Digital Photography Blog

What is Digital Photography?

2010-08-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

Digital photography is a type of photography which has been used for making digital image of any object. Until the arrival of digital photography technology, photography generally used photographic film to produce images through visible by photographic processing.

By contrast, digital photographs can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer techniques, without chemical processing.

Digital photography is one of several forms of digital imaging. Digital images are also created by non-photographic equipment such as computer tomography scanners and radio telescopes. Digital images can also be made by scanning conventional photographic images.

Choosing A Camera - Camera Categories

2010-08-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

What kind camera should be perfect for you? Certainly, it is the most obvious question for you. Camera users generally fall into one of the three categories: amateurs, professional and hobbyists. Purpose of using can help to choose perfect camera for you.

Cameras are normally divided into groups: ultra-compact, compact, prosumer or hobbyist, and digital SLR, and most manufacturers build units in quite a lot of categories to capture more of the market. Most units fall into the mainly two classes, with compacts having a good range of quality, resolution, and options, and the prosumer range including higher quality and greater control over manual options and accessories.

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How to Take the Perfect Photo in the Dark

2010-08-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

Taking photos in the dark is not easy for newbie photographers. One of the main factors to producing high quality images is light and the problem with dark is that there is very few of it. Due to insufficient light at night the color of images become more subdued and unbiased while color tones change. However, nowadays there are many cameras provide settings option to compensate for this. If you widen the aperture from the settings option, the depth of field would be reduced. By slowing down the shutter speed of the lens you can increase the amount of light. But the image quality would not be good, it creates blurry images. Therefore, it is recommended that you use a tripod to steady the camera while taking pictures at night or in settings with low lighting.

Digital Photography | Photo Contest

Tips in Cleaning Your Digital Camera Lens

2010-08-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

We like to take different types of snaps by using digital camera( i.e digital photography) as it is easy to use and produce good quality image. We are generally busy with taking photos of holiday trips, wedding, family photos and we just forget to clean the lens. The question is how do we clean the lens with care without damaging the lens and causing problems with your camera?

The following are the great tips in cleaning your lens correctly without scratching your expensive camera lenses-

1. Use brush tools which allow you to remove dust and dirt form the lens. You should handle with care while cleaning the lens.

2. Use high quality lens cleaning cloth to remove oils and finger marks.

3. Some oils may require using 100% alcohol on your cleaner.

4. Place your expensive lenses in a camera bag and put on the lens cap after use.

Digital Photography Tips for 2010 Christmas

2010-08-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some Christmas Digital Photography tips and ideas to try that come to mind for digital camera owners wanting to capture the big day:

Making sure that you are ready to take the snap of any planned event. The location of your shots is also a very important part.
The shots before the event starts properly are often great because they show everything at it’s best before everyone descends on your party zone.
Speaking of shots before the party starts, why not set up some before and after shots both of the place you’re holding your party and what it looks like afterward. Make sure you take the shots from the same position.
Photographing Christmas lights is something that can be tricky to do. David Hobby from Strobist has put together a great tutorial on how to do it. Check it out at How to Photograph Christmas Lights.
One of the most common types of shots at Christmas is the ‘group photo’. It’s usually taken at the end of the evening or day when everyone is looking at their worst. For a ‘fresher’ shot take it once everyone has arrived. Also think before hand about how you might pose everyone and where you might take the shot.

Enhancing Images through Digital Photography

2010-07-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

It is but common to people to have hobbies. In fact, many are investing huge amount of money for their hobbies. One of the most popular hobbies is the collection of different things. Air craft models, fashion doll and the likes are really interesting especially when the value of these products start to increase. As years passes by, the value of collectible items will boot up and thereby you gain pride of whatever collections you have.

Photography is art where everyone can posses their own camera but only a handful can produce images of wonders. Photography is an expensive hobby, but thanks to the invention of digital camera, it started a new era of digital art. Digital photography can be produced in different ways. The most common form is the digital photo shoot; a simple click of the camera can pave way in many different wonders through the help of digital photo editing tools. Another form to produce digital image is through image scanning. Scanning images through a scanner can convert old pictures to digital image and apply renditions on the image through variety of methods and techniques available in the photo editing tools.

Among the advantages of digital photography is the cost. The manual photography requires film and will take time to develop. Seeing the result of the shot takes time. Films do not allow second chances. It means that you have to return to the place in case you failed to capture it the first time and you will only knew it once the films have been developed.

