Posts Tagged ‘computer scrapbook’
Scrapbook Photography 101 Part 1 of 3
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011Title: Scrapbook Photography 101 Part 1 of 3
Author: Wes Waddell
Article:
Scrapbook Photography 101, Part One: Equipment – Bag, camera, flash, tripod
This article is a simplified photography course directed at new photographers and scrapbookers out there who want to know the basics of where to start.
First, a short introduction to what this course is.
The basics of photography are not hard and just about anyone over the age of 12 can learn them in very short order. With today’s modern digital cameras, it’s very easy for anyone to take clear focused images in most any conditions. What really takes time and practice is taking images that capture the memory and fit the needs of the scrapbooker who is capturing not only the memory and the emotions, but the story itself.
We will highlight the basics and what you need to get started. We’ll really be concentrating on how to apply the basics and the techniques/tips to use to get the most out of the images you capture for your scrapbooks.
That said, let’s get started.
If you really want to learn the basics of photography the first thing you need is a reliable camera. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive camera out there, but it must, and I repeat must, be able to shoot in a variety of modes and conditions. At a minimum, this means in full auto mode, in portrait or people mode, in sunset or low light conditions, with fill flash (we’ll talk more on what that is later) and at night. Optional nice to have options are: moving objects mode, landscape mode and Macro settings.
The nice thing is that most of today’s digital cameras, even the ones on your smart phone come standard with this. The only catch is that it needs to be 4 mega pixel or better resolution if you plan on making 8×10 or larger prints out of your best images.
Now comes the hard part that most people ignore… To really get the most out of your photography you must understand the equipment. You’ll need to learn how your camera and all it’s modes and capabilities work. After all, if you don’t know what it can do and how to use it, then how can you take advantage of it when the time comes that you need it?
For example, full auto is OK for taking candid shots at a family reunion, but so much is out of focus in the auto images taken of mountain or lake scenery photos. You need to know how to put your camera into landscape mode to get the full Depth of Field (how much is in focus) out of your camera lens.
Read the manual, practice with the different settings and keep your manual handy to review the modes you don’t use all the time.
Let’s talk bags and cases:
If you have a camera but can’t get to it quickly when you need to take a quick photo… then you are going to miss out on a lot of great pictures. I always recommend getting the smallest bag you can for the camera and your everyday basics. That way you are more likely to always have it with you when you need it. If you have a lot of accessories, use a seperate bag and swap out what is needed for the situation you are in at the time.
The one accessory you should never leave out: Your Tripod!
Face it, you’re going to need a tripod whether it’s for portrait work, landscapes or sporting events. You will need one eventually if for no other reason then to include your self in a few of the images with your self timer or remote. Luckily you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight and durable. If your camera (cell phone camera’s especially) doesn’t have a tripod attach point, don’t worry about it, just get one of the multi-finger or spider grip tripods that can be adjusted to hold almost anything.
Your Flash:
You will need some kind of Flash. You can buy a separate remote mounted flash, which is great to have around if you can afford it to supliment your built in flash on the camera. These external flash units have a remote sensor that goes off when it senses the flash on your camera go off and adds light just where you need it. I use mine to light backgrounds up most of the time.
You’ll will need to consider what kind of photography that you will be doing most though before you spend your cash on another flash unit. If you’re going to do mostly nature and landscape, you may only need the fill flash that comes with most cameras built in today. On the other hand, if you are planning on doing portraiture or large group shots, you will want to consider a larger high power camera mounted flash that has an adjustable angle.
OK, now that we have our bag, our camera and our tripod; it’s time to have some fun.
This week’s assignment: Find a willing subject (person) that you can work with, preferably someone that won’t mind playing some games and doing a few silly things. Now, with your manual reviewed and still handy, shoot 8 to 10 images using each mode of your camera. Shoot some of the pictures in the morning, some in the afternoon, and finish up at sunset into darkness. Be sure and have a notebook handy so you can take notes on time of day and light conditions along with what your settings (mode) were for each photograph.
