Friday, 27 February 2009

Canon Digital Camera Review PowerShot's Magical Movies Stunning Stills

Canon Digital Camera Review - PowerShot's Magical Movies, Stunning Stills
By Rika Susan

A Canon digital camera review of the Powershot S2 is useful if you are looking for a camera with a powerful zoom facility, or a camcorder with stereo sound and image stabilization.

In fact, you don't actually have to choose between these two. Canon has already done that on your behalf. As you will read in Canon digital camera reviews, you can have both in one stylish body: the Canon Digital Camera PowerShot S2...

The predecessor of this Canon was one of the most popular in it's class, and the new model will probably be no exception - especially if you take a look at the new features, as explained in a number of convincing Canon digital camera reviews.

The Canon Digital Camera PowerShot S2 hasn't merely increased its sensor pixels from 3.2 million to 5 million - which is at any rate about the minimum you'd expect from this camera. It has also increased its very popular 10X optical zoom to a 12X version, all the while retaining its most effective optical image stabilization.

Many of the new features coming to light in recent Canon digital camera reviews, are linked to the excellent movie recording capabilities. The Canon Digital Camera Powershot S2 now features stereo sound recording, along with a special wind noise reduction facility for those outdoor recordings - not to mention selectable sound quality and microphone level settings.

Canon digital camera reviews also mention the PowerShot S2's new 'Night Display' feature that brightens the (now larger) LCD and EVF in low light situations. And of course the LCD can still rotate for those self portraits, or when you need to shoot over the heads of people in front of you!

The new Canon Digital Camera PowerShot S2 is powered by the speedy DIGIC II processor, which can also be found in Canon's pro-series D-SLR cameras! According to Canon digital camera reviews, the result is that the PowerShot S2 has a very responsive 2.4 fps shooting capability.

Canon digital camera reviews also indicate that, on the movie side, it probably doesn't get much better than a Canon! You can use the zoom function while filming (and with the ultra quiet motor this won't be picked up on your sound recording), and you can even shoot a high resolution still picture while in movie mode!

As always, the best advice is to compare and shop around! The popularity of the Canon Powershot S2 is clearly indicated in the vast number of favorable in-depth Canon digital camera reviews.

For more information visit Best-Digital-Photography.com

Rika Susan of 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.

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Thursday, 19 February 2009

Chinese Astrology Romance Compatibility is Important - Romantic Astrology Powers Revealed


Women are great for tying to break down love and will look at every angle when they meet a man that they think is right for them. Some men may shy away from this but you should take the attitude of 'if you can't beat them, join them.' Chinese astrology romance compatibility is a great avenue to explore, especially when you look at the Chinese Astrology Compatibility Charts.


A little knowledge will go a long way in this area and will also let the woman you are courting know that you take love and romance seriously. It sure as hell can't hurt! While it is impossible to know everything about the astrological chart, you can at least educate yourself on your sign and a few of the ones that are compatible with you.
For example, you find yourself in a situation where you meet a young lady that you are particularly attracted to. You strike up a conversation and find out that she graduated from the same high school that you did but only a year earlier. Well you were born in 1967, which makes you a sheep. She was more than likely born in 1966 and that makes her a horse. How great is the ice breaker of, "Did you know we are destined to be soul mates?"
Okay, maybe I overdid it there a little bit, but you get the idea. It sparks the initial question of exactly what you are talking about or possibly she is aware of the Chinese Astrology Romance Compatibility Chart. Either way, you go further into how the horse and the sheep are considered to have the highest soul mate potential and all of a sudden her knees are buckling as she has finally not only found a romantic, but she also just been informed that he is probably also her soul mate!
Educating yourself just a little bit in Chinese astrology compatibility will go a long way. Who do you think she is going to remember when the night is over? The guy who told her it is raining because God is crying because they are short one Angel in heaven or the guy who started telling her about love and soul mates?
If you would like to learn how to attract beautiful girls then visit my website to get your hands on the free report that has have helped thousands of men seduce gorgeous girls.
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Sunday, 15 February 2009

Photography Famous Photographers

Photography - Famous Photographers
By Michael Russell

Thinking of joining the ranks of the greatest photographers of all time? Well, it might be a good idea to check out a few of them and the works they've done so you know just what it is you're up against.

Probably one of the most famous photographers of all time was Ansel Adams. Adams was born In San Francisco California in 1902. He lived in Carmel until he died in 1984. His most popular photo was titled Moonrise Over Hernandez, 1944. This is a breathtaking photo showing a beautiful night view and the small town below it. Other famous photos by Adams were Clearing Winter Storm and Winter Sunrise. Adams did a lot of outdoor photography with some breathtaking views. His most popular photo has about 1000 copies in print. The price range of these photos, depending on condition goes from $5,000 to $175,000 if you can find one.

