Carview!

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Digicams are good for more than just hanging around your neck. You have a wealth of accessories available to expand their capability. The threaded socket on the bottom enables you to secure your camera to a variety of unique stabilizing devices. You can hang things from the top of your camera, screw them onto the front, strap them to the side, and when all else fails, use gaffer's tape to hold an otherwise incompatible optical apparatus in place. To help get your creative juices flowing, here's an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink tour of helpful attachments for the adventuresome photographer.

Yes, your full-size tripod is important, but when you want to travel light, a pocket tripod is great for getting into your own group shots and capturing twilight landscapes.

For so many creative endeavors, you need a way to stabilize your camera; it comes with pushing the limits of photography. Every serious photographer needs to have a full-size tripod. But beyond that, a variety of smaller stabilizing devices can help you cope with various shooting situations. At the top of this list is the pocket tripod.

Before I get into the equipment itself, I want to review why tripods contribute so much to image sharpness. They help prevent camera shake : soft, fuzzy images that result from not holding the camera steady during exposure.

When you want to photograph a subject without a flash in low ambient light—such as when you're indoors, or during dusk or early morning hours—your camera chooses a long shutter speed. When I say long, I mean 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 of a second, or longer. Now, those times probably sound pretty fast to you. But in camera terms, they are as slow as molasses in winter. Most daylight pictures are recorded at 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 of a second, or faster.

Once your shutter slows down to 1/15 of a second or longer, you need to stabilize the camera. If you don't, the slightest movement you make during the exposure will actually cause softness in the image. In low lighting, even the act of pressing the shutter button itself can cause camera shake.

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Digicams are good for more than just hanging around your neck. You have a wealth of accessories available to expand their capability. The threaded socket on the bottom enables you to secure your camera to a variety of unique stabilizing devices. You can hang things from the top of your camera, screw them onto the front, strap them to the side, and when all else fails, use gaffer's tape to hold an otherwise incompatible optical apparatus in place. To help get your creative juices flowing, here's an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink tour of helpful attachments for the adventuresome photographer.

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Yes, your full-size tripod is important, but when you want to travel light, a pocket tripod is great for getting into your own group shots and capturing twilight landscapes.

For so many creative endeavors, you need a way to stabilize your camera; it comes with pushing the limits of photography. Every serious photographer needs to have a full-size tripod. But beyond that, a variety of smaller stabilizing devices can help you cope with various shooting situations. At the top of this list is the pocket tripod.

Before I get into the equipment itself, I want to review why tripods contribute so much to image sharpness. They help prevent camera shake : soft, fuzzy images that result from not holding the camera steady during exposure.

When you want to photograph a subject without a flash in low ambient light—such as when you're indoors, or during dusk or early morning hours—your camera chooses a long shutter speed. When I say long, I mean 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 of a second, or longer. Now, those times probably sound pretty fast to you. But in camera terms, they are as slow as molasses in winter. Most daylight pictures are recorded at 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 of a second, or faster.

Once your shutter slows down to 1/15 of a second or longer, you need to stabilize the camera. If you don't, the slightest movement you make during the exposure will actually cause softness in the image. In low lighting, even the act of pressing the shutter button itself can cause camera shake.

This is why tripods are necessary. Unless you're going to limit your shooting to broad daylight or flash photography, you're going to need a way to stabilize the camera. For big jobs, such as photographing a starry night, you'll need a big tripod. But for many situations, you can get by with a mini tripod that fits in your back pocket. These are important tools, because compact tripods are more likely to make the trip than their bulkier big brothers, who are often left at home.

The results of camera shake and poor focusing are different. With camera shake, the overall picture will look a tad fuzzy. When you focus poorly,

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When tabletop supports are just too small, but you can't afford to pack a full-size tripod, you might want to consider a travel model that folds flat and fits in the smallest of suitcases.

On my last trip to Europe, I knew that I wanted to photograph landscapes and other subjects that would require a tripod. But I needed to travel light, because I was taking only a midsize duffle and my camera bag to store all of my belongings. A key piece of equipment for this adventure turned out to be a unique travel tripod called the Magic 2, made by Cullmann (see Figure 1-2).

Unlike other tripods that have a large circumference even when collapsed, the Cullmann's legs fold flat, forming a compact rectangle that is only 1.5 inches thick and 13.75 inches long. It fits almost anywhere. And even though it's constructed of anodized metal for durability, the Magic 2 weighs only 2.5 pounds.

You can extend this marvel of engineering to 57 inches, but I don't recommend it. Instead, resist extending the center post to maximum height and keep the tripod to about 50 inches for better stability. I also recommend you hang your camera bag over one of the legs or around the center post for a more stable shooting surface.

Figure 1-2: The Cullmann Magic 2, ready for action

One of the reasons this unit is called Magic is that it also converts to a better-than-decent monopod. That's right, one of the legs detaches from the main unit and screws into the center post to create a walking stick with a ball-head mount on top. This is really nice for day hikes when you want to leave the rest of the unit back in the hotel room.

In online reviews, some photographers have remarked that the tripod legs don't spread wide enough to provide adequate stability on uneven surfaces. I agree. I had to be careful where I set up the Magic 2 and had to remember to stabilize it with my camera bag.

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A trusty walking stick is helpful for fording streams and navigating slippery trails. But why not use it to steady your camera, as well as your footing?

In the wide world of walking sticks, there are basically two types: the ones you buy and the ones you make. Either version can become a steadying friend for your outdoor photography.

A trip to the mountaineering store reveals that today's walking sticks—or trekking poles as those in the know call them—are lightweight, sturdy, and have comfortable grips. Most are constructed in collapsible sections, enabling the stick to fit nicely in a suitcase or be lashed onto the outside of your backpack. Most trekking poles have a rubber tip that provides good traction on paved walkways and a metal tip for digging into the side of hills.

Leki (https://www.leki.com) is a popular supplier of trekking poles that range from US$50 to over US$100. Outdoor photographers should take a look at the Sierra Antishock (model TK2091-04), which has a removable wooden knob that exposes a camera mount, as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3: The Leki Sierra Antishock walking stick with camera mount

By attaching your camera to the walking stick, you can create the third leg of what I call the human tripod . You supply your two legs, and the walking stick becomes the third. Simply position your feet about shoulder's width apart, and then lean forward slightly on the walking stick while composing your picture in the camera's viewfinder. You'll find that this method is much easier for stabilizing the camera than trying to hold it with just your two hands.

If you'd rather not spend the money on a Leki stick, you can make your own. First, make a quick trip to the hardware store for a 1/4" screw with 20 threads per inch. Get one about an inch or so long. Screw it into the tripod socket on the bottom of your camera. I recommend that you add a plastic washer to serve as a cushion between your camera and the walking stick. Slip the spacer on the screw and position it so that it's flush against the bottom of the camera. With a felt-tip pen, mark the screw right beneath the washer, and then remove both pieces from the camera.

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Monopods are lighter and far more portable than tripods. But they're also not as versatile—unless you add a little extra support.

Monopods, otherwise known as one-legged tripods , have been popular with sports and outdoor photographers for years. They give you that extra bit of stability to help keep your photos as sharp as a tack.

The problem with monopods is that they can't stand on their own. Often this isn't a problem, unless you want to capture really long exposures of 1/4 of a second or more. Those are the times that you yearn for your tripod. The fact of the matter is that many photographers don't like lugging tripods around. This is especially true on long hikes, when you're trying to keep your equipment weight to a minimum. Happily, there's a solid compromise that is stable, versatile, and, most importantly, not too heavy.

Bogen Imaging (https://www.bogenimaging.com) makes a nifty device called the Monopod Support (catalog #3422), a modified ball-head mount that attaches to the top of your monopod. What's unusual is that it has a bracket that folds down and enables your monopod to stand on its own, er, two feet, as illustrated in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4: The Bogen Monopod Support bracket

This special support head has a standard tripod socket in its base, which enables it to screw snugly onto any standard monopod. Once attached, you can hike comfortably with the bracket folded against the monopod. But when you need extra stability, you can loosen the wing nuts, pull the bracket away from the monopod, set your rig on a stable surface, and tighten the wing nuts to secure your setup. Now, you can use your remote release or self-timer to trip the camera shutter without jarring it.

I've made exposures several minutes long with the Bogen support, and I wouldn't dream of having any other type of mount on my monopod.

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Not everyone is John Muir, roaming the wilds with just a walking stick and a broad-rimmed hat. Some folks would rather shoot without leaving the comfort of their automobile.

Sometimes, you're not allowed out of your car, such as when you're visiting certain wild game preserves or protected wildlife areas. Other times, you can use your vehicle as a duck blind of sorts. Animals seem less concerned about people when they are safely strapped inside an automobile. And then there are those days when you just don't feel like taking a hike.

Regardless of the situation, you want sharp images from your day's outing. And the best way to keep things nice and crisp is to steady the camera during exposure. But in a car, that's easier said than done. It's not like you can set up your tripod on the front seat.

But what you can do is use the car itself as a stabilizer. Roll down the window about 2/3 of the way and attach a Bogen Car Window Pod (catalog #3292) with a Junior Tripod Style Head (catalog #3407). You can find out more about these at https://www.bogenimaging.com. The combination sells for about US$85, and they are well made and extremely sturdy.

If $85 is a little more serious than you care to get for your front-seat shooting, take a look at Pedco's UltraClamp (US$29.95) with UltraMount (US$10.95), shown in Figure 1-5. If you really need to go on the cheap, try the Pillow Pod Beanbag, available for about US$6 from Porter's Camera Store (https://www.porterscamerastore.com). Photo beanbags are great accessories to keep in the trunk because you can use them in so many situations. The bag conforms to the surface on which its placed, providing a steady support for your camera while protecting it from the surface itself. You can plop it over the edge of a car window, on a tree limb, or even on the ledge of a balcony, and it will help you take sharper shots.

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Put your pictures in motion by attaching your digicam to the handlebars of your bike.

Some people might wonder why the heck anyone would want to attach their digital camera to the handlebars of their bike. Well, in the old days of traditional photography, this didn't make much sense. You couldn't see through the viewfinder while pedaling, so composition was little more than a wild guess.

But many of today's digicams have variable-angle LCD monitors. This means that you can pull the monitor out from the back of the camera and adjust it to your viewing angle. This is a perfect example of how one technology (digital still photography), can be borrowed from another (digital video). Digital video camcorders have used swiveling LCDs from the get-go.

For cycling fans, this means that you can mount your camera on the handlebars, swing the screen upward, and monitor your composition in real time while you're peddling; just don't forget to watch the road, please! This is a great opportunity for you to share your adventures with those who don't ride with you.

If your camera has one of these nifty swiveling monitors, then chances are good that it also has a remote release that you can hold in one hand while riding. Most of these releases not only enable you to trip the shutter, but they also have buttons to let you zoom the lens to different focal lengths. You can literally compose and shoot while on the ride.

If you really want to get creative, enable the Movie mode on your camera and take short video clips of your travels. Try to find a smooth surface while recording video so that the movie isn't too choppy.

A clever way to make all this happen is to get an UltraClamp (US$29.95) and UltraMount (US$10.95) by Pedco, and secure the entire rig to your bicycle. Pedco's products, including the fantastic UltraPod, are distributed by BKAphoto.com (https://www.bkaphoto.com). The store finder on their site can help you find the closest retail outlet.

Once your digicam is mounted, choose still pictures or movies and fire that shutter. You will get images unlike any others that you normally shoot. Just remember to be safe while you're doing so.

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If your camera accepts an external flash, you might think that will solve your problems with red eye. Well, almost.

Many prosumer digital cameras provide a means for attaching an external flash. More often than not, the connection is provided by what is commonly called a hot shoe : a postage-stamp-sized bracket on top of the camera into which you can slide an external flash.

Photographers usually think that purchasing an optional flash unit and attaching it to the hot shoe will make their red-eye problems [Hack #40] magically disappear. Indeed, an external flash does help reduce red eye. But sometimes merely sliding a flash into the hot shoe doesn't get rid of the problem altogether.

The best way to ensure that you'll never have red eye again is to use a special bracket to move your external flash even farther away from the camera. You'll also need a dedicated flash cord (made by the camera manufacturer) that allows the flash to communicate with the camera as if it were still mounted in the hot shoe. Typically, these special flash cords cost between US$35 and $50.

As for the flash bracket itself, I think the best commercial one is the Stroboframe Quick Flip 350 (catalog #310-635) distributed by Tiffen (https://www.saundersphoto.com). The Quick Flip is easy to use. You mount your camera to the base of the bracket by turning the screw into the camera's tripod socket. You then put one end of the dedicated flash cord into the camera's hot shoe and attach the other end to the top of the bracket. Now all you have to do is attach the flash to the cord on top of the bracket, and you're in business (see Figure 1-6).

Figure 1-6: Stroboframe Quick Flip bracket, ready for use

Depending on the height of your camera, the flash is now positioned six to eight inches higher than it was previously in the camera's hot shoe. Not only does this configuration eliminate red eye completely, it also serves the dual purpose of lowering those unsightly shadows cast on walls directly behind the subject. By raising the flash, you thereby lower the shadows out of the frame of view.

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How many times have you wished for an extra hand when you're shooting? Here's one you can attach to your camera's hot shoe or tripod socket.

When you're shooting without a tripod, it's best to have both hands on the camera to keep it steady and record sharp images. But sometimes you need to shade the lens from the sun or hold a small item while you photograph it. An extra hand would be invaluable at those times.

The folks at GranView Camera have invented a unique accessory called the Flare Buster (https://www.multiclip.com) that might turn out to be one of the most versatile tools in your camera bag. This ingenious item is simply a flexible arm that's 15 inches long with a camera mount on one end and a sturdy clip on the other. You can attach it to your camera via the tripod socket or the hot shoe. Then, use the clip on the other end to hold whatever it is you need held.

The Flare Buster kit comes with a card that can serve as a shade against the sun, two vignettes that are handy for portraits because they soften the edges of the frame around the subject, and a couple of reflectors.

Now, the fun begins. If you need a simple lens shade, put the supplied card in the clip and position it so that it protects the front of your lens from the glare of the sun. The flexible arm moves easily but stays firmly in position. For cameras that don't accept filters, simply attach the filter to the clip and position it in front of your lens. Who needs filter screw threads when you have a Flare Buster?

Digital cameras have amazing close-up focusing ability. Usually, the hardest part is correctly positioning the item you're photographing. Why not attach the item to the Flare Buster and position it any way you want, as illustrated in Figure 1-8? You don't even need a tripod; because the item is now connected to the camera, they move in unison.

Figure 1-8: Flare Buster, holding an item for close-up photography

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Many digital photographers have a difficult time keeping their horizons straight while peering into their digicam's LCD monitor. Here's how to straighten things up.

For some reason, it's more difficult to compose a straight horizon line with a digital camera's LCD monitor than with a traditional SLR viewfinder. You could use the optical viewfinder that's included with most digital cameras, but the problem is that many of them show only about 85% of the actual area that's being photographed. Plus, quite honestly, they're not that accurate.

Regardless of how you frame your shots, LCD or optical, a bubble level attached to your camera can really help straighten things out. Bubble levels are helpful for composing architecture, landscapes, panoramas, and anything else that needs a straight horizontal line.

At various online retailers, you can buy bubble levels designed specifically for cameras. For example, the Hama Double-Bubble Level is a precision instrument that slides into the hot shoe atop your camera, enabling you to level it on two axes. The only downside is that these accessories are relatively expensive. The Hama level, for example, runs about US$30.

If you have more time than money, you can make your own bubble level. Hardware stores carry pocket bubble levels, often for US$3 or less. Find one that looks suitable for your camera. If your model has a hot shoe, all you have to do is find a spare shoe that will slide into it. This is one reason why I have a box of old equipment that includes broken cameras, dead flashes, and orphaned straps. If you have an old flash or any accessory that was designed to fit in your camera's hot shoe, you can detach the foot and attach it to your bubble level with a spot of glue. The trick here is to make sure the foot and the level are flush against each other when you glue them. Otherwise, your homemade device might not be accurate when you attach it to the camera.

If your camera doesn't have a hot shoe, just get a level with a flat bottom and set it on top of your camera. As long as the level rests flush against the camera's surface, you're in business.

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Your camera's LCD viewing screen is one of its most exciting features—except, that is, when you're standing in bright sunlight and can't see the pictures on it.

If you ask people what they like best about their digital camera, many will say it's the LCD viewing screen that provides instant gratification right after you take the shot. How could you not love it? You can review the image, analyze its pros and cons, and then either keep it or try again—instant gratification at its best.

Too often, though, this love affair comes to a screeching halt when you're working in bright, direct sun. Your once color-rich LCD fades to a nearly indistinguishable shell of its former greatness. What happened?

The sun happened. Many LCD monitors hate the sun and don't fare well in its presence. To combat this problem, you have two options. You could purchase a state-of-the-art digital camera, such as the Contax SL300R T* shown in Figure 1-10, that uses a new technology called DayFine to preserve the screen's color fidelity regardless of the ambient light. Contax's parent company, Kyocera, originally developed this screen for their smart phones, which are constantly used in these types of lighting conditions.

Figure 1-10: The Contax SL300R T* with DayFine

If you're not in the mood to go out and buy a new digicam, you have to find a way to shield your existing LCD monitor from the sun's blinding rays. Hoodman (https://www.hoodmanusa.com) has excelled at providing glare relief for digicam owners. They make a variety of custom hoods that attach to almost every digital camera LCD on the market. The nylon hoods are well made and most sell for US$15 to $20. They fold up and take up hardly any room in your camera bag.

You might also want to take a look at the offerings from Screen-Shade (https://www.screenshade.com). They offer LCD shades for digital cameras, camcorders, and laptops. Their camera shades run between US$20 and $40, depending on size and whether a glass magnifier is included.

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Shading the LCD monitor for easier viewing during replay is one thing, but why not go all the way and use the monitor as a virtual SLR viewfinder for shooting images too?

Shading your LCD monitor makes viewing the picture in bright sunlight much more enjoyable. But with a little refinement, you can adapt this technique for taking pictures too, creating a virtual digital SLR.

One of the major attractions of single lens reflex (SLR) cameras is that you see the picture through the same lens that records the image. It's WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") photography. In contrast to SLRs, most compact digital cameras provide one lens for taking the picture and another (often referred to as the optical viewfinder ) for viewing the image.

One of the problems with optical viewfinders is that they're offset from the picture-taking lens, so the composition you're looking at isn't the same one the camera is going to record. This setup is called parallax , and the closer you get to the subject the more pronounced the effect will be. The other common problem with most digicams' optical viewfinders is that they're just not very good. You don't get a full view of the subject, and what you do get isn't that great.

You do have another option: you can look through your digicam's LCD monitor when you take the picture. This has created a whole new look in photography: the arm's-length shooting pose. Photographers everywhere are holding their digital cameras out from their body to align what's on the screen. Not only is this pose awkward at times, it's also not good photographic technique, because it's harder to steady the camera during exposure at arm's length. Beyond that, some people have a hard time keeping a straight horizon line when holding an LCD this way. Something seems to get lost in translation.

When visiting the Hoodman (https://www.hoodmanusa.com) booth at the Photo Marketing Association show in Las Vegas, I discovered a great solution to all of these problems. Hoodman has designed a special monitor hood, called the Digital Camera Hood, that straps onto just about any model with a 1.8-inch or smaller LCD screen. Figure 1-12 shows the Digital Camera Hood attached to a Canon Digital Elph S400.

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Digital SLR users can connect their camera bodies to a variety of bargain optical attachments by using one of the most enduring adapters of all: the T-mount.

The best camera for photographer-hackers is certainly the digital SLR (DSLR). From outward appearances, these cameras look just like the 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) models that photographers have been using for decades. SLRs are distinguished by the ability to remove the lens from the body and replace it with another type, which makes them extremely versatile. The other advantage is that you view the picture through the same lens you use to take the photo, so what you see is what you get. DSLRs work the same way. The only difference is that they have an image sensor instead of film.

DSLRs are a lot of fun for hackers, because when you remove the lens, you can attach just about any optical accessory to the camera body, including microscopes, telescopes, slide copiers, and much more.

At first, you might hold the microscope in one hand and the camera body in the other and wonder how the heck these two items can work with each other. Generally, this happens via some type of adapter. For example, telescopes have an adapter that replaces the eyepiece, and you attach your camera to the adapter. The same goes for microscopes and other optical goodies.

But you still need a way to connect your camera to the adapter. If you don't want to shell out the big bucks for a custom adapter made by your camera manufacturer, you can make this connection by using a common photographic tool called a T-mount.

T-mounts are simple devices, really nothing more than a thick metal ring. On one side, there's a bayonet-styled mount (like the one on the base of your camera lens) that attaches the ring to your camera body. Inside the ring, you'll notice there are threads. These are a standard size that most adapters in the universe screw into snugly.

