Portraits by San Antonio Photographers

Warning: Don?t Assume that DigiCams Are the magic answer!

Perhaps you have heard this before: “The better the cameras, the better the photos.” In this effect, you might have thought of digital cameras. Numerous believe that these models are just a one-click away for great photos. Do you also believe in this?

Just consider as you read this article and the appropriate answer will be revealed to you.

The rivalry between film cameras and digital cameras is relatively fresh. How come? Three mega pixels digital cameras have an array of choices for consumers, which is already comparable to a high quality point and shoot models. Nowadays, the same thing goes with five mega pixels digital models for excellent quality photographs. The thing is, quality photographs can be taken with ease using digital cameras.

Some of the main advantages to digital photography are:

* pictures can be previewed immediately on the built-in LCD screen
* costs of installing films are replaced with memory sticks or cards that are primarily reusable and can store thousands of pictures
* the stored photographs can easily be shared by copying off the images and/or sharing the memory stick or card
* images can easily be transformed into black and white and/or sepia and can also be cropped after the picture has been taken

However, photos under low light and taken using film and digital models are both susceptible to artifacts or granularity. Images taken by both cameras appear to be very similar can be further improved with the advent of software that can improve and manipulate the quality and details of images.

Furthermore, you can take lousy shots with the most expensive Nikon models and make great photos with the pass? point and shoot cameras. It suffices to say that it is not the camera that solely makes famous and even picture-perfect images. The man behind the camera can squeeze or miss a big time out of the gadget that he has.

The following presents a ten-point aid that will enable you to take photos like a pro using your digital cameras. Practice on these tips so you can maximize the expense of your gadget.

1. Those Tones Should Warm Up

Change your white balance setting from auto to cloudy when shooting sunny landscapes and outdoor portraits. This increases the yellow and red tones, thus resulting in warmer and richer pictures.

2. Use a [Sunglass] Polarizer

A polarizer should always come in handy when taking those general outdoor shooting. Polarized shots have more saturated and richer colors because unwanted reflections and glare are minimized or even removed.

If your digital camera can not accommodate a polarizer, simply place a sunglass as close to the camera lens as possible making sure that the rims of the glass will not be taken along with the image. The effect of a polarizer can be maximized when the light source is perpendicular to the object.

3. Shining Outdoor Portraits

Singularly the most useful and amazing features of digital cameras is the flash on or fill flash mode. This feature allows you to take control when to use the flash. It simply goes on whenever you want it available. This helps in capturing grand outdoor photographs.

The camera exposes for the background first then adds enough flash to illuminate the subject when you are using the flash on option. Wedding photographers have been using this technique for numerous years to create professional looking portraits where everything in the composition is simply excellent.

To come up with a more relaxed photograph, try putting the subject under the shade and use the flash to add illumination.

You can also practice on using rim lighting where the sun illuminates the hair of the subject from the side or the back.

However, you should not stand that far away when using the fill flash since most built-in models have a range of 10 feet or even less.

4. Macro Mode Frenzy

I am quite sure that you would want to look at the fine details of your surroundings but would not be willing to crouch down and lie on the ground with your belly.

In that case, you just have to look for the macro made or close up symbol, usually a flower icon, and get as close to an object as possible. Once the confirmation light signals you to shoot, just press the shutter down to record the portrait.

However, using the close up mode allows you to have a shallow depth so you can concentrate on the part of the subject that you want to emphasize and let the rest go soft.

5. Chaos of the Horizon Line

There are still photographers who become disoriented when lining up their shoots. In other words, once they look at their cameras monitor, images that are erect seem to be a little tilted or bowed inward.

The most appropriate way to take care of this matter is to take your top shot at a straight picture, then take another picture after repositioning the camera. Afterwards, you can delete the others once you feel you captured a perfectly aligned image.

Also, just practice level framing your shots until you become acquainted with the process.

6. Massive Media Card

You have to have an extra memory card especially when you want more moments to preserve. The following suggestions should be considered before buying a memory card:
a. for 3 mega pixels – a 256 MB memory card
b. for 4 mega pixels – a 512 MB memory card
c. for 6 mega pixels – 1 gigabyte memory card

Then you do not have to miss another shot because your card is full.

7. Not High Resolution All the Time

It is more advisable to squeeze more images by shooting a low quality and resolution settings than taking shots with a high resolution all the time. This way you can reserve a space and a 2272 x 1704 resolution on the next famous image of the century and enough for the portrait to be printed on a 8″ x 10″ inch paper suitable for framing.

However, if you have enough memory (and you should), there is no reason to shoot at a lower resolution and risk missing the chance to display your work the big way.

8. Tolerate that Tripod

Tripods are “unnecessarily bulky” for some so seldom do people like to bring them around.

Nowadays, there is an ingenious way to settle the dilemma whether to bring a tripod around or to do without it. The UltraPod II developed by Pedco fits in your back pocket and holds your camera steady in various situations.

You can use the Velcro strap to attach your camera on a tree limb or an available pole. Its legs can be opened on any flat surface or even on a boulder.

Now, you can be a real photographer without carrying a heavy burden.

9. The Fun with Self Timer

Another under-used feature on almost every digital camera is the self timer. This function can be used to save the photographer for missing the picture by delaying the firing of the shutter up to 10 seconds.

You can attach your UltraPod to ensure that your camera will not be taken away that easily by some strangers. Of course, you need to aim at the subject and not at a distant background before setting up the timer. Also the depth of the subject should be checked too.

By using self timers, you can also avoid accidentally jarring the camera when you are interested in making long exposures of cars driving at dusk as you initiate the focus.

10. Slow Motions

Normally, you will use an exposure of one second or a bit longer to create the flowing effect of water. In this case, you have to look for waterfalls or streams that are under the shade.