Moving from outdoor photography of landscapes to nude women on beaches we have the works of Jock Sturges. Sturges was born in the big city of New York in the year 1947. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington. His most popular images, all of beach nudes, are Misty Dawn 1991 and Northern California, 1991. His prints range in price from $1,000 to $3,000. His most expensive print sold for $4,000.

Herman Leonard was known for taking great photographs of jazz legends. He was born in Allentown, PA in 1923. He currently lives and works in New Orleans. His most popular images are photos of great jazz legends Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. Herman Leonard was one of the more active photographers even when not working at his craft. He often traveled with great entertainers like Marlon Brando, who he hung out with in 1954. His photos range in price from $950 to $5,500.

Another great photographer was Irving Penn who was born in Plainfield, NJ in 1917. Penn was actually known for a number of different styles of photography including fashion photography and provocative life style portraits. His most famous work was Cuzco Children which sold for as much as $175,000 at the turn of the century. Penn worked for some of the most popular magazines of our time including Harper's Bazaar, Saks Fifth Avenue and Vogue Magazine.

Another great photographer, who most people have actually heard of, was the one and only Helmut Newton, who just recently passed away in 2004. He was most known for photos involving fashion and nudes illustrating themes of mass media, glamour, sex and theater. Newton's work was often categorized as bizarre. He was once quoted as saying My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain. He most certainly did that better than just about anyone else. His most popular image is Sie Kommen I, II. His photographs are in such demand that some go for as much as $400,000 each.

The list of famous photographers goes on, literally forever. So if you are thinking of joining the ranks of these greats and many others, then you're going to have to work hard at your craft.

Very, very hard.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Photography

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Saturday, 14 February 2009

10 Classic Bass Guitars

10 Classic Bass Guitars
By Adrian Martin

The Electric Bass guitar has been around for over 70 years and has become an integral part in modern music. Whilst there have been a few design changes over the years the fundamental role of the instrument remains forming the rhythmic, tonal and heartbeat of the music

There are thousands of different basses on the market today but here we list 10 classics of their genre if your going to get a bass these are the ones to aspire to.

1 Fender Precision

First introduced in 1951 this was Leo Fenders baby that soon became the industry standard. Often called the P-Bass, its solid slab body with single pickup it has perhaps became the most popular bass of all time.

2 Fender Jazz

Fenders other most popular bass first seen in 1960 this one differed from the Fender Precision by having a slimmer shaped neck, two pickups and a countered body design.

3 Rickenbacker 4001

Rickenbacker introduced the 4000 series in the early 50s as competition against the Fender series there have been a number of variations within the 4000 series (the 4001 and 4002 etc) As with their 6 string counterparts the Rickenbacker basses have a unique tone and the 4001 has become the rock bass of choice .

4 Hofner

One name Paul McCartney usually seen with a 500/1 model (but this wasnt the only Hofner bass Paul had). This instrument has become iconic you picture the Beatles and you picture Paul with his Hofner. Not particularly expensive or superbly made but its association with The Beatles makes it a bass players must have.

5 Gibson Les Paul Recording Bass.

Gibsons iconic model Bass style introduced in the late 60s following its 6 string sibling Manufactured with the traditional Gibson Mahogany its a true design classic and despite various design changes over the years it remains much loved by bassists great for studio use its often referred to as the Recording Bass.

6 Musicman Stingray

This one came on the scene in the mid 1970s utilizing (at the time) innovate features such as humbucker bass pickups, active circuitry. Reminiscent of the Fender Precision (sharing a designer in Leo Fender) but with features that brought it bang upto date the Stingray has remained a favorite every since.

7 Steinberger Bass

Featuring the classic headstock-less design Ned Steinbergers guitar company were true innovators a truly composite instrument (graphite and carbon fibre mix). Steinberger released the Q and M series basses and nothing else looked or sounded quite like them immensely popular during the 80s/90s perhaps less so now but still a true innovation in bass guitar design.

8 Gibson Thunderbird

Our second Gibson on the list the Thunderbird bass was first released in the early 1960s sharing a similar design with the Gibson Firebird 6 string the Thunderbird was the direct competition for the Rickenbacker 4001 Perhaps Gibsons most popular bass it has remained popular with the hard rock fraternity over the last 20 years.

9 Fender V

Although short-lived, the Fender V bass gets onto our list by virtue of being the first 5 string bass to go mainstream, a change in the standard design this 15 fret bass had a high C string to allow bassists access to the higher register of tones. Only a handful of these basses were produced making them collectors items today and whilst generally derided the V is an important stepping stone to the 5 string basses that are common today.

