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10 Things to Remember Before Buying any Digital Camera

Nikita Porwal — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:09:32 +0000

Digital cameras have pretty much become a necessity in today’s world. So, most people that have either already bought or will consider buying a new one. There are many impressive digital cameras available in the market and so looking at them we might simply want to upgrade our existing camera. Previously we have already shared more than 20 basic tips for understanding Digital Camera Settings and here are some of the things that you must remember and do before buying the digital camera:

1. Understand its Usage: Before investing on a digital camera, it is very important that you entirely understand what you will use the camera for. If you are looking for a simple handy camera to take pictures of friends, family and other such, then you can go for a smaller simpler camera. However, if you are looking to take photography seriously then a more experimental and advanced camera might be needed.

2. Talk to People: If there are friends or family that have extensive knowledge or have used different cameras, talk to them. A loved one always provides more personalized reviews on cameras, as opposed to sales people whose advice may be based on the commission they may earn. If you don’t have enough people that you can talk to, internet can be a great place to read reviews and understand models.

3. Understand the Jargons: When you go to the shop to buy a camera, it is very important that you understand the information provided to. This means that you must read up and know about the jargons used in the digital world. This will help you better understand the concepts and configuration as they are explained to you.

4. Analyze features: Features of the camera are an important aspect of the camera itself. The features will provide you the information about what the camera can do for you. Additionally, it also will pretty much help you decide if those things are what you want from your camera. Hence, again, as you understand jargons it is important you analyze which features are important for you depending on the usage.

5. Stick to the budget: The thing with the open economy is that you are sometimes spoilt for choices. There are a lot of options at different prices and the more you want the more expensive it can get. Therefore, it is important to plan ahead about how much you want to spend on the camera. More importantly, once you have analysed how much you want to spend, ensure that you stick to it.

6. Battery life: Surely battery life of a camera is part of its features. However, it is important to find out more about this. Though on paper it may be good, when you start using it, it shouldn’t drain out easily. This again is one of those features that people can tell you when you talk to them. The last thing you want to do is be stuck with a camera that you have to consistently keep charging or changing batteries for.

7. Accessories: Always understand the kind of accessories that come with the camera. This includes the kind of cables, lenses, memory cards, batteries, and so on that accompanies the digital camera. Always negotiate to get more free bees and accessories. It’s always nice to get more than you paid for and you can get that if you get if you bargain better.

8. Warranty: The warranty that the camera comes with is an important aspect to look into while investing in digital camera. It is important to understand the fine print in the warranty. It is very important that the warranty be sufficient for the product, and if possible extendable.

9. Damage and issues: Damages and issues can be either model specific or product specific. Therefore, it is important to know the kind of support system that is in place. If the service stations are available in your city and how difficult it is to get help should some issue or damage arise. The service agreement is therefore an important part of selecting a camera.

10. Extendibility or resale: If you are a professional photographer the extendibility of the camera becomes an important aspect of your choice. No matter which end of photography you are – professional or personal – flexibility is always good to have. Additionally, if you are someone that likes to update your camera based on recent technology, then certainly you want to ensure you invest in a product that has better resale value.

10 Best Examples of Portrait Photography

Vivek Parmar — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:22:34 +0000

Portrait Photography is an art to capture likeness of a person in which the face, personality, mood and expression is predominant. In portrait photography, the focus of the photograph’s is the person’s face. In this post, I have selected some of the most stunning photographs which portray a strong sense of emotion, personality and life.

01. Sense of Rhythm by Alexey Izvekov

02. Saint Thomas by Glenn Karlsen

03. Ball of Day by Pink Sword

04. Cormarant Fishermen at Dusk by Dan Ballard

05. Calling Ruh by Pink Sword

06. Make A Wish by Magda A.-Coulte

07. Kiss from a tree

08. Self Portrait by Sina Rahmati

09. Mystery Forest by Ivan P.

10. Unzipped by eugkyr

10 Best Examples of Landscape Photography

Vivek Parmar — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:32:43 +0000

Landscape Photography is the toughest photography and time consuming because it needs skill. Landscape Photography is not like ordinary photography in which you click on image and you are done. To capture most beautiful shots at right time you need right environmental elements with a good camera. In this article, I’m showcasing some of the most beautiful landscapes that I could find and if I miss out any landscape, then let me know via comments!

