You may know me as the webmaster of the Disney Planning Strategy Calculator for Disney Reservations. What you don't know about me is I've been an avid photographer since I received my first Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera at the age of 16. I've burned up a lot of rolls of film, took a correspondence photography course and read many books and articles since then. With the technological breakthrough of digital photography, the hobby of photography has taken a huge leap and me with it. A couple of years ago, I purchased my first digital SLR camera, a Nikon D70. I can say I have learned more with this camera then all the film based ones I've used over the last 30 years.

I would like to thank Deb Wills for inviting me to contribute to the Picture This! photography blog here on AllEars. I will be giving you my views, examples, and ideas for taking photographs at Walt Disney World. I have recorded thousands of images at Walt Disney World over the last 24 years. Some great and some not so great. I hope my experiences can help you to improve your photographs at home and on your Disney vacations.

While at times I will be writing about specific pieces of equipment, most of the articles will cover intermediate to advanced photography concepts and techniques relevant to both Point and Shoot (P&S) and digital SLR cameras. As a starter, you can improve your pictures today by taking the time to get more familiar with your digital camera by reading through it's manual. Have your camera with you as you learn about all the different settings, menus and picture review capabilities. I was surprised at all the different things I could do with my camera by just changing a setting or menu option. I think you will too.

For me, digital photography brought back the fun of photography. I will be sharing the fun with you here.

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/13s shutter, f5.6, 1600 ISO, -0.3 EC

In a previous blog entry, Barrie talked about ways to stabilize your camera when shooting in low light at Walt Disney World. Camera system manufacturers now have another alternative for you. New lenses which compensate for image blur caused by small, involuntary movements (wobbly hands, shooting from a moving vehicle, etc.) called camera shake. Manufacturers have various names for this technology. Canon calls it Image Stabilizer (IS) technology while Nikon's Vibration Reduction (VR) system help give you sharp images with their digital SLR cameras. Other manufacturers and third-party lens makers like Sigma and Tamron have their own versions.

The links I've supplied above will give you the technical details of how these lenses work, I just know that they do. The picture taken during the first scene of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at the Disney-MGM Studios is an example of a Nikon vibration reduction lens at work. This image was captured using available light at a shutter speed of 1/13 second using the Nikon 18-200mm VR zoom lens fully extended to 200mm. The best part is, I was sitting in the third row of the theater and hand holding my camera. One must still take steps to stabilize the camera by holding arms in close to the body, holding one's breath and slowly pressing the shutter, however, these lenses will produce a higher percentage of great images in low light conditions. So, the next time you are told, "No flash photography". Smile knowing your VR or IS lens will allow you to capture the show.

You do know photography can be an expensive hobby, right? These new lenses are no exception, ranging in price from $250 to over a $1,000 depending on the focal length, zoom range and speed of the lens. Nikon claims and I have been successful getting an extra two stops without the need for a tripod. This means while I would normally not use shutter speeds below 1/60th of a second. Using the VR lens, I get excellent results at 1/15th of a second or lower hand holding my camera. These lenses will never replace a tripod but they do give you more flexibility for those times you can't or won't carry one with you.

Cinderella topiary at Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/160s, f/11, 200 ISO, -0.3 EC, 18mm Focal Length

In digital photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on to an image sensor. It's really quite simple even though there's a lot of science and engineering behind how your camera does it. I leave that to the engineers and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

In the time ahead, I will be going more in-depth into the photographic terms of exposure and how they effect our photographs. These terms are: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO (or Sensor Sensitivity) and Exposure Compensation.

Aperture is how wide the lens' iris is opened. Like your eye, a lens has an iris. You can tell how wide it is by the f-stop number. Those funny numbers you see on your lens or through your viewfinder often designated with an f/ in front of them. In the photo of a topiary taken during Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival, the aperture setting is f/11. The lower the number, the wider the aperture is and the more light is transmitted through the lens. Reciprocally, the higher the number, the less light comes through. Aperture controls the zone of focus or depth of field in your images and can be used in very creative ways.

Shutter Speed is how long the camera's shutter stays open to expose it's sensor to the subject being photographed. Most of the time it's just a short fraction of a second. The photo above used a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second. The dimmer the light, the longer the shutter speed is to get a well-exposed picture. Low light and night photography can sometimes take seconds or minutes to capture a scene. For fast action like children playing or theme park rides, you'll want to use fast shutter speeds like 1/500th or faster to capture the action. Playing with various shutter speeds is a lot of fun!

ISO is how sensitive your digital camera's sensor is to light. You want to use the lowest ISO you can to get shootable apertures and shutter speeds. The higher or faster, as it is referred to, ISO number, the more sensitive your sensor is to light. With a lot of light available, the topiary image was taken with an ISO of 200. As day turns into night, I will increase my ISO from 200 to as high as 1600. This does increase what's called noise (they look like little specs) into the images. Unlike film, the noise is not nearly as bad as film grain was and there are software products available, which can clean up most of the noise.

Exposure Compensation or Bias is a way for digital photographers to dial in their exposure. Most digital SLR and some advanced Point & Shoot cameras have an exposure compensation button which allows you to do slight adjustments to your cameras image sensor. Usually in one half to one third intervals, this little button can make the difference between an image with too light or too dark areas into a properly exposed gem. In this blog's photo, I made a slight -1/3 (or -0.3) adjustment to keep from over exposing or "blowing out" the light background behind the topiary.

For an excellent book on this subject, I highly recommend Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure which has been updated for digital photography.

One of the first comments we received was to include some of the Exif (Exchangeable Image File) format information with the photographs we were using in the Picture This! blog. We decided to standardize this information so it's in the same place and format each time. Using the picture of Disney's Yacht Club Resort Lighthouse, here is the explanation of the Exif data line:

Nikon D70/18-200VR (Camera Make and Model / Lens Used (if applicable))
1/500s (Shutter Speed Used in Seconds)
f/11 (Aperture or f-stop Used)
200 ISO (ISO Setting Used)
-0.3 EC (Exposure Compensation or Bias Used)
26mm Focal Length (If known, this is the Focal Length when a Zoom lens is being used)

All of this information plus much more is attached to a digital image when you press the shutter release to take a picture. Not all of this information is available for every image you will see but we will always try to give you the Camera Make and Model, Shutter Speed and Aperture. In upcoming blog entries, I'll be defining and explaining each of these Exif terms.

