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| There are a lot of sites that offer safari photography with a lot of amazing pictures of wild animals |
The Photography Safari Taking your love of photography on the road is one of the really exciting assignments a photographer can get. Whether you are going out into nature to photograph a great sunrise, a phenomenal river or to capture some other wonder of nature or if you are going to an urban area to get photos that tell the story of a people, the safari nature of the trip is the same.
Safari is a good name for such a trip because like that hunter going into the deep jungle to bag big game, you are going to the unknown to get that perfect photograph. Your preparations have to be expert. Your discipline on the road must be focused. But above all, your determination to get what you came for must be relentless as you hunt the prize you want to bag, not with a gun but with your camera.
One mistake to avoid is over packing for your adventure. It’s easy to do because you may have the urge to bring everything in your studio “just in case”. First of all, if you have every piece of photography equipment you own with you, the likelihood that something will get broken or stolen is pretty good. So you have to know how to strip down your travel gear to just what you have to have to get the job done.
But how do you know that if this experience is new to you? One way is to do a few “dry runs”. Just as you went out and did practice photographs when you were learning your craft, take one or two test trips to the next town. Do these without the pressure of a deadline or a deliverable that you have to complete. An overnighter to take pictures at the zoo in the nearest big city will surface what is needed and what is not. Then repeat the exercise to take photographs out in the country where you may have to backpack your equipment in. You will find out pretty fast what “stuff” is worth the extra weight and what needs to stay home.
Your photography safari is a business trip to you and you have a mission. But your mission is about more than just going somewhere to get a snapshot. Just as every picture has personality and soul, the more you become part of the environment where you are traveling, the better your “eye” will be to capture the perfect photo.
Yes, you must stay focused on the purpose of the trip and stay on schedule. But don’t forget to enjoy the trip. If you are going to take a picture of a natural wonder, like Mount Rushmore, for example, spending time visiting with others going to that sight or talking to locals may surface some locations and secrets about the site that other photographers would not get if they just came, snapped a photo and left. Use the “down time” to charm the other travelers and let them charm you. Not only will your picture be a hundred times better, you will have a lot more fun.
Finally, as you reach your destination, your preparations need to pay off and you need to let them pay off. Here is where focus and the eye on the prize is crucial. It is so easy, especially when traveling, to become obsessed with the equipment, with the set up and with your settings. Do all of that before you leave, or in the hotel room the night before. On location, the session is about your subject, not your equipment. Your equipment is there to serve you. Don’t worry about it. Trust yourself that you did a good job getting ready. You have quality equipment and you have prepared the lenses, checked the batteries and done all the right things. It all will work when it needs to work. Now you keep your eye on the prize. Your expert eyes are needed to judge the lighting, the angle and every aspect of the shot to determine if it tells the story that you know this photograph has to tell. Here is where the artist in you works beautifully with the photographer to produce a photo that you will genuinely be proud of. And if you obey your disciplines and get that shot, it will be a photography safari that comes home having “bagged the big one” to add to your trophy room for sure.
Filed under photography equipment, photography safari by 
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| Photography basics can be learned in all photographic clubs and associations that are present in all major cities and towns |
The Basics of Photography If you are a sports fan, you know what it means when a team goes into a “rebuilding year”. It is just when the owners or coaches decide its time to train new members and correct bad habits in others. And invariably, what team leadership says when they go into such a time is that they are going “back to basics.” Sometimes it’s good for us as photographers to go back to basics. And, of course, if you are just getting started in the world of photography and want to learn “the ropes”, the basics are a natural start. But you want the basics of what the professionals know about the craft of photography.
Anybody can take a picture. I attended a wedding reception where the wedding party left a disposable digital camera on each table at the reception for guests to snap photos. Before the evening was over, it was the children who were running around taking pictures of everything from the dirty dishes to their own underwear. These were not photographers and while those pictures will no doubt get a few chuckles, these are not the kind of professional pictures people want for their long-term memories.
Obviously, the cornerstone of the basics of photography is the camera. When you see a camera geek walking around with enough equipment on his neck to launch a space shuttle, you get the impression that cameras are phenomenally complex, more than mere mortals can grasp. But look at the professionals and you see them working with portable, relatively easy to operate cameras. That is because the basics of running a camera come down to aperture and shutter speed.
Now don’t get nervous about fancy terms. Aperture is just a term for how wide your camera lens is open to let in light. And shutter speed is just how long you let the light come in to affect the picture. For getting a shot of a fast moving event, you want a wide aperture to let in a lot of light but a short shutter speed so you capture the event quickly and close the window so the picture is caught before more light hurts the quality.
Photography is really all about light. You can and will get learn a lot about lenses and flash photography and other ways to turn the control over the lighting of a shot to you. So add to your core skills of photography a willingness to never stop learning. The better and more sophisticated you get in your ability to work with the equipment, the more you will learn and the more you will want to learn. You can get a greater control over these basic controls of the camera such as aperture and shutter speed by learning how to switch from automatic settings to manual settings. The automatic settings of any camera are just there for the general public who are not interested in learning the basics. So they give you some basic settings like landscape, portrait and sports settings. By switching to manual, you can learn what settings work best in different situations.
And that takes us to the most important basic about becoming a great photographer and that is practice. Take some time with your equipment and play with it. Take it to situations and take photos with different aperture and shutter speed settings, in outdoor and indoor settings and different orientations to light. Don’t get upset when some shots don’t work. That’s part of the learning curve.
By learning by doing, you will build your confidence in your work and eventually become a great photographer. But don’t get cocky, there is always more to learn. And that is one of the fun things about photography, isn’t it?
Filed under camera lens, disposable digital camera, photographers by
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| The photography business is today threatens with a lot of amateurs armed with a digital camera and claiming to b e professionals |
Start Your Own Photography Business When you are a kid and thinking about the many ways you can make a living when you grow up, what is the advice your elders always gave you? It was, “Do what you love to do and you will always be happy.” And that has to be true because if you can spend your work week doing what you love the most, it really won’t be work as much as it will be play that people pay you to do. So if your passion is photography, it makes sense to start your own photography business. But how to go about it? You see so many small photography shops that seem to spring up from nowhere. What is the best way for you to go about starting your own business like this? The first thing to think about when starting a photography business is how to do it in a legitimate way. You want a business that will last a lifetime so you want to start it out right. So don’t fall for the “get rich quick” internet schemes or books that claim they will spill the insider secrets of other successful photography business. There are no insider secrets to this business other than what you need to know to run any business. To succeed you have to… * Pay your dues * Get your education.
