Thursday, March 29, 2007

Learn How To Share Your Photos Easily With Free Digital Photo Albums

Digital photo albums are a great way of sharing your photos with friends and family, whatever country they live in.

What makes digital photo albums so special?

Unlike the old days of film, if you take photos using a digital camera it is now much easier to share these images across the world, using photo albums hosted on a website.

Instead of arranging for extra copies of photos to be made, all you need to do is to open a free account at websites like the Kodak Easyshare Gallery or Photobucket and start uploading your photos. You then decide which style of album you wish to display your photos in and then invite people to view them. You will find that most photo albums sites allow you to comment on your photos. Not only that but you can also allow visitors to add comments too. This takes sharing photos to a new level and of course you can upload from anywhere in the world. You just need access to an internet connection.

So, if you are travelling, your friends and family can see where you are and really get into the experience of your adventures.

What are the benefits of digital photo albums?

The main benefit is the avoidance of hassle when you want to share your photos. Uploading them to a website is a once only operation. You avoid the need for sending large attachments with emails. In my experience you are never sure whether they will reach their destination anyway.

You can request printed photos directly from the photo albums site if you need copies but in particular, friends and family can do this too. A major saving in your time on what is usually a laborious task.

What are the downsides?

You will find that you have to sign up for a free account which grants you access to the main photo albums creation area. However, be aware that you usually have to make a purchase, at least one a year, to keep your account active. This purchase may take the form of a few hard copies of pictures from your digital photo albums or perhaps your images printed on mugs, keyrings or posters etc.

You need to read the terms and conditions carefully as digital photo albums suppliers usually reserve the right to delete your digital photos or videos should you not make the required purchase. But don't worry, some only require the purchase of a few of your digital photos printed and it is not very expensive.

Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

What to Look for in a Digital Photography Software

Digital Photography Software: Now days digital cameras are used everywhere, for special occasion and more. One thing amazing about digital photography is the ability to modify or fix the pictures taken. But to do that you need to transfer those pictures to your computer and use digital photography software. There is a wide variety of it available on the market.

Very often you will be provided with a copy of you own digital photography software with the digital camera you buy. This digital photography software usually comes with various features. This software is usually very useful to manipulate the pictures taken with your camera.

If you are looking for a digital photography software don't worry there are plenty that can be found. You can choose from a wide variety of digital photography software here are some very good ones:

- ZoomBrowser EX 5.1


- ArcSoft PhotoStudio


- ImageBrowser5.1

Those are only a few of the digital photography software you can use. You will need to make sure that every features of the software you use are working properly before downloading any of your stored images.

You will also need to take into consideration the different kind of digital photography software you can use for windows and for Mac computers. There a few differences that can be found in the browsers programs. For example the ImageBrowser 5.1 is to be with Mac computers. You will have the ability to view, archive and manage your digital photographs. The same holds true for ZoomBrowser 5.1 for windows.

A very important factor you will need to look into is the drivers you need to install for your digital photography software to work correctly on your computer. Normally these drivers should be provided to you with the software you are going to buy. A good thing would be to look on the company website to see if there are updates for your drivers. This will ensure you have the latest drivers for your digital photography software.

Another thing you need to have beside your digital photography software is a picture transfer protocol or a PTP on your computer. This will make sure you are able to transfer your images on your camera to your computer.

By looking at the different features that those digital photography software's offers, you will be able to see which one you want to get based on what you need it for. There is a huge amount of software available on the market and they should not be that expensive.

One important point to remember is you will need to make sure that these various programs are compatible with your computer and your digital camera. From those software features you will be able to fix your pictures and even make masterpieces out of them.

Labels: , ,

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sell Your Digital Photos Online For Profit

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to sell your digital photos?

Are you one of those people who think that your photos are actually only snapshots? Or maybe you think only your friends and family will praise your efforts. If you're a member of a photo club, you might have won or achieved a high position in some photography competitions which could perhaps boost your recognition of your own efforts.

Whether or not you think that you can sell your digital photos, that's truly down to another person - the person who's willing to buy your photo (or not!). Camera magazines are incredibly common, and all want photo submissions from their readers, so sending in a variety of your top photos to them is one way to get into print and wave the obliging magazine under the noses of doubters as you brag about being a "published" photographer. ;-)

Stock Photography

But there is a further way to sell your digital photos. It's called stock photography - images that can be used and reused for commercial design purposes. All photos are non-commissioned; that is - the photographer wasn't hired to do a job.

