Are photographs really an Art?

Why do some people desire a painting than a photograph? What’s the difference between having a canvass, brushes, and paints from having a camera? But for some reasons, there are three essential components of what we call art. First, is the artist; second, is the medium; and third is the artwork. All of these are interrelated according to Tad Beckman.

Photographic art has a lot of definitions. It will depend on how we understand it. Others say it’s about creating a stunning image that is an interpretation of the panorama that you saw in your mind captured on film, rather than just a recording of what is already there. It is playing with the lights, weather conditions and the colors. Timing is everything. The most challenging is that there are some things that you can control but the weather throws out surprises that can add that hint of drama to a picture. These hindrances will result creativeness.

A photographer will capture an image that delights their eye. They will create something that is close to their heart. That is why a photograph is more than just a piece of paper with a representation on it. Well, they are allowing you to see how they perceive the world to be, one moment at a time.

Does subject matters? I assume it’s not. There are a lot of subjects. It is in the heart of the photographer on what really his passion. As for me, I like landscapes and sunsets. Others prefer sports, portraits and flowers. The image you captured is subjective. Your approach is different from your viewer’s approach.

It is in the heart and hand of the creator behind the brush, camera or pen that executes the creative vision. Not the tools used. Then photography really is an Art.

Treasured Memories - Photos to Canvas

Printing your photos to canvas is an excellent method of recapturing treasured memories; with the technologies that are currently available there is a multitude of effects that can be used. A canvas print can be a fantastic addition to the artwork in your home; you can achieve a tasteful piece that will be unique and commented on by all your friends and family.

A printed piece can be a cost effective way of personalising your home with original art that does not cost the earth. Now that the festive season is over, recapturing a warming moment can lift the spirits when generally people are feeling a little flat. A photo printed onto canvas is a lovely idea for a thank you gift, say you have visited relations over the festive season and they have footed the expense of putting you up and laying on all the food, this type of gift will really say thank you and will be warmly received.

It is not difficult to obtain a photo canvas print; many companies offer a service on-line where you can post your photo or negative to be used to them. Many photo-shops also offer printing photos to canvas and will be able to advise you on what the effects available will look like. Some companies are able to digitally produce your photo onto roller blinds or a large wall mural which can dramatically change a room in the home or a workspace. This could be a viable alternative to completely redecorating and can totally alter the feel of the space.

Canvas is a good material to work with as so many effects can be created using it and if looked after correctly will last and last without fading. Printing onto canvas is not limited to purely photograph a Child's first drawing can be captured on canvas, holding onto that precious memory.

There are many occasions that could easily warrant the importance for being captured on canvas, such as, a birth, a marriage, a great holiday, Christmas and New Years. As well as this you could capture the family pet or favourite scenery that inspires a feeling of well being.

If wishing to transfer a photo to canvas it is possible to have red eye and blemishes that are in the photo removed from the image that will appear on the canvas. This enables a greater choice of which photo to use as we all have photos that would be great if not for some red eye or blemish that spoil it. Another option is to have a photo converted to either black and white or different tones of the same colour. These options can help create a piece of art in superb quality colour. It may be possible to pre-view these effects especially if visiting a photo-shop, which are normally extremely helpful. It is possible to create a collage of photos onto one canvas, using this method you can capture many memories in one or even tell a story.

One idea is to use photographs from each stage of a child's life, so a newborn picture, a photo of the child crawling, the child's first steps and so on, capturing each important hurdle in the child's life. Great gifts for grandparents or for parents to hang in their home as children are our pride and joy.

By Jenny Austin

Tips For Taking Better Photos With Your Digital Camera

Why are my photos so dark? Why are my pictures blown out? How do I get rid of red eye? Here are some simple tips that will produce better photos.

Lighting is extremely important when taking photos. Natural light is the best. Photos taken on a slightly overcast day will give the best results. If you are taking pictures on a sunny day, try to find some shade. Avoid having your subjects facing the sun because there will be a tendency to want to squint. Sunlight behind the subject will tend to produce a photo that is underexposed. If you are taking pictures indoors you will most like want to use a flash. Try to stay far enough away from the subject so the flash doesn't cause too much overexposure. Red eye is cause by the light from the flash reflecting off the retina in the back of the eye. Red eye is easily removed by using the software applications that are usually bundled with your digital camera. You can also use applications like iPhoto and Adobe Photoshop.

