How to Take Amazing Animal Photos

If you love taking pictures of animals then this article will be sure to give you some practical tips that you can immediately start using. Animal photography, also called wildlife photography, encompasses the entire world of animals from your pets to polar bears. This article focuses on photographing wildlife, but you can apply many of these tips to photographing Muffin or Fido. To learn how nature photographers get those fantastic images of wildlife, read on...

The photography basics for taking great pictures of wildlife begin with these tips. As always there are exceptions, but the following go a long ways towards ensuring successful animal photography:

o Use natural lighting to your advantage.

o Fill the frame with the subject.

o Focus on the eyes.

o Shoot from various angles.

o Capture personality.

Perhaps you are wondering how you can, without a humongous lens and SLR safely get close enough to a wild animal to "capture personality" or "fill the frame"?
Actually even professional wildlife photographers don't always take their winning photographs in the wild. Most of the wonderful pictures you see of wolves, polar bears and other wild creatures were taken at wildlife sanctuaries and zoos. Cheating? Maybe, but it's safer for the photographer and doesn't disturb their free roaming cousins' mating and feeding cycles.
Some of the wildlife sanctuaries offer special tours for photographers, but even without the advantages these tours offer (often being allowed to get closer shots and without all the people), there are many things the hobbyist with a compact can do to take professional looking photographs of wildlife.
Animal Photography Tips for Wildlife Sanctuaries and Zoos

1. Simplify the Composition: If the background is distracting, use a wide aperture or Portrait mode to blur it. Or use a photo editor like Photoshop to clean up or blur the background.
2. Go Natural: Avoid showing cage bars, fences, humans, signs, etc. If it is safe and not against the rules to do so, point the lens through a gap in the chain link, so you can take the photo without the fence showing. Sometimes there will be a vantage point that allows you to shoot over the top of the fence. Look for these opportunities. Again, use a good photo editor to blur what you couldn't eliminate while shooting the photo.
3. Fill the Frame: Use zoom (optical for best quality) or a telephoto lens to get close up.
4. Use Sports Mode: Use sports mode or set shutter speed priority to around 1/250 to freeze movements.
5. Use Light and Weather to Best Effect: Overcast days are often best for animal photography. If the overcast isn't too bright, it will prevent glare from light colored or watery backgrounds. If the overcast is too dark and you have an SLR, raise the ISO. With the right amount of overcast, you can get well exposed, sharp pictures with your compact, and the animals won't be squinting. Since the eyes are usually very expressive and the best place to focus, you really want to avoid squinting. Another way to eliminate this is photograph when the animal's back is to sun. In this case you will need to use fill flash (turn off automatic flash and set to "On") to prevent underexposure or a silhouette, and you will need to use a lens hood or wear a broad brimmed hat to prevent lens flare.
6. Try this When Shooting through Glass: When you want a picture of a terrarium or aquarium critter, turn on the flash and shoot from an angle. Be sure to check your manual for the safe distance when using flash to photograph living beings without damaging eyes. Or turn off flash and gently press your lens right up against the glass.
7. Plan your Visits for the Best Photo Ops: Others will especially love seeing your animal photography when it includes baby animals. Often sanctuaries and zoos post on their websites when new babies are arriving, or you can call and check. Another good photo op is feeding time. Animals that stay in hiding throughout much of the day will come out to eat. Finally, if you're visiting a sanctuary or zoo when the weather's hot, go early in the day when the animals will be most active, not napping.
8. Use Context: While usually it's best to fill the frame with the animal, sometimes the context is too interesting to bypass. Examples of using context: a child and baby animal looking at each other, a giraffe, long neck bent as it peers down at a car in front of yours at the drive-through safari park.
9. Capture Expressions: Animals, whether our pets or wildlife, make the cutest expressions. Be ready with your camera! Even just normal expressions like a wolf pup yawning or a tiger licking its lips are cute or interesting. The more you learn about you favorite species, the better able you will be to be ready for their fun shots.
   

So, the next time you're ready to take some wildlife pictures, use these animal photo tips and you'll be amazed at the difference applying this tips can have on your photos.

Pros And Cons - Digital Camera Vs. Film

Consumers have been pretty receptive to the lower priced "point and shoot" models (some 5 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S. during the Christmas 2005 holiday season), but there are still some holdouts.

Great strides have been made in digital technology over the past few years, but more sophisticated digital cameras have only recently come down in price enough to attract the "serious amateur" market. In the past, the price of high-end digital camera equipment was more suited to the professional who could turn that investment into an income source.

