Photography: folk art of the Information Age

Zoom in to Web to make better photos in a snap

I don’t get much time off during the first quarter of the year, so I take what little leisure time I get seriously.

I like to get outside at least once on my truncated weekends to see what the avian members of the community are up to and to snap a few pictures.

I have been doing this for some time, extending all the way back to the dark ages of amateur photography in BD times, or Before Digital. Those BD days were fun, of course, and I learned a great deal about taking photographs, from composition to exposure. I picked up focusing techniques and gained a rudimentary grasp of the proper use of depth of field.

Photography was an expensive proposition in those days. I was limited to a maximum of 36 exposures on a roll of film that cost anywhere from $3 to $10. When the roll was fully exposed, I could expect another bill for processing. Enlargements were an additional expense. By the time I got done, one photograph of the Louisiana water thrush that visited my birdie café could wind up costing me $25.

Things are different today. My 2GB memory card will hold as many as 1,000 large digital photographs. My fancy new digital SLR uses the lenses from my old film camera, complete with the automatic focusing feature that has made me into a lazy man. Rather than waiting and planning to compose one great photo, I can just shoot everything and sort it out later on my computer.

From camera to computer to paper, the entire process costs mere pennies per picture. It is no wonder that my skills have eroded a bit. I hope to make 2007 a year of better, more meaningful photography.  To that end, I have begun seeking advice and tutelage on the World Wide Web. Here are a couple of the best sites I have found so far.

www.kodak.com

I have always been a fan of Kodak, which has probably done more to make photography the folk art of the Information Age than any other entity. I also appreciate the commitment it has made to helping bring the peregrine falcon back from the edge of extinction. When faced with a question on photography, I usually turn to Kodak first.

The website is packed with useful information. Hoping to improve my bird photos, I surfed to consumer products from the Kodak home page. From there I chose the Taking Great Pictures tab and entered the tips section. Under Photographing People and Animals I found the Wild Birds selection.

I found that I had already been using one of the tips. It advised photographers to take plenty of pictures, saying that pros think nothing of filling a memory card to get that one great shot. It also offered advice on proper lighting, explaining the benefits of using electronic flash outdoors to freeze action and fill in shadows. Once mastered, this is an especially useful technique.

The beauty of the Kodak website, and Kodak’s overall philosophy, is that it is designed to help everyone with a camera, not just seasoned pros. If you have just picked up your first digital point-and-shoot, you’ll find something here to improve your photos. The same goes for someone hauling a 3-foot-long telephoto into the woods looking for ivory-billed woodpeckers. For helping people keep a visual record of what they find important in life, www.kodak.com picks up five old-fashioned emulsion-based images of spiders.

www.photoshoptips.net  

Taking digital photographs entails far more than just pointing and shooting. A photograph can be perfectly exposed and in razor-sharp focus and still stink. What you do after you press the button can be even more important. There are dozens of software answers to the challenges of digital photography. Many users consider Adobe Photoshop the finest available solution.

It is not for everyone, of course. Even after you recover from sticker shock, the vast power of the program can be difficult to harness. Some users have taken years to hone their skills and still take every chance to attend a lecture or course of instruction. The Photoshop Tips website is an excellent Web resource for Photoshop users of all levels.

My recent visit led to a two-hour session on making images of Christmas balls. It is not a skill that is used every day, but the tutorial was on the front page and it looked like fun. I picked up a few skills that can come in handy next year, and it was just the beginning.

To accomplish a particular task in Photoshop, wander through the Table of Contents section. You may find a detailed tutorial in that exact exercise with step-by-step instructions. If you would like to change the color of a car, for example, you can find everything you need short of a spray gun right here.

Clearing up minor flaws like blemishes or torn clothing is almost fun after going through the excellent explanation, complete with examples from a major motion picture. The many Photoshop tools are explained in detail, too, giving new users a chance to learn at their own pace. As a free site, www.photoshoptips.net offers a wealth of valuable information that earns it a five-spider salute.

www.all-things-photography.com 

Those of you who unwrapped your first digital camera over the winter holidays are likely to be anxious to get down to business making great photographs. A visit to the All Things Photography site can help establish a sound photography foundation with its collection of 15 valuable tips for making great pictures.

Nobody ever stopped and told me how to hold the camera. Many of my blurry photos can be attributed to my off-tripod one-handing and bumpy panning. It seems to work at the time, but when I get home I am frequently disappointed. After reading a tip on two-handed shooting, I am anxious to see if the quality of my pictures improves.

All Things Photography is a champion of the both-eyes-open school of thought and also suggested using a tripod for best results. The effects of adding filters to the mix are discussed, along with concepts like adjusting film speed and controlling depth of field.

You can find the complete list of tips at www.all-things-photography.com/better-digital-photography.html. A few minutes spent at the site can have an immediate impact on the quality of your digital pictures. For offering quality information to both new and veteran digital photographers, www.all-things-photography.com snaps up five spiders.

I am looking forward to taking better pictures this year. I hope that some of these sites can help you accomplish your photographic goals, too. If you have developed a particularly effective technique, or if you know where I can photograph the elusive IBWO, drop me a note at granese{at}juno.com.