Book publishers, specialist publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, film makers, web designers, graphic artists, interior decor firms, corporate creative groups, and other businesses all use stock photography to fulfill the requirements of their creative assignments.

Stock Photography And You

With there being so many photo repositories online, many request photo submissions from hobbyist photgraphers instead of using work only from professional photographers. So that's where you come in. Select a number of your greatest digital photos and submit them to some of the online stock photo agencies. If accepted, the agencies will sell your digital photos for you.

Remember that the agencies will review your photos before they make a decision to accept or reject them. Yes, they have a few fundamental requirements that must be met before they'll accept your photos. Different image banks could have slightly different criteria. All you can do is try. You've nothing to lose. Just read what terms are provided so you can match what you submit as closely as possible to what each agency is seeking.

Submitting Photos

There are two ideas to reflect upon when submitting your work for review in order to get an image bank to sell your digital photos : Title and Keywords.

1. Choose as descriptive a title as possible for each of your photos as it'll help prospective customers discern the subject of the photo with less difficulty.

2. The other thing to think over is keywords related to the topic of your photo. These are used to match the search terms typed in by customers for photographs matching what they're searching for. So the greater the number keywords you use, the greater the likelihood of your photo appearing in the search results which, in turn, increases your chances of a sale.

Any agency with whom you sell your digital photos will not take copyright of your work. You always retain that. All you are doing is conferring on the stock photo agency a license to sell your digital photo and not the image itself. Most of the image banks run a non-exclusivity arrangement which means that you can submit your photographs to as many agencies as you like. A few stock photo agencies do provide optional exclusivity clauses which can result in you earning a higher payment per sale but that's something you have to size up against the number of sales you may make for the same photograph at all the other agencies you've submitted it to.

So what sized commissions can you expect to earn if you sell your digital photos?

Stock Photo agencies don't pay a large fee per photograph. They sell digital photos at low rates (from a dollar upwards) and don't forget that they cover the administration fees for handling transactions as well as hosting and serving the photos to customers.

Expect to earn $0.20 to $0.50 on average per sale. Profoundly popular photos will have higher commissions but it's best to assume yours won't be in that category. So you definitely aren't going to get rich overnight.

You've nothing to lose if you sell your digital photos online. The more photographs you submit, the more you will sell and the more money you will earn.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, March 23, 2007

Collecting Vintage Photo Albums

When you think of looking through someone's old photo album do you think of how boring it will be to have to look at someone else's kids, or the trip to Disney World they took in the 1970's? That's what I thought before I had the chance to look through an old photo album of someone's trip to India way back in 1938! First, I want to let you know a little bit about myself and how I became interested in collecting vintage photography.

One day I found an old photograph at a local flea market from around 1900 of a train wreck. It was so cool seeing all the men wearing bolo hats and looking on at the pile of twisted metal that I just had to have it. Little did I know that that one image would get me started on a collection of photographs that has since blossomed to include; Photo Albums, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Negatives, 35mm Slides, Stereoviews, and a whole host of photographic mediums.

Back to the photo album of the trip to India. I was not so hot on photo albums back when I first started collecting photos but my whole perception changed when I opened that photo album. The very first image was of 2 men and 2 women at an opulent 1930s bar with the bar tender standing on. The men and women were all decked out in 1930s attire, the women in gorgeous gowns and the men in tuxedos. They were all turned towards and toasting the camera with martinis in hand, and the caption read "The night before our trip to India 1938". The image reminded me of The Shining when Jack Nicholson was in the barroom full of ghosts how cool is that?

I discovered page after page of interesting photos, and I discovered that the album was telling a great story. The second page started the trip with a cool image from the deck of the steamship. The photographer was looking down at a dock full of people wishing a happy Bo voyage. As the album progressed there were some more images of New Jersey from the ship as it steamed towards India, and other images of the deck of the ship, but that's not the interesting part of this story, I'll get to that shortly.

Those people visited many areas in and around India but when they got to Bombay with old two wheeled carts being pulled by the native population, a snake charmer, a Swami, the hotel where they were staying, and all kinds of other people and places, things started to really get interesting. As I turned the pages I could see that the album layout was well thought out and was telling a story.

