See Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies and Digital Photography for Seniors.
Stephen Ingraham works for Zeiss, possibly the best manufacturer for optics. He knows what he’s writing about. I agree with his 9 points in the linked article. A good super-zoom point and shoot camera is more than enough camera for most photographers. (No flames from professionals or aficionados, please.) I’ve loved using Sony for years and currently use the HX100v (superseded by the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
Birding with a Point & Shoot Camera.by Stephen Ingraham on January 15, 2013
I think all photographers come to realize the challenge and benefits of seeing in a way we would not have before we got cameras. This article makes some good points and features some terrific photos. peace, mjh
Birding Is Fun!: Composition for Birders by Scott Simmons
my hope is always to come home with photos that have artistic value–photos I could hang on my wall and be proud of. Attention to composition is one of the best ways to get a documentary photo to double as a form of artistic expression.
Control Windows 8 slide shows | PCWorld by Lincoln Spector
John McClung asked if there’s a way to speed up and slow down slide shows in Windows 8′s photo app.
If you’re talking about the obvious app that sits where you can’t miss it on the home screen, the answer is no. Luckily, that’s not the only photo slideshow tool that comes with Windows 8. You just have to know where to find the other one.
Let’s look at both of them
My favorite bird photographer, Lillian Stokes, reviews the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
STOKES BIRDING BLOG: Canon SX 50 HS for Bird Photography: I love this camera!
Warning! Reading this blog post could cost you money. I just got the new Canon SX 50 HS point and shoot super-zoom camera and I love it. It’s in my right hand, my Canon 1D Mark IV with the 300mm lens and 1.4 teleconverter is in my left hand. The SX 50 HS has a 12.1 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, DIGIC 5 image processor, image stabilization, ISO 80-6400. The focal length when optical and digital zoom are combined is as follows (35 mm equivalent) 24-4800 mm (24-1200mm with optical zoom alone.) It can shoot RAW. Here are some of the reasons why I love the SX 50 HS
STOKES BIRDING BLOG: Canon SX 50 HS for Bird Photography: I love this camera!
Lillian Stokes is the finest bird photographer I know of. See her pix and read her tips. However, I have to point out that the camera she uses costs $6000, just for the body. It’s not the sole reason she’s a great photographer, but most of us will have to make do with less expensive gear (mine cost about $500 and I have a few photos I’m proud of). peace, mjh
STOKES BIRDING BLOG: Birds in Flight Photography Tips
My favorite type of bird photography is photographing birds in flight. Above are a few of my photos and here are some tips.
How do photographers get such photos? Here’s what you need
I have problems with my Sony DSCX100v just over one year after I purchased it. These exposure problems are easiest to illustrate. However, the jog wheel used to change selected settings has also stopped working. (When I push it in to activate, the setting is highlighted as it should be. However, rolling the wheel does not change the setting.)
I wrote Sony and got a nice reply directing me to a website. There, I learned it will cost $111 (minimum) flat rate for out of warranty repairs. That’s about 25% of the original cost and very disappointing.
If your camera develops problems, try these steps:
None of these steps have helped with the jog wheel. (Nor did compressed air, pressing harder, or cursing.)
Here’s a good article with some fantastic photos. I agree with the 10 tips and add #0: Have your camera ready. mjh
10 Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography
10 Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography
South African Wildlife Photographer Morkel Erasmus shares his advice on improving your wildlife photography
Here is a quick overview of the points I will cover in this post:
- Know your gear
- Know your subject
- Know the “rules” | Break the “rules”
- Work the light
- Shoot wider | Shoot Closer
- The More, the Merrier
- How low can you go???
- The Content-Technicals Dichotomy
- Patience isn’t a virtue…it’s a necessity
- BE THERE & ENJOY IT!
My friend Jeremy Stein is a professional photographer whose subjects overlap mine: birds, bugs, and buds. He prints his lovely photos in large format. Jeremy was quoted in the Albuquerque Journal advising photographers to be patient regarding the subject and the composition. (I also appreciated his comment on “garbage in, garbage out” regarding the limits of editing.)
I agree about patience (in every facet of life). And I know Jeremy agrees at least one thing precedes patience: preparation. Be prepared to take a photo, including a spontaneous photo. Be ready. Learn to shoot from the hip with no warning. See Be Ready for Good Luck for more.
A camera in its bag is worthless. Have your camera in your hand (lens cap off, camera on) at every reasonable opportunity. Learn as much as you can about your camera – including how to silence it and keep it from powering down automatically. Don’t be afraid to trust auto-everything; don’t be dependent on auto-everything.
The article specified several good locations for photos in Albuquerque, including the Rio Grande Nature Center (let’s just say the entire bosque — I quite like Alameda). I’ll add: your yard and your neighborhood. We are surrounded by beauty. Learn to see it everywhere.
I’ll be a contrarian regarding advice from both professionals quoted in the paper: don’t be afraid to shoot from every angle. (I suspect they were simplifying advice for beginners.) Stand tall, squat, move around your subject as much as you can. A silhouette or a flare can be very dramatic. I love flowers from behind; I love leaves glowing with light. See Life Glows for examples, many of which were taken at odd angles to the light. I think most photographers agree the best time of day is morning or evening, which should be your cue to get out at noon and see what happens.
Play and have fun. Take lots of pictures and show only your best (to quote another great photographer, Dr John Merck).
I use Windows Live Photo Gallery every day and like it a lot. I’ve been nervous about the new Photo app. All of the Live programs are going away.
