This is very good advice, very good

Great advice from Eric Kim:
1. Never stop taking photos.
2. Photos make great presents.
3. Never hoard your photographic insight- share it with the world.
4. Travel and photography are the perfect pair.
5. The more gear you carry around with you the less you will enjoy photography.
6. Make photos, not excuses.
7. Photography isn’t a hobby- it’s a lifestyle.
8. You can’t “photoshop” bad images into good ones.
9. Carry your camera with you everywhere. Everywhere.
10. Only show your best photos.
11. Spend less time looking at other people’s work and more time shooting your own.
12. Capture the beauty in the mundane and you have a winning photograph.
13. Go outside and shoot photos rather than spending hours a day on photography forums.
14. Always shoot in RAW. Always.
15. Just because someone has an expensive camera doesn’t mean that they’re a good photographer.


via

I should have done this

Sorry I can't find where I found it, but check out Andrew McDonald's take on how to recover a lost camera.

More thoughts on buying a camera

New "Camera"! , originally uploaded by Shermeee.

One of my coworkers, Rosanna is buying a new camera. Her current camera is many years old and the battery won't last more than a few photos. So she has been shopping around and we've talked about different cameras she could want.

I want to talk about buying a camera... again.

After talking with Rosanna, she started her buying decision based on budget. Most people do. She is buying the camera for a trip to Italy and wants something that is easy to travel with. More specifically she wants a lot of zoom.

She's been going through lots of different cameras trying to decide on the best one. She has some pretty general wants, nothing really specific like time lapse, just a better zoom.

After talking more with her today I realized what she really wants in her camera purchase. She could be happy with any one of 100 cameras. What she really wants is to feel confident that she got the right one. So here is my buying advice for Rosanna:

1. Make a list of things you trust about your future camera. This means pick a brand you know you'll be happy with. List some features that you really like and used from your old camera. I'm going to guess that most people like me use probably five to ten features about 99 percent of the time they shoot and use the other hundred features available on the camera one percent of the time. For me It would be: Canon, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, P Mode, Macro, Timer, Video, maybe zoom, it also need to have a time lapse feature or at least have a firmware mod to add it for kite photography, or maybe flash, I try to avoid using the flash. Those features make up 99 percent of my shooting. If I bought a camera that was missing one of those features, I'd be quite unhappy with that camera.

This will be the "meat" of your camera finding. Once you got your list made, and your budget set then...

2. You should be able to narrow down your list to just a few cameras. Use this fantastic tool to find all the cameras with your features. I love this tool on DPreview.com. Then you can pick based look and feel etc.

3. Pick one you like best.

4. Find the best deal on that camera. Stop second guessing, stop looking at the green grass on the other side of the fence. If you really went through your list from #1 you will be very happy with the camera you get.

Get rid of red eyes in photos

Red-eye-reduction is a setting that creates a double flash or blinking flash right before taking the real photo. The red in the photo is actually the back of the eyeball reflecting that flash back to the camera.

I hate red-eye-reduction.
For a couple of reasons...

1. It doesn't always work
What happens is all the extra flashes from your camera are meant to make the human iris close smaller, reducing the reflection from the back of the eyeball back to your camera. Or in some cameras the flash that precedes the photo, detects the red, then tries to fix it digitally. Some do ok.

2. It wastes battery
All those extra flashes are taking a toll on your battery

3. It takes to long to take the photo
After waiting for all the extra flashes the moment is lost. Oh well, try again next time, then the flashes take to long again.

So, turn off red-eye-reduction. Every camera that has red-eye-reduction, can turn it off. Read your manual, and it will tell you how to disable it.

Two Tips

1. Don't use a flash.
Just to reiterate, the red-eye comes from the reflection of the camera flash off the back of the eyeball.

Or if you must use a flash

2 . Have your subject look anywhere but directly at the camera.
This will not allow the reflection from the back of the eyeball to reach the camera.

