Photography Training Course Choices

With regards to the popular interest of digital photography, people are always researching ways to enhance their all around abilities for capturing photographs. One of the best methods to do this would be to buy a web-based photography study course. On the other hand you could become a member of an offline photography course not to mention spend much more money.

Therefore you might well be wondering just where you'll find these online photography Courses, as well as the very best place for a digital photography program is always to head over to whatever online search engine you use and search for photography courses. Additionally it is possible to define your search a bit through searching for "digital photography courses", which ought to retrieve a number of decent results. The first thing somebody should do before they decide to purchase one such course is to review them to help you decide which one is the very best to buy.

This implies that you will need to find a completely independent web site that evaluates each of the leading digital photography courses and get their viewpoint. However don't simply get one point of view, search for a couple of websites and verify if they also agree with the very best photography program for you. So what exactly is included in a photography course?

Nearly all photography programs will coach you firstly about the basics, and secondly a number of advanced tips and hints that will help you to develop specialist photographs just by modifying the lighting or various other adjustments that you might be required to perform. The point is, if you are a new comer to digital photography then you're going to need to study a few things to begin with before you begin to take excellent photos.

Are there any 100 % free photography courses? Certainly, you need to pay for the majority of digital photography training courses, nonetheless there are a few available which are totally free. These are typically independent courses that do not really offer a great deal of helpful information, nonetheless if you are only starting out, it's wise to sign up to at least one of these free online photography courses.

Just how do these free programs perform? Basically there are lots of digital photography sites on the internet which offer cost-free digital photography courses, whereby they allow you to subscribe to an ezine email system. You will usually receive an email with a beneficial word of advice every few days.

Starting A Photography Business - 5 Important Tips To Keep In Mind

If you have passion and skill in photography, you can actually make this skill a profitable one. Of course, not everyone are good in taking pictures, thus if you are good at it, this can be a great way to get make money from something that you love doing.

Starting a photography business may not be difficult especially if you have that great skill of taking awesome pictures but you also need a few things to consider. Of course, a business is a business, and it always needs investments, time and effort.

If you want to venture into starting a photography business, here are a few tips and ideas that may help you have a good start.

1. Find your focus or specialization in photography. Although you would most probably know how to take any pictures you want, it is important that you also focus on something that you do best. Say, if you are skilled in wedding photography, which is also a lucrative business, then you can venture into this area. If you are skilled in family portraits or baby portraits, then you can make this your work's main focus.

2. Set your own personal style. Your signature work will often help you promote your business as this will help you beat competition. If you are known in your personal style, you will surely be able to market your business on top as it will give you a distinguishing style above other photographers.

3. Plan your marketing strategy. Just like any other businesses, you also have to plan carefully your marketing strategy. This allows you to reach out to your target market or those people who need your services. Of course, in this age of technology, you can actually have a lot of ways to market and promote your business for free. As mentioned previously, having a signature style in your photography can make your marketing easy as you will be giving special services that may not be offered by other photographers.

4. Make sure you are fully equipped. You may already have your own camera and other accessories for taking pictures but if you want to go into business, you may want to make sure that you are indeed fully equipped to go into business. Although you don't need to be complete when you are just starting up, but get the basic equipment at least. You may also need assistants or you may need assistant photographers with you or you may also need assistants to help you with other matters of the business. Lighting equipment may also be needed as well.

5. Advertise. The internet is one powerful tool that you can show your portfolio, and impress your target market. Of course, you can have a wide reach when you advertise online and although the photography business often caters only to clients locally or those that are just within your area, you can however sell your photos worldwide, which is another way to make money with photography. Starting a photography business can even start on the internet as well.

Photography Workflow - How to Cut Production Time by 50%

Like most photographers, I like to play around and constantly explore Photoshop. Each time you use it, it seems like you discover some new trick or wonderful way of accomplishing something quicker than before. But I'm a businessman too, so I need to be careful about how much time I'm spending in front of the computer. The more time I spend there, the less I have for taking photos and marketing my services, and that's where I make money. So I've always adopted the philosophy of 'get it right in the camera' even before Photoshop was born. With that in mind, let's see how we can get beautiful files that require either none or very little manipulation after the shoot.

One: Shoot a custom white balance.

