Great Ways To Improve Your Photography Skills

Photography is one of those sweet endeavors that allow you to delve as much or as little as you want into the finer points of the art. No matter what level you are at, you’ll find many tips and advice in this article to help increase your photography skills and enjoyment.

A great photography tip is to make sure you keep your batteries warm when you’re shooting in the cold. The cold tends to drain batteries very fast so you need to do whatever you can to keep them warm. Putting them in your pocket is an easy way to keep them warm.

If you have a love of photography but are having a hard time finding a photography buddy who shares your interest, considering joining a photography club. You can generally find a club in most cities, and they are a great way to share the joy of photography and to improve your skills.

Try limiting yourself to help expand your creativity. Lock your self in a room with a challenge to take 100 unique photos. Or stand in one spot and take 100 photos. These are great ways to help teach yourself to think outside the box. And who knows, you may take a masterpiece photo.

Keep your pictures relatively simple. A good image should be straightforward and easy to interpret and appreciate. It is important to take meaningful pictures, but in most cases your pictures will say more if you focus on a detail rather than put together a complex composition that might not strike people as much.

A great photography tip that can help you out is to learn as much as you can about your camera. Try to learn all of its functions so that you can easily select them on the fly. You don’t want to miss an opportunity by fiddling with your camera.

Try not use your camera’s red-eye reduction. This normally does a pre-flash that shrink’s the subject’s pupils to reduce the reflection. While this works, it also gives the person a warning and can either cause them to flinch when the actual photo is being taken or they’ll pose more for the photo. You’re better off using computer image editing software to edit out the red-eye later.

A good photography tip is to try and be helpful when you’re offering criticism. Don’t just tell someone that their photograph is nice, or that you like it. Tell them specifically what you like about it, and why you think it makes the photograph strong. The same goes for what you don’t like about the photograph.

It is important that you know how to properly hold a camera in order to take the best pictures possible. Holding the camera while you place your elbows on the side of your body can create more stability. If you are going to take a portrait shot, put the camera on your right hand and support it with your right.

At the beginning of this article, it was noted that whether you’re currently a beginner or a more advanced photographer, you can continue to learn new information that will help you enhance and refine your skills. Use the helpful pointers in this article to sharpen your skills and increase your abilities to take the best pictures possible.

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Being The Best Family Photographer You Can Be

Anyone can snap shots with a camera and be lucky enough to get a few decent pictures. There is much more of a process to taking a good picture than most people realize. If you are looking to take your photographic skills up a notch, see the following tips on how to improve.

A little bit of biblical wisdom can go a long way in photography, like doing unto others what you would have them do unto you – i.e. smile! You need to be happy when behind the camera if you’re shooting other people as a photographer. Your energy needs to be infectious. People need to feel that energy to relate it right back.

If you are taking photos on vacation of landmarks, reconsider putting the main subject of your photograph in the center of the shot. Often, you can get a better shot of the whole surroundings by just experimenting a bit with the view finder of the camera before pushing the button.

Be careful to capture natural smiles when you photograph people. Often people will put on an obviously fake smile when they know you are trying to get a photo. Assure that their face is relaxed, that the smile is not forced, and the eyes reflect genuine emotion. Take several shots until it is right.

Make use of lines to draw the viewer’s eye into the photograph. Lines can help provide a sense of depth to an image. If done correctly, the lines themselves can even be an interesting subject themselves. The use of lines in photography is a complex topic, but the main thing to consider is that they should draw you in, not push you away.

When learning photography, at some point you will need to have some kind of professional instruction. Self-teaching can only get you so far. If you are not taking a class on photography, try getting involved in the photography community. Talk to and ask professionals for advice; after all there are no better teachers in the field than actual photographers.

To get the perfect shot, you really need to pay close attention to the light. Find the main light source, examine your subject for unwanted shadows or blown-out highlights, and try to position your subject so that the light is flattering. Experiment with different light setups and angles to find the perfect lighting scenario for your shot.

