Articles

We've decided to get a headstart on spring by coming out of hibernation early and introducing some wonderful navigation/layout updates on ShutterBudd.  Here are some highlights.

Some people like to shoot landscapes, some like to shoot flowers, and some like to shoot wildlife. Then there are other people who like to walk around in urban areas looking for something called "urban decay." Usually when you think of urban decay, you think about run-down cities, areas where buildings are being torn down, or where there's a lot of trash. While urban decay can easily be categorized as trash and decrepit buildings, you may be surprised to find that it's probably easily within reach to anyone no matter where they live, even out in rural areas.

The holiday season may be over, but it doesn't mean that you can't keep giving to local organizations. While you could easily donate your time to a cause and do any old volunteer work for them, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities that involve photography. Depending on what you want to do, you could stay local, travel, and even help a child in need of a little guidance. By giving your time and skills to help a cause you believe in, you can hone your photographic skills while also feeling good helping others. Whether you donate your photographic skills, mentor a young person in need of a bit of encouragement, or help out at a local art competition, you can always find a volunteer opportunity to help fill your desire to give of yourself to others.

Thank you to everyone who submitted to the "Everyday" show for December 2008. The photos have been received, matted, and framed, and are now hanging in their respective locations. We encourage everyone to take a look and check them out in downtown Mountain View if you have the chance!

The selections were based on the overall merit of the photo, print quality, appropriateness to the theme, and uniqueness. It was tough to choose from all the beautiful photographs since we really liked them all. Click through the jump to see the selected photos and where they're showing!

'Tis the season of holiday decorations. The air is getting cooler, the sun is setting earlier, and the holiday lights are slowly being put up. It sure seems like it happens earlier and earlier every year, and this year the lights are out in full force even before Thanksgiving is done here in the States, which is great for photographers because it means we have more chances to get those sparkly, pretty captures. Here are just a few ideas on how to best capture the twinkling magic of the season.

Boy do we have some great news for you guys! As you might have noticed, we're currently accepting submissions for a December, but we never said what would happen in November. The good news is that the two venues we're using in Mountain View have agreed to let us keep showing photos in their spaces. The bad news (well it's not really bad) is that the deadline for the December show is fast approaching on November 7th, 2008, and you have less than a week to submit!

Photography is all good fun, and a wonderful hobby, but how do you make that leap from it being just a hobby to getting paid for your work? You don't have to be a pro to get paid for your photography, but of course that all depends on how you define a "professional photographer." Your friends and family might already consider you a pro, even if you haven't been paid for a single job yet. You might have a sense of your own worth, but how can that translate into a price for a print? If you go to art shows, you can find all sizes of prints for any price range, from $10-300. What if you're not someone who sells at art shows? If someone asked you to sell them an 8"x10" print, how much would you ask for it?

Thanks to all the people who submitted to "Life in the Bay," ShutterBudd's first art show.

We are very pleased about the amount and quality of photos we have received from the many photographers. All of you have made it a really special experience.

185 submissions were received and from among those, 41 photos were selected to be reviewed as prints.

We've all seen (and drooled over) those gorgeous photos of food that make your mouth water. The tasty dish might be from a restaurant that does a beautiful presentation and the photographer just had to capture its beauty before taking a bite. This article won't be discussing the tips for professional food photography, like using glue for milk. In some cases for professional food photography, the food might not even really be food at all, but just some kind of lovely looking dish resembling food. Instead, let's go over a few tips for making wonderful food photos while eating out at a restaurant.

No single technique or tool will improve your photos on its own, but mastering the use of many techniques and tools can certainly help you together. Learning to use and correctly interpret a histogram is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to digital photography. It can help you figure out how to expose for difficult situations, and reduce the amount of images you end up tossing in digital post-processing. For those of you who shoot film, don't feel left out; you can still take advantage of the histogram on a digital camera if you use it to check your exposure before taking a shot. Whatever the medium, a digital histogram can be a useful tool when it comes to getting correct exposures.

Is it just me, or have there been more new digital SLR cameras released in recent months than any other time in the past few years? Here are a few excerpts of the previews/reviews on those new cameras.

Digital cameras are great aren't they? You can shoot off as many frames are your memory card will allow, review them all on your computer, and then only print the ones that you think are the most interesting. For many photographers, the flexibility of digital photography means a lot of people have either started entirely with digital cameras or made the switch to digital from film. It seems that two of the main issues when it comes to digital photography are viewing and printing the images correctly. It might look great on your computer, but what about someone else who has a slightly different color cast to their screen? Your beautifully shot portraits of your sweetheart on the cruise ship might end up making the subject look like he or she might be fighting a little bit of sea-sickness. There are even more difficulties when it comes to printing out your images and getting all the colors just right. If a particular color is critical to your image and it's just not right, it can be incredibly frustrating trying to get the print to look just how you want. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help alleviate or even eliminate these problems altogether.