* Learn from the pros.
* Know your stuff.
* Network * Value your customers.
You can accomplish the first five of these objectives by going to school and working part or full time in somebody else’s photography shop. You may despair at the idea of more school. But your photography business will be about more than just cameras, photo shoots and dark rooms. You have accounting principles to comprehend and execute, taxes to be paid, a facility to rent, employees to pay, insurance to worry about, contracts to sign and all of that other “stuff” that goes with running a business. So start early and get some basic business classes under your belt such as accounting and economics. It will benefit you dozens of ways as you march toward success.
Many trades have an apprentice system where you tutor under a master of the craft. But it might be a good thing for you to take this matter into your own hands. Plan to work for a photography shop long enough to learn the ins and outs of running a small business and of running a photography business. This gives you the chance to build your knowledge and exposure to equipment, learn technique and how to work with your subjects.
In fact, it might be a good idea to deliberately apprentice at a number of different types of photography studios before launching out on your own. So you can learn the ins and outs of wedding photography, baby photography, fashion photography and others from specialists all before you spend a dime of your own money to start your own enterprise. In this way, you build skills, you build knowledge, you build experience and you can watch and take notes of the great things others do and the mistakes to avoid.
Your employers will be thrilled to share their real world knowledge with you if you are open to them that you want to learn from the masters how to do this with the goal of becoming their competition in the future. Above all, you can build a client base from the many customers you work with before you start your own business. Buy taking care of someone else’s customers, they can become your customers when you hang out your shingle. And that is good business.
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| A great deal of skills is required in order to achieve quality artistic photography |
Is Photography Art? The controversy about whether photography is art is one that has been raging in the art world for a long time and we are not likely to totally solve it here. But it can be an important decision you have to make if you are considering a career in photography with the goal of producing quality art works. If that is where you are, the idea that someone would say “That’s not art, you just took a picture” is pretty disturbing. So it’s worth looking at the question from several different angles before we pick which side to weigh in on.
Of course, art is a subjective thing. Many people would look at a Jackson Pollack “splatter” artwork and determine most definitely that modern art is not art because it “doesn’t look like anything.” And if you spend any time in the modern art world, you will definitely see something at some time along the way occupying space in a perfectly respectable art museum that, to you, could never be considered art.
So is it just a matter of opinion? To some extent, yes. But there is an art world and an industry behind it that depend on there being some standards upon which art is judged. One such standard is the intent of the artist. If you produce a photograph or an art work derived from a photograph that is intended to be viewed as art, then the viewer is obligated to try to see the artistic merit in it. Whether the viewer sees that merit or not may depend on the viewer’s abilities, how good you are at getting your artistic message across or many other factors.
But just wanting something to be art doesn’t make it art does it? As a layman in the art world, I sometimes go with the “I don’t know art but I know what I like” system of evaluating pieces I see. Art, after all, has a tendency to touch us in another place that is above and beyond the image. It is an emotional place, a place of reflection and understanding. Maybe we would say it touches our “soul”. For a work to be art, there should be a message, a feeling, a reason the artist made the work because he or she wanted to say something, even if how I interpret the statement is different than what the artist meant. So that might also be an evaluation of a photograph as to its artistic merit or not. Now the primary objection to whether photography is art sometimes is that a photograph is often a realistic depiction of a moment taken with a machine and some would say that “anybody can take a picture.” The implication is that the same mechanical skill it might take to paint a picture of sculpt a statue is not needed for photographic art.
It’s true that the mechanical skill that the guy at Wal-Mart might need to take baby pictures may be the same as a great photographic artist might need. But the objection doesn’t hold up because the same human language is used to create great poetry as it takes yell out obscenities at a baseball game. So it isn’t the skill that makes it art. Good evidence comes from the credit some great art experts have given to photographic exhibitions in the fine museums in the world. The very fact that photography is considered art by those who know may be evidence enough. So the conclusion must be that because the arguments against the artistic value of photographs are weak and people who know consider photography to be art, then we are safe in viewing what we do artistically too. And that opens up that side of your soul to express yourself through the medium you love the most – photography.
Filed under art work, modern art by
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| There are a lot of sites that provide tutorials in digital photography for beginners and this should help beginners to learn the basics |
In Praise of Digital Photography In any discipline, you will have what many think of as “the purists”. Purists are those who revere the way things have always been done and view new innovations in the field as upstarts and obviously of poorer quality than the tried and true methods.
This is nowhere more true than photography. For decades the film and chemical processing method has undergone continual refinement to achieve higher and higher levels of sophistication and to find higher levels of quality. Small wonder that when the digital revolution came along, “the purists” were, to say the least, a bit snobby about the idea of professional photography moving in this direction.
But there are some genuine reasons to at least incorporate digital technology into your professional photography game plan. These reasons are compelling enough that more and more we are seeing the big studios going all digital. So if you are running an independent photography business or if you are “just” a photography hobbyist (and thank God for the hobbyists), you may have to think through the value of moving to digital processing yourself.
Ease of Use.
The amount of fuss and sheer “stuff” of doing a shoot digitally is dramatically less involved than using the older technologies. Witness how the digital revolution in photography has revolutionized the personal camera world. Now people can take as many pictures as they want and have them to review virtually instantaneously.
Probably the biggest leap forward in the use of digital photography is that you can do re-shoots quickly, easily and for virtually no cost. If you conduct a portrait session with a customer, you can have the “stills” of the session available almost as soon as the session is done. If a shot was good but not perfect, you can correct it and re-shoot immediately saving huge amounts of time and improving the chances you will get the portfolio you want and that the customer wants on the first session.
Rapid Customer Service.
