Cool Beans SF

Have you ever been told that it’s not the equipment, but the photographer, that matters most? Undoubtedly, this would have been spouted by someone with the type of camera and lens system that most of us can only dream of.

Sure, the photographer is important as it is he (or she) that selects the subject, composes the image and ultimately fires the shutter. But all of us could improve with better equipment.

Take lenses for example. Many of us will have a mid range zoom, say 70-200mm. We may have spent a reasonable amount on it and may have been happy with the results so far.

But, if you could use a better lens, costing 3 or 4 times as much, you would see vastly improved images. They would be sharper and show increased contrast. The peripheral components of the image would be noticeably clearer with no aberration or distortion.

Anyone could see the difference.

And, that same lens would have a greater maximum aperture - perhaps as big as f2.8. This would enable pin sharp photographs to be taken at short shutter speeds in low light - say at a football or baseball match in the early evening. Movement would be frozen in an image that would have been unobtainable with our original product.

More expensive lenses and cameras feel more solid, are smoother in operation and have better handling characteristics. There is little comparison with their cheaper cousins.

Whilst professionals and serious amateurs might say it’s only the photographer that’s important, they could never live with the equipment most of us currently own.

Eric Hartwell is an enthusiastic photographer. He owns and runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums http://www.theshutter.co.uk/forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com Anyone interested in getting involved contact him at shutter@theshutter.co.uk

When I promised readers that I was going to do an article on this topic I was scared. For two reasons - firstly, it’s a HUGE subject. I get lots of questions about it, and I see a fair bit of misunderstanding about it.

Secondly, there are already a lot of good articles about it on the web, like this one on luminous-landscape.com.

But I know that trawling the internet for technical information is not your idea of fun. That’s my job! So here’s my attempt at summing this up quickly for you:

DPI - Dots Per Inch

The most common question I get on this topic is, “My client / boss / nephew has asked me to send an image at a size of 300 dpi. What does that mean”?

The answer: Not much.

You see, DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. It’s a useful measure of image resolution (in other words, how much information is resolved in the picture). But if you don’t know the image size in inches (or feet, miles, centimetres, millimitres, or some other measure of size), then the amount of dots per inch doesn’t mean much.

Using DPI to measure size is like using km/h to measure distance: “How far is it from here to the beach?”
“Oh, about 60 miles per hour”. For this to make sense the answer would need to be “about 10 minutes at 60 miles per hour”.

Likewise, the size of an image needs to be expressed as, say, “six by six inches at 300dpi”.

Different resolutions are used for different purposes. The most common are 72 or 75 dpi for screen viewing (Web use or PowerPoint presentations) and 300 dpi for printing.

OK, so to give an example - 1 inch by 1 inch, 300 dpi image would be 300 pixels by 300 pixels in size. A 2 by 2 inch image at 300 dpi would be 600 by 600 pixels in size. Here’s where megapixels and megabytes come into it. Mega!

Megapixels

The term megapixels is usually used to describe the output size of digital camera images. For example, the Canon Ixus 50 produces images which are 2592 x 1944 pixels in size. Multiply these numbers together and you get 5,038,848 - just over 5 million. Hence this is described as a “5 megapixel” camera.

The last byte

On a couple of occasions, I’ve sent an image of a certain size to someone and they’ve said, “that’s no good, we need a 10 megabyte file”. Now, this I’m sure they were well-intentioned but they were also a little misguided.

The size in bytes (or megabytes - millions of bytes) represents how much storage the image takes up on your computer. This depends on all sorts of things, mainly the bit depth of the image and the file format - for example TIFF or JPEG.

So what should I do?

To avoid confusion, when specifying the file size you need, use pixels.

How do you work out how many pixels you need? Well, that’s why I started this discussion with DPI. Work out the largest size you’re going to want to reproduce the image, in inches; and the resolution - for example 72 dpi for or 300dpi for most print applications. Then just multiply the size in inches by the DPI figure you came up with.

Example: I want to reproduce the image A4 size in a printed magazine. A4 is 210mm x 297mm, or about 8.3 x 11.7 inches. The magazine needs artwork at 300dpi, so:

8.3 x 300 = 2490 and 11.7 x 300 = 3510 so I need an image sized about 2490 x 3510 pixels (about 8.7 megapixels)

By the way: 1 inch = 2.54 centimetres. Did you know you can also do conversions on google? Try it yourself.

