As a writer and a teacher I often find I need photographs for either my own writing or for student projects. I’ve found one of the most cost effective ways to find these photographs is to purchase stock photography. What the images can be used for and how often varies depending on the licensing agreement provided by the stock photography website. I actually found my first stock photography website when I was  looking for a cartoon type avatar for website. A friend told me about one stock photography website and I fell in love from there.

• IStock – This was my first experience in stock photography and I’m still in love. They have some truly amazingly talented photographers. I’ve looked at their application process and it is probably the most extensive, and you can really tell in the results.
• Dreamstime – I’ve only recently found this site but I’ve found several excellent images. The quality is good and the prices are affordable but the website isn’t as easy to navigate to me.
• Fotolia- Such a killer site. I love the ease of navigation and how pretty the site is. Excellent prices and great photographs.

There are dozens of stock photography sites out there. Which are your favorites?

Photo Credit Mendhak

My photography hobby is really starting to take off and I’m spending part of each week taking photographs for a variety of projects. As I was working on one of these projects I thought wow wouldn’t it be great if I could make some extra money on the pictures I’m not going to be using for this project. I mean they are pretty good and it seems like a waste to just delete them or put them in perpetual storage, right? Right.

Then I started thinking about all of the websites out there that sell photographs for writers like me and I started wondering how hard it would be to get into the stock photography business. Well the answer is easy and hard. It’s pretty easy to sign up for an account with almost any of the agencies. Some have tests they want you to take first others just need a valid email address. The hard part is that you have to pick the photographs you want to submit and then wait to see if they are acceptable to the editors for that site. My first try didn’t go so well, but it did teach me what they are looking for. I’ll give you more info on the companies out there and keep you updated through this exciting new phase of my career.

Do you sell stock photography? How do you like it?

Photo Credit: Aussie Gall

I remember my senior portraits, the photography was limited to a few standard poses of my shoulders and face and one full body picture. This type of photography was typical and, unfortunately, it is still rather typical for senior portraits taken by school photographers. Fortunately, freelance, amateur, and even moderately priced professionals are now more readily available.If you are taking senior portraits there are a few things you can do to make sure they are perfect.  

Natural Light- This is a great way to make your pictures look fantastic. Natural light will highlight the subject in a way artificial light never could.

Look Around – Don’t have the subject look directly at the camera for each shot. Capture them looking away from the camera as well as some shots of his or her profile. All of these will allow you to capture aspects of the subject a head on shot would miss.

Personalize – Photography should capture the essence of a person. Have the subject bring items that are evocative of their high school life such as a jersey, or a band instrument, or cheerleading costume. Perhaps take pictures on the football field, in the gym, or anywhere the student spends a lot of time.

How have you captured picture perfect senior portraits?

Photo Credit: Herkie

A few months ago I offered to take prom pictures for my little brother and his girlfriend. Now, I freely admit that living in Florida has all sorts of advantages for those who are photographically inclined. However, that doesn’t mean that it is only possible to get those perfect prom pictures if you live where I do. As a matter of fact I didn’t even head to the beaches (mostly because they overcrowded this time of year) and I still managed to get some amazing shots. Where should you go to get your best pictures?

• Go for the old – We did several shots on an old caboose, at an old train station, and at a few other local historic locations. Then I used some editing software to get that old timey photo look. Fantabulous if I do say so myself.
• Go for the young – Yes, the subjects of prom pictures are practically adults but that doesn’t mean all of the prom pictures have to be formal and grown up. Look for places where they can goof off a bit like a playground. Pictures on the slide, marry-go-round, and swing sets are a fun counterpoint to the formal wear.
• Looking for romance – Finally, don’t forget to bring out the romance. Shots in the limo, at the dance, holding hands under a street lamp, a sweet kiss against a sunset. Trust me the sillier they feel while doing it the more they will end up loving it.

Want to share some tips for perfect prom pictures? I’ve already been drafted for next year’s session so I’ll start filing them away.

Photo Credit: Pedliano

In traditional baby showers there is a person who records who gives the expectant mother what gifts and a person who records the images either by video or photograph (or both). This works quite well and in fact, I got many wonderful images of my own baby shower that way. But I didn’t get quite as many pictures of my friends as I would have liked and most of them were very posed and formal. Not only that but the person taking the pictures doesn’t get to enjoy everything quite as much as everyone else because of instead of participating in the fun and games they are standing back trying to capture it all.

Not too long ago I through a baby shower for my best friend. I decided I would take the pictures for the shower but I also wanted a backup plan. Nothing as fancy as several video cameras from different angles or  camera’s on tripods set up around the room on timers. Nope. I bought a half dozen disposable cameras. I asked people to pick them up and take pictures whenever they felt like it. It was tons of fun watching people get into it and the pictures they took were amazing. No one was focused on the photographer because everyone was a potential photographer. It even helped me (the official photographer) get better pictures. When everything was developed it was easy to see these were the best baby shower pictures ever.

What have you done to capture amazing baby shower pictures?

Photo Credit: Gin Snob

For example, I did a shot of him sitting in some green feathers for St. Patrick’s Day. Those images turned out great, but when I cropped the image and removed the color I got some truly amazing shots. In one shot I had a close up of his feet sticking out from these bright green fake feathers. Well…in color you could tell they were fake and his feet kind of got lost in the midst of the fluff. When I removed the color the feathers did the opposite. Instead of hiding those cute little toes (is there anything cuter than baby feet?) they accentuated them. It was absolutely adorable! (Yes, I’m biased..but I got other opinions and everyone agreed)

How did I do this? Well my camera does have a black and white setting but I never remember to use it. Instead I use my photo software (I have several different kinds depending on what I want to do). It’s easier and it allows me to click away without having to worry about even more settings, ya know?

Have you found that you tend to prefer black and white baby pictures over those with full color?

Photo Credit Lou & Magoo

]]> http://photography.ihobbyblogs.com/2009/06/26/black-and-white-baby-pictures/feed/ http://photography.ihobbyblogs.com/2009/06/19/adding-texture-to-your-picture/ http://photography.ihobbyblogs.com/2009/06/19/adding-texture-to-your-picture/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:58:06 +0000 birdievogel http://photography.ihobbyblogs.com/?p=67 When playing around with editing software there are tons of things you can do. One of the things I never really played around with, until recently, was adding texture to my images. When I first moused over the option I was like huh, interesting. But really? I couldn’t think of any reason I would want to give my pictures a different texture.

That’s because I wasn’t being creative enough. There are tons of ways I’ve used the texture feature recently. I had a picture of an eagle that I wanted to use but it was a little bit out of focus. Not a lot, and it was centered really nicely and the colors were fantastic. After playing with some of the editing options I realized I wasn’t going to be able to sharpen it up so I started playing with the options I was less familiar with. I chose a star texture (as in the stars and stripes) to enhance the image. It worked perfectly! I got a patriotic image that was totally unique. I liked it so much I started using it as a special effect for several different images.

As with any digital manipulation you can eat up a ton of space and fragment your hard drive so I suggest defragging after any lengthy editing session. What is your favorite texture to add to images and what has been your favorite edit?

Photo Credit D Sharon Pruitt

I’ve mentioned before that I’m looking for ways to store my digital images somewhere other than my hard drive. I have probably thousands of images and even though I’ve taken the time to weed them out and get rid of the ones I don’t love. There are still tons of very large image files I need to remove. I even defragged my hard drive so the fragmentation wouldn’t hinder my ability to store images, but I’m almost out of room.

My best friend suggested a digital photo site. You upload your images to their server and they keep them for you forever. The biggest benefit of this, for me, is that anytime I want to create a photo gift or print a picture all I have to do is select and go. Pretty nice. Also, many of the sites now have additional editing options, if you want to do more with your image than what your software allows.

There is a downside, though. First, they could go out of business and then your pictures go poof if you don’t have a backup somewhere. Also, the image resolution isn’t always as high as you may want which could affect the quality of the image.

I’ve decided that I am going to upload my images, but I’m also going to back them up…just in case. What do you think of the photo storage websites available now?

Photo Credit Svadilfari

Have you ever taken a picture of something, or someone, only to realize that in the background there was a random piece of litter, or a person you didn’t notice, or a dog bounding after a Frisbee? (long story but let’s just say I watch for random dogs now) Well most higher end editing software lets you erase these types of intruders. Oh yeah. How happy was I when I discovered this little trick? Happier than that puppy and his toy, that’s for sure. I use to try to crop mistakes out but that would sometimes ruin the entire image. Bah. Now I worry a whole lot less what is in the peripheral of my shots (I still worry but I don’t obsess…much).

I’ve erased all sorts of things from backgrounds. I’ve removed entire buildings, street signs, dogs, even people. Yeah. Getting rid of that old boyfriend doesn’t have to be done with scissors now. Hehe. Of course all of those changes can take up lots of space, especially if you are like I am/was and it takes multiple tries to get it right. That’s fine though, just delete the results you don’t like and then defrag your hard drive when you’re done. Less fragmentation means easier editing next time you want to erase something.

What have you erased from your images?

Photo Credit D Sharon Pruitt