Most digital cameras also come with different settings to use in unique situations. Often called scene modes, you are able to select a mode that relates to the situation that the photo is being shot. Samples of these modes are beach, snow, fireworks, and kids and pets. These settings adjust the exposure of the camera to give the best results. It is best to test these and see which works for you. Take several photos of your subjects. The nice thing about digital cameras is that they come equipped with viewers and you can keep or delete the photos before you download them to your computer or printer.

Technology keeps advancing faster than you can keep up with. This case is true with digital cameras as well. Cameras keep getting smaller and the megapixels get higher. Don't be mislead, however, by a camera that has the capability of taking 12 megapixel images is better than a camera that only takes 8 megapixel images. Some of the newer 12 mp cameras are smaller than their predecessors and therefore have smaller CCD sensors (This is part takes the light that enters the lens and translates it into a digital signal). If your 8mp camera has a larger CCD sensor, it will be able to pickup a larger range of colors than your smaller 12mp camera creating a higher quality photo. The megapixel size of your camera doesn't have anything to do with the quality of photos that you take, only the size of photos you take. The higher megapixel size also allows you to crop photos and still maintain a decent resolution for printing purposes.

You will find that the more you use your digital camera and practice with the different settings the better pictures you will take.

By Matthew Swendseid

Get Closer to Your Subject

Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer to your subject. Filling the frame entirely with your subject will make a terrific difference to your photos.

Alternatively, instead of moving closer, use the Optical Zoom of your camera to get a close up shot. Don't use your Digital Zoom as it will degrade your image quality.

When taking shots of family and friends, most people place the subject's full body in the frame, or place head and arms in the shot. Instead, fill the frame with your subject's FACE only - particularly if they are smiling or are in a moment of reflection.

Why does this work? With less clutter in the image, there's less to draw the eye away from the main subject of your photo. Also, human faces (particularly children's faces) are something we all feel pleasure looking at.

If you can't get close enough when you're taking the shot, you can zoom in later using photo editing software - crop out everything except the subject's face and see what a difference it makes.

When using the viewfinder for close shots, be careful of Parallax. Because the viewfinder is not at the same position as the camera's lens, centering the subject in the viewfinder may mean it is not centered for the lens resulting in an off-center final picture. Most digital cameras now come with an inbuilt LCD screen. You can eliminate this problem by using the LCD - which shows you what the lens sees - rather than the viewfinder.

Nature Photography - Experimenting with Nature

Nature photography is one of the best ways to create an appreciation of nature, whether that nature photography is flowers, landscapes or animals.

Nature photography can be one of the most rewarding - and one of the most frustrating - types of photography. Wind can cause blur, not only with too much motion in the flora, but also making it difficult to depress the shutter smoothly. (If background is unimportant in your nature photography, consider a light tent to reduce wind and to block out background.) Sunlight also can cause problems in nature photography with too much exposure. Experiment to find what works best with what you want to accomplish through nature photography.

One thing that you'll want to be able to do with nature photography is to take close-ups of flora. Make sure to have a zoom or macro lens. A tripod is helpful to stabilize the camera in nature photography. Tripods that have a rotating central shaft allow you to get in closer.

Experiment with angles in nature photography. The most common angle in nature photography is looking down from the top. This has the advantage of being able to photograph flowers that are very close to the ground. Try eye level or photographing upwards for an interesting and unique shot.

Try differing backgrounds in your nature photography. If you have nothing in the background, context is hard to determine. Too much in the background, though, will detract from the main focus of your nature photography. However, by zooming in closer, the background will become softer. Your main focus, then, will stand out in sharp relief.

Another way to experiment with nature photography is with camera position. Most photographs are horizontal. See what kind of self-expression you come up with by simply rotating the camera 90 degrees.

With practice nature photography can become second nature.

10 Tips For Better Photography

Once the purchase of a digital camera is made, the beginning steps have begun as a professional photographer. Correctly handling the camera is a great tool to begin learning. The images it sends out are pretty close to perfect, but it takes a little while to get to that point. Understanding how it runs, what steps need to be learned, how to shoot indoor and outdoor pictures, or just limiting ourselves to a point-and-click style of photography are all part of knowing what to do. To not understand any of this is doing great injustice to the camera, which is made for better use. To avoid not learning, or simply not knowing, how to take a picture - we need to follow ten top shooting tips.