Happy pixelling!

Steven Pam is a commercial photographer
and founder of Smartshots commercial photography.
He is based in Melbourne, Australia, and specializes in people, aviation and music
photography. Steven has over 10 years experience working with clients in the UK,
USA and Australia, from small businesses to national publications and publicly
listed companies. For Steven’s free 20-point smartguide to organising a commercial
photo shoot, visit http://www.smartshots.com.au

To understand how a digital camera really works in a digital photography system, you have to understand that there are three really basic steps involved in making and using digital pictures. They are input, processing and output. The input devices put pictures and other information into the computer system. One of the most familiar input devices is obviously a keyboard. There are other input devices out there though. Some of the other types are digital still cameras that take pictures in a digital format, or film cameras that provide slides, negatives or prints which you can scan and make them into digital pictures. Video cameras also make images into a video format. You can use a frame grabber to isolate the individual frames and make them as still images. Digital video cameras can take still images just like a digital still camera. A video-editing card can be used to extract the still images from the digital video.

The second basic step is to process the photograph. Once a picture is in digital form, you can put it onto your system and then later edit it with a photo-editing program. One of the most popular programs is Photoshop. There are tons of things you can do with a digital image. You can reduce or eliminate flaws, or you can adjust the size to send it through an email. A few ways to actually process the images are “cropping” the picture to make a key part show out more, reduce your number of pixels to make it smaller for web-posting or email sending, or even use a filter to sharpen the picture and make it look like a oil painting or watercolor. Another fun thing to do is merge two images to create a 3d stereo effect, or making it into an animated image to post on the Web. Changing brightness and contrast is probably the most popular thing for most people to do when processing their pictures.

The third and last basic step is to outputting the photograph. Once you get the image just the way you want it, people always like to get the output of the picture to share it with others. Some of the most popular ways of doing that are: printing out the image on a color printer, or putting the picture into a word processing or publishing type of document, or posting it on their favorite Website or photo network or sending it by email.

You can keep up with long distance relationships a little better by keeping updated pictures in the flow. Taking a picture into a specialty printing shop and having it put onto shirts, key rings, posters or even mouse pads is a lot of fun. Many families like to have their pictures converted into slides so that they can then later sit down with a projector and reminisce about the pictures they took, and what they were doing at that particular time.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Digital Video

A camera is like a baby. Or can be.

I treat my camera like a human sometimes. No, I don’t speak to it or feed it (unless you count memory cards) but I do care for it and nurture it.

My camera quite regularly gets a clean. This is not to keep it in tip top shape but more to make it, and me, feel good. A loved camera is a happy camera.

And, when I leave my camera out of its case, I am always watchful and vigilant. Sudden shouts of “watch the camera” issue forth when someone nears it or worst of all, tries to sit on it.

In fact, that aforementioned scenario is NOT the “worst of all”. The worst of all is when someone tries to pick it up and pretend that they have suddenly developed both a passion and a skill for the art.

Well they haven’t developed anything of the sort. They don’t possess the yearning for perfection, the drive and ambition and the fundamental skills for the fine business of photography.

And, if they think they want to start developing anything of the sort, they can darn well get their own practice camera to learn on. I’m all for giving instruction, and I will happily provide it free, but lending my camera out to a mere novice is taboo and will not be entertained.

And as my camera is my baby, so each night she is packed away in a safe place away from prying eyes and straying hands.

Oh, I know nothing short of a dunk in the bath or a fall from a great height is really going to harm my camera. And I know that pressing a few buttons here and turning a gfew knobs there is never going to hurt.

But, like a father and his child, there’s an instinctive protector within me.

Eric Hartwell is an experienced photographer and owner of the photography resource website ephotocentral.

Capturing a portrait of twins compared to one person is more than twice as difficult. For a good comparison while retaining individual characteristics, all eyes must be focused at one point. There is a tendency to place the twins on a bench which unfortunately puts them both at the same height. This produces a static look and may lead the viewer to place false emphasis on minor height differences. Many methods can be used to place the twins at different heights. The ideal configuration is one in which the chin of the lower subject is even with the eyes of the upper subject.

Many methods can be used to attain this height difference. A small (four inch) riser can be placed under one subject or one subject can be standing. A small chair for one subject and the floor for the second satisfies the composition for a full length portrait. Teens to adults can be photographed one in an arm chair and one on the arm.
Some sporty poses have one kneeling on one knee and the other sitting back on his heels. The aim is to make a diagonal of a line drawn between the faces. This has the effect of a more dynamic and energetic composition.