Even traditional film buffs are slowly coming around to the benefits of digital photography. Among the holdouts, the chief problem seems to be confusion. There are so many choices, with a broad range of options, and just as many price ranges.

It's cheaper not to make a decision, than to make a mistake.

They get lost in the terminology, and have reservations about the quality of digital photos and about the reliability of the digital cameras. With the whirlwind of innovation flooding our lives everyday, it's become really difficult to keep up.

Technology advances, prices come down, and a deal today may be obsolete tomorrow. At least that's what worries many potential digital camera owners.

So let's look at five of the most common questions about digital camera photography to shed some light on the matter, for those who are hesitant about this new technology, or who have dismissed it as a mere fad.

1. Do digital cameras produce quality photos?
   Digital photos can be displayed at very high resolutions, and could easily surpass conventional photographs, but many have seen poorer quality images. Early color printers could be used to print color photos from digital cameras, but the quality just wasn't there. Blurry images on low-grade computer monitors or on the small LCD screens of the cameras themselves, do nothing to increase your confidence.
   But view the high resolution images available from today's digital cameras on a capable monitor or after being printed on one of the newer photo quality printers (using photo quality paper) and you'll see the crystal clear quality of what is available today.
2. How durable are digital camera photos?
   Digital camera photos are not stored on film. They're stored on electronic memory devices that actually require much less care than negative film.
   As long as reasonable care is taken of the particular storage device, there shouldn't be any problems with protecting images caught on a digital camera, and you can easily make copies of the digital image files on your computer or even burn them to a CD - an option that isn't available with film.
3. Are digital camera photos more expensive to process?
   Not anymore. First, you can eliminate any poor images before printing and only pay for those that you print. With "easy share" technology and photo quality printers now available, it is both affordable and convenient to print digital camera photos.
   You can even do the task yourself, in the comfort of your own home - without buying expensive development chemicals that are required for film processing! Or, you can send your images electronically to a professional processor, and receive professionally produced photos back in the mail in just a few days.
4. Can I get different effects with a digital camera?
   That depends on the digital camera. High end models have built-in features that allow different kinds of effects. But even if your digital camera doesn't have these advanced features, you can always manipulate the photographs on your desktop computer, using any image editing software.
5. Are zooming features comparable?
   Here digital cameras actually have a distinct advantage over film cameras. While cheaper digital cameras may only have digital zoom (which is really just a form of in-camera enlargement that results in a lower resolution original image), high end models are available with both digital and optical zooming.

When shopping for your digital camera, give priority to the optical zoom capability and buy the highest power optical zoom that fits within your budget. Digital zoom is a nice extra, but the effects can easily be replicated during the "processing" of the image on your computer, prior to printing the images.

Chroma Key Photography - Make Digital Backdrops

Recent movement to digital backdrops over the last few years.

Just 10 years ago, film was still mostly used for digital photography. Quite a few photographers kept shooting film as long as they could thinking it was better than digital. It is technically true that medium and large format film has higher resolution than today's digital SLR cameras. However, the benefits of shooting and processing digital rather than shooting film are far to great. Almost all portrait photographers are shooting digital now.

A similar trend is now happening with digital backdrops. More and more photographers are shooting on a chroma key backdrop and using digital background replacement. At first there was some resistance by photographers to move in this direction. However, over the last few years, chroma key has really been gaining ground.

There are many obvious benefits to shooting with a green screen or blue screen background.

1. It is a huge money saver. Traditional muslin backdrops are very expensive.

2. Your studio is now very portable. You only need to pack 1 green or blue screen backdrops wherever you go.

3. You have complete control of the background selection. You can have a library of thousands of digital background options. You can even create and fine tune your own backgrounds for each photo.

Is shooting chroma key difficult?

Its not as difficult as it may seem. You will need to ensure that the chroma key background is evenly lit for the best results. If you can accomplish that, then you can successfully shoot chroma key.

With today's latest software, removing the background is really easy. This can be done in Photoshop. There are several ways to do this. If you are using Photoshop, I recommend using color range selection or the background eraser. I highly recommend NOT using the magic wand or magic eraser tools. These will often yield poor results.

While Photoshop can give decent results, there is a much easier alternative. For our studio, we use a software call Photo Key. It is made by a company called FX Home. It is specifically designed for green screen and blue screen. There is no difficult background selection process. It is almost a "one click" process. In addition, the results are amazing. The "green spill" suppression is the best on the market, bar none. It is able to leave fine detail in detailed areas such as the hair while completely removing the green or blue fringe. It doesn't crop out the fringed areas where the hairline blends with the background. Instead, it de-couples the green/blue hue out of these areas. It is really amazing. Photo Key can also batch process as many file as you want. You can process an entire photo shoot in a few minutes. I'm in no way affiliated with FX Home. I just really like there software. It has enabled my studio to expand what it can do with chroma key. You can check it out at fxhome.com.

