Photodoto.com is more popular than ever and we have you to thank for it. Thank you!
Did you know that you can subscribe to Photodoto? There are two subscription options. You can subscribe using a news reader like or . And you can also get Photodoto delivered directly to your inbox.
Email subscribers will only receive one email per day at most and none on days when we don’t write anything. Your email address will never be shared with anyone. You can subscribe from the sidebar under the “Subscribe” heading. Or from right here:
RSS feed:
Or enter your email address to have Photodoto sent directly to your inbox.
I toured Stonehenge in England some years ago. The photo I took in mid-afternoon lacked any of the mystery and drama usually associated with this prehistoric place of celebration. The picture you see was heavily modified in Photoshop. The once white clouds now give the perception of a gathering storm and daytime has been converted into something like night. I think this print now captures the spirit of the place as I had expected to find it.
I've uploaded this print to where it is available for purchase at a reasonable price. You can even order it framed!
Whether you’re feeling artistic or not, good composition is important for making images that resonate with viewers. Everything else being equal, poor composition can create an itch in a viewer—a subconscious and annoying one that can’t be scratched.
Composition in photography refers to the arrangement of elements in an image. Those elements can be subjects, foreground, background, and props. They can also be color, focus, and balance.
It can be a difficult concept to grasp which is why people invented “the rule of thirds.” Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Rule:
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting and design. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would. —
The theory is that aligning your subject along one of the lines or at an intersection makes a stronger composition. Let’s see how that works out in the example below:
Pretend you’re eight years old for a second. Now pretend you just got a photo in the mail from your new buddy in Finland.
Fantastic, right? Best mail ever!
Now here’s the secret: it’s still that much fun to get photos from around the world. And it’s super easy thanks to Postcrossing: send a postcard to somebody, and somebody sends you a postcard back. Collect photos from 175 countries without blowing all your airline miles! You can even request pictures of specific things.
Since you’re sending pictures anyway, why not use your own? Slip your prints into and put the whole shebang in the mail. Get out and document your favorite things about the place you live, or the people you see every day. They sure won’t have anything that cool on the postcard rack at the drugstore.
If you missed being eight, you’ll be glad you became a postcrosser.
(Thx, !)
— More ideas for turning your photos into postcards.
— Frame that photo before you send it!
— See postcards other people have gotten.
~ Fun contests to get you shooting! ~
Photo contest: (ends tomorrow)
Prize: 5 awesome
How to Enter: Take a photo of yourself or a friend making your most gruesome monster face, and .
Ideas contest:
Prize: The best ideas get published, a credit and bio in the book, and $100
How to Enter: Send your best project ideas (with a photo, if applicable) to .
Photo Art is the in thing right now. Urban Outfitters are selling Lomography cameras everywhere so keep your eye out for them. Ranging from £35 upward proves a arty steel so go and get one before they sell out.
To get some inspiration here are some display art I have found:
My D70, like most digital cameras, has a USB port that allows me to connect it to my computer and download photos. Many cameras also allow you to control them using your computer when they are connected. This is called tethered shooting. You click the shutter and a few seconds later the photo is displayed in all its glory on your big screen monitor. This can come in extremely handy in studio situations. It’s a great trick for quickly checking that you’re capturing the shots you want without squinting at a 2 or 3 inch LCD.
On a lark it occurred to me to do something goofy with my camera (more on that in a minute). On the way to crazy town I came up with a way to do basic tethered shooting on Linux.
Ever feel like your photos are getting lost on your hard drive or on Flickr? That the more photos you take, the harder it is to find the great ones, and the less special each becomes?
So do we.
So we’ve been working on something new called Photojojo Time Capsule, and we’re really excited to release it!
Every couple weeks, Time Capsule digs up your photos on Flickr from a year ago, choosing the ones that are most interesting (most views, comments, and faves), then sends them to you in a quick email.
We’ve been using it for a while, and it’s amazing how nostalgia-inducing it’s been to get a little time capsule every couple weeks. :)
Give it a try and make your photos special again. (Just 7.5 seconds to set up!)
Requires a Flickr account.
~ Fun contests to get you shooting! ~
Photo contest: (ends Friday)
Prize: 5 awesome
How to Enter: Take a photo of yourself or a friend making your most gruesome monster face, and .
Ideas contest:
Prize: The best ideas get published, a credit and bio in the book, and $100
How to Enter: Send your best project ideas (with a photo, if applicable) to .
Photo contest: (ends Friday)
Prize: Fully-stocked bar of boutique booze for the grand prize winner, from
How to Enter: Take a crazy/funny/weird photo, then .