Photography Blog

Ryan Dube asked:




Sometimes it can be difficult to create a family portrait that is unique or different. The standard portrait with the family standing in front of some fake, fabricated scene can feel drab and boring. Taking the photo yourself may be impossible, and you probably don’t have a professional photographer in the family. The following are a few ideas for some unique and meaningful family portraits that could easily become a family heirloom for many years to come.

Add a Pet Portrait to the Family Photo Wall



When putting together a family portrait wall filled with individual photos of members of the family, don’t forget to include the member of the family who often goes overlooked – the family pet! While taking a photo yourself, framing it, and putting it up on the wall will do the trick – nothing is quite as eye-catching as a painted portrait created of your much-loved family pet. This is becoming a very popular method of capturing the character and personality of the family pet in a format that is often breathtaking.

You can find the best style of pet portraits from Nikky Hughes of Los Angeles. The great thing about these pet portraits is that they can be done from a photograph – so it is possible to purchase artwork like this from skilled artists like Nikky regardless of distance.

Nikky was classically trained at the Mission Renaissance art school. Her art is soft and romantic – with a dreamy quality to them. They are lifelike and impressive representations of everything that makes a pet beautiful in the eyes of its owner. The aspect of her paintings that truly make Nikky’s art stand out from the crowd is the setting in which she places the animals. The surroundings are sometimes whimsical, other times wonderfully surreal, but always intriguing. Nikky’s art represents the work of a rising artist, so purchasing one of these portraits would be an excellent investment, and a wonderful addition to your home décor.



Make a Video Family Portrait

If you, or someone in the family, are somewhat savvy with the digital camcorder – creating a family video may be an option. Digital recording technology has advanced to the point where regular folks can generate some impressive movie content. Additionally, video editing software has made it so that anyone with even general computer knowledge can create some of the most intricate movies – complete with video, audio, and voiceover streams that would impress even amateur movie-makers.

There are also a number of video professionals, such as teleportraits.com who can capture memories and testimonials from your family that can become a timeless record of the personalities and memories for many years. A professional videographer will typically record all of the raw video, edit all of the video and produce a high quality DVD for you that you can enjoy anytime you choose, or at events such as family gatherings. Using video is one of the most fascinating and non-conventional ways to create a family portrait.

Have an Outdoor Portrait Done



If you are going to have a standard photo portrait done of the family, the best option to create an authentic and inspirational photo is to use a natural background outdoors. If you don’t live in a place where there is a large backyard, then have the photo taken at a park where a beautiful backdrop of a field, lake, or if you are lucky enough, a mountain. Sometimes other outdoor settings can work very well, such as a city skyline or the large span of an architecturally beautiful bridge. The possibilities are endless, but if standard photo portraits are preferred, natural backdrops can turn a boring photo into an exciting one.

Hugh Parker asked:




No doubt your home is filled with scrapbooks and photo albums overflowing with pictures of the past. You may even have a box of photos yet to be entombed in any form of structured memory storage. The various frames that pack your shelves and tabletops are beginning to pervade your living space. You’re in need of a new way to display your images. You want the look of fine art and elegance. And there are two ways to achieve this. Traditionally, people have chosen to transfer their photos onto ordinary matting and arrange them in framing for final presentation. But now, a new and innovative form of imagery is catching the eye of amateurs and artists alike- canvas photos.

Unlike customary matted portraits, your pictures will come alive when seamlessly transmitted onto soft and sturdy canvas and wrapped on a solid wood frame. And your images will look as animated and vibrant as the day you took them! The quality of craftsmanship that comes with a canvas photo is guaranteed to last as long as you own the picture- and well after. These portraits make the perfect heirlooms to pass on to your family. Your pictures will be more beautiful than any embellished scrapbook page, and can be easily viewed, unlike flipping through the pages of a photo album. And canvas photos are an extremely affordable work of art. Take a look at our comparison of matted versus canvas photos, and you’ll see just how the competition stacks up.