When you get the images off your camera and onto your computer, you should be able to see a difference in each image mode. Be sure and repeat this procedure until you feel that you understand the relationship between the different camera modes and the effects they have on your pictures.
This way you will learn your own particular camera as well as how it reacts in different conditions. In part two we’ll start to learn some tricks and tips on how to make your images look like a pro took them with high end camera equipment. In the mean time, if you have some specific questions please visit our Scrapbook BLOG at: http://blog.princesscrafts.com
About the author:
Copyright 2011 Wes Waddell is a Freelance Photographer and Website designer who, along with his wife Kathy, maintain the Internets largest Digital Scrapbook Membership site (www.MyPrincessCrafts.com). He has an educational background in Photography, Space Systems Command and Control and Business Website Design. He very much enjoys applying photography and memory preservation techniques to his scrapbooks and web design.
Wes Waddell
Scrapbooking, What’s New Today!
Thursday, August 18th, 2011Hello Scrapbook Friend,
Kathy’s been busy the last two weeks and she want’s me to tell you all about the New Sets she has for you.
Yes, there’s new Free downloads too!
Just over a week ago I told you that her new hi-resolution (300 pixels per inch) CD’s are now available. There are 50 sets (100 papers) on each cd. The 12×12” format wedding cd is actually on 2 cd’s due to it’s really cool hi res graphics.
Check them all out at:
www.princesscrafts.com/Hi-Res-CD/
For the End of the Month, Kathy just Added Girls sets 41 thru 49 in all 3 formats to our Members areas. She will also be adding summer scrapbook page sets the end of this month, so be watching for that.
I have also been busy and I added 4 new Stationery/Digi-Scrap backgrounds for everyone. They are in the Seasons / Summer / Camping area over at: www.Free-Stationery.com
As always, there are no signups of hassles there, just download all you want there for absolutely no cost at all. We would love if you would click on a couple of our sponsors there as that’s how we keep the site going.
Kathy also has the New 2012 photo calendar page templates started and is planning on getting them uploaded by the first week in Sept. Many of our long time friends have been asking about them and we wanted to let everyone know that they are on their way.
Until next time,
Happy Scrappin’
Wes
P.S. I’m working on a brand new site with a brand new Children’s Cookbook too! I’ll have that up and running by the end of tomorrow. Drop me a note if you want to know when it’s done!
Scrapbooking Tips Tuesday Again
Friday, February 4th, 2011Tips for Scrapbookers Block
Here’s a couple of ideas I use all the time when I’m finding it hard to find idea’s for my digital scrapbook pages.
First, I turn on memory music. What’s memory music? That’s the music you hear that floods your mind with memories of the past. It’s also music that makes you think about the subject you are trying to scrap. For example: I put on 70s ballads when I’m scrapping Valentines Day pages as this brings my dating years to mind and makes it easy to envision love themes.
Even Christmas music in March works wonders for my Holiday photo themes from the last Christmas. You may want to try a few Celtic tunes for St. Patrick’s Day.
If that doesn’t get your ideas flowing, then the step 2 I use is the Blank Page Shuffle.
All I do is to lay out a couple blank white sheets of paper either on the table (for hand scrappers) or on the computer screen when digital scrapping. Then I take 4 to 8 photos that go together and start arranging them on the pages until they look right and flow with the eye. Once they do that, it’s easy to add small elements and some color until I like the finished look.
Some times the simplest look is the best look for the memory story you are trying tell.
Happy Scrapbook Tips Tuesday. Hope these two scrapbook theme generating ideas get your creative juices flowing again.
Until next time…
Wes Waddell
Http://www.MyPrincessCrafts.com
March Scrapbook and Free Stationery News
Friday, March 5th, 2010March Scrapbook and Free Stationery News
Sorry it’s been so long since my last news. Kathy’s been so very busy this last month adding to what is already the largest digital scrapbook membership site on the internet.