For twins portraits that have a priority to compare faces, it is important to make sure that the turn of the faces is identical. If the differences in facial characteristics is important, the body angle and head angle may be slightly different. Many more exposures should be taken in order to insure there are enough good poses. Blinks, off looks and bad expressions have to be discarded.

Triplets portraiture follow the same rules with the addition of the third subject. A constant flow of conversation is helpful in keeping the triplet’s attention on the photographer. Make sure no two heads are in the same plane and that all three heads are the same distance from the camera. This is to minimize any effects of foreshortening. A longer than normal telephoto lens can be used to help in this department. If identical clothing is worn, extra attention should be placed in arranging the clothing for a neat effect. Inevitably, comparisons will be made. Facial expressions that are on the moderate side will help create a nicer twins portrait. Buddy pictures are ideal for twins. Arms around shoulders, leaning on one another and interaction shots (reading, gaming) play up the closeness of twins. Be sure to have twice as much fun!

Retired portrait photographer. Comments welcome.

Most households in North America own at least one pet, and most people care for their animals as much as they would for their own child. People spend thousands of dollars a year on their pets to pamper and spoil and them. If you enjoy photography and love animals just as much as their owners do, you could be making money by combining these two things into a rewarding business.

All you will need is a room set up as a studio, good quality cameras, lighting equipment, tripods and of course film. You could also have different back grounds and props to make the picture more interesting, or fit certain occasions. To get the best picture you will want to get down to pet level and use toys and treats to get the pets attention. When you get the animals attention, you should have a squeaky toy, or flash that will make the animal look strait at you and perk up it’s ears.

Since cats are particularly hard to get to cooperate, you will want to schedule longer appointments for them in order to become comfortable around them. You should be knowledgeable in animal psychology and also a people person, since most pet owners will be present and a lot will want to be in the photographs with their pets.

If your photography skills aren’t the greatest you can take classes at your local community college to ensure you will be providing your customers with what they want. To attract customers you could make enlarged copies of some good pet photographs you have done and post them up at your local library, veterinary office or coffee shops. Make sure to include a phone number and your name so they can get a hold of you! You can also establish yourself by creating a small portfolio with pictures of your own pets, as well as the pets of family, friends and neighbors. You can then turn this into a flyer and distribute in people mail boxes. Of course you can always publish an add in the Yellow Pages as well. Offering weekend and evening hours will also attract more customers.

Most pet photographers charge a basic rate of $5 to $10 per person or animal and then charge between $40.00 and $175.00 per package of photographs, depending on the number of photos, number of poses, etc. You can also sell pet photos at art fairs for about $20 to $200 per picture (as long as you have written permission from the owner), or sell your pictures as cards, or note book covers.

Author Barney Garcia is a proud contributing author and enjoys writing about many different topics. Please visit my web sites @ www.camera-shope.info and www.photography-stop.info

I admire the paparazzi. They do a difficult job in difficult conditions. Whatever you overall view of them, there are things to be admired.

I know that the right picture will net them enough money to retire twice over. But, in reality, the majority of images will just about bring in enough cash to feed the kids and perhaps go out to the theatre once in a while.

For every one paparazzi stealing a quick candid, there are twenty others and you can be sure that the most sought after images will be also sought after by your peers and rivals.

Then there’s the waiting. Standing in the baking sun or howling gale, being soaked to the skin or burnt to the core, that picture has to come otherwise the kids don’t get their nourishment.

Images of celebrities sell, of course. But images that are out of the ordinary sell faster and for more cash. For the right image you have to wait. You must know your subject, study them, follow them, be with them and be at the ready to snap the shutter when the time is just right.

You may have to miss a few meals or bathroom breaks to be sure that the images you take will adorn the pages of widely sold glossy magazines or newspapers the next day.

It would help if your subject would obligingly show a part of their anatomy that would otherwise be hidden. Or perhaps snort a few drugs, be sick, stumble, fumble or kiss. It would also help if they could do these things in open spaces and not in crowded nightclubs, concerts or bars.

And it would help if either they or their minders would refrain from verbal and physical abuse.

