Why Screen Protector For Your Digital Camera?

A screen protector is just a thin and transparent coating that sticks on the LCD screen for protection. It is usually pre-cut to the universal size for the cameras in the market.

The simplest reason you need a screen protector for your camera is to protect the LCD from scratches, smudges, liquids, finger prints, dusts and dirt. Do you know that the static on your camera LCD attracts dust and dirt? You can greatly reduce these disturbing materials once you get your LCD screen coated.

Also, do you know that this simple coating also reinforces the LCD against impact? This can highly prolong the life of your LCD. Unless you have a viewfinder on your digital camera, or else you will have to send your camera for repair or get a new one when your camera is spoiled.

Sometimes, when you are taking picture in the day, your polished LCD may become an annoying mirror that reflects the sunlight and made it difficult to frame your shot. Fortunately, most of the screen protectors nowadays come with the antiglare property and that will help to increase the visibility when you are photographing under very bright sun.

There are a few types of LCD screen protector and the most common of them is the film LCD protector which is most likely made from plastic. Although film protector can be cheaper than other screen protector, it is less durable than other protectors. Sometimes, it may need extra attention to be applied onto the screen to make sure that there is no air bubble.

Screen protectors nowadays are affordable and widely available online or offline. You can even get one with less than $10.

Then, how do you choose your screen protector?

1. Simple material that you can clean easily.

2. Easy to apply and no air bubble

3. Easy to remove and leave no residue after removal

4. It fits and sticks nicely on your digital camera LCD screen

5. Durable

I hope these tips are good enough to help you get a screen protector for your camera. :-)

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

10 Digital Photography Tips For You...

As a beginner in digital photography, you might find it challenging to take a satisfying picture. Look at the 10 tips below and you will be able to improve your digital photography with little effort.

1. Take vertical shots

People are so used to taking pictures in landscape format because the LCD was designed to be horizontal. So, it is now time to make some changes and start to take some pictures vertically. You will see a different perspective in your pictures.

Instead of just taking your pictures vertically and horizontally, you can tilt your digital camera in different angle to appreciate the different beauty of your subject.

2. Off the center

Again due to the landscape format of the LCD, a lot of people like to take the picture with their subject at the center. You can make your pictures more interesting by moving your subject to the side and include more background.

3. Create your own style

You can always refer to how other photographers take their pictures. You will see different people will have different preference in displaying their works and that is what you need to learn.

Use other photographers' works as a guide and develop your own style of photography.

4. Get inspire

Sometime you will be frustrated why you just seem to fail to get the picture up to your standard. When this happen, go look at other photographers work again. You can find these pictures easily online and one of my favorite is to read 'National Geographic'. They have splendid pictures and always impress me that you can take pictures in ways that you never imagine.

5. Subscribe

You can only learn so little things on your own. That is why you need to subscribe to our local photography magazine and study the current information about improving your photography skills.

You can also subscribe to other photographers newsletter online. Often, these newsletters are free and the photographers will share their some tips with you about photography.

6. Tripod

Some photographers tend to have shakier hands than others. When you have problem stabilizing your camera (sometime the anti-shake feature in the digital camera just doesn't perform as good as stated in the advertisement), a tripod is a handy partner to improve your digital photography skills.

Tripods nowadays are design to be light weight, easy to carry and most importantly price savvy.

7. Hold the camera properly

This tip is for those who, for some reasons have problem accessing a tripod.

You need to hold your camera with both hands where your right hand is use to press the shutter button and your left hand is to support the camera. And depending on the size of your camera, your left hand should be holding the camera entirely for compact digital camera (becareful not to block the flash) and supporting the lens for DSLR camera.

8. Flash

Never limit the flash of your digital camera (most digital cameras nowadays come with rechargeable batteries).

Sometime you are force to take picture with a light source at the back of your subject. When you safe the flash under these circumstances, your subjects will appear dull and shadowed. However, when you pop a flash at these moments, you will make your subjects livelier.

9. Select the best mode

Compact digital camera nowadays comes with different modes so that you can maximize the pleasure of digital photography without getting a DSLR camera.

You need to expose your pictures to different mode to get the best picture. For starter, you simply can't use the normal mode to capture your favorite football star in action. Very likely, you will get a blur image. You need to use the sports mode to get a more favorable picture.

10. Know the features

Your digital camera is your tool to a perfect picture. That is why you must understand your camera features and you can only do that by reading your manual.

I do understand manuals can be boring sometime. Still, you can only maximize your camera and get the ideal pictures when you know what your camera can do. So, spend sometime with your manual and you will have more fun with digital photography.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

7 Tips To Take Better Photograph...

1. Enter contest

Contests always have a theme to help you find your subject. It can help when you have no idea what you need to choose as your subject.

2. Visit zoo

Many animals are good subjects for your photography training. Visit the zoo with other photography fanatic and learn from them.

