All images need light but some light is better than others. Sunlight, or “natural light” can be very helpful in producing a good image. But is needs careful assessment for the right effect.

In general terms, direct sunlight is bad, especially during the middle of the day. The midday sun is cold in colour, harsh and casts dark shadows as well as leading to loss of features. Also, such light is often intense, leading to squinting of the subject. Avoid this is you can. Either side of midday is not ideal either for the same reasons.

Sunlight in the early morning or late evening is best. At these times, the sun is low in the sky and produces softer, more diffuse light. The blueness, found in daytime sunlight, is absent leading to a pleasing colour effect. The diffuse low light produces softer shadows and is less uncomfortable for the model. Consequently the light produces a more flattering effect and discernible features.

Cloudy and overcast conditions can produce good results especially if the light is directional. In these conditions the harsh sunlight has already been diffused by the overhead clouds. Directionality can be achieved by placing your subject next to a window or other such light source.

If the light is harsh, and you have no alternative, then using a reflector can put some light back into the shadow areas leading to a more pleasing effect.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

The popular Canon Camera Digital Rebel XT - the second generation of the Rebels - is such a small SLR camera that it can possibly be mistaken for a compact digital!

However, once you look at some of the specifications, it is clear that these Canon cameras fit squarely into the SLR league.

Apart from actually being one of the SLR Canon cameras, there is the small (or not so small) matter of the image sensor! Even though the Canon Camera Digital Rebel XT has the same megapixel rating as the 8MP PowerShot Pro-1, its sensor is much bigger.

A bigger sensor for the same number of pixels indicates bigger and better pixels, promising an expanded dynamic range, and less visible noise.

How does the Canon Camera Digital Rebel XT compare with the original Rebel? To start off with it is much smaller and lighter, and its start-up time is reduced to 0.2 seconds. Similarly the shutter lag has been reduced, and pixels increased by 20%.

The Canon Digital Camera Rebel XT also records at 3fps, compared to the older Rebel’s 2.5 frames per second. It also features a higher pop-up flash, which should reduce the incidence of red-eye.

Of course, what is ultimately important is the quality of the images it produces, and in this regard the Canon Digital Camera Rebel XT has received rave reviews. At various ISO settings - even up to 800 or 1600 very little noise has been found, and virtually no fringing. Daylight shots have produced vivid color with very clear detail.

As a consumer digital SLR the Canon Camera Digital Rebel XT allows novices to take excellent pictures in most basic situations on Full Auto, and in specific situations using the scene modes such as Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, and Night Portrait.

The Canon Digital Camera Rebel XT package includes a good manual - something often lacking with even excellent cameras! An example: Canon devotes a full page to the differences between the two auto modes provided, with many answers to the questions you may have when using a camera with so many features.

Finally, advanced enthusiasts have access to many manual controls and pro-level features, and will be especially pleased about the number of interchangeable lenses available for the Canon Digital Camera Rebel XT.

In fact, you have the option of more than 50 EF and EF-S Lenses, and most EOS System accessories, including a dedicated Battery Grip. If your budget allows, you can experiment with all these accessories if you are the owner of a Canon Digital Camera Rebel XT!

For more information visit Best-Digital-Photography.com

Rika Susan of http://www.Article-Alert.com researches, writes, and publishes full-time on the Web. Copyright of this article: 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.

If you are thinking of making a calendar of your images then there are two main ways: do it yourself or use and online service.

If you are doing it yourself, don’t forget the hidden costs of paper, printer ink, the software (might be supplied with our operating system) and of course your time and frustration! It doesn’t always go as smoothly as you might think and there can be a good deal of wastage.

Software can be cheap but the options and quality might not be what you want, especially if you are giving the calendar as a gift. The more expensive versions are worth it if you want a good dependable, flexible product. You might be able to get a free trial although this might have limitations attached.

If you use an online source then you can expect a quick turnaround, a good quality product, less hassle and frustrations and some sort of guarantee.

Consider what sort of calendar you want - do you want an image on each page, good resolution, additional text or messages? Most online companies will help you through this process and have support teams to guide you. This is what you pay for and is worth it if you wish your recipients to have top quality gifts.

If you try a do-it yourself approach then those that receive your gift will, I am sure, welcome the effort and time you have put in to making the gift.

Eric Hartwell is an experienced photographer and owner of the photography resource website ephotocentral.

Filters. Do we need them? What are they good for? How many types are there? Are some better than others? How do you know which one to use and for what?

Lot’s of questions. Hopefully, by the time you are done reading this, you’ll have a few answers to go along with those questions.

Actually, the most common use of filters is to protect the lens of the camera, some of which are very delicate. Most photographers use either UV, 1A or 1B filter for this purpose. For example, if a delicate lens gets hit with too much sunlight, the UV light can damage the lens. The UV filter keeps that particular light from reaching the lens. It’s kind of like the principal of wearing sun glasses so that your eyes don’t get damaged by the sun.

But there are also other types of filters that you can use that have nothing to do with protecting your lens but in getting certain types of effects from your photos.

First we have what are called correction filters. There are many different types of correction filters and while we can’t possibly go over each type, we’ll cover a few just to give you an idea of what they do.

One example of a correction filter is a green filter. This is used for black and white film because this film is less sensitive to red light than the human eye. To correct this we use a light green filter, though a yellow filter can also be used.