Cost: The cost of any photo is dependant upon its size. You can purchase both matted and canvas photos in dimensions big and small. But compare the price. A matted frame of 8 x 10 proportion can cost as much as $50. In contrast, the charge for an 8 x 10 photo printed on canvas can be as few as $25- that’s half the price! The difference in dollars for a larger size portrait is even more dramatic. If you’re looking to hang your picture above the mantelpiece, a 20 x 30 matted frame will cost you upwards of $250, but a canvas photo of the same size can be purchased for less than $100. That’s a savings of $150 or more!

Quality: Matted photos, though displayed beautifully, can tend to take on a one-dimensional existence. They appear flat and lifeless. But a canvas photo can awaken a memory trapped in time! Perhaps you’ve snapped a special photo of your natural surroundings. The desolate backdrop of a desert, the cool serenity of a lake shore, the chaos and confusion of the big city. A canvas photo will breathe new life into any image- feel the sun on your face once more, sooth yourself with the lapping lake waves, and listen to the buzz of the city streets.

Durability: Why worry with broken glass and chipped frames? Matted photos can be damaged so easily that the average picture needs to be replaced after just a few years. Canvas photos are resistant to normal wear and tear, making them the most resilient form of photo imagery. The life expectancy of a canvas photo can be as much as 100 years if maintained properly, making it the perfect family heirloom.

Whether it’s affordability durability, or artistic quality you’re looking for, you’ll find it all with canvas photos!

yourwovenphotos asked:




Apart from photo blanket and photo pillow, the latest trend of displaying your favorite photo is through photo bag. Modern women is always looking for different options of photo items available in the market, for using it as tool for shopping like photo bags, photo purse. It clearly indicates that photo bag has become convenient carry item for all women who are strolling in workplaces, colleges and malls. So, the demand for the same have opened doors for the photo printing companies to come out with new designs of bags and photo purses.

Most women use photo bag as fashion accessory while shopping, as it allows them to carry different types of essential stuffs like perfume, make-up kit, lipsticks, cellular phone and other personal things. The photo bag is not attractive when it is an ordinary bag, but after customized photo is printed becomes unique personalized photo bags. So, designers hired by photo printing companies create and deliver stylish designer series of photo bags that meet the requirements of modern women.

Photo bags are best gifting option for family and friends, it would be a great idea for gifting your mother with a personalized photo bag of her image on eve of mother’s day which is round the corner. Photo bags can be source for personalized gifts for different occasions like wedding Anniversaries, Valentines Day, Birthdays, Graduation Day and baptism.

There are few tips to be kept in mind to receive quality end product from the service provider:

1) Selection of Photograph: Choosing photograph taken from digital camera guarantees of quality end product of photo bags and at the same time, you can choose different photos for printing them on to either side of the bag.

2) Right selection of size, shape and features: It is important to choose right size of photo bag according to your preferences and requirement, as wrong selection may create hassles while shopping. There are few features like materials, colors, text and pattern that are required for customizing your photo bag and to make it unique.

As makers of photo bag has provided online option for customers to uploading their photo and also allows them to select multiple features to be added to bag. After which service provider follows sublimation process which actually embeds the image into the fabric. The result is an extremely clear image that will not fade, rub off, crack or peel. Sure, Photo bag deserves to be best gift for your near and dear ones to preserve memories with them always.

felix asked:




Do you know what failed most beginners when trying to handle the lessons involve in taking pictures? It’s simply simplicity! Most beginners fail to keep their photos simple. Rather than start from taking simple shots they tend to grow into professionals all of a sudden by trying to take complex and hard to understand shots

To know if your photo is simple enough or complex try showing it around for people to see, if they have to look around a few seconds to understand what they are holding then your picture artistic is too complex!

Learn to create simple shots

You see trying to take a picture of everything all at once, flowers here, frog there, lots of cattle at the background and a monkey hanging from a tree all in one snap shot….

Though I may be overstating the example above… But hope you get the idea.complexity and photography are no twin brothers especially when you’re just starting out.

For a beginner that is just starting out the key to good photography is to take pictures that everyone will understand, once you get the hang on this then you can move on to the more subtle shots. You have to understand the rules in photography before you break them.

And one such rule is simplicity

The first step to taking simple photos is to:

Define Your Subject

All photos have a focal point of interest .this is what the viewers want to see and there his attention is geared toward. If it’s a portrait, the subject is the person’s eyes. If it’s a shot of a cat, the subject is the cat.