1. Too many novice or amateur photographers rely entirely on photo-editing tools to digitally enhance the photograph. Do not depend on this - in the back of the mind will always be the thought, "if it does not turn out, I can always fix it with software". The pleasure of photography should begin with the way the picture is shot, along with its emotional connection, not the result of the digital manipulation with a half-done picture. There is nothing the matter with the photo-editing tools, only what we do with them to make our photos look good.

2. Underexposure lacks color quality, so it really should be avoided. What happens is the sensors fail to read the colors that form the image. However, if given a choice, several photographers choose underexposing above overexposure. This is because even if underexposed, the details of the photograph are still recorded. In addition, it can still go into an editing program over overexposed photographs.

3. Digital cameras use millions of assorted pixels to produce the final image, with each sensor designed to capture a certain tonal range. When we do not allow full light to fall on the sensor, we are doing a great injustice to the image. Most of the pixels are unable to capture the tonal range in their full sweep and brightness, which ends up lowering the picture quality. The choice of sensor size is equivalent to choosing between assortments of formats - 35mm, medium and large format cameras. There are many different sensor size options regarding depth of field, image noise, diffraction, cost and size/weight.

4. When focusing on a subject, there are three factors which affect the depth of field: focal length of the lens; distance from the camera to the subject; and the size of the aperture or setting of the f-stop. You must focus on the subject, and not on people or objects around the subject. The subject at a greater distance will have greater depth of field than one that is close-up. This will reduce the noise level in your photographs. Also, less worry needs to be given to being out of focus, bringing in clarity and sharpness to the image.

5. When a picture is overexposed, too much detail is too high in tonal range. Just as under exposure makes a picture dark and toneless, over exposure makes colors too rich giving the picture an artificial hue - causing highlight to lose their detail. Over exposures also blanks out light and dark effects, along with the tones that give an image a natural look causing everything to look gray with less saturation.

6. Exposure warning lights have a purpose - with the word "warning." We must learn to look and respect under exposure warning lights just like a red flashing light at an intersection. These are especially good for beginners who can change the exposure until the blinking areas disappear. Later, the user can start using their own insights in deciding the exposure levels.

7. The camera can take a great picture, but we as the photographer prepare before then. The best photographs are those whose parameters are decided by the human mind. No amount of automation can change this fact. We, too, should gradually move away from automated functions and start making our own combinations when it comes to exposure, color, noise etc. Only then will we find gradual, but unmistaken, improvement in the quality of photographs taken.

8. Thinking of the composition should be the focus before clicking the button. Composition is the art of focusing on the subject using frames, movement, lights etc. We can learn composition techniques either from a senior photographer or from a book. Then we should start practicing them with new techniques. We will find an automatic improvement in the quality of our photographs.

9. To constantly improve one's photography skills, take as many different pictures as you can - all the time. Take enough pictures that you can tell how they will turn through experience, fixing them in advance.

10. The last one tip is to think ahead, think what you want to shoot, think how it is to be shot, think about its exposure, color, noise - all about visualization. We must learn to critically examine each image that we shoot as if it were our last. Try and find out the weaknesses of the photograph. Shoot again to remove the weaknesses - until we are completely satisfied.

All The Secrets To Art Photography

Art photography is a recently new form of art that has just started to become incredibly popular over the last couple of years as the advancements in digital photography has jumped a level or two. So what is art photography? Basically it's just a form of picture taking that is rendered in a certain way to reflect something 'arty' and that also has some kind of hidden meaning behind it that makes it more special than just a normal everyday photograph.

Many people refer art photography to pictorialism, which then intern means the method of constructing a picture keeping in mind that the picture take must be a form of art or can be turned into a art piece later using computer related technology. In fact this method of taking photos ceased to exist for quite sometime when important artists came to believe that more emphasis was being placed on design rather than on the picture.

With digital work, art photography is becoming more prevalent nowadays and, with the help of a computer, certain effects can be deliberately achieved so photographs can be made to look like an oil painting or as pastel, but this is governed mainly by the expertise of the photographer's own abilities.

Buying art photography at a gallery is relatively a simple task and with the advent of online art photography galleries, buyers can locate photographs that best suit their individual desires and tastes without the need of commuting or attending art exhibitions. Art photography is basically art that is creative, more so when it is visually aesthetic and is mostly appreciated for a having lots of imaginative and intellectual content.

There are two types of cameras that a photographer chooses to use, manual and automatic. The photos are processed by hand and only experienced printers have the ability to make sure the photo is not damaged and comes out perfect in the end.

