This is a short and simple explanation of what ISO sensitivity is, as well as the benefits of both low and high ISO sensitivities. I hope you enjoy it!

This lesson is one of many taught on my new DVD, Digital Photography Crash, it contains over 90 minutes of video instruction, made especially for the beginning photographer. It can be purchased for just $19.95 plus shipping from the following link: http://michaelthementor.com/store/ind…

Have you ever wondered where modern photography originated? While we are now moving into the digital age and away from film, the lighting techniques and other photography techniques began in the 1820’s. Niepce and Daguerre were the first inventors of modern photography. They used a chemical component from silver and chalk, which darkens when exposed to light. This type of technology used a glass negative to cement the picture.

From the early cameras seen in western films we have moved on to manual cameras with film. This film or negative captured the image on a roll to be developed in a dark room to prevent over exposure. The manual cameras used a theory of setting up shots. You had to understand aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and metering to obtain the best picture possible. This meant you spent a lot of time setting up the shot and had to be a professional to catch wildlife in their natural habits.

Aperture is measured by F-stops, or the amount of light the lens will let in. Focusing and depth of field are also important when setting the aperture on your camera. You have to know what numbers will allow more light to enter the lens and the converse to avoid over exposure and blurriness.  Shutter speed is the amount of time a lens is open for the picture. You may have found in a darkened room without flash your camera takes a while to imprint the picture on the negative. This is because the light is dim and the shutter must correct for the lack of light. The lack of light induces a need to expose the film longer to obtain the picture where as more light will have the shutter moving at a faster speed.

From the manual cameras we moved into the automatic. The camera became lighter. The shutter speed and aperture was programmed into the camera by the settings. ISO became important. ISO is the film speed. Instead of taking minutes to set up a shot you just had to pick the correct setting and hold the button down to focus. Many cameras came as automatic with manual options for those who still liked to treat photography as an artistic vocation.

Digital cameras are the new era in photography.  Now we can see the picture we take without the use of film and negatives. We can send the pictures to all of our friends and use our home printers to create prints. Photography has moved from the concentration of taking the perfect shot with a skill born to a few to everyone taking pictures.

This is not to say photography and photographers will not remain. There is still the need for quality in taking professional grade photographs. Light sensitivity is still important when dealing with a digital camera and unless you spend a lot, you will find quality of photographs is still missing. Photograph techniques lay within the lighting provided whether natural or artificial for the subject. You might wonder how to create a photograph in a dark room like a museum to share with your friends and family. Knowing the past photography techniques will help you in attaining that perfect photograph with your digital camera. Photography may have originated with few people, but we can see the advancements their inventions have led us to now.

What Do You Know About Stock Photography

Stock photography, groups of photographs that people take, grouped and licensed for selling purposes.  Instead of taking new pictures every time they need pictures, many people use the stock photography method.  People that work for magazines, as graphic artists, and advertising agencies sometimes use public pictures instead of hiring photographers for individual projects.

Alternate names for stock photography is picture libraries, photo archives or image banks.  Typically, in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee or a purchasing of usage rights that comes with a fee in order to use the pictures.  Sometimes a membership purchase allows you to have access to a particular group of stock photography.

Saving time and money, stock photography is a great way to enhance newsletters, blogs, advertisements, company brochures and more.  It is obviously less expensive than putting a full time photographer on staff and takes less time if you need images of something specific.  Many times, it is as easy as using a search engine or checking an email.

Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase.  Other times, full rights are limited.  In those cases, photographers might be requiring that they receive a certain percentage of sales and or royalties of usage.  Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees.  With the technology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are quicker and easier.

The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location the images will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo will be distributed to or seen by.  Prices for stock photography can be anywhere from one dollar to two hundred dollars.

There are several different pricing arrangements.  Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer to use photographs multiple times in multiple ways.  When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only a one-time charge for unlimited usage.  When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, the agency is able to resell the image to others.  If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiated price for each time that it is used.
 
Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images.  In that case, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased.  It may cost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales have to make sure that they are making a profitable sale.  If a photograph would make more money staying in circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights.

Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone.  Different subjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images.  Sometimes contributors work for multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or they sell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around the world.

Stock photography started in the early 1920s.  It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s.  Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase.  Stock houses sprung up in many different places.  By 2000, online stock photography became microstock photography, which we call photo archives online.  Companies like istock photo and bigstock photo offer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add more credits for another fee.  Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those that are sold hard copy. 

Websites like www.shutterpoint.com and www.fotolibra.com allow stock photographers to upload and sell their images.  It is a great way to market pictures and earn money with photography.  You can also purchase images at those websites as well.  With all the stock photography sites available, one may find pictures you never even heard of before.

Wildlife Photography, Catching The Animals By Surprise

Photography has been around for more than a century and our topics will never cease.  There is portrait, landscape, wedding, and wildlife photography just to name a few.  One of the most rewarding styles of photography centers on wildlife.  It may take you several hours before finding the perfect picture and capturing it, but the reward is more than worth the wait.

