Click Your Way to a Photography Diploma with an Online Course

With a City & Guilds Diploma in Photography you can learn the skills and techniques of the professionals and take your interest in photography on to the next level.

Using today's modern cameras anyone can produce impressive results with relative ease, but if you want to go one step further and really learn how to get the most out of photography, a City & Guilds Photography Diploma is the ideal way to begin. City & Guilds courses are comprehensive and inexpensive, and lead to qualifications that are recognised throughout the industry, making them ideal if you're looking to begin a career in photography.

City & Guilds Diploma in PhotographyThere are two main City & Guilds Diplomas in Photography available:

*City and Guilds Basic Photography
*City and Guilds Black and White Photography

Each one can be studied through an online course, allowing you to work through your studies in whatever way suits you best, taking as long as you like to gain your diploma.

An online course gives you a degree of freedom in your studies that traditional teaching methods simply cannot match. With no need for lectures or classes you can pick and choose where and when you work, fitting the online course around your existing lifestyle.

Many City & Guilds Photography Diploma course providers offer extensive online support for their students, with the very best providing forums, tutor support and online learning resources.
Photography Diploma - Subjects CoveredAll City & Guilds Photography Diplomas provide extensive instruction in photographic equipment, professional techniques and the principles of composition. Some of the areas you'll learn about include:

-Camera and lenses
-Film, light and techniques
-Composition, picture design and presentation
-Final portfolio techniques

Taking a City & Guilds Diploma in Photography enables you to capitalise on your interest and develop a set of professional skills built on real practical knowledge. Whether you want to pursue a rewarding career in photography or just want to learn how to get the most from your hobby, gaining a City & Guilds Photography Diploma through an online course lets you fulfil your ambitions with the minimum of inconvenience and expense.

This article was written by Tony Head on behalf of ICS - the world's number 1 in home learning. Learn direct from home to get the qualifications you need to boost your career.

Visit http://www.icslearn.co.uk/creative-skills-leisure-courses/photography/ to find out more about the range of distance learning photography courses on offer.

By Anthony Head

Tips to Enjoy Digital Photography in Ten Different Ways

1.After you have purchased your camera look at it as an asset. This small digital camera is going to be more than just taking snaps. You are going to be able to capture more images than before as you are free to take as many photos now and it won't cost you a single cent more. This is going to enable you to gather all your memories to share with your loved ones for years to come.

2.When you are ready to take a shot of an image you want to remember to always keep still with elbows close to you for stability, and refocus the lens by gently pressing down on the trigger halfway before you actually take a shot to be able to avoid the lag time caused by shutter error.

3.You can organize your photos into groups and this should become a habit early on in your digital photography hobby. By using the photo organizer and photo sharing software that came with your camera you can now literally take random photos and put them into groups to share with loved ones at a later date.

4.Arrange to have your pictures in a file sharing software program so that it's easily accessed by others at a later date. Make sure you have password security enabled the service to protect your photos. You don't want anyone and everyone viewing them.

5.It is important to transfer all your photos immediate off the camera onto your pc or photo sharing service to prevent images lost due to malfunctioning of your camera if it does happen. Sometimes your camera could be lost on a holiday and you could loss all your precious memories too.

6.Unwanted photographs should be deleted off the camera. If you are photo sharing on a service it is important to delete bad snaps as this could eat into your hosting bandwidth and reduce your storage capacity.

7.While it is such a good idea to share photos now via email, make sure you only send two or three each time with an email. If this is a problem you can opt for a photo sharing option on one of the many sites available on the net and simply direct your friends to your photos online. One such site is Flickr. This way all your photos are in one safe place and can be viewed almost instantly by family and friends when you allow them to. The old way of emailing photos is slowly dying.

8.You can print your photos off using your own home printer and some good digital photographic paper or just go online and choose from a number of printing services which will do the job for a very small fee. Snapfish is one such service on the net.

9.Have you thought of having your own blog? There maybe a few people who may not know what a blog is. It is simply your online diary on the net where you can keep notes of what you do and share photos or any thing that maybe of interest to your audience. A handy way to keep in touch if you are traveling.

10.Once you have organised your photos in a logical manner you will find it a pleasure to go back to them from time to time and enjoy the memories. Your family and friends are always going to praise you for this memory sharing gesture of yours.

By Claude Fullinfaw

Claude Fullinfaw is a successful publisher of digital photography tips for beginners at Digital-Photography-For-Beginners

The Various Types of Aerial Photography

Aerial photography and aerial videography are a valuable art in todays society. We use the work of aerial photographers for more than simply beautiful photos. Aerial photographers and aerial videographers are used for such things as surveying sites, movie shots, business planning, magazines, city events and much much more. There are also numerous methods in which they take these awesome photographs.

