ie8 fix

Digital Cameras & Camcorders

Janice Chen
Home / News & Blogs / Digital Cameras & Camcorders

How-To Photograph Tips: Summer Edition Round-Up

By | June 4, 2010, 6:01am PDT

Summary: It’s finally summertime, so it’s time to break out that dusty digital SLR or point-and-shoot camera and hit the outdoors! There are plenty of lovely subjects to photograph outside, but sometimes there are some summery weather aspects that actually get in the way (i.e. bright sunlight).

It’s finally summertime! So it’s time to break out that dusty digital SLR or point-and-shoot camera and hit the outdoors. There are plenty of lovely subjects to photograph outside, but sometimes there are some summery weather aspects that actually get in the way (i.e. bright sunlight).

Here’s a round-up of some of our past how-to guides that could help while on your vacation photo shoots or at that Fourth of July barbecue:

And if none of the guides meet your needs, and you’re still looking for some extra advice when it comes to photography for summer activities, please let us know in the TalkBack section! We’d love to help!

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Digital Cameras & Camcorders”

Topics

SLR, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

Rachel started playing with her mother's old Brownie camera when she was just a toddler, working her way up from a Hello Kitty point-and-shoot to training on both film and digital SLRs.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
Ask a Question Start a Discussion
7
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

My Photo Backup Plan
fuzzman2000 6th Jun 2010
I save my pics on 2 computers and sort pics in separate directories.
I then burn to DVD(s). I always burn 2 DVD copies. It's a good Idea to backup backups. I also, verify that the DVD burns were successful on a computer other than the one the burning was completed on (I've seen burns appear successful on the pc where they were burned when they were really unsuccessful). If anyone chooses to do this, develop a labeling system and keep your DVDs organized or you will end up with an unorganized mess. For me, directory names are a good organization method. If I have a DVD where I will be burning multiple directories of pics, I also try to organize by time period such as a DVD containing directories from 2010. If I have enough pics from a specific category or time frame to span multiple discs, I will name the DVD something such as 2010 Vegas Pics Disc1 and 2010 Vegas Pics Disc2.
The point of all this is data builds up very quickly and if it can't be located when it is needed then it is useless.
Lastly I upload to my pics to the cloud.
Sometimes I also print my favorites.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
For goodness sake Back It Up!
dmclean@... 4th Jun 2010
It won't matter how good the pictures are if you don't have an effective backup plan. I've talked to quite a few people who just dump their pictures onto their hard drive. One bad power spike and Poof - all gone!
0 Votes
+ -
Backup
WindowWasher 4th Jun 2010
@dmclean@...

That would make an interesting article. How to back up photos.

Me? I copy them to the hard drive. From there they get backed up mnto an external USB hard drive. Additionally, I send them out to cloud storage (JungleDisk), and when the SD card fills up, I file it away and buy a new one for $10. So my pictures are on 4 different mediums, one of which is off-site.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: How-To Photograph Tips: Summer Edition Round-Up
dmclean@... 4th Jun 2010
@WindowWasher

My setup is similar except that:

1. CrashPlan instead of JungleDisk

2. Two external drives (main hard disk is cramped)

3. Can't afford to file SD cards - camera requires more expensive super high speed models and I use it for all of our home video now (eats space like there's no tomorrow).

I'm also considering putting them up on a photo service for family sharing (Google's Picasa Web, Kodak or RitzPix, for example)
0 Votes
+ -
For goodness sake Back It Up!
Cinnester 4th Jun 2010
@dmclean@...
you should look for the option to leave a copy on the camera. My Kodak allows that. then you can delete the pics off the camera once you have verified the pictures.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: How-To Photograph Tips: Summer Edition Round-Up
Regats 4th Jun 2010
Rachel,
Is that picture supposed to be a good example of a beach picture? Gray skies, brown water and sand, detail on the people black - details completely gone. This bright sunny day looks pretty downright gloomy.

Simple hint for better shadow detail in bright sunlight - when the subject is 6' or closer, use the flash to reduce harsh shadows or make the face brighter when the sun is at their back and you're metering for bright sunlight.
(Unfortunately, with the typical garbage point-&-shoot camera, this may be impossible to do.)
0 Votes
+ -
Print your photos...
BubbaJones_ 5th Jun 2010
Having prints one can save those memories by scanning the prints. Of course it will not be as good as a digital file on a memory card of HDD.

Many folks never print their digital photos. Then when their files become corrupt or their HDD goes South they lose their precious photos.

Yes, backups will help however, majority of folks never backup. They do not want to pay for an external drive, to them backup is to complicated, and the like. If they setup a backup, as my neighbor, they did it on a RAID. Hum, their local drive corrupted files going to the RAID and, being as it was a RAID 1, both RAID drives became corrupted. They were not happy-campers.

If the photos are important backup to separate drives and print your photos.
0 Votes
+ -
My Photo Backup Plan
fuzzman2000 6th Jun 2010
I save my pics on 2 computers and sort pics in separate directories.
I then burn to DVD(s). I always burn 2 DVD copies. It's a good Idea to backup backups. I also, verify that the DVD burns were successful on a computer other than the one the burning was completed on (I've seen burns appear successful on the pc where they were burned when they were really unsuccessful). If anyone chooses to do this, develop a labeling system and keep your DVDs organized or you will end up with an unorganized mess. For me, directory names are a good organization method. If I have a DVD where I will be burning multiple directories of pics, I also try to organize by time period such as a DVD containing directories from 2010. If I have enough pics from a specific category or time frame to span multiple discs, I will name the DVD something such as 2010 Vegas Pics Disc1 and 2010 Vegas Pics Disc2.
The point of all this is data builds up very quickly and if it can't be located when it is needed then it is useless.
Lastly I upload to my pics to the cloud.
Sometimes I also print my favorites.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix