Digital Photography Tips - How to Choose the Best Camera

Technology and innovation has placed digital photography into the forefront in such a fast phase. Today the price of cameras are better, meaning it very common for adults and children to own digital cameras. Not only are they very easy to use, but also the price has came down over the years. They are convenient to use and require no film. Due to the big number of consumers of digital cameras and prospective aficionados of digital photography, the number of companies and manufacturers of various brands of digital cameras has become quite numerous. It is no longer a problem where to buy but what to buy. With the huge array of choices in the market, it is quite confusing what to choose. When buying a digital camera, it’s a good idea to consider some factors.

• Price

When buying anything, it is usually the price that is first considered, unless the buyer is filthy rich. as there are a large number of various brands of digital camera available, you should find it fairly easy to browse within your budget. Obviously the more expensive the camera is the better the quality is likely to be. Therefore, if you intend to make a living out digital photography, putting more money in it becomes an investment and will be more beneficial to you in the long run. Otherwise a cheaper, less complicated camera may be better for you to start with.

• Intention for Buying

In connection with the price, you need to first think of your main reason why you wanted to buy the camera. As mentioned already, if it is to seriously take up digital photography, a good quality one will be the ideal choice. When using for everyday basic photographs possibly a lower megapixel camera would be a cheaper choice.

• Durability

If buying, whatever amount of money is involved, you will of course want something that is durable. The more money you put in it, the more durable the item should be. Double check with a store clerk as to the durability of the camera. Also look at products with a money back guarantee.

Aside from the abovementioned factors, there are still a lot of other important details to consider when buying a digital camera. Cameras are technical products and you have to consider each technical aspect with care. Below are some of the most vital features for consideration:

• Megapixel

Many of today’s camera is bought according to the number of megapixel the camera is capable of handling. Before buying you must first consider how you wish to use the photos as there are a wide range of various megapixel cameras on the market. If you are into professional digital photography, then you may opt for the higher megapixel types since you may enlarge the photos taken without compromising the integrity of every shot. A cheaper option may be best if using your camera for fun only.

• Lens Quality

Optical zoom lens of various cameras of today range from about 3x to 18 times optical zoom lenses. Again the choice depends upon how you want to use your camera.

• Feel of the Camera

It is important to make an actual test of the camera by putting it in your hands and testing its familiarity. A good looking camera does not mean a good technical camera. It is best that it will feel right in your own palms to ensure great shots when already doing some digital photography.

• USB Capability

Today’s gadgets are now almost always linkable to the computer, making it easier to transfer, modify, print and do many other things with it. Although many digital cameras of today are already USB capable, there are still which are not. Make sure that what you are buying has this feature to allow you a lot of convenience.

• Manual Focus

Although optical zoom features are highly important, it would be handy to also have one with both zoom lens and manual focus. It will allow you to manually adjust your lens giving you more control.

• Tripod Feature

Although some may not find it important, it would be useful to have a camera that can be screwed to a tripod. This helps in preventing blurred images. It is convenient to have it when needed,even if you won’t always need to use it.

• Macro Setting

This feature, most especially in digital photography, will allow you to take photos of anything at a proximity of 3 to 4 inches. Digital photography can become quite a frustrating subject without this feature, particulary for a photographer.

Other important features can be considered before buying a digital camera that will surely help you produce great photos. These will all depend on how you wish to use the camera. If your budget does not stretch to include all features you require then you have to decide what you need most.

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6 Why’s for Setting up a Glamour Images Blog

Every beauty photographer needs his or her own personal online haven these days, as the place to tell the world about their talents. The Glamour Photography niche is exactly alike –lots and lots of websites, blogs and online portfolios are created online every single day.

Why do newbies and hardcore pros of glamour photography in large numbers now create sites and blogs to represent themselves? There is a number of good reasons for that:

• Everyone is going online now – the demand for cyberspace is growing daily, mostly because it is such a rewarding place for building a huge following without the need to spend big money. The Web is a great field for self-PR - contrary to offline promotion, this strategy is more flexible, inexpensive and time-saving. These technologies make it so much easier to become a recognized author, be it on a blog or a website;
• Like any other professional community, glamour photographers need to establish communication, exchange experiences, show off their latest works, find prospective customers, learn and teach. This is all doable and affordable nowadays thanks to this new world online;
• With Glamour Photos actively exploiting digital format, it has become much easier to host them in electronic format, skipping the stage of actual printing. There’s no need to involve film any longer – ergo, digital photos can be conveniently stored on one’s hard drive, showcased in online galleries and easily displayed in one’s Internet glamour portfolio.