One trick is to use a polarizer or your sunglasses to darken the scene and create a longer exposure. More so, this technique can also eliminate distractions from your portrait.

For a really good photographer, which implies using creativity and ingenuity, viewers often get curious and ask, “What sort of camera model do you have there?”

Would it be more humbling for them to hear that you are using a normal aim and shoot model?

Or you can simply say, “Model ME.”

[techtags: Family Photography, Senior Photographers, Studio Portraits, Portrait Photography]

With the acceptable image quality and the other advantages of digital photography the majority of professional news photographers have begun capturing their images with digital cameras. Digital photography has also been adopted by many amateur snapshot photographers, who take advantage of the convenience of the form when sending images by email, placing them on the World Wide Web, or displaying them in digital picture frames.

Also, one big advantage of digital photography is the instant review of pictures, with no wait for the film to be developed: if there’s a problem with a picture, the photographer can immediately correct the problem and take another picture (up to hundreds of photographs on the same media device). Digital cameras have also been integrated into many cell phones. The photographer is able to color-balance and manipulate the image in ways that traditional darkroom science cannot offer, although film users can utilize the same technology with a film scanner. But digital cameras also tend to be much more sensitive to moisture and extreme cold. For this reason, photographers who work in remote areas, such as those who work for National Geographic overwhelmingly favor film SLR cameras. Many digital cameras can deliver only JPEG files.

Another format that may be encountered is RAW, which contain unprocessed image data straight from the camera’s image sensor. Compact digital cameras usually include zoom lens and flashes that cannot be changed, but digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR), operates on the same optical and mechanical principles as a film single-lens reflex camera, and offers the possibility to change lenses. Recent manufacturers such as Nikon and Canon have promoted the adoption of digital Single-lens reflex cameras (dSLRs) by photojournalists. Lenses in digital photography can be Telephoto lenses, Wide-angle lenss or Normal lenss, used for landscapes, portraits and close-ups (macros). Digital anti-shake tools (also called Image Stabilisation) allow taking sharp hand-held pictures where previously a tripod was required. Digital SRLs work also with RAW images containing unprocessed image data straight from the camera?s image sensor. Since the data isn?t processed on the camera the photographer will do so on the computer in order to get it into more usable formats like TIFF or JPEG. This method offers flexibility of the results regarding exposure, lighting, white balance, contrast, colours and saturation as well as greater creative control of the image.

From Canon, good compact cameras the Powershot A series, such as A520, A620, A700 and others, main difference between them being their megapixel image resolution and optical zoom. Canon PowerShot S3 IS is a type of camera that moves a step forward from compact to dSLR. As for the SLR?s and dSRLs, Canon comes with the Rebels: Digital Rebel XT, Canon EOS 200D, and Canon EOS 30D. Nikon is considered to be as good as Canon but sometimes cheaper: Nikon D40, Nikon D200, and Nikon D70. Other notable cameras are Olympus E-330, Fuji FinePix S9100, FujiFilm Finepix E900, Sony Cybershot DSC-W100, HP Photosmart R967 and many many others. Choosing a digital camera can be very difficult and the techniques are in constant progress so that these cameras get better and better, more and more powerful but still smaller, therefore some of them received the name ?pocket camera?.

[techtags: Family Photography, Senior Photographers, Studio Portraits, Portrait Photography]

Besides an improperly exposed photo, the other most common mistake beginning photographers (and sometimes the pros) make is not getting a photo that is in sharp focus. There are times when you may want to have an intentional blur in your photo ? perhaps to show motion. But most of the time, the sharper your photo the better. The automatic exposure feature of your digital camera is often good enough to for a sharp photo. There are times, however, when you will want to take control of your camera?s settings to get an even better picture. Here are some tips to help you consistently take sharper photos.

1. Choose the right shutter speed ? Shutter speed means how long the shutter of your digital camera stays open. It?s expressed as a fraction of a second, such as 1/30th or 160th or 1/400th. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the shutter is open, and the more likely your are to get a blurred picture. If your digital camera is in automatic mode, make sure the shutter speed the camera is showing is at least 1/125th. It?s very hard to do get a sharp photo at a slower speed. For moving objects, you?ll need a setting of at least 1/400th to stop the motion. If the auto mode is not showing a fast enough shutter speed, switch the camera to the shutter priority setting and set the shutter speed manually.

2. Choose the right aperture setting ? The aperture setting is how wide the shutter opens when you take a short with your digital camera. It is a trade-off. If you increase the shutter speed to prevent blurring, the shutter must open wider to let in enough light because of the reduced time it is open. If the opening is larger for a faster shutter speed, the you may loose some depth of field, which is whether objects close to your and further away from you are in focus at the same time. To maximize depth of field, shoot with the slowest shutter speed that is appropriate to the situation. If you?re shooting an object that?s not moving, set a small aperture. But if you?re shooting a moving object, you may have to use a higher shutter speed. You may loose some depth of field, but this may not be a problem if the object you?re shooting is what?s really important in your photo and not what?s in the background also.

3. Minimize camera movements ? If you know you?ll be in a situation where you?ll have to shoot under low light conditions with a slow shutter speed, use a tripod. You can also use a tripod on a sunny day to minimize camera moment to allow you to shoot with a small aperture and a slower shutter speed for greater depth of field. Most professional nature and landscape photos you see were done with a tripod.

4. Follow your object ? If you?re shooting a moving object, try planting your feet solidly and bracing your arms tightly against your sides, and follow the moving object by turning your body. This can keep your subject in focus, although your background will be blurred.

[techtags: Family Photography, Senior Photographers, Studio Portraits, Portrait Photography]