As I carefully turned the pages, I turned to a page with one of the women all decked out in a Pith helmet, Safari pants and shirt, and holding a big gun. I stopped in my tracks and had to take a second look. She was standing over a rather large dead tiger, and with one foot resting on it in triumphant victory! There were native Indians and elephants moving around in the background and the whole image had an air of excitement. Now I don't condone the killing of animals just for the pleasure of doing it, but that image conjured images of Teddy Roosevelt charging off on some great Safari of his own, and represented the values of another far off time.

I was hooked. I asked the dealer how much he wanted for the album and after some good natured haggling we came to a price and I bought it. I have since found other very interesting photo albums filled with images of people and far off places, but that album will always be one of my favorites. If you want to start a collection of photo album stories for yourself, a good place to start looking would be at your local flea markets. I have found that they are the best place to find fresh to the market images and albums.

Happy hunting!

Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Choosing The Right Memory Card For Your Digital Camera

They made MemPlug for Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, and other formats. If you have a choice I would choose: First, whatever format something else you already have would use, maybe the same format as your digital camera, for example. Second, both Compact Flash and Secure Digital, these are the most common and available formats right now. Now the module will cost you about $70 from PiTech or about $20-30 from eBay if they have any at the time.

You can buy a new and more powerful PDA for $90. Palm One has 'blemished' Palm One Zire 31's on sale and you can find other bargains if you look on the internet, etc. With the newer PDA such as the Zire 31, you'll get a color screen, built in Secure Digital card slot and better integrated software for using it, MP3 and video capabilities, etc. I also noticed that Palm is running a $50 trade in offer as well for buying a new Palm. For more information on a wider range on using memory cards and such you can go on the internet and look it up.

Most flash cards that come in new digital cameras have such small memories. In order to save your frustration, order the SanDisk Compact flash 256 mb with the digital camera. I have a Minolta Dimage 7 and when I set the camera to more than 3 megapixels, you could see the "gas gauge" literally move. With 256 K, running empty will still be a long way. Brand names and card specifics do matter somewhat. The difference is in warranties and quality of craftsmanship.

I use compact flash, and at times the images can get corrupted or the card "non-readable". Both Scan Disk and Laxar provide recovery software that can correct most of these issues when purchasing there higher level cards. They also come with at least a 1 year warranty. For example: I have accidentally sent a Scan Disk compact flash card through the washing machine, retrieved all of the photos, and the card still works...I wouldn't count on it again, and don't suggest trying it.

The other difference is in the read write speed. The higher the read write speed, the faster your cards will offload onto your CPU, as well as write to your camera (allowing less time to get ready for additional photographs). The fastest I have seen so far is 80 xs. Through a USB port, a 1g memory card takes about 10-15 min to offload at this (80x) speed. It also supports the IBM micro drive, but I would stay with the SanDisk ultra II which is rated perhaps the fastest compact flash card available. I'd opt for at least a l gig card which will give you about 160 Raw images with a small jpeg imbedded. You should be very happy with the purchase.

If you are going to do model shots then you must get a Digital SLR because other types have a shutter lag (that means that the moment you press the shutter the camera takes 1/2 - 1 second to actually take the image.) A D50 or Canon Rebel would work. I use and prefer compact flash memory cards as they are lots less expensive than SD memory. Megapixels are a measure more of the initial image capture file size. Once you pump the image through Photoshop you make the corrections and adjustments for whatever you are going to do.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Monday, March 19, 2007

Seven Spring Photography Tips

Spring is here! Here are seven photography tips for the new season.

Shoot birds as they are now coming back from the winter. Use the longest lens you have to get the bird in full frame. Use a fast shutter speed of at least 1/500 second. These critters move fast and are usually restless even while perched so you need to be prepared for their quick moves.

Shoot in black and white. The sun's still not out quite as much so on overcast days try shooting in black and white to get whatever contrast you have to stand out.

Shoot reflections. Puddles, pools of water, moisture on objects, closeups of dew, all make good subjects while we are still experiencing rain in most parts of the country. After spring rains, creeks, streams and waterfalls are at their most picturesque. So spring is a great time to photograph these waterways.

Shoot flowers. An oldy but goody. Spring flowers and blossoms are always a good subject if you need an idea.

Stormclouds and cloudy sky scenes make interesting patterns. Try this with black and white and see what results you get.

Take advantage of the best light. Usually morning light for warm yellow tones, late afternoon or evening light will give you a warmer hint of red to full red.

Finally, check your photo gear and prepare for a full on photo year. Clean your camera, lenses and gear, check and recharge all your batteries. Read up on what new accessories can enhance your shooting.