Below we will discuss the various types of aerial photography and common uses for these photographs.

Kite Aerial Photography or KAP is a method that involves the flying of kites in conjunction with cameras to produce amazing sky shots. These sky shots are usually limited by the wind and weather but they are a low cost means to producing beautiful photos. Kite aerial photographers are not only resourceful in taking photos from the sky, they also have to be crafted at kite flying combined with a touch of physics to perform what they do.

Balloon aerial photography or BAP is a method that involves balloons to take their cameras high up in to the sky. Unlike kites, balloons aren't as disabled by the lack of wind, however too much wind may make this a challenge for the average balloon aerial photographer. This is a very great method in which it doesn't make a whole lot of noise and is what is considered "low-impact" on the area around them.

Helicopter aerial photography or HAP is photography using a helicopter to take photographs or video. The benefit of using a drivable vehicle is that it allows movement which is a great resource for the videographer. Aerial Videography is much like its photographic counterpart only as the name suggests it involves video instead of photos. By using a helicopter they can take shots from inside the vehicle providing excellent control and clarity of shots. The disadvantage is that this isn't what would be considered low-impact shooting.

Radio controlled aerial photography or RCAP as the name suggests is the method used to take photographs or video using remote controlled helicopters. This is a cost effective means, it is relatively low impact and gives the user control of almost any situation. Many different remote controlled aerial photography companies have popped-up all over the united states from Gresham, Beaverton, Clackamas and Portland Oregon to New York City, New Jersy New York and everywhere in between. It is a both fun and exciting means to take aerial shots allowing a full-sized SLR Camera to take flight.

No matter what method you decide to go as an aerial photographer, there are many means as which to go about taking beautiful sky shots in almost any terrain.

For information on a great Portland Oregon Aerial Photography Company in the Northwest visit http://www.nw-aero-pix.com They specialize in remote controlled aerial photography and videography across the country from Portland and Beaverton Oregon to Kansas City to New York.

By Gabriel Killian

Photography Tips For Newbies

This article explains a few things about photography, and if you're interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don't know, especially when you want to join some of forums and discussions about this topics, then this article will be useful for you more or less, in order for you to get some of new ideas from the discussions you have joined.

As there are so many photography novices are very concerns about their techniques to get good quality photographs. As we all know that there is no one who can be called the photograph expert, who could come to us and give some tips and techniques for novices like us, unless you pay a bit of money to join photograph school. What we are doing when we take photo graph is to find the best quality camera, and believe that that magic functions of the camera (as advertised) will help us to get good quality pictures without having other specific technique of photography.

In fact, this is quite true but just some part of the whole truth. We take photograph by ourselves only when it is informal occasions, such as when you are traveling to other places with your friends or take photographs during family part. However, in our life time, there are still so many occasions that need formal picture and may need a photograph professional to take care of this stuff, the example of there occasions are weeding ceremony or wedding reception, graduation ceremony etc. That is precisely why at most important occasions people hire the services of a professional photographer.

Therefore, we may need a professional for these occasions but in the mean time, the cost for hiring a professional photographer is very high and very difficult for someone who has very limited budget. So for many photograph newbies, then try to find photography tips in order to help them to get good quality pictures without paying fortune for professional. Here is some tips for you, which I have gather some of them for professionals that I have known recently.

Firstly, try to get everyone into the picture frame. It is the fact that sometimes when novice taking photograph, they did not ask everyone who want to take a picture included in the picture frame, then when the film is developed there is someone is not included in the picture and this is really ashamed. For you, as a beginner this mistake is usually happened, Therefore you have to make sure that you guide everyone to include themselves in the frame before taking a shot because they will never know until the photographer tell them.

Secondly, when you shooting outdoor, many of beginners have trouble with sunlight direction which really effect to the quality of picture. You have to make sure that you will not shooting directly with the sunlight, which will create the dark shade on the picture. You can see that there's practical value in learning more about photography. Can you think of ways to apply what's been covered so far.

Author: Sarn Anattar

Affordable Digital Cameras

Many of us look for digital cameras that can perform the tasks that we need while being priced at reasonable rates. The various digital cameras can be found in the high end market to the mid range and also cheap digital cameras. When you are looking for the affordable digital cameras that you need for your photographs you will find many different types of cheap digital cameras that you can buy.These different cheap cameras can be bought from a variety of camera stores.