It is after the subject have been defined that you now compose everything around the subject. make the background fit with the subject. Set the lighting right with the subject the subject is the primary object of importance. Everything else is secondary. One way to make the subject isolated is simply by basically making the background blurry and the subject in focus. This is another way is to change the angle so the subject is behind less cluttered background.

For more tips and Reviews, check out the Photo Review program

Ron McNeil asked:




Taking photos can be a lot of fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking images of pets, family, sports or scenery, it’s still enjoyable for you. Part of the enjoyment of taking photos is sharing them with others. While before to do this you might have had to send them via snail mail, now all you need to do is go on the computer and use photo gallery software to share them with as many people as you like. It’s a much more convenient way of sharing photos with the people you care about. You’ll learn the basics of photo gallery software in this article.

What is Photo Gallery Software?

So what exactly is photo gallery software? Well, it’s kinda like a digital version of a photo album. If you’ve taken lots of pictures with older cameras (you know, before they were digital), you’ve probably created some photo albums to keep the photos organized. Photo software is just like this, except instead of holding a photo album in your hands, you’ll instead have one on the computer.

A traditional photo gallery software program will allow you to import photos. That is, you’ll be allowed to press a button, select photos from your harddrive, and then put them in your photo by using the software. When you’ve added in all the photos and pressed the button to create the photo gallery, your online photo will be created instantly.

How does Photo Gallery Software Work?

No two photo gallery software programs are alike, but most offer the some of the same features to customers. Usually, when you use the photo software to add images, the program then creates a photo album to house the images. Depending on the software program you are using, during this process, you might be able to choose between different themes for the album. For instance, you might get to customize the gallery’s border, background, text etc.

When the photo album is created, other things are created as well. Thumbnails for the images are also created, which allows people to see a small version of the image and then decide, based on that, whether to click the thumbnail (to see the whole image) or not. This is very handy if you want to have a page for your photos which doesn’t take forever to load. All the HTML coding is also taken care of by the photo gallery software. This is probably a huge relief for those webmasters who can’t be bothered with coding their own photo gallery for their site.

Some photo software programs will allow you to add image captions in when you are adding the images to the program. This allows you to take care of everything within the album while adding the photos in, rather than having to wait until later.

Depending on the photo gallery software program you use, you might also have a great selection of file formats to use. A lot of the best photo software programs will accept many image formats ranging from jpeg and gif to psp. This allows you to upload virtually any type of image format you may have.

Web or Computer?

Not all photo gallery software is the same. Some are focused more on uploading images to the web, while others will only help you to create photo albums for people to browse while using your computer. Usually when you are looking at the information about the program, you’ll be able to tell where the images go. If they are uploaded to a web site, it could be either the photo software maker’s web site, or it could be your own.

Uploading to Your Web Site/Their Web Site

If you’re new to the whole photo gallery thing, it can be difficult to choose the best photo software for your needs. You’re not sure which is the best, and to make this decision, it’s important to think things through. Do you have plans for hosting the photo album on your web site? Do you want the URL (web site address) to be your own? If so, you’re going to want a photo gallery software program that does this for you. Keep in mind that such a program will have to have FTP support, so make sure it does this.

But what if you don’t want to host your own images? While most photo software programs that offer web capabilities are built to work with existing web sites, some offer the ability to upload images to the photo gallery software program’s web site. Your photo along with your photos will be given space on their web site and you’ll be able to pass that link on to others.

Alex W.K. asked:




Proud Photography is an online photography course that created by professional photographers and simply one of the top online photography courses available on the internet today. To back up the statement, the lessons are created and guide by real award winning photographers so the amateur photographers will learn the in depth training from real professional.

The entire curriculum has extensive and specialized training for new beginner and homework, examination, assignment and quizzes for each segment. The activities are useful for students which enable you to enhance your photography skills and allow you to advance to the next level. The course is interactive which mean you can send your works to proud photography mentors for evaluation which will help to improve your skills. The best thing about online photography course is that your progression will be closely monitored and lead by a personal mentor. The course is available for you to study at your own pace. After the enrollment there is no dead line to be met because you are free to work anytime you desired so you won’t receive the pressurization from other students who are learning at a faster pace. Proud Photography works all days including weekend and public holiday which mean you can study according to your own convenience.

