Sharpening the main subject and blurring backgrounds improves your photos Depth of field is a powerful tool in telling the viewer what you consider important in the photo by sharpening the main subject while on the other hand blurring out any other distracting images surrounding it. For example in this photo below you can see the difference between the original photo and the one with the blurred background. Here is another example where the girl in the middle is the main focus: When most of the photo is sharp, there's lots of depth of field. When only part is sharp,...
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"blurring photo backgrounds, depth of field"
Importance of using your own photographs With Internet copywrite laws gaining strength, it's important now more than ever to start taking and using your own photographs in your website designs. Hence the reason for this category, Photography. Over the next few months I'll be posting entries discussing how to get the most out of your camera and demonstrating ways to make your website images and photographs more interesting for your visitor. Nothing captures an audiences attention more than a fantastically composed image. What's the best camera to use? Digital SLR camera's are fast becoming popular amongst both amateurs and professionals....
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"SLR camera for website images"
Photographing night lights If your like most people, your first photo's of night lights turned out as a series of colored circles or worse, as an empty black image. A black screen is due to your shutter speed (check manual) being set too fast. This can happen if you have your SLR camera set on automatic. Shutter priority is more effective for night photography. Even though I had mine set on shutter priority, the colored circles were caused from it being set to only 1 second. In short, what this means is that I didnt' give my camera enough time...
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"How to take night photos with SLR camera"
How to compose your photograph for maximum impact! Looking through past family photographs, I've realised that I often place the main subject smack dead in the middle of the photo. However, I've since learned that this is usually the failings of amature photography and that images are much more interesting if taken from a different perspective. Take this photo for instance, where the chair has been placed dead centre in the middle of the shot: Pretty uninteresting huh? Now compare it to this one where the chair is positioned to the right with the ocean, islands and boat in the...
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"Composition tips for better photography"
Review for Canon 400D EOS digital camera - also known as Canon Digital Rebel XTi I am by no means a professional or long time user of SLR cameras. Therefore this review is from the viewpoint of an absolute beginner. I will be explaining what I like and what I don't like about the Canon 400D EOS digital camera so hopefully you can make an informed decision when it comes time for you to purchase your first SLR. With a few short sentences, I would explain the Canon 400D EOS digital camera as being: Great value for money. Easy to...
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"Canon 400D EOS Rebel XTI digital SLR camera review"
How to make a digital photo slide show There are many free software downloads available to photographers who want to create slide shows from their digital camera photos. Listed below are a few of the most popular with a short review of what makes them useful. All software mentioned below will also let you edit your photographs before creating a slide show. For example, you can crop, resize, rotate, reduce red eye etc. 1. Photo Story 3 Photo Story 3 is a digital editing program made by Microsoft for Windows. This free photography software is only 5 mb in size,...
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"digital photo slide show free software download"
How to photograph a flying bird with an SLR digital camera The first time beginners to SLR digital cameras photograph birds that are in flight, they usually end up with an image that is blurred. For example: A blurred photograph of a flying bird is good if your intention is to show movement. However there are times when you want a clear unblurred photo of the bird. For example: Over the last 3 months since purchasing my Canon 400D SLR I've found that with moving birds it's best to set your camera to Shutter Priority. The slower the shutter speed...
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"Flying bird SLR camera settings"
How to photograph macro water droplets and splashes with SLR camera Not long after purchasing my SLR digital camera, one of the first things I wanted to photograph was water droplets and spashes. Like many photographers I soon became a huge fan of flickr.com after searching with amazement through hundreds of pages of water droplets and splashes. It then took me quite a long time to work out an effecient technique for photographing droplets and spashes that were good enough to share with others. Listed below are hints and tips for macro photography that I've learned the last couple of...
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"How to photograph macro water droplets splashes"
How to clean your Canon EOS sensor If you find you have spots or circular shadows appearing on your digital photographs, chances are you have dust on your camera sensor. Usually the spots are not noticeable until you take a photograph in a high aperture such as f22. First time SLR photographers are usually nervous about cleaning their camera's sensor. Yet its not as hard as you imagine. Canon 400D has an inbuilt self cleaning sensor unit. This video below is useful for demonstrating how this inbuilt self cleaning sensor works. If you have a Canon 5D or 30D then...
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"How to clean dust off Canon camera sensor"
How to fix or straighten crooked and uneven horizons in photographs Just about every photographer does it at one stage or another. You've taken the perfect photograph and when you've got home and viewed it on the computer you realise the horizon is crooked or uneven. Take the example below where the horizon is uneven. Photoshop CS2 makes it easy to straighten an image. Simply click on Filter - Distort - Lens Correction. Then look to the left and you'll see a tool called the straighten tool. You can use the straighten tool on the top left and using a...
