It's All About The Light

The video business has one issue in common with still photography in that one of the most important subjects is frequently the most neglected.

Professional videographer, Bill Pryor, says, "Ninety percent of great video is great lighting, and yet the online lighting forums are frequently the least utilized."

You could easily make the same case in professional photography, particularly these days when photographers and videographers are frequently using the same cameras.

Lighting is, unfortunately, one of the less interesting topics in photography. Most people want to focus on cameras because technology is sexy. They'll agonize over the difference between a 14-megapixel camera and a 16-megapixel camera, a difference which is essentially meaningless. Yet, when it comes to lighting, it's almost an afterthought.

Hobbyists agonize over cameras, while professionals agonize over lighting. That's because pros know you can take great pictures with almost any decent camera, but what makes the difference between a good shot and a great one is lighting.

Some specialities in photography attract people because they're addicted to lighting. Food photography is one example. It's a chicken and egg discussion about whether people fixated with lighting are drawn to food photography or sucked into it, but that's where they tend to end up. Their studios look like the lab of some evil genius in a comic book, full of every type of clamp, mirror, scrim, shade and flexible arm you can imagine. Their food sets could have been designed by Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man.

At a basic level the passion for great photography is really a passion for great lighting. The true hard-core photographers are the ones who hike back to their cars in the dark because the light is just so perfect at a time after they should leave to get back to the trail head while there's still daylight.

Master portrait photographers are masters at lighting the human face. While it may not look like they're doing much, it's because they've spent years learning just where to put their lights, the power settings and positioning the camera. To them Rembrandt lighting with a 1:3 ratio between the key and fill is automatic.

If you don't know the difference between Rembrandt and Butterfly lighting or understand key to fill lighting ratios, then it's time to pick up some books and start reading, or take a class in photography.

It's important because light is to photographers what paint and canvas were to Picasso. It's how you express your photographic vision. Anyone can push a button on a camera set to automatic and get a decent picture, but not everyone can light a portrait in a way that makes their subject come alive.

You'll learn even more with Proud Photography - one of the best online photography schools! How to digital photography.

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Facts About Modern Photography - Learn More Here

Once the birth of the camera arrived and the popularity of photography exploded, the only thing that could follow was mass production of cameras as well as the wide distribution of pictures. As a result of photography, it has changed history, art, memories and the in which we view the world.

This also affected well known public figures and this caused their privacy to vanish. They were constantly being photographed. Having a photograph with clear evidence that a certain event has taken place would cause things to go unchallenged.

The Art Form-
It was not accepted in the early years. The art form was criticized and challenged by many of those that opposed it being considered an art form. Photography was considered a hobby or craft and was looked at as an insult when one considered it an art.

Photography is finally accepted-
Once art schools and galleries as well as museums finally started to come around and embrace it as an art, the impact grew wildly and the end result is what we have today in the world of photography.

During the mid 1960's photography was accepted as a visual art and photographers started creating mediums of interest that were different from the more traditional norms that were first used within the art form.

Photography has been combined with other forms of expression such as multi-media and other forms of imaging.

Practical Photography-
Photography has been used for many practical situations. Photography is often time used in medicine, real estate development, military planning as well as business and media.

One area that has benefited from photography the most is science. If you think in terms of aerial maps, meteorology and geology, you'll notice they all use photography to advance the research and fact finding process.

Digital Photography-
With the invention of digital photography and the use of software, images can be changed and appear to be more or less than what they are.

As a result of digital photography being created, this caused a change in the way in which many photography techniques are used.

Photography is more than 100 years old and this is one art form continues to innovate and create new and improved technology and methods. You'd think we were on the tail end of the art form but the art continues to grow and develop and it does not appear to being slowing down anytime soon.

If you'd like to keep up with the latest developments in photography, I'd suggest you subscribe to a few of the leading magazines as well as follow a few of the cutting edge blogs.