What about digital backdrops?

Really, you can use any digital image for a background. When shooting chroma key, you have the freedom to use whatever you want. This opens up so many possibilities.

When I started using chroma key a few years ago, my clients were so excited about the background options that they had. We could create images that we just could do with conventional photography.

Free Photoshop script for making digital backgrounds!

I started creating digital backdrops using Photoshop. I soon realized that this process could be automating using Photoshop Actions. These actions started to pile up into a very large collection. Also actions had some limitations.

Since I have a background in computer programming, I decided to give Photoshop scripting a try. Photoshop scripting was the perfect place to put all that I had created into one file with a user interface. Also, scripting allowed me to create random algorithms for textures, drape folds etc.

After a few years in the making, Backdrop Creator is now available for everyone to use. It can create muslin style backdrops, solid texture surfaces, lighting effects etc. You can blend colors and textures to create as many backdrops as you will ever need. Backdrop Creator has brought my studio to the next level. I hope it can do the same for yours.

Camera Lens Types

A lens is what your camera uses to focus on a scene. If you have been researching what kind of lens you will need for what you are going to use your camera for I'm sure you have already discovered that there is a huge variety of lenses available for just about any situation possible. There are wide-angle, mid range, zoom, telephoto, and fixed lenses. The cost and quality of camera lenses is based on a wide variety of things. It is first of all based on the size and focal length capabilities of a lens. For example, a 28-128 mm. lens will be cheaper than a 100-400 mm. lens. But what can make a lens very expensive is its aperture capabilities. A lens that can achieve a wider aperture will be more expensive (all other things constant). There are also many other things that are taken into account with price but the zoom and aperture capabilities are the main things.

Types and Focal Lengths

Wide - Angle Lens - Wide angle lenses are most commonly defined as lenses with focal lengths that are less than 50 mm. A wide angle lens is most commonly used for landscape photography. Most photographers buy them because they can focus on a very wide range from side to side. Sometimes they are necessary for portraits as well though. Wide lenses in many situations where the only way that could fit everyone into the frame was with a wide-angle lens. When I use my wide-angle lens I almost always make the aperture very narrow so I have a very large depth of field. Wide-angle lenses are good at focusing on everything rather than one small part of a scene.

Standard Telephoto Lens - This is the typical short range zoom lens that usually is sold included with new digital slr cameras. They usually have a range of around 28-85 mm. and are compact in size. This is a very well-rounded lens and can be used for just about every situation possible which is the very reason it usually comes included with new cameras. It can be sufficient for landscapes and portrait photography as well as spur of the moment photos like sports or movements.

Medium Telephoto Lens - This is most commonly defined as a lens that has a mid telephoto capability. This is usually somewhere between 80 and 150 mm. This is the perfect type of lens for portrait photography. The focal length of this type of lens is kind to the face and makes the nose appear to be more flush with the rest of the face. Closer range lenses make the nose appear closer to the camera than the rest of the face therefore accentuating it and making it appear larger than it really is. Although this lens is perfect for portrait photography, it is also great for sports photos and other subject oriented pictures.

Long Range Telephoto Lens - This is most commonly defined as a lens that has a long range telephoto capability which is usually considered greater than 150 mm. This type of lens can be very powerful and very expensive. Photographers buy these lenses for many different reasons. If you watch sports events you can usually see photographers on the sidelines with huge telephoto lenses that are capable of zooming to the far side of a football field. These lenses can be used for nature photography in capturing dangerous animals without getting too close. The paparazzi also uses these types of lenses on occasion to get photos of celebrities from behind boundaries or fences. The long range zoom creates a whole new world of opportunities for photographers.

Prime or Fixed Lenses Compared to Zoom Lenses

Why would a photographer buy a fixed focal length lens when he could get 100 different focal lengths with a zoom lens? There are in fact many good reasons to choose fixed lenses over zoom lenses. The reason I bought a fixed wide-angle lens instead of a zoom wide angle is because fixed lens are faster and they show more depth. The differences between the two kinds are usually very subtle, but it does make quite a difference. Since the zoom lenses change focal lengths as they shift they tend to flatten the depth of field and change the perspective. With a fixed lens, there aren't any moving parts and therefore better performance on their one focal length.