Want It ... Earn It

2010-07-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

Photo contest … Have you ever heard of it? No!!! Well this means that you are missing a very interesting, amusing and important aspect of our present life and you should read this article, but if your answer was yes, you still should read this article, Funny!! You think!! Well just wait till you try talking part in a photo contest, Years ago ... Actually decades ago... even centuries, human realized that life is very fast and very short which contradicts with the human nature which seeks eternity, so human was always in a search to find ways to document their lives and make an extension of it for their off springs, any way this wasn’t very hard but it wasn’t any easy as well , human used to document their lives on by drawing paintings on the wall of temples and caves which used to consume hard working and lot of time but as days goes on , science made it possible to capture or life , our good moments , our beloved persons , foot we eat , places we travel to or even our homes we can also document them easily using photos .

Photography was one of the greatest inventions in the last century , no sooner that there was many types of it which started with complicated , difficult to use instruments and ended with digital photography using digital cams that stores photos on small microchips or memory cards to be saved for ever.

Digital photography opened the door for competition between photographers and that was the beginning of photo contests , professionals and amateur photographers now gather to show and flaunt their photos and photograph skills in photo contests on a local level or an advanced international lever whether online on the internet websites or on paper work such as gallery shows , museums or even in magazines ,These photo contests uses many methods for evaluation of winning photos either making an online picture for the day chosen by the people browsing a website or by peer rating or professional rating for the photos in galleries.

The Magic of Digital Photography

2010-06-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

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Digital photography is helping to revolutionize the way we view our pictures and the way we are able to capture the most breathtaking images.

Digital photography is becoming more affordable every year, and the technology to make fabulous photos is well within the reach of the average consumer.

Digital Photography is more than just using a digital camera; it also entails some post processing in an image editing software to the image you captured with your digital camera. Digital Photography is a process where pictures are taken to a computer disk or memory card rather than film.

Digital photography is one of the late 20th century s most innovative technologies. Digital photography is a radically different kind of photography, because the photographer can finally see what the film sees.

You waste nothing; there's no film required, and because you only print the pictures you need, digital photography is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

First of all, the general claim about digital photography is that it makes photography easier; and that's wrong already. And this is where it is getting interesting because, basically, the argument is that digital photography is better because you don't have to wait. Although the resolution of digital photos is not nearly as high as photos produced from film, digital photography is ideal when you need instant, low-resolution pictures.

For many people, the biggest advantage of digital photography is that it eliminates the need for picture processing. Almost all of the cost of digital photography is capital cost, meaning that the cost is for the equipment needed to store and copy the images, and once purchased requires virtually no further expense outlay. Lastly, digital photography is the future, there's no getting around that, and the sooner you start shooting digitally, the better equipped you'll be to evaluate and handle new technology as it comes out. After all, digital photography is just another tool of modernization showing the advancement of photography in an ever-changing world.

The age of digital photography is here and here to stay. With more than 64 million digital cameras sold last year alone, digital photography is more popular than ever. Once of the best of the long list of advantages of digital photography is the immediate ability to view the scene through the digital cameras LCD screen.

Ten Tips For Working With Macro Digital Photography

2010-05-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

Photo by Amy Renfrey

Macro photography is a fun way to get close up shots look stunning. If you want to get technical, the real definition of macro is the image on the film or sensor being as big as the actual subject. In this case, the camera lens must have the capability to focus on an area as small as approximately 24×36mm because this size is the size of the image on the sensor. This is frequently referred to magnification of 1:1.

What makes macro photography so enjoyable is that it’s intensely creative and powerfully flexible. You have a lot many opportunities around you right now then you think for macro photography. And you don’t need expensive digital photography equipment to do it, in fact the secret is in your lens.

Before we get into lenses in full detail, if you’re starting out in macro this type pf photographic category can be a helpful starter to gaining new knowledge very quickly. You can learn new tricks and have fun experimenting in the comfort of your own home. Here are ten tips to getting sensationally clear, beautiful up close macro shots;

Always use a tripod. It’s important to get yourself a good quality tripod. A poor quality tripod will slip, and won’t hold the camera steady. You will get a lot of use from your tripod, so see it as an investment. You can use a good tripod for table work too, which is ideal for taking macro shots of flowers in a vase in your own home.