About The Author

Keith S. Black has many different photography methods. He is a successful photographer and makes a full time living as a photographer. To find out about one of the best cameras to use for your photography you can visit: http://reviewdslrcameras.com/nikon-reviews/ to read one of Keith's Nikon Reviews and get more information.

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Top Rated Digital Cameras Aren't All About Megapixels

Finding a top rated digital camera is not merely about picking one with the most megapixels. Because of the way digital cameras are advertised, consumers often believe that only a camera with the highest MP will take crisp photos. Don't be fooled by the hype because this is just not the case. The megapixel count is not the only basis for understanding picture quality, in fact it is only a minor one. All around performance and image quality under various lighting conditions is key.

Digital cameras having the highest megapixels may not provide the highest quality shots. Naturally, if you have perfect circumstances the higher megapixel camera will probably produce a better shot, but how often are you in that situation? Most likely you won't require an extra-large megapixel camera except if you regularly do lots of cropping or print big enlargements.

A top quality lens is key to producing a high quality photo. Among the top rated digital cameras with a built-in lens, models usually have a lens with an aperture setting of f/2 or f/1.8. Actually, one may find several 10MP cameras ranking just as highly as 14/16MP cameras because those 10MP cameras have quality lenses and deliver sharp, well-exposed photos in various light situations.

Don't forget that the images taken at higher megapixels will require additional storage space on your memory stick and the difference in quality for all that bloat is very little.

In general the top rated digital cameras will typically offer a minimum of 3-inch LCD with top notch display quality. Nowadays, apart from a few exclusions, the majority of compact and point-and-shoot cameras no longer sport viewfinders, thus you must depend on the display.

In more and more instances the best rated digital cameras have a bigger optical zoom lens while keeping the camera's size compact. Some larger models have superzooms that will give you up to 35x, which is, in terms of 35mm, 24-849mm. Historically, the image quality from super zoom cameras was somewhat mediocre because of the sacrifice made between higher zoom versus sharp images, however technology advancements have pretty much fixed this issue. These days one may see a good selection of super zoom cameras ranked as top rated digital cameras and they produce very good images. To get the very best image quality and the most features you will need to advance to a D-SLR an appreciably higher price.

When ranking top rated digital cameras, some of the considerations reviewers look at are weight, size and feel of the camera in the hand, battery life, ease of use -- are the buttons convenient, is the menu easy to figure out, optical zoom, display and image quality, the quality of flash photos and images taken in low light, wide-angle capability, does it have an optical or electronic viewfinder, response time, the camera's versatility, does it have HD video, video quality, among other criteria.

So, the bottom line is when you look at a list of top rated digital cameras, don't be surprised to see that some of the best ranked cameras may be mid-level megapixel models.

Valerie Goettsch is webmaster of http://www.digitalphotos101.com/, a website dedicated to reviews of digital photo companies, photo editing software and digital cameras. Click here to see her list of top rated digital cameras from point-and-shoot to SLR.

Original article

Facts About The Birth Of Photography

The title of photography was derived from two Greek words- "photos" and "graphein". This item was first used by the scientist John Herschel. Photography is essentially the process of using light, radiation in addition to sensitive materials.

The birth of the first image-
It has been stated that around, the early 1800's that Joseph Semaphore was able to create the first image by working for at least 8 hours on its development. A fellow citizen of the same homeland as Semaphore, Louis Daguerre was able to come up with a way to lower the exposure time to as little as 30 minutes.

The Daguerreotype-
Daguerre was the first to create the best and most useful methods for developing pictures. Louis was born near Paris. Prior to photography, he was a painter of sorts. He came up with his process and methods after experimenting with light and the way in which it effected images.

In the process of doing so, he developed a more efficient way of developing photos. After he created his methods, he wrote a book about the process and his discovery. After further discoveries in the early stages, the Pinhole camera as well as the flash bulb were created.

The arrival of instant photos-
Edwin Land created what is known as the Polaroid camera. As a result of his awesome work, we were able to take photos and get them instantly. This completely eliminated the time it took for the image to be exposed.