The price range from some of these cameras can start at about $30 and go as high as $500. The various cameras that can you find in this cheap digital camera market also have well known brands like Nikon, Minolta, JVC, Kodak and Fuji. While these cheap digital cameras will lack some of the features that can be found in the high end digital cameras they can deliver good photographs.

You will need to look at these cheap digital cameras to see if they have the various items that you require. These features can be the various shooting modes that you will get from your digital camera. Underwater, foliage, indoor, portrait, automatic are just a few of the shooting modes that you can look for when you are selecting your cheap digital camera. Some cheap digital cameras will feature interesting effects like that of panorama stitching.

This facility allows you to take three different photographs. You can them merge these distinct photographs together to create a fantastic picture. The amount of megapixels may not be that important for everyone but they do allow you to receive sharp and well defined pictures. Since this is important for accurate and detailed photographs you should look for this information as you are going through the various types of cheap digital cameras that are available.

You can use various photography magazines and digital camera buyer’s guides to help you select the type of digital camera that is within your budget. You should have a clear idea of the various requirements that you need from your digital camera. This way you can choose the digital camera that has many types of shooting modes, evaluative metering and how well the optical lens will work.

Since there are many different models of affordable digital cameras you will need to know the various features and requirements that you need for taking a picture. Once you know these parameters you can start your hunt for the right type of cheap digital camera. With so many different brands and models of cheap digital cameras in the market you are sure to find your ideal digital camera.

Author: mike legg

A Good Advice When Trying to Win Photography Contests

Photography contests are organized by special institutions, colleges, clubs, not to mentions that bigger or smaller competitions can be found even on the Internet; these are the promoters for the constant developing in photography. The invention of the digital camera represented a revolution in the photo industry, it marked the beginning of a new era for all photographers.

Theoretically the only pure difference between a classical and a digital camera is the stocking medium. A classical device uses a film while digital alternatives use various memory cards. Most of the tricks a digital camera offers could be done before by a professional using a classical device.

The big advantage brought by technological development is that everybody can now do those tricks, you don't have to be a photography professor to get sharp and clear images because the camera will do the hard job for you. In photography contests anyone is welcome, from people who have been in the business for ten years as well as amateurs who bring their latest photos.

It's no doubt that a smart camera can't substitute a talented artist but it can definitely help a beginner to take decent pictures. Not all digital cameras are fully automatized there are still those who offer almost the same controls as the classical one does. These cameras are used only by those few true artists of photography, it would be like a joke to show up at photography contests with some fancy new device that can make a sharp picture in motion but comes with an optical zoom of 4x.

Another difference between classical and digital cameras is that the modern items need a much larger power supply for their new components like the LCD. Though in photography contests the autonomy of the camera is not discussed it is essential for any photograph to be able to take pictures as long a time as possible.

Another detail when speaking about digital cameras is the picture format, as the format is the way the camera stores the photo on a storing card. Formats differ in the amount of space they occupy as well as in quality.A good advice when trying to win photography contests is to always be natural, don't try to copy somebody's techniques. Try developing your own distinctive methods of taking pictures.

Another suggestion is to focus on the contest theme, if it is about nature don't go with a picture of your son just because you are proud of him. If you try to impress the jury with pictures that are not related to the contest idea you won't have the slightest chance to win.

Author: Muna wa Wanjiru

Photographing The Human Face - Minimizing Wrinkles

This is the first in a series of articles designed to improve your photography. Your job as a photographer (whether you're an amateur or professional) is simple. You have to make your subjects look as good as they've EVER looked without your tricks and techniques being obvious. That's a task easier said than done.

A number of repairs and improvements can be done in Photoshop, but unless you are a true master at retouching, it's hard to do too much without ruining the portrait. The more problems that you fix "in the camera" the better off you will be and the easier it will be to get seamless retouches.

Today let's talk about wrinkles and acne.

You won't have to do many portrait studies to realize your models all have a few traits in common. Your older subjects want to look younger, even if they don't say they do, and younger subjects want to minimize their acne. Let's face it, as we get older our wrinkles become more pronounced and actually deeper. Wrinkles are the first photographic signs of our age but they're a problem that is actually fairly easy to fix.

What defines a wrinkle? It's the shadows filling in the crevices. As we get older and those crevices get deeper, the shadows become darker and darker. How to get rid of wrinkles and take years off your photographic model?

Lessen the shadows.

If you have light that is glancing across the face from above or to the side of the subject, the deepest part of the wrinkle crevices are not getting any light and appear darker. This makes our model look older. Depending on the directionality and intensity of the light, this can add a lot of "visual" years to our subject.

To make your model look younger, have your light shining directly into their face. This way the light is able to get into the "bottom" of the wrinkle. The wrinkles are filled with light which lessens their shadow effect and the years drop off dramatically. The time spent in Photoshop does too!