Enjoy the sights, sounds and fresh air as you go about capturing the freshness of spring!

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Tips For Preparing For Your Portraits

Choose a photographer that makes you feel comfortable.

Not everyone's personality is an automatic match up. Interview a few photographers and see who gives you the feeling that they genuinely want to make you look your best in your portraits, and they're the kind of person you will feel comfortable working with. If you have confidence in your photographer, you will have a more successful portrait session.

Plan Ahead

Your photographer should offer to have a meeting with you to discuss and plan your portrait with you. During that meeting/ consultation, you and your photographer will get to know each other a little better, and he'll get your ideas about what you want for your portrait. You should talk about color schemes, discuss hair and makeup options as well as the overall look and feel you want in your portraits. A thorough consultation will also help you start planning how to incorporate your portraits in with the other furnishings in your interior decoration scheme.

A Helpful Consideration

At the elite level of sports competition as well as in business, a method called visualization is used with excellent results. It can have a measurable effect in the end results of your portrait session as well. Obviously this will require some serious thinking. Consider who you are as a person, a couple, and, or a family. Condense your description down to one or two sentences. Then consider how you could best portray that "essence of who you are" in a portrait. Imagine what the portrait should look like. Imagine your pose, your clothes, your expression…visualize what it will look like, and the feeling of great satisfaction you will have as a result.

Wardrobe, Dressing For A Portrait

They say, "the clothes make the (person)". The art of portrait photography is to capture not only the best view, or countenance of the subject, but also the personality and mood. It is a person's eyes and face that tell the story of their personality. (Include body language in ¾ and full-length portraits). So, the goal of wardrobe in a portrait is to flatter the subject, and influence the mood. To that end, the clothes should be relatively subdued. Colors should be muted rather than bright and loud, and solid colors are usually better than prints. Aloha prints with a color print over a color background are better than those with white over a dark color. Those present too much contrast and will distract the viewer from the subject(s).

Keep in mind that the clothes help to set the mood or feeling of the portrait, so it's best to avoid the 'latest', 'greatest', "in" styles in favor of more timeless standards. That is, if you want your portrait to have a lasting quality and value, and not be too dated.

Light tones in clothing, bright and cheery though they are, are not necessary for a portrait to have a bright and cheery look. It is also true that dark clothing will not necessarily present a somber mood. Again, it is the eyes and facial expression that dominate and tell the story.

In photographic portraiture, the fact that light colors diminish shadows produces the result that the figure appears slightly fuller. Also, very light or white clothes can tend to wash out your skin tone. The opposite is true with dark toned clothes: they intensify shadows, have a slightly slimming effect, and skin tones appear deeper.

Here are a couple more tips about dressing for your portrait: loose fitting, long sleeves will draw attention away from your arms. If you feel your arms are too big, or you have blotchy skin or band-aids on your arms, wear long, loose fitting sleeves. An open, scoop or V-neck shirt or blouse will add the appearance of length to your neck, where a crew or turtleneck will give the appearance of a shorter neck.

Jewelry And Accessories

Keep it simple is the best advice here. Remember, the part played by accessories and jewelry, the same as with clothing, is simply to flatter the subject, not steal attention from the subject: you. Unless an accessory or piece of jewelry is essential to the look or feel you want in the portrait, or is something you wear all the time, or has special meaning to you, leave it out.

On the other hand, if something is important to you such as your great aunt's locket, or great granddad's walking stick, or plays an integral part of your life such as a stethoscope, or a canoe paddle, talk with your photographer about how to include it in some of your portraits.

Makeup

Men will tend to skip right over this while women will zoom in…MEN: before by-passing this whole topic, look in a mirror at your face. What color is your skin? How's the complexion? Circles under the eyes? Are your nose and forehead shiny? You want to look your best in your portrait, and it's perfectly OK for men to blotter the forehead, put a little powder on for portraits. Even a little lightener under the eyes or blush on the cheeks! Even Arnold, and Steven Segal wear makeup when on camera!

Now, Ladies, just do what you do normally in applying your makeup, as if preparing for an evening at a benefit gala: tastefully a little stronger than for daytime. It's a good idea to bring all your makeup to the session along with some tissues and cold cream. Your photographer may have some suggestions for color changes or additions.