The Proud Photography online course does not require any special and expensive high end camera and special ability from the student. You can use a simple digital compact camera or a 35mm camera which uses a film because the lessons you will be taught are the photography skill not the camera you are using. It does not matter whether you are a new beginner who does not know how to take a photograph or a skilled photographer. You can enroll for the Proud Photography online interactive course for splendid results.

Anthony Smith asked:




1. How many pictures will you take of me?

2. How long will the session last?

3. How many different looks are included in the price?

4. How do you direct the actor during your sessions? In other words, do you help the actor to come up with different expressions or is the actor responsible for doing that on her own?

5. What colors should I not wear? What color would be best to include in my wardrobe?

6. What happens once the session is complete? How do I get my pictures?

7. How will I view them?

8. What will you give me? A cd with the photos? Will you upload them to a website for me to view?

9. How will/can I make copies? How much will they cost?

10. What about retouching? Do you offer that service as well? Is there someone you can recommend?

11. What about hair and make up during the shoot? Do you provide that service? If so, is it included in the price? Do you have any recommendations with regard to hair and make up? (This is also a moment to express any concerns you have about blemishes you would like not to be visible in your photos, etc.

Alex Don asked:




As someone who is passionate about, you are probably interested in knowing how to include more depth of field in your photos. There is a lot of literature on this subject. If you’re a professional photographer, you’ve probably learned some things about wide angle (shorter focal length) and telephoto lenses (long focal length). For years photography textbooks and magazines have been promoting the idea that a wide-angle lens provides more depth of field compared to a telephoto one. However, if you type ‘depth of field’ on Google, you will soon come across a lot of articles arguing this assumption.

Recent tests taken by experts, including several photo magazines, have proven that, technically speaking, a wide-angle length does not provide more depth of field. These tests are quite easy and you can conduct them yourself to verify the conclusions. But how does this impact your work as a photographer? All these tests assume that you keep the picture size constant. They go like this: take a photo of some subject using a telephoto and then zoom out and use the wide angle lens. You can also use interchangeable telephoto and wide angle lenses. Then take the photo made with the short focus lens and enlarge a selected portion of it until is the same size as the same portion in the other photo. You will see that there is no significant difference between them. This proves that wide angle lenses don’t actually provide more depth of field.

Now, let’s see why you actually zoom out. Say you are in front of an amazingly beautiful scenery, such as a mountain landscape beautifully colored with sunrise light. You zoom in and take the picture with a telephoto setting. Then you zoom out and take the photo using the wide angle setting. You expect to get more depth of field with the last photo and that’s what it looks like. You would never think that if you enlarge a portion of it this apparent depth of field will disappear. When you use a wide angle setting, you zoom out because you want to capture more things in your picture. You are aware that the objects will look smaller and it doesn’t bother you. In the same way, when you zoom in you want to focus on a certain aspect of the photo even though you know you will loose depth of field. Zooming in and out and using different focal length setting makes you perceive that the depth of field also varies. Photos taken with the wide angle appear to include more depth of field compared to those taken with the telephoto. This may not be true technically. But what is in fact a photograph? What appears to the viewer. If you don’t place technical correctness above everything else, you should stick to what you’ve known and has proven right for years. As long as you like what you get, why drop it? Your photos will prove if you are on the right path or not.

alinur asked:




Canvas Photo is really exclusive and they give an impressive look to the photographs you take. In the present day, canvas photo has become incredibly popular and they have become the best way to autograph your memorable moments on the wallets in your home. The different phase of canvas photo will include restoration, gallery wrapping, varied framing methods, and several other more. Canvas photos could be integrated in quite different ways. Canvas picture definitely leaves a memorable mark and they capture all special moments of your friends and family. Canvas photo can make a cherishing deal with your friends and relatives and they of course match perfect to autograph your moments.