Acne? Use the same cure. Acne scars, pimples and other facial blemishes are at least partially defined by the shadows they cast on the face. Again, light skimming the face from the side will cast longer and harder shadows thus making the acne scars more pronounced and pimples will appear larger. Shine your light directly into the face and they will be minimized or disappear altogether.

Use a reflector of some sort or even your on camera flash in addition to the sun to fill in the shadows. Your smooth faced teens and wrinkle free adults will thank you.

By Danny Eitreim

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in southern California for over 16 years. His data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that selling YOUR photography is easy - if you know a couple tried and true marketing strategies. He's created a multimedia presentation that can teach ANYONE how to sell their own photography and generate freelance income in as little as two weeks. To learn more and enroll in a FREE photo marketing course, go to: http://www.PartTimePhotography.com or http://www.FreelancePromo.com

Aerial Kite Photography - Nailing A Camera To The Sky

Ever flown a kite or taken a photograph? Well, that's most of us isn't it! No wonder aerial kite photography holds such a fascination for so many people. More correctly, it's known as Kite Aerial Photography, or KAP, which is less of a mouthful.

Some have theorized that it's part of our human nature to want to see things from the air. Consider the fact that aerial views of cities and landscapes were sketched or painted long before any flying machine was invented!

The hobby of aerial kite photography got started in earnest around the mid 1980s. However, the very first examples of such photos date back to not long after photography itself was invented. In 2007, KAP is more popular than ever. The subject matter varies widely, but buildings and landscapes are particularly popular.

Digital cameras are widely used in aerial kite photography. In fact, their use in KAP has pretty much stayed in step with their acceptance by the general public. Initially, the cheaper cameras just couldn't take a decent picture compared to a 35mm film camera. As we all know, that is not the case now! Some digitals are very small and light, which is an advantage for doing KAP.

At the cheapest end of the scale, disposable cameras combined with ice triggers and balsa wood cradles enable small, cheap kites to be used. On the other hand, this approach allows bigger kites to take pictures in very gentle breezes which wouldn't allow heavier gear to stay airborne.

Some enthusiasts are after quality at any cost. Hence, they spend many hundreds of dollars on high-end cameras, radio-control gear and special equipment to suspend it aloft with a minimum of movement. The R/C gear allows the camera to be panned around to get the best shots, and the shutter clicked on command.

Some Aerial Kite Photography Highlights

Here's just 3 of the more notable activities of these photo-artistic kite fliers:

A quite famous aerial photograph was taken from a kite in 1906, documenting the San Francisco earthquake. A KAP enthusiast named Scott Haefner did a re-shoot of this striking picture, close to its 100th anniversary.

A small group of experts known as Team Drachen made good use of some grant money by using KAP to document whale behavior. This took place at San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, in Mexico.
In November, 2002 a 360-degree panorama of the San Andreas Fault was created from KAP images.

The Equipment

You've probably gathered by now that this hobby requires a kite, a flying line, and a camera. It might come as a surprise to learn that the camera is usually suspended from the flying line, not the kite itself.

Although other types can and are used, flow-form kites are very popular in kite photography. With no spars and therefore no assembly required, you can just turn up somewhere and get your camera in the air immediately. These kites are convenient to transport as well, since they roll up into a small bag. Another advantage is that they are tolerant of quite strong winds.

Interestingly, zoom lenses are of little use in kite photography. In fact, people often try to cram more scenery into the field of view by using wide-angle lenses, even fish-eye lenses. Another popular technique is photo-stitching, where a number of images are combined into one super-wide panorama.

Accessories

A piece of gear commonly used by serious KAPers is the Picavet, an arrangement of lines and pulleys. Yes, it was invented by a Frenchman, in the early 20th century. However, it wasn't until the late 20th century that it was re-discovered and put to widespread use in KAP. It's purpose is to provide a stable and self-leveling platform for the camera, while suspended from the flying line. Some aerial photography enthusiasts add other devices such as vanes and porous sheets to reduce the movement and give even more opportunity for getting good pictures.

Finally, it's handy to know what the average wind strength is. With a little device called an anemometer or wind speed meter you can decide what kite and camera rig to put up. In stronger winds, it can help you decide whether to attempt flying at all. Kites and cameras can get lost when the flying line snaps!

By Tim Parish

Tim Parish and his family are rediscovering the joys of kite flying. They blog their kiting fun on their My-Best-Kite.com website, and also research the kiting world. This site will introduce you to many kinds of kites and kite flying activities, including Aerial Kite Photography of course!