Susie H
Well-Known Member
Not sure if this is in the right place so apologies if our mods feel the need to move this.
I love looking at photo's of everyone's lovely work, but find myself irritated by blurred images.
I have been an amateur photographer for thirty five years and having finally got to grips with modern technology I thought I would pass on the simple rules and what to look out for.
Camera phones:
These are great for that sun set, your new car and your mates making idiots of them selves on a Saturday night. But for your nail critic or nail portfolio forget it.
Why?
Because you need a camera with optical zoom and macro.
Put simply, it had to be for ME to understand it, digital zoom, thats your 3,4,5 mega pixel, is like taking a picture and making it bigger on a photo copier, all that happens is the same number of pixels (dots that make up a photo) get bigger so the bigger they get the more blurred the shot.
Optical zoom, in effect adds more dots, so the closer you get the clearer the photo.
So to take good photo's of nails, flowers, drops of milk on a kittens whiskers, you need 3,4,5 x optical zoom. the higher the number the better the close up. Macro focus takes that one stage closer, think of it like the very center of your optical zoom being able to get smaller, like the pupil of your eye getting smaller when you shine light on it.
In the beginning use your auto focus and auto flash but try to take your photo's in good natural light rather then relying on the flash alone. This is because the flash light can give very harsh, hard black shadows which will distort your work, its shape and the colours you have used.
Some of our geeks take terrific photo's, and have had their work published.
We can all learn from them but you need to get your basics right first.
If you shop around you can find a decent digital camera for £100 to £150 and look out for special offers where you can find good camera's at half price. These turn up at the beginning of the sales and get snapped up very quickly. No pun intended.
I love looking at photo's of everyone's lovely work, but find myself irritated by blurred images.
I have been an amateur photographer for thirty five years and having finally got to grips with modern technology I thought I would pass on the simple rules and what to look out for.
Camera phones:
These are great for that sun set, your new car and your mates making idiots of them selves on a Saturday night. But for your nail critic or nail portfolio forget it.
Why?
Because you need a camera with optical zoom and macro.
Put simply, it had to be for ME to understand it, digital zoom, thats your 3,4,5 mega pixel, is like taking a picture and making it bigger on a photo copier, all that happens is the same number of pixels (dots that make up a photo) get bigger so the bigger they get the more blurred the shot.
Optical zoom, in effect adds more dots, so the closer you get the clearer the photo.
So to take good photo's of nails, flowers, drops of milk on a kittens whiskers, you need 3,4,5 x optical zoom. the higher the number the better the close up. Macro focus takes that one stage closer, think of it like the very center of your optical zoom being able to get smaller, like the pupil of your eye getting smaller when you shine light on it.
In the beginning use your auto focus and auto flash but try to take your photo's in good natural light rather then relying on the flash alone. This is because the flash light can give very harsh, hard black shadows which will distort your work, its shape and the colours you have used.
Some of our geeks take terrific photo's, and have had their work published.
We can all learn from them but you need to get your basics right first.
If you shop around you can find a decent digital camera for £100 to £150 and look out for special offers where you can find good camera's at half price. These turn up at the beginning of the sales and get snapped up very quickly. No pun intended.
