Photography Blog

Juan C Ruiz asked:




What is probably the most popular American past time today? If you think taking pictures then you’re right. Millions of people today are buying and using digital cameras take shots of almost any occasion be it birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, Christmas, New Year’s eve, parties and countless vacation trips. And when they get home they will have to save those images into their computers or have them printed. But to many, printing those pictures are not enough so they look for a good hosting site where they can place all of their photos.

What is image hosting? It is all about digital images that are uploaded to a website or hosting service. Those images are then saved in the servers of that hosting service for as long as the client wants. Now there are a few things that are standards with these services.

1. Image file format

The most popular image format today for the common digital cameras to save pictures on are the jpeg files. This format is perfect for taking every day photos with the right blend of the colors, saturation and hues can be saved in relatively small file sizes without greatly affecting the quality of the images. Of course there are other file formats like bmp, png and tiff. There are also proprietary formats that are only used by the digital camera manufacturers who invented that format and therefore not as popular as the other formats.

2. Disk space

What is image hosting without the alloted disk space?  There are free image hosting sites that offer a certain amount of disk space for you to upload your photos. Often this is already enough for most people. However there are those who are called power users who will require bigger spaces because either they have more photos to store or their images have bigger file sizes. Most image hosting sites offer paid subscriptions which come with larger disk spaces, perfect for all the photos of all of your trips and other special moments.

3. Digital image manipulation

While you probably already have a software that you can use to fix some minor things about your photos, most image hosting sites also do offer such a free service although usually in a much limited set of functions. The common features are present like cropping tools, frames, patterns, you can also change the hues, and other neat features. Usually these free image manipulation or correction services are enough for most people. Either way you can simply buy a more expensive photo software so you can do more with your photographs.

An image hosting site is a great service to all those people who love to take pictures. While the memory cards available for the digital cameras might be limited, you can just transfer your photos to these image hosting sites and store your pictures there for as long as you want. No need to worry about losing the original files or misplacing the prints. It’s the perfect online tool for those who love the art of photography.

John M. Lund asked:




When I was young I constantly doodled.  I doodled a lot of things…but mainly I doodled dragons.  Fast forward a number of years…well…a whole lot of years…and my twin brother is showing me pictures of his pet iguana…pretty cool looking creature….  Then it occurs to me…what a perfect dragon the iguana would make…and now I had the ultimate doodle tool…Photoshop!

With PhotoSshop pictures of an iguana become a photograph of a fire breathing dragon!

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool of alchemy…given the right raw materials any new photographic reality can be created.  Without those raw materials Photoshop can be an exercise in frustration and a road to mediocrity. To make sure that I have the raw materials to create my photographic visions it helps to begin with a sketch.  Once I have the sketch I can systematically photograph those raw materials, comparing them with the sketch, until I know I have the parts to complete my stock image.

My brother brought in his iguana to my studio and we did the necessary photography.  I also had a pile of cobblestones that had been dug up form the street in my San Francisco studio (I have since re-located to Sausalito).  I used those to create a “perch” or “roost” for my dragon.  For the background I went through my own stock files and found an image of the Teton mountain range shot near Jackson Hole, Wyoming while on a family vacation.  For a final detail I found an image of a castle I shot in Spain to put in the distant background.

With all the raw materials shot and scanned (this project was before digital capture had reached it’s now exalted state) I set to work.

To create the long neck of the dragon the tail can be manipulated by creating a clipping path around it, converting the clipping path to a selection, creating a new layer from that selection, and then using the warp tool and the liquefy brush to reshape it.  Free Transform can be used to position and size the new “neck”.   The same tools can be used to stretch the jaws of the iguana into a more “dragonesque” look. 

Once again those tools can be used to convert the spines of the iguanas back into dagger-like teeth and fangs.  The flap of skin under the iguana’s jaw can be selected (again with a clipping path…I believe the most important selection tool in Photoshop), turned into a new layer, and then reshaped to become the dragon’s wings. 

Each element, be it a leg, claw, tail or whatever, can be selected with an appropriately hard edge (usually a 1-pixel feather when converting the clipping path to a selection) and then “faded” into it’s new adjoining part by using large soft brushes and a layer mask.

I find it truly increases the effectiveness of an image by using adjustment layers and their accompanying masks to add shadow and lightness to enhance the dimensionality of a given part.  I mostly use “curves” (usually again with an adjustment layer) to adjust the density of a part in order to match the part with its new neighboring parts and environment.

An adjustment layer using Color Balance can help with fine-tuning color variations…and sometimes Hue/Saturation for major color changes. Of course, throughout the project I use the clone tool as necessary.  A wonderful new feature of PhotoShop CS4 is the “preview” that is shown through the brush as it is moved over the area to be cloned.  That alone might be worth the upgrade!

