Christmas cards for next year

We are in the middle of the holidays and you are having a well earned rest with the family, the last thing on your mind is next years holiday season but it should be. Now with all the Christmas decorations up, family (models) around and big meals you should only be putting your camera down for recharging or down loading photos to the computer.

trees and snow by martinspaperstore
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The weather is pretty and festive, even if it is a bit cold. So now is the time to get out and take as many photos as you can, so that you will have lots of new images for next seasons greeting cards. Now is also a good time to be working on next seasons greeting cards as you are still in the festive mood, get them up loaded and the search engines will have a good nine months to find and index them before the 4th quarter buying frenzy starts.

St Petersburg by martinspaperstore
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I know that it can be hard to think about holidays so far in advance but once you get into the habit the rewards are many. Your stress levels will be lower as you will not be in a rush to get your images up loaded and what if there is an issue with copyright or key words, you have nine months to get them fixed.



So record that next program on TV and get your camera out of its box.

Colour in photos

The colour in your images can have a very big effect on how the image is perceived, it can be the simple emotions of feeling warm or cold, or it can be more complex. Not only can colour give the viewer an overall feeling for the image but the colours them self’s can compete within an image ether giving balance to an image or throwing the balance off making the viewer feel uncomfortable.



Some colours dominate more than others for the human mind but it depends on what their surrounding colours are. You can use colours that ether clash or complement each other for different effects within your image, if you look at a colour wheel the colours that are next to each other complement and the colours opposite will clash. Now this does not mean that you should not have them colours in the same image, just that you should be aware of what effect they will have on the mood of the image.



Where the colour appears in your image will effect the composition of the image and also the balance of different colours and how many. Sometimes a colour can compete with the main element of an image lessening the overall effect and sometimes the colours them self’s can be the main element of an image.



Changing the settings on your camera can make a place look totally different than what your eyes see, like using daylight setting indoors under tungsten lighting will give you a warm feel or a yellow / orange cast to the image. the thing is to play with colour till you get the image that you had in your minds eye in the camera, and do not forget to have fun.

Lead lines

Lead lines are elements in an image that draw the viewers eye into and around the image, the ones that come to mind first are the railway lines that seam to come together towards the horizon or a winding river or path that draws the viewer through the image. although these are lead lines that are seen in some of the more famous paintings and photos that are popular you do not need to use railway lines, paths or rivers but in fact can use almost any line to direct the viewer around your image, even unseen lines.



Many lead lines work on a subconscious level making them hard to compose in camera but with a bit of practice you will soon have the hang of it. The lines are used to guide the viewer into and around your image so you need to be careful that the lines in your image do not lead the viewer out of frame or too the edge of your image. Some lines will go from edge to edge in your image like the horizon but if you had railway lines going to the horizon this would give you a “T” of lead lines that would help to lead the viewer’s eye around the image. This would be more effective if the horizon was 1/3 from the top giving a tall “T” rather than 1/3 from the bottom giving a short “T”.



Having one major lead line in your image can give you a very strong composition but the use of multiple lines can also give you a strong composition without it being so obvious to your viewer, the trick is to make them work together and not compete with each other. Unseen lines as I like to call them is a persons line of sight, so if you have a person with a principal position in your image looking at something in or outside of the image then it will be human nature for people to follow the line of sight to see what they are looking at.



A lot of things can effect how well lead lines work not lest of which is the viewer, if they come from a culture where people read from left to right or from right to left will have an effect on how well the image may work for them. As with all rules for composition once you know them they are but tools for you to use or not to help you create your image and when you understand them feel free to break them.

Snowdonia by martinspaperstore
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Next time I will be looking at colour and how you can use it to bring feeling to your images.

The rule of thirds

To days image idea will look at the rule of thirds, as with many rules, they can be broken but there is a big difference between braking the rules for effect and not knowing them or ignoring them. Now before you get your camera have a look through some magazines and books, news images will have the subject in the centre but if you look at advertising and art images you are more likely to see this rule applied.




Now when looking at an image in your minds eye draw a line down from top to bottom 1/3 in from the left of the image and then again from the right, now repeat drawing the lines across the image 1/3 in form the top and bottom. So now, in your minds eye you have overlaid a grid of four lines, nine boxes and four intersections (where two lines cross) over the image, it is important that you do this with your minds eye as it will help you when composing with your camera.