Somethng else you may find helpful is, if you click on an image, you'll get a larger image if the author has one available. Try it on the picture above.

As we learned earlier, aperture is the size of the opening in the camera's lens measured in f-stops. I know it sounds weird but the smaller the f-stop number the larger the opening. I want to show you today how you can take advantage of apertures to create outstanding photographs.

Maximum Depth of Field or Hyperfocus. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/500s, f/11, -1.3 EC, 18mm Focal Length

The first technique is called hyperfocus and getting the maximum depth of field in a photo. This is where everything in the photo is in focus from the closest to the farthest objects out to infinity. Searching on hyperfocus will bring up all kinds of calculators on how to figure out where to focus when using a certain focal length (18, 28, 35, etc. in mm) and f-stop. By setting the aperture to an f-stop of f/11 or f/16 and focusing on a close subject, you'll get the hyperfocus effect. In the photo taken from Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival of the floating flowers, I wanted people to view this photo starting with the floating flower pot at the bottom and continue upwards to the clouds in the sky. This is how imagineeers use forced perspective throughout the parks to makes things look bigger than they actually are.

Selective Focus. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/5.6, -0.3 EC, 200mm Focal Length

What do you do if the background of the subject you want to photograph is busy? If you used a high f-stop, your subject could get lost in that busy background. For this situation you want to use a smaller f-stop or do, what is called, shooting with your lens wide open. This is done by setting the aperture at it's lowest f-stop. For my 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 200mm, it's wide open f-stop is f/5.6, which is what I used to separate and selectively focus on the meerkat at Disney's Animal Kingdom from the foliage in the distance. In this way, you are focused on the meerkat and not what is behind him. This is a great way to take human portraits at Walt Disney World and not get all those other humans in the background.

Quick Tip: I know some of you are thinking how do you set apertures using a digital camera. You do this by setting the camera's shooting mode to Aperture Priority. Refer to your camera's manual on how to do this. Once done, you set your f-stop and the camera calculates the shutter speed. Be careful here. If the aperture chosen is making your shutter speed to long, you may need to either make your aperture bigger or use a tripod.

Shutter speed is the time for which the shutter is held open during the taking of a photograph to allow light to reach the image sensor in a digital camera. A fast shutter speed will freeze the subject but needs plenty of light. A slower shutter speed needs less light and a more stationary subject or will cause image blur. However, you can use this to your advantage, as this article will show you.

Expedition Everest explorers emerging from the mountain. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/800s, f/7.1, 400 ISO, -0.3 EC, 135mm Focal Length

In the mid-afternoon Florida sun, it is easy for our cameras to select fast shutter speeds. From the observation area of Animal Kingdom's Expedition Everest ride, I wanted to freeze the ride vehicle and guests as it came out of the mountain by using a shutter speed of 1/800 of a second. By doing this, you can see their expressions and body language as they see the plunge before them. One guest in the lead car is even video taping! To capture fast action, the faster the shutter speed the better to make the images sharp and clear.

The Beatniks entertaining guests in Disney's Animal Kingdom. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/30s, f/7.5, 200 ISO

When I came upon The Beatniks as I walked towards Dinoland in Disney's Animal Kingdom, I saw an opportunity to show not only their colorful costumes but their energy by using a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. Photographs record still images, however, with the creative use of slower shutter speeds, a photograph can convey movement. The trick is not getting so much movement the subject is unrecognizable. The other trick is being able to keep your camera still while making the photo. I talked about how using stablizing lens technology can help in a previous entry. You can practice at home and test how slow a shutter speed you can use and still get acceptably sharp images. To get really long exposures slower than 1/15 of a second, you will need to either anchor yourself against something like a wall or pole, use a tripod or place your camera on a flat surface. At Walt Disney World, I've found the tops of garbage cans to be particularly useful.

Quick Tip: To take control of your shutter speed, set your camera to Shutter Priority Mode. In this way, you set the shutter speed and the camera calculates the aperture or f/stop for you. Be careful the aperture will give you the results you are looking for.

Spaceship Earth. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/10s, f/5.6, 1600 ISO, -1 EC, 135mm Focal Length

Many people have sent in questions about how to get good low-light and night photography pictures at Walt Disney World. The key is to get enough light to your digital camera's sensor to record a well exposed image. You can do this a couple of ways. Use a tripod and increase the shutter speed or increase your camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO setting, the more sensitive the sensor becomes and less light needed to record an image. Instead of using a tripod at ISO 100, you can dial in a higher setting like 400, 800 or 1600 and get a faster shutter speed. Thus, letting you hand hold in low light or in getting fast action shots like themepark rides, children playing or sporting events.

Epcot's Spaceship Earth is a favorite subject of many photographers during the day but, at night, the geodesic sphere takes on a surreal quality. To successfully show this, I increased my ISO setting to 1600. This is the highest my camera, a Nikon D70, can go. There are digital cameras today that go as high as 3200 ISO. I still needed a steady hand, propped elbows on a fence and a vibration reduction lens to shoot at 1/10s. To increase my chances of getting a great photo, I took a series of them with this being the best of the lot.

Shooting at such high ISO settings does bring about an increase in noise. Noise looks like color speckles and is noticed in uniform colors like the black sky in the Spaceship Earth photo. While it is a concern in digital photography, noise is a lot less apparent then with high ISO films. Those would show large grain in the processed prints. There are many software products available to reduce any noise which does creep into our photos.

Obviously, the less noise the better so, the lower the ISO, the finer the images your camera will produce. Check out your camera's manual to see how you can change the ISO and how high and low the settings are.

