Sell Photography

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s a great time for taking advantage of the sales and lowered prices being offered by the camera vendors. It just so happens that I was in the market for a new camera, so I did extensive research through the hundreds of reviews to find out what was being considered the best cameras available for this holiday season. The choices are so overwhelming, it literally took hours and days of reading through all the options, features, reviews, and trying to figure out the best camera selections.

What I have done is listed what is felt to be the top picks for various categories, based on many reviews, and the research I’ve done recently for my own purchase. I’ve listed them from least expensive to the most, but that obviously shouldn’t be the deciding factor. It’s important to note your usage, your level of expertise, the level of quality you require, and the various features you need. One thing to remember, size isn’t everything. For many people 8 megapixels should be sufficient, but 10 or 12 megapixels is optimum.

Features to make note of in your decision: megapixels, optical zoom, HD Video, image stabilization, face detection, and red eye removal. These features are practically a given if you are buying a sophisticated new camera now.

One thing you will find, is that the cameras today are excellent, and continuing to get better all the time.

 Best Budget Digital Camera
- Nikon CoolPix S570 12MP 

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great camera!! For the budget under $200, you can’t go wrong with the highly rated Nikon CoolPix S570 . Simple, small, stylish, easy to use, and feature-packed for its price, it features wide-angle, 12 Megapixel sensor, image stabilization, a 5X Zoom Lens, and 640×480 video recording. It’s Nikkor lens, with a 2.7 aperture, helps in low-light situations. One more cool feature is the Smart Portrait System, which makes it a great camera for fun and family. For the price, this is a very solid choice. Available in Red, Black, or Silver.

More reviews and current lowest prices on the Nikon CoolPix

Best Digital Camera with Best Image Quality
- FujiFilm FinePix F200 EXR

Using a new technology called “binning” or “pixel fusion,” the FujiFilm FinePix F200 EXR’s Super CCD EXR provides superior picture quality, enabling high resolution, high sensitivity, low noise, and a wide dynamic range. What this means for you is exceptional quality, even in low light capabilities, and superior balanced contrast. Combine that with a 28-140mm Fujinon lens with a 5X Optical Zoom, a 12 Megapixel sensor, some Manual shooting modes, a 640×480 video, this easy-to-use camera is a great choice in the $300-$400 price range.

More reviews and current lowest prices on the Fuji FinePix F200

Best Pocket Digital Camera for the Serious Photographer
- Canon Powershot S90

The new Canon Powershot S90 offers a 10.0 Megapixel sensor coupled with Canon’s DIGIC 4 Image Processor, and a new control ring around the barrel for fast control changes. With a full set of Manual controls, this compact and pocket-sized camera is tremendous for the advanced amateur. The lens is great for low-light shooting with an aperature of f/2.0, 28mm wide-angle, 3.8x Optical Zoom, Image Stabilization, and the ability to shoot in RAW format for ulimate creative control. The large 3.0-inch PureColor System LCD provides you with even greater true-to-life color reproduction. You’re getting alot for your money.

More reviews and current low prices on the Canon Powershot S90

Best Mega Zoom Digital Camera (and HD, manual controls, and RAW)
- Canon Powershot SX1 IS

My personal latest addition, and one of top consumer groups, is the powerful Canon SX1 IS, featuring an optical zoom that will take you up to 20x, or 560mm. On top of that, it features HDTV 1920 X 1080p video recording capability, a good sized high resolution 10MP Sensor, and a flip-and-twistable LCD screen. Because of these features, the SX1 becomes a unique camera. Even the zoom and video are image stabilized, a huge issue common with many cameras. However, its image quality will still fall short of a true DSLR camera, but with the CMOS processor, normally only found in DSLR’s, it comes as close as one can. This camera rocks, and I’m very happy with mine. Click here to see the Moon Zoom Test Photos taken with my SX1.

More reviews and current low prices on the Canon SX1 IS

Best Entry Level Digital SLR Camera
- Nikon D5000 (with 18-55mm VR lens)

Want the top-rated Entry-level Digital SLR for top of the line quality? For top quality, a DSLR is the only choice. The Nikon D5000 gives you that quality level, plus a 12 MP CMOS sensor, flip-and-rotate screen, a wireless flash controller (great for changing flash angles), 720p HD video capture, and a 18-55mm VR lens with wide angle and image stabilization. It also supports a wireless data upload, using an Eye-Fi card. The great thing about all this is that the combination of body and lens are sold for around $700. An additional kit includes a 55-200mm lens, for less than $900. These kits make it very easy for the serious amateur photographer to move up to the DSLT world of photography at a very reasonable price, with a very solid camera choice.

