Still Life Photography – How to Shoot Good Pictures

Still life photography has many uses. Perhaps you want to take a picture of a beautiful shell or perhaps take a picture of a product that you’re selling on eBay. Other reasons for learning still life photography may include selling still life photograph downloads at microstock sites or to food magazines. No matter what your reason, still life photography is a great skill to learn.

Unless you are photographing specific products or pictures for a magazine assignment, the subjects for your still life photography are endless. Despite common belief, still life photography isn’t limited to just pictures of apples and grapes. Even super simple items like a few artfully arranged spools of thread can be interesting and attract attention. There are a couple of microstock sites like Shutterstock and iStock that have a high demand for all sorts of still life pictures from simple to complex.

People often times think of still life photography as a lot easier than other types of photography like sports or landscape photography. With still life pictures, you can arrange the objects exactly how you want them and have full control over the photo’s composition.

In other ways, good still life pictures are more challenging to capture. Because still lifes are taken up close, it’s easy to see imperfections on your subject that you would normally never see.

Despite its challenge, by using some basic photography skills and applying these tips, you can create stunning still life pictures with just a little practice.

Still Life Photography Lighting

Professional photographers usually use a soft box or a light box to shoot their still lifes. However this isn’t absolutely necessary as you will see in a moment, but it can be a big help. However, if you do want one, you can find a soft box online or you can easily make one using instructions you find online. The purpose of these lighting tools is to provide even light on the subject.

Another way to get this good quality light is to set up your shoot outside. A high overcast or bright sky can create a natural soft box effect without having any of the harsh shadows.

Composing Still Life Pictures

Arrange your objects in a pleasing composition. Use a classical composition technique such as “Rule of Thirds” or “Leading Lines” or “Frame within a Frame” to create a good composition. Artfully arrange the objects, and use your imagination. For example, if it’s a picture of a piece of cake, instead of including the entire table setting, place a gleaming, silver dessert fork upside down on the plate and remove a tiny bite from the cake.

Fill the Frame with Your Still Life Subject

Remember, the only thing that should be in your viewfinder or on your preview LCD screen is your composition. You need to remove any distractions or clutter from the background so you can have a clean and up close image. If you have a backdrop or background you don’t like don’t worry about it because it can be easily solved. The light box or soft box will solve this problem, but if you’re taking pictures outside and have a distracting background simply place a piece of white foam board behind your subject and you’ll be all set. If you want a sharp image, make sure to use macro mode or you can end up with a fuzzy image.

Look for a Good Angle and Start Shooting!

Rather than taking a picture from your head level, try holding the camera so that it’s at the same height as your subject. You should also try shooting from a variety of different angles.

Importance Of Wedding Photography

Wedding photography is also known as traditional photography or classic photography. This type of photography has been used in wedding for several years. Wedding photography needs a person to set up the main equipment I-e camera each time wants to take different pictures. A person or photographer should make several wedding photos looks creative and artistic while covering the various sessions of wedding. A wedding photographer may produce different pictures which are arranged in photo shoots.wedding Photography bases its latest quality on lightning and sharpness. As far as latest and modern cameras are concerned, they capture clearer photos because of the improved and modern screens. As every person knows that wedding is considered to be the most important and major milestone day of every person’s life.

Many photographers shoot in various and different styles and it is very significant and important for photographer to take photos in different angles. In this article we will discuss the main styles of that are famous and available today.

1.traditional wedding photography: The first and most important style of is the traditional wedding photography. This type of photography captures the pictures of wedding way in a traditional way such as exchange of rings, family pictures, cutting the cake and many more. Weddings are considered to be the formal occasions and this type of photography has stood testing the best time.

2.reportage wedding photography: Another most important style of wedding photography is reportage wedding photography. This type of photography is also known as photojournalistic wedding photography. In this type of photography, the photographer blends the background and different photographs. This style of photography is considered to be the hardest to perfect because it takes several years for photographer to get an experience.

3.contemporary wedding photography: The last and most important style of wedding photography is contemporary wedding photography. This style of photography is also known as avant garde wedding photography. Furthermore, this style of photography includes unusual ideas and uses various camera angles. Moreover, it brings the personality of photographers into the picture together with the innovative vision or individual style of the photographer. On the other hand, this style of photography is less popular as compared to other styles of photography. Several wedding photographers use this style of wedding photography in professional photography awards and person will see many features of this style of photography in glossy wedding magazines.