Being a rapidly growing trend, it comes as no surprise that you may want to go with the tide and start representing yourself online through promoting and trading your talents, showcasing your glamour images, sharing your experience… and benefit from it. Never-the-less, it would be a great idea to test yourself in blogging before you make your own “mature” Internet site. To motivate you, let us look at these six “why should I’s”.

As a primary reason, blogging format is very user-friendly - one doesn’t need to be technical savvy in order to become a successful blogger. In this case everything you need would be to acquire a domain name, a reliable hosting service; then you simply install the desired platform for blogging. Blogs are extremely flexible - you can make them unique in full accordance with your own desires and requirements, even if you are not a guru of web design. New content can be added lightning-fast and with little effort, which makes blogging an ultimate choice for most people.

Have you ever thought why artists and infopreneurs turn to blogs more willingly than traditional internet sites? The fact is, these are more likely to be answered by the target audience. Blog enables dialogue, and therefore your audience is more likely to respond; if people have an opportunity to participate in the process, most of them will use it. Tell your audience that you are concerned about what they think - and the efforts will pay off.

Thirdly, there’s a growing demand for blogging. The ever-increasing number of Internet users grasp the idea of blogging and become a part of this tidal wave. You may join by sharing your experience, promoting your talents and contributing original conent. This will make you stand out of the crowd, gain credibility and establish firm foothold in the online world.

In addition, blogs are quite a multi-purpose tool you can use in many diverse ways. It can be you own article directory and collection of useful tips on glamour photography. Blog is also easy to set up and run as a gallery of glamour images to display the finest highlights of your creativity; you may turn it into a storage of your own products on glamour photography, citadel of your home-business and much, much more. The functions of your blog are only limited by your creativity and imagination.

Moreover, there are dozens of ways to turn glamour blogging into a stable stream of passive income. A good glamour photographer with considerable expertise in their niche could make decent money from blogging alone – either by ad revenue, or promoting products, or trading their skill, or providing personal coaching, or whatever you could possibly imagine. Indeed, it is a flexible and lucrative instrument for increasing your income.

Last but not least, your blog is the web version of your personality. Blogging is an ultimate opportunity for self-PR - probably the best one to begin with. Glamour photography world is the world of competition, yet you have resources to successfully overcome it and find the rightful place there – if not in the hall of fame, then in the rapidly growing market.

The fact we live in informational society is often under-estimated. Information is at the same time a resource, a product and a tool. Beauty artists can benefit from the splendors of Internet greatly. Blogging is merely one of the ways available to create both reputation and revenue. Art becomes digital; Internet offers a world of opportunity – it would be unwise of you to miss this chance.

More On Glamour Photography

How It Happened: Brief but Glorious History of Glamour Images

The art of Glamorous Photography has come a long way from its very appearance to what we can see today. After countless changes and transformations, numerous revolutions and much controversy, glamour photography became what we can see today.

I will gladly take you on a short mind trip from the very dawn of Glamour Photographs to their modern state - afterwards we will dabble in foreseeing their probable future.

Adolescence. Nobody really knows from where to begin the history of glamour photo genre. Some derive it from so-called “French postcards” which were quite popular in the streets of Paris in the early 1900’s, some address to Victorian pioneers of this art. Some think that cultural foundation and inspiration for glamour pictures lies in XVI and XVIII centuries. So, to be honest, glamour photography is a really a child of uncertain origin. My personal point of view is that both modern and classic arts were equally involved in the process - 1920’s and 30’s were the real boiling point of world culture, and this genre is likely to have been born in exactly this period of time. We can clearly trace the classic glamour images beginning from the first half of the former century.

Brilliant 50’s and Beyond. After World War II, glamour pictures reached the apex of their glory, closely followed by controversy and outrage. Betty Grable conquered the hearts of the audience before the war started, and remained one of the prominent figures in glamour pictures ever since; thank to Marylin Monroe beauty photography gained open support and recognition, as this world-famous actress appeared on Playboy’s front in 1953. There were also Pamela Green and others helping to bring this young art to its feet and conquer the world-wide audience.