The impression we get when a technology delivers so much value to the public is that quality will go down. But, amazingly, this is not the case with digital photography. If anything, the quality of the photographs is as good or better than any we could do with prior technologies. And the cost both to you as the photographer and to your customer drops off so dramatically that the age old complaint the customer has had about professional photographs costing too much can be eliminated making the customer want to use your services more often.
Digital photography, being a child of the internet and the digital revolution that has swept our lives via personal computers, can be delivered in a myriad of ways and at a speed that was unheard of prior to the arrival of this technology. We can deliver the photos via email, by posting them to an online gallery or by burning them to a DVD or CD so the customer can order lots more shots for the same cost and have them delivered in a way that easy to view and store.
Editing Editing has similarly moved from the realm of the back room wizards to something any of us can do due to the sophisticated computer programs, such as Photoshop, that we can use to improve the pictures we take. It is really amazing the effects that can be imposed on a picture with this software. But more importantly we can so much more easily correct minor problems with a photograph so what might have been a lost session can be improved to become acceptable with some clever use of digital editing.
In virtually every way, digital photography, delivery and editing is superior to the way “the purists” would have us hold on to. It makes our lives as photographers easier, faster and more profitable. But above all, this is something our customers want us to use. They get to enjoy their pictures so much faster, at a more reasonable cost and the pictures can be emailed to friends and posted on their family web sites which is fun for everyone. So despite our desire to be “purists”, every reason we need is there to convince us that digital photography is the way to go.
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| All good photographers has their own tips on photography lighting to make sure that their photos are all successful |
Photography Lighting I have loved taking pictures for as long as I can remember. I always took very interesting shots, but they always lacked something. I didn’t know what it was until I want to college and learned how to light a scene for television and movie type productions. Suddenly, it all made sense to me. Though there is only so much you can do with natural light, there are things you can do with your photography lighting to get your pictures to snap, so to speak. It’s not that hard, but you may have to practice, but you can get the hang of it rather quickly with a little practice.
What you should know when thinking about photography lighting is that the lights in your home can be used, but they are less than ideal. If you really want to get great lighting, you want to buy a set of lights that were made to light photos. You can get away with having two of these lights, but for proper photography lighting, you want to have three. This way you can add light front three angles to fill in all the shadows that may cloud an otherwise great picture.
Also remember that when you are doing photography lighting, you may want to use bounced light rather than direct light. This means that you want to point the light at a wall or ceiling so the light bounces back on your subject. This will soften the glare of the light. If you are going for a harsher light, then you may want to use the direct lighting, but for most types of photography lighting for portraits, you will want to use the bounced lighting method. Just remember to keep the lights out of the photos. This is a mistake that I made quite often when I was learning how to light photos.
When you are using natural light for photography lighting, you have to try to do the best you can. Remember that you should always have your back to the sun when photographing people or items, otherwise you may end up with a darkened subject in your photo. You should also remember that you might need to use a flash on overcast days, or when you are taking a photo in the shade. You have to have some practice with photography lighting before you can get it right, but if you pay attention to what you are doing and what happens when you do certain things, you will be well on your way to taking better pictures.
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| Taking a landscaping photo can help you in the renovation or the re-designing of your garden or front yard |
Find yourself a great landscaping picture If you can find yourself a wonderful landscaping picture you will be that much closer to designing your yard, just like that. This landscaping picture will give you all of the inspiration that you need to come up with the most gorgeous and eye catching ideas around. It is hard to think of all of the best landscaping ideas on your own, especially if you have never taken on a project like this before. So if you are new, do not worry, use a landscaping picture to help you come up with some fabulous ideas, in fact use a few! Even if you choose to work with a professional landscaper for your yard you should make sure that they show you a landscaping picture. This landscaping picture should show you what they expect your home to look like once it has been completed. This is important as it will help you to choose the right landscaper for the job. The landscaping picture that they show you will tell you a lot about the landscaper. The landscaping picture will tell you how much imagination the landscaper has as well as how much work they actually plan on doing. So never, choose a landscaper until you see some kind of landscaping picture.
This is not the only landscaping picture that your landscaper should show you either. You should also ask that he show you at least one landscaping picture of a job he has completed in the past. The best landscapers usually have more than on landscaping picture, they usually have a portfolio that they will let you flip through. This is so useful because you will see exactly the kind of service you will be getting if you choose this company.
It is important to take care with all of the decisions like this. This is the entire look of your home. When people walk by your house you want them to notice it for how gorgeous and wonderful it looks, not how run down. Having a lovely garden can make all of the different so start thinking about getting in a professional landscaper today. Just make sure that you have him show you a good landscaping picture first and you will be way ahead of the game.
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| There are a lot of sites that you can visit on the web that will provide you with digital photography stock |
What Do You Know About Stock Photography Stock photography, groups of photographs that people take, grouped and licensed for selling purposes. Instead of taking new pictures every time they need pictures, many people use the stock photography method. People that work for magazines, as graphic artists, and advertising agencies sometimes use public pictures instead of hiring photographers for individual projects.
Alternate names for stock photography is picture libraries, photo archives or image banks. Typically, in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee or a purchasing of usage rights that comes with a fee in order to use the pictures. Sometimes a membership purchase allows you to have access to a particular group of stock photography.
Saving time and money, stock photography is a great way to enhance newsletters, blogs, advertisements, company brochures and more. It is obviously less expensive than putting a full time photographer on staff and takes less time if you need images of something specific. Many times, it is as easy as using a search engine or checking an email.
Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase. Other times, full rights are limited. In those cases, photographers might be requiring that they receive a certain percentage of sales and or royalties of usage. Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees. With the technology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are quicker and easier.
The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location the images will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo will be distributed to or seen by. Prices for stock photography can be anywhere from one dollar to two hundred dollars.
There are several different pricing arrangements. Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer to use photographs multiple times in multiple ways. When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only a one-time charge for unlimited usage. When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, the agency is able to resell the image to others. If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiated price for each time that it is used. Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images. In that case, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased. It may cost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales have to make sure that they are making a profitable sale. If a photograph would make more money staying in circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights.
Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone. Different subjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images. Sometimes contributors work for multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or they sell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around the world.
Stock photography started in the early 1920s. It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s. Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase. Stock houses sprung up in many different places. By 2000, online stock photography became microstock photography, which we call photo archives online. Companies like istock photo and bigstock photo offer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add more credits for another fee. Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those that are sold hard copy. Websites like www.shutterpoint.com and www.fotolibra.com allow stock photographers to upload and sell their images. It is a great way to market pictures and earn money with photography. You can also purchase images at those websites as well. With all the stock photography sites available, one may find pictures you never even heard of before.
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| There is a kind of photography filter that allow you to protect your lenses from the ultraviolet light |
The Use Of Filters In Photography Filters have two different meanings depending on how long you have had photography as a hobby. Most of us today think as filters as an option with Photoshop. This is not the case. Before the invention of computers and things like Photoshop we had small glass discs to create the filtered affect. There are many options with filters you can blur a picture, sharpen the picture, and even block out the UV rays. Filters are often used to correct a problem or make a picture look a little different.
Lets talk about filters that blur a photograph. When you are taking a picture of a waterfall at the bottom where the water rises in a cloud you can add a filter to create the cloud in the picture. Cameras don’t always see what the eye sees. In some cases it can have a high resolution to depict the actual water drops rather than the cloud, so adding a filter to your lens can help create the effect your eye sees.
Other filters such as the UV protector guard against the harsh rays. Along with the UV filter you should have a polarizer. The polarizer is used in photography when you are taking a shot into direct sunlight or other light. It will help balance out the photograph so that you don’t get the washed out look. Other filters can give you the washed out effect if you feel your photography would speak more. The filters in Photoshop are not as wide as the filters you can actually buy for your camera, but they can have some of the same effects that you are after.
Have you ever wanted to create a star effect when taking pictures of light filtering through the trees? You can create a star effect with any photograph by using a star effect filter. This filter allows light to pass through a series of thin lines etched into the filter letting the light streak outward in a star shape.
Some filters actually help you create a depth of field or focal point. The fog/ mist filter is one of these. The fog/ mist filter allows for a glow or flare of light in the photograph. Photography is filled with much skill and equipment. Having filters to help create the perfect professional photograph will enhance your fun with your hobby. Lets look at a few more filters.
There are color correcting lenses. If the sky is too blue for the photograph you can choose a filter that will tamp down the blue to a less bright state. If you are into underwater photography you might have filters that allow for the underwater colors. The color spectrum does not have a great range under water. A lot of things will look red even though they are not. It is easy to bring about the original color of underwater life when you use special filters for color correction.
The use of filters in photography not only allows you to have special effects in a photograph to create something new and different, but it can help enhance the shot by adding color or dampening the natural effects of light. Photography has many types of equipment that require skill and knowledge making it a wonderful hobby or profession. If you need a hobby, photography allows you to be creative.
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| There are a lot of photographers that are nowadays in the art of underwater photography that regularly expose their photos |
The Underwater World Captured With Photography Underwater photography is growing every year, those who go diving wish to bring the diving world visible to those who do not dive. We have always been fascinated with the oceans and bays of the world as an unknown world. Bringing vacation pictures home to your friends or selling them as professionals has been a time honored tradition and now we can bring the underwater world home through the use of digital photography.
There are many types of underwater cameras. You have the highly expensive professional cameras and the one time slightly effective versions. Knowing which camera will work for you is very important. Part of finding the right camera may lie with in the housing you wish to purchase. Underwater photography requires you to protect your camera from the harmful affects of water so you will have to purchase housing with seals to eliminate the water. The housing you find may fit the camera you have. In fact, most companies will sell the housing for the cameras you have. If you find you, need a better camera for the underwater world you will need to look at packages. These packages will include the housing.
Let us look at the 35mm cameras. Most of these cameras are just point and shoot. If they were meant for underwater chances are they have at least a mild filter to correct for the lack of color underwater. These cameras will not filter out the particles you find floating along in the water on a poor visible day. Usually they are limited to less than 100 feet. I would not use this type for anything below 80 feet. You would not want to loose pictures because the housing failed under pressure. While this is not common, it is a concern for most photographers.
The more professional cameras are larger with a huge lens to let light in as well as have filters to help bring clarity to any photograph. Typically, these cameras require you to have a deep-set hobby in underwater photography, as the expense is high. Digital cameras are the best way to take underwater photographs because you can make sure you have the desired affects before leaving the seen. Of course, most underwater life will not hang around for a second shot, but coral reefs and the animals that inhabit them may remain. Most underwater cameras will also have a flash. It is best to take an underwater photography course before delving to far in your hobby. Sometimes the flash will help you with the photographs, but other times it will wash the subject out and ruin the print. You can also use underwater cameras when you are snorkeling. Some flashes are built in to the camera while others are external. The external flashes can be a stick with a little light bulb on top.
When storing your underwater camera and flash you usually want to store them without the batteries as the batteries can die quickly. This is mostly for the cameras that use double AA batteries. Underwater photography is a great world to take home with you especially if you are on a dive vacation. Underwater photography requires a few more skills than regular photography due to the lighting conditions, but once you understand them you will be bring home great pictures every time.
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| Family portrait photography is a service that is offered by most photographers on a home basis |
Portrait Photography Do you just snap pictures of friends without a thought to how it my turn out? Portrait photography takes you a step up from people photography. It gives you elements to notice such as the angle you take the photograph, the lighting you will use, and the expression of emotion on a persons face. While you may be an amateur photographer deciding to take Christmas photos without the expense you will need to have some basic knowledge of techniques used by the professionals. First when taking a photograph of a person you need to study their face. The face is important to the angle you will shoot from. Though it is a cliché, it is true some people have a better side. This could be in relation to scarring or acne breakouts or even simpler. For instance my left eye is larger than my right by just a bit, and looking head on into the camera will cause a horrible portrait, however if the photographer comes from the right side and angles up a little the light and shadows will help even out the features while keeping the distinctions that make me who I am.