Look at your lens. It’s very important to get some good extension from your lens when taking macro shots. If you already own a macro lens have a look at the 2x tele-converter to double its effective focal length. A tele-converter lens will work to provide greater maximum magnification at the minimum focusing distance.

Use a shutter release cable. Using one of these very handy things will reduce any potential vibrations, movement or harmful blur. Add a self timer to your macro along with your shutter release cable to add razor sharpness to your images.

Don’t forget your mirror lock-up if you have this available to reduce camera vibration, movement or blur even more.

Remember that aperture affects depth of field. Using an aperture of between f16 and f32 is a good place to work with. You can also use a while aperture such as f2.8 which will give you a very shallow depth of field and then you can be very selective on what you want to focus on.
For beautiful flowers or parts of trees or bushes, remember a windy day will just frustrated you as it will most likely create blur and it will be very hard to capture your flower well. Try cutting it off the branch (if possible) and bring it inside. You can peg it up or put it in a vase to keep it still and out of the wind.

Keep a clean background in mind. A background with a lot of busyness is distracting. It will take the viewers eye off your main subject. Try a pure white background to emphasize cleanliness, or a pure black background to enhance bold colour. You can use neutral tones for macro such as pale blue or brown. All you have to do is use coloured paper.

Break the rules. I have never listened to anyone when taking macro pictures. I love to take weird, unusual, totally abstract subjects to include in my macro collection. You can also use metal as an interesting subject. (Jewellery, pins, forks, spoons, etc.)

If you don’t have adequate lighting then use your own. Don’t be afraid to use a lamp, or flash off-side, but not too close. You don’t want to overexpose your subject. You can try a torch if you like to create interesting shadows. And don’t forget black and white macro shots look fantastic too.

If you use a low ISO such as ISO 50 for example, just remember you’ll get better results for your macro shots. Since you should be using a tripod, a low ISO should not hinder you. Its fine to use anywhere from ISO 50 to ISO 200 for your macro shots. Any higher and you’d be getting nosier images. I’ve always set the ISO to the lowest setting when dong macro, such as ISO 50. I would recommend to use a noise reduction filter on your camera if possible or you can use some very nifty tricks for reducing noise after the shot has been taken. If possible try shooting in RAW mode for the absolute best in image control at the post process level.

Photo by Amy Renfrey

You will get a lot of inspiration by looking at images from professional photographers. Look and learn and then find your own style.

Article By..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author

Mastering High Speed Photography

2010-04-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

Most high speed digital photography is going to be around sporting events and activities. Though some people like to photograph moving water or other “active” items, for this discussion the focus will be on the techniques and equipment required to master high speed sports photography.

What are the basic considerations of shooting high speed photographs? Shutter speed, ISO, shooting mode, a zoom lens and creativity will be the photographer’s primary concerns.

What about lighting? While most scenarios allow a photographer to have some measure of control over the lighting in their images most sports venues will not allow much control over ambient light. For example, inside an arena and outdoors at a baseball field requires the photographer to work with the situation rather than trying to modify or alter it.

This is the reason that the primary focus is on shutter speed. Of course the higher the shutter speed the more affect on the light entering the camera, and this is dealt with through ISO – our next subject. Where shutter speed is concerned however, the photographer will need to determine what their desired image is going to be. Will it be a single player pulled out from a blurrier background? Will it be the instant the ball meets the bat? Will it be an intense close up of a goal keeper at the moment of defeat? Each of these situations requires a different shutter speed and camera settings.

For example, that ball meeting the bat will be frozen at about 1/4000th of a second, while the single player can usually be caught at around 1/500th of a second.

In order to meet the lighting needs of the high shutter speeds the photographer must adjust their ISO. The trouble of adjusting ISO comes from the digital “noise” created when creating a print of the image. This is a graininess that reduces the overall quality of the image. Currently there are software programs most photographers use to eliminate noise from high shutter speed/high ISO images. It is a good idea to begin with an ISO no lower than 400 for high speed photography, though many photographers actually increase their ISO to 800 or higher.

Additional considerations in high speed digital photography concern the “burst” mode of a camera. Because the digital cameras usually have cripplingly long “lag” times between images, the burst or continuous mode is absolutely critical to capturing the drama, action and emotion of any sporting event. Some cameras are able to record from three to twelve frames per second in this way.