Many photographers choose to take black and white photos for their art photography as they believe that they can play on more emotions that have the ability to affect the human psyche in a more effective manner. However those photographers who tend to use more color in their photos believe the opposite is true that in fact color has the ability to create more emotions and inevitably stir more senses in the brain that black and white could ever achieve. If you are starting out in the world of art photography than it's best to implement both(perhaps in the same photos if possible)

Some Of The Reasons Why You Should Start a Photo Blog Now

Web logs or blogs have quickly become one of the most common forms of self expression. They allow people to post their thoughts on the Internet, to be viewed by the world at large. Usually they are done in text, but now technology has opened a whole new generation of blogs, known as photo blogs.

Remember the old expression, "a picture speaks a thousand words"? Photo blogging is the embodiment of this concept. Instead of people voicing the stories that they want to share by writing them out, they do so using photographs. These pictures can often convey sentiments that are hard to express in words and invoke the emotions of those who view them. Not all of them are dramatic portraits that required years of skill to take. They can be as simple as a mother smiling with tears in her eyes, as she holds a new baby in her arms. A picture like this sends a lot of messages, from the appreciation of new life, to the huge responsibilities that parents hold, as symbolized by the child in the mother's arms.

Many photo bloggers are expert photographers and share their art with the world through their blogs. Many of these photographers have received acclaim for their skills and have been recognized as the true artists that they are. They post pictures that they have taken all over the world, from serene mountain scenes, to violent confrontations. All of their pictures convey certain messages by the images that they contain.

Amateur photographers also use photo blogging as a way to establish themselves as artists. They may not be able to travel the world over to obtain their pictures, but can still take them locally to convey their messages. A picture taken of children at play in a schoolyard can carry invoke all kinds of emotions if taken at the right angle and with varying light. Even a picture as simple as a person deep in thought while walking a dog can convey the message of a how an animal can be happy while attached to a leash, while also showing how humans can suffer although they are free to do what they want.

Photo blogging has become so popular that forums have been created for them. Here people can talk about blogging, get advice on techniques or share their pictures. So much for the old photo albums that you used to pull out when you had a visitor. Now you can share all of your favorite photographs with the millions of people that surf the web just to view them.

If you love to take pictures and are proud of your work, consider starting a photo blog. It may be the most rewarding way for you to enjoy your hobby and display your craft.

4 Simple Tips To Taking Great Pictures

Are you interested in developing your photography skills and becoming an expert at photo shooting? You may be just starting out or just bought a digital camera. After snapping up numerous photos, you are beginning to wonder why your pictures do not look that great after all.

When you look into a picture that pleases the eye, can you detect the subtlety that makes it appealing? We all know a well taken photo when we see one. Here are some tips that you can use. These tips apply to both digital and traditional cameras.

Here are four tips for a better picture.

1. Get a little closer, do not be shy. One of the biggest mistakes most beginning photographers make is shooting from so far away. They leave too much distance between themselves and their subjects. Instead, get up close and personal. Fill up as much of the camera frame, with your subject, as you can. You can always reshape, trim, and resize a good quality shot. But you cannot continue to blow up a distant subject and hope that it will come into focus. It just won't happen.

2. Focus your shot on only one subject. Determine what the main subject of the photo will be, and catch that image. Try and find the one key subject, person, or event that accurately portrays the feeling you are trying to capture.

3. In addition to getting one subject, in your photos, you will want to make the background of the photo as simple as possible. Busy, distracting backgrounds pull the attention away from the central theme of your photo. The subject of your photo is absolutely the most important element, and anything that detracts from the subject can ruin your shot.

4. Subject placement. Most people place the subject at the exact center of the frame. There is nothing wrong with this. However this often leads to a bland and uninteresting picture. You may use a method called the rule of thirds. Imagine having a camera lens split into 9 equal sized boxes, 3 across and 3 down (like having a tic tac toe game printed right on your camera lens). Where those "tic tac toe" lines cross, should become the focusing point of your subject, when you are arranging to take your photo.

Based on this tip, every time you compose a shot, the main subject of your photo should be located primarily on one of these "third" lines.

These are just four very fundamental tips and strategies to help improve your photos. Photography skills can always be improved and is never ending. You have to keep on practicing and shooting in order to improve your photography skills. Get a critic and show them your pictures. Then you will able to improve your skills. You can even post your photos to online forums for them to rate your pictures. Take advantage of these and hopefully you will become the next award winning photographer.