The JustShowMeHowTo.com Digital Photography Blog

Create Your Own Life Posters and Collages

Ever wanted an easy way of making a photo collage or poster - combining a number of images into a single larger image that you can then easily print or share?

Here are two ways to do just that:

First, the manual way - Reed Hoffman from Blue Pixel has an interesting post about creating easy photo collages using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.  This method gives you all sorts of control on how your images are placed, what size they are, and which elements are emphasized.

But there's also an automated way to make posters that include lots of images (if you have a Mac, that is) - a piece of software called Posterino that takes an iPhoto album, places the pictures into a poster layout and then gives you some control over placement, size and cropping of the images.  It even outputs JPG and TIFF files, and interfaces with the Kodak print service from iPhoto. 

Posterino is currently in Beta and costs $19.95 (a $5.00 discount off the final release price).  A little steep for a Beta perhaps, but it is a very cool piece of software if this is what you're trying to do.

For tips on taking great pictures for your posters or collages, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

Photowalking with Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk

Noted blogger and photo enthusiast Robert Scoble has been making some fantastic videoblogs with photographer and Zooomr CEO Thomas Hawk called Photowalking.

In these v-blogs they go for a walk and we all learn a few things from Thomas.  They've been in pumpkin patches, in the city at night and even in front of Thomas's computer.

Entertaining and educational - check them out!

To learn more about how to take great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com.

Best Digital Camera Under $450 For Sports and Nature

A reader asked Popular Photography a pretty common question...

Q: I want to photograph sports and nature (especially landscapes and animals), and I want to spend under $450. Any compacts fit the bill?

Here are the criteria they set for that sort of picture taking:

A: A lot of great compact digital cameras cost $450 or less these days. But for sports and nature photography, you'll want a model that has a long zoom lens with at least an f/2.8 aperture at the wide end -- a must for existing-light photography and extended flash range.

PopPhoto's recommendations are the Kodak P712 and the Canon S3 IS and they ultimately come down in favor of the Kodak - read the full article for all their reasoning.

To learn more about taking great sports and nature pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

David Pogue on the Megapixel Myth

David Pogue of the New York Times has posted a very interesting Pogue's Post today about a megapixel-difference test he did as part of his new Discovery Networks series, It's All Geek to Me.

The gist - megapixels (at least when you have more than 5) don't make a noticeable difference in prints even as large as 16x24. 

Very interesting reading - as are the comments.

More on the Nikon D40 - $499?

The info keeps coming in on the D40.  There's an official ship date of December 1, and we've also heard from reliable sources that we can expect some retailers to have D40 kits at a $499 price before the holidays - that may be the best bang-for-the-buck camera deal of all time.

Here are more comments and reviews on the D40:

The New York Times comments on the D40's f/stop help.
Imaging Resource's D40 Preview.
Let's Go Digital's D40 Review - with images.

For tips on how to take great pictures and use your camera, check out www.justshowmehowto.com.

Nikon D40 DSLR Preview

Continuing our look at new Digital SLRs, here are some reviewers' takes on the new Nikon D40.  The D40 is the successor to the D50 as the entry level Nikon DSLR.  At $599 (list price) for the kit with an 18-55 lens it is a remarkable value for a camera with its featureset on Nikon's quality level.

Here are some reviewer thoughts:

From DPReview.com's hands-on preview of the Nikon D40:

On the plus side you get ISO 3200 equiv. (HI 1), the ever useful customizable Auto ISO, a larger viewfinder view, shorter shutter lag and viewfinder blackout, a larger LCD monitor, a considerably nicer user interface, SDHC support, a new image processing engine, unlimited JPEG continuous shooting, in-camera retouching (including D-Lighting) and of course a smaller and lighter body. It would not therefore be fair to describe the D40 as a 'dumbed down' D50, far from it, the range of improvements and new features out-weigh those which have been removed or reduce, which would most likely not be missed by the average D40 owner.

Ken Rockwell also has his look at the D40.  His conclusion seems pretty simple:

The D40 is designed for normal people who just want great pictures, and if that's you, I'd just get one and not worry about the rest of my details below.

Nikon has also put out the Speedlight SB-400 as a complementary flash to the D40.  External flashes are a great accessory if you're serious about your pictures, particularly portraits, so you may want to check it out as well.



For tips on taking great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com.

Try Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom Free

Apple and Adobe are duking it out with their new advanced digital workflow tools, Aperture and Lightroom (respectively).  Each offers powerful workflow and editing tools aimed at pro photographers and eager amateurs.

Apple's Aperture has been commercially released for about a year now, and has undergone some major facelifts and price reductions - and now Apple has made a 30-day free trial available.  Full functionality, just a 30-day limit.  This is an Apple product, so it's Mac OS X only.

Adobe's Lightroom is still in Beta but offers a lot of power and flexibility for digital workflow as well.  It's a free download for Windows and Mac OS X - but you're going to need a fair amount of horespower to run it.

This is a great opportunity to try out these powerful tools for free - give them a shot.

For tips on taking better pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

Comparing the Sony Alpha/Canon Rebel XTi/Nikon D80

In the last few months 3 major camera manufacturers have released their new digital SLR's - The Sony A100 Alpha, the Canon Digital Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80.

All of these are next-generation 10+ megapixel wonders, with dozens of features to help you take great pictures.

So which one is for you?  Let's read what a couple of respected reviewers had to say:

DPReview.com has their reviews of the Sony Alpha, Canon Digital Rebel XTi and Nikon D80 - all were "Highly Recommended" - their best rating - but each had different strengths and weaknesses.

DigitalReview.ca has this face-to-face-to-face showdown of the 3 cameras - they prefer the D80 over the other two.

CNET has a shootout between the Rebel XTi and the D80 - the D80 wins this one hands down.

 

Overall, the D80 seems to be the winner in most of these reviews, but the Rebel and Alpha are also great cameras.  If you're looking for a new DSLR, head down to a shop, pick up all of them and use them.  I've held all three and they're all very different to hold and shoot with, so find the one that's right for you!

For tips on taking great pictures, visit www.justshowmehowto.com!

Advanced Packing

Packing for travel with your photo gear is tricky enough for an average traveler - what if you did it for a living, around the world and across the country for weeks at a time?  You'd probably come up with some pretty good tips.

Jack Gruber is a sports photographer for USA Today, and this article has quite a few of those tricks.  For example:

Cheat Card
Have you ever gotten frustrated with a wallet full of frequent flier cards, notes with passwords, work FTP information, combination for locks, web URLS, phone numbers and addresses? Why not consolidate all that down to one document with the information reduced to credit card size. Laminate that card at Kinko's for $2.00 and stick it in your wallet.

It's a long article with lots of great links on everything from travel pants to laptop cases to satellite phones.  Check it out.

Courtesy of SportsShooter.com.

For more great tips on better pictures, check out www.justshowmehowto.com.

How Many Megapixels?

Ever wondered how many megapixels you need to print a high-quality 8x10?  How about a 12x14?  Here's the answer for you.

The good folks at Design215 have created a nifty megapixel requirements chart that covers every print size up to 18x27 (you need 44 megapixels for that one, BTW).  It also covers what their methodology was and what they consider true photo quality.

Happy printing!

Courtesy of Photojojo.

Want to learn how to take better pictures?  Check out www.justshowmehowto.com!