Finally, many high speed sports photographers like to use a zoom lens to really get into the middle of the action. This allows them to record facial expressions, important details and unique images.

Just as in any other photographic method, experimentation is the key. Photographers are encouraged to adjust settings and test editing software to see what the best results are for their preferred sport!

Article By..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author

Discover The Secrets To Beautiful Photography With Photography Lighting Techniques

2010-04-16T04:47:00.000-07:00

Light is the first and foremost important thing in your digital photography. Whether you are shooting black and white or vibrant colour, you'll find the your lighting is the biggest issue.

There are many challenges in getting the perfect lighting in our scenes when doing digital photography. Sometimes when you think you've got it just right, the picture turns out too dark or too light. These states of being too light are termed "overexposed" and when there is not enough light on your scene your photo becomes "underexposed."

The term "exposed" comes from having light exposure on your film or sensor. In order to create a photograph in the first place, you need exposure to light. It's that exposure that makes or breaks your image.

For the best photography lighting look around you. Each hour during the day will bring a subtly new kind of light than the hour before. You'll also notice that morning light is the best to work with and overhead daytime, midday light is the most penetrating.

This photo here, with the crossing lights, has a even, full morning light. Morning light is softer than afternoon light because it does not have the tendency to cast harsh shadows as afternoon light does. If you are going to shoot outdoors then choose the soft morning light. Its easier to get a good exposure during the morning.

And the most frustrating of all is getting action shots indoors at night time when light is limited. You may have found this if you ware taking shots of a sporting or dance event for example. You'll quickly feel the frustration of not having enough light and not being able to do anything about it. However there is good news. There are two main things you can do to increase the amount of light getting into your camera.

The Secret To Getting Vibrant Colour In Your Digital Photography

2010-04-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

It’s quite an extraordinary thing, colour. It can enhance or diminish emotion in a digital photo. It’s really that powerful. Yet working with colour, it can assist the photographer to emphasise, dramatise or detract from a certain feeling in a digital photography. Its funny that colour can impact our senses to such a degree. When there is the absence or presence of certain colours we can feel a certain level and depth of emotion.

So how can we add drama to photos by using colour? Well the first thing to understand about colour is what it does to our senses as I have just briefly mentioned. To understand what impact colour has on us, we need to look at a digital photo and look at what each colour means.

For example think of a photo that has lots of yellow in it. A photo with a colour like this reflects energy, a sense of optimism, extroversion. The same goes for red, which is quite an intense colour if used as the main subject colour. Red can have an impact especially if its against a contrasting colour, which we’ll get into in a moment. These warm colours such as yellows, oranges, reds, etc have a strong photographic presence. In other words it’s kind of hard to ignore them.

Now let’s take a look at the other side of the scale; the cooler, more introverted colours. Colours that are emotionally quieter are blues, purples and greens. These colours tend to be a little less energetic but don’t be fooled into thinking they are any less passionate as the bold reds. These introverted colours tend to offer us a depth, visually, that we would not get from the warmer colours.

"That’s all very nice" you say, "but how can you bring this altogether to create dynamic colour in a digital photo?" Well first of all you can improve your colour skills by having a look at a colour chart to tell you what colours work together really well and what clashes. In my book “Digital Photography Success” I’ve explained about the magic of bringing colour together and what a dynamic impact that creating colours, united well, can have.

Let’s take for example your blues and yellows. Completely opposite but they work together beautifully. Here’s a quick snap I took at Stradbroke Island (Queensland, Australia) last year.

The photo is really average, but its all I had at the time and I wanted to capture the enticing contrasts of blue and yellow on a natural background.

So lets look closer at what colours work together well so you can improve your digital photography.

You’ll notice that all the basic colours are there. And what works really well are the opposing colours, the blues and yellows. They are almost opposites on a colour wheel. In fact in the picture, visually they are opposite. Colours that have this opposing nature tend to work together so well that we can’t help but be captivated by the contrast.

So as a big hint from me, look for these opposing values in colour and you’ll find you have a lot of brilliance in your colours in your digital photography.

Now with portrait photography this is going to change again. Peoples “colours” vary according to skin tones. For example, I have blonde hair, very fair skin and green eyes which apparently make me a “Spring”. This means that people with my colouring look best in earthy colours, pinks, greens, browns etc. My partner who has blue eyes and dark brown hair and a medium skin tone is a “winter.” So if you are taking some one's picture, it is very important to encourage them to wear something that compliments their skin tone.

