Rich Photo Tips - Photography Resources Online

Resources

Nikon or Canon?

The debate will probably continue for decades. Many people choose one over the other purely due to lens compatibility. For example I will most likely buy a Nikon camera because my friend has one, so we can experiment with interchanging lenses, where as if I bought a Canon, I wouldn't be able to do this. Of course there are those firmly loyal to either brand and there is no clear winner as far as I can gather. If there is no incentive for either brand, try both out and see which features you like the best, which offers the best value for your application and get some advice from a couple of professional photographers who could probably recommend a camera based on your requirements. There are also some other fantastic brands creeping into the market, however Canon and Nikon are the main two and hence there are a lot more lenses and parts available for them both.

The two following websites have a good look at some of the options for each camera. Whilst the Nikon website is quite commercial, it has a thriving hub of users, and the Canon website has some great unbiased reviews and information on the various camera options.

www.nikonians.com -> a site all about Nikon cameras which is not affiliated with Nikon.
www.canonians.com -> same sort of thing for Canon, but less commercial

Selling Your Photos Online

Here is a great cheap resource that will give you an introduction to selling your photographs online. If you don't wish to spend any money, they also will give you a free ebook which covers digital camera basics.

Lenses

I could write a book on lenses. There are so many for's and against's for each lens choice, and it really depends on what you want to photograph. A good quality all round automatic zoom lens is a good start however you may like to purchase a large zoom lens, or an ultra wide angle lens for the really amazing shots that you expect to see in magazines. There are some non zooming lenses as well which are typically much cheaper however obviously suffer from the drawback that you must be the perfect distance from whatever you wish to photograph.

Generally you pay for what you get with lenses, and an expensive lens will give you superior crisp photos, whilst a cheaper lens will be limited in its resolution and application. One thing to note is that a lens is often the limiting reagent which it comes to photo clarity and not mega pixel count. Therefore don't buy a camera with a really high mega pixel count at the expense of a nice lens, as you will be taking a step backwards with the resulting quality of your pictures.

Filters

Your lens can be the most expensive part of a camera and you should therefore try and protect them at all costs. Many photographers will use a UV filter on the outside of the lens permanently simply for this reason - to protect the valuable lens from scratches dropping the lens etc etc. A Polaroid filter is also worth purchasing as it can be used to block out harsh glare from oceans. It will also give clouds much better definition as the light from the sky is polarised differently to light from clouds, and hence a Polaroid filter is able to block one out more than the other.

Photography Ebooks

Here is a comprehensive photography guide to help you refine your photography skills.

You might also want to learn about selling your photos to stock photo sites, magazines, travel websites and a number of other places.
As the above ebook will explain, there are a number of sites such as iStockPhoto.com where you can upload and sell your nice photos. This is the site I use to sell some of my stock quality pictures. Basically the way this works is you upload some trial photos and if they get accepted you can then start selling your pictures for 20% of the sale of each pic (which ranges from about $1 to $20 depending on the size of the picture downloaded. Once you sell over a certain number of photos - I think 250 downloads is the threshold - you can become exclusive to the company and get up to 40% per photo which is where the pros make some serious money.

You can also upload video and audio you have created. This is just one of dozens of similar sites. If you google stock photo sites you will find many others with various pros and cons. One word of advice, this is something which you will have to take up regularly as a long term project. Don't expect to upload a few pics and be a millionare next week =) Like any business, it takes time for your portfolio to grow and attract shoppers to your own style of photography.

More Photography Sites

The Aperture Light Website which is all about bringing the best photos out of you. It has a monthly photo competition with free entry.
Panoramio Website lets you overlay your photos on Google Earth for the whole world to see!

Digital SLR Tutorial

Ever wanted to get a simple introduction to using a digital SLR? Follow these lessons for improved pictures.

Photo Editing

Digital photos rarely turn out perfectly. Here are some photo editing tips to make your shots look like they are from a magazine!