. A macro mode is perfect for taking detailed shots of objects.

  What you need to do is to choose a subject (a flower or an insect), switch on macro mode, and then get as close to your subject as your digicam will allow. Focus your camera properly before you depress the shutter button completely. Since you have shallow depth of field when you use the macro mode, you have to focus on the detail that interests you the most, and let the other parts of the subject go soft.

  4. Play with the ISO setting

  Basically, the ISO setting controls the image sensor’s sensitivity to the amount of light present. Always use a low ISO setting if you are shooting a photo of a still object such as fruits. This means a longer shutter speed and a cleaner image. If you are taking a photo of an object in motion, like a young boy singing, then use a higher ISO setting. But remember, the higher the ISO setting, the faster shutter speed; and also requires less light. Thus this will yield noiser photos.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  September 2nd, 2008 / No Comments

• Money Out Of Photography

  Dabbling in photography is one of the most creative things that you will ever get yourself into. However, there will come a time that simply “dabbling” just won’t do it. You will eventually want to get into photography as a profession. If this crosses your mind, you’ll find yourself daydreaming about taking pictures for a living.

  You may want to learn by yourself and get some online photography classes under your belt if you’re just starting out so you’ll be able to learn the fundamental principles for you to be able to do certain effects.

  When you’re already experienced enough and you want to start learning to invest in time and effort, you need to be able to find a crucial ingredient—you need a mentor. One of the things that a mentor can help you with is what you need to get in order for you to determine what type of equipment you need whenever you’re doing photo shoots.

  The person need not be someone who you intimately know. Your mentor could be simply a person who has a good, sound fundamental knowledge of photography and how you are able to achieve the perfect photograph. It’s important that the person is willing to take you under his or her wing and simply teach you the ins and out of the craft as well as the business. If you find a good mentor, he should be able to help you get started with your own digital photography studio.

  You should be looking for someone who specializes in digital photography and make sure that he or she specializes in the type of digital photography that you want to get into. If you’re more into portrait, events and wedding photography, you should look for a mentor who has had already a lot of experience. If you’re looking to specialize in advertising photography, then find a mentor who preferably has a studio where you can practice.

  An important thing is to find a mentor and make sure that you yourself won’t quit when the going gets tough. Most of the times, people crack under the pressure or they easily get discouraged. If you decide to have someone mentor you, simply take in whatever they have to teach you and say to you. Always look at different instances, whether they be good or bad, as learning experiences for you. The more you act like a sponge and soak everything in, the faster you’ll learn. And the faster you’ll learn, the sooner you’ll be able to stand on your own two legs.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  January 23rd, 2008 / No Comments

• ACDSee Pro 2

  Have you ever wondered if there is an alternative to the Adobe Lightroom or maybe even Adobe Photoshop? For those of you who have ever wanted an application which will cater to your photographic editing and workflow needs, you now have something that you can try. If you are quite tired of Adobe products, you might want to check out ACDSee Pro 2.

  In this application, you’ll be able to easily view and browse your collection of photos. You can cull, sort and view them in a fully customizable interface with the ease and precision that is demanded by professional photographers. You can instantly switch to full screen mode for all of your pictures or quickly browse through them using the thumbnail option. ACDSee Pro 2 also allows you to see over 100 different file formats in its viewer including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, TGA, NEF, RAW, CRW and PSD. This is absolutely one of the best features of the program as it allows you to quickly locate your particular file. This is especially important if you have a lot of photoshop documents that are saved in the PSD format. Since Windows does not offer thumbnail views of PSD files, this is a great feature to have. Just imagine being able to view your RAW files as quickly as your JPEGS. It’s unbelievable.
  You’ll be able to sift through thousands of shots and look for the pictures that you want to keep by using the Visual Tagging feature. You can take your best shots and compare them to view up to four images all at once in even greater detail. No more importing of pictures in Photoshop just to put two pictures side by side. Now all you’ll need is ACDSee Pro 2.
  Another neat feature is that you’ll be able to search through your photos using different keywords, captions or file names. You may also search pictures using their IPTC data of maybe if you want to go the traditional way, you can just use the Quick Search bar.
  Storing your photos is definitely an important thing but how will you ever manage to enjoy them if you won’t be able to sift through them with the greatest of ease. It’s important that you are able to quickly find and filter all of the photos that you need. This is probably a professional photographer’s dream photo management software but for the normal person who just wants to make his life easier, this is a dream come true.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  October 11th, 2007 / No Comments

• Adjusting Your Picture’s Levels

  Since everyone else is into digital photography, it would be a very useful skill if you would learn how to manipulate your images since a traditional darkroom for your JPEGs would simply be out of the question. Learning how to adjust the levels of your image in Adobe Photoshop is one of the best things that you will learn. The levels of an image simply affects the shadows and the highlights of your picture. By using the levels command and adjusting the different sliders found in that particular Levels window, you’ll be able to give your photographs better contrast or a darker overall tone. It will be quite a feat to simply explain the whole process of the Levels command in Adobe Photoshop but this could be one of the ways that you could probably get a crash course in this very useful command.
  One of the things that you should remember is to switch to the 16-bit mode by going to Image->Mode->16-bits/Channel.
  Then you’ll want to set this picture to Adobe RGB color space if you’re not there yet. You go there by navigating to Choose Image->Mode->Convert To Profile and choose the Adobe RGB.
  When you access the Levels command by pressing Ctrl + L in the PC, you’ll immediately see the histogram which, more or less, should look something like an up and down slope of black which has three different sliders at the bottom.
  You can adjust the different shadows and highlights that are found in your picture by adjusting these sliders accordingly. It would be a very good if you tried experimenting on your own first so you’d know what sliders affect a particular tone. Once you know what slider to adjust, you could try adjusting them very slowly so that you won’t get an overexposed or underexposed type of shot. The key to it is being patient enough to know what combination of slider positions will work best for your picture.
  Another thing to remember is that you should adjust the levels setting for each of your channels. (i.e red, green and blue) These are the separate channels that you will find below the option RGB when you pull down that drop-down menu. It would be a very good thing for you to isolate each channel and adjust the levels so that you won’t “accidentally” adjust the other colors in that channel. The secret is to take small, detailed steps instead of pull the slider in extreme directions. Slow and steady is the pace for a good level combination.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  September 26th, 2007 / No Comments