Nowadays - Digital Fever. Color wasn’t the only achievement that glamour images acquired - they turned into something more creative and provocative. New names started conquering the stage, glamour magazines and beauty photography admirers - those were Dita von Teese, Heidie Van Horne, Lucy Pinder, Bernie Dexter and many others. Additionally, digital format started dominating in photographic arts. Technical progress improved the visual quality of glamour pictures and made the process of shooting dead simple. An amateur in possession of DSLR could potentially become a glamour artist. In a combination with Web technologies, this was like a clamor of billions and billions of both talented people and senseless dabblers.

3D – Death, Downfall, Decay? Now we are at the beginning of something completely different - 3D-rendered glamour pictures have become another fancy, competing with traditional photography. Though nobody doubts it is art, 3D appears to rival not only the photography techniques but artists and models themselves. I strongly believe that no artificial computer rendering can ever excel the natural beauty and genuine work of a talented artist. If it is really a competition between old and new, I would like to remain on the side which has a beating heart, long hours of studio work and live relationship to it.

Never-the-less, I gaze in the future with a smile - after all, no art has ever been forgotten; oils and film have an army of admirers, as do many other genres. The art of 3D cannot take over, but rather find its own audience, just like digital and film photography. We don’t owe all the masterpieces to technology - we owe them to artists, their inspiration and their unique vision. Remembering this simple truth is a mark of a truly passionate artist.

Beauty Photography Resources

Digital Camera Repair #2 Problem? Broken Lens

Digital camera lens repair is as common as LCD repair, but it’s #2 on my list because it’s harder to repair a digital camera lens and there are so many different types of lens problems whereas a broken LCD is a broken LCD no matter how you look at it.

Basic Lens Care Tips:

- Do not leave the batteries in your camera in the camera bag. The power button can be pressed accidentally causing the lens to extend and get jammed because it cannot open properly inside the bag.
- Try not to drop the camera with the lens extended.
- Do not attempt to pull or twist the lens barrel if it’s stuck, it’s not going to fix it.

I would have to write a book to fully explain lens problems fully (hmm.. what a great idea!) so I will do what I can to make this easy to follow and as helpful as possible.

The lens is made up of many different parts… Let’s start with the several pieces of glass referred to as the lens elements. The outer lens element is prone to being scratched and scuffed, and usually has a special coating on it that you DO NOT want to clean off with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol), or Windex or something similar. Nothing to worry about if it’s not there, it’s not a big deal. Try to always have a clean lens (how do finger prints get on the glass anyway??) & free from wear.

The inner-most lens element is responsible for the fine focus and resides directly in front of the CCD. When you press the shutter button half way down to focus, this part moves forwards and backwards till it’s in the correct position and your image is in focus. You won’t be messing with this part of the lens… unless you feel like removing the lens from the camera and then tearing down the lens to get at it’s ‘guts’. It’s kinda fun the first time, but uh… I wish you luck getting it back together properly. The tearing apart stuff is awesome, the putting it back together is a drag!

The lens has two small motors with their own gears that connect to the two main parts of the lens. The larger motor drives the lens barrel in and out when zooming. The smaller motor drives the fine focus element mentioned above and controls the focus. If you get ONE GRAIN of sand in these gears, they will jam and the lens will “error out” as we like to say. Open it up and clean it out if you like, but it’s not easy. The larger of the two lens motors usually has 4-5 different gears that if misaligned will cause the lens to jam. If the lens is already jammed up, you might as well try and see if it works, right?

Then there is the CCD, “charge-coupled device” which translates the light that enters the lens into a digital signal that the camera can record.

There was a very large CCD recall for Sony camera lens repair over the past few years that covers many manufacturers like Canon, Fuji and Nikon and not just Sony, but Sony provided the CCDs to many other manufacturers for their cameras so they do have a large amount of defective cameras on the list themselves. The defective CCD’s cause the camera to take solid black photos, or purple/pink “dripping paint” photos, or they have repeating white horizontal or verticle lines on the images. If your camera does this, call the manufacturer and tell them you want a repair under the CCD recall no matter how old your camera is! If your camera is on the CCD recall list and they are still doing the recall, you can get it fixed for free.

Got spots on your images that get bigger and smaller as you zoom in and out? Most likely there is a spec of dust on your CCD. You will need to remove the lens and then remove the CCD from the back of the lens and clean it off. Don’t lose the gasket that goes around the CCD, don’t get any other dirt inside the lens and don’t leave any fingerprints! Tall order I know, sorry, I’m demanding. =)

Let’s see… what else? Your lens is part way out, stuck at an angle because the camera was dropped while turned on. Now please read that carefully; the lens must be stuck part way out or all the way out, and one section of the lens MUST be stuck at an angle. For this repair tip to apply the lens must not be moving at all, and be aware you may follow these instructions at your own risk. The following repair trick works, but I am not responsible for your actions or anything you do to your camera.