10 Gretsch Broadkaster

Gretsch Hollowbody great tone almost double bass like first released in the 1960s a unique tone all of its own Whilst Gretsch are not renowned for their basses this ones a beauty somewhat distinctive from the Fender and Gibson basses - a unique sound drawing on the technology from its 6 string Gretsch counterparts.

Bass-Soup.com - a resource for all Bass guitarists and enthusiasts - from articles, free bass guitar lessons through to Bass Guitar Reviews - Bass-soup has it all.

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Sunday, 8 February 2009

Perfect Digital Photography Secrets: How To Use Your Camera's Flash

Perfect Digital Photography Secrets: How To Use Your Camera's Flash
By Maria Markella

I hope you will like and benefit from these flash tips for the perfect digitalphotography!

You have to take full control of your digital camera's flash. Why? Because digitalcameras and their build-in software are pre-programmed and make a few assumptions..

For example:

There are sensors inside your camera that measure the percentage of illumination inthe scene at which your camera points. If the sensors measure low illumination thenyour flash will fire. That is because your camera is pre-programmed with the assumptionthat flash will improve the photograph in a low-illumination environment.On the other hand in a high-illumination environment the flash will not fire becausethe camera will assume it's not necessary. After all it's dark out there!

The issue with these assumptions is that there are certain situations when you wantan opposite result..

For example there are times when you want to shoot the perfect digital photography ina low-illumination environemt without using the flash.. e.g. when you are in a darkroom with a candle burning and no other light sources.. If that's the case you needto be really steady for the photograph to be sharp. You may want to use a tripod toachieve better results. If you do it right you will have a perfect digital photographywith beautiful warm orange/red colours.

Remember that the straight light coming from the flash gives a cold commercial look toyour photographs. That could be ok in some cases but not in all cases.. You shoulddecide whether to use flash, not your camera.

But what happens when working in Bright Light, high-illumination environments?

Then, the flash will not fire! Of course that saves battery-power but what are the results of your perfect digital photography? You definitely don't want to lose in qualityright?

Imagine when you want to take the perfect digital photography of a person wearing a hatand the sun is overhead in the sky shining.. Then you will notice that the person's facewill be in dark shadow because of the hat! But even if there's no hat, you will usually see shadows under the chin or under the person's eyes.. So what you should do is fill those small shadows with light using your camera's flash!

Again, YOU should decide whether to use flash or not, and not your camera.. YOU shouldtake control of your camera's flash..

Today's digital cameras have five basic flash settings:

- Setting #1:

Automatic Flash: This is where your camera is pre-programmed to make assumptionsdepending on the level of the environment illumination and use the flash accordingly.

- Setting#2:

Automatic Flash with Eye Reduction: Again, the camera uses its software to determinewhen the flash will fire but there's also some type of red eye filters to reduce the redeye effect.

You camera will probably automatically select, by default, one of the above two settings.I recommend to never use the above settings if you're aiming for the perfect digitalphotography.. And why is that you may ask..

As I said before YOU should be the one who decides whether to use flash or not.. And furthermore the eye reduction filters will not always do a good work and will confuseyour subjects in most cases..

I recommend to make use of the following settings depending on the scene and the subjectyou're trying to shoot..

- Setting #3:

Flash Always: With this setting enabled your flash will fire in all cases. You may want tochoose this setting when you want to fill small shadowed areas with light.

- Setting #4:

Flash Disabled: Your flash will not fire no matter how illuminated the environment or thescene is.. Make use of this setting when you want to shoot in a low-illuminated environmente.g. a dark room with a candle burning..

Just remember that in a low-illumination environment you have to be really steady in orderto shoot the perfect digital photography..

- Setting #5:

Slow Shutter Flash: This is a very underestimated setting and the least used.. If you choosethis setting your flash will fire ocassionally but the shutter will remain open for a longertime than usual. This will allow you to capture the subject illuminated by the flash, but itwill also allow other lighting sources (like a candle's light) to record themselves.

This setting is perfect if there is high illumination on the background while infront of thesubject there's certain darkness. For example when you want to shoot a person in front of acasino at night.

So.. If you're aiming for the perfect digital photography you should be able to switch betweenthose five flash settings found in almost all digital cameras these days. Have a look at thecamera's manual for more information on these settings. They are really importand.

How would you like to use your camera's flash like professional digital photographer? Thereare tons of information and digital photography secrets and guides out there. You may wantto have a look at this Perfect Digital Photography Secrets Manual.

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Monday, 2 February 2009

How To Make A TimeLapse Video With Your Digital Video Camera

How To Make A Time-Lapse Video With Your Digital Video Camera
By Kevin Rockwell

Getting the most out of your digital video camera can mean being able to create some really cool stuff. You just have to step outside the manual a bit and find the cool things you can do with your digital video camera and your editing software.

