Photography Tips

The most important element to many great photographs is the lighting. Warmth, depth, texture, form, contrast, and color are all dramatically affected by the angle of the sunlight, and thus the time of day. Shooting at the optimum time is often the biggest difference between an 'amateur' and a 'professional' shot. In the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is low, the light is gold and orange, giving your shot the warmth of a log fire. Professional photographers call these the 'magic hours' and most movies and magazine shots are made during this brief time. It takes extra planning, but saving your photography for one hour after sunrise, or one to two hours before sunset, will add stunning warmth to your shots. 5am: Pre-dawn: A pink, ethereal light and dreamy mist for lakes, rivers and landscapes. 6-7am: Dawn: Crisp, golden light for east-facing subjects. 7am-10am: Early morning: The city comes to life; joggers in the park. 10-2pm: Midday: The sun

1. Hold It Steady A problem with many photographs is that they're blurry. Avoid 'camera shake' by holding the camera steady. Use both hands, resting your elbows on your chest, or use a wall for support. Relax: don't tense up. You're a marksman/woman holding a gun and it must be steady to shoot. 2. Put The Sun Behind You A photograph is all about light so always think of how the light is striking your subject. The best bet is to move around so that the sun is behind you and to one side. This front lighting brings out color and shades, and the slight angle (side lighting) produces some shadow to indicate texture and form. 3. Get Closer The best shots are simple so move closer and remove any clutter from the picture. If you look at most 'people' shots they don't show the whole body so you don't need to either. Move close, fill the frame with just the face, or even overflow it. Give your shot some impact. Use a zoom to crop the image tighter. 4. Choo

Cameras Interactive aims to help novice photographers grasp the main concepts of SLR photography. The Flash-based Virtual Camera gives users hands-on experience operating an Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. Four tutorials explain focusing, aperture, shutter speed and exposure. Visit: http://www.camerasinteractive.com/home.php#

Check out this site. If you are looking for software that can check "shutter count". Here it is. Visit: http://regex.info/exif.cgi/ and http://scent.org/cgi-bin/exif.cgi Just choose the image from your computer or URL and voila. You can check a lot of Exif info from your image taken from shutter speed, aperture, ISO, shutter count and so on.