01. From Dusk to Dawn By Skarphedinn Thrainsson

02. The Arch By Gary McParland

03. Earthly Acanth With Lunar Light by Dr. Akira TAKAUE

04. River of Dreams by Matej Glavinac

05. TimeLess by Paulo Dias

06. Lac Blanc par I’Aiguillette d’Argentiere by Roberto Bertero

07. On the field’s appeal by Pawel Kucharski

08. The River by Santigo Pascual Buye

09. Shark Teeth by Doug Solis

10. Night Poem by Brin

10 Best Examples of Humor Photography

Vivek Parmar — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:52:10 +0000

It’s a bitter truth that photography is technical and time consuming but only photographer knows how much fun he has most of the times in adding idea into it. In this post, I’m sharing 10 best examples of humorous photographs which looks funny and do not shy to put a grin on your face.

1. The Ultimate Kiss by Geoff

2. Ooops…!!!

3. His Worst Enemy by Northman

4. SkyDumbo

5. Help Me

6. Apple a Day

7. Boy

8. College Humor

9. Mehitabel pretending to be Bill the Cat

10. Interesting Weddings

10 Best Example Of Creative Edit Photography

Vivek Parmar — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:17:22 +0000

Photo manipulation is the process of editing images using software. This is one of the most creative and attractive part of digital editing which is being used widely in designing industry. In this post, I have collected some of the beautiful examples of creative edit photography and hope that you like them. If I miss out any then let us know via comments.

1. My Lil Red Devils

2. A Manipulation of five pictures

3. Convergence

4. Ladygulliva

5. my-secret-garden

6. The Mysterious Cult

7. Into the Unknown

8. Skitour underwater

9. Stranger

10. Rain

10 Best Example Of Architectural Photography

Vivek Parmar — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:07:27 +0000

This post is dedicated to Architecture Photography. Architecture is an art and we are going to list of these photographs surrounded with beautiful things. Just scroll down to see some incredible collection of Architectural photography around the world but before that i would i to mention a quote from Dorothea Lange,

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.

1. The collegiate church of Neuchâtel

2. La pedrera

3. Canary Wharf HDR

4. Rise up to the sky

5. Down the Jin Mao Tower

6. Welcome to the Matrix

7. Tour Eiffel

8. Its History Now

9. Centro de Convenciones

10. Shanghai – Grand Hyatt Lobby

20 Basic Tips For Understanding Digital Camera Settings

Nikita Porwal — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:56:26 +0000

Photography makes it possible to capture those wonderful moments of our lives and everything that’s beautiful and cherish them in the form of memories. So it is only natural that you would want to take the best shots possible. And most of you may agree, photography can be a real passionate addiction. One of the key things you should know as a camera owner is the settings that go with the camera. And with the kind of cameras in the market today, it is a cakewalk for any amateur photographer to try his / her hand at producing exquisite photography.

We explore the camera settings that you should know to get started with taking your best shots. Read on to find out more:

Camera modes simplified:

Automatic mode:

1. Auto mode: By selecting automatic mode, you are instructing the camera to make best use of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus and flash while taking a shot such that you get the best picture. So in essence the camera will ‘guess’ the type of shot you want to take and try to adjust itself to give you the best shot. So to ensure you do get the best shot, you need to also set other parameters in your camera.

2. Portrait mode: The camera will adjust itself to a large aperture (selects a small number) such that the background remains out of focus and your subject is the centre of attention. You get beautiful portrait shots when you stand close to or zoom in on the subject before taking the shot.

3. Macro mode: This mode works best when you want to move in closer and take shots of flowers, insects or tiny objects. Focusing is cumbersome in macro mode as the depth of field is very narrow at short distances. It is also safe to avoid the usage of flash since you are taking close up shots.

4. Landscape mode: When you want to cover a large area in the shot, this mode will be helpful. In this mode, the camera selects a small aperture (a large number) in order to capture a large scene into the shot as you focus. It is better to use a tripod if possible to ensure the photo is not shaken or blurred.

5. Night mode: Your camera uses a longer shutter speed in order to capture details of the scene when light is low. A flash is usually used in this mode to enable the distribution of light on your subject. While it is better to use flash in dark, taking pictures without the flash too brings out good shots and makes interesting snaps.

6. Sports mode: In some of the cameras, this mode is also known as ‘action mode’ as capturing sports mostly means taking pictures when the subject is in action or is moving. It is possible to take action pictures when the camera increases its shutter speed so that it can freeze the instance of action.