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Don't forget to submit a photo to ShutterBudd's "Life In the Bay" art show! Visit http://www.shutterbudd.com/theshow for more information!

Taking photos is fun, but what's the next step? For the majority of images, most of us are content sharing them with friends and family online through email or by posting it to a photo-sharing site such as Flickr, Smugmug, or Picasa to name a few. For other images, we might want to have a physical copy, or print, of the photo to slip into a frame. Making and framing prints is also a good way to ensure that the viewer is seeing the photo as you, the artist, intended. Computer monitors can display the colors and sharpness differently, depending on how they are calibrated, and creating a physical print can help remove that variation. It's quite easy to print and frame your own photos to give your images a very personal touch either to keep for yourself, give them as gifts, or display them for others.

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ShutterBudd is hosting a local art show here in the Bay Area and you're invited to participate!

Lens hoods are a neat little piece of equipment. They do make your camera look professional and cool, but they also serve a great little purpose: reducing lens flare. Not sure what lens flare is? If you've ever taken a photograph into the sun, and gotten these little floating specks from the sunlight, then you've seen lens flare. You can often see these floating orbs in movies when they are filming a sunset. For some photos, lens flare is simply part of the image, a wacky side effect that they like to have in their images. There are some photographers that purposely photograph into the sun to get the lens flare in their images. For those times when lens flare is any annoying effect that you would rather have removed, you can use something simple like a lens hood to reduce and completely remove lens flare from your images.

So you have a camera, an off-camera flash, a tripod, a few memory cards or rolls of film, and some other handy little gadgets you need. How do you bring them all around with you? Sure, you could just stick them into a regular old bag using old t-shirts as padding, or you could buy a padded bag to carry them around safely. Depending on your personal preferences, you might want to choose a minimal shoulder bag, a roomy messenger, or a backpack to carry just about everything you'll ever need. You could even get one of those fancy metal boxes to maximize the protection you need. No matter what kind of bag you want, you'll need plenty of protection for your equipment and room for everything you want to bring with you. You may not be able to find one single camera bag that will be perfect for every situation, but what is important is finding good camera bags that serve your different purposes.

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Do you have a bag that you love? Wax poetic about your beloved bag by adding to the discussion for this article and share any tips that you have for buying a new camera bag.

Special thanks to Komshiki and Miwaza for their photos!

As soon as you release the shutter on your camera to take a photo, you own that photo. What happens after you take the photo is usually very simple if you are using it for your own private use, but if you have other intentions, such as commercial work, you may have to worry about things like model releases. Many photographers like to shoot other people: people on the street, friends, children, neighbors, even themselves. What happens when someone else is interested in your photograph and wants to use it? It may get complicated if it's for an advertisement or if it's being sold for commercial purposes, and you may need a model release. Exactly what is a model release and why might you need one? Keep reading to find out more.

We're getting ready to celebrate independence day here in America, which means lots and lots of fireworks displays. Maybe you've tried taking photos of them in the past, only to get blurry, messy photos that look like something exploded, but you're not necessarily sure what it was. Shooting fireworks might sound intimidating, but a few tips can help improve your photos and help you capture a happy outdoor memory for the future. This year, check out our tips to help you get better photos of your local fireworks celebrations this summer.

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Show us your favorite fireworks photos by attaching it to this discussion.

If we like your photo, we might feature it in next week's newsletter!

As a photographer, you can decide what people see in your images. If you want to draw their eyes to a specific detail, you can use a simple technique: controlled blur. Take this photo of a pear for example: the subject is sharp and the background is blurry. It helps to separate the pear from the background and reduces any distraction the background might provide to your eye.

How in the world do you control what's blurry and what's sharp? My friend, you need to learn how aperture, or depth of field (DOF), affects your photos. In other words, you can choose exactly how blurry you want your photos to be! Of course, you will still have to focus on something, but you control what point will be in focus to help bring out your subject more. Maybe instead of making a single subject the focus of your image, you want the entire image to be clear. By understanding DOF and how to get what you want out of your camera, you can have more control on the way your photos come out.

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Show us a photo you took where you controlled the DOF to get exactly what you wanted out of it. It might be a portrait of a person, a still life, or a landscape. If we like your photo, we might feature it in next week's newsletter! Don't forget to attach your DOF-related photos by replying to this discussion!

Spring has sprung, and the flowers are in full bloom here in the Bay Area. The trees are budding, the fields along the road are full of bright yellow wild mustard flowers, and the flower beds at my apartment complex are bursting with color. It could not be a more perfect time to get outdoors, breathe some fresh air, and shoot some flowers. Here are a just a few tips to help inspire you.