More reviews and current low prices on the Nikon D5000

Photography is a wonderful hobby enjoyed by lots of people all over the world. It’s a very enjoyable passtime, but also a very technical one. There’s a bewildering range of cameras, lenses and accessories, and photographers also have to get to grips with computers and image editing software packages. It can get very confusing, especially for newcomers to the hobby, and there always seems to be something to new to learn, even for experienced photographers.

With this in mind we’ve put together a list of over 50 free resources that will be useful to anyone involved in photography. We’ve compiled a list of the best and most comprehensive websites that will help you get the most out of your photography equipment. You’ll find a gold mine of articles on equipment and technique, plus advice from some of the most active and well-known professional photographers practising today.

We’ve divided these websites into categories for easy reference, but please bear in mind that many of these websites deal with more than topic. Many talk about both photography techniques and camera equipment, for example. We’ve categorised them according to how we think you will find them most useful. The resources section at the bottom of the article has links to more articles about photography websites, so check them out.

Beginner’s Zone

These websites are an excellent place to start for beginners. They have content for more advanced users too.

Digital Photography School
Very comprehensive photography resource. Lots of inspirational and informative articles.

Photodoto
Click on the Photography 101 link for an excellent set of articles for beginners.

About.com: Photography
Photography articles and techniques from the team at About.com.

Inspiration

The EOScars
More and more digital SLRs are coming with a movie recording mode. The highest spec models rival the quality of high end movie recording equipment and have been used to shoot music videos and movie trailers. The EOScars compiles the best movies recorded with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Photography Now
Portfolios from past masters and contemporary greats.

World Press Photo
Anyone interested in photojournalism needs to check out this website. You can look at the winning images from the annual World Press Photo Contest and read interviews with professional photojournalists.

National Geographic Photography
Beautiful showcases of inspirational photography plus tips and advice from National Geographic photojournalists.

Exposure Compensation
Focusing on the work of inspirational photographers from around the world.

Technical Stuff

Cambridge in Colour
A series of very technical tutorials about aspects of digital photography such as camera sensors, histograms, colour management and autofocus.

Luminous Landscape
Another website with a comprehensive series of technical articles. One of the oldest and most prestigious photography websites around.

Depth of Field Master
Depth of field is commonly misunderstood. This website explains depth of field very well. You can also print out depth of field tables for your lenses – a must for landscape and architecture photographers.

Ken Rockwell
Straightforward technical advice from a pro photographer.

Canon Professional Network
Lots of technical advice for Canon users and inspiration from Canon’s Ambassadors – pro photographers using Canon equipment.

Canon Digital Learning Centre
More technical advice and tutorials for Canon users.

Nikon Digitutor
Camera specific tutorials for Nikon users.

Pentax User Magazine
The website of Pentax User Magazine, brought to you by the publishes of ePhotozine (another great photography resource), lots of useful info for Pentax camera owners.

Photo Notes
Technical articles. Some excellent summaries of camera specs – click the Lookup link to see them.

Photography Equipment

It’s stating the obvious but photography is impossible without the basic equipment of a camera or camera body and lens. There are hundreds of pieces of equipment and many brands to choose from. These websites will help you make sense of the choices.

Digital Photography Review
Comprehensive reviews on just about every new piece of digital photography equipment released over the last few years. The first stop for anyone interested in purchasing new gear or understanding more about the features of what they already own.

Radiant Lite
Lots of equipment reviews.

Photography and Photoshop Technique

Photo Answers
The official website of UK photography magazines Practical Photography and Digital Photo. Lots of news and technique to complement the magazines.

Strobist
All the information you need to use your camera’s portable flash unit to its full advantage.

Joe NcNally
Joe McNally built his reputation as a commercial photographer specialising in the use of Nikon’s portable flashes. He passes on his knowledge in his blog.

Photoshop Daily
Photoshop tutorials from the publishers of UK magazine Photoshop Creative.

Apogee Photo Magazine
Articles, tips, techniques and portfolios.

Photojojo
Technique and creative ideas.

Photography Blogs

Discussion about the topics and techniques that matter most to contemporary photographers.

The Online Photographer
Lots of articles about equipment, technique and the concepts behind photography.

Epic Edits
Lots of techniques and advice. The recent series about making fine art prints is very useful.

All Day I Dream of Photography
Lots of interesting photography articles.

Toy Cameras

Toy cameras have become very popular over the last few years. Learn all about them at these websites:

Holga Blog
All about holgas.

Toy Camera

Light Leaks
Print magazine featuring the best toy camera photography from around the web.

Square Frog
Life through a plastic lens – techniques and tips.

Four Corners Dark

Professional Photographers

One of the best ways to learn about photography is to study the work and ideas of professional photographers. Luckily, the trend for pros to blog about their work has created some priceless educational resources. Here are some of the best:

Chase Jarvis
Professional commercial photographer Chase Jarvis on the latest developments in the industry.

