Did you know that the lens is as important. if not more important, than the camera you are using? I use Canon models, so I am always on the lookout for the best Canon digital SLR lens that MY money can buy (I don't have deep pockets).
When I started taking digital photos with my first Olympus 3-megapixel point and shoot camera, I became obsessed with nature pictures. I was especially taken with macro and bird photography.
So now, when you pair Canon digital slr lens with nature, you are talking about image quality in its finest form. For some types of photography like family pictures or street journalism, the sharpness and detail are not quite as important as with nature photos.
I have had the occasion to "lose myself" in a "National Geographic" or "Outdoor Photographer" magazine, imagining that I was the nature photographer who submitted the award winning photos on those pages.
Those guys and gals who shoot for "National Geographic" use lenses that cost in the thousands of dollars... way too costly for my meager budget.
But getting a good quality Canon digital SLR lens can be accomplished on a smaller budget, and "award winning" images are possible, too.
When I say smaller budget, I am talking about, let's say, a bird lens of about 300mm f/4 with an extender. If you are shooting with a Digital Rebel or a 60D, you can have an effective range of about 600mm, give or take a few millimeters. You can get some excellent photos with that kind of setup.
Or consider a Canon 100mm macro lens. It is an amazing lens for under $900. There are lots of examples of award winning photos with this sweet little macro lens.
The great part about the better lenses is that they are not limited to nature photography. A good long distance lens can do very well with sports like soccer and football. And a 100mm lens is perfect for portraits.
Getting a good Canon digital SLR lens or two will give you years of gratification in your chosen hobby or profession.
About the Author
I love photography and all things related to it. Cameras, camera gear, and image editing software fascinate me, so I am either buying the newest piece of equipment (or software) or researching my next purchase.
For a rundown of the better Canon digital SLR lens choices, click on www.canoneoslenses.org.
Selling your photographs to make a little extra side money is an appealing idea. But how realistic is it? As it turns out, quite realistic, provided that you are not hoping to get rich doing it.
Let me say right off the bat that if you are hoping to get into photography and live off the proceeds of your image licensing royalties, that's a whole different ball game. Like every other artist in the world, you will need an extraordinary game plan and the requisite talent to bring it off. I cannot help you with that.
But if you are already taking pictures on a regular basis, and at least a fraction of them are very good, then it makes sense to consider licensing them. Like I said, you are unlikely to get rich doing this, but you might earn enough money each year to outfit with a new high-end camera body, or that lens you fantasize about but which you otherwise would never go so far as to buy.
So why is it not possible to get rich selling your photos?
It is simply a matter of numbers. Most of the popular online image exchanges - the ones that will allow anyone capable of creating quality photos to upload their material and license it out - sell images for about a dollar a piece, and of that they will pay you perhaps 25 cents (maybe 50 cents if you are really lucky). If you are thinking that this is a pretty poor deal for the photographer, you are right. But this does seem to be par for the course, so there may be some operational expenses to running an image exchange that are not immediately obvious. Either way, that's the current reality of the business.
So let's consider the numbers again. The reason that images typically sell for a dollar is that the buyers are webmasters looking for low resolution filler images for their web properties. They will happily fork over one or two dollars for an image, but would frown at paying five dollars. You may get hundreds of people willing to pay you a dollar for an image before you can find a couple willing to pay five dollars for a high resolution version that could be printed on a coffee mug. You will find even fewer buyers - magazine and book picture editors, and the like - who are prepared to pay twenty dollars for the highest available resolution version.
So you will make your money from the masses, and at 25 cents a pop you will need 4000 licensed instances of your images before the image exchange will cut your first check for $1000. You might manage this by uploading 100 images that average 40 downloads, or you might upload just 4 mind-blowing images that average 1000 downloads a piece. It will come as no surprise that most people make their money by creating as many good photographs as they can. They do not rely on their ability to generate that rare master photo that everybody must have.