7. Movie mode: This mode does not really match up to a video camera but certainly helps you capture those moments when you feel still images are inadequate. Both video and sound are recorded. And these moving images take more space than still images do.

Semi-automatic mode:

8. Aperture priority mode (A or AV): Your camera chooses other settings such as ISO, white balance, etc when you fix the aperture mode to small or large. Large aperture means a large scene in focus, so the shutter speed is slow whereas small aperture means focus is on a particular object which is usually closer or a still subject and hence the shutter speed is faster. The aperture and the shutter of a camera regulate the exposure of any photo. Large aperture means you need to good lighting to properly expose the photograph.

9. Shutter priority mode (S or TV): Similar to the aperture mode, here you will set the shutter speed and the camera will choose and set the other parameters such as aperture, ISO, white balance, etc. Having the option to choose the shutter speed is useful to a great extent as you can set the shutter speed to fast when you are taking action pictures so that the act is frozen while clicking the shot. Likewise, slow shutter speed works well while taking a large view or flowing water. If there is not enough low aperture and the shutter speed is too fast like 1/2000 of a second perhaps, then it is likely that the photo will be underexposed.

10. Program mode (P): Commonly understood as automatic mode and also used as alternative names for each other. The only subtle difference being a program mode gives you more control over flash, ISO, etc.

Fully Manual mode:

11. Manual mode: If you like to learn photography the real way, then opt for the manual mode and practice till you have a good sense of each function such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance etc. In this mode you have the freedom to explore and set each parameter the way you want. Since this can prove to be quite a challenge to set accurate parameters and be able to get best shots, most people stick to the conventional automatic mode.

12. Balancing the White balance:

We would not like our pictures to show us in a different light, literally! So it is essential to adjust the white balance in order to get pictures which reflect the colours closest to or as exact as that of the subject. Our eyes automatically adjust irrespective of the temperature of the colours unlike a camera which needs us to adjust the white balance. Check your camera manuals to make these adjustments as most cameras differ in the method of adjusting white balance. However, you should be able to find automatic and semi-automatic modes to help you get started.

13. Automatic white balance settings: Most of the cameras have some of these white balance settings: Auto, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight / sunny, Cloudy, Flash, and Shade.

14. Manual white balance settings: Check your manual to follow the exact procedure to manually adjust the white balance but the concept in all cameras are the same, which is, by adjusting the white balance in your camera you are giving your camera a white colour for reference. By focusing your camera on something white (say a kerchief or a white sheet / card) your camera will recognize what white colour looks like and will set all the other colours accordingly.

15. ISO:

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. ISO is the method adjusting the camera’s sensor (or film) to make it more sensitive to light. Higher ISO means higher sensitivity to light; higher shutter speeds or higher apertures which in turn help you shoot pictures under poor lighting conditions. Also the higher the ISO, greater will be the noise of the camera while taking the shot as the size of the pixels gets reduced so much on the sensor that it finds it hard to collect all the light in the fraction of a second that the shutter is open. So to keep the noise at bay, you can take a few pictures at different ISO settings and check the resulting noise that you can bear to have.

16. Flash:

A flash is a device used in cameras to provide an artificial flash of light so that the subject or scene is bright and illuminated before you click the photo. It also can perform other functions like quickly capturing a moving object or changing the quality of light. Most cameras have built-in flash and settings that you can control.

17. Fill flash: Most of the cameras have a lightning bolt icon which is the fill flash. This flash helps illuminate a subject which is near the camera that would have otherwise appeared underexposed. The flash is lower in intensity than the original or ambivalent light. The flash unit is set to expose the scene or subject fully and properly at a given aperture, at a given shutter speed.

18. Bounce flash: Another way of using Flash effectively is to bounce the flash off reflectors such as a white wall / screen, a flash umbrella or white clothing. The result is a much softer light that exposes your subject in the best possible manner. It also reduces the overall contrast and highlight detail.

19. Red eye reduction: When a person is photographed in low light but with the flash on, the resulting effect is known as Red eye. This happens as the light gets bounced off the person’s retina thus making it red in colour. By choosing red eye reduction button available on the camera, the pre-flash showers a soft light on the eyes which make the irises of the person to contract thus reducing red eye effect.