Hair

Real basic here: Make sure your hair is clean and styled the way you want it when you get to the session. And bring your brush, comb, spray, gel, whatever you might need to re-do it! If your hair needs to be cut before the session, have it done at least a week prior to having your portraits made. If you are having your hair styled specifically for the session, have it done just before going to the studio.

Posing

Whether your portrait style will be literal or interpretive, if you give some thought to posing before going into your session, it'll be easier to work with your photographer, and you will look more natural and relaxed in your portraits. In the weeks or days preceding your portrait session be particularly aware of people you see in commercials, movies, magazines, TV shows, at the park, at home, at a friends house. Try to see poses of individuals, or groups, which look good, and portray a quality of feeling or emotion as in a good painting. Imagine yourself or your group in the same or similar pose.

When we see ourselves in a photograph, or portrait, we don't always look the way we think we do, or should. Fact is all faces are asymmetrical to a greater or lesser degree, and we can present different looks from different angles. It's a good idea to look at your face in a mirror and 'practice' looks that you think are flattering to you. Check your smile from different angles. Look at your nose and chin from different angles. What looks best to you? Work on reproducing two or three looks that you like. When you get to your portrait session show your photographer what you like, and ask for help if you think you can use it. Remember, the lighting your photographer uses wont be the same as you have in your bathroom or hallway where your mirror is, so if he knows what you like, he'll be able to reproduce it for you with his lighting.

Labels: , , ,

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Ok, So You're Just Starting Out in Digital Photography, What's Better - Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro

Digital photography is such a promising hobby. You have the beautiful people and places to photograph already. You've found a digital camera that fits your lifestyle and budget. All is good.

But sometimes, the pictures aren't quite perfect. Someone blinked, a random crow flew into your shot, your darling little one twitched at the last second and caused red eyes. The list of what can go wrong with your pictures is seemingly endless.

The key to all of these nagging little details is a piece of digital photography processing software that you understand and can use. As you probably already know, the two most popular pieces of software on the market today are Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. Depending on what you are wanting to do and how much you're wanting to spend, there are pro's and con's for each piece of software.

What Makes Paint Shop Pro Perfect for Beginners?

If you're just starting out with digital photography and editing your own pictures, Paint Shop Pro may just be for you. The choice of many beginning photographers, Corel Paint Shop Pro is a great piece of software on which to learn the basics of digital image processing.

The number one reason most people choose Paint Shop Pro is cost. People who want to use the software of their choice for their personal photographs can find the cost of Adobe Photoshop much too high. Paint Shop Pro can be purchased for much less than Adobe Photoshop, which can be almost 5 times as expensive.

Paint Shop Pro is also an easier piece of software to learn than Photoshop. Using some of the tutorials available online or in books, you can learn the basics of Paint Shop Pro in just a few days and get much more in-depth within a few weeks. Photoshop, on the other hand, can take years to completely master.

Advantages of Photoshop

If, on the other hand, you want to delve further into digital image editing and actually possibly do work professionally, you need to purchase Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop is considered the gold standard in the digital photography processing industry. Most if not all professional photographers and photography editors use Photoshop.

Without a question, Photoshop is a much more powerful piece of software than Paint Shop Pro. Straight out of the box, Photoshop has many more bells and whistles than Paint Shop Pro. But on top of its basic strength, you can also purchase add-on's from both Adobe and other companies. This can include filters, lightboxes, digital elements, and much more. These additions make your Photoshop suite even better for the professional-quality digital photography processor.

So if you're in the market for a new piece of digital image editing software for your digital photography, be sure to choose the one that both suits your needs and budget. And don't forget, your needs may change as you learn more about digital photography and become more skilled.

Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

What You Need to Set Up Your Own Home Security Video System

Dangers seem to lurk everywhere these days and you should already be taking precautionary measures to prevent your home from being victimized by any untoward incidents. You can do this by setting up your own home security video system. It may seem like rocket science to you, a home security is actually quite simple if you know what you need to do.

Here is what you need to do to setup a home security video system:

1. Select the places at home you want to be monitored. A good place to start would be the exterior doors and windows where intruders may attempt to break in. Consider monitoring places in your yard that could serve as hiding places. You might also want to monitor rooms of children or senior citizens.

2. Get door phones that have video cameras, preferably ones that can tilt or pan so you would be able to see who is knocking on your door or ringing your bell. Peepholes aren't as useful these days.

3. Look for bonus features such as dome cameras, motion sensors or automatic video recorders that take snapshots of people pressing your doorbell. This will also help you keep a record of people who try to come to your house even if you are away.