Being an artist, you would definitely have the thirst to learn something new to ameliorate your creativity and innovation. Innovative Ideas will cede thriving results! If you have the sparks of creating new vision, then undoubtedly you can win and stand ahead of the crowd. Either you are a photographer or a painter, the best and simplest way to win the race could be achieved by utilizing canvas pictures. While considering photographers, they can enjoy quite a lot of benefits with canvas photo! Canvas picture is a very usual photo print that is highly durable and of course quality rich. Photo canvas is absolutely rich-looking and they are eye-catching. You never have to worry about the cost, because the cost of canvas picture is quite similar to any other high-framed pictures. So, cost is not a trouble when it comes to canvas photo!

Most of the photographers dearly prefer using canvas photo, as they can avail quite several benefits and good effects. If you desire to get excellent and top-class pictures with absolute sharpness and uniqueness, then your first preference should undoubtedly be photo canvas. Canvas photo will not merely benefit the photography professionals, but also several other people will be benefited through canvas photos.

Canvas photo gives complete life to the drawing or the image and moreover they give a lively effect to the art work. What is actually best about canvas picture? Well, here is a brief explanation for your clear reference! With photo canvas, you could either sketch or paint and thereby depict your portraits. This is of course an excellent base the gives an overall lifelike rich look. Yet another exciting factor of photo canvas is that, canvas picture could be gifted as a birthday present too. This is simply exciting, because sparing huge deal of money and gifting something usual can be made any moment. Instead, gifting something new with impressive look can be made occasionally sometime. Well, with all possible benefits, canvas picture has achieved its own reputation among all groups of people. Give life to all your colorful memories with the impressive photo canvas!

Canvas photo printing is the material of choice for artists since it will last for decades – think about all the famous paintings on canvas that have been done for centuries that you have seen in any big museum. Printing your canvas photo could give your photos lasting quality to share with future generations. There is no need to go out and buy fancy and expensive wall art, you already own the best art and that has a more personal connection to you.

Nowadays canvas photos have become very popular to all the ages. They can easily transform an ordinary photo into a real masterpiece, which has a beautiful nature texture visible to the eye. This masterful artistic effect can only be achieved with canvas. You can commemorate dear events, views, places and bright outlines of your past captured onto canvas prints to relive them later in future. Canvassing photos of old times which is known as vintage style art, can be preserved for ages. Thanks to various software which is used to modify the image the process of canvassing allows us to change and alter the initial photos making them looking really funny and weird and making you smile whenever you see it.

Best gifts

If you really want to give an unusual but interesting gift, canvas photo would be a good idea. And no matter where you go, to an anniversary, birthdays, weddings, the right canvas photo could be the most extraordinary and remarkable gift for various occasions. Pictures of celebrities can be canvassed into the gifts for their fans, the bride and groom captured together onto canvas, pictures of ancestors looking back at you onto canvas might give their descendants flash back feelings of their family history, people who adore their pets, like dogs, cats, birds can get a canvas print of their pets. And there can be no doubt about that you will realize the true joy of gift-giving.

Thanks to digital technology

Thanks to digital technology and magnificent color combinations you can obtain canvas photos of any enhancement and they can be in grayscale, the printed pictures would be in black and white, Sepia Effects make the printed picture becomes brownish, giving it an authentic look., Pop arts effect as well as any edge type such as Black Edges, Photo Wrap, White Edges and Grey Edges etc. It is also possible to enlarge your photograph on canvas in any size you want from 12×18″ to 48×60″.

Market Wire asked:




WATERLOO, ON–(Marketwire – October 27, 2009) – DALSA Corporation (TSX: DSA), a global leader in machine vision technology, will showcase eight new camera models, plus a new frame grabber, vision processor and software tools, exhibiting the full depth and breadth of its machine vision technology at VISION 2009, the 22nd international trade fair for machine vision and identification technologies in Stuttgart, Germany, November 3-5, 2009.

Who:

DALSA Corporation, a leader in the design, manufacturing and deployment of digital imaging components for the machine vision market, will be demonstrating its cameras, frame grabbers, vision appliances, vision processors, image sensors, and software at VISION 2009, with the theme of “Get More Vision.”

