Don’t Delete your Original Photos

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest or RSS Feed. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information! RV.Net Blog AdminOne of the reasons I really like using Picasa for managing my digital photos is that it protects my originals. If you don’t use Picasa for managing your digital photos - watch this Picasa Overview video to see why we think you should. I’ve had a few emails from Picasa users lately that got me worried. They said that they uploaded some photos to their web albums then deleted them off their computer. What?! NO! Picasa Web Albums is not a way to backup or store your photos. It is a way to share your photos with others over the Internet. If you want an online storage website, we recommend Carbonite. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Portrait Photography - Part 2

In Portrait Photography - Part 1 I covered information about lenses, and some basic information about lighting.  Again, the main difference between a snapshot & a portrait is lighting. You can certainly take a wonderful photograph of someone without paying attention to lighting, but a portrait involves posing the subject, positioning the camera & arranging the lighting to complement the shape of the model’s face. In this example, which I have to admit has a slightly overexposed forehead and cheek, the model was quite thin.  I used the combination of the lighting and camera position to add width her face. The general name for the positioning of the key and fill lights is called Broad Lighting. The key or main light is positioned so that it illuminates side of the model’s face that faces the camera.  It tends to widen a thin face & soften facial features. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Portrait Photography

Although any photograph of a person (or pet) could be called a portrait, there are some standard techniques for taking them. There is no reason you must use them, but they can be useful if you are willing to spend some time controlling your lighting, choosing your focal length, and other variables. Actually, before discussing lighting, it might be worth discussing lenses. The focal length of a lens & the distance between the camera and subject will have an effect on the shape of the model’s face. If you use a very wide angle lens & get very close to your subject you will end up with exaggerated noses, lips, etc. On the other hand, using a long telephoto lens and moving further away from the subject will produce flattened portraits. Actually, it isn’t the focal length of the lens that causes the change - it is the distance between the camera & subject. Of course if you frame your image in the viewfinder or on the LCD so that the subject’s face fills it, you will need to get closer with a wide lens & further away with a long one, so although technically the focal length of the lens doesn’t make a difference, in practice it does. What is the correct focal length? For the most natural image you want something in the range from 85mm to 135mm, (35mm equivalent). Although this will produce the most natural portrait, you might want to make use of the change of perspective longer or shorter camera to subject distances produces to “improve”... Read more

Birds on Your iPhone

Well, this week I’m straying a bit from photography, but only a bit.  When I am planning to photograph birds, I usually take one of my bird identification books with me.  The problem arises when I’m just out wandering around taking pictures but don’t have my book and need to identify a bird.  Luckily, I have found a bird identification application that can be used with iPhones, & iPods.  The company also produces a version that runs on Windows Mobile for phones & PDAs that use that operating system. There are versions that just cover a limited part of the country as well as a comprehensive version that covers the entire US. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

10 Unusual Uses for your Digital Camera

Most of us take photographs of people or scenery, and those are perfectly good uses for your camera, if fact, in my opinion those are the best reasons for taking pictures, however there are other uses for your digital camera.  Not everyone will use all of these, but keep them in mind. A digital camera can be used to record all kinds of information: Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Let’s Get Social - We Want to See Your Shiney Faces!

We at RV.Net would love to see all your bright shining faces. One way we can do this is by signing up at http://en.gravatar.com/ and uploading a picture of yourself that will be used in your comments here on our blog. It’s fast and free and most importantly it will you share your mug with world. You can upload just about any picture of yourself and the site will allow you to crop the photo down to an appropriate size. To sign up, go here: http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup Be sure to use the same email address you use when commenting on the blogs. The email address is what determines the picture. OK, now that you have created your an icon to represent yourself, please post a comment back to this blog post. Tell a Friend Read More →

Producing Large Prints

Many of us never print images, preferring to view them on computer screens, TVs or digital picture frames. Even when we do print, it is often as 4″X6″ photos that are given to friends & relatives that don’t have email or computers. If you have a photo ink jet printer, unless is is one of the few designed for large prints, you are probably limited to 8″X10″ as the largest size you can print. Every once in awhile, you may decide you want a larger print. A 16″X20″ or even 20″X30″ print mounted on foam core is light enough to hang on the wall of any RV, and a wonderful reminder of friends, family or places you have visited.  If you do sessions at workshops, they are useful to illustrate your discussion. There are many contests all over the country that offer chances to exhibit your work; even win prizes or money, that require large prints. So, can you make one from your digital camera file? Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Photographing Birds

Although there are many reasons for taking photographs, bird pictures are always popular.  Capturing good photographs of birds can be difficult - most of them don’t stand still for very long, they fly away when you get close, and they are often small. Still, they are usually worth the challenge. What’s more you don’t need to go any further than your back yard or RV site to find your subjects.  Although a trip to the local bird sanctuary will sometimes offer a wider variety of subjects, there are plenty of interesting birds almost everywhere. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Hyperfocus

Anyone interested in landscape photography should understand and use the technique called Hyperfocus. So, what the heck is Hyperfocus?  Hyperfocal focusing is based on the the fact that depth of field typically extends 2/3 behind the point focused on and 1/3 in front. If you focus on infinity, the depth of field behind is completely wasted. So, if you are taking landscape photographs & choose the horizon or anything that sets the lens at infinity as your focus, either manually or using autofocus, you are going to have more of the scenery close to the camera out of focus then you would if you used hyperfocus techniques. Read more Tell a Friend Read More →

Camera Shopping

When it is time for a new camera there are a couple of points that may be helpful whether you are purchasing a inexpensive point & shoot camera or the latest expensive DSLR. Before you start shopping, it is useful to determine what camera makes the most sense for you. The major choices are between a Point & Shoot camera & a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR). A previous article “Point and Shoot or DSLR” may help make the choice. After deciding which type of camera to purchase, some other considerations: Where to purchase your camera.  There are three basic choices - an on-line purchase, a “big box store” or a local camera store.  My first choice for a number of reasons is my local camera store.  It is far more likely that a real camera store will have long time, knowledgeable employees that can help you with your choice. No big box store that I know of will let you take a camera outside to see how it reacts to daylight lighting conditions, let you use your own memory card to take a bunch of samples to review at home on your PC, etc. It is important to keep them alive & in business because they will often carry accessories that the big box stores don’t.  Although you may be able to find the accessories on-line, you won’t have the ability to actually try them on your camera, see if your stuff fits the camera bag, etc. Although the posted price may be higher than the big box store or on-line suppliers, many local camera stores... Read more

Next Page »