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Stock photography can be a much overlooked sect of digital photography. Although, portraits, nature, abstracts and so on are more known through out the photography community, that isn’t to say that stock photography isn’t as important. What makes taking stock photos so different to all other types of photography is the applicable means to which stock photos are presented. Other types of photos such as portraits and macro sometimes don’t have a definitive analogy to where such photos lie. A portrait can carry the quality of being a ‘portrait’ with no other applicable use besides the art in itself. Contrarily, stock photos have a very clear purpose and may even cross the line as to calling them a job instead of a type of photography. A proper explanation of stock photography is needed in order to further pursue the career.

First it is important to know where the term stock photos comes from. This is term coined, more fluently, on the internet, and most of the time it refers to selling and buying photos through a stock photo site. A stock photo site is a place that anyone can sign up and upload their photos in order for buyers to purchase their pictures. You can earn money based on whatever guidelines the site may have. A variety of people purchase stock photos mostly for job related reasons. The most popular frequenters of stock photo sites are graphic designers, marketers, magazines, and advertisers. They may use the picture in whatever way the want, they may edit the image or leave it completely unchanged.

In order to learn how to become successful in the business of freelance stock photography you need to know what buyers want and how it differs from regular photography. Depending on the practices of a job, buyers need digital stock photos for specific purposes that make it easily editable or accessible. They might need pictures of macro, landscape, and industrial subjects but just presented a little bit differently than what most are use to.

Advertisers might need pictures of self-directed compelling premises, that easily convey what they are trying to sell. Graphic designers want digital photos that are easy to edit that lack complex backgrounds and over shadowing. Also, a lot of jobs need several different versions of the same picture in order to find one that will do the project justice. Meaning pictures of the same subject but presented at different angles and camera positions. For a more comprehensive tutorial on how to take stock photos go look at thetutorials and jobs in digital photography.

That is the basic explanation of what stock photography is. It can seem simple but learning the complexities of how to take profitable digital photos can take a while. If you are looking to pursue a career doing this freelance and on your own, then dedicate enough time, work hard and you will have something to show for it.

Photography at night can be used to create mysterious and amazing photos. The long exposures associated with low light can create unique effects and unusually sharp photos. And when I say long exposures I mean exposures lasting from half a second up to even 15 - 30 seconds. Below are suggested to be the top 5 essential tips for night photography to be successful.

1. Use of flash

With insufficient light from the moon, most photographers will supplement the light with hand-held flashes, a technique known as “painting with light.” Other more sophisticated ones may also use movie lights and torches as additional lights. However, I strongly encourage not to use so much flash and actually try to capture the natural light from the surroundings.

 2. Equipment

For low light photos, a tripod is very necessary. Be it a normal one or a miniature one, they will save you lots of trouble. As mentioned too, a miniature tripod can be very handy because it is typically small enough to fit in a pants pocket so it can be taken anywhere.

For me personally, I will use what is available at that point of time when I want to take a photo. For example, park benches, a trash bin, even the ground, etc to “assist” me in my photo taking.

3. Calculating exposure

This can be said to be the most challenging part of photo taking. In manual mode, it can be difficult to calculate the perfect exposure for the shot. From my experience, some cameras come with the “auto” function which will automatically calculate the “perfect” exposure for your photo shot. Personally, best shots come with practice, with more practice comes experience, and with more experience come nice and beautiful photography. Take my advice, do it yourself!

4. Spares

Every camera has a protecting case/bag, do not forget to bring that along together with you camera. This is to prevent moisture from the night temperature to permeate your camera. And you do not want that to happen.

Next and most essential spare to bring will be to always bring EXTRA BATTERIES! I do believe I do not need to further explain this. EXTRA BATTERIES!

5. Safety First

Safety is paramount. There are places in the country especially in the cities that are very dangerous at night. Remember that if you are going to do the shoot, you will have valuable equipment with you. So please be aware of your surroundings before deciding on your location.

 

This content is provided by Jan Joel Jayanta and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on Photography and photographs please visit http://at-nite-photography.blogspot.com

The beauty of the blushing bride in loads of satin and lace and the brilliantly colored wedding bouquet adding specks of flair to milieu can only be frozen for posterity by high quality digital wedding photography.  Snapshots that are badly focused or taken in bad light might leave an unsavory taste to the otherwise perfect ceremony. No bride would ever need to see herself in red eyes or jaded wedding gown due to bad photography techniques. You can set the sky as your limit thanks to the immense possibilities of digital photography, which allows you to pick up the best possible imprints of your wedding. You can crop out the badly focused ones or even out those shiny noses during the editing process.