Digital Photography-
as we moved into the 90's the most exciting form of photography was born. Digital photography has had more impact on modern photography than anything. As a result of digital cameras, anyone can enjoy the fun that comes along with photography. You no longer needed to go you your local film processor or buy film. You also no longer needed expensive cameras that were on the market place.

Digital cameras are easy to use. They consist of advanced technology, but they are made to be user friendly so even the technically challenged can have fun using them.These are just a few facts about the birth of photography.

If you learn these facts and others, you'll have a great appreciation for photography as an art and science. When you're pursuing your photography ambitions be sure to think about all of the work that was applied to creating this wonderful art that we can enjoy today. Consider adding as much to the art form as possible that way the next generations can experience what we've been able to experience.

To learn more visit your local library and borrow a few books about the history of photography.

About The Author

Keith S. Black has many different photography methods. He is a successful photographer and makes a full time living as a photographer. To find out about one of the best cameras to use for your photography you can visit: http://reviewdslrcameras.com/nikon-reviews/ to read one of Keith's Nikon Reviews and get more information.

Original article

A Little About Photography

Photography, the more I love photography the less I actually think about it. What is the essence of photography? It is related to how we consider photography and what photography is to us. For most people photography is a way to remember, you go on a trip and you take pictures to remember that trip. To remember the moments.

Is it exactly a way to remember though? If you were to show those photographs to someone unrelated to the trip or to you, they may try to find a story behind them, but they would not understand them. Then a photograph is not a memory in itself, it is a way to trigger the memories of people who shared it.

Although I love photography, I never opened the dictionary to read how it was defined. Oxford dictionary states: "photography: the art or practice of taking and processing photographs."

There are a few things we can see in this definition. First, Photography is either an art or a practice, it serves a multi purpose. The practice is to take pictures to trigger the memories of things you saw. The art is to show something to others through a photograph. To organize the frame in a way, so that it is not about what is inside of the frame anymore, but even more about what is not. Organizing what is real to match your vision of the world.

The second is that photography is about taking and processing. The processing (or lack of processing if a choice) is said to be part of the photography process.

Mentioning processing raises the issue of truth. Is there truth in photography? Capturing what is real is to be honest a very tricky issue. If you were to ask a photographer in charge of taking the photograph of a painting how he feels. He would tell you, hard: hard to obtain the right colors, hard not to flatten the photograph but to retain the strokes of painting.

And what is truth in photography exactly? Is it to show the world as it is? If so, then it would look very different from how we see it, since the range of colors which we, humans, perceive is narrow. It depends on the number of cones in our eyes and their range.

If the truth is to show the world as humans see it, then we face an issue. Not all humans are born the same, some are taller, some are skinnier, some have blonde hair. And we have different eyes with a different perception.

Most camera manufacturers use the CMOS sensor for the cameras they manufacture. Understanding the global functioning of this sensor helps us to understand our current issue. A CMOS sensor is electronic, when electrons reach the censor inside the camera, the photo-sites of the censor record their value.

The problem is that those photo-sites are colorblind. To produce colors, most sensors have photo-sites each focusing on one of the three primary colors: In other words red, green and blue. Then the information recorded by the censor is filtered and mixed to produce the photograph you see.

The most common way of processing, also called demosaicing is through the Bayer filter pattern. This technique gives priority to the green color, green accounts for twice as much as red or blue in the formula.

Because the human eye is very sensitive to green compared to the two other primary colors, camera manufacturers have to adapt how cameras perceive the world, so that it indeed looks like what we see. Understanding how the camera processes photographs, there is no universal truth in our visual perception of the world.

For such reasons, looking for truth in photography is an enterprise promised to fail. Instead, it is using the world as a raw material for us to shape. We are lucky as photographers, for we were given the whole world as a playground, to be the eyes of our world.

Thibaut Fantian is a landscape & portrait photographer currently based in Kyoto, Japan. His work and services are available online at http://www.frameaway.com/.