Don’t be afraid to use a “digital darkroom” to touch up your photos. There are tons of image editing programs out there that will allow you to touch up color, reduce some blur, or add a filter to the photo. Some of the best photos were touched up using some kind of software.

While talent can be an important factor in taking excellent photographs, there is quite a bit of learned technique that goes into it as well. Learning the latest techniques on a decent camera and practicing them again and again, should bring up your confidence level. Understanding how to take great pictures can become much more rewarding.

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Camp in Comfort with Solar Power

Many people enjoy camping in the summer – getting away from technology and people for a while and experiencing the great outdoors. However, whether you camp in tents, or drive an RV, there are just some comforts, that you just feel better having if you’re camping for any length of time. For example, pumps for camp showers and washing camp dishes, or maybe an iPod dock for a little music around the campfire. Or maybe you want to supplement your RV’s power source, without running a noisy generator that you have to buy fuel for.

portable solar panelGreenbatteries.com carries a full line of portable solar panel options and solar battery chargers for your campsite, including the Powerfilm F15-3600 Foldable Solar Panel which would power a small RV refrigerator for a couple days, for example (a refrigerator takes around 35 watts) or power your small camp shower water pump. And if you’re camping somewhere where sun is abundant, your power source recharges itself.

So no matter how you camp, if you’re camping for any length of time, solar panels are a thing to consider. For more information on portable solar panels, solar battery chargers, solar powered ovens like the Sun Oven, please visit our site at www.greenbatteries.com.

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Maximize your Digital Camera Battery

If you’re an avid digital photographer, you’ve probably noticed considerable battery wear after shooting for more than a few hours.  Battery technology has advanced considerably in the last few years years, yet digital camera battery life time is still pretty short. It is very frustrating to find out you’re out of batteries as soon as you’ve found that great photo opportunity.

camera battery charger

Knowing which features consume the most energy from your digital camera battery will help you preserve the life of your camera battery.  We have a couple tips for saving you money on batteries, by making your digital camera batteries last longer.

1. Use rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries will continue to work much longer than alkaline batteries.  Then you can charge your battery (or batteries if you carry a reserve battery) whenever possible.  This is a great way to plan for battery consumption and anticipate when you’re going to need to swap out to your reserve battery.

2. Keep extra batteries with you at all times. Carry an extra battery if you are planning a long photo shoot, or planning to be away from your charger for very long.  Two batteries have twice the energy of one, and batteries are very small and light.   Carrying a reserve battery is really not a burden. One thing to remember when carrying an extra battery is to always make sure that it is fully charged – there is no use in carrying an empty battery!

3. Use less LCD. Though LCD monitors are great, make digital photography easier, and are one of the reasons digital photography is so fun, the LCD screen on your digital camera eats away at battery power.  If you want to conserve battery power, keep the LCD monitor use to a minimum.  This means shooting with the viewfinder, and minimizing playback or review.  Only use the LCD to view photos when you need to do so for the benefit of the next photos shooting – like checking your lighting, or composition.

With these three tips, you can maximize your digital camera battery life, so that you never run out of power when that perfect moment strikes.  At Greenbatteries.com we have a full selection of rechargeable lithium-ion digital camera batteries, guaranteed to meet or exceed the performance of your original camera battery, as well as digital camera battery chargers for your rechargeable digital camera batteries.  Find out more at www.greenbatteries.com.

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Cooking Risotto with the Power of the Sun

Did you know you can make almost anything using the power of the Sun?  Solar power can cook everything from chili to a warm fruit salad to scones using the SUN OVEN.  We love our solar powered oven here at Green Batteries and we thought we’d share some of our favorite Global SUN OVEN® recipes with our readers.