Once again, colour can play a huge part in your photography.

So look at colour wheels, look at skin tones and charts and really examine colours that can work well together and what don't.

Article by..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author

Share Your Digital Photos with Friends and Family

2010-04-09T02:20:00.000-07:00

Essentially, there are four main ways to share digital photos:

Printing the photos
Storing the photos on CD and DVD
Emailing the photos
Uploading the photos to a website

Printing the Photos

Just like film-based photography, you can share your pictures by having a hardcopy printout. All you need to do is get a good photo printer and some quality printing paper, then print away! I usually print my photos from an inkjet printer (the Canon Pixma iP4000) using glossy photo paper. The prints I get are very high quality - you can't discern them from those you print at photo kiosks. Of course, if you don't have a printer, you can still approach a photo kiosk to do the job, or even submit your images to an online photo print website. These websites usually print your pictures and are able to deliver them to your doorstep. Make sure you do some shopping around first - digital photography printing services don't come cheap.

Storing the Photos on CD and DVD

Storing your photos on CD and DVD is a very good option for sharing photos, particularly if you have a immensely huge photo collection. The downside, of course, is that your family and friends need to have a CD player or DVD player to view the content.

These days, CD burners and DVD burners are very affordable. A single CD-R stores 650MB and a DVD stores 4GB. That is an amazing amount of storage space for your photo collection.

Emailing the Photos

Of course, one option for sharing photos is to email them to to a friend or family member. I do warn you to be careful though. Make sure your recipient would like to receive the photos first. Bombarding him or her with a 10MB email containing photo attachments is not a very nice thing to do - it's best if you obtained permission to do so first.

A good alternative to emailing photos is to upload your photos to a website, then simply email the website link to your friends or family. This avoids the problem of huge email attachments.

Uploading the Photos to a Website

One of the best ways to share digital photos is to upload them to a website. There are many online photo storage sites available. Viewbug is one of the photo sharing sites. It allows you to upload photo albums and determine who can view those albums.

You should know that there are limitations to using photo sharing websites. Some of them charge a fee for their services, while others require you to order prints to keep your account active. You also may not be able to customize the presentation of the website easily.

My personal recommendation is to set up your own web site to host your own picture gallery. If you're looking for a good web hosting company, I'd suggest you try Yahoo! Web Hosting. I've used them for years without any problems and their customer support is first-rate.

Digital Photography Composition

2010-04-07T00:37:00.000-07:00

Digital Photography comes from a combination of the heart and mind. It’s very easy to take a snap. But in making digital photography work for us, we need to be very conscious of what we’re doing. We need to think about how the photo will turn out based on what we are aiming for...the composition of the photo. So what is composition?

Good composition is the ability to see something in the real world as a photograph. Once you have imagined how something in the real world could look in a photo, you proceed to take that photo as you have imagined it would look. Camera usage and photographic techniques help to create a photo that will represent your imagination. Your artistic eye should work in conjunction with your technical knowledge.

Once you gain confidence with this, you will find it gets easier and easier to have your photos turn out as you imagined they would. Composition is the sum of all the visual tricks the photographer uses to make a picture pleasing. You decide what section of the subject to choose to put in view as you take the photograph. What you are doing is a leading the viewer’s eye. Great composition comes from the photographer being in control of what you look at and in which directions.

To the TOP right hand side of the page you can click on each Artistic & Abstract Photography Articles or Videos available on the website. And you can click on the links below to the latest Artistic & Abstract Photography articles and videos on the site.

How To Take Silhouette Pictures

2010-04-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

Silhouettes are some of the most beautifully gentle types of digital photography you can do. They can offer us a commanding presence combined with such gentleness. A digital photography silhouette can work so well to emphasise a certain subjects form very well. It can take your main focus from an uninteresting scene to one of pure interest and fascination. And this works extremely well in digital photography.

Digital photography silhouettes work best when there is one main subject (can comprise of a few subjects) that has the whole emphasis on it. What works best is the light coming from behind to block out the whole subject, not just dim the subject.

But, there is more to it than just blacking out the subject from the light behind. You will find that when you go to take your digital photo silhouette shape and form become features points of your picture. Your lines and form become paramount to a successful silhouette image. The background colour can really work well to enhance your silhouette, especially bold colour that stands out nicely to enhance the blackness of your subject. Your lines will help enhance the viewer’s perception of the more concentrated feeling you are creating.