What:

Visit DALSA’s booth (Hall 4, Booth D53) at VISION 2009 where DALSA will present the following:

8 New Digital Cameras Models

– The Spyder3 Color, 2k, 18 kHz and 4k, 9 kHz GigE cameras provides high color fidelity, ease of use, and a low-cost solution for the fast growing color imaging market. Spyder 3 Color uses dual line sensor technology and is GigE Vision® compliant. More details will be announced at the show.

– The Falcon VGA300 HG, Falcon 1M120 HG, and the Falcon 1.4M100 HG cameras feature high quality DALSA CMOS image sensors. These three new Falcon cameras are ideal for many industrial vision applications including electronics and semiconductor inspection. More details on these cameras will be announced at the show.

– The recently announced BOA smart camera will be demonstrated for the first time at VISION 2009. BOA is an all-in-one machine vision solution that is smarter, easier to use, and more flexible than previous generations of smart cameras. It is the first smart camera in its class to incorporate multiple processing engines.

– Two new models of its Genie™ GigE Vision-compliant camera family. The Genie C1280 and Genie M1280 cameras feature high quality, 1.2 Megapixel image. Genie cameras are extremely easy to use; this has resulted in their successful and swift adoption, displacing analog cameras to become the “camera of choice” for machine vision.

In addition DALSA will be previewing its latest frame grabber, image processor and Sapera Essential functionality…

– A new Measurement Tool for machine vision inspection applications including positioning, identification, and guidance and Nitrous — turbo-charged image processing — a suite of add-on image processing functions optimized for GPU and multi-core CPUs. Download evaluation copy of Sapera Essential 01/2010 Preview Edition.

– The Xcelera CL+ PX8 Full frame grabber. The newest addition to the Xcelera series delivers bandwidth beyond 1 Gigabyte/second over multiple lane PCI Express implementations. Compatible with a Base, Medium or Full Camera Link® camera, the Xcelera-CL+ PX8 Full supports a wide variety of multi-tap area and line scan color and monochrome cameras.

– The XRI-1600, a PC-based digital image processor designed for enhanced X-ray imaging in both diagnostic and industrial inspection applications. This Camera Link, PCIe X 4 image processor is Windows 7 compatible and delivers pixel depths of 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16.

Plus…

Proposed Next Generation Camera Interface

– Learn more about a new camera to frame grabber interface pioneered by DALSA (HS Link). The new interface complements existing Camera Link data rates, while delivering beyond Camera Link bandwidth capability. The interface utilizes off-the-shelf components carrying image data, configuration data, and low-jitter real time triggering signals over a simple network topology. DALSA is scheduled to present details to the Automated Imaging Association’s (AIA) Camera Link committee in Stuttgart.

Where:

VISION 2009

New Trade Fair Centre Stuttgart

Stuttgart, Germany

Hall 4, Booth D 53

When:

November 3-5, 2009

Media Note:

For interview requests, please email maria@redjavelin.com or visit Hall 4, Booth #D53. DALSA Management will be available for media interviews during the week of the show. For high resolution images of DALSA’s products, please visit our online media kit.

About DALSA’s Machine Vision Products and Services

For more than 25 years, DALSA has led the design, manufacture and deployment of digital imaging components for the machine vision OEM market, and now offers Vision Solutions for factory floor deployment. Today, DALSA image sensors, cameras, frame grabbers, software, and vision appliances are used in thousands of automated inspection systems around the world and across multiple industries including semiconductor, flat panel display, electronics, automotive, medical, packaging and general manufacturing.

About DALSA Corporation

DALSA is an international leader in high performance digital imaging and semiconductors with approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. Established in 1980, the company designs, develops, manufactures and markets digital imaging products and solutions, in addition to providing semiconductor products and services. DALSA’s core competencies are in specialized integrated circuit and electronics technology, software, and highly engineered semiconductor wafer processing. Products and services include image sensor components (CCD and CMOS); electronic digital cameras; vision processors; image processing software; and semiconductor wafer foundry services for use in MEMS, high-voltage semiconductors, image sensors and mixed-signal CMOS chips. DALSA is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “DSA” and has its corporate offices in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

All trademarks are registered by their respective companies. DALSA reserves the right to make changes at anytime without notice.