For the Vegetarians out there, we picked a risotto.  Traditionally, risotto is thought of as something difficult to make, but with the SUN OVEN, risotto is both easy and delicious!  This is a baked rice dish in the Italian style. If you cannot get fresh oregano and lovage, follow the substitutions for “winter risotto”.  (Recipe by Jennifer Stein Barker)

Serves 4:

  • 1-2/3 cups raw brown rice
  • 2 Tbsp. lentils
  • 1-1/2 cups chopped or ground tomatoes
  • 2-2/3 cups stock or water
  • 1 small onion, sliced thin
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small turnip, coarsely grated
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh oregano
  • 2 tsp. finely chopped fresh lovage leaf
  • dash Tabasco
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp. tamari

Winter Risotto:
for the fresh oregano and lovage, substitute:

  • 2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed or ground

Combine ingredients in a 2 liter or larger casserole. Stir to mix. Bake, covered, in your SUN OVEN until all liquid is absorbed. The rice and lentils should be tender (if not, add more liquid next time). When it is done, the herbs will be on the top. Stir everything together before serving.

Serve with a crusty bread and green salad.

Cooking with the Global SUN OVEN is a snap, and when you order your own, you get all the baking dishes you’ll need for solar powered baking, plus a CD with the best recipes.  Bake Boil or Steam without fuel – at 360° to 400° F with the power of the sun. You can prepare anything that can be baked in a conventional oven with no energy expense. Experience the superior taste, environmental and nutritional benefits of sun-baked foods.

Visit GreenBatteries.com to get a SUN OVEN of your own and take advantage of the Be Prepared for Anything Package! In addition view our selection of solar panels and solar battery chargers.

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Looking at Lead Acid Batteries

Lead-acid batteries were invented in 1859 by French physicist Gaston Planté, and are the oldest type of rechargeable battery. These batteries have a very low energy-to-weight and energy-to-volume ratio, yet their ability to supply high surge currents means that the cells maintain a fairly large power-to-weight ratio. Along with their low cost, these features make Lead-acid batteries attractive for use in cars and other motor vehicles to provide the high current required by starter motors.

Lead-acid batteries are not designed for deep discharge.  The best way to completely deplete a lead-acid battery is to deeply discharge the battery, and leave it standing.  Shallow cycling, as found in our glossary of battery terms, is the most beneficial for lead acid batteries.

Batteries should be monitored and periodically charged if in storage, to retain their capacity. If they’re intended to be stored, batteries should be fully charged, cleaned of corrosion deposits, and left in a cool dry environment. High temperatures increase the self discharge rate and plate corrosion. Lead-acid batteries must always be kept in a fully charged condition. The terminal voltage can be measured as an indication of state of charge. Batteries may be charged periodically by a constant voltage method, or attached to a “float” charger.

The ZTS Multi Lead Acid Battery Tester (MBT-LA2) provides a comprehensive means of testing the state of charge and battery condition many lead acid batteries. This tester quickly and easily identifies weak or failing lead-acid batteries.

At Green Batteries, we offer a wide array of rechargeable lead acid batteries and sealed lead acid battery chargers.  Along with sealed lead acid batteries, Green Batteries provides digital camera batterieslaptop batteriesNiMH batteries and more. For more information about rechargeable batteries and battery chargers, visit www.greenbatteries.com.

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Giant Batteries Pave the Way for Green Power

Green power is an unstable commodity. Photovoltaic plants rest at night, and wind turbines stand still when there are lulls in the wind.  This means that in the future there will be a need for intermediate storage of considerable amounts of environmentally friendly power. Experts are currently working on large-scale stationary storage facilities and substations centrally located in the grid and capable of buffering energy in megawatt quantities for low-current periods.

In the future, the growing amounts of solar and wind energy will need to be stored for dark or low-wind periods. One solution is redox flow batteries that can supply current for up to 2000 households. Several Fraunhofer Institutes are working jointly on these fluid batteries of the future.

The experts’ long-term goal is to build a handball-court-sized battery installation with a capacity of 20 MWh — enough energy to provide power to roughly 2000 households through a long winter’s night or a cloudy day.  Since last year, the Fraunhofer consortium has also been working on new membrane materials and battery designs in a cooperation project funded by the German federal ministry for the environment.

A 20-kW plant is scheduled to go into operation at the end of next year. The researchers hope to cross the megawatt threshold in roughly five years.