Product Photography

There isn’t any doubt at all that today’s picture driven world of business and advertising having the best product images carried out is essential to success. There are simply too many company messages on the market bombarding us every day for us to absorb far more than a small percentage of the messages being conveyed.
That is why advertisers and marketers have been relying more and more on product photography to do the job.
Product photography is an art. Top photos, especially of three-dimensional items, are not easily achieved. For the amount of high quality needed for commercial product photography, a studio setting is useful and an expert photographer is essential. The critical importance are lighting, background, clarity, composition and context.
Product photographers use a variety of professional equipment to attain the desired result. Specialty cameras and lenses, a light box, light diffusers and a wide range of backgrounds and props are only a few of the items required to ensure high quality product photographs. Also, the pro product photographer’s ability and experience are invaluable.
Megapixel of over 10 is really helpful for camera and the ideal lens to use shall be 100mm macro. The light source is of key importance in your overall photograph shoot setup. Typically for indoor shots, you’ll want 2 light sources – one is the primary light for either direct light on your product, or it may be diffused indirectly, corresponding to utilizing a light tent. Then the second light source is often fill or reflection-diffusing light to take away from the shadow effect. There are two major lighting to use on product photography. Strobe light is very good for the sharp look on metal or chrome products such as jewellery and glass items. Ambient light could make a smooth look so long as the photographer is aware of methods to diffuse and reflect light source.
In todays competitive enterprise industry, a professional internet webstore is the important thing to achieve success. Your product is the life line between your online business and your client. Pro product photographers can achieve good colour and the sharp image look by bring up the products sharpness. Quality product photography is the key to business success.

A bridezilla usually has these symptoms:
-Someone who is pushy and barely gives thanks.
-Somebody who is very impatient and demanding.
-Somebody who raises voice often and screams unnecessarily.
-Someone who is usually stressed out below any situations.
-Someone who can’t handle their emotions well.
-Somebody who is impolite and disrespectful.

Usually women don’t plan to turn into a bridezilla when she first begins to plan her wedding. All of it starts from the voice in her head I want my wedding day to be perfect. Demanding perfection in your wedding day will only cause stress, because nothing in this world is flawless. Whenever you hear perfect wedding stories, it merely means that wedding was perfect for that particular individual as they were happy on that day. Surprising things might happen and something may go sideways, but why not take a breath and focus on having fun and make the remainder of the day a memorable one?
There are 3 common ways to prevent becoming a bridezilla.

1. When discussing wedding plans together with your fianc, try and substitute This is my day with This is our wedding. Without doubt guys have silly concepts like race car wedding cakes and soccer theme invitations, however this is because wedding is often not their forte. It is very important compromise concepts from both sides reasonably in order to have a successful and joyful wedding day.

2. Go out with your friends to enjoy a movie and new restaurants, have fun! Take a break from wedding conversation and spend an evening focusing on catching up on other people’s lives. You want your friends to be joyful for you from the bottom of their heart. Joyful bridal party can have a positive effect in your big day.

3. Be good to your wedding professionals. Impatient and rude brides easily upset those that would have gladly helped them. Even when it is not outwardly noticeable, professionals who she has disrespected may naturally give poor service at the end of the day. Respect your wedding vendors and lots of good stuff may happen. Your DJ might make an effort to do an extra nice job to heat up the crowd of the reception. Your venue could serve your guests well ahead of your expectations. Your photographer might make you extra beautiful with post production enhancements like photoshop retouch. Your floral could try to do an extra great job on decorating the scene. Your wedding planner might make an effort to have more endurance with you to organize the day. There are a lot of positive things that can occur behind the scenes if the bride is kind and reasonable to wedding professionals.

How to make an everyday birthday cake evolve into a cool birthday cake!

Are you bored with the same birthday cakes year after year, do you envy your colleagues who come up with unique birthday cakes delivered to their loved ones every year. Well birthdays do come only once a year, and there is no harm in celebrating each birthday with a special touch. With various varieties available in the market you can never run out of ideas. But of course the best would be a homemade cake made with love, this also gives you the opportunity to go crazy with some wild ideas you can getter from various cake stores and online.

