From the viewpoint of any one person the web is an almost
limitless resource of information about an endless number
of topics. All you've got to do is to know where to look.
What I aim to do here is to show you where to look and to
pass on some of my own experience. Reading the various computer
magazines that line the shelves of the likes of W H Smith,
you'll be very aware of the power and prestige of professional
software like Photoshop, the industry standard in its field
- and an undoubtedly impressive piece of kit. That said, the
web is a very generous
place and you can find lots of graphics
software there for free either from the likes of Google or
from the Open Source community. You might never have needed
to buy that expensive software if only you'd known where to
look and what to look for.
What are the basics for dabbling in computer graphics,
what things are necessary for a serious interest, and what
are nice to have, if you can afford it. Read more
Robert Provencher, an
experienced portrait and wedding photogragher, explains
the superior merits of digital photography to a professional
photographer. Read more
Jim Johnson offers five basic tips to improve your photographs.
They're straightforward enough; the trick is to make sure
you consistently follow them! Read more
You can learn a lot from the web if you know
where to look. Here are three photography websites that
are worth bookmarking and which offer a major resource
to the photographer. The third, admittedly, only if you
own an Olympus digital. Read more
If you are using a digital camera
and you want to make your own prints on your own printer
then Bob Stephens, director
of operations for ASAP Inkjets, has some advice that's
worth reading. Read more
Kenneth Hoffman is a retired portrait photographer who
has some sound advice to offer on backgrounds. If you're
serious about studio portraiture then read
on...
Photographer, Steven Pam, gives his take on the pixel
and dpi (dots per inch) conundrum, and also recommends
an article at The Luminous Landscape. Read more
What good is the EXIF data that is stored
with your 'digital negative', that is, your photograph's
image file? Photographer, Chris Roberts, will explain.
Read more
Some useful advice from Richard Schneider
on night photography. Richard suggests using your camera's
self-timer to avoid any camera shake. These days many
digital cameras, such as the Olympus Camedia series,
are supplied with handy little infrared remote controls. Read
more
If money is no problem, then Dries Cronje's
advice on the equipment set up you need for bird photography
is what you need to read. If money is a problem, it is
still useful to know what the professionals use to kit
themselves out, and you can go to his website and admire.
With patience and ingenuity you can still get good photographs
of birdlife with less expensive equipment, but I acknowledge
that you'll have to work harder to get them. Read more
In this article Chip Clark explains the
fundamental photographic concept of Depth of Field, and
gives you a simple exercise to use to show you the theory
in practice. Once you done the table exercise with the
apples, you can move on to other things, all the time getting
better control over your camera's handling of DOF. A digital
camera makes practising both quick to do and inexpensive.
Read more
Richard Schneider explains briefly and concisely the rules
of composition. As Richard says, knowing the rules (and
understanding them) will actually improve your observation,
and your capacity to spot good photo opportunities. Read
more
Once you get into digital photography
you may well want to have a go at photo montage. Sean David
Baylis identifies the five most common mistakes that you
can make. His advice is good not just for Photoshop but
just about any other image editing softwate you can think
of - Paint shop Pro, Corel Photopaint, and GIMP, for example.
Read more
Anton Sheker reminds us that colors
have emotional significance, and gives us a breakdown
of what colors are significant for which emotions. We
might have an argument about whether his classification
has a universal or cultural specific validity - but we
won't. It enough to make us reflect on how the colors
in how photographs affect our emotional response. Read
more
Some timed point & shoot works, but
not always. Canadian photographer, Jennifer Clarkson, gives
some valuable tips on the matter of correct metering for
various photographic conditions. Read
more
The advent of the digital camera has made
starting photography much easier and even more interesting
than in the days of the the film camera. Not only can you
take photographs but you can also 'develop' them in your
'digital studio', that is, on your pc. The digital age
has also made photography much more accessible to children
and from an earlier age. Read more