Portrait photography is about capturing the essence of the subject, the personality. The little nuances of a face add character to the portrait. You will want to loosen up your subjects. If you are becoming a professional portrait photographer you will want to learn about your subject as you are taking pictures or perhaps meet them before the session. If they are just your family then you should know what would get their personality captured on film. Lighting is the next important step to portrait photography. A lot of photographers prefer natural light to artificial. Your subject will in part decide this for you. Remember you will use the light you have. Natural light will often require setting the aperture to compensate for the cameras lack of definition. In other words you need to create the contrast with the light and shadows for the effect you want. Often artificial light is harsh and not directed properly unless in a studio. Again you will need to use the manual settings on your camera to create the perfect portrait. The background is also important when discussing light. In a studio a photographer will pick a background that will not wash your features out or your clothing. They want to have a distinction or contrast between you and the background. This is also important of home portrait photography. You will want a background that gives color to your subject rather than taking it away. Finding a nice spot with a tree to sit on and mountains in the background can be a great portrait, but you will want to make sure the background is not too busy to distract from the subject. Make the subject seem apart of the picture rather than outside of it.
The type of camera and film you use will also determine the quality of the photography. Once you combine techniques such as lighting, angles, and understanding your subject you will be able to create a near to professional if not professional portrait for your friends and family no matter the occasion. Just snapping a picture is possible, but it would be great to have a better portrait?
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| Whether a photo is great or not depends a lot on the photography lighting techniques that has been employed by the photographer. |
Lighting Tips For Photography Photography requires a few skills to make your prints look professional. One part of making a print professional is lighting. Lighting in photography takes a little planning and understanding of a few techniques. You best subject or object might not turn out that way if the proper light does not help to laminate the area. Below are a few tips on using light for photography.
First you must decide if you will use artificial or sunlight. If you are using sunlight you will rely on the Kelvin scale to determine the temperature of light and therefore the color of light. The color of light is important to maintaining the colors you see around you. For instance the warmer the light the redder the light will be, thus you may need to pick the time you will go out and shoot photographs. Outdoor lighting offers so many different times to take pictures depending on your need. Next a photographer needs to understand the sun’s color scale. Pictures tend to lead the viewer towards certain feelings; often softer colors evoke more emotion. So understanding the suns impact on the colors will help you find the correct time of day. The sun evokes blue hues in the morning hours, while closer to noon you will find more neutral colors. The neutral colors can take away some of the definition you want in your print. Knowing how you want to shot the picture will also help you determine when you wish to take the shot.
When using natural light you will need to work with the angle and direction of the sunlight. If the sunlight is broad and diffused you will have softer shadows while the more narrow the light is focused the more shadow you can create. Often at noon when the sun is in mid arc you lose definition of the subject. The subject could look grainy. This is why shadow is used; the shadows can give you more quality to the print if used correctly. This adds to the beauty of your pictures. You can also modify sunlight through certain techniques. Modifying sunlight when taking portraits outdoors requires the use of a background. You may wish for a breath taking landscape that will provide more composition to the photo. You may need to block the sun if it interferes with you or your subject’s sight. You might also bring in a white surface to fill the shadows. Landscape photography requires less work than usually natural light for portraits. In fact using natural sunlight for landscape photography without modifications can yield you a better photograph.
Landscape photography uses nature to provide the light and shadows. This is why you need to understand the light scale and temperature. Time is the most important aspect of using sunlight. To understand natural lighting you need to understand the affects the sun will have at certain times of the day. For instance if you are in a thickly vegetative forest the sunlight will have difficulty streaming in unless it is over head. You will have natural shadows in the forest and remember you can move around your subject to find the best angle with the sun.
Photography is an art that requires techniques and practice. Lighting is a major part of photography, especially when you are using natural light. Sunlight can bring plenty of shadows or take them away depending on the time of day. Knowing the best time to take a photograph depends on the sun’s angle. Photography is an interesting hobby and profession when practiced properly will give you plenty of prints for your home and others.
Whether you are a professional or a novice photographer, you want to produce some exquisite pictures with the proper lighting. With this in mind, choose your lighting according to your needs and the needs of your subject or object. Your pictures will be delightful with brightness when you use the best lighting situation.
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| Forensic photography requires evidence on a crime scene is taken in all different angles so to provide acceptable in courts |
Forensic Photography Used In Today’s Society As the crowd pushes closer around the crime scene and yellow tape gets strung around the place of murder, theft or other forms of violence, little white chalk people get drawn around a corpse and its contortions there from the sidelines with a bag and lighting equipment comes the often unsung hero of our Articles. He or she is an important part of every investigation, with their sharp eye for detail and the patience of Job in the hustle and bustle that never fails to happen as the newest crime gets tagged, bagged and labeled. I am talking about the Forensics Photographer. Aside from taking fingerprints, dusting the crime scene and bagging evidence carefully to bring to the forensics lab and later the Court room, Photos are an important part of every crime investigation and later as evidence in Court. Forensics Photography is a fantastic Tool to collect and catalog Data as well. Sometimes a sweep of the surroundings with the Camera logs in Images which would otherwise would have been overlooked or forgotten. The Person in the third row of the onlookers. That broken piece of glass in the shadow. Our busy Patrol Officer might have not noticed it, but our Camera Lens has picked it up. One of the most important things in Forensic Photography is the sharpness of the Image. It has to be sharp as a well honed blade. Any fuzziness, pixilation or shake and it is as useless to the Court and the Investigators as an Eagle with pinkeye. The entire case rests on Forensic Photography and any flaw however sight, could cost a case to be lost. Never, ever disturb the crime scene. The first round of photos has to be taken before anything has been touched, removed or altered. It is the freeze frame of the Crime Scene. The closest you will come to having been there during the crime. So make sure you plan the photo before you take it. Later if you must small adjustments, like the adding of a measuring tool to show distance is permissible, but not during the first go over. Make sure you get a complete set of shoots. Those should include a close-up, a mid range and a wide angle. The Angel is very important as well. If you use the wrong point of view you may easily undo the best shoot by misrepresenting the relationship of distance to the object etc. Remember, your photo has to show exactly what is set out before you. You need to record everything in writing. Mark out specific items, but never mark on the photo it-self. For that it is wise to use an overlay that you can remove as is needed. Transparency paper is used for that purpose. Make sure you lighting and exposure is set correctly. There are a lot of extremely good literature available that can teach you how to set your exposure for which light, background and scenario. This helps take the perfect pictures needed.