20. Exposure Bracketing:

Autobracketing is a convenient feature where the camera will take about 3 successive shots with slightly variant settings. You can choose the best picture of the lot! You can also do this manually by changing the settings for each shot and achieve the same result, the process is known as Bracketing. The most common type of autobracketing is ‘Exposure bracketing’, where the camera takes the same shot with different settings including over-exposed (brighter) and under-exposed (darker) images when compared to the camera’s present settings. Cameras adjust either the aperture or the shutter speed when trying to perform automatic exposure bracketing. Most cameras allow for you to set the variation between different ‘stops’. If the variation you want in the pictures is greater, you may set it to ‘2 stops’ and if you want it very less, you may set the variation to ‘half a stop’.

10 Impressive Digital Cameras Launched at CES 2011

Nikita Porwal — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:47:23 +0000

In 2010, we awaited with bating breaths for technology to take us on to a completely new level in the year 2011 and introduce us to the best of digital cameras. Everyone loves cameras, be it a photographer, designer, or ordinary people, we all want to make the best of cameras we have. And if you are not sure what kind of digital camera you need then this piece of information may help.

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was organized by the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) at Las Vegas from 6th – 9th January 2011. There were a number of companies that released digital cameras before the CES 2011 while most others chose to make the launch at CES 2011. The following is a list top 10 digital cameras that were available at the CES 2011.

1. Casio Tryx

Interesting Features of Casio Tryx:

Lens: 5 lenses in 5 groups, including aspherical lens, F-number: F2.8, Focal Length: F=3.8mm, Focal Length: 35mm-Film Equivalent: Approx. 21mm
Focal range: Approx. 3” ~ 20”
Sensor: 1/2.3-inch high-speed CMOS (back-illuminated type)
Display: 3.0-inch TFT color LCD (Super Clear LCD), Touch screen, 800 dots (960 x 480)
Resolution: 12.1 megapixels
Movie mode: 1280 x 720 (30 fps)
Aperture: F2.8
Battery: Li-50B lithium-ion
Battery life: To be assessed
Premium features: This was undoubtedly one of the cameras at CES 2011 with a unique design. It has a 36-degree rotating frame around it, thus making it possible to use the frame as a tripod or as a hanger to hand your camera from anywhere. It also has a panoramic picture function for taking 360-degree panoramic shots. SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card compatible.
Pricing and availability: Estimated retail price is $249.00 with a release date of April 2011

2. Olympus E-PL2

Interesting Features of Olympus E-PL2:

Lens: 17.3 mm (H) x 13.0 mm (V)
Focal range: 28-84mm equivalent
Sensor: 4/3″ High-Speed Live MOS Sensor,
Display: 3.0-inch HyperCrystal LCD, 7x/10x/14x magnification display. Approx. 1.44 million dots
Resolution: 12.3 million pixels
Movie mode: HD: 1280 (H) x 720 (V) Aspect 16:9
Aperture: 3.5 max
Battery: BLS-5 Li-ion battery (included)
Battery life: Approx. 280 shots
Premium features: Compatible with 16 Micro Four Thirds, 27 Four Thirds and more than 500 other lenses (via an adapter). Easy-to-use Live Wheel feature menu, Supersonic Wave Filter (dust reduction system for image sensor), SD Memory Card SDHC/SDXC compatible.
Pricing and availability: Will be available in January 2011 for a price of $600.00

3. Samsung NX-11

Interesting Features of Samsung NX-11:

Lens: SAMSUNG 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OIS i-Function
Focal range: 28mm wide-angle coverage (Equivalent to 35mm)
Sensor: 23.4×15.6mm, 14.6MP (effective) CMOS
Display: 3.0-inch AMOLED, 921K-dots
Resolution: 14.6 Megapixels (effective)
Movie mode: 1280 x 720 / 30fps MP4 (H.264)
Aperture: Not available
Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Battery life: Not available
Premium features: This mirror less compact camera is smaller than a DSLR but still offers interchangeable lenses. It has a built in flash and viewfinder and the new iFunction lens. It also has electronically controlled vertical-run focal plane shutter Memory cards SD/SDHC compatible.
Pricing and availability: February 2011 in US market, retail price $649.00

4. Sony CyberShot DSC WX10

Interesting Features of Sony CyberShot DSC WX10:

