How To Set White Balance – Perfecting Color In Your Photos
I used to always have the same problem. I’d set up the perfect shot, the right framing, the right subject, the right everything. I’d take the shot, then review it to find that the colors looked dull, washed out, or just plain wrong. I had the same problem many people do, I needed to adjust my white balance.
In this article, I’ll teach you how to ensure the correct white balance when taking pictures.
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Photo Management Software – Picasa from Google
Do you find yourself wading though long lists of files in your “My Pictures” folder to find a picture? Do you want basic, easy-to-use photo editing software? Want to create a photo album online in ONE click? Then I recommend Picasa, Google’s photo management software. This program will allow you to organize, edit, and share your images with ease. Watch this promo video, or read below for more information:
Backup Your Photos – Don’t Lose Your Works Of Art
Lawren here again and today I have a lesson that I’ve unfortunately had to learn the hard way.
I have a laptop hard drive sitting in a drawer at my parent’s house; it’s been there for months. It’s sitting in a static free bag just waiting until I can save up enough money to get the information off of it. Let’s just say it will be there a while – quality data recovery services are pricey.
The moral of this story? BACK UP YOUR PICTURES!!! Unfortunately this is a lesson that most people learn too late. They only start backing up their information after they’ve suffered a catastrophic hard drive crash.
Fortunately, backing up your photos can be almost painless and quite simple. One easy way to backup your photos is simply to burn them do a CD or DVD (dual layer DVD burners can store 8GB+ on one disc, and a Plextor Blu-ray Disc burner can store 50GB on a single disc).
Of course, you can always just purchase a backup hard drive. Spare hard drives these days are cheap. I’m preferential to those made by Lacie, but any just about any external drive will work.
And then there’s always online backup which not only backs up your photos but also allows you to access your photos even when you’re not at your computer. Many people use photo sharing sites to save their photos, but if you’re serious about your photos, you probably don’t want to do this since few photo sharing sites allow you to save your pictures at full resolution. It’s better to go for the paid photo backup services.
The Advantages Of An Articulating LCD Screen On A Digital Camera
Lawren here again.
Today I’d like to talk just a little bit about one of my favorite features on a digital camera – the articulating LCD screen – in fact I will not buy one without this feature.
If you were to ask me what my favorite advance in photography in the past few years was, I wouldn’t say photo editing, increased megapixels, or even DSLR’s. I would tell you about my articulating lcd screen (also called a “flip out and twist” screen), and I’d probably go on about it for another 10 minutes.
Not only is my lcd screen protected when I’m not using it (it’s folded into the body of the camera), but I can take pictures from almost any angle with out having to leave the framing to blind faith. This way, even if you don’t have an external flash, you can still bounce it and see what you’re shooting at the same time.
My dad’s favorite part is the great candid shots you can get. Who would suspect you’re taking a picture when your camera is sitting in your lap or on the table. You can get great realistic shots without posing or camera shyness. If you get really good, you can even take pictures of someone standing behind you!
While it’s a piece of cake to find a video camera with an articulating LCD screen (it comes on virtually all consumer models), for some reason an articulating screen is harder to find on digital cameras, and just because the previous model of a camera had one doesn’t necessarily mean it’s next version will.
Case In Point. The Canon Powershot G7. While it’s predecessors (dating back to the Powershot G1) all had articulating LCD screens, Canon didn’t include on in its most recent release with the G7.
So here’s a list of digital cameras with articulating LCD screens. You’ll notice a lot of Canon cameras in the list, and they do certainly make more flip out and twist LCD screens than any other manufacturer, but they’re not the only one. I tried to cover all the current models in this release, but its likely I missed some. If that’s the case, then please post any corrections or omissions in the comments below.
Canon Powershot G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6.
Nikon Coolpix 5000, 5400, 8400, 5700, 8700, 8800.
Canon Powershot S1 IS, S2 IS, S3 IS, S4 IS, S5 IS,
Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200
Canon Powershot A80
Pentax Optio 750Z
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50K (one of the best higher end cameras with this feature)
Canon Powershot A640, A650 IS
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 (flip out only, no twist)