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4.08.2010

Monthly Photography Tip


This is the first of what is now going to be a monthly photography tip.

I have been thinking about this post for awhile. I do a photography series on my blog and I don't want to repeat things. I have come to the conclusion that some things are worth repeating and some are not. So it will be a little bit of both.

Do you have Photoshop? If you don't, do not fret. It is expensive and if you are not sure that you will use it, you might want to hold off for awhile. There are many FREE alternatives to photoshop, although photoshop is the best. If you want a program that is more advanced but free, look up Gimp. Do you just want to be able to crop, lighten or darken and turn things black and white? Then Google's Picasa will work great for you. Go here to download it for free.

Picasa will allow you to crop your photos, make collages, write on your photos, turn them black and white or sepia, as well as basic color fixes. It is a great program for those who don't have a lot of time or money to spend on their photography but want some control over how their pictures look.

After you get your photos the way you want, where do you print? I am obsessed with Shutterfly. Their prints always look great and if they don't, they will replace them. The problem? You have to pay for shipping and their prints can be pricey. I lessen that problem by buying their print plans. You can spend $20 and get 200 prints. Then you have a year to use them. Most of the time you can't beat 10 cents a print.

If you are still against shipping, I also LOVE Inkleys for prints, Costco is pretty good and Sam's club is adequate if you are not printing large format prints. I have had horrible luck with Sam's clubs 16x20s.


So now, I need to know what you guys want to know. Do you want tips for actually shooting pictures, tutorials on fixing them afterward? What would help you the most?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Tutorials for fixing them! Or maybe some tips on how to teach your husband to take good pictures so the pictures he takes of you look as good as the ones you take of him. ;)

I'm especially interested in fixing lighting issues, such as when the flash is a little bit too much.

Tyler and Ericka said...

Oh I love this!!! I have been really into taking pictures lately but don't have a fancy camera so probably fixing them up is the most useful for me, I love to play around with pictures on the computer so useful tips on that would be great! Even though tips for shooting them would be fun too, maybe alternate them? Anyways I'm excited to read future posts!!! thanks for doing this!

Evelyn said...

I appreciate that you are doing this! It seems to be a mom rite of passage to wield a camera so might as well learn how to take better pics, eh? Thanks for this!! Any and all tips are awesome! I'd like to hear what you think is a good starter camera and maybe a starter DSLR. Or even what a DSLR is...because sometimes I'm not even sure. Haha!