4. Decide which monitor to buy. You may want just a basic black and white screen with two video cameras, which usually go for around $200 or so. You may want a better model with colored monitors and extra cameras starting at $350. Buy the monitor system that fits your budget.

5. Get a connector that would link your system to your home television so you have the option to see what is happening around your home without having to leave the couch. You may opt for a more hi-tech system that hooks up to the internet so you can view your house wherever you go.

6. Consider getting wireless closed-circuit cameras so you can easily transfer them whenever you see the need to adjust.

Setting up a home video system is actually a simple matter that doesn't really take rocket scientist to figure out. You can go simple or go hi-tech all the way; the important thing is you are taking steps to keep your home secure and safe. So go ahead, make your home safe by getting your own home security video system.

Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Using Selective Focus-Shallow Depth of Field to Separate Your Subject from the Background

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus. It is influenced by three factors:

• The smaller the aperture (higher f-stop like f16), the greater the depth of field. If the lens focal length and shooting distance stays the same, the depth of field is greater at f22 than f2.8.

• The shorter the focal length of the lens, the greater the depth of field. At the same aperture and shooting distance, a 28mm lens will render greater depth of field than a 50mm lens.

• The farther you're away from your subject, the greater the depth of field. When photographing the same subject from 5m and 10m, the photo taken from 10m will have greater depth of field than the photo taken from 5m.

With greater depth of field, more of the photo is in focus, and with shallow depth of field, less of the photo is in focus. This exercise will show you how to make use of shallow depth of field which will allow you to blur the background, making your subject stand out from its surroundings and concealing distractions.

Find a repeating pattern in the form of a row of chairs, a fence, etc. Set your camera on a tripod, set it to aperture priority, and select the widest aperture (depending on your lens, it could be in the range of f2.8-f5.6). Focus on the first chair, and take a shot. Set your aperture on the next f-stop, take another shot, and do this through the full range of apertures your camera will allow, still focussing on the chair in front. Download the photos and compare them with one another. In the first photo you'll notice that the front chair will be sharp while the rest of the chairs and the background will be out of focus. As you progress, more chairs will be in focus. Next time you've got your camera handy, practice focussing on different parts of a scene to see how depth of field influences focus. Practice when shooting the following:

• Portraits: focus on the person and blur the background, especially if there are distracting elements behind your subject.

• At the zoo: focus on one animal. The idea is to obscure the fact that the shot was taken at the zoo, to make it look like it was shot in its natural environment.

• Flowers: focus on one flower, or even a part of the flower, with the rest in the background…think sunflower fields. It creates a much more striking photo when you single out a flower instead of shooting the whole field.

• Musicians: focus on a part of the instrument.

• Babies: focus just on one hand or a foot.

• On the beach: focus on one seashell with the sea in the background.

You get the idea…have fun playing around!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Stick To Your Theme

If you were to open the interior of the machine, you would find that the soft drink cans are all lined up in a vertical row. All soft drinks of one selection are slotted into one vertical column, ready for dispensing.

There's no crossover. The cans must be lined up in the same dispensing vertical row, or they will deliver a wrong selection to the customer.

If you were the serviceman and haphazardly placed the cans in the machine in random positions, the results would be chaotic and unsatisfactory to customers.

NO CENTRAL THEME

Most beginning stock photographers make the mistake of building a stock file in random fashion, with no focussed marketing themes. Their picture-taking choices are "all across the board."

Because any one photobuyer's publication appeals to a vertical market (gardeners, pilots, medical technicians, teachers, etc.) photobuyers turn to vendors who can supply them pictures within those specialty areas. They can't afford to waste time on a vendor who does not offer an extensive selection of the product in the vertical market they need.

NO TEARS MARKETING

If the customer at the vending machine is served up a soft drink that doesn't fit their choice, they become irritated and pound on the machine and demand a return of their money. "This is not what I wanted!"

The soft drink they received may be of excellent taste and quality, but it doesn't match their needs. This realization may help to assuage your disappointment when a photobuyer rejects your submission of excellent pictures. The pictures may be of high quality, but you are vending them to the wrong buyer.

Stay within the vertical markets that you enjoy photographing in, and match with markets who need photos in those subject areas. At this moment, buyers are searching for you. Don't waste time on picture-taking that doesn't fit into your vertical market areas.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Best Exercise to Burn Fat - The Truth About Fat Burning Exercises

If you are looking for the best exercise to burn fat, it is important that you first understand why the best exercises for fat loss work the way that they do.

For most people, the best exercise to burn fat consists of getting on a cardio machine for a long time. Or, they may try to do lots of butt exercises or abdominal crunches.

This article will show which types of exercises are the best for burning fat. Once you understand some basic principles, you will be able to pick out which type of exercise is the best to burn fat.

BEST EXERCISE TO BURN FAT PRINCIPLE #1: Use multijoint exercises

Mulitjoint exercises are great for burning fat. What I mean by that is any exercises where you are using more than one joint for the whole range of motion.

Here are some multijoint exercises that are great for burning fat:

Squats

Pushups

Seated row

Lunges

DB bench press

Lat pulldown

Hamstring leg curl on a stability ball

Do you know why multijoint exercises are the best for burning fat? The reason is that the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. The best exercise to burn fat is an exercise that uses a lot of muscle, just like all the exercises listed above.

The more muscle you use, the more lean muscle mass you will add to your body, and the higher your metabolism will be. Having a high metabolism is one of the main keys of fat loss. If you have a high metabolism, your body will burn lots of calories while at rest and while being active.

BEST EXERCISE FOR FAT LOSS PRINCIPLE #2: Circuit training

Circuit training basically consists of doing one exercise, resting briefly, then doing another, and so on.

This is great for fat loss because is gets your heart rate up and burns a lot of calories. You could take the exercises listed above and do 12 reps of each one for 2 rotations with 30 seconds of rest. This would feel like a tough workout because you are doing a killer combination: working lots of muscle and not giving yourself lots of time to rest.

A lot of people think that 15 reps is the best way to burn fat with exercise. The truth is, most people who I see doing 15 reps can probably do at least 10 more when the set is done. If you are not working yourself very hard, you will not adequately add muscle mass. Doing 12 reps that are difficult is a great way to burn fat with exercise because it will force your body to adapt. Your body adapts to this type of weight training by adding more muscle! Then, your metabolism goes up and you burn more calories.

See how this works?

In conclusion, the best exercise to burn fat consists of doing multijoint exercises in a circuit training format. This helps you burn lots of calories as you get your muscles a great workout.

For most information about getting a great workout to burn fat like the one described in this article, check out the links below.

Want to Reprint this Article on the Best Exercise to Burn Fat?

Reprinting is welcome as long as the content, links, author bio, and resource box are all included and remain completely unchanged.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Starting A Portrait Photography Business: Where Do I Start?

The portrait market demand reaches enormous levels especially when the requirement is almost every household across the globe in every civilized country. Think about this from another angle - you could target every building and what is more exciting is that repeat business is almost incalculable. Parents love to have family portraits but some like to have it done annually as the children grow. Then they most often like to have a portrait of each child in addition to that. The opportunities become endless.

Portrait photography is also a photography business that can be initiated from home. Often only requiring modest photography equipment, you'll only need several pieces of cloth (backdrop), a camera, some good lenses, two or maybe three lights and let's not forget the tripod. In addition to the equipment being modest by any ones standards, it is all reasonably lightweight and easy to handle should you need to work outdoors.

The most important rule to remember is that it is a portrait, not necessarily of just the head, but the person, or group is the focal part of the picture, so it is important to take the photograph without any extraneous clutter. Because you will always be dealing with people with whom you have to maintain control, not as a tyrant, but you have to guide your subjects. Therefore a certain degree of self-confidence is necessary. If you are taking a formal portrait of a group of children it is necessary for you as the photographer to ensure that none of the children are making faces.

This brings us to posing. Many photographers underate this essential requirement because posing will make or break your portraiture. There is much value in learning to guide people through various poses. Posing has an ongoing education requirement depending on age, gender, culture, promotion, product, and emotion needed for each piece of art etc. It is such an important and extensive subject that I've provided you with this downloadable guide which I think you should take seriously - Make Camera Friendly Posing Happen!

When you have signed up a person for a photographic portrait take a few extra shots, and offer them as wallet or purse photographs at a smaller fee. You already have started the business, capitalise on it, few people can resist the feeling that they have got "something for nothing". This may seem a waste of time; they can be important additives for your portfolio.

Portrait photography has undergone many changes of style since the introduction of the formal portrait. The modern emphasis is to bring out each individual's personality. Top glamour models are paid enormous fees to express a distinctive personality, but to bring that aspect forward in your subject is as much about people skills as camera techniques. It is imperative to be able to create a rapport with your subject to bring out the expressions that display their personality. Anyone over the age of two can pose for the camera, with a vacuous expression, but the secret of saleable portrait photography is capturing more than the pose. To be a really good portrait photographer you have to be able to connect with people, if you have not got these skills, then it is better that you concentrate on some other type of photography-perhaps underwater photography if you want to be more active and adventurous

If you want to flatter your subject, you'll probably want to minimize their nose. Stand about twelve feet from your subject, so that their nose isn't significantly closer to you than the rest of the face. However, at such a large distance from the camera, if you want to fill the frame with just your subject's face, then you need a high magnification lens. Typical "portrait" lenses are therefore between 90 and 135 millimeters long when you are using a 35mm camera.

Whilst a lot of portrait photography is completed inside a studio, the prospect of natural light can be very flattering. This can be achieved inside by positioning your subject in front of a window. Environmental portraiture presents different challenges. These portraits are best enlarged, otherwise the subject's face gets lost in the background. Slow film and the use of a tripod; help to keep your images sharp. There are a number of professional photographers who argue that a portrait is not shown to it's best advantage when it is clinically sharp and they use a filter, but with modern digital cameras, you can make an adjustment in Photoshop at a later time. However if you are using a digital camera you will achieve the best results with a camera with a true single lens reflex.

Natural light or umbrella lighting can achieve soft lighting; both of these reduce shadows and show the face in a "better more attractive light". However there is another type of portrait photography, which is high impact photography. This is a very dramatic type of portrait photography, which uses very strong light with a high contrast of tonal color. This technique is more effective indoors, as it is achieved by controlling light, and there is too much light to control out of doors. Position your subject at different angles to the light, from one side, or from underneath. This lengthens the shadows, rather than muting them, and gives a distinctly dramatic effect. You can achieve this in varying degrees, but if the light source is placed at 90 degrees to the face, it will throw the whole of the opposite side of the face in shadow. If you are using a digital camera you can also manipulate the contrast later to achieve a more dramatic effect.

You can also improve your photographs if you include some motion shots, as well as the traditional stills.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Home Security Camera Software

With the advanced internet technology, computer software has been intensively used for computer related work. Nowadays, computer software is being used in tax, real estate and even security purposes. Home security companies have realized the importance of providing surveillance on computer systems and they started to provide software where you can monitor any un-welcomed action through your computer monitor instead of a TV.

Thousand of people don't know the importance of security software in making their monitoring process easier and less expensive. Below are the main reasons why you should consider buying home security software when applicable.

1) You don't need to use a video tape to record every action and worrying about replacing it from time to time.

2) Security software can be set to take snap shots as well where you will have a series of photos for separate actions for different period of time.

3) Using security software makes your monitoring process easier and more efficient. You can track and view different sections of the house from the same monitor. Most home security software let you split your monitor into separate regions to provide multi-view accessibility.

4) Security software can be easily installed into your computer.

Many home security camera systems come with security software to let you view every action on your computer. Make sure to ask your home security company about home security software because they play a vital role in keeping your home secured from unwelcome visitors. Never neglect the importance of installing home security software on your computer. It helps make your monitoring process faster, easier and more productive.

Home Security Camera Software

With the advanced internet technology, computer software has been intensively used for computer related work. Nowadays, computer software is being used in tax, real estate and even security purposes. Home security companies have realized the importance of providing surveillance on computer systems and they started to provide software where you can monitor any un-welcomed action through your computer monitor instead of a TV.

Thousand of people don't know the importance of security software in making their monitoring process easier and less expensive. Below are the main reasons why you should consider buying home security software when applicable.

1) You don't need to use a video tape to record every action and worrying about replacing it from time to time.

2) Security software can be set to take snap shots as well where you will have a series of photos for separate actions for different period of time.

3) Using security software makes your monitoring process easier and more efficient. You can track and view different sections of the house from the same monitor. Most home security software let you split your monitor into separate regions to provide multi-view accessibility.

4) Security software can be easily installed into your computer.

Many home security camera systems come with security software to let you view every action on your computer. Make sure to ask your home security company about home security software because they play a vital role in keeping your home secured from unwelcome visitors. Never neglect the importance of installing home security software on your computer. It helps make your monitoring process faster, easier and more productive.