I'm going to use a recent shoot I did at the beach as a good example of why you should shoot a custom white balance versus shooting on 'auto'. I started this shoot with about 45 minutes to go until sunset. The light, and the color temperature of that light, changed rapidly during that time. I shot the same model against green grass, blue water, and white sand. Oh, she also changed her clothes in the middle of it. By taking about 30 seconds every 15 minutes to shoot a new white balance, I was able to get consistent color and pleasing skin tones. And if I wanted to make a color correction, I could do it globally with all the files, since the color is consistent from file to file. If I shot on auto, my camera would be trying to make sense of the wide variety of conditions and colors presented before it, and even though they may be 'acceptable', they will vary widely. That means you have to correct each file individually, not a fun way to spend the night. I'd rather be watching '24'! You would even be better off to 'guess' the color temperature and lock it in your camera, even if it's not all that close, since you could once again 'globally' effect the change. These changes are more easily accomplished in some of the RAW converter software packages but I don't want to bring up the old 'RAW vs. JPEG' debate in this article, it's been done to death and you should have your mind made up on that subject by now.

I use the BalanceSmarter tool (www.balancesmarter.com). It's the perfect 'carry everywhere' little pop up reflector with a white and gray side. The thing that makes it unique is the TARGET they made in the middle of it so you can focus on it. DUH, why didn't I think of that! I'm sure you've never turned your auto focus off to shoot a white wall and then forgot to turn it back on. Right? I'm not talking!

Two: Use an incident light meter.

I know some photographers who boast that since digital, they've 'thrown away' their light meters. Big mistake, because now you need them more than ever! I know you can see the photo, and I know you've got a histogram, but bear with me here for a minute. Let's compare digital to film for a minute, it's great fun and everybody does it. I've been totally digital for several years now, but when I was shooting film, I knew it like the back of my hand. I used the same film at the same ISO everyday. Doing outdoor portrait sessions, I really didn't even need to look at the meter because I was so familiar with my film. Now let's look at a typical outdoor shoot with digital. I may shoot at anywhere from an ISO of 100 to 800, which makes doing exposure 'in my head' a little difficult, so a meter comes in pretty handy. What about the in camera meter? I'm amazed at how good they are, you'd think there was a little guy in there figuring out what was in your scene instead of some tech stuff trying to make everything gray. That means the wedding dress is underexposed and the black cat is overexposed. The obvious solution is to meter the light itself via an incident meter instead of measuring reflected light like our camera meter.

Of course, the reason we need to be so careful with our exposure is because when we went 'digital', our latitude disappeared! Current color negative films are good for probably a stop underexposure and you can probably overexpose them until they're 'bulletproof'. Or at least three stops. Compare this with digital. The current crop of digital SLR's are probably good for 1/3rd of a stop over and 2/3rd 's of a stop underexposed. Yikes! So much for shooting from the hip! And while I'll admit to doing that on weddings because you have to, why shouldn't I take the time doing a portrait to get it perfect?

While beyond the range of this article, make sure you calibrate your incident meter. I use a Polaris brand meter that I've had for many years and bounced off several sidewalks. I find I have to open a half stop over the meter reading for a 'perfect' exposure, so do your own testing. The best way to do that is to get a 'Calibration Target' to test on under even light, varying exposures. Take photos of it and open in Photoshop. Your 'info' numbers should read about 20/127/245 for black/gray/white. Match those numbers up to your meter readings, adjust ISO if needed, and you're good to go. This also eliminates variables between different camera bodies.

Got all that? Good! Now let's add five more 'tips' that will have you shooting perfect files and spending more time watching 'The Soup'! (OK, so now you know two of my favorite TV programs! I have two DVR's! I'm all about TIME!)

Tip One: Use fixed f/stop lenses. I know they cost more but we're talking perfection here, so we don't want to be using lenses that change the amount of light entering when you change the focal length. Say goodbye to those variable speed lenses unless they're ones you use sparingly.

Tip Two: Watch the brightness range. You can have perfect exposure and white balance but a superior image need details in the highlights and shadows. Watch the background especially for 'blown out' highlights. Small dots are fine but large expanses, like a blank sky in a scenic photo, just won't do.

Tip Three: Learn the histogram. A meter will give you perfect exposure and a custom white balance will lasso that color for you, but the histogram is a graphic interpretation of the scene in front of you. It will tell you if parts are over or underexposed. It will tell you how much of each 'brightness level' is included in the scene. If you take a photo of a 'gray card' properly exposed, you'll get one spike dead center on your histogram. Get use to using it and you'll be able to tell just where each part of your photo lies in it.