As I said, the life of a paparazzi is not an easy one.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

Dots Per Inch is a useful measure of relative resolution. But if you don’t know the image size in inches or some other measure of size, then the amount of dots per inch doesn’t mean much. That’s why DPI is used in conjunction with scanner Specifications, because you know that the size is going to be 3.8 by 1.7 inches!

Different resolutions are used for different purposes. 72 or 75 DPI for screen viewing; 250 for digital photography and 300 dpi for printing. See how this is a nice comparison, yes, you can get away with 50 less pixels per inch in your photographs than would be required for A4 printing, this is because of the physical size of the photo!rnrnDots Per Inch specifies how much information is resolved in a picture, whereas the number of megapixels is usually used to describe the total output size (in pixels) of an image.

Example: I want to reproduce the standard photograph size. This would be 6 by 4 inches. Digital photography requires a minimum of only about 250dpi, So: 6 * 250 = 1500 and 4 * 250 = 1000, so you need an image sized about 1500 * 1000 pixels (about 1.5 megapixels). Thus you can get a perfectly good standard print from a 1.5 megapixel camera! rnrnIf you take a photo twice, one at 5 and the other at 1.5 megapixels, than ask your self which one looks “better”? They will both look reasonable because your computer generates colours such that the image looks better than it really is; if you were to print both as a 6 by 4 image, they will look identical, because your printer can’t generate more than 300 dpi so the “better” image is effectively reduced in quality anyway. This example demonstrates how it is possible to literally waste memory, ie for everyday use the additional memory required for the other 4 megapixcels gives you no real benefit!

This is quite good because a 36 Megabyte media card can store 50 to 65 images at 1.3 megapixcels but only 8 to 10 at 5 megapixcels, so unless you are planning on getting your images printed larger than 6 by 4 there’s no real advantage to the full 5 megapixcels.

Now we have established that a 1.5 megapixel camera will produce a 6 by 4 inch standard photograph, that is, it will generate a resolution such that each pixel is simply reproduced “as is”, we come to the more interesting issue of enlargement.

If you wanted to print your 6 by 4 inch image as a 10 by 8 photo (which would normally need the full 5 megapixels), there would not be a sufficient number of pixels for the additional surface area, so we now need to scale up the existing pixels by “resampling” the existing pixels, a process which estimates how the “missing” pixels should appear, and fills them with the appropriate “colour”.

There are many ways to share your landscape photos with digital photography, but photo prints remain the most popular. Prints can be framed and hung up on the wall to show your photos off to friends and family. Creating the perfect print can become even more challenging if your monitor isn’t calibrated properly. You will have suddenly wasted your time, paper and ink on a print which doesn’t match what you see on your monitor. Read these quick tips for getting the best prints possible.

Dpi and Ppi

When you make a print of one of your photos on an inkjet printer, a lot is happening inside the printer. Inkjet printers work by spraying ink dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black from nozzles while they pass over the paper. Most inkjet printers have a print resolution of 1440dpi and some printers go as high as 5760dpi. In general, the higher the resolution of your printer the greater detail you can print and the better your photo will look.

The single biggest point of confusion comes from Dots per inch and Pixels per inch. Dpi is very different from ppi, which is the resolution of an image on your computer screen. Printers create dozens of tiny dots to fill the space of one pixel, and the more pixels you pack in an inch the finer the detail will look.
The ideal resolution for printing an image is 300 to 400dpi/ppi.

Ink and Paper

You have a lot of options when choosing different quality inks and paper types, all of which can be combined to form a satisfying result. Different photo papers will give surprisingly different results from the same photo printed on the same printer. Photo paper comes in many different styles, weights, and photo finishes, including matte, glossy and varying degrees of gloss, which is usually called semi-gloss. Colour photos usually look best when printed onto glossy or semi-gloss photo paper, while black and white photos usually look better on matte. It is also worth while creating and saving different profiles for your printer for each type of photo paper you use. This is because on some papers a printer may use too much of one colour, instead of correcting the colour yourself you can select a profile you created before.

The cost of ink can sometimes be greater than that of paper. Purchasing brand name inks by your printer manufacturer is usually the safest option and will produce the best results. Remember that printer damage caused by third party printer cartridges sometimes isn’t covered by manufacturers. Some companies such as Lyson produce high end inks which in some cases are better than the manufacturers own.

Archival qualities and resistance to colour fading is also important when choosing inks. For example pigment based inks help guarantee that your prints will remain crisp and vibrant for many years.

