Wedding Photo Albums Go Digital

Leanne Tremblay 

 

Even if you decide to hire a professional wedding photographer, there's still a place for a do-it-yourself wedding photo album. Thanks to digital photography and high quality photo printing, the results don't have to look amateurish. In fact, you can create a coffee table book that tells your own story without spending a fortune. These albums are called photo books and they are changing the way we keep and share digital photos.

Photo books are printed and bound professionally by online services so they look just like a hardcover purchased in a store. There are sizes and designs to fit every wedding event, from engagement parties to showers. In addition to your main wedding album, think about creating a photo book as a bridesmaid gift, a guest book, or even wedding favor.

To create a wedding photo book, first, choose an online printing service like Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, or Photoworks. Each of these online services carries a variety of photo book sizes and styles. Browse their catalog to find the style that suits you best. Create an account (registration is free), and upload the digital photos you want to use.

Next, design your the photo book using the online layout tools. It's surprisingly easy (and fun). Just drag and drop photos from your album into pre-designed page layouts. There are dozens of layouts to choose from featuring one to five or more photos per page. Because the book is printed using a state-of-the-art digital press, you can have photos printed right to the edge (called full bleed), something you can't have with a traditional album. Online editing tools let you crop, remove red-eye, and convert to black and white or sepia. Add captions to photos if you want, and choose the font style and size. The options are endless.

Finally, the cost will surprise you. The largest 12x12 albums cost between $60 and $70 and are usually leather. Standard size 8x11 albums cost about $30, and 5x7 mini albums start as low as $7.

Besides the quintessential wedding album, you can create a photo book for a number of other wedding related occasions. Here are some fun ideas.

Photo Guest Book

Create your own guest book for people to sign at the reception. Simply choose a 5x7 or 8x11 standard photo book style and add photos of you and your fiancé to the left-facing pages only, leaving the right side blank for notes, messages, and well wishes from all your guests.

Engagement Photo Book

Create a photo book that chronicles the story of your engagement as you plan it from day one. There's so much you'll want to include, from dress fittings to engagement parties, ring shopping, and decorating, visits with your wedding planner, choosing a florist...capture it all!

Wedding Shower Mini Book

Create a mini book of the bridal or couples shower. Remember the event with close-ups of the food, guests, gifts, silly games and of course the crazy hats.

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Keepsake Books

Collect special photos of your bridesmaids and groomsmen. Use both old and current photos that show your history together, from childhood to your friendship today. From there, it's a snap to create a keepsake book you then give as a gift.

Honeymoon Photo Book

While the wedding celebration may be over, don't forget to create a fabulous photo book of your honeymoon. There are dozens of travel themed pages and layouts to choose from.

Leanne Tremblay is publisher of Photo Printing To Go, an idea portal for getting the most out of your digital photos. Stop by for more ways to create free digital prints, photo books, photo cards, and gifts. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Tremblay

Photo Submission Tips

Karen Fairham

 

You can generate great income from your photography hobby; it is easy to start a rewarding photo selling business online. Forget about the general misconception that you need to be a professional to do this because the truth is that you do not need to be a professional to do this, all you need your digital camera and access to a computer with an internet connection.

Many users such as advertisers, designers, journalists and many more all want fast ways of getting hold of photos in digital form and for a reasonable price. They go straight to those sites that allow members to upload their digital photos for sale and download from there. Yeah, this is where you come in because the photos submitted at these sites are by professionals and amateurs alike. These sites will pay each time someone downloads a photo that you have submitted, and they will receive a share of the amount paid and the rest comes to you. Also in some cases you might receive offer for a lump sum to buy the full rights which sometimes can be a very handsome payout.

Some tips you can use to apply to make sure that your photo receives a high download rate are:

1. Try focusing your shot on only one object or subject so as to make it possible for the main subject of the photo to be determined. Make sure that the subject portrays the feeling you are trying to capture.

2. 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.

3. 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.