Tip Four: Check exposure and white balance on wedding gowns! I do it all the time! After metering my exposure, I'll walk up close to the bride and pop a quick close up of a detail section of her dress! If it's got detail and my histogram isn't crowding the right side, I'm good. Of course, if brides wear red dresses where your from, this won't work, but I've seen so many wedding photos with no detail in the wedding gown and there's just no excuse for it!

Tip Five: Use a pro lab. Even if you do all the above, you need a closed loop system with color calibration at every step to insure perfect color and density. You may want to do that, I choose not to. 95% of my files are sent to my lab (www.lustrecolor.com) with NO color or density correction on my part. They come back perfect. There's no secret to it. Like I said at the beginning, 'get it right in the camera'.

Portable External USB Hard Drives - Do You Need One for Your Photography?

Portable USB Hard Drives - Do Outdoor Photographers Really Need One?

Have you been thinking of buying and using a portable USB hard drive in your business or for home computing data storage?

I am a Nature and Outdoor Photographer, and I needed a way to download all of the large file format RAW photo captures I take when on an extended away from home photo shoot.

I was initially bringing additional CF cards and swapping them out when full. This worked OK for the first few away shoots but the cost of numerous high capacity CF cards started to hit the budget in a negative way. I started to look for a way to store large files of data on a single device without keeping a pocket full of storage cards.

I had some requirements that had to be met for the storage system I needed:

• Reasonable Cost


• Light weight


• Portable with minimum moving parts


• Fast write speeds


• Reliable power supply


• Easy to use


• Easy to understand software


• Compatible with various computer platforms (MAC and PC)

I also had to answer the question "Do I really need one?"

The high capacity CF cards were running into the multiple hundreds of dollars. They were easy to use and didn't weigh much, but it was a challenge keeping them organized. Also, I had to wait until I got home to down load the files, tying up the data cards until they were emptied and reformatted.

I was bringing my laptop computer on almost every shoot, and it helped to keep the CF cards cleaned nightly at camp or the hotel. There was one problem though. With the programs and data that I had on my laptop I noticed that my system hard drive started to fill, and also operated much slower when it had to manage all of that data.

The portable hard drive started to look like an answer to my needs. After a few days of searching the forums and blogs I caved. I bought one and have never looked back at the decision.

These are the strong points I have found using my external hard drive for my photography downloads:

Cost: I paid only $120.00 for my 1TB portable external hard drive. CF cards that only held a slight portion of the hard drives capacity cost me multiple hundreds of dollars.

Size: Physically, the one that I bought is about the same size as an iPod. Fits easily in a pocket, or in my camera bag in a small side compartment.

Ease of use and reliable software: Mine was just plug and go. It came preloaded with software that allowed automatic or scheduled downloads and backups. The system is password protected if you want, and can be partitioned for various storage needs and program uses.

Download and write speeds: The hard drives comes with various write speeds, and the one that I bought was a fast 5400X. This speed more than meets my needs to do a fast and reliable transfer and download. It also works on both my MAC and laptop PC.

Power source: Most mini portables are USB powered, meaning that your computer or laptop USB port provides all the power needed for the external hard drive. This is convenient in that you don't need to carry additional batteries, but, it will drain your computer battery a little faster if your using only portable power on your PC.

Am I happy with my portable hard drive?

I have had one now for five months, and I wonder why it took so long for me to add one of these to my equipment bag. I love it.

It is quiet, fast, has more storage capacity for any application that I will use it for. It will be a "required" piece of gear anytime I go on an extended photo shoot.

Wedding Photography Poses - Part One

There are many getting-ready poses that cannot be missed prior to the big event.

Most photographers, even beginners, are aware of the before shots. However, many photographers neglect to create their own "brand" of creativity or poses. One important and traditional shot before a wedding would be the bride and her party getting ready. Pictures of the bride getting ready are absolute classics.

Any good photographer can create the standard photographs of the wedding but how do you put your personal "twist" on things? Could the mother in law perhaps be trying to "strangle" the bride? I know that's a little far-fetched but many clients who have a great sense of humor would love this type of staged comedy.

You'll want shots of the bride getting advice from her beloved family including her mother, grandmother, aunts and girlfriends as well as applying cosmetics and fixing hair, putting on the dress, garter, and jewelry. If the bride is religious you could even have her reading silently from the bible, perhaps a prayer from Psalms. This is also a great pose for the groom before the wedding vs. afterward with the idea in mind that they are individually praying for a blessing on their wedding.

What you'll be allowed to shoot greatly depends on the preferences and ultimate decision of the bride and groom.

