Filters have two different meanings depending on how long you have had photography as a hobby.  Most of us today think as filters as an option with Photoshop.  This is not the case.  Before the invention of computers and things like Photoshop we had small glass discs to create the filtered affect.  There are many options with filters you can blur a picture, sharpen the picture, and even block out the UV rays.  Filters are often used to correct a problem or make a picture look a little different.

Lets talk about filters that blur a photograph.  When you are taking a picture of a waterfall at the bottom where the water rises in a cloud you can add a filter to create the cloud in the picture.  Cameras don’t always see what the eye sees.  In some cases it can have a high resolution to depict the actual water drops rather than the cloud, so adding a filter to your lens can help create the effect your eye sees.

Other filters such as the UV protector guard against the harsh rays.  Along with the UV filter you should have a polarizer.  The polarizer is used in photography when you are taking a shot into direct sunlight or other light.  It will help balance out the photograph so that you don’t get the washed out look.  Other filters can give you the washed out effect if you feel your photography would speak more.  The filters in Photoshop are not as wide as the filters you can actually buy for your camera, but they can have some of the same effects that you are after.

Have you ever wanted to create a star effect when taking pictures of light filtering through the trees?  You can create a star effect with any photograph by using a star effect filter.  This filter allows light to pass through a series of thin lines etched into the filter letting the light streak outward in a star shape.

Some filters actually help you create a depth of field or focal point.  The fog/ mist filter is one of these.  The fog/ mist filter allows for a glow or flare of light in the photograph.  Photography is filled with much skill and equipment.  Having filters to help create the perfect professional photograph will enhance your fun with your hobby.  Lets look at a few more filters.

There are color correcting lenses.  If the sky is too blue for the photograph you can choose a filter that will tamp down the blue to a less bright state.  If you are into underwater photography you might have filters that allow for the underwater colors.  The color spectrum does not have a great range under water.  A lot of things will look red even though they are not.  It is easy to bring about the original color of underwater life when you use special filters for color correction.

The use of filters in photography not only allows you to have special effects in a photograph to create something new and different, but it can help enhance the shot by adding color or dampening the natural effects of light.  Photography has many types of equipment that require skill and knowledge making it a wonderful hobby or profession. If you need a hobby, photography allows you to be creative.

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Stock photography, groups of photographs that people take, grouped and licensed for selling purposes.  Instead of taking new pictures every time they need pictures, many people use the stock photography method.  People that work for magazines, as graphic artists, and advertising agencies sometimes use public pictures instead of hiring photographers for individual projects.

Alternate names for stock photography is picture libraries, photo archives or image banks.  Typically, in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee or a purchasing of usage rights that comes with a fee in order to use the pictures.  Sometimes a membership purchase allows you to have access to a particular group of stock photography.

Saving time and money, stock photography is a great way to enhance newsletters, blogs, advertisements, company brochures and more.  It is obviously less expensive than putting a full time photographer on staff and takes less time if you need images of something specific.  Many times, it is as easy as using a search engine or checking an email.

Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase.  Other times, full rights are limited.  In those cases, photographers might be requiring that they receive a certain percentage of sales and or royalties of usage.  Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees.  With the technology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are quicker and easier.

The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location the images will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo will be distributed to or seen by.  Prices for stock photography can be anywhere from one dollar to two hundred dollars.

There are several different pricing arrangements.  Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer to use photographs multiple times in multiple ways.  When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only a one-time charge for unlimited usage.  When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, the agency is able to resell the image to others.  If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiated price for each time that it is used.

Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images.  In that case, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased.  It may cost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales have to make sure that they are making a profitable sale.  If a photograph would make more money staying in circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights.

Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone.  Different subjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images.  Sometimes contributors work for multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or they sell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around the world.

Stock photography started in the early 1920s.  It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s.  Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase.  Stock houses sprung up in many different places.  By 2000, online stock photography became microstock photography, which we call photo archives online.  Companies like istock photo and bigstock photo offer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add more credits for another fee.  Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those that are sold hard copy.

Websites like www.shutterpoint.com and www.fotolibra.com allow stock photographers to upload and sell their images.  It is a great way to market pictures and earn money with photography.  You can also purchase images at those websites as well.  With all the stock photography sites available, one may find pictures you never even heard of before.

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Photography requires a few skills to make your prints look professional.  One part of making a print professional is lighting.  Lighting in photography takes a little planning and understanding of a few techniques.  You best subject or object might not turn out that way if the proper light does not help to laminate the area. Below are a few tips on using light for photography.

First you must decide if you will use artificial or sunlight.  If you are using sunlight you will rely on the Kelvin scale to determine the temperature of light and therefore the color of light.  The color of light is important to maintaining the colors you see around you.  For instance the warmer the light the redder the light will be, thus you may need to pick the time you will go out and shoot photographs. Outdoor lighting offers so many different times to take pictures depending on your need.