She really wants everyone to get many times over what they get at any other scrapbook site and pay a fraction of the costs. I hope what follows shows you she’s keeping her promises.
In just the last month, she has added the following:
- 5 new heart sets
- 6 sets of Sweet Words in the valentines category
- 3 new winter stationeries in A4 format as well as 8.5x format
- critters 75 thru 80
- St Partick’s Day sets 34 thru 39
- We will also be adding the St. Patrick’s sets to the landscape section the middle of March
- Valentines page 3 – which includes Valentines sets 49 thru 57
- Animals page 2 – Including Critters sets 75 thru 80
- St. Patricks page 1 – Added sets 34 thru 39
- Added 3 new FREE Valentines Day stationery in both A4 and 8.5x format
- Replaced the entire Soft Expressions (Computer Scrapbook Layouts) and Printable Pastels Valentines category sets
- Created and added the first stories to our new http://FreeTravelScrapbook.info Free Scrapbook Travel site
- Added 3 new FREE Winter stationeries
- Added 9 Winter Page Sets
- Added 3 Valentines paper sets
- Added New Scrapbook of a Lifetime Landscape Valentines category
- Added New Recently Added Landscape directory
- 3 new Clipart added to the member’s clipart Children page 2
- Added 3 new New Years sets
- Added 3 new Winter sets
- Added new Thanksgiving and New Years for Scrapbook of a Lifetime (landscape)
- Replaced all Thanksgiving and New Years sets for Printable pastels
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That’s just the month of February…
If you are a member or just here for the FREE goodies, thanks for reading and I hope you’ll go get and enjoy you new scrapbook and stationery pages.
For those of you that are not members yet…
That’s a whole lot of scrapbook pages. Now, I’m not going to say that we do that every month, but I will say that we add as much new stuff as Kathy can produce. I can also say that no other site and no other membership adds anywhere close to the amounts of new scrapbook page sets and FREE downloads as we do.
That’s added to the more than 5000 scrapbook page templates and hundreds of clipart’s and books and training and …
In short, if you aren’t a member, how much money are you wasting with other scrapbook stores?
Times are tough, we know. We also know that memories are fleeting and can disappear in a heartbeat. Time and money are both in short supply right now. Digital scrapbooking solves both those problems by costing pennies compared to the old hand scrap process and enabling you to preserve your most treasured memories in just minutes a day.
Best of all you can start and stop at the drop of a hat with no mess and no full room of supplies needed, saving your marriage and hundreds of dollars in wasted tools, cutters and other expensive supplies you will never recoup the cost of.
We hope you’ll consider joining the Internet’s Largest Digital Scrapbook Membership today.
If we can help you:
http://www.myprincesscrafts.com/pcmember/signup.php
How To… Use the New Blend Modes in Digital Scrapbook Artist 2
Sunday, January 31st, 2010How To…
Use the New Blend Modes in Digital Scrapbook Artist 2
With Valentine’s Day approaching and birthdays occurring throughout the year, we thought we’d show you how to use the new blend mode feature on your homemade greetings cards. Blend modes define how two objects or layers interact with each other and by using them you can achieve stunning results quickly and with ease.
The card below was made using Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 and we are going to complete it by applying blend modes to the two photos. We have used the same photo twice to show you how different blend modes affect the same object depending on what it is blended with.
1. Click on the top photo and then select the Luminosity blend mode (the blend modes are located in the Color tab). The picture will take on the color of the layer below; in this case, it’s pink.
2. Click on the second photo and select the Hard Light blend mode. The photo will take on the texture of the background making it look like the photo is actually printed on the material.
Blend modes are a powerful design tool and can be used in many ways to make your creations look fantastic.
Learn to scrapbook totally for FREE:
The greatest FREE digital scrapbook gift… EVER!
www.ComputerScrapbookTraining.com
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