So, all you have to do is screw the optical adapter (as for a telescope) into the T-mount, tighten it, and then attach the unit to your camera body. You're in business! Now, your camera will mount on whatever optical lens the adapter is designed for.

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Tired of your camera bouncing around during your hike? Strap it into place, for comfort and for fast access.

Here's the hiking photographer's dilemma: do you stash your camera in the backpack so that it doesn't bounce around and possibly get damaged, or do you leave it around your neck so that you're ready for the next shot, no matter how uncomfortable it is?

I can tell you right now that I'm a big fan of finding ways to keep your camera handy. Great outdoor shots present themselves with little warning, and they are usually gone within seconds. Your camera might be safe and sound in your backpack, but it also won't have nearly as many exciting pictures on it. You might miss the shot of a lifetime!

That said, my gosh, it's aggravating to have a camera swinging every which way as you try to navigate the up-and-down terrain of trail hiking. I've even encountered situations, such as crossing a stream on a log, when my swinging camera just about threw me off balance. Falling in the stream is not good for one's morale, nor is it healthy for the life of your digital camera.

If you've followed the evolution of outdoor and backpacking equipment, you know that things are pretty high-tech in that world too. Flashlights have multiple LEDs for illumination, camp stoves are feather-light and burn with welding-torch-like intensity, and the array of straps and pouches available provide lots of options for toting your gear. The shooter's belt shown in Figure 1-14, by Cameras Up (https://www.camerasup.com), is perfect for photographers on the go.

Figure 1-14: Shooter's belt by Cameras Up

One of my favorite setups involves using one Op/Tech USA (https://www.optechusa.com) strap around my neck and adding a second stabilizer strap around my midsection. This arrangement holds the camera snugly against my body, while providing quick access when a shot presents itself.

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The Achilles heel of digital cameras is that they need power—lots of it. But what do you do when you're in the middle of nowhere and you want to keep shooting?

I'm going to start out by saying that you should always have an extra battery on hand. Digital cameras are power-hungry beasts that behave only as long as you feed their insatiable appetite for electricity. Once the juice runs out, they're about as useful as the box they came in.

When you're traveling, be sure to take your charger and extra battery with you. Each night, put the battery you've been using all day in the charger and put the spare in the camera. Then, when you take off the next morning, pull the freshly charged battery out of the charger and put it in your camera bag. Continue this rotation throughout the trip.

If you have a particularly demanding shooting day, that extra battery will be as welcome as the Calvary when the first one fails. Just remember to charge both once you return to the room.

The previous routine should work great for 90% of your travels. But what do you do on extended road trips and hikes in the backcountry, when an electrical outlet isn't right there beside your bed at night? You could take enough extra batteries to last the entire trip. If you figure one cell a day, you're probably safe, with a little discipline. My problem is that I always want to review my images at night, and that uses battery power. So I find that the one-cell-a-day regimen is a little stringent for my diet. Not to mention that most rechargeable Lithium batteries cost US$50 or more each.

Car travelers have a great alternative. Almost every camera manufacturer makes a cigarette-lighter attachment for their chargers, as shown in Figure 1-15. Your charge-and-use routine is a little different when using these tools. Instead of recharging at night, while you sleep, you charge up during the day, while you're driving. The trick to car chargers is to use them while the engine is running; otherwise, you'll drain your car battery. Running out of juice for your camera is one thing, but a dead car battery is a whole new level of distress.

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Sometimes, there just isn't an adapter to hook things together elegantly. Does that mean you don't get the shot? Hardly! That's when you reach for the gaffer's tape.

Gaffer's tape, shown in Figure 1-16, has been used on Hollywood movie sets for decades. It's known by brand as Permacel P-665. This versatile cloth-backed black tape allows you secure just about anything, from an abused camera bag to a misbehaving reflector that just won't stay in place. What's remarkable about gaffer's tape, and what makes it superior to other alternatives, is that the adhesive doesn't leave a residue on your equipment. So you can strap your camera to a street sign's pole, take a series of pictures, and then peel the tape off without a trace of evidence.

Figure 1-16: Gaffer's tape

Gaffer's tape comes in one-, two-, three-, and four-inch-wide rolls. Because it's cloth-backed, however, you can peel it off in straight strips, creating any width you need for the job. Often, I'll peel off a number of strips and hang them off an edge of a table before I start working, just to keep them handy.

The black backing also makes this tape useful for blocking out stray light and eliminating reflections off metal surfaces. You can use it to hold power cords in place, tape them to the floor so that people won't trip over them, and even hold down the edge of curled-up carpet.

One full roll costs about US$15. But unless you're running a full-time studio, it will probably last you for years. And you'll sing its praises every time it bails you out of a jam.

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Photography requires daytime light. And the best place to find light is outdoors. It's cheap, abundant, and, at times, stunningly beautiful. Indeed, this is the appropriate place for us to begin the hacks on shooting technique.

In this chapter, you will learn how to tame the great outdoors by using everything from sunglasses to pantyhose to infrared filters. If you're under the false impression that al fresco photography is less than scintillating, that will soon change. This is the greatest photo studio of all. Grab your shades and let's get to work.

Razor-sharp optics are great—unless, that is, you're photographing the love of your life. In those instances, you might want to borrow her pantyhose.

A flattering portrait is often praised for its soft lighting, good angle, and natural expression. You'll rarely hear a subject rave about a picture that highlights her pores, wrinkles, and blemishes. Sometimes, modern camera lenses can be too sharp!

A popular solution used by pros is what's known as a softening or diffusion filter. Simply put, these accessories attach to the front of the camera lens and downplay the appearance of texture on the face. The wrinkles don't go away; you simply don't notice them as much.

These specialized filters can cost as much as US$200 and are difficult to find for less than US$20. Plus, if you use a variety of lenses for your portrait photography, you might have to buy more than one filter to fit the different lens diameters. That's fine if you shoot portraits for a living. But what if you just want to take a nice shot of your sweetie?

Ask her for her pantyhose.

That's right, by stretching a piece of light beige pantyhose over the front of your lens and securing it with a strong rubber band, you can create the same flattering effect achieved in professional portraits. The more tightly you stretch the material, the milder the effect—the looser the material, the softer the image.

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Photography requires daytime light. And the best place to find light is outdoors. It's cheap, abundant, and, at times, stunningly beautiful. Indeed, this is the appropriate place for us to begin the hacks on shooting technique.

In this chapter, you will learn how to tame the great outdoors by using everything from sunglasses to pantyhose to infrared filters. If you're under the false impression that al fresco photography is less than scintillating, that will soon change. This is the greatest photo studio of all. Grab your shades and let's get to work.

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Razor-sharp optics are great—unless, that is, you're photographing the love of your life. In those instances, you might want to borrow her pantyhose.

A flattering portrait is often praised for its soft lighting, good angle, and natural expression. You'll rarely hear a subject rave about a picture that highlights her pores, wrinkles, and blemishes. Sometimes, modern camera lenses can be too sharp!

A popular solution used by pros is what's known as a softening or diffusion filter. Simply put, these accessories attach to the front of the camera lens and downplay the appearance of texture on the face. The wrinkles don't go away; you simply don't notice them as much.

These specialized filters can cost as much as US$200 and are difficult to find for less than US$20. Plus, if you use a variety of lenses for your portrait photography, you might have to buy more than one filter to fit the different lens diameters. That's fine if you shoot portraits for a living. But what if you just want to take a nice shot of your sweetie?

Ask her for her pantyhose.

That's right, by stretching a piece of light beige pantyhose over the front of your lens and securing it with a strong rubber band, you can create the same flattering effect achieved in professional portraits. The more tightly you stretch the material, the milder the effect—the looser the material, the softer the image.

You can capture good portraits without filtration, as shown in Figure 2-1, if you use good technique. But there will be situations in which you'll want to use a pantyhose filter to add a little softening effect, as shown in Figure 2-2. Be sure to keep a knee-high stocking, along with a couple sturdy rubber bands, in your camera bag for just these occasions.

Figure 2-1: A portrait without a softening filter

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Sure, kids are cute in real life. But when it comes to capturing them with your digital point-and-shoot camera, they can be as elusive as leprechauns.

Digital point and shoots are great general-use cameras. But most of them are plagued by a phenomenon called shutter lag : the response time from the moment you push the shutter button to when the picture is actually captured is too long, sometimes as long as a second. In kid photography, a second might as well be a week.

This next section of this hack provides ways to increase your odds of success with point and shoots. But first, if you want to cut right over to the fast lane, consider getting a digital SLR (DSLR), which has a much faster response time and performs better overall. DSLRs look and behave just like your favorite 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) cameras of years past, but they have a sophisticated image sensor instead of film.

Not long ago, this wouldn't be practical advice for parents, because DSLRs were just too darned expensive. But you no longer have to choose between a camera and a college fund. Both Canon and Nikon have introduced quality DSLRs for under US$1,000, and more are sure to be on the way. The Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70 are two examples of DSLRs that will help you keep up with your kids without maxing out your credit card.

DSLRs have minimal shutter lag times, allow for generous sequential shooting, accept a variety of lenses, and enable you to use external flash. In other words, they are perfect for action, er, kid photography.

Now that you know what your next camera should be, how do you get the most out of the one in your hand? OK, here are some tips to increase your odds of success.

First, get everyone outdoors, where there's more light, better backgrounds, and lots of things for kids to do. Then, make these three adjustments on your camera:

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Chances are, you have a high-quality polarizing filter with you at all times, right under your nose. (Actually, it's sitting on your nose.)

Next to a fully charged battery and a huge memory card, a polarizing filter is the digital photographer's best friend. It reduces unsightly glare, deepens the richness of skies, and improves overall color saturation.

The problem for most shooters on the go is that they don't always have their full kit of accessories with them. And many point-and-shoot cameras don't even provide a way to attach an external filter, even if you wanted to.

So what's a photographer to do? Does this mean you'll have to suffer with glare-y subjects and desaturated skies, just because you want to tote a convenient digicam instead of lugging around an albatross of a camera bag?

Not at all. Your solution is sitting there right on top of your nose. Your sunglasses! Great lighting usually results in good photographs, with or without filtration, as shown in Figure 2-4. But sometimes you want to enhance an already good lighting situation. Often, polarization is the perfect solution, as shown in Figure 2-5. If you don't have a polarizing filter with you, try your sunglasses. You might be surprised by the results.

Figure 2-4: Without a sunglasses filter

Figure 2-5: With a sunglasses filter

Many quality shades are made out of the same material that camera polarizers are made out of. Simply take off your sunglasses and place one lens as close to your camera's shooting lens as possible. Then, take the shot. If you want to see the difference, take the same picture again without the sunglasses.

As with any good hack, there are ways to maximize the effect:

Stand with the sun at one shoulder. The polarizing effect is more pronounced when the sun is coming from the side.

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They say two heads are better than one. When it comes to showing the "big picture," many heads—er, shots—are definitely bigger than one.

Many people are frustrated by their inability to capture the majesty of awesome natural monuments such as the Grand Canyon. I've heard this phrase a dozen times: "This picture doesn't really do it justice. It looked so fantastic when I was there."

Bad photography isn't the culprit here; inadequate coverage is.

Let me ask you this: if you went to the Grand Canyon and had to look at it through a toilet-paper tube, how impressive would you think it was? Probably not much. The same thing happens when you try to capture the magnificence of a vast location with single shots on your point and shoot. This doesn't mean that you have to go out and buy a camera with a superwide lens. Instead, put the magic of digital photography to work for you.

Almost every digital camera available today is capable of creating breathtaking panoramas by stitching together a series of shots into one gigantic, seamless scene. Back in the days of film, you probably played around with this technique by taping together snapshots to make a bigger picture. One of my favorite artists, David Hockney, put a creative spin on this technique with works such as "The Brooklyn Bridge Nov 28^th 1982" and "Pearblossom Hwy." Hockney's works are usually referred to as photographic collages. But the concept is similar to our exploration here—taking a bunch of small images and combining them to make a big picture.

Unlike Hockney's work, however, our panoramas are very linear, moving from left to right. If your camera has a Panorama mode, use it; it helps you capture the images in a way that's easier for your computer to deal with later. That's the process. You shoot 3 to 12 pictures, moving from left to right, then upload them to your computer where they can be stitched together as a sweeping vista.

Let's start with the shooting technique. You'll get the best results if you use a tripod, and you'll have even better luck if you have a bubble level to go with it. That way, you can align your camera to keep a straight horizon line through the entire picture-taking sequence. If your tripod doesn't have a built-in level, go to the camera store to buy one that attaches to your camera's hot shoe.

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Never rewrite anything you can digitize. If you've ever been tasked with copying a full whiteboard after an intense brainstorming session, you know what I mean.

You've just finished participating in one of the most amazing brainstorming sessions of your career. The massive whiteboard, which covers an entire wall of the conference room, is covered with words, arrows, and diagrams. You're about to rush from the room to begin putting these plans into action when your boss says to you, "Robertson! Would you please copy down these notes and circulate them to everyone who attended the meeting?"

Copy those notes?! Not even Leonardo Da Vinci could reproduce those drawings. Suddenly, an air of calm comes over you as you recall "Secrets of Whiteboard Photography" from Digital Photography Hacks. You pull your digital camera out from your backpack and go to work.

Why rewrite something that's already been written, when you can photograph it, save it as a .jpg file, and circulate it to anyone with a browser on their computer?

This hack will make more sense to you if you first understand how a camera sees the world. Most cameras are calibrated for capturing blue skies, green grass, and other middle tones. And, more often than not, your camera will try to convert anything on the extreme end of the exposure scale to those same middle tones. So the black cat becomes gray and the whiteboard becomes a murky beige color.

So, job number one is to find your exposure compensation adjustment and set it to +1. That will tell your camera to overexpose the subject and make the whiteboard white, not gray.

Then, turn up the room lights, open the shades, and turn off your camera's built-in flash. Those little strobes might be fine for blinding your best friend at her birthday party, but they're not so good for shooting whiteboards—unless, that is, you don't care about reading the writing. Flashes tend to nuke white shiny surfaces.

Now, take a test shot like the one shown in Figure 2-8. How do the colors look? Some cameras have excellent auto white balance settings and will compensate for most lighting situations. If the color looks off, you might want to override the auto setting.

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Don't spend money for a terrible passport picture that you'll be embarrassed to show to strangers all over the world. You can take your own shot, and make great first impressions instead.

Why is it that whenever you have an official photograph taken, you're made to look like a criminal or terrorist? Sometimes, you don't have a choice in the matter, such as for your driver's license (or booking at the county jail). But when it comes to passport photos, you can submit your own picture, and I recommend you do.

There are general requirements for an acceptable photo:

Photographs must be identical and recent (within six months), with a clear full-face and front-view image. They may be in color or black and white.
The photographs must be at least 2" 2" (5cm 5cm), exclusive of any white borders. The image size, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head (including hair), should measure between one inch and one and three-eighth's inches. There should be at least one half inch between the top of the head and the photograph's border.
There must be a clear contrast between the background and the image of the subject. The background of the photographs must be white. Grainy photographs cannot be accepted.

Easy enough, right? Now let's talk about actually taking the picture, because that's the important part. Here is the equipment you'll need:

Digital camera with a self-timer or remote release
Tripod or alternative way to position the camera
Two pieces of white foamcore, cardboard, or some other sturdy, reflective surface
A stool or something else to sit on
Inkjet printer with photo paper, preferably with matte surface

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Digital cameras have macro capability built right in. But what if you want to get real close? Here's how to get a bug's-eye view of the world.

Since the early roots of photography, people have been fascinated with capturing the world up close. Super close. Bumps-on-a-frog close. Most digital cameras come with a Macro mode that allows you to get very close to your subject. Sometimes, this mode is simply called Close Up and is denoted by a flower icon on your camera. Depending on your camera, close can be defined as anything from 6 inches to 18 inches. But what if you want to see the very pores? This hack will help you get started.

There are a few ways to get these types of startling shots. The first way is to buy a macro lens that is designed specifically for this type of shooting. Unfortunately, these lenses are often quite pricey. A second option is to buy extension tubes for your DSLR. An extension tube is a light-tight tunnel that extends the distance from your lens to the camera body, thereby increasing magnification—the greater the distance, the more magnification.

But what if your digital camera isn't an SLR or doesn't take interchangeable lenses? The third, and most affordable, option is to buy a close-up lens that mounts on top of your current lens, the same way that filters attach. Some cameras have adapters for these auxiliary lenses. But if yours doesn't, third-party manufacturers such as Raynox (https://www.raynox.co.jp/index.htm) have devised clever workarounds to enable this capability on just about any digital camera. The advantages are that you don't have to buy a whole new lens and that you can use the close-up lens with any camera, including an SLR. This is the tool we're going to use for this hack.

First, go down to your friendly photo dealer and see what type of close-up attachments are available for your camera. I've had a lot of luck with the aforementioned Raynox lens, which is well made, affordable, and readily available. Raynox makes a wide variety of goodies for all kinds of cameras, including close-up accessories for digital cameras. The lens comes with an attachment to help you mount it over your built-in glass. Turn on your camera and—voilà!—you have a super-macro digital camera.

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If you're looking for the multiple-exposures setting on your digicam, forget about it. It probably isn't there, unless you own a Fuji pro SLR camera or one of a handful of other models with this capability. So, what's the creative digital photographer to do?

In the film world, multiple exposures are a great way to create interesting, unexpected visual effects. Traditionally, this was done either in-camera by exposing one frame of film many times, or in the darkroom by sandwiching negatives together.

Unfortunately, most digital cameras don't support multiple exposures. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. Photoshop, the digital darkroom of choice for many, comes to the rescue.

There are a couple ways to approach gathering your source material for Photoshop. You can previsualize the final image you're after, shoot its parts (layers) with your digital camera, and then assemble these layers on the computer. Or, if you just want to experiment, grab a few pictures out of your existing library, mush them together, and see what happens. Suddenly, every digital image in your photo library becomes potential fodder for an interesting photo montage.

For the first option, we're going to shoot three images, as illustrated in Figure 2-13.

Figure 2-13: A photo montage

As you shoot, try to imagine each shot layered on top of the next one, resulting in an interesting image. For each shot, we're going to underexpose by a factor of 2. Set your exposure compensation to -2 and take three different shots. You've now captured three underexposed images that, when added together, will create one well-exposed image.

Bring these pictures into your computer, start up Photoshop, and open each one in turn. Copy two of the images and paste them into the first. You should now have a single image file with three layers. If you open the Layers palette (Window

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There's much more to digital photography than megapixel brute force. And if you're artistically minded, you might try your hand at going low-rez, Jam Cam style.

As digital photographers, we're often obsessed with getting every last pixel we can—the more megapixels, the better the shot, right? This hack allows you to let go of your pixel-counting tendencies and helps to remind you that photography, analog or digital, is all about capturing compelling images, regardless of the technology used.

Traditional photographers have long used cheap or low-tech cameras to capture interesting, artistic images. Perhaps the best example is the US$20 Holga camera that uses 120 film, tape, and a plastic lens and gives images a beautiful, halolike look. Fear not, digital photographers, there are many inexpensive digital equivalents to the Holga that will stretch your creativity.

For this hack you need to get the cheapest, lowest-resolution digicam you can find! I highly recommend the Jam Cam. This little plastic beast captures images at an astounding 640 480 or 320 240 pixels and has a focus-free lens. The built-in memory stores eight images and, believe it or not, it can connect to your Mac or PC via USB. The battery is the old standby: the 9-volt that powers up smoke detectors all across the land.

Does the Jam Cam create artistic images? Take a look at the picture in Figure 2-15, and you be the judge.

Figure 2-15: An artistic Jam Cam image

The great thing about the Jam Cam is that it is wholly unpredictable. One fun way to use it is to bring it along with you when you are shooting with your regular digital camera, take pictures with each camera, and compare the results. Expect strange color shifts, horrible color balance, random pixelation, and some interesting results. I used the Jam Cam to take portraits. Embracing the low resolution, I took the images at 320 240 pixels and printed the 150 KB JPEGs at 11 14.

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What kind of eerie world makes the sky go dark and trees turn white? It's the stunningly beautiful realm of infrared photography.

If you've ever tried shooting and processing infrared film, you know what a pain in the aperture it is to deal with. You have to load the camera in complete darkness, guess wildly about the exposure settings, process the film, and then cross your fingers that at least one or two shots turned out the way you had hoped. The results could be stunning, but they came at a painful price.

Digital photography has changed all that. Not only is persnickety film handling a thing of the past, but you also now get to preview your infrared images on the LCD monitor before taking the shot. And the best part? They will look every bit as beautiful as their film counterparts, as you can see in Figure 2-17, which was shot with a Canon G1 digital camera. This barn shot was taken at 1 p.m. Most photographers are diving for cover at this time of day—that is, unless they're shooting infrared.

Figure 2-17: An infrared shot of a barn

Infrared photography deals with the spectrum of light that you can't see but that your digital camera can. If you buy a filter to eliminate the normal light rays and capture only the infrared rays, you can add this look to your photographic bag of tricks.

