Picking a digital camera

Digital cameras come in all kinds of price ranges and with tons of different features. When you take a photograph, the image is saved on a storage card or small hard drive, and most cameras have a nice preview screen that lets you see the results of your photography right away.

When you need your photos, you can remove the storage card from your camera and then insert it into the card reader hooked to your computer, or even into a printer. Some cameras may allow you to transfer photos to your computer via Wi-Fi or even email images to yourself. You may want to have a removable storage card if you plan to take a lot of pictures because you can easily carry several cards with you, switching them out when you fill one. Some cameras can also connect directly to your computer.

Digital cameras usually come with several quality settings that determine the resolution of your image and the sizes that look good when you print your photograph. If you choose higher-quality settings, the resolution is higher, and the file sizes are also larger. This means fewer images fit on your storage card, but the resulting photos look better, print more sharply, and can be resized more easily than lower-quality images. Web images are usually compressed so that the file sizes are reasonable for visitors to download, but taking images at higher-quality settings (which usually means that the resolution is also higher than is needed for the web) gives you more options down the line and better looking photos even after compression.

Today, even relatively inexpensive digital cameras and even most smartphones take high-quality images suitable for use in almost any medium, so the real challenge is to pick a camera that suits your picture-taking style.

Be realistic about how you plan to use the camera and how comfortable you are with it when you look at the options:

• Digital SLRs: If you're a professional photographer or a dedicated amateur, you likely want a high-end dSLR camera. But these cameras are quite large, which makes them awkward to carry and use unobtrusively on a day-to-day basis. They can be expensive, too.
• Low-end point-and-shoots: If you're a photography amateur, super lightweight cameras can get a lot of admiring glances. But they might lack important features, and their tiny size might also make them hard to use and hold steady.
• Midrange: If you're not a professional photographer but want more than just the basics that low-end cameras provide, look for a camera in the midprice range. These cameras come in a range of styles and sizes and with a wide range of features designed for use by completely inexperienced to professional photographers.
• Mobile cameras (phone and tablet cameras): Almost all smartphones come with cameras built in — convenient, but the photos may not look as wonderful as those taken with higher-end cameras. If you plan to use your phone to take pictures for your blog, keep that in mind when selecting your phone. Some phone cameras rival point-and-shoot cameras!

After you have an idea about what kind of camera you'd like to purchase, visit a site such as CNET (www.cnet.com) or Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) to read reviews of specific cameras in your preferred category. Even if you find the best price online, I recommend visiting a store first to make sure that you feel comfortable handling that particular camera.

Choosing photo-editing software

Many computers and digital cameras come with the software that you need to upload, organize, and sometimes even edit your photos. You may still choose to find additional software or online tools to edit and organize your images. You have loads of options, at all pricing levels including free. When you're looking for image-editing software with the ultimate goal of getting your images online, consider these criteria:

• File formats: You need to be able to create images in the right format for display on the web. These formats are JPG, GIF, and PNG. These formats also allow you to compress the file size of your images for the web.
• Standard editing tools: At a minimum, you need image-editing software that allows you to resize, crop, rotate, and adjust brightness and contrast in your photos. These tools should be quick and easy to use.
• Organizing tools: Look for software that helps you keep track of your images by using thumbnail previews, naming schemes, and search, especially if you take a lot of photos.
• Photo sharing: You don't need a program that integrates with the blogging tool that you use or with a photo-sharing service such as Flickr, but it can reduce the time it takes to post a photo online.

With these ideas in mind, don't forget to think about whether you want an image editor that can do more than just get photos into shape for online publication. If you plan to print photographs, be sure to look for photo-editing software that has good tools for printing.

Other image-editing programs also work well for touching up and formatting photographs:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements: Under $100; version 9 and higher support Windows and Mac (previous versions support only Windows); www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html. This program is suitable for users who have the patience to figure out how to use a full-featured program but don't need professional features, such as the capability to produce color separations for high-end professional printers. Photoshop Elements is a great compromise between basic and high-end software.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: $9.99 per month; Mac and Windows; www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom. This software is intended specifically for photography. Serious amateur photographers and professionals find this program valuable for managing large collections of photographs.
• Adobe Photoshop: $20.99 per month; Mac and Windows; www.adobe.com/products/photoshop. For anyone who isn't a designer or very serious photographer, Adobe Photoshop can be overkill. But this program can make your photos look especially great if you are willing to pay the premium price. Advanced editing tools and more control over the quality of the images you are using for your blog put this package heads and shoulders above the more basic toolset of Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Using Google Photos

Google Photos (http://photos.google.com), shown in Figure 12-1, is free and works especially well for photographers who want to put photos online. It has highly developed organizational tools, allowing you to do everything from automatically importing and naming photos from your camera when you hook it up to your computer, to quickly labeling and tagging your photos, to rating good photos, to creating photo albums. You can automatically upload images from all your devices and even save edited photos on those devices after editing online.