3. Plan

Think before you push that shutter button. Let's take the example of the zoo, do you want to take a sleeping tiger or an active tiger leaping for its lunch. I once saw a white tiger leaping from the pond for its lunch. The leaping tiger with water dripping from its body will make a marvelous picture however I was not expecting to see that and missed that shot which I still regret today.

4. Go beyond

Point and shoot is what beginner photographers are doing. When you want to show off your pictures, you need to take the picture with different angles and lighting.

5. Timing

You should learn to take pictures at different timing. You can only get morning dew at morning and different timing in a day will give different lighting to your picture. When you want to create the mysterious feeling of your picture, it is best that you take your picture at night.

6. Go online

There are a lot of inspirations online. Photographers are happy to share their experiences in their website or blog. You can even ask them questions when you need any photography tips.

7. Be prepare

When you want to take better photograph, you need to carry your camera wherever you go (you can also bring it to work if you don't mind). You will never know when a great shot will leap out.

There are more photography tips every where in your life. Just open your senses and you will find more tips to help you take better pictures.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

Digital Photography Tips – Tips For Taking Picture At Night

Do you like to take photo at night? However, the dark condition makes it difficult for you to work on your hobby. Take a look at the following tips and they might come to some help:

• If you have any outdoor light or flashlight, turn it on. It might not be much help but it is better than none
• Avoid direct lighting on your subject because this might make your subject become too bright on the picture. Try to shine the light above your subject so that the light can be diffused.
• Move closer to your subject instead of zooming in. This is because when you are near your subject, your camera lens is open and therefore allowing more light to goes into the subject. If you zoom in, you are increasing the ISO and the chances to get noise on your picture.

Pictures that you take at night will always have less detail than the pictures you take at day time. If you want to add some sense of mystery to your picture, try to do it at night. You can't get the same feel even you edit your picture with software.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

Be Innovative & Creative In Your Photography

I bet most of you have learnt about photography either in workshops or self-learning.

But what I want to highlight here is that photography is an art and you should be free in how you want to display your masterpiece.

A lot of photographers are frustrated what their picture is similar to someone else. The pictures don't seem to belong to him. To my personal opinion, you might be limiting your own potential by what you learnt or did before.

If you want to be creative in your photography, you need to let yourself loose. Can you capture the subject with a step back? You might block the extra light from ruining the picture. Can you put a black sheet behind your subject? It might make your subject stands out more.

There are a lot of possibilities to create an ideal picture. Feel free to do so today.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

Make Money With Digital Photography – DSLR or Compact Digital Camera

What do you think?

Well, it pretty much depends on the photo you want to sell.

If you are a photographer who follows the subject around like the wedding photographer, then you will need a DSLR cameras. They don't just take better photos, it also boosts your reputation in your customers.

Just imagine the wedding photographer you hire follows you around with a compact digital camera. What will you think of the photographer?

No matter how good his skills can be, you will still doubt his expertise and that might affect your chance to make money with digital photography.

Then, if you are starting small and sell photo online, you can choose a compact digital camera for the job. There are buyers who are looking for affordable and average quality picture to fulfill their needs.

Pictures taken from current compact digital cameras in the market will be able to help these customers.

But remember this, if you want to make more money with digital photography, do consider upgrading to DSLR camera. You can only charge higher price for your work if you produce high quality work.

And as a reminder, whether you choose a DSLR camera or compact digital camera for the job, sometime your pictures might not turn out as expected. Do some adjustments with photo editing software before you submit your work.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

Learn To Compromise

As someone who takes photo (I don't think I am a photographer because it sounds so professional & there is more for me to learn), I understand how desperately you want that perfect picture. I also understand how frustrating it can be that frame after frame you still fail to capture the essence of your subject.

But the hard truth is, there is something out there which deserves your attention too.

You will never know what you can achieve if you didn't move on. Sometime you need to learn to compromise with what you already have.

I know something is just not right to alter your picture with software but instead of wasting time and adding more stress to yourself, you are better off to work with what you have on hand. Maybe you can get the perfect picture you dream of the next time you try.

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)

What Is Digital Camera?

This post is going to be long. So, make sure that you are free to read this, or you can read part of it & come back again.

Have fun. :-)

As the name goes, digital camera is simply a camera that takes images digitally. And with the technology today, a digital camera can perform more than that:

• Record video with sound
• Playback your photograph on a screen
• Huge storage
• Delete unwanted photograph
• Transfer your photograph to PC or TV

Digital camera has come a long way before it developed to wide consumer camera today. It was designed to give navigation information for astronauts. During 1988, the Fuji DS-1P was considered as the first digital camera that record images in a computerized file. However, the camera was not confirmed to be marketed.

Digital cameras are classified into few categories and some of the popular cameras are:

Compact digital camera

Example: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5

Compact digital camera sometime is also call point and shoot camera. It is designed to be affordable, easy to use, portable and lightweight. Often, you can carry it with a small pouch instead of a backpack like the SLR or DSLR camera. And due to its design to be easy to use and cost effective, you will sacrifice much advanced features compare to the higher end digital cameras. Still if you need a camera for casual use, then compact digital camera will be your choice.