Most of the online image exchanges will reject your images if they do not meet the high standards that the exchange has set for itself. So be smart and peruse the exchanges to get an idea of the quality that is required. Your images, in addition to being captivating enough to make people want to download them, also need to be technically perfect. High resolution images with imperceptible noise levels and perfect color balancing are the minimum technical requirements. Get used to shooting at ISO 100, even for low-light shots that require a tripod, mirror lock up and cable release.
The editors of each exchange will have their own standards, of course, and what gets rejected at one site may be accepted elsewhere. So don't give up immediately if you have a door slammed in your face. Van Gogh could not convince anyone to buy even one of his paintings in the course of his own lifetime. That did not mean his pictures were worthless. But picture editors might not see where you are coming from if they do not recognize the market that you are targeting. For this reason, it pays to figure out beforehand what is selling well before you submit your first portfolio. After that you are likely to meet less resistance if you veer off in a slightly different direction.
It is also a good idea to specialize the themes of your photography. If you take particularly good landscape shots, and build a body of landscape images, your clients will be impressed by your body of work when they are selecting that first image of yours, and they will likely seek you out again when they require a similar image.
Other online image exchanges that operate in a fashion similar to iStockPhoto include Fotolia, ShutterStock, and DreamsTime. All are worth checking out. They are free to join and take a commission on your licensed images.
Another tack you can take, if you don't like the idea of licensing your images so cheaply, is to go with an online photographic service that allows you to set your own pricing. These are a little harder to find. One such site is PhotoStockPlus which targets event photographers. If you photograph weddings, parties, special occasions, then you are their primary demographic.
PhotoStockPlus offers a subscription service and gives you your own little e-commerce store where you can sell plain photographic prints, as well as have them emblazoned across, for example, a T-shirt, a coffee mug, or a mouse pad. The idea is that you add a markup on top of the wholesale price that PhotoStockPlus charges for supplying these items with your images on them, and that markup is passed onto your clients. All you do is upload the photos, set the markups, and then point people toward the site. The rest is hands-off. The cost of the service to you is reasonable, with rates that start at less than $30/month.
Regardless of the route you take to monetize your photography, actually doing something about it makes a lot of sense. You can either let your best images sit on your PC year after year, where they will likely get lost in the course of time, or you can put them out into the world where they will have a chance to earn you both a little fame and some recurring income.
To help you select a suitable digital camera to get started with, I have put together an article for you about how to find the right Beginner Digital Camera.
Whether you need a simple point-and-shoot model, or a more complex digital SLR model, you will find the answers, and greatly discounted digital camera offers, at http://www.bestdigitalcameradiscounts.com/
Digital photography is often a lot easier to submit to stock photography agencies online. Digital stock photography offers you the ability to share your stock photography work with the world faster than regular photography. Many magazines and newspapers nowadays will only take stock photography submissions in .jpeg or .gif formats. The days of negatives, proof sheets, and slides in stock photography are over. Some photographers still choose to offer 35 mm prints or other specialty photo services, but digital stock photography is where the money is in the stock photography industry.
Digital photographs take less than a minute to upload to your web host. It is much easier to showcase the different styles of stock photography at which you excel in this way. You can even start your own photography site that stock photography companies can look at, and maybe book some jobs on the side. Be sure to include the following on your digital stock photography site:
Offer a subscription service for your digital stock photography. Many people need stock photography for their websites, brochures, flyers, etc. on a regular basis. Offering one time downloads and a subscription service with a wide range of types of stock photography may be one way to increase your sales revenue while shooting whatever you like and increasing your stock photography portfolio.
Set up a shopping cart on your site and allow those who may have just stopped by to check you out to purchase a print for download instantly. For customized orders or packages or to set up special shoots, you can design an order form for your stock photography site that will allow them to be as specific as they like about what exactly it is that they're looking for.