The first thing you'll notice in infrared photography is that the blue sky goes dark and that most trees turn very light. Glare is minimized, giving your pictures an eerie clarity.

A popular filter for digicam infrared photography is the Hoya R72. If your camera accepts filters, then go get an R72 at the camera store, attach it to your camera, and look at a brightly lit scene in the LCD viewfinder. You'll know right away if your camera is suitable for this kind of shooting. You can test the "infraredness" of your camera by pointing a remote control toward the lens and seeing if the beam registers the camera's LCD monitor (Figure 2-18).

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Imagine the kind of pictures you could take if everything were in focus from one foot to infinity? Here's the inside scoop on one of the oldest secrets in photography.

Galen Rowell, one of my favorite photographers, used to create landscape compositions in which both foreground objects and distant elements appeared in perfect focus. The effect is stunning. The viewer can both study a delicate pattern of petals in a foreground flower and marvel at the beauty of outlying mountains. How did he do that?

Galen found a way to capture tremendous depth of field in his images. In other words, he could have everything in focus, from inches away to infinity. You can employ this same technique in your photography; you just have to know the hack.

Three important factors come into play on these types of shots:

The focal length of your lens: The wider the better.
The lens aperture: The smaller the better (f-16, f-22, etc.).
The object on which you focus in the composition: Contrary to expectation, it's not the thing closest to you.

Once you've properly set these adjustments, you can create depth of field that spans from a foot in front of you to the puffy clouds drifting by.

Wide-angle lenses, or zoom lenses set to wide angle, are a key factor in depth-of-field photography. They help create the illusion that more things are in focus.

Galen Rowell usually shot with 35mm film cameras, and often he would use a 24mm wide-angle lens for this type of landscape image. For this hack, I recommend you find a digital lens that provides a film-camera equivalent of a 28mm lens. You can go wider if you want (such as 24mm), but as you'll see, that's easier said than done in the digital world.

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Do professional portrait photographers use special lenses and accessories to soften the backgrounds in their portraits? No, they don't. They manipulate the depth of field, and this hack will show you how.

The previous hack showed how to create tremendous depth of field for landscape compositions. But when you're shooting portraits outdoors, this is usually the last thing you want. For these types of assignments, you want your viewer's attention locked in on the subject, not the background. The best way to accomplish this is to narrow your depth of field and focus your camera directly on the subject's eyes.

When everything works right, the result is a dreamy, soft backdrop that makes your model pop forward, attracting all attention to her presence. Generally speaking, the first thing viewers look at in a portrait is the subject's eyes. The easier you make it for them to get to that spot, the happier they will be, at least subconsciously. Once they've viewed the eyes, they examine other aspects of the person until they're satisfied and move on. To get a soft portrait background, like the one if Figure 2-21, try to get some distance between the subject and the backdrop. Then, open your aperture to limit the depth of field.

Figure 2-21: A portrait with a soft background

Distracting background elements, such as a tree growing out of the top of the subject's head, is unsettling to the viewer. That's why you often want to eliminate or at least soften these elements.

Now remember, this is not a technique that you'll use every time you shoot a portrait. If, for example, you're shooting a baseball owner standing in his stadium, you might want the background elements distinguishable, because that tells a better story. So, soft-background portraiture is a technique to use only when appropriate for the assignment.

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In the days of film cameras, I seldom recorded exposure settings that would have helped me better analyze my pictures. Now, digital cameras handle all that work for me, and I can use that information to figure out what went right or what went wrong.

Every time you click the shutter, your digital camera records valuable picture data that describes the image you just captured. Data such as time, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, and ISO are written to the file header in the Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) format. This information becomes part of the total image file and can be displayed with applications such as Photoshop.

In essence, each picture file contains a complete photographic history of the decisive moment, which can be analyzed to help you understand why the image was successful or give you clues as to what went wrong. In this hack, I'll show you how to retrieve this data and use it to hone your photography skills.

The EXIF format is an international specification, first established in 1995, that enables digital cameras (and other imaging devices) to write data to the file header of the image. EXIF files use the JPEG DCT format specified in ISO/IEC 10918-1. The picture portion of the file can be read by any application supporting JPEG, including web browsers and image editors. The metadata can be accessed by applications designed to extract that information out of the header and display it. The most common imaging applications have no problem displaying at least some of the EXIF data.

However, the picture file usually contains more information than what's typically displayed by a given application, unless that application is designed specifically to output EXIF information. For example, iPhoto on the Mac provides the basic time, date, file size, and camera information when you click on the Photo tab of the Show Info window. If you click on the Exposure tab, you get more data, such as shutter speed, aperture, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern, and flash status.

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If daytime is the ultimate photo studio for portraits and landscapes, then nighttime becomes the perfect setting for the creative use of light. With a darkened backdrop, you can record eerie glowing objects and streaking lights. You can turn candles into stars, and stars into iridescent bands of light.

The hacks in this chapter are designed to bring out both the artist and the scientist in you. Who knows what magical images you can create with a tripod and a little patience? You're about to find out.

Sometimes, capturing the background of a nighttime portrait as just as important as capturing the subject itself.

Long ago, in a distant place, a camera designer made the decision to set the shutter speed to 1/60 of a second when the flash is activated. I don't know exactly when this happened, but that's the way it's been ever since I can remember.

The problem with 1/60 of a second is that it often creates night flash shots with muddy or nonexistent backgrounds. To prove my point, find a vibrant night scene, such as a street composition in New Orleans's French Quarter, turn off your flash, and take a meter reading. I doubt that the shutter speed will be 1/60 of a second. Most likely, you will get a reading of 1/30, 1/15, or slower. Brightly lit night scenes usually require that the shutter stay open longer than in brightly lit daytime scenes. Have you noticed that your daytime fill-flash shots look better than your nighttime flash shots? It all comes down to shutter speed.

When it comes to flash photography at night, shutter speed controls the appearance of the background and aperture controls the exposure of the subject within flash range. If the background doesn't look the way you want, change the shutter speed. If the subject within flash range doesn't look right, change the aperture.

If you leave your camera in auto-everything mode, it sets the shutter to 1/60 of a second when you turn on the flash. This is a safe shutter speed that provides acceptable images in a variety of lighting situations, both daytime and nighttime. But if you're in New Orleans, having the time of your life,

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If daytime is the ultimate photo studio for portraits and landscapes, then nighttime becomes the perfect setting for the creative use of light. With a darkened backdrop, you can record eerie glowing objects and streaking lights. You can turn candles into stars, and stars into iridescent bands of light.

The hacks in this chapter are designed to bring out both the artist and the scientist in you. Who knows what magical images you can create with a tripod and a little patience? You're about to find out.

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Sometimes, capturing the background of a nighttime portrait as just as important as capturing the subject itself.

Long ago, in a distant place, a camera designer made the decision to set the shutter speed to 1/60 of a second when the flash is activated. I don't know exactly when this happened, but that's the way it's been ever since I can remember.

The problem with 1/60 of a second is that it often creates night flash shots with muddy or nonexistent backgrounds. To prove my point, find a vibrant night scene, such as a street composition in New Orleans's French Quarter, turn off your flash, and take a meter reading. I doubt that the shutter speed will be 1/60 of a second. Most likely, you will get a reading of 1/30, 1/15, or slower. Brightly lit night scenes usually require that the shutter stay open longer than in brightly lit daytime scenes. Have you noticed that your daytime fill-flash shots look better than your nighttime flash shots? It all comes down to shutter speed.

When it comes to flash photography at night, shutter speed controls the appearance of the background and aperture controls the exposure of the subject within flash range. If the background doesn't look the way you want, change the shutter speed. If the subject within flash range doesn't look right, change the aperture.

If you leave your camera in auto-everything mode, it sets the shutter to 1/60 of a second when you turn on the flash. This is a safe shutter speed that provides acceptable images in a variety of lighting situations, both daytime and nighttime. But if you're in New Orleans, having the time of your life, acceptable isn't going to cut it.

Here's what you have to do: slow down the shutter speed when the flash is on. Almost every camera gives you some way to do this. Here's what to look for:

Nighttime Flash mode: Cycle through your flash settings and look for the icon of a subject with a star overhead. If you have this icon, kiss your camera and the person who bought it for you. Under this setting, the camera will read the background, choose the right shutter speed, and add enough flash for the subject. When it works right, both the background and subject are nicely exposed.

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Because of their compact size, pocket digicams are excellent street-shooters, enabling you to capture the grit and the glory of urban life at night—that is, if you know how.

When you sit back and look at your travel shots, do you ever feel like you're shooting the same thing over and over, and only the locations change (same boring group shots, blurry bus scenes through the window, and yet another statue)? One of the best ways to inject life into your photography is to grab your camera and hit the streets...on foot.

Now, I'm not talking about raw photojournalism or anything dangerous. Every major city in the civilized world has a good part of town and a bad one. Lace up your sneakers and go to the friendly part of town.

My favorite time to shoot on the streets is from about an hour before twilight until darkness. Generally speaking, there's lots of activity at this time, and the building lights come on when there is still some color left in the sky. It's a magical setting that's perfect for photography.

But if you want to capture that magic, you have to turn off your flash. This is rule number one for interesting street photography. Not only does the flash draw way too much attention to your shooting, but it also kills the shots. The possible exception is using Nighttime Flash mode [Hack #29] , but for most of your street shooting, leave the flash off.

The best time for "night" photography is actually twilight. Most city lights come on before complete darkness. Your shots will be much more colorful and compelling with the deep blue twilight sky rather than the blackness of night, as shown in the two pictures of the Chrysler Building in Figure 3-2. The first picture was shot late at night, when the sky was completely dark. I went back the next day at dusk and captured the second shot with more color in the sky. Which do you like best?

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Shooting with flash indoors against a dark, boring background often produces overexposed subjects with red eye. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Built-in camera flashes are very convenient. But they can produce deadly results when used to take pictures of people in low-light situations, such as evening parties. Aside from the plague of red eye that turns your loved ones into otherworldly demons, there's also the nuclear look—where the subject appears to be standing next to ground zero, glowing beyond recognition.

It doesn't have to be that way. The easiest way to increase your success rate is to get an external flash; it's just easier to control the lighting that way. But for many people, that's not practical. So, in this hack we'll look at the options for the portable digicam, then talk about more advanced techniques with external flash. Let's start with taming the pocketable point and shoot.

The people who design compact digicams realize that these cameras don't always produce great flash results at night. So, many of today's models have features designed to help you get better shots in these challenging situations. Some of these features work better than others. Here's a quick overview of what to look for and what to avoid:

Red Eye Reduction mode: Avoid using this setting. In theory, using Red Eye Reduction mode makes sense: shine a bright light in the subject's eyes before exposure to constrict the iris, thereby reducing the chance of reflected red eye. But it doesn't work out that way. Flashes are annoying anyway, and torturing your subject with additional flash before taking the shot tends to kill spontaneity. Plus, even after you do that, you'll often still get red eye. It's just not worth it.
Nighttime Flash mode: Use this setting for artistic shots. At times, using this mode might feel like trying to tame a wild cat: you think you're making progress, then it gets away from you. The thinking here is that the camera slows down the shutter speed, allowing you to capture background scenery beyond the flash range, yet the flash still goes off, illuminating subjects within 10 feet. And it usually works quite well. But things get crazy if you don't hold the camera

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Every family has one: the person whose eyes are closed every time you use the flash to take a picture. Here's how to get those eyes open.

Some of the most beautiful people take the worst photographs, especially if the flash is turned on. It's almost like they have a sixth sense as to when the flash is going to fire and, in defense of their sensitive eyes, they close their lids.

For years, I struggled to find an answer to this problem. Then, one day, by accident, the solution appeared. And, of all things, the secret is that otherwise silly function: Red Eye Reduction mode.

That's right, the very flash mode that I've derided in pervious parts of this book is the shining savior for blinkers. Here's how it works.

The idea behind Red Eye Reduction mode is to shine a light, or a series of light bursts, into the subject's eyes, causing the iris to constrict and thereby reducing the chances of red eye. It really doesn't work that well. But for people who are sensitive to the flash and close their eyes when it fires, Red Eye Reduction mode is a godsend.

This mode causes them to blink during the preshot flashes. Then, when the actual picture is taken, they've opened their eyes. True, this is an extreme measure, because you still lose spontaneity as Red Eye Reduction mode does its thing, but as a last-ditch effort for those people whom you just can't capture with their eyes open, this trick can save your night.

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You can energize your night shots by including streaming lights, such as cars passing through your composition. Just make sure you're not standing in the flow of traffic at the time.

The flow of traffic provides a great opportunity to add motion to your compositions. Automobiles are light-painting machines, and it's easy to put them to work for you.

The key to success is to find a location with ambient light—such as a well-lit street, a bridge, or a large building—to serve as your main composition. Yes, you can go stand out on a dark highway and photograph cars as they whiz by, but images of streaming lights against a pitch-black backdrop aren't really worth the danger of being there in the first place.

Think of streaming lights as an element that you add to an already interesting composition, not the sole subject of the picture itself. If you were shooting a quiet little neighborhood, you probably wouldn't add this element to the shot; you're trying to convey solitude, comfort, and a feeling of being off the beaten track. But if you wanted to show the hustle and bustle of rush-hour traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge or in Manhattan, including lots of streaming lights adds a sense of energy and activity. For example, take a look at Figure 3-6, featuring the Empire State Building rising above the activity on the street. By including streaming car lights as they drive by, you get a feel for the energy of New York City.

Figure 3-6: Streaming lights beneath the Empire State Building

The first thing you need to do is find your tripod. This type of photography requires exposures that are too long for even the steadiest of hands. If you don't want to lug around your big three-legged beast, buy a handy pocket tripod that you can set on top of newspaper boxes and ledges.

If your camera accepts a remote release, use it. Not only do you need it to trip the shutter without jarring the camera, but you also want to start the exposure just as cars are driving by. You can also use the self-timer, but you won't have nearly as much control over when the exposure begins.

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Add extra sparkle to your candle and chandelier images by using an inexpensive starlight filter. You can even make your own, if you don't mind scratching a little glass.

Candlelit rooms convey a romantic or sentimental mood for your images. All you have to do is steady the camera, trip the shutter, and play from there.

The thing with candles, however, is that the light they cast on your subject is often more interesting than the candles themselves. After all, how compelling is a little flame of light? You can add a little oomph to these images by using a star-effect filter, which takes a normal candle flame and turns it into a blazing star, as illustrated in Figure 3-7.

Figure 3-7: Candle flame without and with a star filter

This little bit of photographic trickery is accomplished by tiny etches in the glass that distort the light. If your camera accepts filters, you can pony up US$25 and start to play right away. One brand of creative filters you might want to take a look at is the Cokin System (https://cokinusa.com), which has star effects, gradual density, and special-effect filters. Cokin has adapters for every type of camera and lens, and it even has a special mount for cameras that don't even have filter rings, such as your digital point and shoot. I've played with the Cokin Star Effect #056, A Version, and have had good success, even on a Canon Digital Elph S400, which doesn't have a filter ring. Figure 3-8 shows how this rig looks.

Figure 3-8: Cokin filter attached to a Canon S400

You can also make your own star effects by taking an old UV or skylight filter and etching it with a glass cutter. I recommend you use a crosshatch pattern for your etching. This of course provides you with the opportunity to create unexpected results.

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With an inexpensive swatch book of theater lighting gels, some nightlight bulbs, and a couple of LED flashlights, you can create ethereal color effects. And the best part is that you don't need Photoshop or even a computer.

Yes, you can manipulate photos in just about every way imaginable in Photoshop. But what if you don't like Photoshop, don't feel that comfortable with your image-editing skills, or just want to try something new? Alternatively, you can manipulate the picture as you actually capture it with the camera. Working with light painting and colored gels, such as the ones shown in Figure 3-10, is a great way to experiment with this type of creative shooting.

Figure 3-10: Crystal with colored gel

I use quartz crystals for my example because they're fun to manipulate with light, but just about any translucent or reflective subject has potential. My tools include theater lighting gels, nightlights, a photographer's light box, colored bulbs, and LED flashlights. One of my favorite combinations for experimentation is a regular nightlight bulb shining through Roscolux theater gels. For US$3.50 at Rose's Theatrical Supply (https://www.theatricalshop.com/rosesweb/gels.htm), you can get a Roscolux Swatch Book that contains a sample of every gel in their collection.

For the crystal shots, I made a custom light stand out of a six-inch length of 2" 4" wood. I simply drilled two holes—one downward from the top and one inward from the side—to form an L-shaped opening in the wood, as shown in Figure 3-11. The crystal sits on the top hole, and the nightlight bulb goes in the side hole. Now, I can put any color gel I want over the top hole, and that will be the color of light projected up through the crystal.

Figure 3-11: Homemade light stand and filters

When you use this setup in a darkened room, the colored light shining up through the crystal is subtle and quite striking. If you want, while the shutter is open, you can add more effects, such as light painting. This is why nightlight bulbs, which are typically only four watts or so, are good for this type of project. The dim light creates long exposures that give you the opportunity to paint with other lights, such as flashlights with colored bulbs, while the shutter is open.

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Don't let any smoke get in your eyes for this assignment. Stand upwind, bring your tripod, and capture some truly spectacular images.

Big fireworks shows are thrilling to watch, and they make thrilling photo subjects. Because it's night photography, you'd think that all of the rules of shooting in low light would apply for this assignment. Ha! This hack wouldn't be necessary if that were so.

In my opinion, fireworks photography is counterintuitive. In other words, my guesses for settings are wrong over half the time. But now that I've learned my lessons (through more trial and error than I'd care to admit), I can show you the secrets that can dramatically increase your odds of success.

Your chances of getting a great shot improve greatly if you have the right equipment. First, you need a camera that allows you to control the shutter speeds and aperture. Technically, you could use a little "auto-everything" cheapie, but it is such a pain in the fuse that it's hardly worth it. If you don't have a camera with decent manual controls, you might want to make friends with someone who does.

Next, you need to bring your tripod, a remote shutter release (if you have one), your red-bulb flashlight, a black piece of cardboard or baseball cap, and whatever outdoor gear you'll need to be comfortable.

I know your first inclination will be to get as close as possible to the action. Resist that urge. Fireworks are all about perspective. Find a location that enables you to photograph the explosions without having to point your camera directly upward. Often, the best place to shoot is a ways back, and up a bit too if you can find such a position. Sometimes, a hill or atop a parking garage is the ideal place.

As you scout for the perfect spot, pay attention to which way the wind is blowing. You don't want to be engulfed in smoke when the heavy artillery gets underway (see Figure 3-13).

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The moon is a beautiful but often elusive element for nighttime landscapes. If your previous attempts have resulted in sheer lunacy, take a look at these helpful tips.

Nothing perks up an evening landscape like a rising moon hanging above the horizon. You walk out of the office to go home. It's dusk and there's still color in the sky. Then, like magic, the moon appears from behind the clouds. You feel like you can reach out and touch it, just like that. These are the small moments that often stay with us.

Trying to photograph that is another matter. The moon hanging just above the horizon looked so big. But it seems to shrink in size the minute you point a camera lens at it. What was once a compelling evening moonscape photographs as a bunch of clouds with an overexposed dot of light among them.

Don't despair. By making a few adjustments to how you take the shots and applying a little photographic wizardry, you can bring the moon back to its rightful splendor. But to do so you have to overcome a few common obstacles.

If you wait until the sky is completely dark and the moon is high above the horizon, chances are the moon is brighter than everything else in the scene. The trick here is to catch the moon when it's low and to include other bright things in the composition, as shown in Figure 3-15. When the moon is lower, it shines through more atmosphere than when it is high in the sky. The atmosphere serves as a neutral density filter of sorts and reduces the moon's luminosity.

Figure 3-15: Moon with Christmas lights

However, if everything else in the frame is dark, then your camera will expose for the dominating dark elements and thereby overexpose the moon, rendering it as a fuzzy dot of light. Look for adjacent elements to lighten up the scene, such as brightly lit buildings (their lights often go on at dusk, before darkness sets in), illuminated clouds from the setting sun, or any other radiant element.

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For most people, stars are decorative points of light that decorate the night sky. But for you, they can also be fascinating streaks of light that add dazzle to your compositions.

Stars might appear as twinkling points of light to the naked eye, but when you point a camera at them and leave the shutter open for a while, they transform into colorful streaks across the sky. Photographing star trails is not only an artistic endeavor; it can also provide insight into the nature of stars themselves.

Stars are basically composed of hydrogen and helium, and they burn intensely. The hotter the star is, the more bluish its color, and cooler stars tend to be reddish orange. Based on this information, scientists have formed theories about the age of the stars we observe. A bright blue star, for example, is considered at the peak of its life. A duller red star, on the other hand, is much older.

Thinking about the age of a particular star on a chilly night probably demands more commitment than the average person cares to allocate to such matters. But if you point your digital camera upward and let it record trails of those stars, their colors are much easier to distinguish in the comfort of your home, gazing at your computer screen, than they are when you gaze upward into the frigid night.

Take a look at the picture of Orion's belt and sword in Figure 3-18 (the constellation Orion the Hunter dominates the winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere). This image is a four-second exposure (f-1.8 at ISO 800, taken with a Canon 10D) and is an enlargement of what you'd observe with your eyes in the sky. You can see some differences in star colors, but they are subtle.

Figure 3-18: Stars without trailing effect

Figure 3-19: Stars with trails

In the eight-minute exposure (f-1.8 at ISO 100, taken with the same Canon 10D) shown in Figure 3-19, the colors of the stars are easier to determine. The purplish "star" in the middle of Orion's sword is actually a

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Daylight photography presents an ample enough challenge for most shooters, so it's no wonder that taming electronic flash sends many photographers to the edge of madness. At least with daylight you can see what you're shooting. The cards are on the table. But the burst of bluish light from camera strobes lasts only a tiny fraction of a second. There's no way to observe the light and predict how the image is going to look.

So you have to depend on technique, with a little luck thrown in for good measure. This chapter shows you some of the secrets that pros have been using for years to create flash pictures that are flattering and, yes, even beautiful.

It might seem crazy at first, but one of the best times to turn on your flash is when you're taking outdoor portraits on a bright, sunny day.

Working with your camera's flash can be counterintuitive. Often, you'll capture more compelling indoor pictures when you turn off the flash, and get great shots when you activate it outdoors—quite the opposite of what you'd expect.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the one killer tip that will improve your pictures more than any other is to turn on your flash for outdoor portraits. As shown in Figure 4-1, the flash helps balance the lighting of the subjects with the ambient light outdoors.

Figure 4-1: An outdoor portrait, brightened by fill flash

While there's a lot of light available when you're shooting portraits outdoors, it isn't always coming from the angle you want. Here's a little lighting tip to keep in your back pocket: light coming from the side accentuates texture, and light coming from the front flattens it.

So, keeping this in mind, what type of light do you think your mother would like you to use when taking her portrait? Side lighting with lots of texture? Most likely not. How about some front lighting that softens the appearance of wrinkles and pores, please?

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Daylight photography presents an ample enough challenge for most shooters, so it's no wonder that taming electronic flash sends many photographers to the edge of madness. At least with daylight you can see what you're shooting. The cards are on the table. But the burst of bluish light from camera strobes lasts only a tiny fraction of a second. There's no way to observe the light and predict how the image is going to look.

So you have to depend on technique, with a little luck thrown in for good measure. This chapter shows you some of the secrets that pros have been using for years to create flash pictures that are flattering and, yes, even beautiful.

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It might seem crazy at first, but one of the best times to turn on your flash is when you're taking outdoor portraits on a bright, sunny day.

Working with your camera's flash can be counterintuitive. Often, you'll capture more compelling indoor pictures when you turn off the flash, and get great shots when you activate it outdoors—quite the opposite of what you'd expect.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the one killer tip that will improve your pictures more than any other is to turn on your flash for outdoor portraits. As shown in Figure 4-1, the flash helps balance the lighting of the subjects with the ambient light outdoors.

Figure 4-1: An outdoor portrait, brightened by fill flash

While there's a lot of light available when you're shooting portraits outdoors, it isn't always coming from the angle you want. Here's a little lighting tip to keep in your back pocket: light coming from the side accentuates texture, and light coming from the front flattens it.

So, keeping this in mind, what type of light do you think your mother would like you to use when taking her portrait? Side lighting with lots of texture? Most likely not. How about some front lighting that softens the appearance of wrinkles and pores, please?

For outdoor portraits, many photographers take this pearl of wisdom and position the model so that the sun is shining directly in her face. Hmmm...Mom's not going to like that much, is she? So, how do you get around this apparent photographic paradox?

The answer is to find a comfortable spot for her to stand in the open shade—under a tree is lovely—with a complementary background that doesn't include any distracting elements. Now, turn on your flash. With most cameras, you do this by looking for the button with a little lightning bolt on it. As you press the button, you will cycle through all the available flash settings. Use the setting called Fill Flash or Manual On.

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The plague of point-and-shoot flash photography, red eye, can turn your children into demons and your pets into monsters. Here's how to exorcise this curse from your life.

Red eye is caused by one of those laws of physics that's difficult for point-and-shoot cameras to overcome. When the flash is located close to the camera lens and the subject's iris is dilated in low, ambient room light, the flash sends a beam of light into the eye that's reflected off the retina and beamed right back into the camera lens. Presto! You now have red eye.

Wedding photographers figured out a long time ago that if you move the flash away from the camera lens, preferably above it, you change the angle of reflection off the retina, so your camera lens doesn't notice it. But adding an external flash isn't always practical for many digicam-toting amateurs. So what are the alternatives?

I can tell you what the first alternative isn't: the Red Eye Reduction mode on your camera. Most of these controls are based on the theory that if they can somehow constrict the irises of the subject's eyes, red eye will be eliminated. As you know from your own experience, this doesn't work very well. And you usually end up annoying your subjects by pelting them with strobes of light before the actual exposure.

But the concept of constricting the irises is viable. Instead of using Red Eye Reduction mode, however, try turning up the room lights, as shown in Figure 4-2. Also, if a lamp or other bright source is nearby, have the subject stare at that for a few seconds, then turn back to you for the picture. Both of these methods better achieve what Red Eye Reduction mode is trying to do, and with far less aggravation for everyone concerned.

Figure 4-2: Brightening room lights can help prevent red eye

Another trick is to have the subject look off to the side slightly and not gaze directly into the camera lens. This changes the angle of reflection and works most of the time.

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Just because your digital point and shoot has a built-in flash, that doesn't mean you're stuck with using it exclusively.

"When two people in an organization always agree, one of them is unnecessary." You might expect to find that quote cross-stitched on a sign in the Complaint Department. But it hung prominently behind my father's desk as the editor and publisher of a weekly trade publication.

Dad's lesson is universally applicable, I've found over the years; a different perspective often provides an improvement—in life and in flash photography. I used this lesson to some effect on Mom, with more success on my siblings, and with mixed results on various employers. One place it has never failed me, though, is flash photography.

The big problem with most flash photography is that it uses the flash on the camera. That flash takes the same angle on the subject as the camera's lens, so it throws harsh shadows, creates red eye, and generally makes The Night of the Living Dead look like the end result from Extreme Makeover. As if that isn't enough, it also eats camera battery power alive.

Flash really needs to take a different point of view than your lens. An external flash can make the single biggest improvement to the quality of your flash images. And you don't need a hot shoe or sync socket to use an external flash. Nor do you need a personal trainer to heft the gear around. All you need is a flash on your camera, although hot shoes and sync sockets are also nice to have.

In fact, there are many ways to put an external flash system together. Let's look at two variations: a simple wireless system you can use with any digicam and a professional bounce flash system.

If your digicam has only the flash it was born with, your external flash should be a slave flash : a flash that fires when it gets its cue (through infrared energy) from your digicam's flash.

The digicam flash becomes a trigger now. It goes off and tells the external flash that it is now time to fire. To ensure that this works properly, use Fill Flash or Manual Flash mode and mask your digicam flash with a piece of exposed slide film so it won't illuminate the scene. The slide film acts as an infrared filter, triggering the external slave flash.

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One of the best techniques for using (and reasons for purchasing) an external flash is to bounce its light off the ceiling. This creates softer skin tones and a journalistic look.

Photographer Bill Harvey was awarded the lifetime achievement award in 1997 by the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles. He showed me the setup that I still use with unfailingly excellent results, as everyone always agrees.

Bill used a Vivitar 283, still available today, mounted on a pistol grip. With the 283, you just set the ISO, switch the removable sensor to one of several distance settings, and look up the color-coded distance setting on the illuminated dial to find the correct f-stop.

But Bill never shot the flash directly at his subject. Instead, he pointed it upward, toward a small plastic reflector like the one in Figure 4-5, made by Sto-Fen (https://www.omni-bounce.com). Sto-Fen makes several accessories for the 283, as well as Canon and Sunpak strobes.

Figure 4-5: The Sto-Fen reflector for bounce-flash photography (photo by Mike Pasini)

Bill used Sto-Fen's Twin Panel Bounce. Its compact, clever design eliminates hot spots and covers 24mm lenses and larger. Digicam zooms generally aren't wider than 28mm (speaking in 35mm equivalents). I also like their Omni Bounce, which is a white plastic dome with a black panel on the back that sits right on top of the 283 lens. It gives an even softer shadow than the Twin Panel but doesn't have quite the range. Both bounces come with a black plastic mount that just snaps over the 283—very simple, elegant, portable, and reliable.

If the head of your flash pivots upward, you can also bounce the light from your flash with a rubber band and the back of a business card. This disperses the illumination. Some flashes even include a bounce card built into the head.

Bounce flash gets you soft, natural shadows over a wide area and completely eliminates red eye, as shown in Figure 4-6.

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You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on expensive lighting to get professional-looking portraits.

Many amateur photographers are intimidated by studio portraiture, and for good reason. A trip to a working pro's studio reveals thousands of dollars of lighting equipment, specialized backdrops, and various posing accessories. Who can afford that?

You have to remember that working pros need all that stuff because they're required to meet the needs of a various clients. Pros often don't know who's going to walk in the door and what that person is going to want. You don't have that problem. Your mortgage isn't dependent on your ability to meet every customer's whim.

So, then, how much stuff do you need to shoot a professional-looking portrait? Your setup can be as simple as two flashes, two light stands, one photo umbrella, and a nontextured backdrop, such as butcher's paper. All of these goodies fit easily in the trunk of your car, enabling you to shoot great-looking portraits just about anywhere.

For this assignment, I'm going to start by showing you what I consider the easiest way to go. Even though the investment in this equipment is far less than what pros spend, the bottom line might still be more than your budget allows (figure about US$600). If this is the case for you, I'll present some low-cost alternatives at the end of this hack. But let's start with the most desirable and go from there.

First, I strongly recommend a camera that has Manual Exposure control and accepts external flashes. A camera that has lots of flash accessories available from the manufacturer is even better. At the moment, Nikon and Canon provide the most options.

When you're shopping for external flashes, look for models that can be triggered wirelessly by the camera. These units are perfect for the photographer on the go. I'm using two Canon Speedlite 420EXs (as shown in Figure 4-9) and a Transmitter ST-E2 for this assignment. The transmitter mounts in the camera's hot shoe and wirelessly triggers all the flashes when you trip the shutter.

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You've probably felt the frustration of trying to take a picture of a reflective object, such as a framed painting, and getting glare. The secret is to add another flash.

Using two external flashes instead of your camera's built-in unit offers all sorts of new photographic possibilities. As discussed in [Hack #43] , you can produce great-looking portraiture with just a couple electronic flashes and light stands. Here's another use for this capability: photographing reflective surfaces without producing glare.

As you know, when you try to use your camera's built-in flash to take a flash picture of, let's say, a painting on the wall, you always get a hot spot somewhere in the image. You could turn off the flash, lug everything outside, and then use natural light, but that's not always convenient either, such as when it's night. Plus, if you're shooting a lot of different objects to sell on eBay, do you really want to be standing outside with your equipment all day?

Try this method instead and work comfortably indoors. Hang your artwork on the wall and get your flashes and light stands together [Hack #43] . For this assignment, you won't need the photo umbrella, but you will need both the flashes mounted on their light stands.

Raise the light stands so that the flashes are the same height as the painting. Now, position one on the left and one on the right, each at 45° angles from the painting. The flashes and painting should form a triangle.

Mount your camera on a tripod and extend the legs so that the camera is the same height as the center of the painting. Make sure the camera is level and centered between the two flashes. Now, focus and take a picture.

Both flashes will go off, but amazingly, there's no light reflection in the picture! Magically, each flash cancels out the reflection from the other (see Figure 4-12). You get an evenly illuminated image with no hot spots.

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The hand is quicker than the eye, and your electronic flash is faster than your shutter. Use it to stop time and capture that magic moment.

The shutter on your camera can reach speeds of 1/2000 of a second or faster. The faster the shutter speed, the easier it is to stop action—that is, freeze your subject in its tracks or, in the case of Figure 4-13, in mid flight. The challenge with a fast shutter speed is that it also severely reduces the amount of light passing to the image sensor. So, you have to either open up the aperture all the way (f-2.8 or so), increase your ISO speed (to ISO 400 or more), or both. And even then, you still might not have enough light to capture the picture.

Figure 4-13: A hummingbird captured in flight with flash

But there's a workaround for these limits imposed by the laws of physics. Your camera's electronic flash is an excellent tool to stop action when you don't have enough light to use a super-fast shutter speed.

In fact, even when you do have enough light, you still might want to use the flash. Why? Your camera's shutter probably tops out at 1/2000 of a second or so. But the electronic flash is just getting warmed up at that speed, and some external units can emit bursts of light as short in duration as 1/50,000 of a second. Now that's high-octane performance!

And it gets even better. Since the flash adds light to the scene, you don't have to fiddle as much with aperture and ISO settings. It's rare when you get to have it all in photography, but this is one of the few occasions where that's possible.

To use this technique, you first have to make sure the flash fires. If you're outdoors, switch to Fill Flash or Flash On mode. Now, make sure you're within range of your flash. For most built-in units, this means eight feet or closer. You can extend this range if your camera accepts an external flash, which is more powerful.

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One of the most magical of all camera tricks, second-curtain flash lets you show a trail of motion behind an object that is frozen in mid flight.

Typically, you use a camera flash to add light when there's not enough ambient illumination for a well-exposed shot, or to fill in shadows for portrait subjects. In either of these scenarios, you typically have a relatively fast shutter speed (1/60 of a second or so) with the flash occurring at the beginning of the exposure, otherwise known as the first curtain. The term curtain refers to the phases of the shutter. The first curtain occurs at the beginning of the exposure and the second curtain occurs at the end.

For an evening portrait, you use a much longer exposure time [Hack #29] to capture some background information that would otherwise be dark because the flash can't reach that far. Subjects must stand still during these long exposures; otherwise, they'll blur in the photo.

Technically, a second-curtain flash is just a technique in which the flash fires at the end of a long exposure rather than at the beginning of it. So, why would you ever want to have the flash fire at the end of the exposure? Well, it creates great opportunity for the best of both worlds. On one hand, you get the artistic motion trail that illustrates the movement of an object, often revealing patterns or characteristics about the movement that we can't otherwise perceive. On the other hand, you also get to freeze the subject at the end of the motion. By having the sharp representation of the object at the end of the motion trail, rather than at the beginning or middle, you end up with a more interesting shot that shows the history of the subject's movements.

A classic application of second-curtain flash photography is to show a dancer in motion or a moving object, such as a golf club or a bouncing ball. In the example shown in Figure 4-14, I shot a playing card flying through the air at 1/2 second at f-7.1.

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To really appreciate the power of your digital camera, you have to plug it into a computer. This is where you turn average photos into a great ones, create glorious prints that used to take days to return from the photo lab, make digital slideshows that rival professional presentations, paste together video snippets into short movies, and even add voice and music to your images.

In this chapter, you will learn how to harness the creative power that flows from camera to computer via the USB cable connected to your PC.

With a series of photographs of the same subject in hand, you can judge which shot is sharper without ever opening a file.

Figuring out which photo in a series is the sharpest can be a laborious task. If you have five shots of the same subject, you typically open each in turn in the image editor, examine them all closely, and then make a judgment call as to which one is the keeper.

If you have to work quickly, this approach can be quite frustrating, not to mention time-consuming. There's got to be an easier way! And indeed there is.

You can make solid judgments about image sharpness without ever opening the file. Both Windows and Macintosh computers provide you with all the information you need by simply opening the folder that contains your pictures and viewing some of their basic data. Eyeballing sharpness is all a matter of size—file size, that is. The larger the file, the sharper the picture.

When you're shooting in JPEG mode with your digital camera (which you usually are, unless you explicitly switch to TIFF or RAW), the files are compressed in the camera so that they don't take up too much room on your memory card. Fine, sharp detail is harder to compress than softer, duller images. So, the resulting file for a slightly sharper image will be a little bigger.

Under Windows, open the folder of images and choose the Details view, as shown in Figure 5-1. In the Size column, you'll see how big each image is. In this example,

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To really appreciate the power of your digital camera, you have to plug it into a computer. This is where you turn average photos into a great ones, create glorious prints that used to take days to return from the photo lab, make digital slideshows that rival professional presentations, paste together video snippets into short movies, and even add voice and music to your images.

In this chapter, you will learn how to harness the creative power that flows from camera to computer via the USB cable connected to your PC.

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With a series of photographs of the same subject in hand, you can judge which shot is sharper without ever opening a file.

Figuring out which photo in a series is the sharpest can be a laborious task. If you have five shots of the same subject, you typically open each in turn in the image editor, examine them all closely, and then make a judgment call as to which one is the keeper.

If you have to work quickly, this approach can be quite frustrating, not to mention time-consuming. There's got to be an easier way! And indeed there is.

You can make solid judgments about image sharpness without ever opening the file. Both Windows and Macintosh computers provide you with all the information you need by simply opening the folder that contains your pictures and viewing some of their basic data. Eyeballing sharpness is all a matter of size—file size, that is. The larger the file, the sharper the picture.

When you're shooting in JPEG mode with your digital camera (which you usually are, unless you explicitly switch to TIFF or RAW), the files are compressed in the camera so that they don't take up too much room on your memory card. Fine, sharp detail is harder to compress than softer, duller images. So, the resulting file for a slightly sharper image will be a little bigger.

Under Windows, open the folder of images and choose the Details view, as shown in Figure 5-1. In the Size column, you'll see how big each image is. In this example, IMG_1005 and IMG_1006 are of the same subject, but IMG_1006 (1,803 KB) is a little sharper than IMG_1005 (1,775 KB). Windows enables you to preview the image in the Details box in the left column. All you have to do is click once on the filename, and the preview for that file appears. This makes it easy to make sure you're comparing pictures of the same subject.

Figure 5-1: The Details view in Windows

This process on Mac OS X isn't much different. Choose Column View, as shown in Figure 5-2, and click the image you want to examine. Finder will generate a thumbnail, along with the image's file size and other details. Click another image to compare. Again, file size should inform you which shot in the series is sharper.

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Nothing wrenches the heart like accidentally erasing a memory card full of images. But all is not necessarily lost.

A few years ago, a buddy of mine's mother was approaching her 100th birthday. She didn't get out much any more, but she'd been to the hairdresser and had her hair Cool Whipped to perfection. She even went to the dry cleaner to get her Queen Bee formal gown pressed. The tiara she always kept gleaming.

She enlisted her friend to pick her up at her summer residence to drive her to her son's newly remodeled home. His dinky two-bedroom gardener's shack had been magically rebuilt into a four-bedroom palace with closets the size of shoe stores.

And her son even got a haircut. She'd been begging him to do that for 32 years. "Danny, why don't you get a haircut? Take the money from my purse. Go on."

I'd recently been out to shoot the new baseball stadium in town, so I brought along the shots on the Compact Flash I'd used. While we were waiting for the Queen Mum, I plugged my digicam into their television and wowed the kids with delusions of a World Series to come.

Naturally, I also brought a blank card to shoot the festivities. And, as luck would have it, I got a once-in-a-lifetime shot of mother and son—yep, a rare simultaneous smiling.

The next morning, before any cup of anything could clear the cobwebs from my head, I deleted the wrong card. "No," I said. "I didn't."

Oh, yeah, I did. But I was confident I could recover the data from the card. I'd done it with floppies, why not with a card? So, I spent the next few weeks trying every trick in the book to undelete the files on the card. But they were lost.

I consoled myself with the thought that I'd get that portrait again one day, but the dear matriarch never lived to see her 101st birthday. And her son was so distraught, he let his hair grow out again.

It's a sad story. But there's no reason it should ever happen again.

These days, even one of the kids could salvage that image while waiting for a World Series. All the little gotchas that defeated me years ago have themselves been defeated by modern utilities designed especially for just this sort of thing.

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You have many digital-shoebox applications to choose from to help you organize your photos. Or, you could simply use the built-in tools that come with your operating system.

Of all the places I've been, the most amazing one I've seen remains my grandfather's basement. It was organized.

He had, perhaps, an unfair advantage over the rest of us. As a pharmacist in the days when all pills were white, being disorganized could have been fatal. The discipline of being organized was part of his daily routine.

But he also enjoyed the advantage of organizing things, which is simply being able to find just what you need without the frustration of looking for it. The screws were on these shelves, the nails there, the adhesives right here, the rubber bands (sorted by size) over there, and on and on. His basement was as neatly organized as Noah's ark.

Fortunately, he passed that gene on to me, so when I started collecting digital images, I quickly established a scheme so that I'd never have to look for them or remember where they were.