Lastly but not least. Photos can be messed up easily if your equipment is not in tip top shape. Make sure that your lens is clean at all times of dust. No smutches etc. I know it seems to be a topic that should not even have to be mentioned, but often it is the small things we overlook. After all the entire point of forensic photography is to capture those small seemingly mute points that are often overlooked. A suggest you make your-self a check list and place even the most common sense items on your list. Batteries, Film, dust free equipment, tripod, removing the lens cap. You can think of it, write it down. You will be surprised sometimes how easily even the best professional forensic Photographer can make a simple mistake that could have been prevented by a check list. Remember the victim is counting on you too.
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| If you are a good photographer then you can choose to participate in some of the best online photo contests that are available on some photography sites. |
Taking pictures is not the only way to litter our walls with photography. There are those who are not interested in being behind the camera, but appreciate the art. If you have wondered where you might find some wonderful prints with a professional touch, but do not want to go to the galleries you might want to take a tour of the online world. Many people who take pictures place the pictures online for all to see. This helps you gain reorganization and potential clients for photography work.
The online world is full of photographers waiting to be discovered. Places like deviantart.com, eBay, and other online galleries exist for the convenience of finding new photographs for you home. Simply by putting the words photography, photographs, or prints will not lead you to the more professional prints online. When searching online you will need to use specific keywords. These keywords take you to picture of a specific nature.
If you are more interested in wildlife it is best to use those key words along with photography. Another drawback to online searching is getting the product from a reputable source. You want to make sure that your credit card information is safe, that the shipping will be affordable and appropriate. How they ship the print is also important you want to make sure a shipping company will not damage it. The number one thing about shipping prints is they require some insurance to ensure your investment has protection against damage, potential lost and theft when delivered.
There are several tips you will want to follow when shopping online. Perhaps the most important tip is remembering you are seeing the print scanned into the online store. This means you are not in the gallery to check the print over and analyze it to the full extent. You will want to be a little wary if the photographs are grainy or they appear to have flaws. It is often best to shop online at art galleries with a reputation. These companies generally have great reputations and offer different shipping methods and insurance.
In order to find appropriate sites you will want to understand page rank. Google ranks the web pages in order to give you an idea of the pages with the information you want as well as letting you know the sites validity. The higher the page rank, the more traffic the website has seen. Big known websites might offer more pictures and quality picture from a reputable service or business.
It can be very difficult to find photography galleries online that will actually sell their prints. It will take a little time and effort, but the results are most often worth it. Just searching for keywords may net you photography techniques or schools rather than galleries to purchase from. If you have a favorite artist or gallery chances are you can enter their name to find the prints you are looking for online. If you are hoping for quality prints, but do not wish to pay for an artist’s name you may have to spend a few hours to find just the right photographs.
Online galleries are just another way technology has become convenient for all of us. Finding photography online to purchase can be difficult if you are looking for an obscure artist or print topic. You will need to search with specific keyword or topics to find prints. If you are interested in Alaskan photographs of wildlife you should narrow your sure just by mentioning the state. We all find photographs add to a homes décor. Galleries are often the way most of us find photographs because we like to see the prints up close, however online is the new way for convenience. So the next time you wish to change out your homes décor you might look online for ideas if not the product to satisfy you and your families needs.
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| Digital infrared photography allow the taking of some breathtaking photography even in the absence of light |
Digital Photography The New Way To Taking Photographs Photography is an art. It takes practice, skill, and an eye for the unexpected. Not all people will take the time to study a landscape, wildlife, building, or other subject to find the hidden depth within, but when they do often they will find great meaning in the photo they take. Photographers spend their lives looking for new and different ways to shoot a subject. Digital photography is just one new way of taking a picture. There are many advantages for working with digital photography.
The darkroom is out the computer printer comes forward for most of us using digital photography. We are able to send our pictures to all our friends with a few clicks of the buttons. Digital photography makes taking a picture simple, by eliminating some of the guesswork. With the LCD screen on a digital camera you can now view the photo you just took without waiting and hour or longer to see the film develop. We are no longer limited by film capacity, but by memory cards. Most memory cards have 32MB or 1GB depending on how much you’ve spent on equipment.
Digital photography can encompass the professional cameras with the interchanging lenses, manual setting or it can be a simple point and shoot camera. Whether you are looking for a professional grade picture or something your friends will laugh over digital photography has made taking photos easier. As I said before we can see the picture before we ever print, and also a lot of digital cameras will allow you to crop and save the photo before printing. Digital cameras can be all sizes from a key chain camera to the professional. We have all had a little fun with digital on our phones. If you are more interested in the professional side of photography the first digital camera you choose should have interchangeable lenses with a high resolution. It can be automatic if you feel more comfortable with light settings, however most have ISO settings, aperture, and shutter speed choices as well.
Like with older photographer setting up your shot is half the fun. Determining the settings you need to use for light is the other. Setting up your shot still requires you to have an eye for the unusual or for making the unusual out of a common scene. Walk around the subject and look for every possible angle, you may even decide to take several photos to choose the best angle. This is where digital photography surpasses film cameras every time. Once you have looked at all angles and taken photos you get to see if the effect you wanted is there. It is a faster way for you to learn how to set the shutter speed and aperture on a shot and use lighting because you see the results while you still looking at the scene.
Digital photography may not seem like it would still use all those skills you learned on your old camera, but this is definitely not true. Instead digital photography enhances your learning while you are still at the sight. Instead of long hours in a darkroom or waiting in line you can get the picture you want right then. It certainly gives more towards vacation photos when you can see if your thumb is over the lens or the camera strap was in the way or worse someone just walked in front of you. Digital photography like all things has evolved to help us experience a new way in photography.