Quick Tip: Some digital cameras have an Auto ISO Setting. My Nikon D70 does and it allows me to let the camera pick the best ISO for the available light. This comes in handy as the light changes throughout the day into night or going in and out of buildings and rides at Walt Disney World.

Negative Exposure Compensation of -0.3 EV. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007 Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/125s, f5.6, 200 ISO	Positive Exposure Compensation of +0.3 EV. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007 Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/50s, f5.6, 200 ISO

Exposure Compensation allows you to adjust the exposure measured by the camera's light meter and telling the camera to allow more light in (positive exposure compensation) or less light in (negative exposure compensation). On your digital SLR camera, look for a +/- button to press to adjust exposure compensation. By making it negative, zero or postive in 1/3 (0.3) or 1/2 (0.5) intervals, you "dial" in the exposure for the photograph. As you change the exposure compensation, your camera will change it's shutter speed or aperture. Sometimes, even both, as you alter how the camera's light meter is "seeing" the subject you are pointing at.

In the two photos of the Research Station camp taken on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail in Disney's Animal Kingdom, the one on the left has a -0.3 EV (EV is the standard way of indicating exposure compensation) giving a rich color to the green foliage and detail in the rock face. The shutter speed of 1/125s freezes the waterfall. The photo on the right has a +0.3 EV, see how the contrast is heightened and some of the objects near the front of the tent get "blown out", which means the loss of detail, as the shutter speed decreased to 1/50s. Some of the shadowy areas now have details and the waterfall has a whispy look. The rule of thumb is to expose for the highlights, the brightest part of the scene, which is what I did in the photo on the left.

How do you know which exposure is best? You don't really, you pick the one you like the best. For me, I try not to get any blown out areas in my photos. This is not always possible. I hedge my bets by bracketing the exposures. Bracketing is taking one photo each at a negative compensation, a zero compensation and a postive compensation. Most digital cameras today can be set to auto-bracket and take a series of 3 to 5 photographs in a single shutter release.

Quick Tip: Do you know how much exposure compensation range your camera has? My Nikon D70 can go plus(+) or minus(-) up to 5 stops in 1/3 or 1/2 intervals. Don't be afraid to go as high or low as you need to capture the photograph.

Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show explosive finale. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 20mm Focal Length

Don't go away! Histograms are not hard to understand. They are a great tool for us digital photographers to know, at a glance, if the picture we just took is well exposed. No more being disappointed when we see the photos on our large computer screens that looked so good on the camera's little LCD. If you are not sure if your camera is able to show a histogram, check its manual.

Simply put, a histogram is a graph that displays how light is distributed in your picture. The left side of the graph represents the shadows (dark areas), while the highlights (light areas) are on the right. Remember bell curves from your old math or statistical classes? Rarely does a histogram from a photo take on the look of a perfect bell curve but the principal is the same. You do not want to see the curve bunch up to either side or get cut off which is referred to as a clipped histogram. A clipped histogram to either the left (dark) or right (light) side is something to be avoided. In the histogram example shown here, while there is a spike on the dark side, it is not clipped and falls off before the edge. The spike can be seen in the dark upper portions of the image.

By taking a photograph and looking at the histogram my camera shows me, I can tell if I have overexposed (histogram pushed to the right side or cut off) portions or all of the image. From there, I can adjust my exposure using the exposure compensation button. I may need to change the ISO setting if the histogram is showing a very underexposed (everything pushed or cut off on the left side of the graph) to increase the sensor's light sensitivity moving the histogram towards the center.

Take this entry's photo from the Disney-MGM Studios Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. I had to be quick with this shot as the car flu over the ramp faster than I was ready for. Checking the LCD image afterwards, I felt it looked good. Once I saw the well-distributed histogram, I was confident it was good.

As you can tell, the histogram is an excellent way to see if you have the exposure you are looking for quickly and easily.

Further Reading: I highly recommend this article on histograms: Understanding Your Digital Camera's Histogram.

Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 400 ISO, -0.3 EV, 80mm Focal Length

This proves how popular Cinderella's Castle really is. Just a few entries after Barrie posted about this most photographed object at Walt Disney World and here I am using this photo. I know many try to capture a unique view of the castle. I wish I could say I was trying to here. It just sort of happened and I will tell you about it soon.

Since I wanted my entries to be titled using the Epcot word of "innoventions", I want to share with you a very innovative software product I found. In my travels to many photography websites and forums, I saw other people putting lovely and informative virtual borders around their photographs. My inquires found most used various versions of Adobe Photoshop or Elements to do so. I searched for a less expensive (read: free) alternative. I finally found a product called BorderMaker by programmer Thijs Orbitz from the Netherlands. It fit my needs perfectly.

BorderMaker is very easy to use. The website has some screenshots with very little documentation but it only took me 10 minutes to get the results you see above. Before installing BorderMaker, you have to make sure you have the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment. Don't worry, it's not complicated. Once that is done, you can download and install BorderMaker with ease.

With BorderMaker, you can easily create custom border templates you can save for reuse or to batch process a set of pictures. It can auto-select border and text colors depending on a photograph's color range. Other handy features let you convert a photo to other formats, show Exif data, apply sharpening, add watermarks and even resize the processed image. In the example below, I let BorderMaker choose the border and text color initially. I changed the bottom two lines of text to red. I found the Indy font online and stretched the bottom border to accommodate all the text. The software made this very easy to do.

Another BorderMaker Example. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007

Now, how did I get the image of Cinderella's Castle? About 20 minutes after sunset this past May, I got on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (most old timers still call this the WEDway People Mover) for a leisurely ride around Tommorrowland. As I came upon the first turn past Stitch's Great Escape, I noticed Cinderella's Castle silhouetted against the pre-twilight sky and took a picture. The first one didn't come out to well as my ISO setting was at 200 so the shutter speed was too slow. I got a very blurred image. I quickly bumped up the ISO to 400 and took a couple of practice shots before entering Space Mountain. From those shots I was ready. Upon coming back out above the Tommorowland Terrace Noodle Station, I went to work. Zooming in a bit, I took a series of shots with this one coming out the best. Some photos call for a title, this one was easy: "Castle at Dusk". I think the virtural border gives the added attention this photograph deserves.