This was long before asset-management programs such as Adobe Photoshop Album (Windows), Canto Cumulus (Mac/Win), Extensis Portfolio (Mac/Win), iPhoto (Mac), iView MediaPro (Mac/Win), Kodak EasyShare (Mac/Win), Picasa (Windows), QPict (Mac), and others were available. I had to rely on the only thing available: the filesystem.

When I was the computer guy at the office, I used to have a standing offer of US$100 to anyone whose problem could not be resolved by a clear understanding of the four parts of a filename. In the days of MS-DOS business systems, I never had to pay out.

Here are the four parts of a filename:

The volume name (e.g., C:\ or Macintosh HD:)
The directory and subdirectories, if any (e.g., DOS\ or Documents:)
The root name (e.g.,

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A great way to share your pictures is to post them on the Web. Here's an easy way for photographers to leverage the greatest publishing tool of all: the Internet.

Creating a web site is a cumbersome task, even for people with quite a bit of web design experience. So, what if you just want to get some images up for friends, family, or a client to review and comment on? This hack will get you on your way quickly, using a built-in feature of Adobe Photoshop. That's right, by using a powerful tool called Web Photo Gallery, you will have a professional-looking site up in no time.

All you need for this hack is a copy of Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Before I go further, let me clarify the difference between the two applications. The professional offering from Adobe is called Photoshop CS (https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop). It costs about US$650, runs on both Windows and Mac, and has many high-level tools, such as advanced batch processing that working designers need. Adobe also offers Photoshop Elements (https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel), which is available for about US$85 and has most of the tools that CS offers. Elements also runs on both Windows and Mac. For this hack, you can use either Photoshop CS or Elements. I refer to them both simply as Photoshop. The screenshots are from Photoshop CS.

When you have all your software together, you'll need access to web space for hosting your photo album. Check with your Internet service provider (ISP) to see if you have free web space (you almost always do!) and find out how to upload your files.

Most likely, your ISP will tell you to use an FTP application to move your files from your computer to their web servers. There are a number of good freeware or shareware FTP applications out there, and Mac OS X users have FTP built right into the operating system.

Okay, enough network stuff; let's start building a great-looking photo web site!

Open Photoshop and figure out which digital images you want to publish. They can be in any format Photoshop can open, and they can be as large as you want; Photoshop will take care of resizing them for the Web. You do need to make sure they are large enough to display in the larger size on your web page. A 200 KB JPEG is a good guide for a minimum size.

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For a couple hundred bucks you can convert your Epson or Canon printer into a high-end black-and-white darkroom.

Digital photography is based on a long history of techniques and tricks hammered out over a hundred years of film photography. The metaphors used by Photoshop are rooted in the lexicon of film photography. Filters, contrast, burning and dodging, color balance—all these terms come directly from analog photography.

This hack takes a sacred part of traditional photography, the silver halide print , and turns it on its head. How? By using the traditions of offset printing, in which different shades of black are applied in layers to create super-rich B&W prints. Go to one of your favorite bookstores and pick up a book by a photographer that has black-and-white photographs. That book is printed on an offset printer and the image is made up of thousands of tiny dots to trick your eye into seeing continuous tone.

Silver halide prints, on the other hand, are continuous tone and, because of this, are incredibly rich. A higher-quality black-and-white photography book will try to mimic this quality by printing duotones that use two layers of ink to create richness that can't be accomplished with just one layer of black ink. This results in a higher-quality image that looks closer to its continuous-tone original: the silver halide print. Many books are printed using tritones (three shades of black) or even quadtones (you guessed it, four shades of black). Quadtones will generally be richer than duotones.

So how in the heck does this apply to digital photography? Well, some pretty clever people out there have figured out how to turn your Epson printer into a quadtone black-and-white printer. That's right—you can take the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black cartridges out of your printer and replace them with cartridges that are four shades of black, as shown in Figure 5-8.

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The battle cry for his hack is "go forth and calibrate!" That's about the only way you're going to get consistently accurate prints from your inkjet printer.

One of the promises of digital printing is that you can produce images in your own digital darkroom without the mess of mixing chemicals. However, while there is no water involved in digital printing, your prints might still get wet from the sweat of frustration.

If you've ever tried to print color photos by just plugging your camera into the computer, opening your image, and printing, you know where this frustration comes from. Consistent color out of the box is almost impossible without a little upfront work. But, if you follow the techniques outlined in this hack, what you see on your monitor will look very much like what you print out.

The solution starts with your monitor. Monitors are made by a wide variety of manufacturers. This results in a surprising array of color variance between your monitor and another brand. Even the age of a monitor affects its color. This means that the perfectly color-correct image on your monitor might not really be color-correct. The only real way to ensure that the color on your monitor is consistent with the color on your printer is for them to work off the same protocol. The industry-standard software for this protocol is documented by the International Color Consortium (ICC), a group founded by Apple and seven other vendors in 1993. The most popular and mature implementation of the ICC system is Apple's own ColorSync (https://www.apple.com/macosx/features/colorsync/). Using ColorSync, you can match what you see on your screen to what you see on paper with uncanny accuracy.

ColorSync is built into the Macintosh operating system (including Mac OS X, 9, and older versions) in a seamless way. If you have a PC, don't fret. While the ICC system is not as well integrated into Windows as it is on the Mac, it's still possible to utilize a color-management workflow.

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Home printing solutions have their advantages, but working with a commercial printer can elevate your images and help them last for a very long time.

Two of the premises of digital photography are that things are easier and cheaper. When it comes to printing digital photos, however, neither of these premises is necessarily true. While having an inkjet printer at home affords you the ability to print when you want, the digital darkroom, as many of us have discovered, takes a lot of time and money. Between buying the printer, expensive refills, photo-quality paper, and color calibration, home printing can be a pain. This hack will explore the many alternatives to home printing.

The first place to look is your local pharmacy or photo store. You can take in your flash cards and plug them into kiosks that allow you a lot of variation and control over the final output. Many of the kiosks let you remove red eye and adjust color right before you print. The printing mechanism that is used is usually dye sublimation , which strongly resembles the look of a traditional photo print and lasts about as long. You can take your flash cards in, plug them into the kiosk, and be on your way. Some photo stores even let you upload your images and pick them up later.

But what if you want larger prints for fine-art photography? To take things to the next level, there are a number of options for larger output from your digital files. These options include inkjet printers (similar in technology to the ones we have at home), Iris prints (fine-art inkjet printing using a large drum to apply the ink), and Lambda/lightjet/chromira prints (using lasers to transfer the image to photographic paper).

To access these options, you should look up professional photofinishers in your area or check out https://www.westcoastimaging.com and https://www.singereditions.com. Because digital photography is the confluence of many technologies and disciplines, you might find large-format printing available at a variety of businesses; look up digital prepress, print makers, and photofinishers to find someone who provides large-format digital output.

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If you go to all the trouble to make a digital slideshow, how are you going to share it with others who are far away? Are you going to lug your computer to every family member you know? Here's how to take your show on the road, while leaving the computer at home.

Nearly every digital-imaging application on the market enables you to make slideshows, and for good reason. Digital slideshows are much more interesting than their lumbering predecessor: the Kodak Carousel projector snooze-a-thon. Today's version of this ancient art of vacation debriefing is more tightly constructed and capable of including special effects, music, and voiceovers.

The problem with digital slideshows is that people don't know how to share them easily with others, especially with audiences who use a different computer operating system. Yes, you could cart your computer to the far corners of the planet in search of audiences for your presentations. Or, you could build slideshows that are so portable they could be attached to an email and sent to family members on the other coast. I'm going to show you how to do the latter.

The key to this portability is tapping the power of QuickTime, that venerable collection of multimedia tools that work equally well on Windows and Macintosh computers. Anyone can play QuickTime content by using a free player. This technology has become so ubiquitous that your camera even uses it to handle its movie-making function.

If, perchance, you don't already have the QuickTime Player on your computer, look on the software disc that came bundled with your camera and load it up. Or, you can download the latest version at https://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

Since you'll also be authoring content instead of just viewing it, I recommend you upgrade to the Pro version for US$30. This takes only a couple minutes at the QuickTime web site. You'll receive a registration key that unlocks the editing capabilities of the application. Now, you're ready to dive into this hack, as well as many more that follow later in this chapter.

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You can create a virtual-reality (VR) movie with the most basic of digicams. You just need to know how to stitch things together.

[Hack #19] showed how to stitch together a series of images to make a wide panorama of a scene. This technique conveys the grandeur of impressive sites such as the Grand Canyon much better than a single snapshot. With panoramas, you can make prints or simply view the wide pictures on your computer screen.

But there's more treasure to mine here. One of the most exciting byproducts of digital photography is a technique called virtual reality (VR). In its simplest form, a photographer puts his camera on a tripod and takes a series of pictures in a complete 360° circle around him. You use the same technique for capturing these images [Hack #19] , but instead of stopping at 120° or 180°, you keep taking pictures until you've completed a full circle.

For a gallery of examples to play with, go to the Cubic VR Gallery (https://www.apple.com/quicktime/gallery/cubicvr/). You'll need QuickTime installed on your computer. Chances are, you already have it. If not, you can download it for free at https://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/.

Many cameras include bundled software to stitch your panoramas together. For example, Canon cameras come with PhotoStitch. Not only can you stitch your images together for a beautiful wide photo, but if you shoot a complete circle of images, you can also export your panorama to a QuickTime VR movie, as shown in Figure 5-13.

Figure 5-13: Exporting a panorama to a QuickTime VR movie

After the images have been converted to a VR movie, you no longer view them in a traditional image editor such as Photoshop Elements. Your movies are now "played" in the QuickTime Player, where you can spin around in a circle just as if you were standing there in real life, looking around at the scenery.

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Almost all point-and-shoot digicams capture video footage in addition to still photos. But how do you turn those short snippets into your own personal movie?

If it comes down to a choice between bringing along a camcorder or a digital camera, I'm going to choose the camera. Even though I enjoy shooting video, I like still photos even more. Plus, digital cameras are smaller, and managing pictures is easier than dealing with hours of video.

But there are times when I also want to capture a few snippets of video. Certain special events—such as a speech at a wedding, a greeting from an old friend, or a child's first steps—are communicated better with moving pictures and sound. Fortunately for us, most digital cameras have a respectable Movie mode, and some even have great ones.

The problem is, once you have captured the footage in your camera, what do you do with it? Before I answer that question outright—and I will—let me explain the difference between the video your digicam captures and the footage from a digital camcorder.

These days, most people shoot video with a digital video (DV) camcorder. DV is becoming the format of choice. Once you record your movie clips, you can plug the camcorder into your personal computer and an application on your computer launches, ready to download and edit your footage. On the Windows platform, you might use Microsoft's MovieMaker; on the Mac, you could use Apple's iMovie or Final Cut Express.

But when you plug in your digital still camera, these applications don't seem to recognize it, even when it's full of video. One of the reasons for this is that you're probably plugging your still camera into a USB port, while your camcorder uses the FireWire port. Most video-editing applications look for devices connected via FireWire. But that's not the only difference.

Digital camcorders typically record in the DV format. Your digital still camera is using a completely different format, such as Motion JPEG OpenDML, which is an extension of the AVI file format. You can play these files on your computer by using QuickTime Player; in fact, this format is part of the QuickTime media layer. That's why almost every digicam under the sun provides you with QuickTime on its bundled CD.

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Who says you have to shoot all your movies horizontally? Just as with stills, sometimes it's fun to turn the camera on its side. But when you upload your movies to your computer, they're turned the wrong way! Here's how to fix that.

When making movies with your digicam, you don't want your compositions limited any more than you do when shooting stills. Imagine if someone told you that you could shoot only horizontal pictures for the rest of your life. You'd tell them where to go stick their memory card.

The problem with movie making is, you might shoot your video with a vertical orientation, but when you upload the snippets to your computer, everything is horizontal. And 9 out of 10 chiropractors will tell you not to crane your neck sideways to watch these movies.

Fortunately for the health of your entire viewing audience, there's a simple fix. After you upload the video to your computer, open a snippet in QuickTime Pro, the versatile movie viewing/editing application [Hack #56] . It doesn't make any difference whether you're working in Windows or on a Mac; the procedure is the same.

From the Movie drop-down menu, choose Get Movie Properties. You've just tapped into one of the most powerful areas of QuickTime Pro. There are two drop-down menus at the top of this dialog box. From the left one, choose Video Track, and from the right one, select Size, as shown in Figure 5-16.

Figure 5-16: Making selections in the QuickTime Movie Properties dialog box

You'll see that the dialog box changes content and options as you choose different items from the drop-down menus. In this case, two of the goodies you can access are found in those rotation arrows in the lower-right corner. Click on the one that rotates your movie in the desired direction, as shown in Figure 5-17. Like magic, your movie and its controls are now oriented the way you originally intended.

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A cake isn't really dessert without icing, and a movie isn't complete without titles. Here's a simple way to create tasty Hollywood-style rolling credits.

We've been working in QuickTime Pro for the previous movie-editing hacks [Hacks Section 5.11, Section 5.12]. QuickTime is featured in this book for a number of reasons. First, it's cross-platform, so Mac and Windows users are on equal footing. Second, it's extremely powerful for its cost (US$30). Third, it's essentially the native format that your digital camera uses to record movies, so why go through nasty conversions when you don't have to? But finally, and just as importantly, QuickTime is very hackable. This hack illustrates that point beautifully.

Rolling credits and titles are a Hollywood tradition. They have graced movies made by Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen. And they can add a professional touch to your digicam videos just as well.

I'm not going to get into the various movie-editing applications that require you to convert your QuickTime footage just so you can add rolling titles. Instead, I'm just going to use QuickTime Pro and your favorite text editor.

Text tracks are low-bandwidth, vector titles you can add to your movies. The QuickTime web site (https://www.apple.com/quicktime/tools_tips/tutorials/texttracks.html) explains how to add text to your movies. The problem is, you can't easily control how the text looks by using the basic method that most tutorials describe.

But if you get into a wonderful, hackable, hidden feature in QuickTime called text descriptors , you can create just about any type of title your imagination can conceive. Think of text descriptors as tags that tell QuickTime how your title should look. You can see the entire list of these tags at Apple's web site (https://www.apple.com/quicktime/tools_tips/tutorials/textdescriptors.html).

To put them to work for you, open Notepad, TextEdit, or your favorite text editor. Then, enter the following text:

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Music makes everything better, especially in the background of your digital movies and slideshows.

If you don't think music makes a big difference in media presentations, just turn off the sound during a movie and see how interesting it isn't. "Sound is half the picture" is an old saying in Hollywood . This is just as true for your digicam movies and slideshows.

QuickTime Pro allows you to add as many soundtracks as you have the patience to manage. Generally speaking, movies have two soundtracks—dialog and background music—and slideshows have just one—background music. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, however. You could, for example, add a voiceover to your slideshow [Hack #60] . But let's focus on background music at the moment. I'll use a slideshow as an example project.

After you create a digital slideshow [Hack #54] , you need to find some music to go with it. Just about everyone these days has a digital music collection on their computer, usually in the MP3 or AAC format. You can open any of these tracks in QuickTime Pro. If you don't have any music on your computer, it's easy enough to convert a CD you have in your collection by using a number of free digital jukeboxes available for download. I like iTunes, for both Mac and Windows, and you can download it (free!) at https://www.apple.com/itunes/download.

Once you've found the music you want to use, launch QuickTime and open your slideshow. Then, open your music in a second player, as shown in Figure 5-20.

Figure 5-20: Selecting music to accompany a slideshow

See how long your slideshow is by playing it to the end and checking the timestamp to the left of the scrubber bar. Then, drag the bottom-right triangle on the scrubber bar for the music until the time reads the same, or perhaps one second less.

Choose Copy from the Edit drop-down menu to copy the snippet of music to the clipboard. Then, click on your slideshow to bring it forward, move the top triangle on the scrubber bar to the beginning of the slideshow, and select Add from the Edit drop-down menu. That's all there is to it. Now, play your slideshow and enjoy the beautiful marriage of music and pictures.

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A picture is worth a thousand words. But sometimes, you need 1,020 words to communicate what's going on. That's when it's time to step up to the mic and create a voiceover track.

A voiceover is simply an additional audio track for your digital slideshow or movie, in which the narrator speaks directly to the audience. If you've ever watched a nature show on public television, you know what a voiceover is.

Voiceovers can add a professional touch to your presentations and, believe it or not, they're not that difficult to create. The first step is to find a way to record your monologue. One route is to use digital recording software for your computer. All you do is talk into your computer's microphone, and the software records your voice and saves it to the hard drive as an audio file.

You don't have to spend much money for this software. For Windows, take a look at Easy Recorder (https://www.sell-shareware.com/easyrecorder/). I like QuickVoice (https://www.quick-voice.com/quickvoice/) for Mac OS X users. Each application sells for US$20. Save the files in either QuickTime or MP3 format, which will enable you to assemble the presentation in QuickTime Pro [Hack #59] .

You can also use a standalone voice recorder, which I like a little better, actually. I have the best luck creating accurate voiceovers that synchronize with the presentation when I can play the slideshow or movie on the computer (with the audio turned off) and simultaneously talk into the microphone of the digital voice recorder to describe what's going on. Then, I simply upload the digital audio file to the computer, add it to the presentation, and everything is in sync.

If you have a powerful enough computer, you can use this same technique by having the presentation play in one window with the voice recorder software turned on in another. Or you can use two computers.

I've had good luck using an Apple iPod (not the mini version) with a Belkin iPod Voice Recorder. I just talk into the iPod while in the field or while watching the presentation on the computer, and then add the digital audio file to the pictures.

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Yes, iPods make terrific digital music players. They're also not so bad for storing movies and pictures from your digicam.

When I hit the pavement for street shooting or the trail for an afternoon hike, I usually have my digital camera and iPod tucked away in my backpack. I bring the camera for obvious reasons, but recently, the iPod has become just as important.

Yes, a little music is sometimes the perfect antidote to the relentless din of street noise, not to mention the fact that when I have my ear buds in place, fewer oddballs bother me. The iPod also stores all of my calendar information, in case I run into a friend who wants to schedule a lunch. It also holds handy reference notes, such as important restaurant locations and other vital statistics. Just about anything I can read on my computer can be transferred to my iPod. In fact, I recently read an article that reported that the dailies for the Lord of the Rings trilogy were whisked around the globe on an iPod.

The 40 GB hard drive in my iPod is as big as the drive in my laptop. I have quite a bit of music, but that's not why I bought an iPod with such a big drive. The real reason is that I can upload movies and photos from my camera's memory card directly to the iPod. That means that as long as I have batteries to power my camera and two memory cards with me, I can shoot until my shutter finger cramps up in lactic-acid misery.

This scenario became particularly appealing when I got hooked on shooting movies with a Contax SL300R T* pocket digicam (https://www.kyoceraimaging.com), shown in Figure 5-24. Even though it weighs just a tad more than four ounces and fits in the palm of my hand, it can record full-frame (640 480) movies at up to 30 frames per second (fps); that's the same frame rate as a dedicated digital camcorder. If you're interested in this amazing functionality but want to save a few bucks, check out the Kyocera FineCam SL300R, which uses the same technology but costs less than the Contax.

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If you've ever attended a Photoshop class or seminar, you The problem with many of these workshops is that you, the digital photographer, must endure detailed explanations about techniques for graphic designers, web producers, and fine-art artists. All you wanted to learn was how to straighten a crooked picture.

This chapter is by no means an exhaustive survey of Photoshop technique. But everything here is meant just for you, the digital photographer. I asked all the contributors to this book, digital photographers themselves, to give me one or two of their must-know Photoshop hacks. And of course, I've added a few of my own favorites too.

Just like everything else we've covered here, these techniques work equally well on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Sometimes, you'll see a Windows screenshot, sometimes one from a Mac; it doesn't matter, the technique is the same. Regardless of which platform you prefer, we're here to help you master image editing on your computer.

Also, when I refer to Photoshop generically, I mean that the technique works for Photoshop 7 (the older pro version), Photoshop CS (the current pro version, US$650), and Photoshop Elements (the current hobbyist version, US$80). Many of the hacks in this chapter work with all three versions. If I show you something that works only in Photoshop CS, I'll point that out clearly and refer to the application as Photoshop CS.

If you're serious about digital photography, I recommend you invest in one of the three versions of this excellent image-editing application. I realize that $80 here and $30 there add up to some serious money. But Photoshop is one of the two core applications that I consider essential for digital photographers. (The other is QuickTime Pro, used extensively in Chapter 5.)

So, for the moment, put down your camera and put your hand on the mouse. It's time to talk shop for photographers—Photoshop, that is.

Image resolution remains one of the great mysteries to hobbyist photographers; there's one setting for computer viewing and another for print output. Here's how it works

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If you've ever attended a Photoshop class or seminar, you The problem with many of these workshops is that you, the digital photographer, must endure detailed explanations about techniques for graphic designers, web producers, and fine-art artists. All you wanted to learn was how to straighten a crooked picture.