When you look at an image try to work out which elements you are drawn to first and if your attention keeps jumping from one element to another. Now overlay your minds eye grid, you should find that the elements you are drawn to are very close to or on one of the four lines, if it is a very strong element then it will be close to or on one of the four intersections.




Nest time you use your camera keep in mind the grid when composing your photo and rather than just have your main subject in the centre, try placing it on one of the four lines or intersections. If your subject is a person and they are looking to their left then place them on the left of the photo so that you will follow their gaze into the centre of the photo this will give the photo a felling of space and travel.




The photos in this post all make use of the rule of thirds but that is not the only rule they use and next time I will be telling you about lead lines.

Photo Ideas

Hi all,
Well I have been enjoying the summer such as it has been this past month, hot and wet which left me with a bit of a problem. On more than one occasion, I have headed out with my camera to a place of beauty to take photos that had blue sky and fluffy white clouds but the weather has been against me. As a result, I have been forced to plan for the worse and hope for the best and as a result, I have started to give my self weekly projects that can be carried out no matter the weather.



No matter what type of photography you are into or how accomplished a photographer you are we can all benefit from going back over basic techniques that we seldom use and work out of our comfort zone to tackle subjects that we do not normally enjoy. This will add to your skill base that you can draw upon when you come across a subject in difficult conditions. I am sure that you will be able to think up your own projects but to get you started I will be posting the projects that I have set for my self over the coming weeks.



Now, when thinking about your projects you should try to achieve a number of objectives; you should be able to carry out the project under any weather conditions and both outside and indoors, it should challenge your ability whether that be your artistic or technical skills. Keep your ideas all together in a small notebook that you should carry with you all the time, when you see an image that you like make a note of where you found it and what techniques you think they used. When you have completed the project be sure to go back to your notebook to add what worked for you and what did not.



To find beauty in the everyday
This is a very open project for what is beauty. Well that is down to you, this can be anything but the key is to look at your surroundings to find things that will make pleasing photos. As from my earlier post you will notice that I tend to look at things back to front from the normal way of thinking and this is the same, you first need to think what the photo will be used for, what will the end use be for the photo?



Knowing what the end use for the photo is going to be will greatly increase your chances of getting the desired photo. Even if they are to be used as practise photos in your image editing program to help you with masking or layering. This was just a quick one to get you thinking next time I will start to push your photography, I hope.

What are you going to do with that photo?

Many people go out carrying a camera in the hope that they will get a good photo, it may be the family on holiday or just a walk in the park or around the city centre, they take hundreds of photos in the hope of getting a few good ones. But good for what? Many people take some very good photos, some have a “good eye” for detail, colour, composition or images in general. Some people know their camera inside out, they know all the technical stuff about exposure and all the rules about composition and colour balance. We can all improve our photos if we know what we want to do with them before we press the button, better still before we take our camera out of the house. Now if your photos are going to sit on your hard drive only then read no further.



You may not want to sell your photos yet and they are just to show the family but how are you going to show them? On the computer, TV via DVD, printed out in an album or framed on the wall. Each of the above methods will require you learning more skills to get the best results. When printing your photos will they look better with a matt, silk or gloss finish, only you can say but the more you practice the better you will get and the more likely you will be proud to show off your photos to family and friends.



Have you thought about selling your photos or are you already selling your photos? If you want to sell or increase your sales then you need to think about where you are going to sell your photos and if possible what the end product will be before you take the photo. So you have had a day out and you have some very good photos and you think that such and such a magazine or website might use them, well yes they might especially if you let them use the photos for free. There are so many photographers out there that happy to see their photos published that they do not mind not being paid and the big companies know this, so if you want to get paid you have to have exactly the photo a magazine needs.



There are many ways to sell your work and each method has its advantages and disadvantages. They can all be broken down as follows; time, effort and expense to you against the number of people that will see your work that may buy it giving you a profit. As I have said above some photographers give their work away for free, this is not a bad thing even if you are trying to make money from your photography, think of it as advertising. When you give your work away for free you get no money but you do get exposure but it is a balance of what you get and what they get, so next time you send in a photo to your local news paper ask them to put the web address of your gallery as well as your name in the credits. You do not know where the balance is till they say no.

Can you make money with a point and shoot camera?

Many people believe that to be able to sell their photos they need pro equipment and just as many people think that if someone has a pro camera that they will produce pro photos, both are wrong. The pro equipment will be better quality build but how good the photo will be is down the person using the camera. If you leave your present camera on auto all the time then I am sorry to say that buying a pro camera to leave on auto will not get you any better photos.