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| Online photography schools is a good way to learn all the techniques of photography if you do not have the time to go to a conventional schools |
Choosing A Photography School There are many places you can learn photography, but what is the right place for you? Sure there are online schools and courses, but they won’t give you the hands on information you need. You need other students and the teacher’s eye to become a better photographer. The online classes do have their uses for instance giving you the basic information to study. It can be difficult to choose the right school. Some require recommendation while others are apart of colleges.
The information you wish to glean from a photography class will make part of the decision for you. For instance in a college setting that does not specialize in photography will offer the basic levels, but may not offer you an internship with a professional photographer in your field. If you are looking for photography as a hobby these basic level classes will often give you the information you need to produce pictures you can be proud of.
Specialized schools as with any others will allow for more information on a specific topic. Most specialized schools will allow you to work with a professional to learn the specifics of your profession as well as expand your knowledge. This helps you learn quicker and learn more about the techniques used in photography while having hands on experience. The best way to choose a photography school is to decide what you want from your photography. Once you have decided that you can move on to finding out how to apply. Some photography schools are part of a studio and allow for anyone to sign up for a class. Other schools require you to attend a college or university first for basic photography and intern before you go on to the specialized school.
Searching online will lead you to the schools available in your area and across the country. You will be able to find the application as well as descriptions of every class they offer. The sites will also list the qualifications you have to attend the school and what classes you will need to take to become a photographer. Although the experience you receive from a classroom is better, online classes teach you what you need to know. Some classes that you will need to will be in lighting, composition, and other basics. Depending on your field you will then need to branch out in studying ways to capture the subject. Like portrait photography you will need to understand angles, light, balances, and how to elicit the reactions you need from the subject. Digital photography is the new way to take photographs and there are a few different techniques to learn from the older manual cameras. Photography schools can help you become more adapt at taking photographs. You may decide you need a little help to step up from being the point and shoot type to a more complicated camera or you might decide there is a career for you. There are many types of schools for you and online sources will help you find it. Online photography classes can be helpful for you learning techniques, but you will still want other people to help you find your eye for art. If you have worked with manual cameras in the past chances are you will want to take a digital photography course when you switch. To touch on one more type of school we need to delve into underwater photography. Most colleges and other photography schools associated with studios do not specialize in underwater photography. It is often best to seek out a dive school for a basic course. You might decide to delve further and find an underwater photography school. Underwater photography has always been a unique and interesting hobby or profession. Seeing the results of your work is like nothing else one can imagine. When you look at the color and the amazing views, you will understand underwater photography more.
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| The art of candid photography requires an unplanned setting and an unobtrusive camera immersion. |
Candid Photography, Taking Pictures Of Your Friend Without Their Attention Candid photography is by definition taking pictures of people when they are unaware. Part of the fun in photography is catching your human subject’s off guard so that your pictures have more emotion. Photographers who work for magazines, like Time Life, have been able to get candid shots of their subjects. I think most of us can remember the black and white photographs of Africans and others giving rise to more emotion from the viewer. Taking candid shots may appear easy although there are few techniques in the photography world that will make the candid shot worth more than just a snap shot of friends.
First and of course most important is to keep the subject in view while they are not paying attention. The next step is training your eye to catch the moment. You have to be able to move fast, but with design. You need to have your camera set for the picture before you are even aware you will take the photograph. The best way to do this if you have a digital or automatic camera is to keep it on the proper setting. Manual cameras take moments to focus and can loose the candid shot if your subject becomes aware of you.
Candid photography relies on the light; however, you may not always get to choose the angle. The angle could be where you are standing at the time. As a photographer of candid photography, you know the importance of choosing the best angle at the right moment that is possible.
The entire point of candid photography is to gain the unguarded moments of a person’s emotions, whether it is tears, happiness, love, or other emotions. While it is true, you need to have light, angle, and a good camera to catch the shot it is more important to observe. Most photographers are trained observers. Their eyes will wander over the crowds, landscape, or other setting searching for the perfect shot. They will always have a camera ready. It can be extremely hard when you are taking photographs of your friends because they tend to be more involved in the conversations or activity.
The key to taking candid photographs of your friends is to draw them away from the fact that you carry a camera. If they forget you carry the tool, they are more likely going to act natural. Some friends tend to pose in front of the camera while others will shy away turning their backs when you get ready to take a photograph. Knowing your friends will help you find the best way to take candid shots without their knowledge. Observing, having the camera ready, and understanding the basics of photography will yield you better results when you try for a candid shot. Posing or turning away from the camera will take away from the shot you hoped to attain so hanging to the side or a little ahead can get you the shot you may need. Profiles make great candid shots because the person will not realize you are taking a photograph until you have already clicked the button. Candid photography can be one of the most rewarding arts of photography, but also vexing when the subject is aware of the camera. Always remember the camera when going out with friends.
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| A choice of careers in fashion photography is always an exciting and important decision to make because of the celebrities that you may be meeting. |
A Career In Fashion Photography We see them everywhere, in Magazines, on the Run Way, in advertisements on TV. They are the slender women strutting their stuff or extra ordinary Beauties with their sultry looks flashing their pearly whites while wearing the newest Styles from the hottest Designers. We are talking about the fashion models of today, yesterday and tomorrow. They are everywhere we look, but who brings them to us? Their images are captures with care and precision, patience and that special look for style, color and lighting composition. I am talking about the fashion photographers. In the fashion circles famous names like Mario Testino (easily one of the hottest names out there) and Eva Mueller (photographer for Fashion Magazine Allure) are just as sought out if not more then those men and women sauntering their way into our conscious. High Paychecks and glamour’s Lifestyle of hob nobbing it with the rich and famous might be the dream of many young shutterbug, however it is not easy to reach the golden Staircases of the well-known fashion houses and magazines. For every one talented photographer, hundreds are left panting at the sidewalk, only dreaming about the moment that their photo will be chosen. Here are a few tips for the novice and dreamer of dreams in getting started in fashion photography. Study your subject. You can never learn enough. Read and look at any fashion Magazine you can get your hand on. There are fantastic books on Fashion and fashion photography available. Amazon.com has a true treasure trove available. You need one or two good cameras, tripod and a lighting system. Always make sure that you have plenty of film and batteries available. SLR and digital cameras take different photos, so make sure you find the best for your field.
