Win Nikon D3000

Win a Nikon D3000 with Q-Photo

Interpret the Cup Fever with your photos. You can enter 3 Photos online or in store.

Entries will be loaded onto the web site and the photo with the most votes from the public wins!

Grand prize is Nikon D3000 & Accessories worth R10,000.

Visit http://www.qphoto.co.za/ for more details and to enter

Closing date is Friday 30 July 2010

Win with ellesse

Legendary Italian sportswear brand ellesse is searching for the World’s most beautiful images of Sport & The City.

ellesse Sportswear launched a Photography competition where you can win a Nikon DSLR and a trip to London, Barcelona, Rome or Athens.

You can enter photographs which truly capture the spirit and emotion of your City.

I think with the current World Cup Soccer being held in South Africa we South Africans have an advantage over other countries.

You can get full details (and enter online) at http://www.ellesse.com

Stock Photos

10 Important Mistakes to Avoid When Submitting Photos to Stock Photo Sites

A quick and easy way to make money with your photos is by submitting them to stock photo sites online. You can start earning money with the photos that are already in your hard drive; you don’t even have to take new photos right away.

If you want a step-by-step guide to monetizing your digital photos through stock photo sites and other ways, check out Turn Your Photos Into Cash.

Meantime, you can get started right now. But do make sure you don’t make these 10 mistakes when you submit photos in stock photo sites:

1. Submitting low-quality photos. Don’t waste your time and energy. Nobody wants blurred, under-exposed and other types of low-quality photos.
2. Not doing keyword research. The right keyword list can make or break the profitability of your photos.
3. Submitting photos that you don’t own. You can get into real big trouble for doing this.
4. Submitting photos of people without a “model waiver.” Know when you need a model waiver and always get one when necessary.
5. Submitting photos of objects owned by other people without a “property waiver.” This is another legal requirement you should be aware of to avoid future headaches.
6. Submitting photos that don’t meet the stock photo site’s standards. You may think your photo is perfect but each site has its own standards, including minimum size, etc. Double check before submitting.
7. Submitting photos that have unwanted elements. Some items are simply unacceptable in photos. Find out which ones they are and either edit them out or avoid them altogether.
8. Submitting photos to stock photo sites which require exclusive contracts. Don’t submit to these sites.
9. Submitting photos of mundane objects. Why bother when demand is low and they’re all over the web already?
10. Submitting over-edited photos. Over-editing can drastically reduce the quality of your photos, causing them to be rejected.

If you want more detailed guidance on submitting to stock photo sites, I recommend Turn Your Photos Into Cash.

Aside from making money on stock photo sites, this fact-filled Ebook teaches a number of other ways you to turn digital photography from a hobby to a home business – a profitable one at that.

Click here to find out more about Turn Your Photos Into Cash.

I know many people are looking for a good Photoshop courses or tutorials and that some people stay to far from major cities to attend a proper course.

I found Lynda.com's Photoshop courses and tutorials to be very good. I started using it for DreamWaver courses and then also tried some of the PhotoShop courses. There are hundreds of courses you can attend online.

Give Lynda a try, visit them at http://www.lynda.com

Here are the details of the competition: (also see http://www.photocomment.net/)

Sony and PhotoComment
2009 YEAR END PHOTO COMPETITION
We want your image that best defines your 2009
2009 is fast drawing to a close and with it memories of an exciting yet challenging year for us at PhotoComment and most likely you, our readers as well.

Before the year comes to a close for good we thought we would launch our first PhotoComment competition. Submit your image with a brief story of the moment that made your year to stand in line to win the grand prize.

Judging will look particularly at the emotion evoked by the image in relation to the theme and caption.

Closing Date: 15 December 2009

Send your entries to: competition2009@photocomment.net

Sony

Terms & Conditions Apply

Here are the full details:

Attention all travelers and aspiring photographers — National Geographic wants your photographs. Readers of National Geographic around the world are invited to take part in the 2009 National Geographic International Photography Contest. Readers of the English-language edition in eight countries, as well as readers of 20 of the magazine’s international local-language editions, are eligible to participate. The international grand-prize winners will receive a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., a digital camera kit, and their winning entries will be published in all participating editions of National Geographic magazine. But act soon — the submission deadline is Oct 31, 2009. Full details can be found at http://www.ngphotocontest.com

WASHINGTON (Aug. 6, 2009) — National Geographic readers around the world are invited to take part in the 2009 National Geographic International Photography Contest. Readers of National Geographic’s English-language editions in eight countries as well as readers of 20 of the magazine’s international local-language editions are eligible to participate. The international grand-prize winners will receive a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., and their winning entries will be published in all participating editions of National Geographic magazine. Winning entries from each territory will be featured in their local editions of National Geographic magazine.

