15 Creative Photo Ideas

By: Roberto Bell

1. Surf around the Web. Look at images at magazines, papers, on-line galleries and you’ll find a wealth of ideas. Try the Gallery at shotaddict.com. Want more – go to flickr.com and look through tones of creative shots. Another useful source is VFXY, it displays recent posts from various photoblogs.

2. Learn the ‘visual language’. Visit Art Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions that have photography shows. Learn art history from Antiquity to the Present and discover how highly creative people developed methods for expressing light and color.

3. Watch Movies. It is another source of inspiration, as they are nothing more than still images shown to you at 29.97 frames a second. Lots of ideas for concepts, lighting, messages, or just plain pretty images.

4. Read photography books to learn new techniques and then try to apply them in your work.

5. Look at things through the eyes of creativity. Pick anything and shoot it just to see what it looks like: things around your house, in the refridgerator, etc. The subject doesn’t really matter all that much, what matters is how you shoot it. Shoot, shoot and still shoot even more. Digital is cheap.

6. Composition is the key. Think about what you are doing. Frame your photo in your mind. Look for interesting angles and light, go high, go low. The key is to shoot the subject in as many different ways, under different lighting, and try to make those images interesting. So, don’t just point and shoot, but consider composition.

7. The twenty step exercise. If you lack inspiration, you can take your camera, go outside and start shooting anything around. Each photographer has their own secret. Some recommends shooting 100 photos in one hour. Others suggest you should try to get 100 shots from within the 10 metre radius of where you are. Others play twenty steps. Go out for a walk, walk twenty steps, stop, look around, take a picture (try and make it interesting, an unusual angle, a closeup, abstract, etc), walk another twenty steps, repeat. The point is to develop your eye, learn to look more indepth at your surroundings, to look in close as well as wide. This exercise forces you to try and see the mundane differently.

8. Plan a trip to a local botanical garden or a zoo. Make sure to visit such places from time to time, - there are lots of things to shoot there.

9. Shoot in different conditions. E.g. iff you shoot in early morning, late in the afternoon or in sunset, the available light will add more depth, create interesting shadows and color changes for your convenience. Try to photograph places in fog – it will hide distracting background elements.

10. Look through postcards. If you want to shoot the city you live in, or you plan a trip to some excited place, you’ll find it useful to look through postcards. Often we walk past something time and time again and never actually notice its potential. Besides, postcards will give you ideas what is the best way to shoot the subject.

11. Learn how to “see” with your camera – another exercise to develop your eye. If your camera has a viewfinder, look through it for some time. Then look at a scene, and imagine how the camera will see it. Then hold again your camera up to your face and find out if you were right. Keep trying until you can tell immediately what the camera will see.
12. Self-criticism Shoot, shoot and shoot! But after you take tons of images, you should sort them ruthlessly. 10% of worthy photos for a day is not bad results.

13. Enter online contests. It’s great inspiration to find interesting stuff to photograph. You have a topic, and it can make it easier to find interesting stuff to shoot. Try Contests at shotaddict.com.

14. Join a photo community and interest groups. It is cheap, informative, and fun. You can post your photos, participate in critique and discussions at forums. Some very good and interesting stuff to be found there!

15. Take a photo a day and see your life in a whole new way. It is a great article from Photojojo. Remember that a camera that you don’t have with you is a camera that’s not going to take any pictures. So try to have your camera on you as often as possible.

Kate runs free digital photography contests website. Join online photo contests for free and win prizes.

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How to Buy a Digital Camera

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Photography And The Cell Phone

by Roberto Sedycias

The cell phone has some additional features that are not yet available on digital cameras and so may even be able to provide some advantages. The best way to obtain quality photographs is to understand the specifications that are available on these devices, enabling you to make an informed decision when choosing your mobile product, ensuring that it meets your requirements.

The size of the cell phone screen will affect the quality of viewing on your phone only. It will not affect the quality of your photograph when downloaded to your computer. However, the pixels that your cell phone camera uses will affect the quality of the image a great deal. The minimum resolution you should use is 1.0 mega pixels if photographic images are an important feature for you.

Higher resolution of 3.0 mega pixels and up is available on current cell phones. The higher the number of pixels, the better quality the photographic image will be when reproduced. This is because the pixels are the amount of dots used to create the image; the more that are used, the less the image will break up when enlarged.

The memory size of your device will directly affect the number of photographs that you can store. This will affect your output, and also give you less scope for getting that perfect shot. Your device will detail how much memory it contains, and this amount is usually very low, to store only a few photographic images.

However, the memory capacity can be supplemented by purchasing a memory card that is compatible with your cell phone. The largest currently available is as much as 2 Gigabytes, which can store large numbers of photographs. The exact number will vary as the number of pixels directly affects the amount of memory used. The settings of your picture image can often be changed also. The picture quality is better the higher the resolution you choose. Lower resolutions take up less memory and so can be useful if you just want to send images to friends and family, if are running low on space or if the quality is not of importance.

It is also important that you can store your pictures. If you purchase a cell phone memory card, make sure that it also be compatible with your computer or that it can be hooked up to a USB that is computer compatible. Your device should also come with a USB that you can use to download your pictures. This enables you to clear your cell phone regularly, maximising the use of the camera feature. Once stored, your photographs can be manipulated using programs such as Photoshop, as with any other photographic image.

A major advantage of a camera is that it can be used to send pictures direct to friends and family with a compatible cell phone. These can be sent via multi media messages, which although relatively expensive are now appearing in cell phone contracts as part of a package.

Digital photos can also be sent via email if the cell phone is internet enabled. Any photographic image can be sent for free via infra red or Bluetooth to another compatible device. This is an excellent way of sharing images, without the need for downloading first, which is both fast and functional. This means cell phones do have an advantage over other photographic devices to a degree, as they do not yet have this feature.

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author's name and all the URLs (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

About the Author

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the Article section of page www.polomercantil.com.br/celular.php
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant forwww.PoloMercantil.com.br

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