Digital wedding photography allows to unfurl the artistic talents of the photographers to its best. Digital photography has an upper hand in capturing romantic and intimate moments of the wedding session unlike the rigid and posed snap shots of the yore. Digital photography ensures unobtrusive images as  it has many advanced features like faster shutter speed and zoom options, which can weave magic into each of these imprints.

The present day brides have a greater choice on how these special moments of their life need to be recorded for posterity. Pack oomph to your wedding snaps through creativity and dramatic expressions of an experienced photographer. While the black and white images has a distinct story telling charm , the colored images talk about the present trends and vogues and digital photography allows a photographer to strike a subtle balance between these two aspects of creative photography.

Digital photography has opened up countless vistas of opportunities for the brides to cherry pick their shots and to whip up an exciting weddings portrait. Spontaneous  and emotional moments are captured best in digital photography and the ever increasing scope and  technology has allowed a pure wedding photographer to be a perfectionist to the core. From the yesteryears of film rolls  and dark rooms, wedding photographer has undergone a sea change in the last few years, bringing cheer to the all couples planning to tie the knot.  More than just still photographs, digital snapshots seamlessly blend, symbolism and abstraction with fine arts, which make each of these imprints as stunning as a folk art painting- natural and lively.

The basic principles of naturist photography are to be found in the guidelines of a very nonconformist trend known as naturism. There are several reasons for which this cultural movement is both controversial and interesting at the same time: it basically relies on harmonious life style expressed through social nudity. Naturist photography basically depends on nude models captured in the most common of postures from beach walking to sleeping. In order to better define the term “naturist” and avoid the confusion with naturalism, we could put an equality sign between naturism and nudism. Most naturist photography sessions are organized at special resorts where the community can openly express themselves.

By naturist community we also imply all the facilities where nudism is openly and legally permitted. The major source of inspiration for most naturist photography is to be found in the tradition that claims a complete nude around the premises of nudism resorts. Clothes wearing is often an option except for the areas such as the swimming pools, the beaches or the sunbathing lawns where clothes are not allowed. Naturist photography reflects all the non-conformism of a life style that contradicts the secular rules that have made people cover their nakedness.

Naturalist photography has nothing to do with pornography, as long as it respects the guidelines of subjects in all the simplicity of their bodies. Naturalism photography doesn’t deal with explicit nudity as that falls under a nude label. More or less naturist photos are meant to show respect for the human body in its entire complexity of structure, as it should be respected, cherished and enjoyed. Despite the calumnies that can be often associated with the naturist life style, people who live according to such principles consider themselves safe from shame, degradation and negative feelings towards the human body in general. Naturist photography is therefore a mirror of the simplicity of form.

Collections of naturist photography are available on special sites on the Internet; some of the web pages even allow importing some pictures as well as the uploading of some others. What you should be careful with in terms of photography downloading is the possibility of infringing the copy right law. Unless otherwise stipulated on the site, the photos are usually the property of those who have made them. Naturist photography catalogs are often included in non-conformist art shows that fully reflect the tendency to free the individual from the burden of prejudices so specific to our times.

Stock Photo Portfolio Sites 

A stock photography portfolio site is a site where people are able to buy as well as sell digital photos. To dedicate your time to such a site, you have to be truly interested in digital photography, enough to want to go out and take hundreds of photos everyday. Stock photography sites are useful not only to you, but also to a plethora of others as well. Buyers need stock photos in order to make their web pages, advertisements, art mediums, and anything else that requires visual aid. Those that benefit from buying your photos range from independent companies, personal businesses, and any other business that don’t want or don’t have the resources or funding to hire a professional photographer. Also, stock photography sites are a big help to freelance photographers. This is a way for digital photographers, like you, to make money or earn a living selling the pictures that they take. It depends on the work put into the site, but you can make anywhere from $1 to $500 per month, per site with payouts around 25 cents to dollars per photograph. How much you make really depends on your effort and the time you take shooting photos. To make around $500 dollars per month, however, you’re going to need a good digital stock photo portfolio that will show the quality of your work.

As a freelance photographer, you are going to need to know exactly how to set up a stock portfolio. The first step is to take hundreds, and eventually thousands of pictures. For how many photos you’re going to end up taking you had better love to take photographs. You will have to go through the process of eliminating photos based on lighting and angles and any other nit picky stipulations that make a great picture. You’ll end up taking many photos, with over half of them turning out badly. When you realize that you’re happy with the process of taking your pictures then you can begin to build your freelance portfolio.

How many pictures you need for your portfolio

One of the best ways of accomplishing this feat is to set a goal for you. This way, you won’t be discouraged when you first start out and you don’t just snap your fingers and produce hundreds of photos after only one session. You need to be able to get up everyday and complete a freelance photography session of at least 20 to 40 pictures. However, out of those photos you need to pick out 10 to 20 from the bunch that are of better quality than the others. Eventually, you’ll be able to better identify angles, lighting, and concepts for your freelance photography.

