I’m telling you this because there will be times when people will knock one of your photos, telling you it’s crap or something, but when that happens don’t take it personally. If they offer constructive criticism you may want to take it on board but if they’re just being negative just ignore them. The important thing is that you like the photo.

Take this photo of a couple of red Roma tomatoes. I’m sure that a lot of people won’t think too much of it, but I really like it.

I took this photo at season’s end because I liked the way the sunlight gave them an almost translucent effect. Even though a lot of the photo is out of focus, because of the shallow depth of field, you can still tell that the plants are on their final legs. These two were virtually the last fruits of the season. I also like the way the smoothness of the tomatoes contrast the roughness of the stake. I also like the way they seem to almost pop out of the photo.

Anyway, that’s how I feel about things. How about you guys, have you every had someone criticise your photo buy posted them anyway because you liked them?

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Let’s take a look first at the original photo.

Now, what say we turn it into a famous painting, say one that Van Gogh would have painted.

Or perhaps one by Cezanne?

Then again we could always use Benson for some inspiration.

Then again we could always use more of an Aquarel water style to our photo.

I don’t know about you but I like the way I can turn this photo into virtual works of art. What’s that, you want to know how I did it? Well, like I said at the beginning of the post, all you need is a Mac computer and an app called AutoPainter Express. Just go to your App Store and type that into the search bar, and the best thing is it will only set you back $8.99. That’s what I love about the Mac, the apps are so realistically priced.

There is an app that gives you a whole lot of other different effects, like this one;

but I think I will leave that for another post.

Oh, before I go, which picture is your favourite?

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Even so I reckon there may be many out there who still do not see the sense in manipulating photos preferring to leave them in their natural state. Truth be told there are probably many photos in your collection, or that you may take in future photo shoots, that could do with a little enhancement. This post is going to show you just one example of when this could be necessary. Let’s look at the original photo that I took while I was in LA.

Luckily for me I took my Lowepro Slingshot 200 All Weather Backpack on the trip which was indispensable for carrying all my photo equipment. While everybody was using their point and shoot cameras or their SLR which was equipped with a normal lens, I quickly swung my bag around and got out the telephoto lens. As you can see, due to the distance involved and the day itself, the photo came out a little washed out. Many would be happy with that accepting it for what it is. That may have been so pre digital times but these days you can do something about it.

This next photo is the one I enhanced using an older version of ACD Systems ACDCD70860WI Pro Photo Manager 3.0 Camera Software which sells for a little over $80. As you can see there is a marked improvement.

I then used PhotoShop Elements 8, the new version being Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9 (Win/Mac), and got the following result.

The first enhancement was done with one click of the mouse. The second one, using photoshop took three clicks but I personally think it gave a better result. What do you think?

One other thing, the problem with a lot of the software you get these days is that they usually don ‘t come with a manual which is why I recommend Photoshop Elements 9: The Missing Manual. If you want to see what I was up to while in the States you should check out Tips On Tipping & Other Things When In The USA and Back From L.A. With A Tip For Bloggers. While you’re at it you may want to subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any updates

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Let’s face it, centering the picture is pretty boring and this is accentuated by the fact that many people do it. Taking it from face on may not be the best angle either. Let’s look at some photos I took of a particular subject, in this instance The Sacred Hearts College Chapel which is found on Brighton Rd Somerton Park South Australia.

Rather than taking it from a distance I got closer to the subject giving the photo a different perspective.

I also tried taking it from a different angle giving me this shot.

I thought that the shadow of the palm tree spoiled the shot a little and other than coming back when the sun was in a different spot I walked back some getting the offending palm tree in the shot seeing if that improved the shot a little.

You could even focus on a particular part of a building to see if that would give you just the shot you are looking for.

The beauty about digital cameras, as I have mentioned on more than one occasion, is that it enables you to take a multitude of shots on any given subject, and seeing how this is the case it would be a waste not taking advantage of it. So, instead of just taking one shot of any given subject, take the time to experiment by taking it from different angles and you may be surprised on the outcome.

You may want to check out my Scenic Adelaide blog to see some other photos that I took of Sacred Heart College.

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Whilst I have purchased photos from them on more than one occasion this site is more than a multitude of the best photos you will find on the net, it is also a place for members to upload their photos and once accepted these very same photos may be purchased by others. So you see it’s also a place for photographers, professionals and amateurs alike, to make money form their photography.

Unfortunately, whilst I only had my point and shoot camera the quality of it’s photos were not of a high enough standard. That however is a thing of the past because I’ve just purchased my very own Canon EOS 550D Digital SLR. Alas, like I said earlier Dreamstime only accept photos of the highest standards, so while my Canon is capable of 18MP photos, it seems that my photographic ability is somewhat lacking, but I don’t mind because every time I get rejected it’s forcing me to improve the quality of my shots.

I’ve learned a few things along the way and I know for a fact there is a lot more to learn. Take this photo for example.

I uploaded a series of photos of Adelaide by night which I took from across the River Torrens. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do, as was explained in an email.

As for the submission of the entire series – it is highly recommended that you do the selection yourself and only upload the best image of a series, provided that they are so similar. In the case of your series none of the images is acceptable and this is why one was refused with a more detailed explanation and the rest – for similarity. Your other images suffer either from the same problems or have very prominent
noise. At this point, given the problems with the images, you cannot resubmit either of them.

OK, so I bummed out. The email also went to say that the photos were ‘over filtered’ which I don’t understand because there wasn’t any filtering or editing of any of the pictures. They did suggest though that I take the photos at an earlier time so that there would be more light and not so many black areas. Oh well, I still like the photo.

Another thing you have to remember is not to upload any photos that have trademarks of any kind as these would also be rejected.

One thing I don’t understand about this mob is that when a photo is rejected they tell you what’s wrong with the photo so that you can fix the errors and resubmit it. So I took the photo again paying attention to what was required only to find out that it was rejected because I didn’t upload the same photo with the errors fixed? WTF? If they tell me that the composition was wrong or that the photo was out of focus how can I fix those errors without taking another photo.

Another thing that has me mystified is that on several occasions they’ve told me that my ‘white balance’ was incorrect. I don’t see how they can tell when they don’t know the actual color of the subject. Besides I’ve always left the auto white balance on, so does that mean that I shouldn’t use the auto white balance feature?

While frustrating I’m still going to persevere with them because I see it as being only a matter of time before my photography improves and I finally start making a bit of money from my hobby.

If you think your photos are of a good standard then perhaps you should consider joining Dreamstime so that you can make a bit of extra cash on the side.

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