You can also offer photographic services. List and define your services in detail. Some may not even realize that they are looking for the exact photographic service that only you can provide. List your hours, services and prices. If you are only available to work at night and on weekends, list this on your site. List different services that you provide such as wedding photography, baby and pregnancy pictures, family portraits, student photos, pet photography and more. Listing prices is not a requirement, but something that is highly recommended. Offering a variety of packages with the option to customize will help potential customers know right away whether or not they can afford your services.
Last but not least, list your contact info. Include everything that a potential customer may need: email address, land line, cell phone, studio address, etc.
How To Choose The Right Digital SLR And Lens Cameras
Choosing the Right Digital SLR for Your Nature Photography
It is very true that it doesn't matter what equipment you use -- it's what you do with the camera that matters. However, there is no question that when you're hiking through a thick jungle in the middle of central america you want to pack light. Even though the Nikon D2x has the prestige of being Nikon's premier "PRO" camera, you may not find it's the best fit for your nature work.
One of the first things you need to consider is how you're going to use the pictures. Look up the magazines you want to publish your work. Send in for "submission guidelines" and find out their minimum mega pixel count. The same is true for stock agencies -- browse around and decide which place you'd ultimately like to sell your work. Many organizations have their submission guideliens published on their websites. If you're more interested in learning and doing nature photography for your own pleasure then by all means buy the less expensive models. There's nothing wrong with a camera that takes a 5 or 6 megapixel image. You'll still be able to blow it up to poster size if you want a special print made.
Choosing the Right Lenses
Unfortunately, no one can tell you which lenses to buy or "how to build the perfect SLR system for nature photography." Again, it depends on the kinds of photos you like to take, your personal preference and the market where you want to sell your image.
The great advantage of Nikon cameras is that you can use older lenses on your body. This allows a lot more freedom of choice and means you can get really amazing older lenses at shockingly affordable prices.
I'll give you an example. One of my favorite lenses is a 300mm f4 manual focus prime lens from the 1970s. Nikon especially developed ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass to provide pricise optical colour correction. This special glass (not available in all Nikon lenses) provides the sharp, clear resolution required for superb photographs. The other advantage (at least for me since I generally hike to find wildlife) is that it weighs less and packs small.
Another example -- the 50mm 1.4 auto focus). It's actually an 80mm on your body. That means you have a prime lens at 80mm that can take pictures in the darkest settings. And, because Nikon lenses has been perfecting its 50mm lenses since its inception as a company (Nikon used to include a 50mm on all its bodies until well into the late 1980s), it's one of Nikon's very best lenses. It's cheap because 50mm on a 35mm camera is kind of pooey. But 80mm on a digial camera is marvelous.
Magnification - Use it to your Advantage
For wildlife photographers in particular, the one advantage of shooting with any Nikon digital camera these days is the magnification factor. Rather than create a sensor the same size as one frame of 35mm film, Nikon and most other digital SLR camera manufacturers decided to create a sensor that is smaller than the 24x36mm standard frame of the older film models. Having a smaller sensor means you aren't going to capture all the information on the left and right and top and bottom of the frame. This may sound really bad... but there is no need to worry about what you haven't captured because the viewfinder has been adjusted so that what you see optically is what is captured in the digital file.
The result is that the camera multiplies the magnification of all the lenses. Nikon's magnification (depending on the camera you use) is around 1.5x. That means a 300mm lens is now magnified to 450mm. This is great news for wildlife photographers. The only drawback is that wider angle lenses (like a 17mm wide angle becomes a 25.5mm not-as-wide-angle lens. However, landscape photographers still have some options. I'll get to those in a bit.
Lenses - Pros and Cons
While I can't tell you the right lenses to buy for your particualr needs... I can give you some feedback/impressions about the particular lenses I am using or have used in the past.
Nikkor 10.5mm f2.8 Fisheye: I never thought such a specialized lens could provide me with so much use. For more information, I've written a short article about how to use a fisheye lens in your nature photography athttp://www.naturestocklibrary.com/gallery/2472892
Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom - This lens is all right. I bought it as a kit lens a long time ago and it's served well for the wider range. I wish I had saved pennies and purchased a 2.8 that offered a wider range (like a 12mm to 25mm).