Once you reach a quota of about 100 pictures that you have taken, with no more than 3-5 repeated ones, you should be able to compare some of the more recent photos with the pictures at the beginning and notice some improvement. If you are consistent with your photography sessions, you will become a lot better and have a lot of work and original freelance photos to show for it. Eventually, through hard work and dedication, you’ll have the ability to shoot a hundred photos in one sitting and only throw out a few.

What to take pictures of

What you want to accomplish with your freelance photography is a collection of quality pictures. Like the saying goes, “quality over quantity.” Businesses that are going to be looking at your photography and perhaps purchasing some of them will want to be able to depend on your originality and quality. To ensure that you produce pictures of a good quality, you should shoot subjects that you’re passionate about. If you take pictures of sea otters and you don’t particularly like taking pictures of sea otters, then you will be less likely to make sure that the picture looks good.

However, if you take pictures of things that interest you then you are more likely to take your time and produce quality work. Finding a subject that you’re passionate about and expanding on that topic then you’ll make sure and find your photography niche. It’s recommended that for your first set of pictures you should choose one or two niches for your collection. This will narrow down the competition because if you take random pictures they’ll be white noise against the other photographers.

You need to be able to narrow down your subject matter in different ways than you are used to. Instead of just thinking about subjects like macro, portrait, geometric, or cityscape you need to be able to think in subjects such as decadent, noble, sensual, blue (colors), or futuristic. This will bring those businesses that are looking for a particular niche right to you.

Other things to know

Don’t include any signatures, marks, or logos on your picture to confine ownership

Make sure for modeling pictures, that the model signs off on submitting the photos be sold

Always have enough space on your digital camera; don’t be caught off guard

Keep researching and learning from those that are already more experienced in digital photography or, invest in and Ebook to help get started

Winter photography is probably one of the hardest photography you can master. This is usually caused by the fact that we set our cameras on automatic as a way of ensuring the camera does its own tricks. However the camera apparently does not like the snow because white is always too bright unless it is at night.

You have probably tried taking photos during winter time, which probably gives some of the best scenes you would ever wish to get on camera. Like people skiing, snow fights and many more. Well I bet you have tried to capture all this beautiful scenery but when you look at your photographs they are either overexposed or underexposed.

Well I have winter photography story that came to me luckily. I was in my backyard taking a family photo of the twins as they played on the snow. I got lucky as they were tired of snow fighting and were practically covered in snow, I told them to stand together so I would take a shot, after, I moved them to the backyard door where there was little or no snow and by one snap of my finger I got a great shot. You could still see the snow on them but the one on the ground I made sure I removed it. So I guess you could say take less of the snow and more higher shots this way even if it reflects it won’t affect. I forgot to say that I was in semi manual at the time and had set the aperture settings for less light.

Pinhole photography completely relies on the use of the camera with the traditional glass lens that marked the beginning and the evolution of photo shooting as such. All the present day achievements of the photographic art are somehow rooted in the discovery of the pinhole camera. Unlike our modern cameras, pinhole photography required a longer time of exposure since the image capturing process depended a lot on the aperture and the light focusing. If we go back in time it is more than just wonderful to discover that the first germs of pinhole photography appeared in the Greek antiquity around the year 500 B.C. 

The discovery of the way the light traveled inside an enclosed dark space with a small hole in it led to the appearance of the dark room that represents the technological criterion for the working of pinhole photography and the use of modern cameras too. The very essence of pinhole photography depends on the size of the hole that lets the light in. the smaller the pinhole, the clearer the picture. The best pinhole is the perfectly round one, made in thin pieces of material so that the light may pass through without the edges of the hole affecting the quality of the image.

The features of pinhole photography include soft pictures with field depth. The only problem with pictures taken through the pinhole type of length is that they are subject to very few modifications, the angles remain perfectly rectilinear and the chromatic variations are quite more numerous if compared to the photos taken with regular lenses. Pinhole photography has allowed the application of certain optic physical theories to other fields of research too, and it even helped to the understanding of certain curiosities from the wild. It seems that a certain mollusk species sees in a similar way to the formation of the pinhole pictures.

In our modern society pinhole photography has helped to the development of spy cameras that use a combined type of lenses in miniature models. Furthermore, the use of pinholes is pretty known for anyone who considers photography a real hobby: pros often experiment the use of multiple pinholes and specific enlargers to see the achieved picture effects. There are even online galleries devoted to pinhole photography, not to mention that on special events such as international contests, thousands of photos are uploaded on web pages. Get a look and see for yourself!