When taking a picture, one of the first elements I think about is whether to use a Landscape (horizontal) or Portrait (vertical) orientation. A lot depends on the subject as people and tall objects like towers or castles look better to me as a portrait. While four legged animals and sweeping vistas look better as a landscape. The second element I consider is what do I want to use the photograph for. Do I want to make a large print and hang it in the living room? Or, as in the case of the crow's nest and sail outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the Magic Kingdom, will I use it as wallpaper on my computer screen.

Pirates of the Caribbean. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/11, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 38mm Focal Length

I know it's popular to want to share your photography, especialy Walt Disney World photos, with other people as computer wallpaper. Just don't get stuck in taking pictures only for computer screens. When first studying photography and later when doing wedding photography, I read over and over that by turning my camera 90 degrees and shooting my subjects in a vertical orientation, it would make my photos stand out. With that in mind, I often take both a landscape and a portrait version of a photograph.

Pirates of the Caribbean Crow's Nest. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-70DX, 1/160s, f/6.3, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 60mm Focal Length

Don't forget to shoot vertical! You'll be glad you did. So, drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!

Not all light is pure white and will have a certain color temperature. Engineers express this in degrees Kelvin which you might have used in your high school physics or chemistry classes. Our eyes see color temperature as color casts like blue, green or red. Have you ever taken a picture and have it look bluish or greenish when you see it just fine? That is because your camera's White Balance setting sees color temperatures. Our brain "knows" what color you are looking at so it adjusts for color temperatures that are not too extreme. Digital cameras are getting better automatically adjusting white balance with each new model but they are not there yet.

What do we do to get the right color? Digital camera designers and engineers have given us several ways to adjust the white balance and even fine tune it. Depending on your camera, look up white balance settings in the manual. You should see similiar settngs as these with a brief description: Auto or AWB, Incandescent (sometimes referred to as Tungsten or Indoor), Daylight or Sunny, Cloudy, Flash, Shade and Fluorescent. On the camera itself, these different settings are represented by icons. You may want to copy this information and carry it with you for reference. Those icons can get confusing. On most digital SLRs, you can also fine tune these settings further. On my Nikon D70, I can adjust plus or minus up to 3. For example, I often use Auto -3, which gives me very vivid colors, especially reds and yellows. It can sometimes give me too much red as evidenced below in my photo of Ariel during the Voyage of the Little Mermaid stage show at the Disney-MGM Studios. Not only is her hair a flaming red so is her skin!

Ariel with bad white balance setting. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/15s, f/5.6, 640 ISO, -1 EV, 150mm Focal Length

Another photographer, Mark Barbieri, shows us how to set the white balance correctly. Notice Ariel's skin color is what we see during the show and how I expect the Disney Imagineers wanted us to see her. I'd like to thank Mark for allowng me to use this photograph.

Ariel with good white balance setting. © Mark Barbieri

As always, you should practice using each of the white balance settings. For instance, the Shade white balance setting will warm up colors in a scene as shade looks bluish to a camera. That doesn't mean you have to use it in shade, it will warm up a sunset just as nicely. Investigate how others are using their white balance settings on the camera you own. Photography forums have lots of information on creative uses of white balance.

Further Reading: How to Set White Balance

The Crown and Crest store in Epcot's United Kingdom pavilion. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/15s, f/3.5, 450 ISO, +1 EV, 18mm Focal Length

While "researching" family crests and name histories in the United Kingdom's Crown and Crest store in Epcot, I suddenly remembered the old Walt Disney themepark fan's adage, "Look Up!". I was rewarded with the view you see above of multicolored flags depicting family crests from Ol'England hanging from the wooden rafters.

Did you know most pictures are taken about five to six feet off the ground or eye level of most people? While I was standing for this photograph, many times after taking an initial photograph, I pause and think how I can make it better. Would a different angle help? What if I move closer? Or farther away? Would getting down on my knees or belly give the picture more impact? How about from above? Is it possible to come back at another time of day when the sun is low or at night?

Now, I do know it is very hard to do this at Walt Disney World with the crowds, kids in tow or rushing to get to a scheduled show or dining reservation. However, I encourage you to practice this exercise with subjects around your home, neighborhood or anywhere you have your camera with you. Thankfully, Disney Imagineers make it easy and all you need to do is look up...

Flags blowing in the wind above the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Animal Kingdom. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 75mm Focal Length

Google's free photo editing software, Picasa, is a simple to use way to enhance, clean up or fix your digital photographs. I have been impressed with what I have learned in the few days I have used Picasa. It has given me a way to fix some high contrast images I took during this year's International Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot.

As most of you are aware, the midday Florida sun is very bright. When I came upon the Donald Duck and Pluto pirate topiaries at the entrance to World Showcase coming from Future World, it was around three in the afternoon. My first attempts had Donald and Pluto well exposed but the bright sky and clouds were blown out. The clouds looking more like unnatural white bloobs due to overexposure. Using the exposure compensation button on my camera, I adjusted it down to -1.3 EV before the sky and clouds became correctly exposed. Unfortunetaly, due to the extreme difference or contrast in the brightness of the sky and the topiaries, Donald and Pluto were now underexposed. In digital photography, it's best to expose for the brightest parts of the scene which is what I did in the photo you see below.

Donald Duck and Pluto topiaries before editing. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/160s, f/13, 200 ISO, -1.3 EV, 18mm Focal Length

I'm sure you can see why I might toss this image into the trash bin. However, I had downloaded Picasa and had been learning it's capabilities. Maybe I can fix it! With a gleam in my eye, I launched Picasa and went about the task of throwing some added light on to Donald and Pluto.

Picasa has two elements to it. First is the Library which catalogs all your images on your Window's based PC (as of this writing, Picasa does not have a Mac OSX or Linux version available). You scroll through all your images on the right side of the Library's window. On the left you can set up virtual folders and see the aging of other photos by folder. You can watch slideshows, email, print and upload to Picasa Web Albums from the Library.

