The plants are still alive.... Digital photoshoot of a cemetary

^[update]Today's flash units are often electronic xenon flash lamps. An electronic flash contains a tube filled with xenon gas, where electricity of high voltage is discharged to generate an electrical arc that emits a short flash of light. (A typical duration of the light impulse is 1/1000 second.) As of 2003, the majority of cameras targeted for consumer use have an electronic flash unit built in.

"Watercolors" - digital photos

Flash units are commonly built directly into the camera. In addition, many cameras allow separate flash units to be mounted via a standardized accessory mount bracket often called a " hot shoe". In professional studio photography, flashes often take the form of large, standalone units, or studio strobes, that are powered by either special battery packs or connected directly to the mains and synchronized with the camera from either a flash synchronization cable, radio transmitter, or are light-triggered, meaning that only one flash unit needs to be synchronized with the camera, which in turn triggers the other units.

Digital photos - "Watercolours"

A flash (typically around 1/1000 to 1/200 of a second) is a device used in photography that produces an instantaneous flash of artificial light at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. While flashes can be used for a variety of reasons (e.g., capturing quickly moving objects, creating a different temperature light than the ambient light) they are mostly used to illuminate scenes that do not have enough available light to adequately expose the photograph. The term flash can refer either to the flash of light itself or, colloguially, to the electronic flash unit which discharges the flash of light. The vast majority of flash units today are electronic, having evolved from single-use flash-bulbs and flammable powders.

Colours painted by nature - photoimpressions of flowers, nature and landscapes

Moving the camera

Light painting by moving the camera, also called camera painting, is the antithesis of traditional photography. At night, or in a dark room, the camera can be taken off the tripod and used like a paintbrush. An example is using the night sky as the canvas, the camera as the brush and cityscapes (amongst other light sources) as the palette. Putting energy into moving the camera by stroking lights, making patterns and laying down backgrounds can create abstract artistic images. Also known as "Camera Toss."

sea - view before thunderstorm - digital photos of landscapes

Light painting can take on the characteristics of a quick pencil sketch. Pablo Picasso was photographed in 1949 doing a quick sketch in the air.

Flash lights or light pens can also be used to create Full Bleed images. Different colored lights can be used to project an image on the CCD.

Before thunderstorm at the beach... digital photo impressions

Moving the light source

The light can either be used to selectively illuminate parts of the subject or to "paint" a picture by shining it directly into the camera lense. Light painting requires a sufficiently slow shutter speed, usually a second or more. Like night photography, it has grown in popularity since the advent of digital cameras because they allow photographers to see the results of their work immediately.

Before thunderstorm...digital photos of landscapes

Light painting, also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. In many cases the light source itself does not have to appear in the image. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources.

Light and colors - digital photoshoots of nature

Typical RGB input devices are color TV and video cameras, image scanners, and digital cameras. Typical RGB output devices are TV sets of various technologies ( CRT,LCD, plasma, etc.), computer and mobile phone displays, video projectors, multicolor LED displays, and large screens as Jumbo Tron, etc. Color printers, on the other hand, are not RGB devices, but subtractive color devices (typically CMYK color model).

The "queen" of flowers - the rose. Digital photocreations of nature

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors , red, green, and blue.

The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the electronic age, the RGB color model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human perception of colors.

These eyes even melt stones... digital photos of nature and animals

In photography, a filter is a camera accessory consisting of an optical filter that can be inserted in the optical path. The filter can be a square or oblong shape mounted in a holder accessory, or, more commonly, a glass or plastic disk with a metal or plastic ring frame, which can be screwed in front of the lens or clipped onto the lens.

Filters allow added control for the photographer of the images being produced. Sometimes they are used to make only subtle changes to images; other times the image would simply not be possible without them.

Spiders are beautiful! A digital macro photoshoot

In digital imaging systems, color management is the controlled conversion between the colour, representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, and corresponding media.

The primary goal of color management is to obtain a good match across color devices; for example, a video which should appear the same color on a computer LCD monitor, a plasma TV screen, and on a printed frame of video. Color management helps to achieve the same appearance on all of these devices, provided the devices are capable of delivering the needed color intensities.

The "queen" of flowers - the rose. Digital photography of nature and landscape

Cross processing (sometimes abbreviated to Xpro) is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. The effect was discovered independently by many different photographers often by mistake in the days of C-22 and E-4 . The process is seen most often in fashion advertising and band photography, and in more recent years has become more synonymous with the Lomography movement.

Created by nature - a "picture" on a wooden background - digital photo impressions

Exposure compensation is a technique for adjusting the exposure indicated by a photographic exposure meter, in consideration of factors that may cause the indicated exposure to result in a less-than-optimal image. Factors considered may include unusual lighting distribution, variations within a camera system, filters, non-standard processing, or intended underexposure or overexposure. Cinematographers may also apply exposure compensation for changes in shutter angle or film speed, among other factors.