Green Batteries passionately believes in the responsible use of the various forms of our available energy. We are dedicated to providing helpful information – including the use of rechargeable batteries and battery chargers - to contribute in a small way to a more sustainable future for our planet.

For more information and to do your part in responsible energy use, please visit our site at www.greenbatteries.com

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Lithium-Ion Battery Could Be Perfect for Electric Cars

Scientists at the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Anaheim, California have reported a new lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery that could be perfect for the electric cars now appearing in auto dealer showrooms.

The 3-D Li-ion battery recharges in minutes, rather than hours, meaning electric cars can recharge as quickly as gas-powered vehicles “fill it up” at the pump.  The 3-D prototype is about the size of a cell phone battery, and takes approximately 12 minutes to recharge compared to two hours for a conventional lithium-ion battery.

Study leader Amy Prieto, Ph.D., noted:

“The time needed to recharge cell phones, laptops and other electronics products certainly can be an occasional nuisance. However, it certainly doesn’t keep anyone from buying these products. Recharge time may be a much more important factor for electric cars. You make a rest stop on the turnpike, and you want to recharge quickly, just like you fill-it-up at the gas pump. It’s going to take a new generation of batteries to do so, and we hope our 3-D battery is poised to be at the forefront. If our battery works to its potential, it could be the ideal battery for an electric car.”

Green Batteries passionately believes in the responsible use of the various forms of our available energy. We are dedicated to providing helpful information – including the use of rechargeable batteries and battery chargers - to contribute in a small way to a more sustainable future for our planet.

For more information and to do your part in responsible energy use, please visit our site at www.greenbatteries.com

 

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Renewable Energy for a Greener Planet

Close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies, says a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  From the IPCC’s press release:

120 researchers working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), indicate that the rising use of renewable energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas savings, working towards a goal of keeping the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.  That goal was outlined in the United Nations Climate Convention’s Cancun Agreements.

“With consistent climate and energy policy support, renewable energy sources can contribute substantially to human well-being by sustainably supplying energy and stabilizing the climate,” said Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair of Working Group III at the report launch.  ”However, the substantial increase of renewables is technically and politically very challenging,” he added.

Six types of renewable energies were reviewed with their potential deployment over the coming decades. The six renewable energy technologies reviewed were:

  • Bioenergy, including energy crops; forest, agricultural and livestock residues and so called second generation biofuels
  • Direct solar energy including photovoltaics and concentrating solar power
  • Geothermal energy, based on heat extraction from the Earth‘s interior
  • Hydropower, including run-of-river, in-stream or dam projects with reservoirs
  • Ocean energy, ranging from barrages to ocean currents and ones which harness temperature differences in the marine realm
  • Wind energy, including on- and offshore systems

The researchers have also studied the challenges linked to how renewable energy can be integrated into existing and future energy systems including electricity grids and likely cost benefits from these developments. While the scenarios arrive at a range of estimates, the overall conclusions are that renewables will take an increasing slice of the energy market.

While the report concludes that the proportion of renewable energy will likely increase even without enabling policies, past experience has shown that the largest increases come with concerted policy efforts. Though in some cases renewable energy technologies are already economically competitive, the production costs are currently often higher than market energy prices. However, if environmental impacts such as emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases were monetized and included in energy prices, more renewable energy technologies may become economically attractive.

Green Batteries passionately believes in the responsible use of the various forms of our available energy. We are dedicated to providing helpful information – including the use of rechargeable batteries and battery chargers - to contribute in a small way to a more sustainable future for our planet.

For more information and to do your part in responsible energy use, please visit our site at www.greenbatteries.com

 

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Battery Myths and Facts

We know it’s hard to sort through all the facts and fiction of rechargeable batteries, so we’ve decided to bust a few battery myths for you.

Myth:  Rechargeable batteries have a lower capacity than disposable alkaline batteries.

This is really a huge challenge for all of us because you can see companies everywhere advertising their “battery fact” as rated capacity and what they are really doing is perpetuating the “battery myth” that disposable batteries have a greater actual or available capacity than rechargeable batteries.