Can you make money from photos taken on a point and shoot camera? From the camera side it is yes, the problem in me answering the question is “you”, how well do you know how to use your camera, do you have an eye for composition, detail and colour. If you have ability or are willing to learn then yes you can make money from the photos you take on your point and shoot camera.



First, we need to start at the end, who is going to buy your photos and how are they going to be shown? If the buyer has a trained eye like that of a photo editor then you will have an harder sell than if they have no photography training buying a photo of their child. If you are blowing up the photo to 50” X 40” print then it will show all the limitations of your camera but if it was a 7” X 5” greeting card a pro would be hard pushed to tell what type of camera was used.

fun and fear by martinspixs
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With so many people having digital cameras now, why should they pay for a photo when they can take their own. It will be down to you spending time and money to learn how to take better photos and not just spending money on better equipment.



All but one of the above photo was taken with a point and shoot camera, can you tell which one it is.

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How to choose your first DSLR (digital single lens reflex camera)

I am writing this in response to the frequent times I see in forums where photographers are to be found, people asking for help in buying their first DSLR. Now there are many people that are knowledgeable on the internet that are willing to give good advice but it is hard to find for the novice. When it is lost in a sea of advice like “buy brand Z it’s the best” or “I have model ABC and I am happy with it” or even “I got brand X because all my friends have brand X so I could use their lenses.



You need to think about the type of photography you like. Now my logic may seam back to front but think about it this way, camera makers bring out new camera bodies every year or two so this year’s new model will be out of date next year. There is no reason why you would not carry on using last years model for many more years to come but when you do buy your next camera you will most likely buy the same make so that you do not have to buy all your lenses again.

Heather and Wild Grass by martinspixs
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The lens is king. You have to think about what type of photography you like to take and what type of lens you need. Is it sport, nature, wildlife or portraiture? This will help you to know where your photography may go, if you like nature photography you may move on to macro or landscape photography. When you look at which brand to pick you will find that they have much the same lenses, it is only when you look at the less popular lenses that you will start to see a difference between the brands. One thing to look out for is if all the brands lenses will fit on all their bodies.



Therefore, now you have found a brand that has all the lenses you will ever need you can start to look at the camera bodies. By having put some thought into what type of photography you would like to take you will have a better idea what you will need form you camera body. When brands update old models or bring out new models they have new features that the brands think that people will use, the thing you have to ask your self is will you use them. All the main brands have DSLR cameras from entry to pro with many models in between so you should be able to find one that fits your needs.



Now that you have found the perfect camera for your needs and start searching the internet for the best price, stop, you should go to the high street photography shop or a few of them. Here you will be able to ask questions like, where the nearest service centre is and what problems other people have had with that brand and model. The biggest reason for visiting your local photography shop is that you will get to play with the camera of your dreams, what looks great on paper can leave a very different impression when in your hands.

Gothic Cross by martinspixs
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One option that is often over looked is to hire a camera for a week or two to find out if that model is for you. You may even find that you do not like that brand or even the need for a DSLR at all.



A lot of terminology and references go back to 35mm SLR cameras. A 50mm lens on a 35mm SLR will give you the same angle of view of that of an average person, a smaller angle will make things seam closer giving you a telephoto lens and a larger angle of view will give you a wide-angle lens. This is the same for DSLR cameras if they have a full frame sensor, however many cameras have cropped sensors so a sensor with a crop of 1.6 will turn a 50mm lens into a 80mm. This will give you extra reach at the long end but will reduce how wide your wide-angle lens is.



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Welcome to martinspixs on photography

Hello and welcome to my new blog. The aim of this blog is to pass on to you information to help you take more rewarding photos. What I am bringing to this blog is what I have learned from books, courses, by trial and error and from other photographers both face to face and over the internet, in my own words.



When I say in my words I will be repeating the facts that I have learned in the way I understand them. Now I know that we all learn things in different ways, over the past 20 years, I have trained many thousands of staff, skills that were alien to them and on this blog, I do not have the advantage of being able to look around the classroom and see which student’s eyes are glazing over. So I will tell it as I know it.



Ok so now you know how I want to deliver the info now I will tell what info I want to give you. So I will start off with the photographer and their equipment and moving up to more expensive kit. I hope to cover some of the traditional rules in photography and why you should break them. Finally why breaking into the photography arena and making money from your photography has nothing to do with photography.



I hope that you find this blog informative and useful and I welcome comments that add to the pot of information.