Wildlife photography is perhaps the most difficult in the profession.  You have to have the time, inclination, and of course the camera.  Most wildlife shots are captured using a telephoto lens because the animal will not walk near you.  Every once in a while you will be able to capture the fox, elk, bear or other animal as it comes through the woods in your path, however most of the time they are yards away and elusive. 

Wildlife photography doesn’t wait for you to happen a long and snap a photo.  You need to immerse yourself in the site you choose your camera at the ready, and set for the light of the day.  Most automatic cameras work great on the preset for those who are just learning to take wildlife photographs.  Photography has always been about the moment and the best photographers can catch the moment with a speed and agility of the animal they are capturing.

Start with small subjects when you begin your foray into wildlife photography.  Practice on your pet.  Let them roam naturally and see if you can capture the wild and crazy moments on film without the photograph ending up blurry.  All great photographers have studied and practiced.  They also use more than one shot.  Making sure your camera has a quick shutter speed will help you take more than one shot as your move with the animal.  When you have the subject in your site you need to follow it while focusing and then quickly snap as many pictures as you can before they move out of site.  This technique is known as panning.  Rather than the subject coming to you, you follow the subject. 

When you have mastered your pets you can begin to explore the outdoor world of wildlife photography.  Some of your subjects will be standing still and this is another practice technique.  Be aware of the lighting and placement while trying not to disturb the animal.  It is most easy to get a squirrel when they are intent on eating or foraging for food.  If you stay silent and walk carefully you can often get pretty close.

If you are choosing a larger subject such as a deer or bear you will want to stay far enough away to get the shot, and not draw attention to yourself.  Bears are dangerous creatures, but they can be photographed if you use common sense and don’t tread upon their territory.  Wildlife photography and thus the photographers have a code of ethics when attaining the perfect shots.  You will want to follow these ethics for your safety and the animals.

Wildlife photography is a waiting game for the perfect picture to sprint across your viewfinder.  It takes patience and a lot of practice, but the reward of having a family member or friend go, “ where did you get that photograph?  I have got to have one,” will sweeten the deal.

Digital Cameras - Low prices, great brands
We stock all kinds of digital cameras including Digital SLR Cameras and great brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony and Pentax plus photo equipment, including Photo Printers and Memory Cards. We also stock a great range of accessories including: Camera Bags and Cases, Camera Batteries and tripods and monopods.
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We have just received official word that Olympus will reveal the successor to their top-of-the-range E-1 digital SLR, currently dubbed the E-P1 although rumored to be called the E-3, on 17th October. While no details about the camera have yet been officially announced there have been numerous leaks point to ten megapixels, Liveview, in-body image stabilization (like the E-510), five frames per second and eleven area auto-focus (as well as normal pro features such as full metal body, weatherproofing, etc.). Read more..

SanDisk today announced the availability of higher capacities in its Ultra II range of flash media with 4GB SDHC Plus and 8GB Memory Stick PRO DUO cards. The SDHC follows SanDisk’s clever and useful two-in-one design with integrated USB connector for effortless data transfer. Worldwide availability is expected by October 2007. Read more..

Adobe has updated its Photoshop Lightroom workflow software and Camera Raw plug-in to support 14 new camera models. The updates also include improved noise-reduction and minor bug fixes when running on Windows Vista. Lightroom 1.2 is available as a free upgrade to existing users or may be purchased for US $299. Camera Raw 4.2 is free to download for users of Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Mac and Elements 5.0 for Windows. Continue …

Ricoh has made available firmware version 1.20 for its recently-launched Caplio R7. The update improves AF accuracy and fixes a bug where 3:2 images are recorded incorrectly when the bracketing feature is used. The update is available now from Ricoh’s support site, link after the click. Continue …

The COOLPIX P50 is an 8.1 megapixel compact digital camera aimed at photographers after a bit more control. The body is modeled after the P5100 with a nice big hand-grip. A 3.6x 28-102mm equiv. lens, Electronic VR (software-stabilization) and ISO 2000 capability help in lower light. The COOLPIX P50 will be available in the UK from Sept 2007 priced at £199.99. Continue …

Digital Cameras - Low prices, great brands
We stock all kinds of digital cameras including Digital SLR Cameras and great brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony and Pentax plus photo equipment, including Photo Printers and Memory Cards. We also stock a great range of accessories including: Camera Bags and Cases, Camera Batteries and tripods and monopods.
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ACDsee Pro 2 has arrived with support for many new camera RAW formats and enhanced image processing. RAW files may be exported to different formats and sizes simultaneously with renaming and embedding of color profiles integrated into the workflow. ACDSee Pro 2 is available now via the ACD Systems website, link after the click. Continue …

Casio has today revealed plans of an as yet unnamed twelve times zoom, six megapixel CMOS based digital camera which can capture a burst of full-size six megapixel images at sixty frames per second and VGA AVI movies at an astonishing three hundred frames per second (obviously shutter speed allowing). Exact specifications and details are currently a little vague but we do know that it has a 2.8" wide-screen LCD monitor, electronic viewfinder and sensor-shift image stabilization. UPDATED: Press Release, high resolution images added. Continue …