Based on the above tips and some common sense you will surely be able to come up with a decent photo that will be appealing to the person looking at it. Remember that searchers are looking for different things so you should be open minded and take photographs of not just one type of object or place.

For more information on how to take quality photo and submit your photo to stock photo sites and get paid go to: http://www.digicamcash.info Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Fairham

Digital Photography Classes That Obtain Awesome Results

Dan Feildman

 

Standing near a path, hedge, fence or wall which stretches away into the distance will carry the eye from the foreground through to the distance, giving the picture the extra dimension of depth. Rivers and streams, stretching into the distance, can be used to serve the same function with the added advantage of sparkling with light and reflecting a blue sky. Whether the photograph is framed to give a vertical picture (portrait format) or horizontal picture (landscape format) will always be dictated by purely visual considerations. Just what is visually most effective in any particular situation will determine whether we should take a landscape or portrait format photograph. Street scenes are another popular subject in this category. Streets in villages, old market towns or the endless variety of town scenes in other countries provide a continuous source of interest. Looking down a street automatically gives the picture a certain depth. Finding a suitable item for the foreground can help this along. This might be such things as a quaint shop front, a market stall, the wing of a car or a person.

If you're planning on opening up a studio to take children's photos then you're going to need to lease a building. It doesn't have to be anything large but it should be in a visible part of town with a lot of other businesses. Visibility is half the battle won. Finally, you're going to have to take lots of photos, especially if you want to build a reputation for yourself. You'll want to put together a portfolio of your work so that you can bring it around with you. Again, this is going to depend on what field you want to get into, whether it be freelancing for a magazine, setting up your own shop, or working for somebody else, which is usually a good way to break in. The world of photography is wide open. There are many options to each aspiring photographer. So pick a game plan and stick to it. With patience and perseverance, you'll eventually get to where you want to be.

A digital photography camera is a tricky choice for some. Many people are more concerned with price than they are with how much memory the camera will have. The cameras range in price from a hundred dollars all the way to thousands of dollars. Depending on what is needed, the choice can seem overwhelming. One photography site that can help determine just what is right is Short courses. This site helps the consumer decide from the four major types of cameras as to which one fits their lifestyle. Digital photography is a great way to capture the images of an individual that will be seen for generations to come. By using digital photography instead of regular film, those memories will be perfect the first time. The choices of cameras are endless, and with the help of the internet, a person can make sure and choose the right camera that best fits their lifestyle and price range.

Anyone who wants to learn how to be a photographer doesn't have to enroll for many years to get a degree. There are colleges who offer this as one of the subjects which the student may take as an elective. Can you still learn how to be a photographer being out of school for many years? The answer is yes. The only thing needed is your dedication to learn from the proper techniques and a camera to take some shots. Some students don't have to go to campus anymore. There are some institutions that offer distance education. A good example is the New York Institute of Photography. You will learn everything from exposure, lenses, the various techniques used to cover different events, journalism and much more. Being affiliated with the school, you will be entitled to free online magazine articles such as contests and digital imaging.

Some of you may have more options than others depending on where you live. If there are several schools in your area I highly recommend investigating the following; 1) Go over the course outline; by looking over the subject matter in the digital photography course, you will be able to check out which classes are suitable for your skill level. Some classes teach just the basics like how to work your camera. So if you're well passed that, why not take on something a little more challenging? 2) See if there are any interesting aspects to your class. Does the class teach nothing but black and white photography? Will you be out and about in nature trying to photograph birds at six in the morning? Some of this may interest you and it also might give you a headache.

Computer skills: A good photography school needs to have courses regarding the use of computers. The field of photography is a very competitive one and you could really use some knowledge of computers. With the advent of digital photography, the need for computer literacy is more evident than ever. Scholarships It would be best if the photography school is offering some kind of financial assistance for their students. Some of the equipments in photography are not that cheap. These are just some tips on how to choose a photography school. Choosing the right school is as important as having a good view of where you want to go. The right school is the best way to get there.