This chapter is by no means an exhaustive survey of Photoshop technique. But everything here is meant just for you, the digital photographer. I asked all the contributors to this book, digital photographers themselves, to give me one or two of their must-know Photoshop hacks. And of course, I've added a few of my own favorites too.

Just like everything else we've covered here, these techniques work equally well on both Windows and Macintosh computers. Sometimes, you'll see a Windows screenshot, sometimes one from a Mac; it doesn't matter, the technique is the same. Regardless of which platform you prefer, we're here to help you master image editing on your computer.

Also, when I refer to Photoshop generically, I mean that the technique works for Photoshop 7 (the older pro version), Photoshop CS (the current pro version, US$650), and Photoshop Elements (the current hobbyist version, US$80). Many of the hacks in this chapter work with all three versions. If I show you something that works only in Photoshop CS, I'll point that out clearly and refer to the application as Photoshop CS.

If you're serious about digital photography, I recommend you invest in one of the three versions of this excellent image-editing application. I realize that $80 here and $30 there add up to some serious money. But Photoshop is one of the two core applications that I consider essential for digital photographers. (The other is QuickTime Pro, used extensively in Chapter 5.)

So, for the moment, put down your camera and put your hand on the mouse. It's time to talk shop for photographers—Photoshop, that is.

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Image resolution remains one of the great mysteries to hobbyist photographers; there's one setting for computer viewing and another for print output. Here's how it works.

I can't resist starting this chapter with an anecdote. Usually, I wouldn't, but I feel that this story sets the tone for the entire chapter.

About a year ago, after teaching a two-hour digital photography seminar, I was fielding questions from attendees while packing up my equipment. One gentleman approached me and said, "I have just one question for you. How do I change the resolution of my pictures without changing their dimensions? I know there's one little thing I need to do, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is."

This guy had patiently sat through an entire seminar, probably about stuff he already knew, just so he could ask this question afterward.

I reopened my laptop, launched Photoshop, and showed him the magic box that he needed to uncheck. His eyes lit up, he grabbed my right hand, and he shook it vigorously. "Thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed and ran out the door. Most likely, he headed directly home and went to work.

For me, that experience sums up Photoshop for digital photographers. You know there's some way to accomplish everything you want to do, but for the life of Moses, you can't figure out half of them. Or, as in the case of my student, you can't remember what you already know. How to adjust picture resolution for printing falls squarely into that category for many photographers. This hack will solve that problem for you.

Resolution is expressed in dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi). The higher the ppi, the more densely packed the pixels are, and the higher the resolution. Because of the inherent differences in various media, printing requires higher resolution than computer viewing.

Your digital camera is basically a miniature computer that contains a built-in scanner. It scans its images at 72 ppi. That happens to be the same resolution at which most computers display their images. So, going from digital camera to computer is like going from apples to apples. If you were always going to view your pictures solely on a computer, that would be the end of this conversation. But chances are, you want to make prints too. Prints don't look so good at 72 ppi. The ideal printing resolution for photo quality starts at 200 ppi. So how do you get there from here?

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Every digital photographer knows that some pictures need a little sharpening, but few understand the best way to do it. Here's how.

I could tell you about the years of trial and error in which I've experimented with different sharpening settings, the countless articles I've read on the subject, or the debates in which I've engaged with other knowledgeable photographers. Or, I could just show you what I've learned through all those experiences. I'll give you the shortcut.

Regardless of whether you're using Photoshop 7, CS, or Elements, this hack works the same. The only sharpening tool I recommend is Unsharp Mask, which works its magic on the edges of the pixels by increasing their contrast. The more contrast, the sharper the image appears.

You'll need to use this tool after scanning and when you sample down a picture [Hack #64] . Unsharp Mask can also help when your picture appears a little soft because of less-than-perfect photo technique. But it can improve things only so much, so always try to record the sharpest image you can.

Apply Unsharp Mask as the last step in your image-adjustment process. If you apply it early, other adjustments could degrade its effect and you'll have to do it again.

First, open your image and choose Unsharp Mask from the Sharpen menu (Filter→Sharpen→Unsharp Mask). Make sure the Preview box is checked. You'll see a close-up sample of your picture in the preview box, as shown in Figure 6-3. If you want to see a close-up of a different area of the picture, just click the mouse button and move the mouse around inside the preview pane.

Figure 6-3: Unsharp Mask in Photoshop Elements

Enter these settings in the three fields of the dialog box:

Amount: 12%: Earlier, I mentioned that Unsharp Mask works its magic by increasing the contrast on the edges of the pixels. The Amount setting specifies the amount of contrast. Keep this setting low, around 12%. If the effect isn't strong enough, repeat the process. It's better to apply the filter three times at 12% than one time at 36%.

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Your high-resolution photos are perfect for printing but not so good for sending to Aunt Betty, who has AOL dial-up. Have mercy on Betty and learn to sample down.

We've all been there before: someone in the family gets a brand-new mega-megapixel camera, and the next thing you know, you have a slew of emails with 1 MB attachments. Your only salvation is to hope that Photoshop Elements came bundled with the new camera, so you can explain how to sample down those images for more reasonable email attachments.

I'll start with a 3.2-megapixel image shot at the highest resolution and quality settings on the camera. Its compressed file size on my computer is 1.5 MB—too big for sharing via email but nice for making an 8" 10" print.

To sample it down for publishing on the Web or sending via email, open it in Photoshop and choose the Image Size command (Image→Resize→Image Size in Photoshop Elements; Image→Image Size in Photoshop CS).

As shown in Figure 6-4, the dimensions for the picture are 2048 1536 pixels at 72 ppi. That's way too big to share online. Generally speaking, you want to sample down the image to 400 300 or 640 480 for attachments.

Figure 6-4: A full-size 3.2-megapixel image, too big for email attachments

To change these dimensions, make sure the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image boxes are checked and then change the Width dimension to 640, as shown in Figure 6-5. Notice how the Height setting automatically changed to 480? That's because you had the Constrain Proportions box checked. Click OK.

Figure 6-5: The resized image, much more portable

I almost always sharpen an image a little after sampling down; for some reason, it seems to lose a little edge in the process. From the Filter menu, select Sharpen→Unsharp Mask. Change the Amount setting to 12% and leave the Radius setting at 1.0 pixels. The Threshold can stay at 0. Click OK and examine the picture. If it needs another round, apply the same settings again. Your photo should now look crisp and clean.

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Preparing a whole batch of images for a project such as a slideshow can be a laborious process at best. This hack shows you how to crop to size and resample, all in one swift motion.

When I have a whole folder of pictures that I need to adjust to the same dimensions and resolution, I just smile. That wasn't always the case. I used to curse, procrastinate, and question my decision to work on the darn thing in the first place. That was before I discovered hyperspeed cropping.

With this technique, you can resize your pictures to standard dimensions, such as 640 480, and change their resolution at the same time. It's high-speed cropping and image resizing, all in one.

Open the first picture in your batch and click on the cropping tool, as shown in Figure 6-6. You'll notice that a new menu appears on the top toolbar. This is a contextual menu that changes depending on the tool you select. There are three settings you can adjust here: Width, Height, and Resolution. The values for Width and Height are in pixels (px), and Resolution is in points per inch (ppi). I've entered 640 px, 480 px, and 72 ppi, respectively.

Figure 6-6: Entering the parameters for your speed cropping

Now, all I have to do is drag the cropping tool across the image to select the area I want to keep, as shown in Figure 6-7. Notice how the selection area is constrained to the proportions that I set in the contextual menu. When I double-click in the selected area, Photoshop will crop the image to the dimensions I've indicated and set the resolution too, all in one stroke.

Figure 6-7: Selecting the area you want to keep

You can whip through an entire batch of pictures in just minutes by using this technique. Keep these few tips in mind:

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Wrangling with LCD viewfinders sometimes leads to less than perfectly level horizon lines. Thankfully, a hidden tool in Photoshop CS can straighten things out.

I know that my digital camera's LCD monitor isn't the best tool for lining up straight images. But I like that little television screen for so many other things, such as gauging exposure in real time, that I use it anyway. There are days, however, when composing a picture in the LCD feels like backing up a trailer into the driveway. I turn the steering wheel one way, and the trailer goes the other.

Even professional photographers using cameras mounted on tripods have problems composing scenes accurately. They might think they have a straight image, only to be unpleasantly surprised when opening the picture on the computer to see that the horizon line is dipping slightly to the right. Thanks to Photoshop, it's easy to straighten those images.

Figure 6-8 shows a horizon line that needs to be straightened. I can use the Rotate Canvas command to guesstimate the amount I need to adjust the photo, but it might not be accurate. And I'll have to keep guessing and cropping until I get the picture right. But there's a better way!

Figure 6-8: A crooked horizon doesn't have to stay that way

In Photoshop CS, there's a handy-dandy little ruler that will help you find accurate horizontal and vertical angles. What, you don't see it in the floating Tools palette? That's because it's hidden behind the Eyedropper icon. Click on the Eyedropper, hold down the mouse button, and you'll see a Color Sampler tool and a Measure tool. Select the Measure tool.

Using your mouse, place the tool cursor in your image window on one end of the line you wish to straighten and then drag it across to the other end of the line. When you release the mouse, the Measure tool calculates the angle needed to straighten the line. Photoshop remembers this angle.

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The Clone Stamp in Photoshop Elements is a pretty good tool for removing unsightly wires from your scenes. Photoshop 7 and CS have an amazing piece of magic called the Patch tool. Either way, wires be gone!

Wires, wires, everywhere wires. Most folks might not realize just how many wires are strung around the landscape. But if you have a photographer's eye and enjoy shooting landscapes, you understand what I'm talking about. It can be challenging to find an interesting roadside shot that doesn't involve wires. Have you ever found that nearly perfect shot: nice landscape elements, beautiful colors, intense sky, and some magic light illuminating the entire scene? You hit the brakes, grab the digicam, and start clicking the shutter button. It's then you notice the wires crisscrossing the horizon. What do you do? Lament the unspoiled vistas of times past and give up?

Keep shooting! There's a Photoshop CS tool to save the day: the Patch tool. Prior to Photoshop 7 and still in Photoshop Elements, the Clone Stamp (rubber stamp) was the savior of choice to eliminate distracting elements. Even though it's amazing, photographers found it difficult to match subtle tone differences, in skies, for example, where power wires often reside. Then, Adobe added the Patch tool to enhance this type of retouching. And what a good addition the Patch tool is. It's faster and much better at blending subtle tones.

In this example, I was out for a roadside walk and heard the geese before I saw them. They were headed my way, in formation, on their way to their next feeding grounds. I started shooting, looking through the viewfinder, following them with the lens. After I loaded the images onto the computer, however, I noticed that some shots included unsightly utility wires, as shown in Figure 6-11.

Figure 6-11: Distracting wires, marring the shot's appeal

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The camera doesn't always reproduce faithfully what the eye sees. But Photoshop CS can help make your photos look like the real thing. Just take two pictures instead of one.

Sometimes, I need to take two pictures to tell one story. This often happens when I'm trying to recreate something that my eyes can see easily, but that camera limitations prevent me from reproducing photographically. In part, this is because our eyes see the world differently than cameras do. We can see deep, detailed shadows and brilliant highlights at the same time.

Our cameras, on the other hand, make us choose between capturing one or the other, but not both. This is why many people become frustrated with photography and remark, while showing a disappointing print to someone, "Well, it didn't look like that when I took the picture."

The adept digital photographer can overcome these limitations by taking two pictures of the same subject—exposing one for the light tones and the other for the dark tones—and then combining them in Photoshop 7 or CS. I use this technique all the time to create illustrations that more closely resemble what my eyes observed in real life.

For example, take another look at the image shown in Figure 6-13 (last seen in Chapter 1) of a Flare Buster arm attached to the hot shoe of a digital camera. In real life, my eyes could see detail both in the camera and on the LCD monitor. But in the studio, the image on the monitor faded considerably, because the flash I used to illuminate the black camera wiped out the image on the LCD.

Figure 6-13: The image on the LCD monitor faded because of the flash

So I turned off the flash and took a second picture, exposing only for the LCD monitor, as shown in Figure 6-14.

Figure 6-14: Second picture exposing only for the LCD monitor

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What works better than Visine for getting the red out? Photoshop's desaturating sponge is fast and effective, and it doesn't sting.

The ancients knew that red eye was caused from drinking too much Barolo, a wine so red it colored your teeth purple. We moderns like to think it has to do with dilated pupils looking directly at a camera whose flash is too close to the lens.

Of all the goodies Photoshop provides, it doesn't have one of those nifty automatic red-eye-removal tools, or at least there isn't one called out on the floating Tools palette. Instead, Photoshop gives you a more powerful tool: the desaturating sponge. This hack will show you how to use it.

Red eye is the reflection of the flash off the retina in the back of the eye. Typically, this happens in low-lighting situations, when the pupil is dilated. We want to neutralize the red retina, and let it go back to being the unilluminated body part it really is. That is, we want to lose all the color information, leaving it a dark, gray shadow.

But we don't want to lose any of those sparkling little highlights near it. Several generations of the Peale family became portrait painters who were famous for dotting the eyes of their subjects (such as George Washington) with a touch of titanium white, just to get the translucent effect of that catch light. Keep the tradition alive. Don't change the luminance; just change the color.

In any version of Photoshop, open the image that features your red-eyed subject. Click on the Sponge tool, and at the top of the contextual menu bar, choose Desaturate, as shown in Figure 6-16. Set the flow to 100% and pick a brush tip that's appropriate for the diameter of your subject's eyes. In the case of this little boy, 13 pixels seemed about right for the tip of the brush.

Figure 6-16:

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It seems like everyone wants whiter teeth these days. You might not have the time for peroxide-based solutions, but there's no need for such drastic measures anyway. This Photoshop hack takes only a few seconds and instantly removes years of stains.

Most teeth, by design, have a slight yellow cast. Add coffee, wine, tobacco, and a host of staining foods, and the smile isn't quite as bright as it could be. In everyday life, this isn't a major issue. But for special portraits, a warm, inviting smile is important. This Photoshop hack is so easy, you'll wonder why you never figured it out before. As long as you show a little restraint with the technique, the results look quite natural.

First, open your portrait in any version of Photoshop. I'll use Photoshop Elements for this illuminating exercise. Use your favorite tool to select the teeth. I usually start with the Magic Wand. Click on a middle-toned tooth with the wand and see what it selects. By holding down the Shift key, you can make another selection to add to the first one. At this point, I switch to the Lasso tool to clean things up. You can add to the existing selection by holding down the Shift key and lassoing more areas. Or, by holding down the Option key, you can deselect areas that you don't want affected by the upcoming adjustments.

Now it's time to remove some of that natural yellow tint. In Photoshop Elements, open the Hue/Saturation dialog box (Enhance→Adjust Color→Hue/Saturation). The path is a little different in Photoshop CS (Image→Adjustments→Hue/Saturation). Choose the Yellow channel from the Edit drop-down menu and move the indicator on the Saturation slider bar to the left, as shown in Figure 6-17. This will desaturate the Yellow channel—or, in English, get rid of the stain.

Figure 6-17: Desaturating the yellow tint in the Hue/Saturation dialog box

I've found that setting the Yellow channel to somewhere between -70 and -80 does the trick nicely. Once you've toned down the yellow, select Edit

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Photoshop CS includes a helpful Auto Color function. The problem is that it needs to be calibrated. Here's a calibration how-to that reveals the secret to fast color correction.

Our everyday world is a mishmash of lighting. We read at home by tungsten lamp, ride to work under overcast skies, and toil at the office beneath fluorescent tubes. We normally don't think about all these different lighting situations, because our eyes and brain automatically correct what we see. Our environment, at least in terms of lighting, appears relatively consistent.

This isn't the case for digital cameras. As wonderful as their little computer brains are, they're not as powerful as our human brains; they have a more difficult time rendering the world in a consistent light. As photographers, we can assist our digital cameras by taking care to set the white balance as accurately as possible. But even with our best efforts, we sometimes need to correct the color in postproduction, to render skin tones and the overall environment in the same light that our eyes perceive.

Color correction is one of the most difficult tasks in digital photography. You can spend a lot of time fiddling with it and still not get the results you want. This hack will change all that. By combining two handy functions in Photoshop CS, you can correct color quickly and accurately, enabling you to process an entire folder of images in short order.

The secret starts with opening the Curves dialog box (Image→Adjustments→Curves). Click the Options button to reveal a second dialog box. Enter the settings shown in Figure 6-19 and be sure to check the "Save as defaults" box. Click OK to close both dialog boxes, and save your image.

Figure 6-19: Setting your auto color defaults in the Options dialog box

Open another image from the same batch of photos. This time, choose the Auto Color function (Image→Adjustments

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You've taken great care to capture your subjects in the best light. But sometimes, artistic lighting accentuates facial lines. Here's how to soften them for a more natural look.

I know from experience that the best light for photographing people comes from the front. [Hack #43] discussed this technique in detail, and it's a lighting rule I follow most of the time—but not always.

Sometimes, I like the effect of illuminating from the side. Certain models have a personality that is better expressed by more dynamic lighting. The downside is that illumination from a side angle enhances texture. This byproduct doesn't thrill models when facial lines that weren't there before now appear.

So, how do I get my dynamic lighting and satisfy the model too? I could spend more time and money on equipment to produce just the right effect. But I'm cheap and like to work quickly. So I go with my instincts while shooting and use a little Photoshop magic afterward.

For example, I used only two lights to shoot the portrait in Figure 6-21: one from the front and a hair light from the top. We worked quickly and finished the entire session in less than 45 minutes. By shooting at this pace, the model stayed fresh and brought plenty of energy to the camera. If I had spent a lot of time fiddling with the equipment, I might have lost her interest.

Figure 6-21: A two-light portrait

I really like this shot, but the side lighting does the model injustice by accentuating facial lines. She doesn't look like that in real life. Normally, you don't see the smile lines on both sides of her mouth, but my lighting has created that effect.

Fortunately, this is an easy fix in Photoshop CS. I can use the Healing Brush to eliminate the lines and then apply the Fade control to make my fix look natural. Here's how it works:

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Built-in flashes on digital point and shoots sure are handy—that is, up to about eight feet. Here's how to brighten those dark areas when your flash runs out of juice before your subject does.

During the holidays and other social events, the setting is usually larger than our little flashes can cover. So, the people in the front of the scene get overexposed and the folks in the back fade to black. Thanks to a nifty tool in Photoshop called an overlay mask , you can correct this uneven treatment of your guests.

You can use Photoshop Elements or CS for this hack. I'll work in Elements this time around, just to show how powerful this entry-level image editor really is.

After opening your picture, open the Layers floating palette, found in the Window drop-down menu. Select Layer→New Layer. Choose Overlay from the Mode pop-up menu and set the opacity to 50%, as shown in Figure 6-23.

Figure 6-23: Adding an Overlay layer

Check your Tools palette to ensure that your foreground color is white and the background black. Then, click on the Gradient tool, as shown in Figure 6-24.

Figure 6-24: Choose the Gradient tool from the Tools palette

Use your Gradient tool to draw a black-and-white linear (rather than, say, radial) gradient straight up the image, from the brighter guys to the darker ones. Try to follow the flash falloff itself. You can begin your gradient off the image or in the middle of the image, wherever it works best. You can also redraw it until it's just right. It's just right when you have a dark mask over the bright area, fading evenly to white over the dark area. The image now looks much more evenly illuminated.

Click on the Background label in the Layers palette to highlight the background layer. Then, open the Levels dialog box (Enhance

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Combining the richness of color and the mood of B&W photography, you can create eye-catching artistic effects. And with the History Brush in Photoshop CS, it's easy.

I always shoot my original images in color, even if the sole purpose of the assignment is to deliver B&W prints. Why? Because when you shoot in high-resolution color, you have a full complement of options available later in Photoshop. For example, you can always convert a copy of the photo to B&W, keeping the color original intact. Or, as in this hack, you can mix the two formats.

For this assignment, I want the image to have the artistic feel of B&W photography. I'm also interested in playing with hand-coloring to produce an unusual effect. By shooting the original photo in full color, I can use a little Photoshop magic to combine these looks.

For my source image, I selected a night picture of the Port of San Francisco, as shown in Figure 6-26. The clock tower dominates the foreground, and you can see the Bay Bridge off in the distance. Even though I like this photo in full color, I see some creative possibilities that might emerge by playing with it a bit.

Figure 6-26: Full-color night shot of the Port of San Francisco

What I have in mind here is to desaturate the entire image, essentially converting it to a B&W photo. I chose to desaturate it instead of converting it to grayscale, because that way, I can retain all the RGB information. That information will provide me access to those channels later, when I'll be ready to return some color to the picture.

First, you convert the image to B&W by applying Image→Adjustments→Desaturate. In effect, you now have a B&W photo. Make whatever level adjustments you like to make the tones pleasing to your eye. Now, you're ready to start hand-coloring.