More Uncommon Specialized Lenses

Macro Lens - This type of lens is built specifically to be able to focus on something while being extremely close to it. This lens is commonly used to get very close to intricate objects such as flowers or bugs. I have used my macro lens to take photos of water drops, faces, eyes, and hair. The possibilities are endless and I have used mine to create some amazing close-up colorful photos.

Tilt Shift Lens - This type of lens is built for only a few types of situations where distortion occurs because the subject is very long or wide. Tilt movements of the lens allow you to obtain a wide depth of field even at a wide aperture and still keep the entire subject in focus. Shift movements of the lens correct the effect seen in pictures taken of tall objects such as buildings, so that the subject does not look distorted. Most people use this kind of lens for panoramic or architectural photography.

Conclusion

The type of lens you should get entirely depends on what kind of photos you are going to take. Just because you want to take good photos doesn't mean you have to drop a couple thousand dollars on lenses. It is true that you tend to get what you pay for with lenses but I would recommend starting off with a few medium quality lenses and practice your basic skills before investing in a very expensive lens. And once you do get a lens that you care about make sure you get a UV filter for it so you can preserve its quality and prevent it doesn't get scratched.

Digital Camera Vs Film

Until recently, photographers used film for all their camera work. They either learned how to handle and develop film, or took the undeveloped roll to a local processing house for development and printing. Now, you have a choice between film or digital cameras for photography. So which is better? Here I present the pros and cons of each, so the reader can be the judge for themselves.

There are many considerations when deciding between film or digital. Are you a hobbyist and shoot mostly family gatherings and vacations? Or are you a professional who needs to control every aspect of the shot, and you desire the look of film? These are just a few examples that will influence your decision to purchase a traditional film or digital camera for your photography needs.
Pros of Film
Many professional photographers still prefer to use film over digital formats. When using film, you can match film speed, and many other factors to influence the final photo result. If you learn all you can about the films available, and the camera settings to use, your artistic options are greater with a film camera. That is not to say that there are not a plethora of settings on the digital camera that can help you try to mimic the look of film. Just that many purists insist that digital will never replace the look of film.
Another pro of using film is the fact that your photos can be printed and stored physically, and you have a backup negative to create more prints whenever you need them. You don't have to remember to back up your digital data, or run the risk of accidentally deleting your photos with film.
Cons of Film
Film is not as convenient as digital. You must shoot many more photos with film to be sure you get that perfect shot. You must have the entire roll of film developed to see the shots you have, and if they are acceptable. On the other hand, with a digital camera you can simply bring up your photos and scroll through to see them instantly to see if your shot was acceptable. The processing of film also adds additional expense over digital processing.
Pros of Digital
Digital cameras are great for most people, especially hobbyists just starting out. Perhaps the greatest asset for non-professionals is that you have instant access to the photos you have taken. So you can easily see if your shot is blurry, or has other imperfections that you need to correct. You no longer have to return from vacation and have your film developed to find out if those great shots of your vacation turned out.
When shooting digital, you can easily download the photos to your computer or laptop, and work with the images. You can easily post them to a web site, e-mail them to others, or bring them into photo editing software for any use you desire. You can store a digital backup of the files, while at the same time you can create prints on a photo printer that rival film prints.
You can shoot thousands of digital photos and store them on a couple of backup disks. The quality will be just as good if you need to make another print later. Compare that to the boxes of faded old photos you probably have around the house or stored in the attic.
The Cons of Digital
One of the biggest cons to digital photography is the digital format. If you are like most people, you download your photos to your hard drive and forget about them. Most people never take the time to back up all those precious photos until the day they have a hard drive crash, and all those memories are gone in an instant. To prevent this, it is a good idea to get an external hard drive and back up all the important files on your hard disk. Better yet is to burn the photos to a CD and have a physical copy that you can label for ease of finding a specific photo, as well as having the external hard drive backup.
Some people feel that digital photos do not have the same "warm" feel as film. Although for purists this might be the case, for most applications it would be hard to tell a digital photo printed on photo paper, and a film photo printed on the same paper. But this is where pricing can become an issue with digital photography. If you print a large number of photos, especially large 8x10s, the prices for quality photo paper and colored printer ink can add up quickly.

Conclusions
In reality, most people will not be able to tell the difference between digital and film photos in the finished product. And with software applications you can easily add effects that make your digital photos look like film. The choice comes down to your own abilities, preferences, budget, and shooting experience. If you are considering buying a camera, be sure and do your homework, and if possible, look at both before deciding which is best for you. The other consideration would be what kinds of shots you plan to take. If you plan to do long exposure astrophotography, then your best, and maybe only option, would be a 35mm film camera with a shutter lock. So be sure and analyze your intended use and the camera's suitability for your intended use as well before making a final purchase decision.