However, as technologies grow and become cheaper, manufacturers are able to build in more fun features into compact digital camera and one of them is the face detection feature.

Face detection is simply the technology to locate sizes of a number of faces. The technology only detects facial features and ignores other things. It used to detect only one face and again as technology improves, compact digital cameras nowadays come with multi-face detection feature which further enhance your photo snapping pleasure.

The face detection feature can be important to those who love to take pictures of people. What if you like to take sceneries than people? Then you might not use the face detection feature much.

Don't worry, compact digital camera manufacturer understand there are different user out there. That is why some manufacturers have built the wide angle lens into their compact digital camera.

The wide angle feature allows you to take in much wider angle of view so that you can capture more of the surroundings. You can then keep the subject in focus and make the picture more interesting with the background. And the smaller the number (in mm) of the lens, the wider view you can get.

By the way, if you love to snap pictures of big group of friends and family, having a wide angle compact digital camera can be very helpful.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 is among the compact digital camera that comes with the wide angle of 28mm which make photographing your favorite group of people fun and easy. You no longer need to stitch your picture or sacrifice anyone from the moment.

SLR like camera

Example: Sony Cyber-shot DSCH50

SLR (single lens reflex) like camera is also known as bridge digital camera. It is similar to DSLR camera but sometimes its lens is not interchangeable. Bridge digital camera fills the gap between high end DSLR and compact digital camera and hence the term "bridge".

SLR like camera was build for the intermediate photographer but some compact digital camera user would skip this category to save their money and go straight to DSLR. Some photographer however will start with SLR like camera rather than compact digital camera because they know that they will move into professional and they might as well prepare themselves for the future.

An SLR like camera is fun to have because it is similar to DSLR with the manual control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance. However, it might have smaller photosensor and lack the reflex system compare to the DSLR.

Since the SLR like camera lens is not interchangeable, manufacturer has built very large zoom range (including wide angle and telephoto) into the lens. But what if you want more zooming power than that?

Although the lens for SLR like camera is not interchangeable, you can actually get a secondary lens to increase the zoom capability. These secondary lenses can usually be screwed at the front of the lens directly or with an adapter tube. However, some photographers do comment that the DSLR produce better picture quality than the SLR like camera with secondary lens.

Another difference between the SLR like camera and DSLR is that SLR like camera uses electronic viewfinder (EVF) in oppose to optical viewfinder (OVF) in DLSR. The image you see with EVF is actually a digitally created through-the-lens (TTL) image. This then allows 100% previewing of the image compared to some DSLR that may not show you the 100%.

However, since the image is digitally created, you might experience lag time while taking your picture. This might then cause you to miss that only second to get the perfect picture.

DSLR camera

Example: Nikon D40

DSLR is a digital single lens reflex camera which uses reflective light from a mirror to project image to the eyepiece. It was created based on the film base SLR camera so now, you can take as many pictures as you like without worrying about your film cost.

DSLR camera offers photographers full control where you can control the aperture size, shutter speed, flash and more. With the help of these controls, you can very much decide how you want your picture to look like.

It also comes with a larger sensor compared to the other two digital cameras. Why larger sensors size you ask? That is to help you to get better quality and lower noise image in almost any lighting condition. If you have any experience with compact digital camera with dim light, you will wish that you will have a better camera. Even though some compact digital cameras do offer different condition, the end result still can't be compared to the DSLR camera.

What makes DSLR so superior in photography is the ability to change the lenses. Can your compact digital camera or bridge digital camera do that? Most likely not.

Now, there will be situations that you would like to take close up pictures but you can't. If you like photography and car race, you will understand what it means to have a far away shot of the racing cars. That is where telephoto lens comes in where you can zoom in so close that it looks like you are at the side of track.

If you like to take nature pictures, you will love the wide angle lens. You can take the whole mountain landscapes without sacrificing any part of the nature.

But with the ability to change the lenses, you are opening your DSLR to dust contamination. You might think that small dust in your camera is not harmful but think again. Even the smallest dust can affect the quality of your picture. Surely, you don't want to capture the once in a life time image only to find it is ruin by dust particles later.

When you want to clean your DSLR camera, you can remove the dust yourself or send it for service. Some DSLR camera manufacturers like Olympus have developed a dust removal system where a filter is created to protect dust from sticking to the image sensor. Then an ultrasonic vibration will remove the dust that rest on the filter and these dust will then be captured by the adhesive strip at the bottom of the filter.

As superior as DSLR camera may sound, some do comment that the camera is bulky, heavy and it will weight even more if you change the lens. Some also comment that the DSLR cost more than the SLR like camera and the lenses for DSLR is not cheap either.

You must agree that you ultimately want a great picture. It can be so great to brag about it to your grandchildren and to be frank, you can't get that kind of satisfaction with compact and SLR like digital camera.

You do need to invest some capital to get a sturdy piece of equipment. Then for the heavy lifting, just think that you are building your muscle while you are enjoying photography. :-)

Have fun photographing,

Michael Wong. :-)