To keep yourself enthusiastic about your subject, you might want to shoot two or maybe three projects at a time. Spend a Saturday afternoon shooting your local town's attractions and people, and next weekend drive into the nearest city to shoot architecture and calf culture. But how do you choose projects that will assist in creating strong saleable images? Search stock photography agencies, look through travel magazines and newspapers. What you see everyday is what sells. The key is to plan what you are going to shoot. Although we are all guided by weather conditions, it is possible to select the images you want before you arrive at your location. I rarely arrive without at least a few images mapped out in my head, and never without a shoot list. As travel photographers, it goes without saying that we have a passion for travel. It's why we do what we do. But it is an extremely difficult business to get into. The catch 22 is that to produce a portfolio or stock image library you need time and money. To fund your photography you need to work. It will take time and dedication, but by shooting close to home you will gradually improve your photography skills and start to build a portfolio of images to be proud of. It all comes down to the way we view our surrounding.

Looking into digital photography, ever want to start Learning Digital Photography? Find some great tips on how to take digital photographs with This Free Report Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Feildman

Understanding Camera Resolution

Barry Craft

 

Before rushing off to buy that premium photo paper so you can have your digital photos in hand, there are a few things to know when preparing for a digital print. It can be as simple as "upload and print". But, if you want the maximum quality, clearest resolution, and the most vibrant and true colors, follow these tips used by professional photographers and graphic artists every time they print.

First off, you may have seen the 2 acronyms, ppi and dpi. Many people confuse them to be the same thing. They do roughly share the same principle (defining the resolution of your photos) but are used in totally different stages of the photography or printing process.

Ppi stands for pixels per inch. You can think of this as the input unit, or how many pixels are captured by your camera's sensor when taking a picture. If you have a low ppi, you can raise the dpi all you want but you'll still have a very small picture. And should you choose to enlarge the photo, it will be very grainy and blurry, also known as pixelated.

Pixelation happens when there are not enough pixels in the image to represent every color and line; therefore, you get a mosaic, blotchy look. When the resolution is even the slightest bit low like this, the lines aren't as smooth as they should be.

This is where camera quality matters because the more pixels in the photo, the more flexibility you have with the size and resolution. The better the input, the better the outcome.

Dpi on the other hand is a part of the output process. It stands for dots per inch. This refers back to an old printing process. If you've ever looked at a magazine page with a magnifying glass (or maybe you should now to help you understand), you would have seen all the tiny dots used to compose the image. Going back to the basics of art and design, it is taught that a line is really just a series of points arranged in a continuous pattern. So therefore, everything you see is essentially a dot.

This brings me to the next focus, if there are not enough dots in each square inch, your photo, again, will have a low resolution and look grainy. Some of the colors may be inaccurate as well because there are not enough actual dots to represent each element and color in your image.

There are standards in the printing and graphic design world to give you great starting points when printing your hi-res photos. The industry standard used for any print work, magazines, brochures, etc. is 300 dpi.

Images that will be viewed within say, 2 feet or less need to have a higher dpi as well as if they are printed on a high gloss paper, like brochures, magazines, and postcards. Images that will be hung on a wall or put in display, viewed further away, can have a lower dpi of 150 because they won't be seen close enough to need a great amount of detail. This is also the case if the image is printed on matte or semi-gloss paper because the rougher texture is more forgiving than a smooth high-gloss paper.

If you decide to get your photos professionally printed, all this will be done for you and your photos will have superb resolution. However, if you choose to print them on your own, you now have the all the secrets of the trade so you too can have high resolution, high quality, and beautifully vibrant photos like the pros.

About The Author: Barry Craft has been an avid photographer for the last 20 years and has a particular interest in nature photography. He is passionate about his work and is happy to provide the latest tips and tricks to help you improve your photographic skills. To obtain a FREE copy of his latest report entitled, "Top 10 Tips for Great Photo Composition - How to Overcome the 10 Biggest Mistakes When Composing Your Photographs and Dramatically Improve Your Images" please visit http://naturephotographyclub.com/nature-photography-tips.php Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barry_Craft