We have all seen them in a movie or a TV show, those very cool shots where they speed up time and capture a long segment of time and condense it into a very short amount of video. My very favorite example of this technique was an arty movie of many years ago that was called Koyaanisqatsi. (view trailer) In that movie they had some very interesting segments where they did time lapse effects to show driving on a bridge, flowers growing, clouds flying by and so on. Another example is many of the TV news stations nowadays have a camera that captures the days weather and then they process it down to a 20 second clip to show the clouds and weather racing by on screen.

Well this technique is not just a tool in the hands of the movie makers or the big TV stations. You can do this with your digital video camera gear too. I will go into two ways that you can accomplish this effect and get some cool results for your next video project. This one is worth playing around with in order to find the right settings to get the most dramatic effect.

Technique number one is to use the camera itself to do the time lapse recording for you. Almost all digital video cameras have the ability to do an interval recording. What this means in a nutshell is that you tell the camera how long you want to record for and how long in between recordings and it will go on autopilot for you for as long as the battery lasts or the tape runs out. This is what those cameras at the convenience store do, they record a few seconds of motion every 30-60 seconds giving the overall view of the traffic in the store over time.

Now if you want to capture some time lapse in your digital video camera you will need to get into your cameras menu and find Interval Recording (or in my case Int Rec, as I use a Sony PD 150 for my camera) When you select this option you will decide how long of an interval between shots you want and how long to record each time. If you are trying to capture something that takes a long time to occur and in which not much happens quickly you will want to set the interval at around a minute and the record time as short as possible on your camera. An example would be if you wanted to record a day in the life of a flower or the clouds rolling by in the sky. Suppose however that you want to capture an event that has lots of action and occurs over a much shorter time frame. Then you would want to shorten the interval between recordings and increase the time of each recording. So in this case you might record every 15-30 seconds and record up to 2-3 seconds of video each time.

I used this technique to capture an afternoon of work being done by a team of carpenters on my house remodeling project. The result was a flurry of activity as workers raced hither and yon nailing boards, carrying equipment and building walls. I have added it to my photo collection of the project. (Hey I had to live through the project so I might as well have a great record of it for posterity!)

Now suppose you have one of the great software video editing packages on your computer to work with your digital video camera. Now you can do it in post as they say in the business. You can record any length of video you want (subject to the limitations of your tape length) and then import it into your editing program.

Sidebar:

I use Adobe Premiere Pro for my editing jobs, but I have also used Avid DV Express, Final Cut Pro, and others in the non linear editing world. These are all great programs and are very powerful products that can create some very professional looking videos. You dont have to have these products to create your own videos but if you are serious about digital video editing it might be a good idea to take a look at these options.

I digitize my raw video of the scene I am doing time lapse on into my computer (big hard drive, video eats up GBs of space) and then import the clip into my time line. From th3e timeline you can then select the clip with a right click. From there you will be given a menu with options depending on the software you use. Select the option that says duration, speed or something similar. Change the speed of the clip so that time will speed up considerably. If you have an hour of video in the clip and want to shorten it to 2 -5 minutes then you need to increase the speed of the clip to 3 or 4 thousand percent of normal. This will require your software to render the clip at the higher speed and may take some time top process depending on the speed of your computer.

Once you have rendered the video clip at the new speed you will want to play it to see if the movie flows evenly or if you will want to readjust the speed setting to make it better. Sometimes you may want to shorten your raw video and adjust the speed down somewhat in order to get a smooth flow of action. Once you have rendered the clip at the new speed you can now cut and splice it as you see fit with the speeded up action intact. There are some things you will record that might only need a slight speed change, take for instance some digital video of your kids playing sports. Double or triple the speed of the clip and show it to them and you might have them rolling on the floor.

You can also use these techniques to capture the growth of a flower or plant over the course of days or weeks. Simply set you camera in exactly the same place at the same time each day and record an interval that works each day fro however long you want to document. May be you get the seedling just breaking soil and follow it all the way through turning into a full grown plant.

Another interesting idea is to capture the path of the moon across the night sky. Set up your camera on a tripod in a spot that can see the path of the moon for several hours. Set the camera to interval record and put the moon on one side of the frame so that it will pass across the frame as the night passes. This one may require some testing in order to get the exposure and framing right as well as the right interval to record at. Most likely you would want to set the interval as long as you can and the record time as short as you can but do a test run first to see what works.

I cant stress enough that using your digital video camera can be great fun and you can achieve some cool results. Play around and test. You just might find yourself creating some very creative digital video to share with the rest of the world.

Kevin Rockwell worked as a network TV cameraman for 20 years shooting news and sports. Now a devoted fan of digital photography and video he works to gather information, tips and news for digital camera users. Oh and he loves to shoot pictures of cool and interesting things all the time.http://www.great-digital-cameras.com/gdcj.html

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