Double clicking on an image brings it into the Picasa Editor. On the left side, you see Picasa's tools with three tab views entitled Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects. For my pirate topiary photo, I started out by adding some Fill Light in the Basic Fixes tab, moving the slider to the right until the detail in both Donald and Pluto could be seen clearly. This kept most of the detail in the sky and clouds without blowing them out. For this image, I didn't need any of the Tuning tools and skipped right to the Effects tab. In adding fill light, some of the color of the flowers at Donald's feet got a bit washed out or dull looking. I used the Saturation tool on the Effects tab to bring the color back. Don't overdo this effect unless you want a really cartoonish look to your photo. I applied just a bit here. As you'll read in most photo editing books, I applied sharpening as the last step in the photo editng process. Here again, you don't want to give it too much or the photo looks unreal. I clicked on the Sharpened tool just once.

Donald Duck and Pluto topiaries after editing in Picasa. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007

All done! What do you think? For a free photo editor, Picasa did an excellent job. Oh, and another thing, when I saved the edited version, Picasa saved my original in a separate folder. Picasa is far from PhotoShop but you can't beat the price for such an easy and useful photo editing tool.

Further Reading: I have only shown you a bit of what Picasa can do. Google's Online Tour of Picasa goes into much more detail than I have room for here.

Chistmas Mickey & Minnie. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/25s, f/4.5, 400 ISO, +0.3 EV, 80mm Focal Length

There are many ways to use our photos. Enlarge and frame them for our homes or give photographic gift items like magnets, t-shirts or buttons. With the advent of digital photography and the Internet, you can create online digital albums and slideshows complete with music. Many people think ahead and take unique family photographs and create holiday cards to send to family and friends.

This year, I wanted to use one of my photos taken last year during Mousefest in Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square. The figurine of Mickey holding misletoe over Minnie as she is closing in to give him a kiss was a delightful one I couldn't resist. I used available light in the shoppe and got close with the 80-200 zoom lens on my camera. Your feet is your best zoom lens. This allowed me to use the widest aperture and shortest focal length of the lens to get the most light onto the camera's sensor and blurring the busy background of people passing by the shop window.

Many photo software packages today have ways to create and order prints, cards, postcards and other items. I used Apple's iPhoto to place the photo on the front of the Christmas card. I liked this layout with the angled image, old English font for the text and simple blue border. Inside is a place for more text and pictures. From there it was a simple click to order the quantity I wanted.

Tower of Terror collage. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/360s, f/7.5, 100 ISO, 0 EV

I love creating new artistic works from my photographs. This one I am particularly proud of as it came together over a couple of years. I first took the picture of the Disney-MGM Studio's Tower of Terror during a trip back in 2004. I liked the clouds overhead. On a return trip a year later, I was in an hour wait queue to ride the Tower of Terror. Since I had my trusty Nikon Coolpix 995 with me, I passed the time by taking pictures of things I came upon in the queue. Disney Imagineers do a wonderful job of detail and I wanted to capture some of it.

Fast forward a couple of months and I came upon a speciality photo software package called LumaPix FotoFusion which made it very easy to create photo collages. If you are a scrapbooker, you may also want to take a look at this software. FotoFusion has frames in all shapes and sizes. There are backgrounds to choose from or you can use your own graphics or photos as was the case with mine here. It makes it easy to get started creating a collage by selecting the photos you want to use and pressing the Auto Collage button. If you don't like the first layout it comes out with, press it again. Once you see something you like, you can take over for the final arrangment of the images, change sizes of the images, put different frames and borders on them, add text in any font your computer has and use special effects like shadowing and blurs.

Taking my Tower of Terror image from 2004 as the background and grabbing a few from my queue photos in 2005, I started putting together my collage. It's a lot of fun moving the images around, selecting frames, colors and effects, even rotating them. After I got done, I wanted something more. The font wasn't creepy enough. It didn't take me long to find a Twilight Zone font on the Internet which gave an authentic look to the final product.

Photo collages are a great way to create new images from photos you had no idea what to do with.

Earlier, I showed how the use of software can add light to a badly underexposed photo. What if I told you there was a way to do the same thing using your camera and not having to do any post-processing in software. Would that be worth something to ya?

Looking at the photo below taken at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, you can see that the background and sky are nicely exposed but the subject is in shadow because of the angle fo the sun in relation to the photographer.

Scottwdw (yep, that's me) at Disney's Boardwalk Resort © Scott Thomas Photography 2005
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/250s, f/6.0, 100 ISO, 0 EV

After looking at the image in the camera's LCD, I instructed the photographer (my daughter) to use the camera's flash to fill in the shadows. The result you can view below.

Scottwdw (me, again) at Disney's Boardwalk Resort © Scott Thomas Photography 2005
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/60s, f/6.0, 100 ISO, 0 EV, Flash Used

This technique is called Fill Flash as it fills in shadow and dark areas of a scene with the use of an artificial light source. In this case, the builtin flash on the camera. In digital SLR and advanced Point & Shoot cameras, you may hear the term balanced fill flash as the camera will calculate the amount of flash needed using the amount of light detected by it's light meter. You don't want the flash to overpower the available light but to add just enough to bring out darkened areas like in this example.

Further Reading: While this article talks specifically about Canon equipment, other manufacturer's cameras work in a simliar fashion. Fill-in flash use with EOS cameras and speedlites

Running applications on the Internet has come a long way since portals like Yahoo and Google introduced Online Email. Now you can run spreadsheets and wordprocessors as well as figure out when you can call for your Advanced Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World.

Just recently, a new online photo editor was offically launched called Picnik which lets you do many general edits to your photos as well as add special effects, shapes, text and frames. Picnik has two versions. A Basic version which is free to use and a Premium version for $24.95 annually. Picnik currently interfaces with some of the more popular photo sharing websites such as Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Photobucket, Webshots and even Facebook. You'll find links on the Photo Tab of Picnik for more information on how to use photos from those sites.