Tamron 17-35mm f2.8: This is a great lens but, alas, I purchased it for a film camera and the magnification on my digital body means that it isn't that useful in my photography right now. I'm planning on selling it (along with my other wide angle) and buying a 2.8 that has a wider range so I can do more with landscape photography.
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D AF - This is the same lens I discussed earlier. It's small, has a low price tag, allows you to shoot in really dark situations and it's an 80mm on a digital camera. You really can't go wrong.
Nikkor Nikon 80-200mm f2.8D ED AF Zoom - This is a fantastic lens that stays at 2.8 no matter if you are shooting at 80 or 200mm. Again, magnification means it's actually a 300mm zoom. Zooms are great because you can adjust your focus distance depending on where your subject is located. Not so great with subjects that are always far away (like the macaws seen here), but really awesome for docile wildlife like deer. It also has a macro function that works beautifully.
Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro, or 105 Micro for short - This is probably Nikon's most used macro lens, probably because the lens can serve triple duty. First of all, it is a macro photography lens and it allows you to take photographs at a 1:1 reproduction ratio (on a 35mm body), which means that a 24 by 36 mm subject will fill the entire frame. Second, it makes a very good general purpose short telephoto lens. Third, it is also at least a very reasonable portrait lens (although, with magnification it may be too much of a telephoto on a digital SLR). I really love this lens for macro photography.
Nikkor 300mm f4 manual focus - While a "prime" lens doesn't offer the flexibilty of a zoom... it's still an ideal choice for getting the best results in your work. This is the same lens I discussed earlier and, considering it cost only $350, it's light & the focusing is so smooth, it's one of my favorite lenses. I never leave home without it.
Nikkor 600mm f5.6 manual focus ED Glass - Again, I paid a lot less for this lens (which is actually a hefty 900mm on a digital body and also has the famous Nikon ED glass!!) because it's an older model and it's manual focus. I spent $1,599 USD - but consider that a newer model would go for at least $5,000 to $25,000, depending on the f stop. Some may argue that 5.6 is a bit too narrow of an f stop but I find the compression with telephoto lenses means that I wouldn't want to shoot a 900mm subject with anything wider than 5.6 (2.8 would make the focus far too shallow on such a far away subject). Although... for closer subjects 2.8 is magic!
In the past, I have also used the Sigma 70-300mm 3.5-5.6 and the Tamron 200-400mm 3.5-5.6 and both served well as affordable zooms while I was learning about photography. I have since sold them to pay for the lenses I currently use.
Why I LOVE and Highly Recommend Manual Focus
I used to be terrified of focusing manually. On most auto focus lenses, the focus ring is small and more difficult to use... also there's something really easy about just allowing your camera to do the focusing work for you. I was afraid I couldn't react quickly enough to moving subjects and that I wouldn't be as good as my camera's auto focus. Now I see the errors of my ways.
For wildlife (or people), you want to make sure the main subject's eyes are in perfect focus. You won't be able to sell any image if the eyes aren't in focus. If you shoot a subject 10 feet away at 2.8 and use auto focus, the camera will choose the object closer to the camera (usually the nose, cheek, or eye brow... not the eye itself). A 2.8 aperture means that you will have such a soft depth of field that the eyes will appear out of focus. The older (and more affordable) manual focus lenses have the most beautiful focusing rings you've ever seen. I find it much easier to use manual focus on my 300mm f4 lens from the 1970s than my newer autofocus 80-200mm zoom (using the auto focus feature). Unfortuately, I find the focusing ring on the newer models a little bit pooey... but I did want to make the case for why I think manual focus lenses from the 1970s are the greatest things since sliced bread!
