It’s so easy to create something amazing with your pictures and share them in award-winning photo books, cards and stationary, prints, calendars, photo gifts and personal website. Picture the possibilities – all on one site.

• Free shipping on orders $30+ (Enter code SHIP30) valid 7/1 – 8/1
• Take up to 30% off Photo Books valid 7/15 – 7/26
• 20% off Notepads, notebooks, magnets, mouse pads, and Canvas Tote Bag valid 7/15 – 7/26
• Sign up with Shutterfly.com and receive 50 free prints!

Relive the stories of your life – big or small – with a professionally bound keepsake that you’ve personalized from cover to cover. A photo book is a unique way to remember the joy of an afternoon at the zoo, the accomplishments of school years past, and the family milestones of birthday bashes, reunions, and summer vacations. All it takes is your favorite pictures and an afternoon of fun.

Use these helpful tips to make your photo book easy and fun:

- A time saver: Select “auto-fill” to automatically fill your book with any unchecked pictures from your picture strip. You can then review and modify each page at your convenience.

This is an easy way to jump start the selection of pictures for your photo book. Now all you have to do is adjust a few and add your personal captions.

- Explore the possibilities: test different page backgrounds while you create your photo book by selecting alternative designs using the Background tab.

This way you can quickly see how to customize your photo book to suit your story. Go with bold stripes for birthdays, or textured colors for travel.

- Resize your books for gifts: Visit My Shutterfly, highlight the book you want to create in another size within the My Projects section and select “make a copy of your book in a different size” to easily convert your book. For example, change an 8×8 photo book to a 12×12 book, and vice versa.

This is a great way to choose the right size for the person you want to delight with the gift of your story.

Your first step should be to select the photo book size that’s right for your occasion–portable 4×4 brag books take about 30 minutes to create and are great mementos for Dad’s office, while 12×12 photo books can tell longer stories and will look perfect on your coffee table.

The Micro Four Thirds System 

The biggest attraction of any SLR camera system is the ability to change lenses. However, if the imaging plane (focal point) varies depending on the angle of view or focal length of each lens, it would not even be possible to focus the subject. To avoid this problem, the imaging plane of all interchangeable lenses is standardized by strictly specifying the length of the flange back, or the distance from the mount plane to the film/image sensor surface.

Digital SLR cameras incorporate more components between the lens and the image sensing material than film SLR cameras, such as the image stabilizer, dust reduction mechanism and low-pass filter. Also, since the viewfinder of an SLR camera requires a mirror box for viewing the real image, the flange back needs to be longer to accommodate the mirror box. Compact cameras do not use the mirror box, so don’t require a long flange back. These factors have made it difficult to design SLR cameras that are as slim and compact as compact cameras.

However, if a digital SLR camera can be designed to exclusively use Live View for shooting, the mirror box is no longer necessary and the camera can be designed with the kind of slim profile previously considered impossible, without compromising the high picture quality. For example, when an ultra-slim pancake lens is combined with the camera, it can be stored and taken out of the inner pocket of a jacket, allowing the user to benefit from the high picture quality of SLR with a higher degree of freedom.

The Micro Four Thirds System is a new standard based on combining Live View shooting with the Four Thirds System, freeing users from the viewfinder and moving closer to an optimum balance between picture quality and compact size. With the Micro Four Thirds System, more people will be able to enjoy the excitement of interchangeable lenses and system extension capabilities that only SLR photography can offer, while still benefiting from the convenience and high portability of ordinary fixed-lens compact cameras.

Read more @ Micro Four Thirds Standard.

More videos and info.

I signed up for the 2 week free trial. This is the best way to get most of your questions answered. No credit card required. You get complete access to all Zenfolio Premium features for 14 days including uploading full size photos (up to 1GB total with the trial). When you upgrade to a regular account, you will keep your site URL, all the uploaded photos, and account settings.

Some of the features that really convinced me to sign up for Zenfolio’s Premium service are:
Easy to use shopping cart designed for photographers
Zenfolio offers the most powerful and flexible Shopping Cart of its kind built from the ground up for photographers. The Cart features such innovations as ordering products from multiple labs, adding services such as mounting and framing, and precision cropping.