English-language-edition readers in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom are eligible to enter up to a total of six photographs across three categories: People, Places and Nature. Entries should be submitted electronically to www.ngphotocontest.com. The contest began Wednesday, Aug. 5, and ends Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (ET). Photos can be black-and-white or color, shot with a digital camera or with conventional film, and must be submitted digitally. Each entry consists of an entry form, a single image and an entry fee. The entry fee is U.S. $12 per photo for entries received before 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2009, and $22 per photo for entries received between Oct. 16 and Oct. 31. For details and official contest rules, visit ww.ngphotocontest.com. Void where prohibited.

English-language-edition entries will be judged at National Geographic headquarters by a panel of three judges: National Geographic staff photographer Mark Thiessen; design editor of the international editions of National Geographic magazine Darren Smith; and White House photo editor Jenn Poggi. First-place category winners of the English-language-edition competition will win a digital camera kit.

The participating international local-language editions will submit their winning entries in each category to National Geographic headquarters to be judged alongside the winning English-language entries by Thiessen, Smith and Poggi. The judges will announce three international grand-prize winners in December 2009.

“We are thrilled to continue our annual photography contest,” said David Griffin, National Geographic’s director of photography. “The work we have been seeing in recent years is truly astounding and speaks to the truth that photography is a worldwide, universal language — one that everyone can appreciate and enjoy.”

The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society works to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 370 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and other magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs; maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 9,000 scientific research, conservation and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geographic literacy. For more information, visit nationalgeographic.com.

The aperture controls not only the amount of light moving through the lens but also the depth of field. The f-stop is the unit in which the opening of the lens is measured. The f-stop number is inversely proportional to the size of the lens opening. This means f22 is a very small lens opening, with a large depth of field, and f4.5 has a wide lens opening with a shallow depth of field. With a wide lens opening and shallow depth of field, more light will reach the film. Thus a large lens opening is more suitable for photography in bad lighting conditions, but unfortunately with a loss in depth of field. Also see illustrations below. The f-stop number is equivalent to the diameter of the opening of the lens relative to the diameter of the front lens unit. An f-stop of f16 will therefore be 1/16 (one sixteenth) of the diameter of the front lens unit.

Apperture size

Tip: If you have a SLR camera with removable lenses remove the lens from your camera. Hold it in a position to enable you to look through it from the back. Now turn the f-stop ring on the lens from side to side. You will see the opening of the lens changing as you turn the ring.

You will notice that the f-stop numbers are usually about twice the value of the previous number (f4, f8, f16, f32). These are called full-stop settings. When your lens has settings in between, these are called half-stop settings (f4.5, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32). It may happen that the values of the half-stop settings are not indicated, but there may be a hitch for the values on the ring. These types of lenses are usually a lot more accurate than full-stop lenses and are therefore a better option when buying a lens. On older cameras the f-stop values will appear on the f-stop ring attached to the camera. More modern cameras will also have the f-stop value on the lens and displayed on the LCD screen. In this screen it will be shown as Av or A (“A” for aperture).

f-stop

Quality of image

The general quality of the image can also be controlled by the f-stop when a standard lens is used. Since the lens forms a minuscus, the image can appear distorted around the edges. A better quality of the image can be obtained by using a smaller aperture, forcing the image not to go through the edge of the lens. It is also not advisable to use the minimum aperture setting, since problems with too little light can be experienced. A good guideline is to use the f-stop in the middle of the lens. If the minimum aperture of the lens is f32, use f16 to ensure that you have a sharp image. More expensive lenses are cut more precisely and this problem may not be visible in pictures shot with these lenses.

Quality of your image

Depth of field

Another alien term, but a very handy aid. When a lens is focused at a certain point, details in front of and beyond that point of focus will also be acceptably sharp. This range of sharpness is called the depth of field. When a portrait of a person is shot, and only the eyes and nose are in focus, with the rest of the face being out of focus, we have a small depth of field. See the figure below:

Depth of field

What is depth of field used for?