If you are going to print a large quantity of photos it is also worth checking the prices of online printing stores to see if they are a better option for you.

Monitor and Printer Calibration

Calibrating your monitor and printer is essential when viewing and printing your photos. Your monitor could be displaying inaccurate colours and density. Adobe Photoshop comes with something called Adobe Gamma which will most likely already be installed on your computer. You can use Adobe Gamma to create an ICC profile which uses calibration settings to change the way your monitor reproduces colours. Start Adobe Gamma, located in Control Panel and then select step by step and follow the instructions. Daylight can affect the accuracy of colours displayed on your monitor, this is why its best to carry out your monitor calibration in a darkened room.

The first and most important step in printer calibration is to use the correct driver for your printer. Every printer driver comes with its own calibration controls and tools, designed for fine tuning the overall colour of your prints. You can visual calibrate your printer using test images with a wide range of tonal values, including colours bars, photographs, and blocks of colours. You can then adjust the colours using your printer’s controls to match on screen with what you have in print. Alternatively ICC profiles provide a way to insure consistent colour reproduction. Every printer comes with default profiles for use with different combinations of inks and paper which may be suitable for your needs.

Peter Horner is an experienced photographer who co-created http://www.designerprint.co.uk - a large format printing service, creating canvas prints, block mounts, and poster prints using the latest digital technology.

So, you have taken lots of pictures with your new digital camera, the memory card is full, and you are wondering how to store and archive your images.

1 Buy another memory card

The method of storing your images with least effort is to buy a new memory card and keep your images on the first card.
Taking into account that memory cards are currently expensive, this seems a costly way of archiving the images. In the longer
term, however, there may be some argument for this method as memory card prices fall, which they progressively have. However
as time goes by the digital size of images (measured in megapixels) will increases partly offsetting this factor.

2 Transfer your images on to your computer

Most if not all digital cameras come with a cable for connecting the camera to a personal computer. The manufacturer has
probably provided software with that cable so that you can install the software on to your computer, connect the cable and
transfer images from your camera onto your PC. Don’t forget, if all else fails - read the instruction booklet! Once safely on
your computer hard drive, you can erase the memory of the camera and start taking new photos all over again. However do check
that the images have been successfully downloaded to your computer before you erase them!

3 Burn your images onto a CDRom

Many home computers are now equipped with a CDRom writer. This is probably the preferred way of archiving your images for
years to come. One word of warning though. Do not buy cheap recordable CDs - CDRs. Cheap discs are less reliable and we have
found some to be problematic. We have also found that rewritable disks - those that can be written once and then overwritten - do not work well in certain CD Drives. Best to use good quality write once CDRs and carefully label them, storing them in cases for protection. In due course CDs will be replaced by DVDs providing greater memory capacity as image files increase in size.

4 Store your images on a public web site

If you are connected to the internet you will be able to find sites on the world wide web which will store your images for
posterity. Furthermore, they may let others view your images, or restrict access to them by a password. Some sites charge for
this service. What the long term prognosis is for any of these sites is - well - who knows. But they might be useful in the
short term.

5 Print your images at home for viewing

You might want to put your images in an album to keep for yourself and to show family and friends. Photo printers are
available for home use - either from the manufacturer of your camera or from another. The convenience of being able to print
your own images at home immediately will be offset by the cost of consumables, which can be high, and the slow print speed of
many home printers. Further there has been discussion regarding the longevity of the prints made at home compared with
conventional prints made on photographic paper.

6 Use a professional laboratory to make photographic prints

A more practical way of printing your images is to take your camera memory card or a CDRom to you local film processor for
prints. You will be able to collect your printed images either the same or the next day and they will be photographic prints
with a very long life expectancy. The laboratory will be able to crop your images or enlarge the full image or a section of
it to further enhance your photo.

7 Put your pictures on to a photo gift

For a lasting memento, why not put your pictures into a frame or even get your laboratory to put them on a gist such as a mug
or mouse mat. Such object will have a long life and attract interest and attention. To see some of the possibilities when it
comes to photo gifts feel free to visit http://www.view-link.com/photogifts.html

Christopher Thomas is both keen photographer and company director of Viewlink Ltd based in Amersham, Uk. The company focusses on digital photo developing for both amateur and commercial photographers. For more articles by Christopher Thomas please visit the company website at http://www.view-link.com