Stock Photos

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Posing Secrets - The Photographer's Essential Guide

Discover How You Can Quickly And Easily Produce The Professional Standard Portraits You've Always Wanted By Mastering The Secrets Of Camera-Friendly Poses


One of the trickiest things in photography to master is shooting people; that's why we've teamed up with the author of Posing Secrets - The Photographer's Essential Guide.
 

This Practical, Proven, Powerful System Will Fast Track Your Ability To Produce Expert Shots Every Time.

 

You Are Guaranteed to Never be Stuck For a Pose Again, Even If You Don't Know How To Get Started - Or You Pay Nothing!


Posing Secrets - The Photographer's Essential Guide Vol.1 is a newly released practical resource for creative posing that will quickly show you clear and comprehensive practical steps to produce and communicate a pose for any situation.

This 120 page ebook includes:
  • How to focus on the body to aid posing.
  • The key to duplicating or creating any pose.
  • The three letters that can build a pose (no, not A-B-C).
  • Important points to consider for a reclining position.
  • Exercises and suggestions to help analyze pictures and poses.
  • Ten simple solutions when your model does not know what to do with their hands.
  • How to avoid foreshortening of limbs.
  • The three basic head movements that make a difference to your model's features.
Forget trial and error. You need never be stuck for a pose again when you get this easy to read, simple to follow book that you can download in minutes.

 

What are people saying about Posing Secrets?

I highly recommend this Posing Secrets Volume 1. It teaches the photographer how to pose every aspect of the subject from their head to their toes. Before I read the book I could only pose models with model pose cards, but now I can come up with my own posing ideas.
I have just downloaded your Posing Secrets vol 1 and have spent the last hour going through it. All I can say is "Wow"!
Before, I would go through magazines and look at the posed pictures in the ads in an attempt to learn new poses but I wasn't sure what I was looking for. The sections in your book on body lines and foot placement made total sense and now I know what I am looking for when I look at the magazines. Thanks again for a very good informative book on posing.
You are certainly on a winner here Malcolm, giving the experienced and novice photographer an entirely new way of looking at the human body. It was money well spent, and normally it is easier to get money out of a beggar than it is to get money out of me.



REMEMBER - Try the ebook.  If you don't like it, you get your money back.  You really do have literally nothing to lose!

PLUS: Follow the link below for extra, special bonuses FREE with your order. 

Sunday, 12 December 2010

Rule of Thirds in Digital Photography

The rule of thirds is a very useful tool for composing images in photography. And to top it off, it’s free! Doesn’t require any add on equipment to your camera, any shoe mounts, anything like that! This article will attempt to demystify the mysterious Rule of Thirds.

To follow this rule, simply take a photo and divide it up into three sections vertically and three sections horizontally. Now, as you can see from doing this there are three boxes on the top, three in the middle, and three at the bottom. The box in the middle of all of them is the center. This compositional rules basically advises you not to take pictures in that middle box.

What this does is makes you have to try and position the subject so that he/she or it is not dead center. This creates more visually interesting images.

When you take a photo of a person, the main focal point will be the eyes. Now, you can take a photo of a person dead center, however, follow the rule still! Put the eyes anywhere but the middle box. You can put the eyes in the top box instead. Their body will be dead center but their face will be in the upper area.

Now, when you follow this rule you also need to be careful to leave plenty of head room when shooting people. This room is space around the head and will make your photo not look claustrophobic. Also, if your person is looking towards the left, leave plenty of room at the left side of the photo and less on the right.


Friday, 10 December 2010

Topaz Labs Releases ReMask 3 Upgrade

ReMask 3 introduces improved masking technology that further simplifies and expedites the creation of complex masks and cutouts.


Dallas, TX, December 10, 2010 - Topaz Labs announces the release of Topaz ReMask 3, a major upgrade to their Photoshop masking and extraction plug-in. ReMask 3 features a revamped masking engine, new color decontamination technology, color selection brushes and a new refining toolset. An easy-to-use masking solution, Topaz ReMask offers professional results while cutting down on the normally tedious masking and extraction process. The update is available now as a free download to current owners of ReMask.

"Through extensive research, we were able to build on top of the advanced algorithm developed in ReMask 2, and make it a more comprehensive solution that solves color bleeding at the edge or transparent part of the extracted object,
" said Dr. Joseph Hsieh, developer for Topaz Labs. 

"Masking technology is an ongoing challenge. I hope ReMask 3 can provide photographers with a more effective tool for dealing with intricate elements such as hair and fur, complex elements with lots of holes like trees, and transparent objects such as wedding veils."

Topaz ReMask 3 is designed to tackle some of the most common photography and design tasks such as background replacement and isolating specific image elements, making composition design and selective adjustments much easier. 

"Masks and selections are an important part of selective editing, so it's important for users to have a comprehensive tool that helps address a variety of creative and corrective enhancements. ReMask 3 features the simplest workflow of any masking plug-in; making a seemingly painful task incredibly easy by allowing users to erase unwanted areas and separate subjects in just a few clicks," said Ashley Robinson, product manager for Topaz Labs

In addition to improved technology, ReMask 3 also features an updated user interface with a new toolset for refining and a new split-screen viewing options, auto layer creation and a revamped workflow. Photographers and graphic designers looking for a quicker and more accurate way to extract objects from their digital images are invited to try out the new Topaz ReMask 3 plug-in for free using the 30-day free trial. Just visit: http://www.topazlabs.com.