Lens: 5.0 – 110.0mm, 6 elements in 5 groups (including 5 aspheric elements)
Focal range: A wide angle of 24mm
Sensor: 1/2.3″ (7.77mm) “Exmor R” CMOS Sensor
Display: 2.8″ Clear Photo LCD Plus (460K dots)
Resolution: 16.2MP (effective)
Movie mode: Progressive 1,280 x 720
Aperture: F2.4 (W)-5.9 (T)
Battery: LITHIUM ION NP-BG1 3.6V
Battery life: Not available
Premium features: It delivers extremely fast speed, high resolution and stunning low-light sensitivity with improved image clarity and drastically reduced grain. The WX10 is outfitted with powerful features like Full HD movie for high quality movies, low light performance for improved image clarity, 10fps to capture the precise moment, and backlight correction to capture the detail in high contrast shots. Intelligent Sweep Panorama / 3D Sweep Panorama / Sweep Multi Angle, MS Duo and SD/SDHC/SDXC Compatible
Pricing and availability: $279.99, available in shops from end of March 2011.

5. Fujifilm FinePix F550 EXR

Interesting Features of Fujifilm FinePix F550 EXR:

Lens: 15x optical zoom, Fujinon 15x Optical zoom lens
Focal range: 24 – 360 mm (35 mm equivalent)
Sensor: ½” EXR CMOS sensor
Display: 3.0 inch LCD with 460,000 pixel and new Rich User Interface using Vector fonts and graphics
Resolution: 16Million effective pixels
Movie mode: 1920x1080pixels @ 30fps , HD movie capture using H.264 (MOV) format
Aperture: Minimum aperture wide: f3.5, Maximum aperture wide: f10
Built in memory: Internal memory (Approx. 39MB)
Battery: Li-ion battery NP-50
Battery life: 300 frames
Premium features: If you want to travel light, feel comfortable with point-and-shoot photography, and do not want to compromise on image quality then this camera is the one you are looking for. It has stylish design and pocketable dimensions; the FinePix F550 EXR seems ready to take on the world as a compact camera in 2011. SD / SDHC / SDXC (UHS-I) memory card.
Pricing and availability: Due in March 2011 for $350.00

6. Canon PowerShot A800

Interesting Features of Canon PowerShot A800:

Lens: 6.6 – 21.6 mm, 7 elements in 6 groups (1 single sided aspherical lens)
Focal range: (35 mm equivalent: 37 – 122 mm)
Sensor: 1/2.3 type CCD
Display: 36.2 cm (2.5”) TFT, Approx. 115,000 dots
Resolution: Approx. 10.0Mega pixels
Movie mode: AVI [Motion JPEG compression]
Aperture: Maximum 3.0
Battery: 2x Size-AA Alkaline or Ni-MH Batteries (Alkalines supplied)
Battery life: Approx. 300 shots¹ (with supplied batteries), Approx. 500 shots (with optional Canon NB-3AH batteries) ¹, Approx. 660 min. playback (with supplied batteries) , Approx. 720 min. playback (with Canon NB-3AH batteries)
Premium features: Compact, stylish, and colored to suit your personality, perfect for young photographers, new photographers, and anyone who appreciates easy, high-quality digital photography and exceptional value. SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, MMCplus, HCMMCplus
Pricing and availability: Will be on sale in March 2011 and prices at $90.00

7. Samsung SH100

Interesting Features of Samsung SH100:

Lens: SAMSUNG Lens f = f4.7-23.5mm
Focal range: 26∼130m 35 mm film equivalents
Sensor: 1/2.33″ (Approx. 7.76mm) CCD
Display: 3.0 WQVGA Touch Display, 230,000 dots
Resolution: 14.2 Megapixels
Movie mode: 1280×720 @ 30fps
Aperture: Minimum aperture wide: f3.3, Minimum aperture tele: f5.9
Battery: Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
Battery life: Not available
Premium features: it is a unique innovation, making it possible for you to connect wirelessly to your other devices with ease. You can use Wi-Fi to connect to your Android® powered Galaxy S™ smart-phone, this way you can view the shot you’re about to take in real time on your phone. If you’re not pleased with the photo taken, you can zoom in and out to get a better one, and then activate the shutter remotely when you’re ready to pose. Supports SD / SDHC storages media.
Pricing and availability: Priced at $199.99 , will be available in March 2011

8. Olympus SP-610UZ

Interesting Features of Olympus SP-610UZ:

Lens: 5.0 – 110.0mm
Focal range: 28 – 616mm equivalent in 35mm photography
Sensor: 4/3″ High-Speed Live MOS Sensor,
Display: 3.0″ LCD 230K dots
Resolution: 14 Megapixels (effective)
Movie mode: HDMI, 720p, 360p, 180p, VGA, QVGA
Aperture: f3.3 (W) / f5.7 (T)
Battery: AAx4
Battery life: 340 Shots with Alkaline
Premium features: HDMI TV interface for easy camera operation during playback via the TV remote. In-camera Panorama for quick and easy panorama shots SD/SDHC/SDXC Card. Pop Art, Drawing, Punk, Sparkle and Watercolor are just a few of the incredible new in-camera editing techniques the SP-610 offers
Pricing and availability: Available for $229.99 in black and silver colours, in February 2011.

