If you have ever wondered if there are digital photography secrets, the answer is YES!With traditional photography using an SLR camera you have to be exact with your framing, your lighting, your exposure time, in other words you really need to be an expert to produce good photography with an SLR.Digital photography is a little more lenient. While it always helps to start off with a fairly good image, with digital photography you can edit your picture to bring out the very best.Professional digital photography software, such as Photoshop, will let you do amazing things with your photos. Besides the basic fixes, you can be creative and try all different styles with your image. Photoshop is a great option if you can afford the software.But there are also many free tools for editing your photos, do a search online for “Photo Editing Tools” and you will come up with plenty of options. My favorite free editing tool is Picasa 3, not only does it provide you with the basic tools you need, it works great for organizing your images, and sharing them with friends and family too.Which ever editor you use, follow these 4 simple digital photography secrets.Straighten Your ImageAny good editor will provide you with an option to straighten your image. This is very critical as an off balance photo, unless it is intended to be that way, will have an amateur feel to it. You want your images to be as professional looking as possible, right? I have both Photoshop and Picasa 3, and I actually prefer the straightening tool in Picasa 3. It is very easy to use, and you do not lose any of the image the way you do when you use the straightening tool in Photoshop.Crop Your ImageNow that your image is straightened, if your picture is perfect, leave it alone! But if there is something you do not want in your image, crop it out! The focus of your picture should be on your subject, if there is too much activity around the subject, crop the image down so the focus is where you want it to be.Adjust Your ContrastAdjust the darkness/lightness of your digital photo. If you are using Picasa 3, open up your image, and an editing box will appear to the left. Click on “Auto Contrast” to see what kind of an effect it has on your image. If you find you do not like the effect, simply hit “Undo Auto Contrast”.Adjust Your ColorsSometimes the colors do not come out exactly as sharp and crisp as you would like them. You can do amazing things with editors to fix this problem too! Picasa 3 has a very simple “Auto Color” tool that can bring out the very best in your image.If you do choose to use Picasa 3 to edit your images, after you have gone through the 4 steps you need to save the changes you have made. To do this, click on the “Back to Library” button in the top left hand corner. Now look to the right side, and you will see a button “Save to Disk”. Click on that button, and all of your changes will be applied to your image. It is that simple!Picasa 3 has other great features for editing too. It offers a red-eye tool to remove those scary looking red-eyes from your image, and also a fill light tool for images that came out just a bit to dark.So now you know 4 digital photography secrets that will improve the quality of your digital photos. Give them a try and you will be amazed at how much better your photos will look!
Tag Archives: Photography
Learn How to Get More Entertainer Gigs
Get more gigs. Entertainers that know how to get their own gigs are in full control of their own destiny. Those who rely on agents or others to book their own gigs will always be at the mercy of someone else.I don’t know about you but I would always want to put my own future in my own hands. If you want to be a successful entertainer then no one is going to work at it harder than you. Learn to book your own gigs.It amazes me that a magician will spend $100′s of dollars on magic tricks and a guitar player has 4 very expensive guitars but neither one has invested even a $100 into a good looking business card. And I hope you noticed I said “INVESTED” into business cards not SPENT on business cards.I would also be willing to wager that the majority of entertainers spend 20 hours a week rehearsing either on their own or with their group but they won’t INVEST an hour a day on really going after the gigs. And I hope you noticed again that I said INVEST an hour a day not SPEND and hour a day on getting more gigs.SPENDING time and money means your time and money is gone forever. INVESTING time and money on promoting your talent could bring you results beyond your wildest dreams if you INVEST your time and money wisely.Building a successful career as a professional entertainer is no different that building a house. It takes time, money and a GOOD PLAN to consistently get more gigs.Have you ever heard the famous phrase ” Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door”? Well its not true. You could be the best juggler or singer in the world but if you don’t learn how to market and promote your skills, you will get the same result as the guy with the better mouse trap that no one knows about.INVESTING a little time and money into learning how to book your own gigs could very easily provide amazing returns on your investment.Going after gigs without being prepared can only lead to more frustration.I suggest spending 30-60 minutes each day learning how to position your self as a professional entertainer.Then I suggest that you invest at least another 30-60 minutes each day implementing some of the things you have learned.One of the most challenging parts for many new entertainers is deciding how much to charge for your services. In fact there are 7 main reasons entertainers do not get the gig. Having your act priced incorrectly is one of those 7 reasons. You are probably thinking of ways to cut your prices. Chances are you are prices are too LOW. Having the lowest priced act is not always a good thing, It is OK to charge more than the entertainers. Just offer more to your clients.It is important that as an entertainer you learn to think out of the box. Don’t follow all the other entertainers. You have to not only have a unique act but also a new slant on promoting your self. Study other entertainers and see how they are promoting them selves. What can you offer your clients that no one is offering?You are not only in the entertainer business you are also in the problem solving business. What problem does your act solve for your clients that no one else is able to solve the way you can?. Take some time and start thinking in that direction.What you put in is what you get out. Start investing some time into learning the business side of being an entertainer. Learn how to book your own gigs.Claude Haggerty