Before Editing. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007	After Editing. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/80s, f/11, 400 ISO, -0.3 EV

I wanted to see just how good such an application might be so I created a free Picnik account and got started. Since this is an Internet application, it doesn't matter whether you are using a Windows, Linux or Mac operating system. As long as your browser supports Picnik, you'll be fine. I had no trouble using Picnik in Internet Explorer or Safari. If you don't use any of the services Picnik interfaces with, you can do what I do and upload a photo directly from your computer. You can only work on one photo at a time.

For our example, I choose a photo I took of Disney-MGM Studio's Beauty and the Beast Stage Show where I had the wrong white balance setting causing a very reddish cast to the actor's faces. Picnik has tabs across the top for Home, Photos, Edit, Create and Save & Share (see screen shot below). The Edit tab is where you start to improve your images. You can Rotate, Crop, Resize, and even fix Red-Eye. You'll find adjustment tools for Exposure, Color and Sharpen on this tab, too.

To fix my image, I started with the Exposure tool. To enter any of the tools, just click on the corresponding button. In Exposure you can add or subtract exposure and contrast using sliders. An Advaced tool is also available which shows a Histogram and adds sliders for Highlights and Shadows. In this case, I added a little exposure to lighten up the photograph. This is a good place to note that all your editing is done on the entire image. You don't have a way to selectively edit like you would in Photoshop and other simliar PC based photo editing applications.

Picnik Application (click for larger image)

The major fix I needed for this example was for color. Under the Color tab, you have Auto Color, Neutral Picker and sliders for Saturation and Color Temperature. Knowing the white balance was my main concern, I slid the color temperature slider to the left which adjusts the color cast towards the blue end of the spectrum. I had to slide it a long ways and ended up at a -65. It looked good but not quite good enough. I hit the Reset button to start over. This time I used the Auto Color button and while it looked a bit washed out at a setting of -84, the skin tones were much better. All the tools in Picnik have a Reset button. In that if you find what you are doing gets a bit odd looking, it's easy to start over. Clicking the OK button, retains the edits. I added a little sharpening in the Sharpen tool, too.

Now the fun begins. While I liked the photo, it needed "something". I entered the Create tab of the Picnik application and started trying various effects. After adjusting the color temperature earlier, I noted the photo looked a bit washed out. Using the Boost tool, I added some color back in adjusting the slider to 5 percent. This brought back a little redness to the faces but it looked more natural. I found I liked the look of adding a Matte around the subjects. You can control the size, strength and color of the matte effect. I emphasized the golden color of Belle's dress and the Prince's suit trim this way. Next, I went to the Shapes tool and added the heart shape. I changed the heart's location, size, color and fading before adding the text in the Text tool.

Once I was satisfied with everything, I went to the Save & Share tab and saved the new image back to my computer's hard drive. Be careful here. Picnik will use the same name for the edited version. Picnik might think about adding some sort of extension in a future update.

I was very impressed with how far Picnik has come in the last three months when I first discovered it. The developers keep adding new tools, controls, effects, shapes and fonts all the time. Being an Internet application, you can access it from any computer in the world. Might come in handy for doing edits from a hotel room in Walt Disney World for all you bloggers and webmasters out there. I suggest giving Picnik a try the next time you need to do some photo editing and see if it might work for you.

The Rule of Thirds is a compositional rule in photography and other visual arts. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. This aligning of a photograph's subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the subject would. However, like the Pirate's Code, the Rule of Thirds is more like a guideline than an actual rule.

Below is a photograph of Off Kilter's Bassist, Mark Weldon, where I am showing you how the Rule of Thirds applies. (Note, it's not exact as I hand drew in the lines but it's close enough for our purposes.) Notice in three of the four intersections there are strong subjects close by: Mark's tilted head in the upper left and both his hands in the lower two.

Rule of Thirds.

Many people feel the application of the Rule of Thirds turns everyday snapshots into professional looking photographs. I know as I edit my photos, the ones which follow this rule stands out above ones that don't. Especially, when taking pictures of people. For instance, we've all taken pictures of a person or group of people in front of the Magic Kingdom's entrance with the train station and flowers in the exact center of the Mickey symbol. I am guilty of this. Next time, try composing the people in one of the lower intersection points. I think you'll find the photographs will appeal to you more.

Another popular mistake people make is putting the horizon right in the middle of their picture. Effectively disecting the image in two. You should try to put the horizon at either the upper or lower third of your viewfinder when composing.

By practicing the Rule of Thirds, you'll find yourself thinking a bit before pressing the shutter. Recomposing in the viewfinder or retaking an image after looking at the photo you just took. The fun of digital photography is how easy and fast it is to learn to take better pictures. Another fun project is to review past photos which you thought were okay, crop them using the Rule of Thirds and see, if by doing so, makes them better.

Now, I think I owe Mark and all of you an unobstructed look as I captured him jamming to a Celtic tune during my last trip to Walt Disney World. Off Kilter can be seen several times a day at Epcot's Canadian pavilion when scheduled to perform. Check the link for more information about the band and their schedule.

Off Kilter Bassist, Mark Weldon.
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, 0 EV, 200mm Focal Length

The definition of a prop is something used in creating or enhancing a desired effect. The entire Walt Disney World resort is full of props. Some conspicuous and some not. I'm going to show you an example of each from Disney's Animal Kingdom.

The first prop is found in Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama which is like a little scene people can get into. This was taken a few months before my youngest daughter (seen here as the driver) would be able to get her driving learners permit and my eldest daughter acting out how she feels about that. Makes for a great photo from that trip. This can be found near the tail of the large, cartoon-ish brontosaurus, which you can see, in the background.

Dino-Rama Prop.
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/350s, f/7.5, 100 ISO, 0 EV

In the gorilla glass viewing area on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail there are many displays of information showing the differences between a gorilla's anatomy and Man's. Here my daughters are comparing their hands to the hand prints of a 6 year old male gorilla. Again, this prop makes for a wonderful memory and photograph.