Choose History from the Window drop-down menu. This opens the History palette, which enables you to keep track of what's going on. Next, from the Tools palette, select the History Brush, as shown in Figure 6-27.

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Camera phones outsold regular digital cameras in 2003. According to the respected research firm IDC, that trend will probably continue. Camera phones are wildly popular in Japan, where they were introduced a few years ago, and the U.S. market has recently caught fire too.

It's true that camera-phone lenses and features leave much to be desired. But what they lack in quality they make up for in portability. The best camera is the one in your hand when something happens. And these days, the odds are good that a camera phone will be the one that gets the unexpected shot.

I've read stories about camera phones being used for everything, such as reporters monitoring election fraud in South Korea and real-estate agents forwarding pictures to their clients, helping them close deals quickly. Camera phones are infectious little devices that send the mind reeling with possibilities.

This chapter is designed to help you cope with the limitations of these tools while leveraging their unique advantages. For the time being, at least, we don't enjoy our digicams' resolution or features on camera phones. But progress is on the march. Texas Instruments, for example, has developed new processors that will lead to resolution as high as four megapixels on camera phones. Other chipmakers are also innovating. Indeed, this year, the U.S. and Europe will see some of the first-generation megapixel camera phones; some will even sport a flash.

In the meantime, I'll show you how to improve the images you take with your sub-megapixel model, including stitching together pictures to create bigger ones, capturing and editing video, and stirring your creative juices with a few fun tips.

Ansel Adams might not have used a camera phone to photograph "Moonrise, Hernandez," but I bet he would have loved to have one around when he was hanging out with Edward Weston.

The value of a photograph taken with a camera phone does not lie in its photographic quality. The value lies in the sense of immediacy and the knowledge that you are able to capture—and, indeed, share

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Camera phones outsold regular digital cameras in 2003. According to the respected research firm IDC, that trend will probably continue. Camera phones are wildly popular in Japan, where they were introduced a few years ago, and the U.S. market has recently caught fire too.

It's true that camera-phone lenses and features leave much to be desired. But what they lack in quality they make up for in portability. The best camera is the one in your hand when something happens. And these days, the odds are good that a camera phone will be the one that gets the unexpected shot.

I've read stories about camera phones being used for everything, such as reporters monitoring election fraud in South Korea and real-estate agents forwarding pictures to their clients, helping them close deals quickly. Camera phones are infectious little devices that send the mind reeling with possibilities.

This chapter is designed to help you cope with the limitations of these tools while leveraging their unique advantages. For the time being, at least, we don't enjoy our digicams' resolution or features on camera phones. But progress is on the march. Texas Instruments, for example, has developed new processors that will lead to resolution as high as four megapixels on camera phones. Other chipmakers are also innovating. Indeed, this year, the U.S. and Europe will see some of the first-generation megapixel camera phones; some will even sport a flash.

In the meantime, I'll show you how to improve the images you take with your sub-megapixel model, including stitching together pictures to create bigger ones, capturing and editing video, and stirring your creative juices with a few fun tips.

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Ansel Adams might not have used a camera phone to photograph "Moonrise, Hernandez," but I bet he would have loved to have one around when he was hanging out with Edward Weston.

The value of a photograph taken with a camera phone does not lie in its photographic quality. The value lies in the sense of immediacy and the knowledge that you are able to capture—and, indeed, share [Hack #77] —a moment in time that would have been lost had your camera phone not been with you.

Most of us who are not professional photographers do not carry cameras with us all the time. Many of us, however, take our mobile phones everywhere we go. We take photographs for their personal value. Photographs can let us relive a special moment time again and again. So, for many of us, the choice between a nonexistent six-megapixel image (because the digital SLR is home, safe and sound, in the file cabinet) and a small, slightly blurry picture from the camera phone is clear: pull out the camera phone! For example, I can show you the rainbow in Figure 7-1 only because I had a camera phone with me to capture it.

Figure 7-1: Camera-phone picture of a rainbow

Anyone who has played with taking pictures on a camera phone knows that it's not the same as regular digital photography, at least not yet. We're already seeing impressive improvements in camera-phone technology in Japan, and those improvements will soon spread across the globe. Until then, here are some of the main reasons why photographs taken with camera phones don't look quite as good as those taken with regular digital cameras.

Pixel resolution: Many camera phones still take pictures at 640 480 pixel resolution (0.33 megapixels). In printing terms, these dimensions translate to output that is 3" 4", before cropping. We're starting to see more camera phones with higher megapixel resolution, so if making prints is important to you, look for that specification in your next phone.

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Your desktop is your camera phone's photo lab. But before you can do any processing, you need to get your pictures into the computer.

Most camera phones store digital-photo files in their internal memory. This internal memory is generally limited to two to four megabytes. Some of this memory is reserved by the phone's operating system, and some is used for applications (including games) you install on the phone.

This means that your images share internal storage space with telephone numbers, addresses, calendar events, user-installed applications, and other system information. With my phone, I've found that this configuration has left me with enough space for only about 15 to 20 photo files. This is not an issue, though, on camera phones that support the use of Multi-Media Cards (MMCs) or Secure Digital (SD) cards for additional data storage.

At some point, you will want to copy the photo files from the camera phone to your computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) for safekeeping. This section shows five possible ways to achieve this task successfully. Note that most camera phones work with only a subset of these methods. Figure 7-5 illustrates how these file-transfer options work with your phone, PDA, and computer.

Figure 7-5: File-transfer options from camera phone to computer and PDA

Email photo files to yourself.: Check to see whether your mobile-phone service plan includes its own email account. The feature you're looking for might be called something like Multimedia Mail or Multimedia Send on the phone. After you send an email message (containing the JPEG image file) from your phone, the email server will store the message until you retrieve it on your personal computer. You should learn the file sizes of photos created by your camera and any storage limitations your email account might have. Also pay attention to any extra charges that might apply when you use this service. Be sure to test this procedure before you start deleting image files on your camera phone.

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Wireless photo transfer is one of the great advantages of camera phones. These tips will have you filling up your friends' phone mailboxes in short order.

Email might be the simplest way to get a photograph from your phone to somewhere else. It doesn't require a special cable, computer peripheral, or additional software. Only a few camera phones (mostly in the Smartphone category) allow additional file storage using MMC or SD cards. This means that if your phone has limited storage space or if you have installed a number of aftermarket applications that have their own data requirements, you'll fill up the phone's internal storage with just a few photos. Emailing your photo might be the only way to free up storage space on your phone if you do not have ready access to a desktop, notebook, or PDA to which you can offload the phone's photo files.

To make sure you do not incur any unexpected extra cost, you should check your mobile phone's service plan before transferring photos via email. Most mobile-phone service providers have a set of email and data services to choose from. If you plan on emailing photo files frequently from your camera phone, I recommend choosing an unlimited email or data plan. Generally, these plans are reasonably priced.

After you confirm that you can send photo files using email on your camera phone, the next step is to add email addresses to your phone's contacts list. You can create and edit contacts by using the phone's keypad. However, you might find it faster and easier to create the contact entries on your notebook or desktop PC and then synchronize the list with your camera phone.

Most camera phones come bundled with software to synchronize data with a Microsoft Windows system. If you use Mac OS X, check whether Apple iSync (https://www.apple.com/isync/) will allow you to synchronize your computer's address book with your camera phone. Linux users should investigate Wammu-Gammu GUI (https://www.cihar.com/gammu/wammu/) to see if it meets their needs.

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Who says that technology has taken the personality out of our communication? Use your camera phone to send messages in your own handwriting.

Regular text messaging with Short Messaging Service (SMS) lacks an element of personality. ASCII letters just don't possess the individual flair that handwritten notes convey. That personality was certainly part of the charm of passing notes in class as a child, in addition to the element of risk.

Today's camera phones don't pose much risk, but they can help you recapture the charm of handwritten notes. Say you're waiting for a plane in an airport and want to let your girlfriend know that you're thinking about her. You could send the following SMS text message: "Wish you were in the next seat! Miss you..." She would certainly appreciate that.

But if you used the camera phone to take a picture of a handwritten note, as shown in Figure 7-9, you'd put a big smile on her face.

Figure 7-9: A picture note in your own handwriting

The technique is quite easy. First, use your camera phone to take a picture of the handwritten note. Most camera phones give you the option of saving or sending right there on the spot. Find and click the Send button. You'll be prompted to address and, optionally, provide a subject for your note, as shown in Figure 7-10. Enter the destination phone number or select your friend from your contacts, hit the Send button, and your "handwritten" note is on its way.

Figure 7-10: Sending the MMS picture note

Once you start thinking about the possibilities of paper text messaging, you might even go so far as to keep a little pad of Post-it notes in your briefcase just for this purpose.

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A picture is worth a thousand words, especially if you don't speak the language.

A while back I ran a photo-tips contest via my weblog on the O'Reilly Network (https://www.oreillynet.com), and one of the winning entries caught my eye as a creative hack for this book.

The entrant, Phil Calvert, submitted this tip:

While traveling in Japan, I found a novel use for a digital camera. Most of the restaurants there have lifelike plastic displays of the food they serve. Since I couldn't speak Japanese, I just took a picture of what I wanted to eat and showed it to the waiter. He thought it was very funny, but I did get what I ordered.

Phil got me thinking. While traveling in a country where you don't speak or read the language, or at least not very well, why not use your camera phone for a variety of communication needs? You could even store a few standard icons in your phone's memory for when the occasion arises.

For example, a picture of a taxicab, as shown in Figure 7-11, could be quite useful when you'd like the restaurant's maitre d' to call for one to get you back to your hotel.

Figure 7-11: A handy photo of a taxi

Perhaps you could add a shot of money to ask "How much?" or an image of a plane to communicate airport, and don't forget a picture of your hotel, just in case you forget how to find it after a day's touring. The possibilities are endless. The main thing to remember is that pointing to a picture on your phone is much easier than fumbling with a language you don't know at all.

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Creating a home inventory and storing it in a safe place will make it easier to work with the insurance company at a time of loss.

A home inventory can make dealing with an insurance company much easier. And your camera phone is a convenient way to create and store this inventory. With a little preparation, you can canvass your entire residence in just an hour or so.

You'll need a stack of 3" 5" cards and a bold-tip felt marker. Carry out your inventory one room at a time. Daytime hours are best, because you'll have enough ambient light to record the objects without using flash. Many camera phones don't have flash, and for this job, it's just as well. Photographing shiny objects with a flash is difficult at best; it's hard to record detail in the lighter tones. Ambient light is less contrasty, which makes it better for this project.

Start with your first item and write the following information on a 3" 5" card:

Name of object
Serial number
Date purchased
Purchase price

Make your letters big and bold, as shown in Figure 7-12. Put the card next to the item and snap a picture.

Figure 7-12: A sample item in a home inventory

When you finish one room, move on to the next until you've completed the entire house. Then, upload your images to the computer [Hack #76] . You might want to give each image a filename that makes sense, such as bedroom_tv.jpg, bedroom_vase.jpg, bedroom_lamp.jpg, and so on.

A handy way to organize these images is to actually build a web photo gallery [Hack #50] and burn it to three CDs: one to keep at home for reference, one for easy-access backup at your office, and a final copy in a safe-deposit box or another secure location.

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A camera phone can help you prove that you didn't put those dents in a rental car. And if you do get in an accident, it can document what really happened.

As you've probably figured out, many camera-phone hacks are also appropriate for regular digital cameras. What makes your camera phone unique is that you probably have it with you in some odd situations, such as when you're renting a car or find yourself involved in a fender bender.

At most rental-car shops, an agency rep walks around the automobile with you before sending you off into the world. This is a great time to pull out your camera phone and photograph any scratches or dents he points out. Be sure to get his hand in the picture to make an identifying element that is unique to that car.

Then take a few more shots: one from the front, looking down one side of the car, and another from the back, looking up the other side. Be sure to get the license plate in at least one of these pictures. Also, get one full shot of the agency rep standing next to the automobile. Work quickly, so that you don't interfere with the regular flow of business.

When you return the car to the lot, take your basic photos again to prove that you returned it in good shape. Be sure to get at least one shot that shows where you are, and if there's an agent accepting the return, get him too. This documents that you returned the car in good shape.

Nobody likes being involved in a fender bender, but they happen all the time. After you've interacted with the other parties and exchanged insurance information, pull out your camera phone and snap a few pictures like the one in Figure 7-13.

Figure 7-13: Quick documentation of a fender bender

First, record the overall scene, including the placement of vehicles, damage incurred, debris in the roadway, skid marks, and anything else that looks important. Also try to photograph the point of impact, especially if one of the cars crossed a centerline or barrier.

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If a scene is just too big to fit in your little camera phone, shoot a series of images and stitch them together.

Have you ever photographed a breathtaking landscape or something extremely tall, such as a giant redwood or skyscraper, only to feel a little disappointed when looking at the image on the computer screen? The scale of the scene didn't survive the translation to the computer.

One reason is that the conventional camera has a monocular field of view, which is much smaller than the stereoscopic field of view that our two eyes provide. This issue is compounded by the camera phone's generally low resolution (sub-megapixel) and narrow depth of field; objects are not sharp, except for a narrow range of distance from the camera. You also might not be able to back up far enough to get a large vista or object entirely in a single frame.

One way to solve this problem is to photograph the scene or object in segments and then assemble the pieces into a single large image. The technique, called a panorama [Hack #19] , is pretty simple. Figure 7-14 shows three pictures stitched together into one.

Figure 7-14: A panorama created from three camera-phone images

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you're creating these types of images:

Decide which kind of panoramic image you want to create. The two most likely choices are horizontal and vertical.
Some digital cameras provide on-screen tools to help you line up stitched images as you're shooting them. Camera phones, however, do not have this feature. You can work around this by visually scanning the area you want to photograph and choosing visual segmentation points to help you line up the photographs and create assembly segments. The rule of thumb is to overlap each frame by 30%.

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Camera phones have added a colorful new dimension to the text-heavy world of weblogging. With photo moblogging, you can publish pictures to the Web directly from your phone.

If you want to share your latest cool camera-phone photo with a lot of people, you should investigate the world of photo moblogs .

The word blog is a contraction of web log and refers to a linear, journal-like, informal text-entry system. A moblog is a mobile blog that allows entries to be made from a wireless mobile device, such as a wireless phone or PDA. Moblog content can be text, audio recordings, photographs, or even video. Figure 7-18 shows an example of a photo moblog. This hack will focus on moblogs that can handle photographs and videos. Perhaps we should call these kinds of moblogs multimedia blogs, or mublogs?

Figure 7-18: A Textamerica photo moblog

Just as text-based blogs let you satisfy the urge to be a journalist or essayist, photo moblogs let you satisfy the urge to be a photojournalist or photo essayist. Photo-moblog web services let you send your camera-phone photographs directly to your own web site. You don't need to wait to get back to a desktop computer or buy an additional hardware peripheral. You will, however, need email service from your mobile-phone service provider.

A growing number of photo-moblog sites offer free accounts:

Buzznet (https://www.buzznet.com): Buzznet lets you participate in various kinds of communities based on themes, social groups, or geography. It can also syndicate your photos using Atom or RSS (Versions 0.91, 1.0, or 2.0). Another option creates a simple JavaScript source that you can embed on your web site to display the five most recent images posted to Buzznet.
Expressions (https://www.my-expressions.com

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No, you're not going to record camera-phone video of your son's entire graduation ceremony. But you might catch him receiving his diploma.

Some camera phones can record video as well as still images. However, various hardware factors often limit the video segments to just a few seconds. Here are some of the limitations of recording video with camera phones:

Not all video camera phones can record sound with the video.
The visible frame size is small.
The video clips are considerably more grainy and pixelated than video clips taken with still digital cameras that have video-recording capability.
The 3GPP (Third-Generation Partnership Project) file-storage format can be viewed but not readily edited by common video-editing applications. You can find more information about 3GPP at https://www.3gpp.org.
The maximum recording time for a video segment is usually measured in seconds. For example, the Nokia 3650 can record a maximum of 95 KB (about 15 seconds) of video with sound. My experience is that 10 seconds is the maximum clip duration.

A lot can happen in 10 seconds. The world's fastest human can run 100 meters, with a fraction of second to spare. Your child can scamper through a good portion of your home or yard. And don't forget that you can edit multiple clips together [Hack #56] to create several minutes of memorable video.

You can view 3GPP video natively using a number of desktop applications. Apple QuickTime (https://www.apple.com/quicktime/), Nokia Multimedia Player (https://www.nokia.com), and Real Video (https://www.real.com) are all capable of playing 3GPP video files.

Although viewing 3GPP files on a desktop is not a problem, you have to do a little preparation before you edit and splice the video files. Many video editors don't work with 3GPP files. However, you can work directly in QuickTime or convert the 3GPP video files to a more familiar format, such as Audio Video Interleaved (AVI). Let's cover the conversion process first and then touch on QuickTime.

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Smartphone color displays are higher in quality than the pictures captured by their built-in cameras. But what if you could view your high-resolution digicam images on your Smartphone's backlit display? You can!

We've established that camera phones don't take the world's best pictures. And they aren't adept at close-ups, low-light photography, or anything that requires a zoom lens. The irony is that their high-resolution screens are quite good for displaying images, and they are many times bigger than the little LCD monitor on your regular digital camera. So when you're on the go, why not use your Smartphone to show off the beautiful pictures you've just captured with your digicam?

With a little planning, there's no reason why you can't. Many Smartphones have memory-card slots that accept postage-stamp-sized Multi Media Cards (MMCs) and Secure Digital (SD) cards. These little cards are also popular with digital cameras.

I did a little testing with my Contax SL300R T* and a palmOne Treo 600 I had on loan. The Contax is a three-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss zoom lens; it captures beautiful images and stores them on an MMC or SD memory card. The Treo 600 includes a camera of its own, but the quality of the images leaves much to be desired. The 160 160-pixel CSTN backlit display, however, supports 4,096 colors and is truly brilliant. I was anxious to see how the images captured with the Carl Zeiss lens would look on the Treo.

First, I tested the compatibility of the memory card. I took a 256 MB SD card out of the Contax and inserted it in the top slot of the Treo. If you haven't used this feature before, be sure to remove the plastic placeholder before trying to insert the memory card. Right away, the Treo launches an application called Card Info that provides the vital specs of the SD card, as shown in Figure 7-22.

Figure 7-22: The Card Info screen on the Treo 600

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One of my favorite folk tales about the great color photographer Elliot Porter embraces the spirit of this chapter. On a beautiful day during his waning years, he asked to have his wheelchair rolled up to the top of the building and placed on its back so that he could hold a camera and shoot pictures of the clouds passing by. That's my kind of photographer.

Photography is a lifelong endeavor. In the hands of a seven-year-old, a camera provides us with a glimpse into their world. This journey continues as long as there is light and breath. Taking pictures is the ultimate hobby.

The following pages introduce you to new ways to capture images, shortcuts for managing them, and creative methods for sharing your vision with others. Peruse this chapter when you have a little time on the weekend to explore something new, or when you want to add a spark to your shooting prowess.

Regardless of age, taking a great picture is one of the best feelings in the world.

Beautiful, hardcover photo books were once reserved for published photographers. But thanks to print-on-demand technology, you can make one for less than the price of a memory card.

When I share my pictures with others, I use a variety of media to show off my work. The computer screen is a natural display, especially for digital slideshows. And colorful, 4" 6" prints are always welcome. But the one format that really lights up smiles is the hardbound picture book on glossy, archival paper. The first thing I typically hear when I hand such a book to a friend is, "You made this?"

Yes, I did. And you can too, easily. I first heard about these books from Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he debuted iPhoto, a digital shoebox for Mac OS X users. For a while, it seemed you'd have to borrow someone's Mac if you wanted to create these books. But not for long; Windows users can also now build their own printed masterpieces, and just as easily.

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One of my favorite folk tales about the great color photographer Elliot Porter embraces the spirit of this chapter. On a beautiful day during his waning years, he asked to have his wheelchair rolled up to the top of the building and placed on its back so that he could hold a camera and shoot pictures of the clouds passing by. That's my kind of photographer.

Photography is a lifelong endeavor. In the hands of a seven-year-old, a camera provides us with a glimpse into their world. This journey continues as long as there is light and breath. Taking pictures is the ultimate hobby.

The following pages introduce you to new ways to capture images, shortcuts for managing them, and creative methods for sharing your vision with others. Peruse this chapter when you have a little time on the weekend to explore something new, or when you want to add a spark to your shooting prowess.

Regardless of age, taking a great picture is one of the best feelings in the world.

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Beautiful, hardcover photo books were once reserved for published photographers. But thanks to print-on-demand technology, you can make one for less than the price of a memory card.

When I share my pictures with others, I use a variety of media to show off my work. The computer screen is a natural display, especially for digital slideshows. And colorful, 4" 6" prints are always welcome. But the one format that really lights up smiles is the hardbound picture book on glossy, archival paper. The first thing I typically hear when I hand such a book to a friend is, "You made this?"