Windows 8 Photos app brings "fast and fluid" to picture management by Ars Technica
Windows 8 Consumer Preview’s handling of photographs is a slick, centralized, and very much a tablet-like experience. The Photos app gives users fluid, near-instantaneous access to your pictures, for which the app is to be credited, but certain common features are missing at this point, and others that are included don’t work evenly across the app.
When you pull up Photos from the Metro interface, you are shown four discrete boxes: one for your locally stored pictures, and one each for your SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr accounts. Clicking on each of these boxes takes your through a short login process, and after you’ve given the program your credentials, the home Photos screen will populate each box with photos pulled from that account.
Windows 8 Photos app brings "fast and fluid" to picture management
Sometimes, you just can’t get the focus (depth of field) you want. I wanted the full Wolf moon and some rooftop hardware in focus, but I could only get one or the other. The solution was to “fuse” the best of both photos.
above: foreground sharp, moon out of focus
above: moon sharp, foreground out of focus
above: fuse the best parts of both
I used Windows Live Photo Gallery for this, although I am sure other photo editors have similar functions. In Photo Gallery, select the two (or more) photos you intend to fuse. Click Create > Photo Fuse. Your first selected photo appears full screen with a small floating selection box and a preview of the selected area from both (or all) photos (see below). Drag the box to select the area you want to change. Drag the corners or sides of the selection box to change a larger area. To finish, click the area you prefer under “Which do you like best?” You can repeat this process, fusing other areas. To save your work, click the Save button. I always leave “fuse” in the new filename to remind me how I’ve edited this particular photo.
Tip: I prefer to start with the photo that requires the fewest changes. If that’s not the first photo in the series, I rename the one I want to appear before the others in the gallery (or sort differently).
Fuse works best with photos that are composed nearly identically. The challenge here was that I had to move the camera up and to the left to autofocus on the moon. Then I pressed the shutter release halfway to lock focus. Finally, I moved the camera back down and to the right to frame the photo the same way.
Because the selection box is rectangular, I could not avoid selecting a tiny piece of the vent. Fortunately, I can’t see that that tiny piece is out of focus.
Potential readers may wonder what distinguishes the For Seniors series from other computer books. The For Seniors books feature step-by-step instructions that tell the reader just what he or she needs to know to complete a specific task. The text is in a slightly larger-than-standard font, although not large print. Numerous illustrations of what you see on-screen accompany the steps.
These books don’t include much discussion or broad context. (I really had to rein in my desire to tell people four ways to do everything – I like knowing lots of different ways to do things, and knowing more than one way is often practical.) That said, the truth is these books are no more limited to Seniors than they are For Dummies. (I hate the series name, but For Dummies are among the most successful books.)
For the most part, For Seniors books are for beginners of all ages who just want to get something done. I always have in mind a client who says, “I want to know how to tell time, not how to make a watch.”
See www.mjhinton.com/author/ for my other books. Feel free to write me with questions, comments, or suggestions: mark@mjhinton.com.
Picasa is a free program from Google that you download (via picasa.google.com) and install on your computer to organize and edit photos on your computer. It can be compared with Windows Live Photo Gallery, iPhoto, and other programs.
Picasa Web is a web-based service for sharing photos (picasaweb.google.com). You upload photos into albums in your Picasa Web account. (If you have a Google account for email, you use the same ID for Picasa Web.) It can be compared with Flickr.
You can use one and not the the other. I prefer Windows Live Photo Gallery (explore.live.com/windows-live-photo-gallery) for organizing and editing photos, but I like Picasa Web for sharing those photos in various albums. In contrast, someone might use Picasa (software) on their computer and upload to Flickr (or any other service, particularly Facebook).
Note: it is likely that someday Picasa Web Albums will be renamed “Google Photos,” which would be more clearly distinct from Picasa software.
For many years, I have preferred to see my photos on a screen, instead of in print. For the occasional print, I reasoned any photo service sufficed. (I really like www.costcophotocenter.com.)
All that changed when my wife gave me her old HP Officejet color inkjet. I finally discovered the joy of printing my own photos using quality photo paper. Wow. I know it was obvious to everyone else long before it hit me that prints are an easy way to share photos. (Yes, “duh.” That’s how removed I was from the old days of film.) Now I have dozens of prints stuck to the wall beside the front door. No one gets out without seeing my latest photos.
Most photo services automatically fill the print area with the image, which doesn’t work with inappropriately cropped photos (for printing, understand; cropping for the Web is often tight and any dimensions you like). Although I sometimes crop with print ratios in mind (4×6, 5×7, for example), I can print any ratio on my own printer – square, panorama, any stretch or squash that standard printing would chop off. (Don’t use “Fit picture to frame,” unless you have cropped fittingly. Always preview all of the photos you plan to print. If you’re not quite sure, print in black and white first.)
Today, I was preparing to buy ink when I realized it would cost nearly as much as a new printer. The ink is the ongoing expense – they should just give away the printers.
This leads me to two items:
Side-by-side printer comparison: Digital Photography Review
Side-by-side printer comparison The side by side comparison tool lets you easily view the specifications of two or more printers. Choose the printers from the list of the left then press compare. The results will be displayed in a new window, so please make sure that you temporarily disable any popup blockers that you may have.
Side-by-side printer comparison: Digital Photography Review
and I’m looking closely at the Canon PIXMA iP4920 Photo Printer
I’ve been tweaking my photoblog to add a page displaying a few of my favorite photos: see www.photosbymjh.com.