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"straighten crooked uneven horizons in photographs"
Tips for taking photographs outside in the great outdoors with an SLR digital camera Taking photographs outside can bring with it many challenges. For starters the time of day you take the photo can impact largely on the end result. Outdoor sunlight can often be very harsh. However there are tools such as exposure, spot metering, UV filters, polarizing filters and lens hoods to help you combat these problems. Thinking about the photographs composition is also important if you want to eliminate elements such as a dull sky. Listed below are our top 5 tips for taking beautiful outdoor photo's....
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"Outdoor photography tips harsh sunlight"
Tips for getting really sharp photographs When I first purchased my Canon SLR camera one thing that really annoyed me at first was that no photograph seemed to be as sharp as I knew they should be. The reasons for this of course was my digital camera skills and not the camera. Many factors including focus, camera shake, subject movement, aperture, ISO settings and lens quality help to determine how sharp your photo's will be. Listed below are a few tips I've since learned for taking sharp photographs. 1. Focus correctly for sharp images. If you have your digital SLR...
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"How to take sharp photographs images"
How to make photographs look lomo using Photoshop If your anything like me, you've recently purchased a digital camera (SLR in my case), joined flickr.com and heard everyone talking about lomo photography. Lomo photography or lomography as its known, seems to be everywhere nowadays. If your into technical details then you can check out the history of Lomography at Wikipedia. For everyone else it's best to explain what this style of photography is by using examples. The first thing you'll notice about all these images shown below, is that they contain very high color saturation. This is one of the...
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"Lomography, make photos look like lomo photography"
The difference between fast and slow digital SLR camera lenses When you buy a digital SLR camera lens you will notice it has an f number on the box. For example, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6. It is the f number (f/4-5.6) that determines whether the lens is considered fast or slow. The f number is also know as its aperture value. A slow lens has a maximum aperture value (f number) of 3.5 to 5.6 or higher. The higher the f number the slower the lens. Here is another example using two of my lenses. One is a Canon EF-S...
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"Difference between fast and slow camera lenses"
What do all the numbers and letters on a digital camera lens refer to and what do they mean? If your new to DSLR photography the first things you'll need to know when buying a new lens will be concerning the numbers and letters printed on the lens. You will need to know what they mean to ensure you buy the lens that suits your specific needs. First I'll start explaining what the mm number means. For example on a Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens you will see the number 17-85mm written on the side. The mm number refers to...
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"What do numbers letters on digital camera lens mean"
Top 3 digital photography books Being new to SLR cameras, I'm getting together a good collection of books about digital photography. Here are the three most useful books I've found helpful for beginners to photography. I recommend all 3 books, as they do complement each other. However, if you must only choose one, then it has to be the first book called 'The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography'. If you are really new to DSLR photography and find you are totally lost, then the third book called 'Quick Snap Guide to Digital SLR Photography' is a must have to help...
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"Digital photography books SLR camera guides"
Digital camera bulb mode - what is it and when would you use it. If you recall an earlier post on night photography, we talked about the importance of setting your camera's shutter speed to full seconds. This enables enough light in so your photograph doesn't end up too dark or black. Some camera's however, only allow you to set a shutter speed of up to 30 seconds maximum. Note, this means the camera will take a full 30 seconds to shoot the photograph. But what if you want to set your shutter speed for longer than 30 seconds? This...
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"What is bulb mode on digital camera"
10 Photography tips for when your travelling on holidays Taking photographs when your travelling can often be very different to when your at home or work. For example, if you take a bus tour then you often have very little time between stops to really think about composition. I guess thats why you'll find everyone on a bus trip has exactly the same photograph from exactly the same position. However, with a little pre planning it is possible to get some amazing shots while travelling. 1. Instantly look for a different location to shoot from. If you're on a bus...
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"Travel photography tips"
What is shutter speed, what does it do and how do you use it? If you own an SLR digital camera then you've also most likely seen a button on top that has the characters TV written on it. Setting the camera mode to TV is what is referred to as shutter priority. After choosing shutter priority on your digital camera, you then need to set the speed in seconds. Depending on your camera, you can choose to set the speed at 1/8000 th of a second, all the way to a to full 30 seconds or longer if you...
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"What is shutter speed SLR camera"
Digital Photography Course The last month or so we've added so many digitial photography tutorials that I thought it was important to make a page that pulls them all together. I guess it can be thought of as a free online digital photography course. The technical side of the photography tutorials are useful for those with SLR digital cameras. For example, what is shutter speed, what's the difference between a fast or slow lens, and bulb modes explained. However lessons that discuss composition tips, lomography and travel photography could suit everyone, including those with compact point and shoot cameras. I...
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"Free online digital photography course tutorials"
Keeping website / graphic design content separate to photography articles While we think it's important for website developers to take their own photographs for use on their sites, we also recognise that not all photographers create websites. For this reason, we have decided to continue our photography articles over on their own domain at SLR Photography Guide. We will still update developers who use this website on useful articles we've added to the photography guide. For instance we have plans in the near future for adding an article on product photography for designers who have online stores. Recently we've added...
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"SLR Photography Guide"