The actual or available capacity for a battery is way more important to actual usage but is also more complex to determine, because it really depends on what you are using the batteries for. (For more detail see battery terms page – “actual capacity”.)

For most high drain electronic devices, like digital cameras, rechargeable batteries will continue to work much longer than alkaline batteries. In fact, in devices like digital cameras, NiMH batteries will run on a single charge for 3-4 times as long as they would on an alkaline battery. Look at this chart of a brand name alkaline battery and a high capacity NiMH battery both set up in a computerized battery analyzer and subjected to a high drain rate of 500 mA.


You can see that the NiMH battery lasts WAY longer than the poor old alkaline battery when subjected to this high discharge rate.

Myth: Heavy Duty, Super Heavy Duty, High Capacity, Quick Charger, Rapid Charger, Ultra, Long Life, etc.

Since there are no real industry standards, many terms used by battery manufacturers have become misleading marketing hype.

“Heavy Duty” batteries are often the least powerful batteries you can buy and some “quick chargers” can take as long as seven hours to recharge a set of batteries!

I believe these terms didn’t start out as misleading. For example the term Heavy Duty battery was used to refer to Zinc chloride batteries which had about 50% more capacity than traditional carbon zinc batteries. But that was 50 years ago! Calling zinc chloride batteries heavy duty became misleading once alkaline batteries with 300% more capacity than zinc chloride batteries became available.

A similar situation happened with battery chargers. Originally NiCd battery chargers took anywhere from 12-24 hours to recharge NiCd cells. Later, chargers that could recharge NiCd cells in half that time were introduced. Unfortunately, calling these chargers “quick chargers” was a real disservice to the rechargeable battery industry. Anyone that purchased NiCd cells and a “Quick charger” only to realize later that a quick charge took seven hours must have been very disappointed. I know I was.

The good news is that it’s now possible to buy a battery charger that can recharge batteries in less than two hours, and in some cases even as fast as one hour or less!!

Myth:  Battery capacity ratings are meaningless when used to compare different types of batteries or to compare the capacity of batteries powering different types of devices.

This means that you may not be able to predict how long your electronic device will run just by looking at the capacity rating of a battery. For example AA alkaline batteries typically have a capacity rating of over 2,500 mAh and AA NiMH batteries have rated capacities of only 1,200 to 1,900 mAh. But when it comes to actually powering an electronic device like a digital camera, the NiMH batteries will often run the device for three or four times as long.

(for an explanation see Battery FAQ, Why do my alkaline batteries run out so fast?)

Unfortunately, even comparing the capacity ratings of similar types of batteries won’t always work because different manufacturers often measure battery capacity in slightly different ways.

Myth: Putting batteries in the freezer or refrigerator doesn’t necessarily prolong their life

Alkaline batteries stored at “room temperature” self discharge at a rate of less than two percent per year.  So normally refrigerating or freezing them will only help maintain their charge by a tiny amount.  Hardly worth the effort of chilling them.  However, if alkaline batteries are stored at higher temperatures they will start to lose capacity much quicker.  At 85 degrees F they only lose about 5% per year, but at 100 degrees they lose 25% per year.  So if you live in a very hot climate or are storing your batteries in a very hot location, it may be worthwhile for you to store your alkaline batteries in a refrigerator instead.

NiMH and NiCd batteries self discharge at a MUCH faster rate than alkaline batteries.  In fact, at “room temperature” (about 70 degrees F) NiMH and NiCD batteries will self discharge a few percent PER DAY.  Storing them at lower temperatures will slow their self discharge rate dramatically.  NiMH batteries stored at freezing will retain over 90% of their charge for  full month. So it might make sense to store them in a freezer.  If you do, it’s best to bring them back to room temperature before using them. Even if you don’t freeze your NiMH batteries after charging them, you should store them in a cool place to minimize their self discharge.

Green Batteries provides digital camera batterieslaptop batteries and NiMH batteries among others. For more information about rechargeable batteries and battery chargers please visit www.greenbatteries.com.

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