Once the image is looking complete I “Merge Visible Layers” with the option (Mac) key held down thereby creating a new layer that is a composite of all the visible layers.  This gives me a final image in one layer facilitating dust-spotting and other touch up work without losing the ability to go back and revisit the underlying layers if need be.

The final result is a realistic photograph of a dragon breathing fire, a professional grade high-quality stock photo. You’d swear it was real.

Recherche Photography asked:


Recherche Photography

Rare, Refined, Romantic. Not your everyday Wedding Photography.

Open the door…to a lifetime’s worth of memory and meaning. As rare, refined and romantic as its discriminating clientele, Recherche Photography is no ordinary photography studio. Born from ideals of beauty and balance, it is a business that revolves around the unique beauty of its treasured clients. It is a Bohemian boutique that invites you to relax, dream, and escape from the daily grind. And it is a one-of-a-kind experience that will transform your landmark celebration into lasting, heirloom-quality memories fit for generations to come.

The staff of Recherche Photography have come together to create a personalized, intimate environment that is truly a feast for the senses. From your initial consultation to the arrival of your impeccably-packaged photographs, you will be treated with care and consummate professionalism every step of the way. It’s a standard that shows in every frame.

From one-of-a-kind keepsakes in its boutique to unforgettable mementos of life’s passages, Recherche Photography is your uniquely sophisticated urban retreat. Your life contains moments of exquisite beauty and extraordinary meaning and your engagement and wedding are just the beginning of a life-long love affair.

Fall in love with Recherche Photography…why entrust your precious memories to just any photographer?

A Wedding vendor should realize that your wedding is not a cookie-cutter process. They should custom tailor all packages to each client. However Recherche Photography notices that most brides fit fairly well into one of four categories. No matter if you get married in Denver Colorado, to Europe or Nationally as a Destination wedding, Recherche Photography has a wedding package for you. Which one are you?

1) The Minimalist

You’re The Minimalist. Simplicity is your middle name – from the sleek lines of an iPod to the pleasures of a perfectly cut white shirt, your personal style is easy and unadorned. Detail-oriented and down-to-earth, you bring order to all around you. The sounding board for friends and the go-to-girl at work, you’re capable, rational, and precise. But don’t sell yourself short – you radiate true beauty through straightforward communication and a soothing demeanor. There’s nothing pared-down about your passion for detail or your love of real honest living.

Crave: A class in Zen flower arrangement, a stack of plain silver bracelets, an iPhone

Avoid: Oversized baubles, multi-course meals, vanity plates

2)The Sensualist

You’re The Sensualist! **** and seductive, you’re governed by the five senses, which you shamelessly indulge with extravagant sights, luscious textures, and romantic meals. You’re at your peak when indulging in a decadent meal, sharing a passionate embrace, or blessing out in a tub spiked with exotic oils. More champagne and truffles than tea and scones, you bring a sense of luxury and passion to everything you do. From your fabulously overdone signature to your penchant for drama, you don’t believe in half measures.

Crave: A Mediterranean wine cruise, a full-body massage, a seductive flacon of hand-mixed perfume

Avoid: Stainless steel, low-fat anything, torturous Spin classes

3)The Organic

You’re The Organic! Your home is the true center of your life, and you decorate it with a flea-market sensibility and sustainable style. Obsessed with comfort and ease, you’re more likely to opt for a midnight hike than a crowded bar. You’re the person who brings incredible homemade cookies to a friend in distress and serves the perfect cup of tea in a fabulous vintage mug. From your eclectic personal style to your open, giving nature, you’re the personification of honest ease.

Crave: Fair-trade dark chocolate, a weekend in the mountains, a treasure-finding trip to your favorite vintage boutique

Avoid: Stinky subways, traffic, uncomfortable high heels

4)The Sophisticate

You’re The Sophisticate! Fashion is your middle name, and urbane luxury is your game. A world traveler, you can hold your own in a boardroom or a boutique. Your fresh, fun approach to life means that you infuse some oomph in everything you pursue. From updating a classic cashmere sweater with a hyper-modern piece of jewelry to surprising a friend with a perfectly-arranged bouquet of her favorite flower, you’re classy and sassy.

Crave: Plane tickets to New York or Berlin, season passes to your city’s most cutting-edge museum, a box of over-the-top cupcakes

Avoid: Boring take-out dinners, sports bars, people who don’t write thank-you notes

Try the quiz online to see what you are:

MiNeeds asked:




Author: James Jackson

Article Source: MiNeeds.com, where consumers get competitive bids from Photographers. Read reviews, compare offers & save. It’s free!