The Digital Trekker
Travel photographer Matt Brandon talks about his work and the ideas behind his photos.

Pixelated Image
Humanitarian photography David duChemin discusses his career and work.

Pixsylated
Syl Arena’s photography web magazine. Includes the excellent ‘Lessons I didn’t learn in photo school’ series.

Photo Smudger
London based snapper Tom Miles shares his real world experience. Essential reading for any student or photographer aspiring to work in London.

Digital Pro Talk
Social photographer David Ziser blogs about making a living in the competetive world of social photography.

Photocrati
Articles for photographers, by photographers. A wealth of information and insights from some of the world’s best pro photographers.

Interviews by Crash Taylor
Social and wedding photographer Crash Taylor interviews some of the best known names in the business. Essential reading for anyone who wants to break into wedding or social photography.

Other Useful Resources

Photo Compete
Once you’ve polished up your photography skills no doubt you’ll be tempted to enter a few photography competitions. Photo Compete has a listing of current photography competitions.

Photo Competitions
Even more photography competitions including the big name competitions from companies like Sony and National Geographic.

Pro-Imaging Photo Competitions
But make sure you read this before entering a photography competition. There are competitions that take away your copyright – this website lists the competitions that don’t.

Photopreneur
A ton of ideas for making money from your photos.

Photo Netcast
Photography podcasts bought to you by a team of passionate photographers.

Photographers who photograph need models, stylists and make-up artists. You can search for them at Model Mayhem and Purestorm. You can also search by geographical area there.

Purestorm

In light reports of photographers being harassed by security guards and police, it’s a good idea to know your rights. These websites have the information that you need:

Photographers’ legal rights – UK

Photographers’ legal rights – United States

Photographers’ legal rights – Australia

Last Click

JPG Mag
The magazine that publishes your photos and your articles.

Resources

Oia Sunset

It amazes me how many sites there are where one can join the club and add your photos. Flickr, Webshots, Google Web Albums, Snapfish, …….wow.

JPG

This weekend I stumbled across JPG, and quickly joined in. Added a few photos right away. Within a couple hours, I add a dozen friends/contacts.

The first thing that really attracted me to this site was the THEME assignments. You add a photo based on the theme they have going. The themes I entered under were “Decay”, “Transformation”, and “Nostalgia”.

What a great idea.

Pixelpipe

I had to try Pixelpipe, if nothing else than for the sheer huge number of sites that it will distribute photos to all at once. Pixelpipe is a free service. Setting up was very simple, but it took quite a bit of time, since you need to enter all your login info for each of the photo sites. At first I was excited about how much time this was going to save me when submitting photos to the sites that sell them. But what I found after a half-day of entering info, was that there aren’t too many of the “money” sites that are participating with Pixelpipe at this time. Perhaps this will change, but for now, the site predominantly distributes to “photo sharing” sites.

In iteslf that could be a good thing if you do keep a photostream at flickr, like to send your photos to Picasa web album, Snapfish, etc. If you do, it will save you time and I would recommend that you at least check it out.

Free Report

Get a copy of my report that lists 101 ways to make money with your photography. It will stimulate your thought process, give you ideas you can implement right away, and ideas that you can start working towards today.

Send Me the Free Report 

“101 Ways to Make Money With Photography”

Morning Market on Santorini

Okay – so you’re ready to start looking for sites that will buy your work. Here are the basics, regardless of what you hope to do.

1. First step: Choose your best 10 images. Some sites will review your first 3 to 10 images to determine if you have an eye, and know what you’re doing. So it’s important to note that you should choose your best 10 images.

2. Next, name each file to the image name (in Windows, right-click , then Rename). Then, you need to add details to each photo. Do that by right-clicking the file or icon/thumbnail, go down to Properties, then open the Details tab. In that window, you will find all the information about that photo, including the exif info, dates taken and modified, camera used, etc. The important things to fill in here are the Title, Subject, Tags, and Comments. Some Microstock sites will collect this info when you upload the file, saving you the time of retyping it at each site, for each photo – a laborious process.

3. Next you need to register with the sites that will sell your images for you. There are sites that are free to use, and some that charge a monthly or annual fee. All of them have some qualifying process, with varying degrees of complexity. Start with the free sites. But note, just because they are free doesn’t mean they are “easy”. Most are still discriminating about what photos they accept, so make sure you submit your best.

Okay, here we go. Let’s start with the free sites. If you go down the list with me, you can go to each site’s registration page by clicking on the links furnished:

Free Sites That Sell Your Photos

123RF

DreamsTime

Can Stock Photos

Crestock

FeaturePics

fotolia

Imagekind

Image Vortex

iStockPhoto

Pixmac

SmugMug

Shutterstock

StockXPert®

NOT FREE -  these sites have a setup, monthly or annual fee

MorePhotos, Zenfolio, Shutterpoint