Next a photographer needs to understand the sun’s color scale.  Pictures tend to lead the viewer towards certain feelings; often softer colors evoke more emotion.  So understanding the suns impact on the colors will help you find the correct time of day.  The sun evokes blue hues in the morning hours, while closer to noon you will find more neutral colors.  The neutral colors can take away some of the definition you want in your print.  Knowing how you want to shot the picture will also help you determine when you wish to take the shot.

When using natural light you will need to work with the angle and direction of the sunlight.  If the sunlight is broad and diffused you will have softer shadows while the more narrow the light is focused the more shadow you can create.  Often at noon when the sun is in mid arc you lose definition of the subject.  The subject could look grainy.  This is why shadow is used; the shadows can give you more quality to the print if used correctly. This adds to the beauty of your pictures.

You can also modify sunlight through certain techniques.  Modifying sunlight when taking portraits outdoors requires the use of a background.  You may wish for a breath taking landscape that will provide more composition to the photo.  You may need to block the sun if it interferes with you or your subject’s sight.  You might also bring in a white surface to fill the shadows.  Landscape photography requires less work than usually natural light for portraits.  In fact using natural sunlight for landscape photography without modifications can yield you a better photograph.

Landscape photography uses nature to provide the light and shadows.  This is why you need to understand the light scale and temperature.  Time is the most important aspect of using sunlight.  To understand natural lighting you need to understand the affects the sun will have at certain times of the day.  For instance if you are in a thickly vegetative forest the sunlight will have difficulty streaming in unless it is over head.  You will have natural shadows in the forest and remember you can move around your subject to find the best angle with the sun.

Photography is an art that requires techniques and practice.  Lighting is a major part of photography, especially when you are using natural light.  Sunlight can bring plenty of shadows or take them away depending on the time of day.  Knowing the best time to take a photograph depends on the sun’s angle.  Photography is an interesting hobby and profession when practiced properly will give you plenty of prints for your home and others.

Whether you are a professional or a novice photographer, you want to produce some exquisite pictures with the proper lighting. With this in mind, choose your lighting according to your needs and the needs of your subject or object. Your pictures will be delightful with brightness when you use the best lighting situation.

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When you move from photography to videography as your means of capturing moments either personally or as part of your profession, you enter into a much bigger world with greater challenges as well.  For one thing, you now have to deal with issues of movement.  The problems of lighting and surface noise are just as big of an issue except now you have subjects that may be on the go and you have to go with them.

But when using a camcorder to capture the event under scrutiny, whether it’s a wedding, a speech or presentation or some other significant event, the issue of having the best quality sound presents unique challenges.  So its best to do some concentrated planning on how you are going to accommodate the sound needs of the event to your equipment because if you have wonderful pictures but the words and sounds of the event are muddy or lost, then the quality of your final product is seriously damaged.

Many an unsatisfactory video was taken with a camcorder because the operator depended too heavily on the small microphone that is built into the casing of the machine.  The only situation where this microphone may be adequate would be if you were conducting a one on one interview in a small room where you could position the camcorder within three feet of the subject.  Even then, surface noise from the surrounding building could become part of the audio outside of the awareness of the operator at the time.

To assure that you have complete awareness of what is going onto your video recording of each event, the investment in a good set of closed back headphones to monitor the audio is an outstanding move.  You can plug it into the camcorder and you are dynamically aware of what is going onto that tape at all times.  If something gets into the audio that is not appropriate, you can use editing techniques or even re-shoot the segment if that is possible in the context of the event.

For the majority of events, plan to use the auxiliary audio input plug to incorporate a mobile microphone unit rather than depend on the onboard microphone in the camcorder casing.  This small plug alone opens up a large range of solutions to the problem of poor camcorder audio that is so often endemic of videos made with this technology.

If you are working with an external microphone, be aware of the limitations of the wire if you are not working with a radio frequency microphone unit.  In a situation such as a speaker doing a presentation, you can lay the cord down between the recorder and the speaker’s stand assuming you have sufficient cord length to reach the where the microphone will mount on the stand.  Be careful with the excess cord, perhaps securing it with duct tape so those listening to the presentation don’t trip on the cord or pull it free which could cause injury and damage the equipment.

In many situations such as one in which you plan to interview people in a roving fashion or to record a speaker who is on the move a great deal, a radio frequency microphone may be necessary.  These can be more expensive but without the investment in this technology, your audio quality relying exclusively on the camcorder built in microphone will almost certainly be disappointing.

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One of the most candid styles of photography is street photography.  It consists of candid pictures taken of people in public situations.  Street photography was done everywhere on the street and now has moved to the mall, at clubs, streets, parks, and practically anywhere.  A street photographer never asks anyone to pose, and he or she does not want anyone to act as if he or she knows what might happen next. This takes away from the natural look needed when using the technique of street photography.