Bold background colour works well with a digital silhouette photo because it enhances the black and you’ll find it lifts your subject because of the stark contrast it creates. Black and bold, intense colour can enhance each other. A black figure against a hot pink background or bright blue can look powerful.

Your lines and shapes are enhanced because the detail of the frontal aspect of the main subject are gone. The eye is left with nothing but shapes and form to capture the essence of the image itself. We are unable to see frontal detail so naturally our eye looks at the composition and form of that subject to find information from it.

To create beautiful silhouette digital photography choose a simple theme. Silhouette is all about “simple” and there are many things that work well. Silhouetted subjects against a sunset sky are a traditional method of creating beautiful silhouettes.

Another thing you can do is black and white silhouette. Black and white silhouettes such as branches of a tree against a blue sky done in your black and white mode create a sense of drama and interest. The sprawled-out branches of the tree as a shape tend to capture our interest very quickly. Inanimate objects such as ladders, lamp posts, bridges and windmills can also make powerful silhouette digital photos.

Framing your silhouette is very important too. Framing creates an important aspect in the composition of your photo and helps to create the point of where the lines can begin and end.

Don’t forget about the weather. The weather changes your light instantly. Silhouettes rely on light and it’s important to make sure your weather isn’t changing too dramatically if you are taking outside silhouette digital photos. You can use good weather turned bad fairly well in silhouette digital photography. A mountain range with misty clouds can help increase the sense of the dramatic anyway, and when done in black and white, your silhouette becomes more powerful.

If you want to practice getting superb silhouette digital photos, just look at your shadows during the day. I urge you to really look at the lines, shapes and forms of the shadow because it’s very much like the kind of eye you would cast over a newly created silhouette photo. It’s a great way to practice your silhouette digital photography. See how the shadow creates the outside lines of your main subject. You can even take a photo of the shadow to get an idea of how silhouettes appear. So keep practising and improving your digital photography always!

Article By..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author

Negative Spaces & Positive Spaces in Digital Photography

2010-04-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

It’s a term used in art and painting but for the purposes of your digital photography artistic education I’m going to borrow it to teach you something important. Have you ever heard of negative and positive space? If you haven’t you’ll love this article. It will help you three fold in your photography.

In digital photography you’re dealing with aperture, shutter speed, lighting and focus every moment. It’s a lot to manoeuvre. And one thing you are also working with quite precisely, whether you are aware of it or not, is ‘space.’ Lets have a look at what this means for you to enhance and develop your skills as a photographer.

Negative space is defined as… "the space around the subject of an image”.

It means the empty space around your main subject. This kind of space seems like unimportant background but it’s this empty space that adds an important aspect to the composition of the main subject.

Positive space on the other hand is defined as ... "the focal point of a work of art or shape of the work of art". The primary subject matter in a work of art, as opposed to the background or unoccupied spaces.

Okay so those are the technical definitions. So how do we apply this practically?

To start with, negative space is a huge element in your composition. Your negative space is the space around your focal point and having too much or too little can completely ruin a potentially good digital photo.

When shooting your digital photography, always look at how much space is around your focal subject. Even the slightest bit too much or too little can completely put your composition out of kilter. Particularly when your subject has a distinct point of focus such as a person's eyes, defining lines coming to a point or even an aspect of sharp colour.

Let’s examine these two photos to show you what I mean.

This picture has a lot of really interesting negative space around it. For starters the negative space is blue, which is quite different to our main focal subject. The dobs of white, which are the colours, seem to glide nicely into the main subject without distraction or hesitation. The clouds do distract our eyes from the branches momentarily but not in an inconvenient way at all. The negative space in this picture works very well to support the positive space.

Look at the picture now without the support of the right amount of negative space. I've edited out some of the space of the picture to see what effect we get.

The focal point changes due to a 3cm crop from the right. Removal of the negative space changes everything. Now, the end of the tree trunk is the main focal point. Our eyes don’t follow the branches outward as much as they did before. This change does not make the picture drastically worse, it is actually ok. But you see how this negative space alteration changes a lot about the picture artistically?

Pay close attention to what you are taking and the negative space around your main subject. Changing the slightest thing can improve or reduce the quality of your photos.