For example if you want to make your special someone have a royal celebration you can try out a cookie crown cake. With frosting and candy to add the rich look, you can be sure that the birthday celebrant is going to feel like a prince or princess on the special day.

Is the birthday boy or girl crazy over any specific animal or cartoon figure? Then why not turn the cake to resemble the same. Once you get the cake shape template, the rest is simple. After baking the cake to that template, you can use any colour frosting and different candies and cookies to get the desired look for the cake. This can even be done to resemble a large ice cream cone, or a favourite flower. This can even be done to resemble the trade they work in whether its a doctor still a student (maybe a book) or a writer (a large pen) you can create the cake in any shape you can set your mind on.

Photo cakes is the latest trend. With a simple square or circle baked cake, once a photo is pictured on top of the cake, nothing will make the cake more unique than that. Many bakeries simply scan the image and change it into an edible image on top of the cake. While you are at it why stick to one photograph? You can get many photographs merged together through photoshop or any image editing tool before you run off to the bakers. Through this method, you can show a history of details or a bunch of different friends all on the same cake top.

Let your mind run crazy set no limits as now anything you desire can be achieved in a cake to celebrate that special someones special day.

Explore Aruba in the Caribbean this summer

Aruba is an island situated 21 miles (33 kilometres) south of the Caribbean Sea and 17 miles (27 kilometres) north of Falcon State and Paraguana Peninsula in Venezuela. Formerly, Aruba, together with its neighbouring islands Bonaire and Curacao, formed a group of islands in the Lesser Antilles region, commonly referred to as the ABC islands. Aruba has a total land area of 74.5 square miles (193 square kilometres), and an estimated population of 104,494 in the year 2007.

Unlike other Caribbean islands, Aruba has a dry, arid climate and cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped the tourism in the island because visitors expect a relatively sunny, warm weather. Aruba has an average mean temperature of 81 F (27 C), and is known for its white sand beaches. The island is divided into two coasts: the southwest and northeast coast. The northeast coast, which is near the Atlantic, has a rough sea and few beaches with rocky coastline and dangerous currents. The southwest coast, on the other hand, has warm waters, turquoise seas, and a number of white sand beaches. The capital city as well as the largest city, is Oranjestad; the harbour city is Barcadera. In 1499, Aruba was first discovered by Spain; however, it was then acquired in 1636 by the Dutch.

During the late 19th century, gold mining was discovered and became famous; it was then followed by an oil refinery industry in 1924. During the last years of the 20th century, tourism became a major contributor to the island’s revenue. In 1986, Aruba seceded from the Bonaire and Curacao islands, and became an autonomous, separate member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Although Aruba moved towards independence in 1990, it was postponed due to the written request of Nelson O. Oduber, the then Prime Minister; however the request was rescinded afterwards. Soon after, complete independence was attained by the island in 1995. Tourism and other related activities are the island’s top income earning industry, next to oil refining and storage and offshore banking. The boom of the tourism industry also paved the way for the expansion of other activities such as construction of hotels and other establishments. Along with the white-sand beaches, there is a wide range of destinations in Aruba that tourists can visit.

The Alto Vista Chapel, a small catholic chapel, is located above the hills of the northern part of the island; it became famous for its wonderful architectural design. The Arikok National Park, which comprises 18% of Aruba’s land area, is renowned for its preserved resources including rocks and mineral formations, as well as other indigenous species found on the park. Other points of interest in Aruba include Ayo and Casibari Rock Formations, Hooiberg, Caves of Aruba, Mount Jamanota, Bushiribana and Balashi, Frenchman’s Pass, California Lighthouse, Tierra Del Sol Golf Course and Quadiriki Caves. Famous beaches on the island include Eagle Beach, Palm Beach, Aruba, Baby Beach, Aruba and Palm Island, Aruba. Aruba is also famous for its traditional dishes: Stoba di Bestia Chiquito and Keshi Yena. These dishes, along with other international foods, are served in a wide range of restaurants found on the island including Sawasdee Thai Restaurant, Rumba Bar & Grill, El Gaucho, Iguana Joe’s and The Flying Fishbone.