Photography

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Black And White Photography Nature
In search of good photography spots?

I am just getting back into taking pictures. I really like, black and white photos, nature/scenery shots, and human reaction shots. Any one know of any good spots around San Jose or the SF? I plan on going out to shoot this Sunday. Also i am using a Polaroid 6 megapixel digi cam, which will do fine for now. Any suggestions on good professional camera equipment that i can take a look at?

Thanks

I don’t live in the SF area, so I can’t help personally. However, I can send you to a site where you will get a LOT of support, suggestions and encouragement!

http://www.betterphoto.com

Great discussions and sharing of ideas!!

http://www.betterphoto.com/photography-forum.asp

Great product reviews and suggestions!!

http://www.betterphoto.com/reviews.asp

San Francisco Bay Area Club you can join!!

http://www.betterphoto.com/Clubs/Default.asp?id=6006

Have FUN & GOOD LUCK!! ;o)

Black And White Photography Nature

Black and White Photography Tips – Four Tips For Great Black and White Pictures

These black and white photography tips will help you to recognize good black and white photo subjects and to be able to photograph and edit these for the best effects.

Black and white photography is an excellent way to train the eye to recognize remarkable photo composition which is why so many photography courses and schools teach black and white early on.

As amazingly beautiful as a colorful sky may be, it is the lines, shapes and curves that move the eye through the photo. With color, the vibrant tones are beautiful but with black and white the contrasting tones are more dynamic.

In spite of its attributes, after the media went full color in the 70′s and 80′s black and white photography faded. It soon became increasingly more challenging to find places that sold and processed black and white film. Now thanks to digital cameras and editing, black and white is back!

How to Recognize Stunning Black and White Photographs

Although choosing the best subjects for black and white is very subjective, many professional photographers will agree that the following types of compositions beg for black and white:

* Photos that convey strong emotion. Often times, color can be a distraction whereas black and white makes the emotion or feeling seem more strong.

* Images lacking a full spectrum of colors; for example, a city scape or Ansel Adam’s Yosemite “Moon and Half Dome.”

* Low contrast images such as photographs shot on dark overcast days.

* Any subject with the lines, contours, shadows and curves that you just know will look great in black and white. How can you tell? By getting familiar with a variety of black and white images! Search online for Ansel Adams work. Or search for “famous black and photos.”

* Look at B&W photography books at the library. There are many places to appreciate and learn this artful form of photography!

Create Black & White Photography with a Photo Editor

Once you see a subject and know it would like best in black and white, then you can always set your camera to B&W and take it. However, if you gain experience with your photo editor, you will find you can create even better B&W images by shooting in color first and then desaturating in the editor. Another benefit to this method is that you’ll never end up with a day’s worth of pictures all in black and white because you forgot to reset the camera!

Check Your Camera’s White Balance

While the easiest way to change a color to black and white is to desaturate it with your photo editor, this technique doesn’t let you control how the primary colors work together to produce a gray scale brightness. If you create a good white balance when taking the picture, then the simple desaturation method may be all you need do in the photo editor.

Make Sure to Use Your Photo Editing Software’s Color Swatches

One of the many methods for creating black and white images in a photo editor allows you to apply color swatches for your tones. Even though there are no colorful tones in black and whites, there are still tones created by colors. Color swatches work a lot like the way color lenses work on a SLR camera. For example, filters in the yellow to orange range are flattering to the skin while green creates nice tones for nature pictures.

And finally, don’t forget to show off your black and white photographs. Beautiful black and white photos deserve to be framed for all to see. You should select picture frames that showcase your image with simple clean lines rather than distract from it. Hope you enjoyed these four black and white photography tips and have fun taking your next black and white photo!

About the Author

Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames. Shop online and see our large selection of antique picture frames in a wide variety of styles like our old fashioned vintage picture frames and unique victorian picture frames. Shop online or call 800-780-0699.

Camera shopping *Film* maybe digital..?

I’m thinking of starting in the art of photography…although i’m at a loss when it comes to purchasing a camera. I’ve had a friend tell me a film camera is sharper than a digital camera? What would be a nice camera to get? .. I’m planning on doing a lot of black and white work with scenery shots of nature,people,materials,etc. I’m looking for something where i can get a quick shot off, as-well a very clean and crisp looking shot.
So how much am i looking at spending, and what should i go with film or digital??
hmm yeah i’m considering taking a class at my college.. So how about a nice point and shoot camera? Is their one with a nice zoom?

I can see the merits of starting with a film camera, but I can also see the downsides.

As far as quality is concerned, a GOOD digital camera is every bit as good as film, although more expensive to purchase.

Once you HAVE the gear, digitial is much cheaper – no film, no developing costs.

NO waiting around for the labs….. you have instant results to learn from and to enjoy.

You will be MUCH more likely to experiment (and therefore to learn) when you don’t have the constant ongoing costs to worry about, and the result is instant.

Buy a DSLR (Canon or Nikon) and buy GOOD lenses (you’d regret buying cheap ones very quickly).
Then concentrate on learning lots, because YOU are the one who makes the biggest difference to your results.

You should ALWAYS have your camera set to the highest resolution (most pixels) and best quality (least compression) and do any special effects (including b/w conversions) later at the computer. Post processing is part of the digital workflow.

black and white photography 3 by richard armstrong

Tips For Black And White Nature Photography

Clicking pictures of nature could make one feels as an artist, also it is a nice opportunity to explore the nature and if your images come out great, than you can have a chance to enter the photo contest. Here are some of the techniques which would help you to enhance this kind of photography. Remember anyone can take the photograph, but to do it purposefully, one needs lots of practice.

Composition

Composition is very essential if you wish for good results. Photographers do this by elements like line, tone, color, lighting etc.  Just ask yourself few questions when you give a look through viewfinder.  Think what should be the message of your photograph and how would you able to communicate it better. If you manage to sort out these issues, then the other things would definitely fall automatically into place.

Do not include lots of subjects.

Nature photography is more successful if the message is very clear. It also does not mean that the photo should have political message or something. So just do not try to get lots of subjects in one photo, keep it simple. Tune subjects accordingly by looking into the viewfinder.

Be patient

Good photographs do not come out easily, ensure that you are quite patient. Even some of the photographs take eight to ten minutes to compose.

Tripod and correct lens

Another main aspect of nature black and white photography is: that you are using a tripod and a correct lens. The right lens is essential for the nature photography, for example the 300/4 lens would give a much different effect than the 20mm lens.

Lighting

Lighting makes a vast difference between the normal pictures and black and white nature photography Natural light is generally most plentiful, it is the best option available, but only if it is not very harsh like we have in midday. You should know how to control it. For example you can use reflective foils, white boards and umbrellas. But we cannot use all these things in your nature photography.  So you should know which equipment is required and what effect you need exactly.

Digital photography

Digital photos can actually help to portray the creativeness of the photographers in capturing the landscape or creature which are felt real to touch. Digital photos comprise team work between photographer and nature and the results would be unique and incredible.

About the Author

Author is amateur wild life photographer. He is associated with Pixpa – an photography portfolio website solution provider which provides portfolio website for photographers

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Fine Art Black and White Photography by Doreen Osto

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