When submitting your work, hopefully to give a chance you have to have a portfolio on hand, just in case the editor of the fashion magazine wants to see samples of your work. I assure you if they consider working with you that is going to be a fact. The sharp, bright images of a 4X5” transparency show of your work to its best effort. If you have already had a publication, no matter if, it was a small neighborhood magazine/paper or a contest a tear sheet (literally a sheet you tore out of the magazine) works well. If neither is at hand a good high quality 8 X 10 “is acceptable as well. You want to make sure that you have a minimum of 20 photos in your portfolio and preferably different styles. You want to show your expertise in full figure or just partial body parts. Remember, fashion includes jewelry and accessories. Sometimes a watch from a famous maker on the slender wrist of a beautiful woman is a good fashion shoot. If you are applying for the job, be prepared to leave your Portfolio behind for an extended period of time, sometimes as much as a couple of weeks. I would advice you to make copies and have several on hand. This comes in handy when showing your work to many different people for consideration for fashion work. In the time of modern technology, it is good to display your talent as a fashion photographer online as well. Set up a website; submit your photos to contests. Submit them to an online fashion gallery. This helps with getting your work seen and people can see what type of work you actually do and can do for them. Most editors are looking for your personality in the photos you take. Each fashion photographer captures the soul of the fashion and its model differently. There are a couple of very good “how to get started” websites on the net. You might wish to start out with http://www.fashion.net/howto/photography/ or http://www.stylecarrer.com/fashion_photographer.shtml. Most importantly, if this is your dream, don’t give up. Keep trying and I hope to see your images on the cover of my next hot fashion magazine.
Filed under digital cameras, fashion photography, talented photographer by
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| If you want to study photography techniques at a professional level then you should consider going to the new york institute of photography |
I do not really like big cities. They can be fun for a day or two, but after that I start to burn out pretty quickly. There is just too much going on. The sounds are too loud, the smells are too sharp and pungent, the people walk too fast and push you out of the way. I'm no country bumpkin. I grew up in a moderately sized town, and am used to all the rituals of modern urban life. Even so, if I go to a city like New York I can't survive for more than half a week. Any more time there and I start going crazy.
Nonetheless, I love New York photos. Pictures in New York City do something to me that is hard to describe. It is not just New York skyline photographs. New York wedding photos in Central Park, pictures of old New York, and pictures of random people passing by all get my blood pumping. I guess that it is just the glamor of it all that really gets me. There is something about the way the big apple looks that is hard to describe. People are so stylish there, and set in such dramatic relief against each other. In most places, everyone is from a similar background, and has a sense of who the people passing by are. In New York photos, however, there is such a contrast between the different people. All of the drama, the joy and the tragedy of day to day life, is contained in New York photos. From the fabulously wealthy enjoying a day strolling in central park, to the bum trying to score some change from passers-by who pretend not to notice, the whole drama of life in a major metropolitan city can be captured in a New York photo.
Even though I know that I could not possible be happy in NYC, when I look at New York photos I can not help but imagine what it would be like to live there. I forget what I know about the city – the dirt, the grime, the poverty and the crime – and simply try to get into the heads of all of those different people in the New York photos. I try to imagine what is going through the head of a traffic cop at rush hour, and where the driver shaking his head is in such a hurry to, or where that tourist is looking with such dazzled eyes. I can pass hours looking at New York photos.
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| Most photo sharing sites provides both a free and a paid version of their service |
eBay Sellers: How Photo Sharing Sites Can Save You Money Are you an eBay seller? If you are, you likely already know the importance of having pictures in your eBay listings. There are a many eBay buyers who will not buy an item on eBay if they haven’t seen a picture. In fact, many eBay buyers like to see more than one picture. The only problem with this is that posting a number of pictures on eBay can get expensive, especially overtime. However, there is a way that you can give your potential customers what they want, more pictures, without having to go broke while doing so.
If you are looking for a way to have multiple pictures appear in your eBay auction listings, but you are urged to examine websites that are known as photo sharing sites, if you haven’t already done so. Photo sharing websites are sites that allow you to post digital photographs online and sometimes even videos. There are a large number of internet users who use photo sharing sites to upload and share pictures with friends and family members over the internet, but many internet users are also starting to use photo sharing websites to help combat their eBay seller fees, particularly the fees associated with having multiple pictures in an eBay auction.
If you are interested in giving photo sharing websites a try, to help you save money when selling on eBay, you will need to find a photo sharing website to use. To find a number of photo sharing websites, you may want to perform a standard internet search. Your standard internet search results will likely include PhotoBucket, which is a free, well-known photo sharing website. Of course, you can use just about any photo sharing website you want, but you are advised to look into PhotoBucket, as it is free and easy to use. Speaking of using PhotoBucket and many other online photo sharing websites, you will need to create an account. You should be required to fill out a small form, which may request a little bit of information about yourself, like your full name or your email address. You will also need to create login information for yourself, including a screen name and a safe password. Once you have that finished, you should be able to use the photo sharing website in question, whether it be PhotoBucket or not, to help you start saving money.
When using a photo sharing site, you will see that different sites have different instructions that need to be followed, but the first step will be taking pictures of your eBay items. Then you will need to upload them to your computer and then follow the photo sharing website’s instructions on how to upload your photos to their site. In most cases, this is a relatively simple process, which tends to involve selecting a few pictures from your computer’s hard drive and then hitting an upload button. Once your pictures have been uploaded, you should see thumbnails or smaller versions of them. With PhotoBucket there are little boxes underneath each thumbnail that can be used to select the picture or pictures of you choice. You will want to select all of the pictures that you want listed in a particular eBay listing. Then, you should be able to find a link that allows you to generate an HTML code. This will lead you to another page with a lot of information on it, particularly HTML links. Many photo sharing websites outright tell you which HTML code links you should use for eBay. Copy the code and paste it in the description of your eBay auction listings and you are good to go; your pictures should appear.
Using a photo sharing site is optional, but it is definitely something to look into. As an eBay seller, you want to profit as much as you can and this also involves eliminating unnecessary expenses.
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