Google Photos includes both incredible photo-editing tools as well as sharing tools, even for friends and family not using the app. You can use tools to email photos, get them onto the web, create online slideshows, and put photo collections onto other devices. You can also print photos quite easily and create slideshows with music and captions.

Choosing a photo-sharing tool

When you're ready to put your photos online, regardless of whether you ultimately want to include images on your blog, you have plenty of options. Photo-sharing websites have become full-fledged members of the Web 2.0 movement, offering friends lists, tagging, and other sophisticated tools.

The media darling of photo-sharing sites is definitely Flickr (www.flickr.com). For avid photographers, Flickr has nearly replaced the need to have a blog at all because many of the best blogging tools are integrated into the Flickr service.

On Flickr, you can

• Create a list of friends whose photos you want to follow.
• Upload and organize photos by using tags (keywords), sets, and collections.
• Start groups around a visual theme and add your photos to other groups.
• Set privacy controls to dictate who can see your photos.
• Use your photos to create books, prints, calendars, business cards, DVDs, and stamps.
• Post photos in your account and receive comments (see Figure 12-2).
• Create slideshows of your photos.
• Upload, tag, and share video.
• Browse other members’ photos and leave comments.

Basic Flickr accounts are free for your best 1,000 photos and videos. Flickr Pro accounts cost $49.99 a year and receive unlimited uploading and image display along with other photo-editing and sharing goodies not available to free accounts.

If you elect to use an online tool to organize and store your photographs, you are at the mercy of that website. Note that you are taking a risk that your images could disappear if the site is taken down. Additionally, if you upload images to your blog directly from such a tool using an embed code instead of a file upload and that service eventually ceases to exist, those images will likely disappear from past blog posts.

Whatever service you choose, look for tools that can make your life easier when it comes to putting your photos on your blog. For example, look for services that

• Integrate well with the camera you own, your mobile phone if you use it for photography, or both devices.
• Let you post a photo to your blog or give you code to put the photo in your blog post.

Other online photo-sharing tools to consider include the following:

• Photobucket (www.photobucket.com): This site includes the basic photo-editing tools that you’ll need before uploading images to your site. It also includes some creative tools such as the ability to add filters and text. One cool feature of the Photobucket app for both iPhone and Android is the ability to create animated GIFs. Space for 250 images is included in your free account with additional storage options beginning at $4.99 per month.
• Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com): Shutterfly is the undisputed king of the photo product with an unrivaled collection of photo gifts available to users. What many people don’t realize, however, is that Shutterfly is a great photo storage and sharing option. Users have access to free, unlimited photo storage, and friends don’t need to create an account in order to view photos.
• Amazon Prime Photo Storage (www.amazon.com): Amazon Prime members have access to free, unlimited photo storage, which allows you to add photos via a mobile app, upload pictures from your desktop through the Cloud Drive app, or upload images via your Amazon account online.
• Instagram (www.instagram.com): I would be remiss if I didn’t include the social media giant in a list of photo sharing options. Instagram is a fantastic option for photographers interested in sharing their images with the world. Users can edit photos for everything from brightness to contrast as well as add a large assortment of filters. The platform is free and allows for unlimited photo sharing.

Taking photos

Bloggers often add pictures to posts that all but require them, such as the recipe posts on Home Ec 101 (www.home-ec101.com) shown in Figure 12-3. Blog posts about cooking and restaurants are seriously enlivened by the addition of beautiful food photos. Who doesn't salivate at the sight of a beautifully prepared dessert?

If you want to take photographs to put on your blog, keep your eyes open all the time for visuals that inspire or interest you. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to find good picture subjects, but you do need to be thinking about your blog and your camera more often than you might normally. In fact, some bloggers find that carrying a camera with them actually helps them find things to blog about and illustrate regular blog posts.

Here are four tips for taking photos for your blog:

• Is your mobile phone camera inadequate? Consider carrying your camera with you when you leave the house, even if you're just running down to the grocery store.
• Keep fresh batteries in your camera so that when you need to use it, it isn't dead. If possible, keep a second set of batteries in your camera pouch.
• Don't worry too much about taking the perfect picture. Just take the picture! Photo editing and good cropping can salvage many a bad shot, but they can't help you if you never even pushed the shutter button.
• Take photos of the people you meet and talk to, and your friends. Be sure to ask them whether you can use their photos on your blog. Then, when you blog about going to a movie with Bill, you have a photo of Bill to include.

Using art from other sources

One nice thing about the web: You can find tons and tons of photos and other images, graphics, and visuals out there to inspire you. Some bloggers have taken advantage of this vast offering by including some of those great visuals in their blog posts. Photos attract readers’ attention better than a few paragraphs of text. You may decide to use photos on your blog, as long as you have the rights to republish those images.