Comparing Hands.
Nikon Coolpix 995, 1/30s, f/3, 200 ISO, 0 EV

You can find props in all the parks, resorts and entertainment areas in Walt Disney World. Here's some more places you can look for on your next trip: the park bench with Roy Disney and Minnie Mouse near the flag pole on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, stage crates near Min and Bill's Dockside Diner in the Disney-MGM Studios, parasols in the Yong Feng Shangdian Department Store in Epcot's China pavilion and a life size Buzz Lightyear outside of the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney's Marketplace. Do you have a favorite prop at Walt Disney World? I'd love to hear about them and I'll share them in a later Photo Blog entry. Just send in a Comment!

I've been looking at all the Day After Thanksgiving sales brochures online over the past few days. There are some great deals coming out for the digital camera owner on your list. Here are some of ideas:

Camera/Lens Dependent Gifts
Memory Cards
Rechargable Batteries
UV Lens Filter
Circular Polarizer Lens Filter

Non-Dependent Gifts
Micro-Fiber lens cleaning cloth
USB External Hard Drives (many under $100)

Photography books make great gifts. Here are two of my favorites.

Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure - is a great book on how exposure relates to your photographs. Updated for the digital age.

The Digital Photography Book - Ever wonder how to create a photo you see in a book or magazine? This book gives you "recipes" so you won't have to wonder anymore.

And some products that I've found useful.

Giottos Rocket Blaster - keep your camera's sensor dry and clean.

Cam-Pod Camera Support - don't want to lug around a tripod? This will protect and secure your camera. Great to use on top of flat surfaces like those famous Walt Disney World garbage cans.

Bogen-Manfrotto 725B Tripod - If you do want to use a tripod, I've found this one to be a good combination of light weight and sturdiness. Comes with a carrying bag with an over the shoulder strap.

Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G DX VR Zoom Lens - For the Nikon owner, this is Nikon's budget Vibration Reduction (VR) lens for their dSLR systems. I own the 18-200 with similiar technology and this lens has gotten rave reviews on popular photography forums.

I'll see you in the malls at 5am on Friday! Happy Holiday Shopping Everyone!

In the days of film, it was expensive and time consuming to go about cropping photos. With digital photography that is no longer the case. Even the most rudimentary photo editing software will let you crop. While it's easier to "crop" in the camera, it's not always possible. The only restriction is the size of the digital image where if you crop too much, the size of the image becomes too small.

So, why do we need to crop? Sometimes we want to adjust an image to use the Rule of Thirds, eliminate unwanted parts caught around the subject or enlarge a subject to bring it front and center. Keep in mind, cropping is NOT resizing the entire image but taking a part of the image to make a better photo.

In Minnie's Magnificent Butterfly Garden, I took this photo of the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) during Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival. The original you see above is a bit too centered so I wanted to change the orientation from a landscape to a portrait and make the butterfly even more the main subject. To do this, I used a photo editor to select a 5x7 crop size and rotated to make it a portrait then aligned it as you see below.

Monarch Butterfly. Copyright © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/250s, f/8, 200 ISO, -0.7 EV, 170mm Focal Length

Further Reading: Cropping Photos :: Every Picture Tells a Story

A camera lens which has a focal length over 100mm is considered a telephoto lens. This includes the popular zoom lenses which go over 100mm. Just like a telescope, the longer the focal length, the smaller angle of view is seen through the camera's viewfinder. This has the effect of compressing objects at different distances in the field of view. Depending on the camera's depth of field or aperture setting, the objects can all be in sharp focus or just a selected object.

In the picture below of Christmas decorations down Magic Kingdom's Mainstreet USA, I compressed the wreaths, garland and Cinderella's Castle into a pleasing composition. The aperture set at f/8 kept all three subjects in focus and without the reference of buildings on either side, it's hard to tell how much distance is between them. Incidently, I took this from the Walt Disney World Railroad platform which overlooks Mainstreet USA. It's a great photographer's roost for parades, fireworks and for getting over the heads of our fellow quests.

Mainstreet Christmas Decorations. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/800s, f/8, 400 ISO, +0.3 EV, 116mm Focal Length

I promised myself I would not brood over the fact that my two blog-mates are both enjoying Mousefest at Walt Disney World today. I did attend Mousefest in 2006 so, as I looked through those photos, I found this interesting subject to talk about. I know Barrie and Lisa will be bringing us all back some great photos to share. You gals stay out of trouble, ya hear?

Further Reading: For those interested in attending future Mousefests, here's the link to the offical website: Mousefest.org

Last month I did an entry on Props at Walt Disney World and asked people to send in their favorites. By far the most popular ones where all the different and fun hats you find in shops throughout the resort. As an example, my daughter is trying on a very patriotic hat in The Chapeau, a hat shop on Magic Kingdom's Main Street. This shop can monogram almost any hat and, of course, Mickey Ears for you while you wait. Hats found in World Showcase are a big hit with our Photo Blog readers from French Berets, Sombreros in Mexico, Coolie hats in China to Homburg style hats in Germany. The little outdoor shop at Rafiki's Planet Watch in Disney's Animal Kingdom has all kinds of safari hats. My daughter just had to model one for me.

Safari hat. © Scott Thomas Photography 2007
Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/60s, f/4.5, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 40mm focal length

Other popular suggestions for props was RC Car from Toy Story at the All Star Movies resort, the larger than life Troll in Norway's Puffin's Roost shop, a Cinderella statue at the Marketplace in Downtown Disney similar to Buzz Lightyear I mentioned in the first Disney Prop entry and the Mickey sculpture at the Contemporary resort with Mickey ears perfect to sit kids in.

Would like to continue this topic so if you have a favorite Walt Disney World prop, I'd like to hear about it! Just leave a Comment using the link below.

A Very...

Nikon D70/18-70DX, 1/125s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 18mm Focal Length

The Downtown Disney Christmas Tree from 2006. Selective coloring and graphics done in Picnik.com.