Frame Away aims at providing pure photographs for your vision.

Email contact@frameaway.com today for further details.

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24 Things You Should Be Concerned About When Choosing A Wedding Photographer And Why

Here's an article for soon to-be-married couples. The list will below will give you an idea if your prospective wedding photographer will be the right wedding photographer for your wedding day.
Portfolio. Ask the wedding photographer to provide you with a url of his or her website and meet him or her in person to see actual prints and/or albums. Better yet, ask him or her to show a complete portfolio of a single wedding.
Scope of coverage. Will the coverage start from your preparation up to the end of reception? Or just the ceremony or reception? Again, your choice, as this may impact on the cost.
Coverage Style. Ask the photographer what's his style. Photojournalistic, traditional, or mixed?
Will the photographer personally shoot your wedding. Because some photographers sometimes assign the work to others. Ask him or her to put it in writing, together with alternatives if he or she can't really personally shoot your wedding.
Unique and personal photos.What's the photographer's plan or M.O. or S.O.P. with regards to making your wedding photographs unique and personal to you?
Prenup and postnup photography. Does the wedding photographer offer an engagement photo session or prenup? How about postnup? Ask him or her how much, and if there's a discount for any of these services.
Photographer's experience. Ask your prospective wedding photographer how long has he or she been in business?
Costs. These are the different packages. Does the wedding photographer have different wedding packages to choose from. Most wedding photographers will spell out the things included in a particular package.
Overtime fee. Will there be an overtime fee? Ask beforehand and request that it be put in the contract if the wedding photographer has one.
Travel Fees. It's customary for photographers to charge travel fees for out-of-town weddings. Negotiate if you can.
Discounts. Will he or she give you a discount for duplicate prints, albums, enlargements, thank you cards, signature frames, etc.?
Proofs for the album. These may be in the form of contact sheets, CD /DVD, online gallery, or 3R prints. From theses proofs, you will select the pictures that will go into the album. It's seldom now that photographers provide contact prints and 3R prints. Wedding photographers and couples today prefer a CD/DVD or an online gallery because of convenience. The photographer may likewise opt to send you the pictures thru email (slow and laborious) or send the photos to a cloud storage service (easy to use and fast), like Dropbox, which I currently use.
How long will the wedding photographer give you the pictures for selection after the wedding. 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month?
How much time will the photographer allow you for picture selection. I usually give my clients all the time they need to choose. But, as a rule, you should make the selection within 2 weeks, at the most, because after a month or two, your wedding photographer may be busy with other shoots.
Picture selection. Will the photographer help you in selecting, like give you a short list of his own choices to make the process easy for you? In the Philippines, most couples like to choose themselves from the thousands of pictures I give them. Your choice, really. There are pros and cons to both.
Prints/Reprints Orders. Would the prospective wedding photographer have a system that will make it easy for your friends and relatives to order reprints for themselves?
Picture quality. How long will the printed pictures and album last, in terms of fading.
Viewpoint or attitude towards photographing weddings. For instance, is it just a job for him/her? More often than not, the answer to this question will tip the scale for or against your decision in hiring the photographer.
Assistant. Will he/she have an assistant or assistants?
Backup equipment. Another basic and yet very important so that your photographer can continue shooting even if his or her main camera or other equipment decided to take a rest in the middle of your celebration.
Film or digital. Again, there are pros and cons to both.
Payment policy. This is another item you and your photographer should be able to agree on beforehand, preferably in writing.
Availability. Is the wedding photographer available on your wedding date?
Guarantees. This is important as you are paying with your hard-earned money. Ask him or her if the service comes with some form of guarantees.

If you feel that the wedding photographer is right for you, you can now relax and make the commitment with the confidence that you've made a well-formed, smart decision.

Tony Oquias is a professional photographer and writer based in the Philippines. You can visit his website at http://tonystill.com/ or read his blog with more photography articles and tips at http://tonystill.com/blog.

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