You can apply the same "getting ready" shots of the groom and his party of merry men getting ready for the big event. Sometimes it's not possible to get both so whatever you do, don't forget the bride! If the bride and groom are getting ready at different locations it won't be possible to shoot both at the same time. It might be a good idea to remind the bride and groom beforehand so that they can make arrangements for one of the groomsmen to take some cool shots of their getting ready scene.

Remember that tradition maintains you should get more shots of the bride than anyone else including the groom.

You can easily get shots of the men together just before the actual ceremony which constitutes "before shots". And, it's such fun taking the man shots being manly. One never knows what type of pose or action you'll catch in film while the men are hanging out before the wedding.

The Best Online Photo Management System Explained

The best online photo management system is an important thing to know about and how to use it. The internet has a lot of useful tools, and sharing photos is definitely one of the better tools available. If you have any interest in sharing your photos with people, you'll need to upload them to some website that gets traffic. Building your own website and bringing traffic to it can take a long time. The easier way to do things would be to upload your photos to a website such as Flickr. Flickr is well known and has millions of photos already loaded by thousands of users. You can make this a part of your best photo management system.

Flickr is so popular that they have over 3,000 uploads per minute. Yes, you read that correctly, 3,000 in the last minute! This means that while Flickr is is popular, you have the chance to get lost in the crowd. If you tag your photos correctly however, people will find you and you will get exposure. I even know people who have been contacted by National Geographic, that's pretty cool! One of the best ways to start out on the internet with photography is to get your photography published on Flickr. It's easy and it's free, so go ahead and start that right now!

It's important to remember to copyright your photography so that other people don't steel your photos. Please be aware before you start this process that it is always a possibility that people will steal your photos. It is therefore in your best interest to watermark your images and don't upload the full size resolution photos. Doing these two things can greatly increase the safety of your photography and can reduce the risks that people will try to steal your photography. People don't like to use images that are really small or have watermarks all over them.

Don't go overboard though and make your images unviewable because of the watermarks or because they are just too tiny. The point of Flickr is to share photos, not small bits of something that used to be called a photograph. Remember that moderation in everything is important. Getting your photos out there is part of the best photo management system. Flickr makes this easy so I suggest that you get your rear end into gear and start uploading some photos right now!

Venice Photography: Courses, Locations, Camera Advice and Film Choice for Great Photos

Venice (Venezia) in Italy is often cited by both travel and tourist guides as the most beautiful City in the World.

Photos of Venice show the City as perfect for a Romantic getaway for couples to enjoy Gondola rides in the Venetian Canals; but also as ideal for other travellers who want to marvel at the ancient churches and museums, the Lido, and of course the Piazza San Marco. Don't forget to check out the San Pietro di Castello and the streets of Santa Croce while you are in Venice - they are great locations that are often missed by tourists who are only visiting for a short time.

There are lots of hotels in Venice, Italy, and location matters as much as anything else. But what to do while you're in Venice? Photography is an obvious choice for many visitors. Taking a photography course in Venice is an option as it's a great location to learn to take better photos.

But equally, visitors to Venice might be satisfied with a photography tour with a professional photographer from Venice who can tell you the best places to take photos 'in Venezia'. A useful photography tip is to use a polarising filter. With all of that water, reflections are rife and using a polariser from time to time will make the photos of Venice really stand out, preserving the strong colour of the buildings and walls.

Black and white photos of Venice are popular too; no doubt because of the beautiful bridges such as the Bridge of Sighs. Photography courses in Venice often have photo classes that just teach how to take great monochrome photographs of the City, and are worth considering. I'd advise shooting in both black and white and colour, because I've seen (and taken!) great photos of Venice with both. Paris works better in black and white, and London is great for colour film; but Venice has both.

A photography guide or even a photography coach should be able to advise you which approach fits best. Many photographers favour digital cameras to take photos of Venice; certainly people of photography tours usually use digital; but don't overlook film.

A small rangefinder camera like a Leica M3 or a larger medium format camera like a Hasselblad 503cw with a Zeiss lens will give you a greater dynamic range; especially in black and white photos of Venice. With the narrow streets, bright Italian weather reflecting off the water in the Canals, and deep shadows, digital photographers are often forced to take a tripod and try to capture HDR photos of Venice.

Location is most important, so take a guidebook, look for an English language Venice photography course and ask the locals to ensure that you find the best locations to take your own beautiful photographs of Venezia 'The most beautiful City in the World.'