Street photography stems from another type of photograph that called documentary photography.  Documentary photography once said to be the most honest and true to life picture taking.  There are professional and amateur brands of documentary photography, as well as street photography.  Street photography reflects society in its untainted state. This accounts for many pictures we see on the internet and television that reflect what was happening at the time.

 Pictures of this genre use black and white film.  Street photography often shows irony in situations.  Many street photographers use wide view lens cameras to capture a wider area.  The shots usually have the appearance of a screen or a window viewing the human state at a particular moment.  The photographer becomes removed from the scene.  This type of picture taking captures the most honest moments in life.

Some photographers who specialize in street photography take their cameras to public events like conventions, meetings, and tragic sites.  Others simply photograph life around them.  A famous street photographer named Garry Winogrand was well known for capturing New York everyday for years.  He was interested in shedding light on the contemporary social issues of his time.  He became prominent after the 1960’s.  He shot about one hundred photographs a day for about thirty years, and left over three hundred thousand unedited exposures.

One interesting thing about street photography is that sometimes a photographer might capture things on film that they were not even focusing on.  Strange and funny things might be happening in the background or the foreground of a photograph that they do not even notice.  When the film is developed, they often find things within the scope of their shots that are ironic, interesting, or funny.  Many times, things are seemingly unrelated to the rest of the shot, but because of this factor, one can say that street photography is one way that we use to capture the moment.

The genre of street photography started between the end of the 19th century and the mid to late 1970s.  One of the assisting inventions of this type of picture taking was 35-millimeter film.  Thirty-five millimeter film was introduced towards the late 19th century.  Photographers from both Europe and North America spread the popularity of the genre and developed the art behind it.  Including in the early development were photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson of France and Robert Frank of Switzerland. 

You do not have to be a professional to take on street photography.  You do not necessarily have to use black and white film either.  All you need is a way to take pictures.  You can make your own documentary film series.  The pictures you take can comment on society.  Your photographs can record people doing mundane activities like eating or sleeping.  It is important to remember, however, that you should not publish pictures of people without their consent.

Becoming a street photographer can be a great hobby.  You can donate your pictures to museums and websites, or you can start your own website.  There are also photo archives that consist of collections of pictures that are available for public use.  This is also a place that you may have your pictures displayed. Street photography is one way to capture the real moments of life.  Thanks to technology, film editing is easier than ever.  Once you try street photography, you find yourself caught up in the real world. The pictures reflect the everyday life and times. 

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Landscape photography is widely popular.  I am sure if you look around your home you will see at least two landscape prints that spoke to you.  Photography is an art that has a message.  As a photographer you have to find the message you want to portray.  If you specialize in landscape photography you might think your task is easy to complete.  As with any photography you have to pay attention to the details, the lighting, shadows, subject, and the equipment.

Black and white landscape photography is the hardest section to attain true artistry because you are not relying on the colors as much as the lights and shadows the image will create.  Composition is very important.  Composition in photography means to look for sharp edges, tones and textures.  The basis of black and white photography is getting the camera to see what your eye sees in color; to bring the highlights and shadows forward with the angle of the picture.  Typical subjects for black and white photography are buildings and water.  Water gives the surrounding trees and rocks a contrast while drawing the eye.  Landscape can encompass buildings or bridges among other subjects.  Buildings lend to the angles and contrast you seek when trying for definition and emotion.

When landscape photography is your subject in color you will need to have contrast between the colors.  If the sky is blue and you have blue water below chances are the picture is not going to have the contrast you are hoping for.  Like black and white photography you need to have definition or composition in the shot.  You will need to take a few minutes to set up the shot and perhaps take several frames before being satisfied.  Color photography takes less skill than black and white photography so if you have master the last you will succeed at the first.

Lighting for landscape photography is natural rather artificial.  This is important when setting up your shot.  You will need to have filters for the sunlight if it is a bright day, perhaps a tripod to set up the shot and a professional grade camera to create professional prints.  Studying your subject from all angles is also important.  You want to make sure you are picking the best angle for the shot.  Remember the message is brought forth by the skill of the photographer.

You abilities should be honed and practiced.  Digital photography makes landscape photography easier because you can assess the photo before you leave a site.  Again the LCD screen isn’t going to show you every aspect of the print so you will want to take a few shots of the same site to ensure a perfect picture.

Even being an amateur photographer you can gain professional looking landscape photography.  The best way to gain great photographs is to practice with a subject.  Going back to the same site during different seasons can help you hone your skills and net you an even better print the next time around.  All photographers’ start at the same level, some may have innate skills and an eye for the photo, but practice will lead to the best print.  Landscape photography may not require the skills of wildlife photography with panning the subject or portraits where you have to enliven your subject; however, it does require skills and practice.

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