How to buy a camera

My Aunt Liza just bought a camera. A Nikon D90. A great choice, for her, though not for everyone. The reason it was a good choice for her was that she had done her research and knew what she wanted. She sent me a list of cameras that she was thinking about at varying cost. It was obvious from our conversation that she really wanted the D90, it had everything she wanted and by looking at her other choices on the list. I knew that she was very interested in photography and moving up to a more deluxe model. She was however hesitant based on the price, but I know she'll love it.


photo credit: Miriam Lovell

My goal is not to pick out the best features for you and your camera but offer a decision making process.

Buying a camera can be daunting if you have a limited budget. Especially when there are probably more cameras on the market than there are dollars in your budget to buy one.

The biggest problem when buying a camera: not knowing what you want.

So here is my advice.

1. Decide on features first
Set aside the price, for a moment, then write down all the features you want. If you can't think of very many that's fine. If you need a zoom lens because you love to photograph wildlife, write it down. If you have kids and you want something that will do video as well as photos, write it down.

2. Make a list of cameras with those features
Find a camera and brand that you are satisfied has all the features you want. If you need help I like to use the the feature search from dpreview.com. The dpreview.com list is more technical in nature, and I recommend it for those reasons. If you can translate your needs into technical features, go there.

Make a list up to about four cameras, that have these features. Rank them based on how cool it looks or size that have all the features you want.

3. You should buy the camera at the top of your list
Plain and simple. But, this isn't always feasible. You may want a $4,000 camera, but only have $200. Point-and-shoot cameras still have shutters, sensors and lenses, you'll just have to scale back the quality until you can afford it that expensive dream camera.

4. Find the best deal on that camera
Shop around.

If you follow these steps you can take all that emotion out of trying to figure out if you are getting the best features for the best deal. Because you already know what you want.

Improve the color of your photos with white balance

All light has different color temperatures. Although we can't see it, digital cameras can.

For example: most indoor lighting has a color temperature of around 3200 degrees Kelvin, and outdoor lighting has a color temperature of around 5600 degrees Kelvin. I'm not going to explain Kelvin, but you just need to understand there is a difference.

To get better color, most cameras automatically adjust to the different color temperatures, but they don't always guess the color temperature correctly.

Most point-and-shoot cameras will have basic white balance control. Some even have a custom white balance setting. Basic white balance settings will have a little icon of a cloud, a light bulb, a tree with shade etc. Use the cloud setting outside when it is cloudy, use the light bulb setting anywhere that is lit with regular incandescent bulbs... anyway you get the idea. Your camera settings will probably be close, but slightly different from mine so experiment with your white balance options and see what you can come up with. Here is what I have.

This first photo uses custom white balance, which was balanced under the hanging light in the background (probably around 3200 K or less). This accurately depicts the color of the walls etc, but the sunlight spilling in the window gives me (in the chair) a villainous pale blue hue.



I'd like to think of myself more has the warm friendly superhero type so I re-balanced the custom white balance near the window and it gives my face a more accurate and warmer hue.


There problem with this photo is that I have two different light temperatures. The background light, around 3200 and the sunlight coming in the window at around 5600. My face is nice and tan but I assure you my walls are not that yellow. The simple solution is to turn off the hanging light and use only the sunlight coming in the window.

UPDATE: kelvin has been corrected above to read Kelvin. thanks Daragh

The number one mistake people make when taking photos

The number one mistake that I see people make is not holding the camera still. So many photos turn out blurry for this reason. Many cameras are getting blamed for bad technique by the photographer.

You may say "well duh", but if you make the conscious effort you'll notice your photos are just a little more sharp.

When the flash fires or if you have really good light you'll get some non blurry photos even if you happen to jiggle the camera but practice holding still and you'll start a good habit.

So hold your camera still, let me know if your photos improve.

This photo below had plenty of good light. If you look at the enlarged version you'll see that it isn't blurry because of bad focus. It is blurry from camera jiggle. Check it out zoomed in.

Read your camera manual

There is no better way to improve your photography than by reading your manual and understanding your camera.

As you understand your camera and experiment with the features you're photos will naturally improve.