Article Link: http://www.mineeds.com/Philadelphia/James-Jackson-Fashion-Photographer/Articles/How-to-successfully-post-a-photography-need

Tags: need posting , customer advice , how to

Welcome MiNeeds customers! I hope as one of the many qualified service providers on this web site to be able to help you with your needs. Recently there have been several needs posted without the requisite details to successfully recieve a bid, and while many providers will still bid on these needs, their quotes will vary wildly and your need may or may not be addressed by them because of the way your need was posted.

In the photography business there are several things we need to know to properly bid your projects.

1. What you need photographed

2. What you are planing on using the photographs for

3. How long will the project take

4. What style you need the photography in

5. What your estimated budget is

These questions can often be answered in a single sentence. For example:

“I have 50 items of jewerly that I need photographed for my web site shoping cart images, and I have a really low budget.”

This tells the photographers on the site that:

1. You need product photographs

2. You plan on using them on your website

3. This project will take as long as it takes me to shoot 50 items

4. You will need the products simply displayed… probably on a white seamless background

5. You have a low budget, so more experienced photographers need not apply.

If you’d like to go in to details on any particular, the more detailed you get the more accurate your bids will be, but this is the minimum amount of information that we need to properly bid your project.

Thanks, and I hope to have the opportunity to work with you soon!

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How To Successfully Post A Photography Need…

John Parks asked:




When starting an online business, one of the most powerful means of success is through using an advertising network, but there are many important factors to take under consideration before you embark on your marketing journey. With careful research and proper implementation, advertising networks are essential tools in helping you promote your business, create attractive banners for your website, use cost-effective marketing techniques and guide you in marketing strategies for your success.

First, it’s important to understand what an advertising network is. Advertising networks are companies that connect websites that host advertisements with advertisers who want to run advertisements. They generally pay money to software developers and websites to allow their ads to be shown when people visit their sites or use their software. The forms of online advertising inventory can be found on websites as RSS feeds, banner ads, rich media, and text links, on blogs, emails, instant messaging applications, adware and other sources. In most cases, such networks deliver their content through a central ad server.

There are two types of advertising networks. First tier advertising networks have high quality traffic that serve ads and traffic to second-tier networks, and they have a large number of their own advertisers and publishers. Popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo are examples of first-tier advertising networks. While second-tier advertising networks may also have some of their own publishers and advertisers, their main revenue source usually comes from other networks’ syndicated ads.

An advertiser buys a run or category of network packages within the network, and the advertising network serves advertisements from its ad server that then responds to a site once a page is called. While larger publishers often sell only their leftover inventory through advertising networks, small publishers usually use those networks to sell their entire inventory. Blind networks are a type of advertising network that is very economical and offer low pricing to direct marketers, but the advertisers do not know where their ads are going to be placed.

Some advertising networks provide free promotions to websites by providing them with banners and links and actively promote other businesses. But the search for authenticated information about an advertising network is essential before signing on. Use a referral system and don’t place your business with a network that is not well known or established. Choose an advertising network that imposes only a nominal financial burden on your website’s advertising campaign. Make sure that the advertising network’s terms and conditions clearly state what the relationship between your business and the network entails as well as a break down of charges per service. Make sure that the network you choose is run by an experienced and dedicated work group that will be able to carefully analyze your business, target the right audience and successfully market your products.

For more information on advertising, visit http://www.advertisementnetwork.eu and http://www.advertisementnetwork.org.

Trudi ALTENBURG asked:


Check Out Urvashi Dhanorkar Photos

It appears that small time Indian actor, Ms. Urvashi Dhanorkar was taken into custody on Saturday (22nd August 2009) by Mumbai police after being charged with badly treating her 10 year old household servant.

Check Out Urvashi Dhanorkar Photos

Urvashi Dhanoarkar was taken in under the Child Labour Act of 1986 as well as the Juvenile Justice act of 2000 and is being held at a Mumbai polic station awaiting a court hearing.

She was taken in after medical reports confirmed that her 10 year old child domestic servant was repeatedly physically abused and assaulted. She is likely to appear in court today (Saturday, 22nd August 2009).

It was discovered that the 10 year old girl had been punished in a variety of ways including; being hit in her eye, being whiped or beaten on her back and her arm being burnt. Her parents are due to arrive from Amravati soon, where the 10 year old was taken from by Urvashi Dhanorkar after promising her parents that she’d live a better life and get an education.

The girl let lose what had happened to the police after she managed to escape from Urvashi’s house where she was being locked up. Neighbour’s of Urvashi found the girl beaten cruelly with burn marks and reported the situation to the police.

This isn’t the first time a case like this has happened. Girls are often taken from their homes unwillingly in certain parts of India and trafficked to the capital for a whole variety of abuse including physical labour or sex work.

Check Out Urvashi Dhanorkar Photos