Many a photographer starting out would like to know what lighting combination would work the best. A new studio has the advantage of starting with a new slate. Mimicking current studio setups may not always have the best arrangement because they sometimes have to make do with what was inherited or added to through the years.

The main light should be at least three feet wide and in a soft box configuration. The reason for this is that a soft box places the surface of the light close to the subject without getting in the way of the camera or photographer. Another reason is that the light is kinder to skin surfaces and tends to wrap around the features without losing the modeling.

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We’ve been receiving some e-mails lately complaining about the Sensor Brush, a CCD/CMOS cleaning product by Visible Dust. It’s reported that the brush is too large for the sensor and therefore the brush smeared the sensor with grease from the mirror box.

Here’s one of emails from our readers sent to us about a week ago:

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Burning digital photos to CDs is currently the most common thing to do for digital photographers to back up their photos. But according to Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, this method is not recommended as many of the cheap burnable CDs available have a life span of around 2 years.

He says, ” Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data “shifting” on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam”

Similar situations are also applied for hard disks. The problem not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. Hard Disk with 7200 rpm is recommended if you want your photos last longer.

Terry has written good basic tutorial on portrait lighting. The examples in her website were featured in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Portrait Photography by Kathleen Tracy

Here’s my favorite lighting:

Rembrandt Lighting: “Still further left around Kiki, until a triangular patch of light remains on the leading cheek, is reminiscent of many of Rembrandt’s portrait paintings. As in butterfly lighting, the light needs to be fairly high — like Rembrandt’s studio skylight.”

Go to Portrait Lighting Basics

Do you have Nikon D70(s) ?
Do you want to take those surreal photos with your camera and an Infra Red filter just like the image below ?

Then this IR Photography with Nikon D70 tutorial is a must read for you…

With digital cameras that are more and more affordable, snapping a huge number of photos of your family and friends is now easier than ever. But, what about finding a pratical way to print your photos and then show them to your family and friends? Sometimes it can be really a hassle.

Below is the list of some of the best online printing services that are available on the net where you can upload your photos to online albums and to order prints of them to mailed to your home or to your friends.

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Imagine being able to frame all your own photographs just as well as a professional.

You can save enough money to easily pay for all the necessary tools, and the convenience of being able to do it yourself frees you from having to get someone else do it. If you’re an amateur a mount cutter, a frame clamp and a hand-operated frame joining tool is all the equipment you need to make professional looking frames.These days the tools are easy and safe to operate, inexpensive, and give you a good result. Picture framing can be divided into four areas. Cutting the bevel mount, cutting and joining the frame, mounting the photograph, and fitting and finishing the job.

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Jack Neubart wrote an interesting Studio Flash Lighting Tips article at Shutterbug. He explained that it’s not necessary to buy everything at once. In fact, many pros succesfully work with only one or two lights. Moreover, he also wrote tips on matching your lights and lighting accessories to your needs:

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Petteri has posted an interesting article discussing wheather you need a full frame Digital SLR ( Canon EOS 5D ) or not. In conclusion he wrote:

“A full-frame camera is more satisfying to shoot and, when handled right, produces even better image quality than an APS-C camera. Whether these advantages outweigh the negatives, especially when considering the much higher cost of both the camera body and the better glass it needs to feed it, is a different question. For some people, the expense and inconvenience of a Hasselblad is worth the improvement in image quality and the satisfaction of using an enormous viewfinder and a camera system engineered to incredible levels of precision. For most, it’s not. Unfortunately, a 35 mm based digital SLR isn’t a Hasselblad, but in terms of image quality, shooting satisfaction, and to a degree price, it stands in the same relationship to APS-C digital as medium-format stands to 35 mm film. Like 35 mm film, APS-C digital is significantly more convenient, easier to shoot, and less expensive than full-frame digital. So, if you’re standing on the fence and wondering what it is you’re missing out on, the answer for most people would be “a luxury.” Full-frame is in no sense of the word a necessity for the vast majority of purposes and photographers, and the ones who really do require it won’t need to read this piece of pontification to know that they do. But if you can afford it and are prepared to go the extra mile when it comes to shooting technique and choice of glass, it is immensely satisfying. It would take a lot to tempt me back to APS-C.”

Read “To Full Frame or Not To Full Frame” article by Petteri

Donia, a DeviantArt member, wrote pretty useful tips on how to take better photos of your cat.

Canon 300D with Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8 & 1/60secs

She even wrote some interesting cats’ nature and tempers:

“Not all cats have the same nature, and there’s nothing you can do to change you cat’s temper. So when you are taking photos don’t try to imitate the attitude of another cat, try to study and represent your own cat’s feature and character. Curious Cat…”

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