Ok, it’s stuck at an angle and you want to try and repair your camera lens yourself. No problem.

Hold the camera with the angled part of the lens resting against the edge of a table, and the rest of the camera hanging over the side. Do not place the camera facing down with the “Canon Zoom Lens…” chrome ring section flat on the table. The round part of the lens barrel is what we want on the flat surface of the table. Now… here is the tricky part… press the angled part of the lens back into alignment by pushing down on the lens on the edge of the table. Put your fingers on the LENS below the angled part to support it and press firmly but still gently (how do I do that? I don’t know.. you just do it) and the lens will either POP!! back where it belongs and the lens will work again or it won’t move and no harm will be done, or worst case scenario one of the guide pins that move inside a small slot inside the lens will break and the lens will be ruined.

I told you it was at your own risk!! Digital camera repair is fun… right?

Ok, how are we feeling about lenses? I think we have covered most of the basic problems, and possible solutions. You may buy a lens to repair your camera in several ways; the most expensive would be to call the manufacturer as they typically will charge 0 or more for the lens assembly.

Do a Google search for “digital camera repair” and you will see at #1 the only site that has affordable digital camera repair and DIY parts… Darntoothysam.com!

Bad Camera Design: Broken Doors, Missing Buttons and Frustrating Design

Has your digital camera battery door broken off and is missing? Or your battery door has broken tabs on it and no longer holds closed tightly so the batteries don’t make contact and the camera won’t turn on?

Maybe your battery door is removable on your SLR so you can add on a grip with extra batteries… and where exactly did you put it down?

I know; the tiny little piece of plastic on your CF (Compact Flash memory card) door broke off and your camera won’t turn on!

Oh man… how many cameras out there will not turn on because your memory card door is open, or the battery door is open, even though there really seems to be no reason for it? It’s frustrating… the thin plastic battery doors are molded from one small drop of plastic and some are so thin that they break extremely easily, ( Canon SD750 broken battery door.. don’t get me started!) making your camera useless. What were they thinking when they designed this?? Are you SURE somebody tested this design? Why didn’t anyone ever stop and ask why it was that way?

I could work for ANY major digital camera company and tell them exactly what is wrong with the design of any new camera they release and save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in warranty repairs and upset customers! Think they would hire me? No way; I don’t have an Engineering Degree or a PHd is Physics so what do I know, right?

But just look at the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2 shutter button , I would never have let them put the camera on the market if they had only asked!!

Well I know plenty having fixed THOUSANDS of cameras over the past 5+ years, I know what is wrong with your camera if it is a certain model before you even tell me.

Sony H2 or H5? Damaged or missing shutter release button. Canon SD850? Jammed lens Canon SD750? Broken battery door… I’m not going to list dozens of cameras here, that’s not what this is about.

What do you do with your camera when one small piece of plastic is broken or missing? You paid hundreds for it and once again the guy at the store tells you “Throw it in the trash, this one is better, it goes to 11.” (A little movie humor there, hey it’s 1:30am I’m entitled) Tell that guy at the store a resounding “NO!” and walk out. Go home, get on the computer and get surfing.

Back we go to eBay… search for your model number and “door” or “parts” and voila, look at what you find!

As a side note here, I was the first and only digital camera parts store in the world on eBay. I bought cameras by the 100’s and repaired what I could and then parted out the rest. I sold all those annoying little parts that you cannot buy anywhere for dirt cheap! for a battery door and all you do to install it is twist it into place… and that “geek” at the store told you it would be $175 to send it in to Canon or Sony and have them do it for you…

Even if you don’t find the item you need right away don’t quit, keep searching. Don’t want to repair it yourself, no problem, there are places that will do it for you. Hopefully you will find one with decent prices; don’t pay anyone $50 to install a battery door for you… please.

(Google: “affordable digital camera repair” and you will find some help with your camera!)

Broken battery doors and memory card doors are very common. I think we would see a lot more customers asking for them if only they knew they could actually repair it and get their camera back working for less than $25-30! It can honestly be that inexpensive as most battery covers are only fifteen to twenty dollars.

I hope this helps you find your digital camera repair solution and running again for very little money!