9. Casio Exilim EX-ZR100

Interesting Features of Casio Exilim EX-ZR100:

Lens: 9 lenses in 8 groups, including a spherical lens, F3.0-5.9, 12.5X optical zoom lens
Focal range: 24-300mm
Sensor: 1/2.3-inch high-speed CMOS (back-illuminated type)
Display: 3.0-inch TFT color LCD (Super Clear LCD), 800 dots (960 x 480)
Resolution: 12.1 megapixels
Movie mode: 1920 x 1080(30fps)
Aperture: F3.0 (W) ~ F7.9 (W)*4
Battery: NP-130 li-ion battery
Battery life: Not available
Premium features: Some of the key features and functions of this camera are CMOS-shift image stabilization, HDR, HDR ART, BEST SHOT, Premium Auto, Still In Movie, Dynamic Photo (Play mode only), Slide Panorama. SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card compatible.
Pricing and availability: Ships in March for $299

10. Olympus XZ-1

Interesting Features of Olympus XZ-1:

Lens: iZuiko f/1.8-2.5 4x optical zoom lens
Focal range: 28-112mm
Sensor: Larger than a typical 1/2.3-inch type imager found in current Stylus cameras, 1/1.63-inch CCD
Display: 7.6cm / 3.0” (3:2) OLED
Resolution: 10 megapixels, 610k-dots
Movie mode: 1280 x 720 (30 fps)
Aperture: 1.8 – 2.5
Built in memory: 54.6 MB
Battery: Rechargeable lithium ion battery (Built-in)
Battery life: 320 shots
Premium features: Art Filters includes the new HDR Dramatic Tone, as is 720p HD video recording using a dedicated video record button. ISO sensitivity stretches up to 6400 and a built-in flash is placed in the camera’s left shoulder. The camera is SD/SDHC and SDXC card compatible.
Pricing and availability: The XZ1 will be available in either black or white sometime in January 2011 for $499.99.

How to disable Facebook Photo tagging on your profile

Honey Singh — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:35:11 +0000

Facebook is very addictive social networks with lots of spammy applications and user’s. We usually avoid spam’s but things get worse when someone misuse the Facebook Photo tagging feature for you. Some applications like “Who Staked Your Profile” and others contaminate your and your friends wall after gaining the access.

You can disable Facebook Photo tagging by few simple steps:

1.Go to your Facebook Privacy Settings

2.You also simple go to “Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites >What your friends can share about you” and Unchecked the “Photos and videos of me” .

Below mentioned screen shots will help you in disabling the Facebook Photo tagging:

a) Go to “What your friends can share about you through applications and websites”

b) Uncheck “Photos and videos of me”

After saving the changes no one can tag you via photos on walls. Though this tip will block photo tagging but your friends can still tag your profile with @username functions.

How To Create Amazing Panorama Using PTGui?

Nikita Porwal — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:15:59 +0000

Taking snaps, making them personalized and then giving unique touch is an interesting hobby among people today, as well as steady jobs for others. Digital photography is part of our day to day lives and we find them almost anywhere. And certainly is the most excellent way to remember the places and people you visit, however we now have an advanced technology called image stitching that let you merge multiple images with overlying of view into a sectioned panorama.

So if you are interested in creating your own panorama, you must check a superb image stitching software called PTGui. This is panoramic a powerful stitching software for Windows and Mac OSX operating system. Originally developed as a Graphical User Interface for Panorama Tools (hence the name), PTGui now is a full featured photo stitching application. The cool thing about this software is that you don’t really need to be a professional photographer in order to make panoramic images, just keep in mind few rules and you are done.

How it works?

As you enter the software piece you have project assistant to help you go ahead. You can add photos here for further workings and you will also find an option called “image calibration” that help you set up camera and lens parameters for achieving high quality photos. You are free to sort, correct and replace images with source images separately and more actions for lens settings like focal lens, lens type you would have to toggle the advanced button.