Article By..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author

How To Take Beautiful Abstract Photography Images Easily And Quickly

2010-04-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

You can do a lot of incredibly creative stuff with digital photography. You may do a lot of standard shots however experimental photography can become a favourite to some people. Why? Because you are not limited in anyway with what the camera sees.

You can turn an ordinary scene of a terracotta pot plant and with a good macro lens some good lighting, into something that can look like the surface of another planet. How cool is that? Its art at it’s best. You’ve changed reality in fact; all with some imagination and a digital camera.

Abstract digital photography is not about “gee, what is that?” It’s about creating a feeling. Abstract artists do it on a canvas and we do it with a camera. When you look at an abstract painting you don’t try and work out what it is, you simply look at it to enjoy the feeling it gives you. It’s about concepts, emotions, non-representational images that to one person can mean something and to another something entirely different. That’s why abstract is so great. It’s limitless in possibility, and imagination...

To the TOP right hand side of the page you can click on each Artistic & Abstract Photography Articles or Videos available on the website. And you can click on the links below to the latest Artistic & Abstract Photography articles and videos on the site.

How To Take Beautiful Photos Of Oceans

2010-04-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

The ocean is one of the most photographed objects of nature in our modern photography experience. Its calming effect seems to have a hold on everyone. Whether it’s the water itself or the movement of water that pulls us in or something else. Or perhaps the "openness" combined with the clean feeling of water has something to do with it. An ocean can 'de-clutter' our minds leaving us with a beautiful sense of stillness and freedom.

So how do awesome ocean photos turn out? What are the secrets? Well to start with, in digital photography, there’s the 'ocean' and there’s the 'beach'. The ocean can be photographed as the main subject. It can also be included in your photo but not as your main subject. To give you an example of this lets take these two pictures of the ocean.

The top picture uses the ocean as the secondary subject. A secondary subject is not the main subject in the photo but uses it to enhance the main subject. The first picture uses the tree as the main subject and the second photo uses the ocean as the main subject. See the difference?

When taking photos of oceans, your lines are of paramount importance. You have two lines with photos of oceans. The first line is where the water meets the sand and the second is where the ocean meets the sky.

How angled these two lines are from each other the better your photo will be. For example if you had two parallel lines then you have a very square and flat composition. If those lines had a significant angle from each then you’re creating some pretty nice composition. You’ll notice that most good ocean shots consist of the water-horizon line and the water-sand line are angled quite nicely from each other.

You’re probably thinking that most beautiful photos of the ocean always have a beach on a bright summer’s day with blue skies…well not all. Some are taken at dusk which presents itself a different set of challenges. The first is the setting sun. It’s lovely to have an orange sky with a setting sun over a beautiful ocean. But how do you take this kind of shot with even light throughout the picture? If you meter off the sun, everything else can look underexposed. And if you meter off the clouds you can have an overexposed sun. And what about flare?

There are a few possible solutions to this problem. Firstly about flare. Flare often happens when you are faced directly into a bright light source, such as our beloved sun. To avoid this I would suggest taking the shot at a slight angle, or perhaps waiting for the sun to go down just slightly over the horizon. This will leave a gorgeous orange brightness in the sky without the direct harsh light the sun can do. But be quick. The closer to the horizon the sun is, the fastest it disappears.

You can also place a few things in front of the sun to get a beautiful orange background with silhouettes in the foreground. This makes for a beautiful shot.

To alleviates the problem of the sun overexposing everything else in your photo try exposure bracketing.

Let’s say that your ocean is not being taken at dusk, but more like 4 o’clock in the afternoon when the day’s sunlight is starting to fade. You can take the first shot by metering off the sun. Your settings might be something like 1/1000 and f.16. Then, to experiment, you might like to shoot the second picture at 1/1000 at f.22. Then the third photo at 1/1000 at f.32. Now layer the images and see what effect you get. (You will need a tripod.)

You don't always have to do it this way. You can do it the other way around and keep the aperture the same and just change the shutter speed. For example you might find that your camera responds better when you try three photos at 1/1000 and f.16, 1/750 and f.16 and 1/500 with the same aperture.

Oceans are wonderful. If they are taken with patience and a plan, you can get the most beautiful picture postcard shots. Always remember your tripod, some sunscreen and a hat if you’re shooting in the middle of the day. Most of all remember your light.

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Article By..

Amy Renfrey
Digital Photographer, Digital Photography Teacher & Author