As mentioned earlier, the aperture controls the amount of light which passes through the lens. The difference in depth of field can also be used creatively. Here are two extreme examples:

1. When you shoot a landscape, you wish to have everything in the frame in focus to show maximum detail. In this instance the f-stop will be set on the maximum number (the smallest aperture) and the camera should preferably be mounted on a tripod.

2. You want to photograph an object which you cannot move but a disturbing background prevents you from taking the picture. In this case you will set the aperture on a suitable setting. The f-stop depends on the type of lens used and the distance you are from the object and the background. It will help a lot if your camera has a depth of field preview function. If it does not have this function, you will have to shoot more than one picture. When you want to photograph a person with a standard 50mm lens at about 10 metres from the background, you will use f5.6. By using a very large aperture, you will blur the background to such an extent that it will not be a disturbance any more.

Depth of field small to focus on one object

Tip: Remember that the shutter speed has to be amended with the f-stop. When you have determined the correct reading for a specific image and you have set the f-stop number smaller (one stop more light), the shutter speed must be set one stop higher (faster). If you have an f8 and 1/250 setting and you change it to f5.6, then the shutter speed should be adjusted accordingly to 1/500.

Maximum depth of field

From the diagram on the left, it is clear that a larger part at the back of the object will be in focus than in front. This division is usually one third in front and two thirds behind the object. This means that when you photograph an object and want maximum depth of field, you should focus on a fictitious point. To determine this fictitious point, try the following:

Focus on the point closest to you and mark the position of the focus ring. Then focus on the point of the object furthest from you. Again mark the position of the focus ring. Now turn back the focus ring about two thirds of the distance. If your camera does not have a depth of field preview function, the object will usually appear out of focus at this stage. Select your maximum aperture (f22 or f32) and shoot the picture. Although the image may appear out of focus through the view finder, the image should in most instances be in focus. This problem escalates the closer you move to the object and when you use a macro lens.

Remember that the image seen through the view finder never represents the results. When you look through the view finder and focus, the diaphragm in your lens will always be on a maximum opening. When you change the f-stop, the diaphragm won’t change accordingly. The lens has a function which will change the diaphragm to the correct size as the picture is shot. The reason for this is that you need as much available light as possible to ease the focusing and composition process. The only time you can really see what the picture will look like, is if your camera has the depth of field preview function. Don’t get discouraged when your depth of field seems too shallow through the view finder.

All in focus

If you use a too slow shutter speed your photographs will be blurred. Some novice photographers think that their photographs are out of focus but sometimes they just used a too slow shutter speed and their photographs are blurred.

If you use an automatic camera it will normally either pops up the flash automatically or have a flashing indicator which warns you when the light is too low to take a photograph. If there is not enough light the camera will use a longer shutter speed in order to have enough light to record. This long shutter speed is what cause the blur effect since you cannot hold the camera still enough in your hands.

If you use a shutter speed of anything less than 1/60 of a second you must use a tripod or any other object to support your camera. The minimum hand held shutter speed also depends on the length of your lens. For up to 80mm you will get away with 1/60th of a second but if you use a longer lens you will need an even faster minimum shutter speed. Like when you use a 200mm lens it would be best to put your camera on a tripod for anything slower than 1/150th of a second.

You can also use a slow shutter speed to your advantage.

If you put your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to picture a waterfall or stream, you can create a soft effect of the water.

Soft Waterfall

With a fast shutter speed we can freeze the motion in a picture.

Freeze the motion

To freeze motion of a picture, the shutter speed must be fast enough. You will need a shutter speed of at least 1/250 to freeze the motion of a running person successfully.

Even if you are photographing flowers in the wind you need a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion and get a sharp picture.

We can also use  a slow shutter speed to enhance the feeling of motion in a picture. The picture on the left was taken at 1/60. The motion of the bike was followed as it moved pass. We call this “panning”.
At what shutter speed was this photograph taken?

Freeze the bullet

If the maximum shutter speed of your camera is not sufficient to freeze the motion, try this:

The photograph of the balloon was taken in a dark room. The camera was setup on a tripod and focused on the balloon. The shutter was held open using the bulb function. The moment the shot was fired, a flash was triggered. The light from the flash freeze the motion in this case and not shutter speed.