Your complete e-commerce solution
You can create Coupons, including percentage and amount based discounts. And you can review and download detailed sales reports compatible with any spreadsheet program.

Turn your passion into a business
You can create your own price lists and earn profit on selling your photos. There is a 12% service fee applied to profit only on orders fulfilled by our partner labs, this fee includes credit card transaction charges and customer service.

Offer for sale your own custom products
You can setup and offer for sale your own custom products. If you do your own printing, or use a local lab, this is the most flexible option. There is a 6% service fee charged on all custom orders and you will need to collect payment directly from your clients.

Customize pages by replacing Zenfolio name and URL
For additional customization, you can replace Zenfolio logo and links with your own name to make it look more personalized. Combine that with your own domain name, and this powerful option makes the site look completely yours.

*full overview of services

You can check out my Zenfolio page here.
And if you sign up, you can use my referral code: 4M5-136-HDE to save some money.

1. Rounded Corners
2. Crop an Image
3. Red Eye Removal
4. Change the size of an image
5. Reduce the file size of images”
[via Help for Linux]

Topics covered:
Introductions to Useful Modes and Settings on Your Digital Camera
Other Basic Camera Techniques
Camera Care and Maintenance
Composition Tips

Of course these Settings, Techniques and Rules for beginner camera owners just scratch the surface of all there is to learn about the art of photography. So, join DPS to get more free daily tips to help you keep improving and learning.

Then, it was printed in the International Herald Tribune, the Global Edition of the New York Times. I’d love to get my hands on a copy…

And because of this, I have been offered a freelance photographer contract for the New York Times.

Thank you, Cindy and Tara Parker Pope!

1) If you shoot macro or landscapes, a clean sensor is a must because dust will start to show even at f/8. As you stop further down to get more DOF, dust bunnies will become extremely obvious in your skies and light backgrounds.

2) What happens if the bulk of your shooting is wide open? Right, dust will not be noticeable, but then what happens if you decide one day to get into macro or landscape shooting? You now have a sensor that’s never been cleaned and I can tell you without a doubt that getting that sensor spic and span will take a lot of ’scrubbing”. Quite a few people have had to swab their sensors about 30 times to get it reasonably clean. It’s a lot easier to keep a regular cleaning regimen just in case you want to expand your photography someday.

3) A huge accumulation of dust (as in the case above) will cause a decrease in contrast, leading to dull images without any “pop”.

4) TIME & COST – Although Canon et al. cannot officially endorse any sensor cleaning tool, Chuck Westfall of Canon USA posted this in an Openphotographyforum in April, 2007: “Your camera’s low-pass filter can be cleaned by Canon Factory Service or an Authorized Service Facility for a nominal fee. But we would encourage you to explore the possibility of learning how to clean the filter safely on your own. If you’re successful, it will save you tons of time and money, and it will give you a lot of peace of mind. There are several effective cleaning methods, and each of them has its own group of supporters. I do not specifically recommend any single method over another, because all of them can be effective when executed properly. Thus, choosing a method becomes largely a matter of personal taste.” NOTE: Chuck then suggested a few websites to explore, one of which was this one.

5) You will read how effective or ineffective the current crop of dust-shakers perform, but there is another factor that works mightily against them – chamber lubricant. All Canon D-SLR’s are notorious for the over-the-top amount of lubricant that gets distributed on the sensor in the normal course of shooting. But it seems that more and more of the newer cams are copying Canon in this regard. We have heard and read many reports of this with the Nikon D3 and others. So even though the shakers can repel a lot of loose dust on the sensor, it’s a constant battle when the lubricant starts building up again and actually glues the dust-bunnies in place.”

[via Copper Hill Images]

AFTER

There is still that “hair,” although in a “better” spot, and a few minor specks. But for my first attempt I’m pretty happy.

I used Copper hill Images Sensor Cleaning tools & method.

Meant to fit the end of your SLR’s zoom lens, this guy has a secret cut-out on the side and a precision mirror assembly inside. In short, you can shoot left, right, up, or down (it swivels 360 degrees), all while appearing to shoot straight ahead.

The result? The picture-perfect candid shots you’ve always dreamed of.

You: 1 Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: 0″

[via photojojo.com]

Insert shameless self promotion here:


 

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