Here are three tips when you need images other than your own:

• Check the public domain: Some materials are designated public domain works, which means anyone can use them for any purpose, although you must still give the author credit. If you're interested in featuring public-domain and licensed images on your blog, do a search for public domain photos on your favorite search engine. You can investigate a number of good resources.

  In the United States, anything published before 1923 is considered public domain, but other countries don't necessarily have the same policy.

• Search through Creative Commons: By using the Creative Commons licensing tool, you can look for works that authors have licensed for republication. To find additional works that you can use, visit http://search.creativecommons.org and search by using keywords that describe the material you're looking for. (Creative Commons licenses allow blog authors to make known their copyright wishes for the copying to their blog content.)
• Ask for permission: If you see something that you like and want to use, but it's protected by full copyright, consider simply asking whether you can use it. Many photographers, especially those who don't make a living selling their work, willingly let you use their work, especially if you give them credit!

Many of the photos on the Flickr photo-sharing site (www.flickr.com) have been licensed for use on other websites and blogs. When you're looking at a photo on Flickr, check the copyright information on the right side of the page.

Getting photos into Google Photos

Before you can edit a photo, you need to get it into Google Photos. Follow these steps:

1. With Google Photos open in your web browser, select the upward-pointing arrow image to upload photos.
2. Select the image you’d like to upload from your computer’s photo storage.

3. Click Open to upload that image to Google Photos.

   Google Photos connects to the device, and displays the available photos.

Cropping a photo

Cropping a photo allows you to remove unneeded or unattractive parts of an image. For example, if you take a picture of a group of friends and then want to include a photo of just one of the individuals in your blog post, you can crop out the other people in the image.

To crop a photo that you've imported into Google Photos, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Photos and, in the Photo Library, double-click the photo that you want to edit.

   The Editing screen opens.

2. Click the Edit icon.
3. Select the cropping icon.

4. Use your mouse to click and drag over the area that you want to retain in your photo.

   While you click and drag, the area that will be cropped out of your photo appears slightly grayed out, leaving the portion that will be retained at the original brightness.

   If you want to start over, click Reset to remove the cropping box that you created. If you don't want to crop after all, click the Cancel button to exit the Crop tool.

5. Click the Done button to crop your photo.

   Google Photos displays the cropped photo.

Adjusting brightness and contrast

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, photos end up looking too dark or too light. By using photo-editing software such as Google Photos, you get a second chance because you can adjust brightness and contrast.

To adjust the brightness and contrast, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Photos and double-click the photo that you want to edit.
2. Click the Edit icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.

3. A slider menu appears. Drag the slider bar below Light to adjust the brightness of the image.

   Google Photos adjusts the displayed image while you move the bar.

   If you're lightening the photo, watch the brightest parts of your photo to make sure that they don't get too bright, losing information you want in the photo. If you're bringing down lightness, watch the darker areas of your photo so that you don't end up with too much black in your photo. Let your eyes be the judge of a well-adjusted image.

Adjusting color

Color in photos frequently needs a little adjusting. We've taken too many greenish photos in fluorescent lights! With a little help from photo-editing software such as Google Photos, I can turn my friends’ skin back to normal colors.

To adjust the color of a photo, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Photos and double-click the photo that you want to edit.
2. Click the Edit icon on the upper-right side of the screen.

3. A slider menu appears. Drag the slider bar below Color to adjust the color tone of the picture.

   Color can be tricky to adjust. As a good rule, look for an element in the photograph that you know should be a particular color, and then adjust the overall color to make that element look right. Then, look at the overall picture and adjust, if necessary. Elements that you can use for the purpose include eye color, skin color, sky, and other consistent elements.

Optimizing a photo for the web

Digital cameras commonly store photos as high-resolution files suitable for print, but that high-resolution is more than you need for display on a blog or website. And you probably don't want to make your blog visitors download a great big image when they don't need to. Usually, you compress the file size of your image when you plan to put it on your blog.

If you plan to upload your image to Flickr, don't worry about compressing the image when you export. Flickr can handle large files and can resize the photo for you.

You may also need to change the image's dimensions in order to fit it into your blog layout, or even create a thumbnail version.

Platforms such as Pinterest have their own set of photo optimization standards that make it more likely that readers will share your blog posts on those platforms. For example, Pinterest users prefer vertically oriented photographs over horizontal as well as closely cropped images, especially of food for recipe posts. Keep your end-goal in mind when selecting and editing photos for your blog posts!

Considering other photo-editing tools

As mentioned at the start of this chapter, feel free to keep photographs and graphics on your blog as simple as you like. But if you’re interested in exploring additional photo-editing tools, you may want to check out the following:

• Pixlr (www.pixlr.com)
• GIMP (www.gimp.org)
• Paint.NET (www.getpaint.net)
• Photoscape (www.photoscape.org)
• Fotor (www.fotor.com)
• PhotoCat (www.photocat.com)