There are actually many different color filters depending on the kind of shot that you are going for. If you’ve ever watched movies with scenes that seemed to be shot to make the scene look like a bright blue, this is done through the use of a color filter. This is one of the most common filters used for photography both in still photos and in movies and television.

Another type of filter that is very common is what is called the temperature filter. These filters are used to produce either a cooling or warming effect. One example of use would be on a photo taken on a very cold snowy winter day. A warming filter would be used to give the shot more of a warm effect in spite of the snow on the ground.

Effects filters are very widely used by photographers who are looking to add some zip to their photos to make them less bland. These effects include things like starbursts and diffusions. Care must be taken when using effects filters as they can become tedious after a while. Combining certain effects can be very effective.

Polarizing filters are used to cut down reflections from various light sources like the sun. These filters actually produce an exaggerated color saturation in images. Therefore they should be used carefully. While taking photos with these filters, they need to be rotated while you observe the image in order to get the desired effect.

These are the most common types of filters, but there are others. By experimenting with each you can get a very good idea of the types of effects that you can get with your camera. Before you know it, you’ll be taking photos for NASA.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Photography

There are times that taking a photo might be seen as just too intrusive. In particular, intimate and personal moments. The dilemma then is whether to do so and capture a memory forever, or avoid using the camera and lose an unrepeatable and special moment.

A relative of mine was distraught when her husband died. He had been ill for some time and it was clear that his days were short. They were very close and their final moments were loving and personal. She was with him when he died and their last words will stay with her forever.

But his image won’t. Now she has to try and remember him the best she can. She remembers their time together but would dearly love to have a lasting image of their final loving moments. It was a special time for her and a time for him when he would no longer be suffering.

She never thought of taking a photograph. And, if she had asked me to take one, I would have had to think twice. I probably would have felt that it was an intrusion on his personal space at a time when he was weak and vulnerable. Even an act bordering on voyeurism.

But now I realise that it would likely have been something that not only he would have agreed to but something that would have brought long-lasting succour and happy thoughts to my surviving relative.

The moment is now gone, never to be repeated. I have promised myself to think and act differently next time. And I feel, in that same situation, that I would wish to leave a legacy and memory, however swift, for my loved ones too.

Eric Hartwell is an experienced photographer and owner of the extensive photography resource website ephotocentral

Taking a picture is more than just pointing and shooting. Simple cameras are lovingly referred to as PHS models (push here, stupid). After ten years of photography and teaching it as well, I will attempt to write even complex topics easily to help you sound like a professional in just one page! Note that we’re only talking about black and white photography.

Photography - “Light writing.” When you write with light, you’re really affecting grains of a silver-based compound on the film. More light has more effect. A lack of light (or dark) doesn’t trigger an emulsion that “sticks” the silver to the film. The developing process begins with a chemical we call Developer. It removes silver that wasn’t stuck. The next chemical is called a fixer; it stops the film from reacting further to light and ‘fixes’ the image on the negative.

With light sticking the silver and dark not sticking the silver, the negative now is dark where there was light and is transparent where there was dark. The chemical reactions will continue on paper when we make a print. The paper will do just what the film did: It will get dark where light hits it and will remain paper-colored where there is no light. So the negative then reproduces the original scene by being opposite light values of the scene.

Ignoring all physics and accepting this as gospel truth, you now know that ‘depth of field’ is caused by a change in the camera’s aperture or f-stop. A small hole, or aperture, restricts the amount of light hitting the film and produces a “great” depth of field meaning many distances are in focus. With an open f-stop or a large aperture, light has more ways in and a blur occurs at distances where you didn’t focus; the depth of field is then considered “shallow.” The f-stop settings have small numbers for big openings and large numbers for small openings: This is the result of a mathematical equation decided years ago.

When using a starter manual camera, you probably preferred the Pentax K1000 or the K1000SE. If you were a Canon lover, the AE1 was your only obvious choice. Your favorite rule in photography is the “Sunny 16″ rule. If you really know nothing of photography and must pick up a camera to use in front of others, ask what speed the film is (64, 125, 200, 400, 800), and set the Shutter Speed (usually on top) to a number that comes close. The F-stop ring will be a ring that makes clicking noise around the base of the lens. It has strange numbers measuring that old equation. Set the number to 16. This shortcut to a printable image (meaning the film receives an amount of light that neither over exposes or under exposes it) is only good in sunny conditions.

Having controlled numbers in the darkroom helps. The red light’s wavelength is long and used to light your way around the enlargers and chemical trays. The first tray of chemicals is developer, then a wash, then a fixer and then another wash and possibly a final rinse. These chemicals do to paper what the same named chemicals did to the film (although washes are usually just water). If you’re in the darkroom, the developer tends to be a fixed time of two minutes so that there’s a constant. Any changes are then made at the enlarger when exposing light to the paper. A yellowing print means the fixer wasn’t applied long enough; someone was in a hurry.

If you’re viewing a picture with lots of grays, you’re looking at the definition of “full range;” if you’re looking at a picture that’s high in contrast with black blacks and white whites, you’re looking at the definition of “full scale.” These brief comments are great compliments to knowledgeable photo students. Your basic understanding from this page will hopefully get you over the hump of having to ask questions a photographer has heard a million times before. It’s more interesting for an artist to discuss their take and variations on the process rather than explain the process itself. If you find a black and white photographer, you can now, basically, chat it up!

Bryan now tutors folks on computers and occasionally takes a quick break to write about other knowledges. For free lessons and advice about computers, you can read Bryan’s work for Dinarius, Inc.