Cases that need to be learned in the world of photography:

1. Composition Principle
   In the composition principle, there are some things that need to be in the know like framing techniques, the main subject position, maintaining that containers and interesting backgrounds, use of color in the picture, the concept of balance between elements and also other related case  storytelling images.
2. Selection of lens
   Use the right lens will affect how visual images. Each lens also has the task and different qualities.
3. The use of ISO
   ISO is the sensitivity level of the light sensor in the camera. Most digital cameras have an ISO from as low as 50 to 3200. DSLR for professionals can achieve ISO 6400 and 25600. ISO low, like 50, 100, 200, usually used in an atmosphere of light and have adequate lighting. ISO 400 to above are usually in use in the home or in the dark.
4. Digital Darkroom Techniques
   Digital darkroom technique is the process of editing images using computer ilke photo shop, paint shop pro, gimp, and more. Between the normal process to do was brighten the image, cropping, dodging and burning, sharpening, contrast correction, color correction and white balance, editing typical impressions and so forth.
5. Retouching
   The process of retouching is the process of converting the image fits like to remove acne, and so forth.
6. Image of Black & White / Monochrome
   Black and white images can be generated from hold the camera or by using the digital darkroom techniques. This process is very easy in a digital world
7. Filters
   There are some filters that needed in the digital world. The most important filter is the UV filter. UV filter will reduce haze in the picture and should keep the lens from  penetrated the dust, moisture and dirt. Filters are important also is Circular polarize filters. Filters that can help get the blue sky and may eliminate the baying-shadow in the water. Close-up filter may help reduce the distance focusing and helps us take a macro picture.
8. Focal Length
   Focal length of lens give clues to the aperture angle lens and Size image relative to the object. Mark the normal focal length in millimeters or mm.

Techniques Digital Photography For Beginners

Photography is not only to certain circles, photography is for all circles. Beginners in photography should improve their techniques in order to create pictures in great quality. You can try to be expert on it while you are finding more places or ways to improve your skill in taking high quality pictures.

1. Probably the greatest feature of digital cameras is the fabulous LCD screen that allows for real time preview of pictures as you take them. One of the best and most practical digital photography techniques is to make sure to utilize the LCD to its fullest potential by previewing each each picture and making sure it is perfect, if it's not just click delete it and re shoot.
2. Try to get a digital camera with image stabilization. If you don't have that feature then here is a digital photography technique to get clearer pictures without any blur. Hold your hand steady when taking pictures to prevent it from shaking and moving. Also, it is better to hold your eye up to the optical viewfinder when taking pictures, rather than the electronic viewfinder. This helps you to see exactly what your capturing and also helps to keep the camera steady when taking pictures.
3. Flash seems to be a challenge for most beginner photographers. Most flash technology can only light up a up a subject within an average of 10 to 15 feet. Make sure to move in closer, or add more light to the subject area.
4. Because digital cameras can take slightly longer to focus than film cameras, a good digital photography tip to avoid blurry and out-of-focus shots is to half-depress the shutter button until the camera has had time to lock the focus, and then completely press the button to take the actual shot.
5. The law of optics remains the same whether using new digital photography technology or an old camera. For instance, if the sun is behind an image, the picture will be silhouette. If light is in front of the image, the picture will appear squint.
6. Another digital photography technique is when using a polarizer, be sure that the source of light is perpendicular to the object. If you do not have polarizing filter capability then a good digital photography technique is to use a quality pair of sunglasses. Place the sunglasses as close to the camera lens as possible, then check their position in the LCD viewfinder to make sure you don't have the the sunglasses rims in the picture.
7. Instead of film, digital photography uses memory cards to save shots. A good digital photography technique that can prevent lots of regret is to always have back up memory with you. There is nothing worse than missing that great shot because there is no more storage available in your camera.
8. A good digital photography technique for shooting bright landscapes and outdoor portraits is to change your white balance setting from auto to cloudy, this will yield brighter and clearer shots. This will give a warming filter on your camera and increases the reds and yellows resulting in richer and brighter pictures.
9. Zoom in to emphasize a certain asset or characteristic of the subject being captured. Avoid getting too large of a focus shot, evaluate what you want to capture and focus in on that image, avoiding backgrounds like buildings and landscape, this will give you clearer and better pictures of the object you want.
10. Practice is probably the best tip. The best digital photography technique is to practice using your camera. Get to know it and all the controls and what they do. Take lots of pictures and analyze what works best with your camera and soon you will be an expert with your own list of digital photography techniques.