Here's wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday. I will not have an entry for next week but will be back in the New Year! If you get any cool photography stuff under your tree you'd think others would like to hear about, drop me a line!

Unlike when you used film, digital photography processing is done inside your camera and produces JPEG images. (dSLRs can also produce RAW images. RAW images are often referred to as digital negatives and require processing on a computer to produce the final JPEG image.) If you are like me, you try to get all your photos as close to perfect right out of the camera. It takes a lot of practice and getting to know your camera as to what settings give you the results you are looking for. I learn each time I use my camera so if you are an old hand at photography or just starting your photographic adventures, you will one day look at the photos and wonder if there is a way to improve them.

In researching this entry I found there is no general "how to" information on approaching digital photo editing. What follows is my approach. The photo editor used was Picnik.com and the steps outlined should be available in most photo editing software. The goal for the photo I selected of my daughter enjoying a hammock on the Polynesian Resort's beach was to reclaim the colors as I remembered them.

Before Digital Processing. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008	After Digital Processing. © Scott Thomas Photography 2008
Original Photo Data: Nikon D70/18-200VR, 1/500s, f/10, 200 ISO, -0.3 EV, 18mm Focal Length

Step 1: EXPOSURE

The original image on the left is a bit underexposed as I had dialed in a -0.3 exposure compensation (EV). Not a drastic error yet I wanted to recoup the detail lost. In Picnik.com, I start with the Exposure tab which has two sliders for Exposure and Contrast. I first moved the Exposure slider to the right to add exposure slowly until I got back the detail. Picnik.com has an advanced button for brightness, adjusting highlight and dark areas and local contrast. I like to use the local contrast tool instead of the general contrast slider as it gives me a little more control. Your software may or may not have this option. I used a radius of 5 and strength of 25%. This brought out even more detail in the hammock and tree bark.

Step 2: COLOR

After adjusting exposure, I move on to the Color tab. Here I always first try the Auto Color button. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. As they say YMMV (Your Milage My Vary). In this case, I didn't like it and hit the Reset button to start over. Next I adjusted the two sliders available. One for Temperature and one for Saturation. I set up my camera to saturate colors so I usually don't have to add any more. However, my camera settings tends to give my photos a reddish cast to light objects. In this case, the sand and hammock color is off. In some software, you may see a Blue and Red indicator on the Temperature slider. I moved the Temperature slider to the left or blue end to a -5 bringing back the natural colors to those photo elements.

Step 3: SHARPENING

I've been learning about sharpening over the last few days and was surprised to find out most digital photos need to be sharpened. Picnick.com allows for two ways to sharpen: a simple slider and a more advanced Unsharp Mask. Don't let the unsharp mask confuse you, it is a sharpening tool. The name is a hold over from film processing days. The simple slider is great and I have used it with excellent results but no higher than a setting of 10 or less. Beyond that, photos start to look unreal.

There's a whole bunch of ways people use unsharp mask tools in photo editing software. Some are very complicated and require very expensive software. However, I want to share with you three simple recipes as recommended by Scott Kelby in his book, The Digital Photography Book (page 18):

For people, set Amount to 150%, Radius to 1 pixel and Threshold to 4 levels
For cityscapes, urban and travel photography, set Amount to 65%, Radius to 3 pixels and Threshold to 2 levels
For general everyday use, set Amount to 85%, radius to 1 pixel and Threshold to 4 levels

In the example photo, I used the general recipe in Picnik.com's Unsharp Mask tool (note: Picnik.com does not have the Threshold setting).

Now, all these adjustments are to MY taste. Yours will be different. What I have found in reading about photo editing is it is very subjective to the person doing the editing. There are techniques you can learn but no rules to follow. If you own a photo editing software product, I encourage you to find Internet resources, books, and video training for it.

I am much happier with the new version of my example photograph. To see larger versions of the Before and After photos, click on either of them. I hope this gives you some ideas on how to approach your photo editing tasks.

Parasols in Liberty Square.
Nikon D70/80-200D, 1/200s, f/5.6, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 135mm Focal Length

When I can, I like to find Photographic Gems at Walt Disney World. Gems can be found literally around each and every corner. Remember to look not at just the overall scene but at parts of them. This is how I found these colorful, personalized parasols being displayed next to a cart in the Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square across from the Christmas shop. It was a busy morning and there were people everywhere but the bright colors of the parasols caught my eye as I was scanning around. The Cast Member had taken great care in arranging the parasols in a pleasing fashion. Being in the shade, the picture came out a bit bluish so I adjusted the color temperature a bit towards the warm or red color in a photo editor.

Did you get a new High Definition (HD) TV for Christmas? You might want to pull out it's user manual and see how you can get your digital photos to display on it. Most come with a way to hook up your camera or computer directly to a video input. Some, like the Samsung DLP HDTV I own, have a USB port and built-in photo viewing program. I copy some photos to a USB Flash drive on my computer then plug it into the TV's USB port. I select the photo viewer program called Wiselink from the HDTV's menu and it displays the contents of the drive (see photo).

There is a gotcha. When copying the photos to the USB drive, I make sure the photos are 1920 pixels in width to fill the HDTV's screen. However, since my digital camera does not produce an HDTV's screen ratio of 16x9, I still end up with black bars on the left and right side of each picture. This is not a big deal for me because the large, bright and clear image displayed is still breathtaking. It's a very easy way to show others your photos without everyone having to crowd around a small computer screen.

I have noticed many of the newer cameras now have a 16x9 ratio selection when taking photos. Those images would completely fill the screen. Check your camera's manual to see if it supports this feature.

Back to my HDTV, I can either manually select and view each photo or start up a slideshow which displays each photo in sequence for a set number of seconds. I can even add music while it's running. This is a far cry from the days of bulky white movie screens, loud slide projectors and long boring presentations by the photographer. Well, two out of three isn't bad!

Space Mountain in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D70/18-70DX, 1/160s, f/6.3, 200 ISO, +0.3 EV, 50mm Focal Length

To get the sharpest images possible with your lens, it's best not to use the widest or smallest apertures. Most lenses a