A masterpiece of nature - digital photos of sea shells

Circle of confusion
(optics) The blurred circular image of a point object which is formed by a camera lens, even with the best focusing. Also known as circle of least confusion.

Nature creates the most amazing colors! Digital photos of nature

Angle of view

This term is often confused with angle of field and field of view. The angle of view is the (diagonal) angle subtended by the scene captured in the photograph. This establishes the disc of best definition required for the lens. The angle of field is the angle subtended at the lens rear nodal point by the diagonal of the format itself. In a rectilinear image this is the same as the angle of view, but not for anamorphic images such as those produced by fisheye lenses. ‘Field of view’ simply describes the area covered in a scene. For example, although the angle of view of a fisheye lens is 180 degrees, its angle of field may be as low as 90 degrees. The field of view may be described as ‘horizon to horizon’. For a standard (prime) lens the angle of field is typically 50-55 degrees, the same as the angle of view, and the field of view is roughly the same as that of the eye in a normal viewing of a scene or a picture.

— Graham Saxby

Fragile roses.... digital photo impressions - nature and landscape

"The photographic image... is a message without a code." - Roland Barthes

Flowers and colors - digital photo impressions

"It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary." - David Bailey

Plants and flowers - digital photoshoots of nature

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." -Diane Arbus

Digital photography of sea shells

"I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term -- meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching -- there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster." - Ansel Adams

Light natural colors - digital photos of nature

Digital Technology

By the end of the 20th cent. digital imaging and processing and computer-based techniques had made it possible to manipulate images in many ways, creating revolutionary changes in photography. Digital technology allowed for a fundamental change in the nature of photographic technique. Instead of light passing through a lens and striking emulsion on film, digital photography uses sensors and color filters. In one technique three filters are arranged in a mosaic pattern on top of the photosensitive layer. Each filter allows only one color (red, green, or blue) to pass through to the pixel beneath it. In the other technique, three separate photosensitive layers are embedded in silicon. Since silicon absorbs different colors at different depths, each layer allows a different color to pass through. When stacked together, a full color pixel results. In both techniques the photosensitive material converts images into a series of numbers that are then translated back into tonal values and printed. Using computers, various numbers can easily be changed, thus altering colors, rearranging pictorial elements, or combining photographs with other kinds of images. Some digital cameras record directly onto computer disks or into a computer, where the images can be manipulated at will.

A place for meditation... the sea - digital photo impressions

Other Aspects of Photography

In the contemporary world the practical applications of the photographic medium are legion: it is an important tool in education, medicine, commerce, criminology, and the military. Its scientific applications include aerial mapping and surveying, geology, reconnaissance, meteorology, archaeology, and anthropology. New techniques such as holography, a means of creating a three-dimensional image in space, continue to expand the medium's technological and creative horizons. In astronomy the charge coupled device (CCD) can detect and register even a single photon of light.

Digital photos of nature and landscape

The 1990s brought the first attempt to provide a fully integrated photographic system. Aimed at the amateur photographer, the Advanced Photo System (APS) was developed by an international consortium of camera and film manufacturers. The keystone of the new system is a magnetic coating that enables the camera, film, and photofinishing equipment to communicate. The cameras are self-loading, can be switched among three different formats (classic, or 4 by 6 in.; hi vision, or 4 by 7 in.; and panoramic, or 4 by 11.5 in.), and are fully automatic (auto-focus, auto-exposure—“point-and-shoot”). The film is a new, smaller size (24 mm), has an improved polyester plastic base, and two magnetic strips that record the exposure and framing parameters for each picture and allow the user to add a brief notation to each frame. The photofinishing equipment can read the magnetic data on the film and adjust the developing of each negative to compensate for the conditions. After processing, the negatives (still encased in the cassette) are returned along with the photographs and an index sheet of thumbnail-size contact prints from which reprints and enlargements can be selected.

I love nature! Digital photoshoots of nature and landscape

Many young photographers felt little inhibition against handwork, collage, multiple images, and other forms that were anathema to practitioners of the straight aesthetic. Since the 1960s photography has become an increasingly dominant medium within the visual arts. Many painters and printmakers, including Andy Warhol Robert Rauschenberg, and David Hockney have blended photography with other modes of expression, including computer imaging in mixed media compositions at both large and small scale. Contemporary photographers who use more traditional methods to explore non-traditional subjects include Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince.

Photography of nature and landscape

Modern Photography

After the war museums and art schools opened their doors to photography, a trend that has continued to the present. Photographers began to break free of the oppressive strictures of the straight aesthetic and documentary modes of expression. As exemplified by Robert Frank in his highly influential book-length photo-essay, The Americans (1959), the new documentarians commenced probing what has been called the “social landscape,” often mirroring in their images the anxiety and alienation of urban life. Such introspection naturally led to an increasingly personal form of documentary photography, as in the works of J. H. Lartigue and Diane Arbus.