Five Simple Photography Tips

2010-07-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Five simple photography tips to improve your shots. When taking pictures there are a few things you should keep in the back of your mind to enable you to take better pictures in a variety of settings and ambient light conditions.
The first one is polarising. This is the trick of warming up the tones of the image to make it more aesthetically pleasing on the eye. It will not be as harsh as if taken in full sunlight and can work out very well for outdoor photographs. The simplest method is to use your camera on the "cloudy" setting, if it has one.
If your camera doesn't have this, a simple trick is to use your own sunglasses in front of the camera lens. Place your glasses as close as you can to the camera lens, ensuring through the LCD viewfinder that the spectacle frames are not in the shot. This enhances the colours and will deepen the sky tones to a richer blue.
The next tip is using the fill flash mode. This is the simple trick of using your camera flash to fill in shadows caused to your subject by the sun. By simply taking control of the flash function of the camera you can ensure that it fires when you want it to and not when it decides that the time is right.
When the flash is used outdoors it will expose the background first and add just enough flash to highlight your subject and remove any facial shadows. This is a trick many wedding photographers use. Once you have the hang of this you can try what is referred to as "rim lighting" your subject. This merely involves positioning your subject so the sun illuminates their hair from the back or sides.
Another use is to place your subject in the shade and then use the flash. This ensures the subject is more comfortable and they will not have to squint in bright sunlight. Remember that most built in flashes only have a range of up to 10 feet or less, so make sure that you do not stand to far away.
Next is using the macro facility. Remember when you were a child and you discovered the wonderful world of insects and small creatures living in the grass and ponds. Entire communities that you never dreamed existed. You might not be into crawling around at ground level any more but if you use the macro or close up mode to explore this world in finer detail, you'll find fresh new images that are different to anything that you've ever photographed before.
Even the most simplest of objects will take on a completely different facet in macro and it is easy to do with today's digital camera. Even a simple flower can take on a much more compelling image when taken close up. Just choose the macro mode, normally a flower symbol, get close and allow the camera to focus, then take the shot. Remember that you will have a very shallow depth of field, so focus carefully on the part of the subject you wish to capture and allow the rest of the image to go soft. This will result in an excellent photograph.
For unknown reasons a lot of people have problems holding a camera level when using LCD monitors on their cameras. This can throw out the resultant horizon on the captured image. Some of the smaller LCD monitors don't help, neither does holding the camera in one hand. If you suffer from this problem there are a couple of methods to try. Consider taking multiple shots, repositioning each one slightly. With luck one will turn out fine. Another way round it is in the processing software. There are many programmes that will allow you to straighten out any tilted horizons. One other way is to use a tripod.
Finally we need to think about memory cards and image resolution. There is no point whatsoever in having a camera able to take!0 or 12 megapixel images and then have to set it to only use a fraction of this. Get the appropriate size memory card to enable you to use your camera to its full potential. If you've paid out for a camera to take 12 megapixels you should use it.
You also need to shoot at the camera's highest quality compression. If you are not as close to the action as you would like you will probably be able to obtain a decent image with the crop tool in your processing software. The point of course being that if you have enough memory, there's no reason to use a lower resolution setting and risk finishing up with poor images with lots of noise. Use the top settings at all times and show off your work.
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You will receive a free eBook that will answer many of your basic photography queries. It's absolutely free and will go a long way to getting you started in this fascinating hobby without making too many mistakes.

MMORPG: Application of Classroom Lessons

2007-09-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

I am currently 2nd year B.S. in Economics student. I started playing MMORPG since I was 4th year high school. Internet gaming was slowly gaining its popularity by that time. Computer cafes was increasing in numbers especially near schools and universities. One afternoon, my classmates went to a computer shop to play an online game which was the Rush
On Seven Episodes(ROSE). I told myself, "Online game, ano yun?". Because of curiosity, I followed my classmates at the computer cafe. I watched them controlling a cute character. The character can run, sit, fight, kill, and the best of all, talk to other characters in real time. I was amazed with what they were doing and that triggers me play online games. Since then, I was already a responsible gamer until now(Study first, play after).

Online gaming, especially MMORPG, affected my life so much. Negative effects? Many. However, there are also positive effects of playing this addicting game. School + MMORPG = a better student. Wondering why? Di ba nga, "It's easier for a lesson to understand if it is witnessed and applied." I will discuss how.

Some basic concepts in economics are supply and demand, inflation, exchange rate, hoarding, and many more. Basically, all of these are present inside the game. Every game has its own economy. I'm playing Perfect World right now so I might give examples based on the game's economy.

Supply and demand is simply what determines what should be the price of a certain goods and services in an market. If the supply of a certain good is too much than what the market needs, the effect would be decrease in price of that good and vice versa. If the demand of a ceratin good is too high, it would increase the price of that good and vice versa. That's basic and it's present inside MMORPGs. For example in PW, items which are needed in Dragon Seeking Quests are one of the most expensive items in the market. Why? Because many players want to buy those items or the demand is high. These players wwant to have DSQ because of large EXP and also tokens which can be use in exchange to rare items.

Inflation is the increase of the price of a certain good in a span of time. Deflation is the opposite. If you can observe, changes on price of goods ingame are very dynamic. Prices are always changing. Why is it like that? One main factor is the supply and demand which I sited earlier. Producers and consumers are the one who determines the price of a certain good. When the producers supply meets with the consumers demand, that would be the price of that good or simply the equilibrium point. And because of changing needs and preferences of players in-game, thats the reason why there are frequent changes in the prices of goods.

Exhange rate is the rate of a currency against other currencies. In our country, basic example is the Peso-Dollar exchange rate. In-game, we have also exchange rate. In PW, we have the Gold-Yuan exchange rate. Gold is acquired through loading your account with Levelup cards and it is use to buy items in the item mall. Yuan is the in-game money or currency. In the Dragon server, the rate is usually 1200-1300 for every Gold as of now. If many players want to buy items from the item mall, the rate of Gold-Yuan will depreciate or the value of a Gold will be more yuan since the demand for Gold is high. Supply and demand enters again on this concept.

Hoarding is the storing of goods and money. We can usually witness this when there's a typhoon entering our country. Basically, hoarding is a strategy of those sellers to gain more profit. How? Hoarding simply makes the prices of goods to increase which is due to lack of supply or there is a shortage. Present in-game? Absolutely yes. I usually do this one. Although bad for the buyer, it benefits me much. Again I will use PW's market as an example. In PW, there are times that there are summoning of monsters which drops items needed in Dragon Seeking Quests. Generally, after this summoning, the price of that item will decrease since the supply is too much or there is a surplus. What I'm doing and what I'm telling to my clanmates is to hoard that item. This action is to make the price stay the same or even increase so that we can avoid to sell that item to a cheaper price. I vend my items just once a week but my timing is always good. I make sure that the price of the items that I acquired during the summoning is high to have a better profit.

These were just some of the concepts we had tackled on my economics class this semester. The good thing is I don't just understand these concepts but I'm witnessing it and at the same time applying it through MMORPG. These could definitely help me on my future career as a professional(hopefully). That's why School + MMORPG = a better student.

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Photography and Stuffs

Five Simple Photography Tips

MMORPG: Application of Classroom Lessons