Rule of Thumb for Fast Subjects
You may already be aware that your shutter speed should be at least the same as the distance of your lens. For instance, you need to shoot at least 1/300th of a second if you are using a 300mm lens or hand shake will make your picture look really blurry. And anything larger than 300mm should be put on a tripod (preferably one with a ball head for wildlife work). With magnification, you may be able to get away with shooting a 300mm (a 450mm on your digital) hand-held... at 1/450th of a second or higher...)in a pinch... but investing in a good ball head tripod will really improve your results if your lens is higher than 300mm.
1 What Should i ask for for Christmas? im 14 and already have an itouch, cellphone, and digital camera?
here is my list... Sarah’s Christmas List Laptop Money Spa Day The Proposal (dvd) Clothes Gift Cards Aerie American Eagle Aeropostale iTunes Gift card Picture Frame with lots of spots for pictures Taylor Swift tickets for June 2010! I would like two so I could bring a friend! Nice makeup Sims 2 Seasons Subscription to Seventeen magazine SPRAY TAN (in case you have any worries I just want one because I am so pale… Please say yes!) Model or Photography Shoot Dooney or Coach Purse
i think you should get a laptop
"Yeongwol,Pyeongchang and Jinbu" Nancy295's photos around Yeongwol, Korea Rep. (yeongwol tour)
digital photography magazine subscription5 digital photography magazine subscription5
Good old days of photography is a bygone era when we, at best, had a very expensive SLR camera, a light meter and bunch of film rolls of varied sensitivity (100, 200, 400 ASA) for different light conditions. Now it is a digital world and various gadgets performing wide array of functions have integrated camera as a part of their features.
Major manufacturer of camera in past era were Leica, Pentax, Nikon, Olympus etc.
Now, the companies known for products other than camera have come out with photography equipments. For example:
Sony – It was primarily a renowned music system entity. Electrolux – Home Appliances Company. Samsung – Electronic equipments
Recent products of these companies in news are:
Salient features of digital camera w510 are steady shot, image stabilization, 26mm wide angle lens, 4x optical zoom, intelligent auto mode and sweep panorama helps to shoot clearer and vibrant landscapes. Camcorders are portable electronic device with a combination of video camera and audio recorder. Handycam camcorders can record and store the cherished moments to the spacious hard disk drive or optional memory stick.
Samsung c3300 champ offers basic needs like quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge, Bluetooth 2.1. It also features a 1.3 MP camera which can also record videos at 15fps. In this modern era, smart phones and ipod have become a part and parcel of life. Concepts of using ipod for listening music are gone. Purchase an ipod with a subscription to audible.com offers audio books, audio news papers and magazines, radio waves and original programs for purchase. This is quick, easy making it possible to listen to a favorite bestseller within a minute of purchase.
Xbox 360 slim has brought some innovative ideas to the gaming industry in the form of Xbox live, the online market place and gamer achievements. It offers good sleeker design, quieter operation, better cooling, built-in wi-fi, dedicated kinect port and onboard optical digital audio.
To compare price and get discount, always shop online for mobiles, ipods, cameras and camcorders.
Even small kitchen can be made into a dream kitchen with the help of Electrolux kitchen appliances. Cookers, cooker hoods, hobs, microwaves, ovens, warming drawers and compact built-in range are some of the products which make cooking easier and enjoyable. Electrolux dishwasher will wash everything from pots to pans to fine glassware perfectly and effectively. It also saves time, energy and money and dries the dishes too. The intensive cooling and freezing feature of the Electrolux refrigerator helps to preserve the flavour, nutritional value, appearance of the food and in addition, protect the food already stored. The washing machines of this company wash any kind of clothes and save time and water. The domestic appliances provided by this company made the domestic life heaven and enjoyable!
About the Author
Even small kitchen can be made into a dream kitchen with the help of W510 kitchen appliances. Samsung c3300 has brought some innovative ideas to the gaming industry in the form of Xbox live, the online market place and gamer achievements.
digital slr photography magazine subscription5 digital slr photography magazine subscription5