Yes, I did. And you can too, easily. I first heard about these books from Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he debuted iPhoto, a digital shoebox for Mac OS X users. For a while, it seemed you'd have to borrow someone's Mac if you wanted to create these books. But not for long; Windows users can also now build their own printed masterpieces, and just as easily.

I want to give iPhoto (https://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/) its due here, because this digital-shoebox application has popularized hobbyist book production. You have to run Mac OS X to use it, and it's part of Apple's iLife suite of programs that includes iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, and GarageBand.

Making a book in iPhoto is easy. Create an album of pictures by selecting File→New Album and dragging images from your master iPhoto Library into it. Once you have all the pictures in the new album, arrange them in the order you want them presented in the book. The first photo will be the cover shot, and the sequence goes on from there. When you have the images in the desired order, click on the Book button, as shown in Figure 8-1. iPhoto will build a draft of the book for you in the default template, Picture Book. You also have other themes to choose from, such as Catalog or Storybook.

Figure 8-1: Building a picture book in iPhoto

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Create professional-looking greeting cards and even have them addressed and mailed for you.

We all get them, those wonderful holiday cards from our friends or family. They usually have a great candid shot, with a message printed right on the card. Now, it's your turn to impress friends and family with a holiday card printed from one of your digital snaps.

This hack will get you on your way to sending out your own holiday cards that are even fancier, putting you one step ahead of that pesky brother-in-law. There are two ways you can make cards: print them yourself on your inkjet printer or have a photofinisher do it for you. I'm going to focus on using an online photofinisher for a few reasons:

Time-effectiveness: The photofinisher handles all the headaches of proofing and output for you. You essentially upload one file and move on to the next item on your busy holiday task list.
Cost-effectiveness: Yes, by the time you factor in the outrageous cost of specialized inkjet printing paper, ink cartridges, and your time, it's cheaper to use a professional service.
Durability: Pro shops use a modern version of the traditional printing process. Your cards will hold up much better to adverse conditions than cards printed on an inkjet printer.

You might want to see which services your local photofinisher offers. Many photofinishers have great options for printing custom cards. If, however, you'd rather work online, there are many Internet services that let you customize your cards in myriad ways. Ofoto (https://www.ofoto.com), Snapfish (https://www.snapfish.com), ClubPhoto (https://www.clubphoto.com), and Shutterfly (https://www.shutterfly.com) are all worth checking out. Shutterfly is one of the leaders in online image printing, and for good reason. Using Shutterfly, you can create you own cards with plenty of options; they'll even mail them for you!

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Diaries enable us to document the big and little moments in life. And your pocket digital camera might be the greatest journaling tool of all.

Life moves so quickly. Before we know it, an entire year has raced by. Sometimes, we have difficulty remembering what we had for dinner last night, let alone what we did last month.

Keeping a diary helps give life perspective. Not only can we look back and appreciate the richness of our existence, but a diary can help us remember the specific dates that events happened. Many people don't want to take the time to explain, in words, the big and little moments as they occur. That's understandable. But our pocket digicams and camera phones can help us document our lives, and computers make organizing those images easy.

I'm going to walk you through an easy and effective way to keep a photo diary. Once you get a feel for the workflow and the types of tools you need, you can create a system that works better for you. Here are the necessary components:

Digital camera: You can use a pocket digicam, camera phone, or both. The key to a photo diary is having a camera available when events happen. It's not going to work if your only camera is a bulky digital SLR. In this case, portability is more important than image quality. Not only does your camera record the images of your life, it also captures when they happened. Every picture you take is timestamped. For this to work properly, be sure to set the correct date and time on your camera.
Digital shoebox: As you record the events of your life visually, you need a place to store the images. In this hack, I use Apple's iPhoto (https://www.apple.com/iphoto). I can upload my images, write comments about each one, and output the diary to paper, CD, or even a web site. Other great digital shoeboxes, such as Adobe Album (https://www.adobe.com

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You can photograph images of your television screen just as easily as any other subject, as long as you know the secret camera settings.

Your brain might forget that a television picture is really a series of scan lines moving faster than the eye can detect. But the camera isn't fooled so easily, and often, first attempts at capturing TV images result in mysterious black bars spanning the screen, as shown in Figure 8-12.

Figure 8-12: Television picture caught in mid scan

If you have a digital SLR or an advanced prosumer camera that has a Shutter Priority setting, all you have to do is set the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second to solve the problem. That exposure is long enough for the television to complete a full scan cycle and render a complete picture, as shown in Figure 8-13.

Figure 8-13: A complete picture of the television screen

But what if you don't have a Shutter Priority mode or some other way to set the shutter speed? Does that mean you're banned from television photography? Certainly not. You just have to get a little creative. Your success depends on fooling the camera into using a slow shutter speed. Here are a few tricks to accomplish this:

Set the ISO to the lowest setting, usually 50 or 100. This helps create a longer exposure, which is what you want.
Turn off the flash. It can't help you in any way with this type of photography.
Turn on the Spot Meter function, if your camera has one. That way, the camera will meter off the TV screen only and not be affected by ambient room light.
Mount the camera on a tripod to steady it during the exposure. The longer shutter speeds are good for preventing scan lines from the television, but they put you at risk for camera shake, which deteriorates sharpness.

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When a fax machine isn't handy but your digital camera is, you can still sign and return documents as if by fax magic.

Paper isn't going away, though there are days when I wish it would. A great example of such a time is when I receive a document in the mail that requires my signature and an immediate return fax. The signature part isn't usually a problem. But I often don't have a fax machine available. Fortunately, I always have my digital camera, which I can use to solve this problem.

Here's the basic procedure:

Sign the document.
Place it under an even light source and photograph it with a digital camera.
Upload the picture to your computer and open it in Photoshop.
Crop the image to standard document size.
Save the file as a PDF.
Attach the file to an email, with instructions on how to open and print it.

Once you get the hang of how to do this, your "digital-camera faxes" can actually look better than the output from half of the business fax machines being used today. But there are a few tricks you'll need to use along the way.

You want an accurate reproduction of the original document. With this technique, you'll be amazed at how good your "fax" will look. Follow this procedure to capture the image:

Place the document under an even light source, such as next to a north-facing window or beneath a desk lamp.
Put your digital camera in Close Up or Macro mode (look for the flower icon).
Adjust the white balance. If your camera has a Custom White Balance setting that reads the light and adjusts it accordingly, use that. Otherwise, use one of the presets, such as the Light Bulb preset for tungsten lighting.

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Dedicated slide scanners can be expensive and more than a little tedious to use. The digicam you already own might be your best bet for digitizing some of your favorite slides.

I have a lifetime of slides neatly tucked away in my closet, and I know it would take two lifetimes to properly clean, preview, scan, correct, and archive my legacy image collection. But wait! What about using a digicam to copy all those images?

Previously, the preferred method was to enslave yourself to an ergonomic chair in front of a dedicated slide copier that was connected to your computer. Nikon, Minolta, Microtek, and Polaroid all have competent units.

Inexpensive flatbeds with transparency units in the lid don't do nearly as good a job as the dedicated slide copiers. Agfa, Epson, and Microtek make more expensive flatbeds that do better. The inexpensive units are not only cumbersome and time-consuming. They also don't have the resolution for small formats, such as 35mm, nor do they capture the density range that can hide in a slide. You're really better off renting time on a dedicated slide scanner.

This brings us back to using a digicam for this project. Before getting too excited, let's examine some of the potential drawbacks:

Compressed density range: Most digicams (prosumer digital SLRs are the exception) capture 8-bit channels (the amount of image information recorded by the device). Even inexpensive scanners usually do better, and the best scanners capture 16 bits per channel. So, expect to lose some shadow and highlight detail, much as you would when you're copying film to film.
No inline image correction: There's nothing quite like scanning a faded slide and seeing it pop back to life with no scratches on your monitor. Many dedicated slide scanners have advanced software that analyzes the image and tries to fix its imperfections during the scanning process. That's not going to happen in your digicam. Expect to spend some time correcting color and cleaning up scratches.

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Digital cameras can take the guesswork out of film photography by allowing you to preview the composition and lighting before you make the film exposure.

One of the advantages of sticking with a camera brand—such as Canon, Nikon, Minolta, or Olympus—as you move from film to digital is that many of the accessories that work with your traditional SLR should be compatible with your prosumer or digital SLR. This benefit shines brightest when dealing with the challenges of flash photography with your film camera.

That's right; some of us still shoot film and will continue to for a long time. I prefer film for wedding photography, brightly lit landscape scenes, and any time I have to deliver a ton of prints that I don't want to edit in Photoshop. Heck, sometimes it's nice just to hand over the whole shoot to a photo lab and let them do the work.

One of the drawbacks of film photography is that you don't get to see how the picture turns out until it comes back from the lab. For important shoots, such as weddings, this causes great anxiety. To get around this problem, photographers sometimes use Polaroid cameras, or a Polaroid back on their film camera, to preview the exposure.

Actually, this technique works quite well. You expose the Polaroid, and if the shot looks okay, you use those same settings to expose the film. That way, everyone sleeps better at night.

The problem is that Polaroid film is messy, expensive, and not always accurate. Digital cameras are actually better proofing devices, as long as you spend a little time calibrating them first.

This brings us back to staying with the same brand name so that your accessories work on both your film and digital cameras. For the last couple years, I've been using a Canon EOS Elan 7 to shoot weddings. But for proofing, I also keep a Canon G2 digital camera in my bag. The G2 has the same hot shoe as the Elan 7 (see Figure 8-19), which means that it accepts the same external flashes. The Canon flashes behave the same way for the G2 as they do for the film-based Elan.

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With a little photographic wizardry, you can take pictures of your favorite animals at the zoo and eliminate the bars that stand between you.

Zoos and animal parks present great opportunities for wildlife shots that many of us would be unable to get otherwise. The problem is that we have to contend with those troublesome bars. Or do we? This hack shows how to set your images free; you can get great animal shots and eliminate the bars that cage them.

You can get rid of the bars, or minimize their impact on the photo, by taking advantage of the same shallow depth of field you use to blur the background in portrait shots [Hack #27] . However, in this case you want to blur the foreground. You need to open the aperture wide to make the depth of field shallow, with only the subject in focus, not the bars. Figure 8-20 shows the difference that changing the aperture can make.

Figure 8-20: Same shot at different apertures—f-4.5 and f-36

The easiest way to shoot with the aperture wide open is to put the camera in AV (Aperture Value or, as we refer to it, Aperture Priority ) mode so that you set the aperture while the camera picks the best shutter speed to obtain a good exposure. Once you're in AV mode, just set the aperture to as low a number as possible, such as f-2.8, f-3.5, f-4.5, or f-5.6. If your camera doesn't have an AV mode, give Portrait mode a try. This setting usually makes the camera favor a larger aperture.

The next thing to think about is your position in relation to the animal and the bars. The ideal situation is for you to be as close as (safely) possible to the bars while the animal is as far away from the bars as possible.

You also want to shoot perpendicular to the bars. The greater the angle you shoot at, the more of an impact the bars will have on the final photo, because their apparent spacing will become closer. Your camera's autofocus might not behave well, because it doesn't know if you want it to focus on the bars or the distant subject. If this happens, give manual focus a try.

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Chances are, you already have the tools to get close to your subjects, even if they have little beaks and are perched way across the yard.

Wildlife photos taken with consumer-level digital cameras are often disappointing. To get a better shot, you must inch forward slowly, hoping to get close to the animal, or have powerful optics that make it seem like you're closer than you really are. Since most birds won't tolerate you standing next to them while they peck at their dinner, most enthusiasts find themselves longing for telephoto camera lenses they can't afford.

To address this situation without maxing out the credit card, birders have turned to innovation. The most common hack is known as digiscoping. In its simplest form, digiscoping simply means using a spotting scope to zoom in on the subject and then holding the camera to the eyepiece to record the image.

Many consumer digital cameras have lens diameters that are similar in size to the lenses on birding scopes (or any other optical device), so they are a natural fit. Digiscoping can be used to get impressive, high-quality wildlife photos, to help prove and document what you've seen, or simply to give you a fun way to share and record your informal observations.

Never let the lens of your camera touch the lens of your other optics, such as your spotting scope. You want your camera and scope in alignment, but no kissing!

Surprisingly good results can sometimes be achieved by simply holding the camera up to the scope's eyepiece. This method is useful mainly when you have plenty of light (which gives you fast shutter speeds) and need to act fast. In lower-light situations, where shutter speeds are slower, your slight movements while holding the camera are magnified by the scope, which results in a soft picture. A variety of commercial brackets that allow you to focus the scope and then move the camera into place quickly are now coming to market, but they are pricey. Many people have had stunningly good success with homemade rigs.

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Once you've played a bit with panoramas, you might want to raise the bar and produce professional-quality images. Here are some secrets the pros use.

[Hack #19] discussed the basics of capturing photos to be stitched into panoramic images, including putting the camera on manual exposure, using a fixed white-balance setting, and maybe even using manual focus. One trick you might not be using to broaden your shots is turning the camera vertically. Though you'll have to take more shots to span the same 180° scene, you'll capture more height in your composition.

When positioning the camera, it's import to keep it level. If your horizon is flat, you can use it as a guide. Better yet, you can use a hot-shoe level [Hack #9] where your flash would normally go. Once the camera has been leveled, don't continue to fiddle with its alignment; you'll have a harder time stitching the images together on the computer.

One of the most important terms related to panoramic photography is parallax . Parallax is the very thing that gives humans depth perception, but it is the enemy of panoramic photography. Here is a demonstration of parallax. Hold your finger out at arm's length; first close one eye, then the other. You finger moves relative to objects in the background. This is how we perceive depth. Now, while your hand is still out, close one eye again and this time rotate your head. You notice that your finger still moves relative to the background. This is because you rotate your head around your neck rather than your eye. If you were able to rotate around your eye, your finger would not move relative to the background.

When taking panoramic photographs, your goal is the lack of a parallax when you rotate the camera. It's not really an issue if you are shooting a distant landscape without any foreground objects, but as objects get closer, minimizing the amount of parallax (known as the

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The moon is a fascinating photo subject, and with a little equipment and some experimentation, you can capture fantastic results.

The moon enhances the mood of evening landscape compositions [Hack #37] , but it's also a great subject unto itself. With a little additional equipment and some hacking technique, your digital camera can get up close and personal with our favorite celestial body.

This hack discusses two advanced techniques for taking pictures of the moon. The first focuses on adding telephoto-lens attachments to the front of your digital camera lens, or attaching a telephoto lens to your digital SLR. The second technique involves attaching your digital camera to the eyepiece of a telescope to really zoom in on lunar surface detail. But first, let's look at some standard lens attachments you can use for this project.

Job one is to use a lens with a focal length that is large enough to provide sufficient magnification. By doing so, the moon will be rendered as an acceptable size in your viewfinder.

When we discuss digital-camera lenses, we often use the so-called equivalent focal-length terminology, denoting the focal length (in millimeters) of a 35mm film-camera lens that has the same angle of view. For example, an Olympus C-3050 digicam might list its zoom lens as 7-21mm, but in film-camera terms, it's a 35-105mm equivalent. This means that the lens gives the same range of angles as a 35-105mm lens on a 35mm film camera.

To figure out how big the moon is going to look in your viewfinder, multiply the equivalent (or, in the case of a 35mm film camera, actual) focal length by 0.033 (or divide it by 30 for the same result). The result is the percentage of your frame the moon will fill vertically. Table 8-1 provides some of the more common focal lengths and their respective vertical-frame-fill percentage.

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You don't always need to have your finger on the shutter release to control your camera. You might prefer to click the mouse button instead.

One of the things people often overlook when comparing digital cameras is the software that comes bundled with them. Throughout this book, it's clear that I think Photoshop Elements or its big brother, Photoshop CS, is essential software for digital photographers. A bundled copy of Elements is certainly something to keep an eye peeled for when shopping for a camera.

Beyond that, however, many manufacturers also include their own software to enhance the value of their product. This hack introduces another of my favorite bundled applications: remote-control software. I'll be working in Canon's excellent RemoteCapture program, which comes free with their cameras, but Nikon offers Nikon Capture, Minolta has DiMAGE Capture, and other manufacturers make similar products that are equally compelling.

RemoteCapture allows you to think about your camera in a whole new way. Instead of always needing to join photographer and camera at the index finger, you can mount your camera on a tripod, connect its USB cable to your computer, and watch what it sees on your computer monitor, as shown in Figure 8-31. You can even adjust its controls right from your keyboard. When you have everything the way you want, click the mouse to take the picture.

Figure 8-31: RemoteCapture setup

One of my favorite uses for this setup is photographing birds and other local wildlife that are shy around humans. Using a laptop computer, I can mount the camera on a tripod close to a bird feeder and then watch the activity on my computer screen. With RemoteCapture, I can zoom the lens in and out, control the flash, adjust exposure compensation, and even change the white balance, as shown in Figure 8-32. Once I take the picture, it appears on my computer screen for review. Based on a quick review of the shot, I can make further adjustments and take another shot.

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Here's an easy way to let others know who's who in your group shots.

Most group shots are documented by listing the people in the photo from left to right. It's frustrating to count the names, then the people, to try to determine who's who. And, of course, people don't always stand in neat rows, as shown in Figure 8-33.

Figure 8-33: A family portrait without neat rows

Why not use your digital-editing abilities to make a handy photo key instead? Make a copy of the image and open it in Photoshop. Desaturate the image to simple black-and-white tones (Image→Adjustments→Desaturate), and then adjust the brightness and contrast (Image→Adjustments→Brightness/Contrast) until you have a ghost image of your photo.

Use the Text tool on the floating Tools palette to add labels to the image. Use a nice, bold font in a pleasing color to help separate the text from a busy image, as shown in Figure 8-34.

Figure 8-34: Digital labels to help identify who's who

Now, output your photo label and attach it to the back of the printed original, or place it online next to the original. Anyone looking at the photo will be able to scan the key quickly to match names to faces.

You can also use this method to point out landmarks on a landscape photo, or to indicate areas of interest.

—Terrie Miller

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What do you do when you have a whole folder full of vacation photos with weird, camera-generated filenames that don't make sense? This simple Windows XP hack will give them all more meaningful names.

Unless you really have a lot of time on your hands, I doubt you want to go through the massive folder that contains your European vacation photos and rename them Europe_1.jpg, Europe_2.jpg, and so on down the line. If you're running Windows XP on your computer, you don't have to do this. Simply apply this hack to quickly apply a meaningful label to every picture in the folder.

First, open the folder and select View→Thumbnails. Click on the last picture in the folder you want to rename, hold down the Shift key, and click on the first picture; this will select them all.

Right-click on the first photo and select Rename from the drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 8-35.

Figure 8-35: Choose Rename from the right-click menu

Windows XP will highlight the filename for the first photo, enabling you to give it a descriptive name. After you type in the name, click on the white space outside of the photo and watch as Windows applies the name with a sequential number to each picture in the folder, as shown in Figure 8-36.

Figure 8-36: An entire folder of renamed folders

This is a quick way to manage all of those photo filenames that seem to multiply on your computer's hard drive. To learn more tricks for organizing these files, see [Hack #49] .

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You can dramatically reduce image noise by taking multiple photos of the same scene and layering them in Photoshop.

One of the main draws for switching to a digital SLR from a point-and-shoot digicam is the silky-smooth pictures they take. Short of taking the plunge into the digital SLR market, what can you do to get images like that with your current camera?

The most basic step toward reducing noise in images is to use the lowest ISO the camera offers. You want to set the ISO manually rather than leaving it on automatic. Otherwise, the camera might sacrifice the best ISO setting for a faster shutter speed.

Another common technique is to use postprocessing software to reduce image noise while protecting detail in the photograph. Most applications are good at this, but you can't push noise reduction too far or you will notice some loss of detail.

Which brings us to the stacking technique: a noise-reduction approach that does wonders for reducing noise without any negative effect on image detail. How does this work and what is the catch? The catch is that it requires extra work on your part, both while you're shooting and during postprocessing, and you can use this technique only on certain types of scenes.

This technique is based on the fact that most camera noise is random noise. If you take the same shot over and over again, most of the noise will be different from shot to shot. While none of these shots is any less noisy than the others, if you merge them together, you get a much cleaner image, as shown in Figure 8-37. On the left, the original image has noticeable noise in the sky and water. By stacking five shots, I've dramatically reduced noise, as shown in the image on the right.

Figure 8-37: The original scene and the stacked image

If you're having trouble understanding why there will be less noise with these layered shots, think of a political poll. For one poll, I ask 100 people who they intend to vote for. Then, I conduct a second poll and ask 10,000 people who they will vote for. Odds are, the second poll will be more accurate because of the larger sampling. This is similar to the technique for stacking photos to reduce noise. With five stacked images, I have more information and therefore better results.

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