Topaz ReMask is a plug-in that works with Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and PaintShop Pro. It is compatible with Windows and Intel-based Macs. Topaz ReMask retails for $69.99, but is being offered at a special promotional price of $49.99 until January 1, 2011. ReMask 3 is also a part of the Topaz Photoshop Bundle, which offers photographers a complete image enhancement toolbox for all of their post processing needs. The bundle, including ReMask retails at $199.99. For more information about Topaz ReMask, visit the homepage at http://www.topazlabs.com.

 


Thursday, 9 December 2010

Shooting in Av mode (Aperture Priority)

If you have been useing your DSLR (Digital Single Lens reflex) camera in auto mode then here is a lesson for you.  

First an explanation about aperture and how it affects your final photograph.  

Inside your lens there is a diaphragm that controls the amount of light reaching the image sensor. The diaphragm functions much like the pupil of the eye – it controls the effective diameter of the lens opening. Reducing the aperture size increases the depth of field, which describes the extent to which subject matter lying closer than or farther from the actual plane of focus appears to be in focus. In general, the smaller the aperture (the larger the number), the greater the distance from the plane of focus the subject matter may be while still appearing in focus.  

Higher diameters (lower f numbers) alow more light to pass through but have a shallow depth of field, while smaller diameters (higher f numbers) allow less light through but more detail farther away from the point of focus will be sharp.

Your camera measures aperture in F Stops ( F/N.N ). The n.n represents the F Stop Number.  The lower the numbers are the the wider the diameter and higher numbers mean a tighter diameter. 

For example: 

You are taking a photo of a bird and there are some grass in front of the it that you want to blur out a little but still keep the bird sharp. What you want to do is use the lowest aperture possible that will keep the bird in the best focus.  

Exposure: 

For proper exposure of the image a precise amount of light striking the recording media is required .  At lower F Stops this light will accumulate faster than higher ones.  Here is where the shutter speed comes in.  

In aperture priority mode the camera will you chose how long to keep the shutter open.  You
can usually adjust the exposure either with a wheel (optimal) or with a set of up and down buttons.

Try focusing you camera on the bird and taking a shot.  Keep adjusting until you get the result you are looking for.  Yes maybe until it flies away, but keep practicing you will get the hang of it.



Wednesday, 8 December 2010

File Format Guide for Your Digital Photos




When you take and store a digital image you need to choose a file type, or format. Here are the popular choices when you choose a format for your digital photo:

Format

Description
CameraRawA format offered by some digital cameras. Stores raw, “uncooked” data from the image sensor, without applying normal adjustments to sharpness, color, and exposure. Gives photographers ultimate control over images and editing flexibility, but files must be converted to a standard format before sharing online, printing, or viewing in most photo programs.
JPEGThe most popular digital photography image format. JPEG compresses images to make files significantly smaller, but too much compression reduces image quality. Used for print, the Web, and e-mail.
TIFFThe leading format for files that will be used in print publications such as newsletters and magazines. Preserves all image data but usually results in larger file sizes than JPEG and can’t be displayed by Web browsers and e-mail programs. The best format for storing converted RAW files and for edited JPEG files.

Friday, 3 December 2010

Topaz Software Overview


Topaz Labs offers software solutions for image and video enhancement. Each program offers photographers and designers quick and easy-to-use tools to help simplify and boost the post processing experience.
Incorporating Topaz speeds up the workflow, eliminates tedious and repetitive tasks, simplifies advanced techniques, enhances precision and quality.


Topaz Photoshop Plug-ins

The Topaz Photoshop plug-in bundle features a set of advanced and powerful tools - each offering a solution to some of the most common (and often challenging) post processing tasks. The intuitive, easy-to-use tools featured in each program make achieving advanced photo-manipulation techniques effortless.

The bundle lineup offers tools and features for creating pseudo HDR effects, adjusting color, exposure and detail, reducing noise and JPEG artifacts, masking and extraction, increasing smoothing and sharpening, creating artistic masterpieces and enhancing natural detail and tone.


The Topaz Photoshop plug-ins are not limited to just Photoshop. You can also use Topaz in Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Aperture, iPhoto, PaintShop Pro and Irfanview.




Monday, 22 November 2010

Win A Nikon D3100 - No Purchase Necessary

Are you ready to step up to a real digital camera but you can't justify spending several hundred pounds on a “Real” digital camera? Would you like to win a real Nikon camera? The chances are good that you can win the D3100 and a package of “Dummy” book on digital photography along with it, if you enter the Dummies.com prize draw.

Introduction


You can win a Nikon D3100 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens and four For Dummies books on digital photography. This is a package worth over £500. This contest isn't a scam. There isn't any purchase necessary and the only entry requirements are that you are 18 years of age or older and live in one of the fifty United States or in the United Kingdom or Canada.

Register today

Registering for the sweepstakes will take less than five minutes and you will be eligible to enter once a day, every day, between now and December 31st when the sweepstakes closes. So go ahead, log on to Dummies.com and register. Then put a shortcut to the link on you desktop so you remember to enter every day for the best chance to win a fantastic camera and some great books to boot.
All the best!

CLICK HERE to enter competition.