Creating beautiful panorama is just limited by your imagination, PTGui offers many default projection styles that can be made use of. Don’t forget to set up control points that are hugely important for the pictures that can save your time in reconstructing and reconfiguring the stuff you have in mind. Once you are done with the adjustment check out optimizations which is available in the same panel. For further advanced option click on Finder bar and anything you do on the project can be viewed in real-time Panorama Editor. Once you are sure of completing the project check the preview and proceed.

Important Features -

PTGui can stitch multiple rows of images
Create 360 degree cylindrical panoramas, ‘flat’ partial panoramas and even spherical 360×180 degree panoramas
No need to keep the camera level: PTGui can stitch rotated and tilted images
Virtually unlimited output size: create Gigapixel panoramas from hundreds of images!
Create templates with frequently used settings.
Support for OpenEXR (.exr) and HDR Radiance (.hdr) source images
Batch Stitcher can generate control points and set up a panorama.
Layered output allows full control over the final stitched result
PTGui stitches most panoramas fully automatically, but at the same time provides full manual control over every single parameter. This enables stitching of ‘difficult’ scenes, where other programs fail.
Full 16 bit workflow for best image quality

These are just handful of features I have mentioned and there are many more waiting for you to explore. However, you might have come across Photoshop stitching engine that does the job satisfactory, but you would certainly need PTGui when the project does not work find on Photoshop engine. PTGui offers quick and expert method of creating beautiful panoramas and can serve great for most of the passionate photographer. This piece can be a great choice when playing around with 180 or 360 degree VR.

How To View, Manage And Manipulate Images Under One Roof?

Nikita Porwal — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:33:06 +0000

I have been playing around with Photo editing software for quite long time now, and I always faced problem that not every software support every format. While Googled around I came across FastStone Image Viewer and I didn’t look back. After experimenting around I understood that FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image converter, editor and browser. It does carry amazing array of features, which includes image viewing, comparison, cropping, managing, red-eye removal, renaming, add texts, watermarks, emailing, border effects, color adjustments and many more.

Basic Highlights:

Relatively fast HQ image/thumbnail viewing
Support for dual head configuration
Custom order arranging (via DnD) and automatic renumbering
Color space management and excellent Magnifier lens
Portable version can be used without installation, usually installed on USB key, comprising all user settings
Supports for popular image formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, PSD, BMP, ICO. etc.
Image browser with familiar Windows user interface
Full screen viewer with zoom function
Support folder/non-folder structure
Neat red eye removal tool that produces natural results
Image modification tools – resize, rotate, flip, crop, sharpen, blur, brightness etc.
Image color effects – grayscale, sepia, negative, RGB adjustment
Best fit or actual image display support
Image management support – photo tagging capability, drag & drop, copy or move to folder support.

Professional Highlights:

Supports popular digital camera RAW formats from different SLR manufacturers such as Nikon – NEF, Olympus (ORF), Canon – CR2, Pentax – PEF, and more.
Eleven different image resize and resampling algorithm options available
Undo and redo option at Multi level
Lossless JPEG rotations
Memory card image retriever
Special effects for professionals such as watermark – text or pic, footnote, drop down shadow, frame option, bump map, morph, and waves
Color counter feature comes with Histogram
Side-by-side image comparison tool (up to 4 at a time)
Batch image processing options for convert, rename, and more.

Other Cool highlights:

Slideshow including music and 150 + transition effects
Image printing with full page layout
Cool Wallpaper creator and screen capture
Get image from a scanner support as well
9 default skins interface

Most of the wonderful features with FastStone are accessible at huge cost with other software, but this one stand out of the crowd by offering you everything at free of cost. This little gem of software is the best program I have ever downloaded for image viewing and editing. I would highly recommend it to all photographers especially, give it a try and have fun playing around!

10 best examples of Action Photography

Honey Singh — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:54:28 +0000

Someone says that “All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then returns to its starting point.” Today we will showcase few best examples of the Action photography , the most difficult level of photography which revolves around the timing , point of view, focus , concentrations and shooting techniques.

Here are few best examples of the Action Photography:

1. I want to swim in the rivers of colors

2. Ghost Riders

3. Consume me but i have to Win

4. Jump over the highest ride

5. Horse Riders

6. Hide me in the Water

7. Absolut Vodka Splash

8. Lime Splash

9. Snow Riders in the Sky

10. Devil in disguise

How to enhance your flickr account using various tools

harshit — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:49:36 +0000

Flickr is being a popular online image uploading platform.What we all do start uploading our photos (like jpeg, jpg, gif, png etc.) on Flickr easily via the web or use uploading tools for Mac and Windows to make it easy to upload a batch of hi res photos all at once.It enabled Internet users to manage and share digital photos easily as long as there’s an Internet connection.You can send your photos into Flickr with a special upload by email address. When you upload photos by email, use the subject line to give your photo a title, and the body of the email to give it a description.Flickr is a revolution for photo sharing and management plus it has a huge community of photographers who provide great photos there for the world to see.

If your are a Flickr newbie, read How to get the most out of Flickr, Tips for Flickr Beginners and the Official FAQ.
Here are some very interesting tools like uploader,slider,spell check,icon generator etc and some variuos search engine of flickr which might be produce better result when you are searching for image on flickr.As flickr provides the best image suitable to your post or for other commercila or non commercial use.

FlickrFight

FlickrFight is a new Website which helps you to compare the Images. You select the keywords or tags to be contested. The one with the most images on site, wins the fight

Multicolr Search Lab

With the Multicolr Search Lab, you can browse through 10 million of Flickr’s most interesting Creative Commons images, and find ones that share the same colours. Choose up to 10 colours from our palette of 120 different shades.

Flickr Logo Makr

Flickr Logo Makr allows you to make flickr style logo.

Spell With Flickr

Spell with Flickr is a fun little program that invites users to type in whatever they want to, then matches each letter of that word with letter pictures straight from Flickr.

Color Hunter

Color Hunter is a place to find and make color palettes created from images.When you search for color palettes by tag, ColorHunter.com searches Flickr.com via Flickr’s API for images labeled with the tag you entered. The thumbnails of the Flickr images are used to create a color palette.

Flickr Graph

Flickr Graph is an application that explores the social relationships inside flickr.com. It makes use of the classic attraction-repulsion algorithm for graphs.

Flickr Slideshow Generator

Flickr Slideshow Generator allows you to generate the HTML necessary to embed a custom Flickr Slideshow in your page or blog.

flickrSLiDR

flickrSLiDR allows you to easily embed the classic flickr slideshows on your website or blog. All you need to do is enter the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group you would like to embed along with some options. You’ll receive the HTML embed code in return.

FlickrDownloadr

With Downloadr, you can search, browse and batch download multiple Flickr pictures based on image tag (s), Flickr username, Groups Pools, Flickr user sets or even Interesting Flickr pictures of any particular day.

Flickr Importr

Flickr Importr is a tool for Windows that allows you to upload images to Flickr and automatically add them to groups and sets. Additionally it can import tags from a variety of third party image applications.

Gnickr

Gnickr allows you to manage photos on your Flickr site as if they were local files on your Gnome desktop. It does this by creating a Flickr virtual filesystem.

CompFight

Compfight is a great new tool that uses Flickr’s API to search the database of photos and then feeds back the results as live clickable thumbnails.

Flickr Flipper

Flickr Flipper allows you to search for Flickr photos and also search for photos from specific Flickr users. It uses Papervision to display the photos one at a time and even allows you to download the photo to your computer.

Flickerstorm

Flickerstorm is a new way to search through Flickr photos. You can easily search through photos by entering a subject or topic. Flickrstorm will pull up relevant photo thumbnails through which you can scroll.

10 best example of Underwater Photography

Honey Singh — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:10:51 +0000

You may know that Underwater Photography is the photo sessions under the water but i think you should also know that this is very hard to do. There is lot of danger of fishes and water creatures together with technical issues like loss of colors and contrast in the deep water. Color and Contrast values is inversely proportional to the dept of the water and scientifically the longer wavelengths of sunlight rays like red/orange are quickly enwrapped by the water layer, only color appeared to the naked human eyes are in blue-green in color. Photographers uses several techniques to overcome the issues created via atmospheric conditions and water.

How to Resolve the underwater issues:

Horizontal loss of color loss can be reduced by keeping the camera close to the subject and by the use of wide-angle lenses. In order to overcome the light issues and loss of colors photographers uses the flash (Fill-flash).

Despite these challenges there are excellent examples of underwater photography and some of them are listed as follows: