When people talk about lenses, they talk about focal length. This is basically a measurement that will help you determine how far your zoom can "reach" or how much of that great scenery your wide angle lens will encompass.

For those who wonder how it's figured out, it's the distance from the "optical center" of the lens to the point where it is focused when set to infinity. (No, we're not talking luxury cars here. Setting a lens' focus to "infinity" simply means to focus a lens at its furthest distance). Don't worry, you don't need to know or understand any of that to figure out how this works!

Here's the practical application: the smaller the focal length of a lens, the more it can "see" and the more "stuff" you can get in the photo. Small focal length lenses are commonly referred to as "wide angle" lenses.

On the other hand, the higher the number, the less the lens is able to "see" and the closer your subject looks. These are usually referred to as "long" or "telephoto" lenses.

Back when 35mm cameras ruled the roost and digicams were only cute "toys," focal length made it easy to compare one lens to another. If it was a 28mm lens, it was a wide angle lens. If it was a 300mm, it was a telephoto lens. It was simple because the size of a 35mm negative was the same from camera to camera. A 50mm lens on one camera "picked up" the same scene as a 50mm lens on a different camera.

Now that digicams are taking over, the game has changed. This is because of the size difference with the various image sensors out there.

You see, a smaller sensor doesn't "see" as average cost of cialis much of the scene as a larger sensor does. In essence, it's cropping in, which is called the magnification factor. Since sensor sizes range all over the board, the image you get with a 28mm setting on one camera will probably look completely different on another.

Note: In the photos above, although the lens sees the exact same thing, the camera with the red sensor captures more of the scene than the camera with the blue sensor. Both were taken with a 28mm lens, but the results are very different.

Fortunately, a lot of manufactures are starting to give the 35mm equivalent ranges when they discuss their equipment. So, instead of saying a camera has a 7mm/28m lens, they give you the 35mm equivalent of 28mm/112mm.

So, if you see a camera that has 35mm equivalent focal lengths listed, here's a chart to help you decide if you have enough lens.

35mm Lens Chart:

12-20 – Ultra Wide Angle

24-35 – Wide Angle

40-80 – Normal lens

90-135 – Short Telephoto

150-250 – Medium Telephotos

300+ – Longer Telephotos

Okay, if you're shooting with a regular digicam, that's about all you need to know. However, if you have a digital SLR (you can take the lenses on and off), you'll want to read on.

Most digital SLRs do not have a full frame sensor. This means there is a magnification factor with any given lens. Normally, this is around 1.5, so we'll use that for our example. Check your owner's manual for the exact number.

Anyhow, here's what happens with this magnification factor. Let's say you have a 200mm lens. If your camera has a mag factor of 1.5x, that means you take the focal length of the lens (200) and multiply it by 1.5. In this case, your 200mm is now equivalent to a 300mm. Cool!

Now the bad news. If you like taking wide angle shots, this works against you. For example, that 24mm lens you liked so much on your 35mm camera now looks like a 36mm lens (gasp!) In order to get back to 24, you'd need to fork over lots of dead presidents for a 16mm lens! That pain you just felt was from your wallet.

So, if you're into long lenses, you'll probably like the magnification factor. If not, you may need to start stitching images together. Short of that, most manufacturers now have special "digital only" lenses that don't cost as much as the standard 35mm equipment (won't work on it properly either). They aren't necessarily cheap, but it may be worth looking into.

Oh, there are cameras that have a full frame CMOS sensor, so there is no magnification factor. Unfortunately, they sell for $2500+ so it's probably cheaper to buy some new lenses.

Geez, I talk too much. Happy shooting!

Has this ever happened to you? You take an amazing shot with your digicam, it looks great on the camera's LCD monitor and you think you have a real winner. However, when you get back home, you're disappointed when you discover it wasn't quite as sharp as it looked on the LCD screen. Is there a way to have averted this tragedy? You bet there is!

Most (not all, but most) digital cameras have a "zoom" feature for their LCD screens. By "zooming in" on various areas of your image, you can tell if it's sharp or not.

Looks good small:

But maybe not so great enlarged:

Usually, the procedure works like this:

You set the camera to "review" mode, so you can look over the images you just shot. Most cameras will have a magnifying glass symbol somewhere near a button you press to zoom in. It may even be integrated into your camera's zoom lens function (for example, in "review" mode, you press the "zoom" button you use for the lens to zoom in on the image).

Once you start zooming, you can probably "scroll" around the image using a dial or set of buttons on the back of your camera. To determine exactly how your camera's zoom and scroll features work, it's probably a good idea to check your owner's manual.

Now, here's the trick. LCD screens on digital cameras tend to be a little less than perfect. They usually give a false sense of color, contrast and even sharpness. So, as you zoom in, you may find that the image looks a bit on the soft side when it's really not or it may seem sharp when it's anything but.

My advice is to leave your images on street value of cialis your card the next time you download them onto your computer. Find a few that are really sharp and print them out to be sure. Now, turn your camera on and take a good look at those pictures. Zoom in, zoom out, scroll around. Get a feel for how your camera's LCD monitor displays a sharp photo.

Let me tell you, the first time I had my new digicam, I was zooming in and thought every image I was taking was soft. I was on a trip and it was more than a little frustrating. It was only after I arrived home and started looking over the images on my computer that I got a feel for how my camera's LCD screen shows sharpness. Now, when I take a picture, I can zoom in and right away, I know if the image is sharp or soft. It was just a matter of getting myself "calibrated" to it. Give it a shot for yourself!

Yeah, I know, this doesn't really seem like an overly exciting topic today, but I think it's well worth a mention! It seems like every time someone hands me his or her camera to take a photo, the lens looks like it's been dipped into a shop vac.

First off, ordering cialis a clean lens is an essential ingredient to great photos. A lens that's full of smudges, dirt or fingerprints cannot give you good results. Not only will you lose sharpness, but you'll also find that your color and contrast suffer. You'll end up with soft, muddy-looking photos instead of sharp, rich images full of snap. Besides, cameras aren't cheap, so why settle for less image quality than it's capable of due to grimy optics?!

Cleaning the lens is fairly simple. First, head to your local camera store and get a good lens cleaning kit. It should include both lens tissues (or a good microfiber cloth) and lens cleaning solution. When you purchase your cleaning kit, keep in mind that some "low end" kits aren't that much better for your lens than Windex and a paper towel. Don't go cheap on this! I urge you to spring for the best kit available or at least put one together yourself. No matter what you do, it's probably going to cost less than lunch at McDonalds.

Once you have your kit in hand, just put a few drops of the lens cleaning solution on a dry piece of lens tissue. Rub the lens gently in a clockwise motion (work from the center to the edges). Dry off any excess solution with a second piece of lens tissue.

Once the lens is dry, "fog" the lens with your breath. Then gently take the dry piece of lens tissue and wipe it off, again from the center outward. This step seems to get rid of any residual "soap" that may be left over from the cleaning solution.

That's really about it! Again, I want to stress how important it is for you to use good quality lens tissue on your optics and not your T-shirt or some other substitute. Anything beyond a lens tissue can put tiny scratches on your lens' coating. Over time, those tiny scratches will have the same effect as dirt or fingerprints on your lens. Treat your camera's lens with tender loving care!

Digital storage and finding ways to handle it is one sure fire way to a smoother photography experience! It's particularly handy when you're taking hundreds and thousands of pictures, but you don't know how to locate them when the situation demands. For example, you've taken an exotic picture of a Himalayan landscape, but you can't seem to find it in all of the photo files you have stored on your computer. What a nightmare!

Well, you no longer have to worry about that! Here are some easy to follow tips on establishing a workflow and handling your photo filing system effectively. By doing that, you can avoid going through each and every picture you have one by one. Instead, you can just key in a search word to find the photos you need in mere seconds. Organizing photos can be done with programs like Google's Picasa, Google's Aperture or Adobe's Lightroom 2. However, there are still a few rules you need to know to make your searches more effective and less time consuming. Let's check them out!

1.) File Naming System

To make sure you or your camera doesn't end up saving two pictures with similar names, you should first set up a unique file naming system. That will not only ensure that every photograph has an exclusive name, but you'll also be able to retrieve your photos much faster. There are a few options available to you. To give you an idea, one way of doing it would be: date, day, initials, image number. For instance, 2008-11-23_ZHJ_0001.jpg. Some people find it better to date the folders backwards, like this: 2008-11-18. Another way is to sort your folders like this: “Keyword_Date_Month_Year.” That way, pictures you don’t really care for will be deleted immediately.

2.) Date Your Sessions

Now that you have your naming format, make sure you start opening new folders with dates like December 16, 2008 or 12-16-2008 or 16-12-2008. You can then save your photos taken on that date by opening additional new folders to denote the photo shoot. For example, if you shot three sessions on the same day, make separate collections for each shoot under the same dated folder. For example, Folder>12-16-2008>Folder>Aunt Peggy's Party. That helps with faster and easier retrieval!

3.) Rate Your Pictures

After you're done naming and storing your pictures, it's time to rate the picture by quality and content. If you've captured great Kodak moments, they deserve a higher rating. Similarly, if you've shot amazing sunsets and landscapes, you should give them a high rating. For example, once you're done with the picture upload, go through each picture and rate it. If you're using Adobe's Lightroom 2, you can rate your images on a 0 to 5 scale. Depending on the rating, you can also delete bad pictures and keep the good ones. Again, among the good ones, low price cialis there might be some that need cropping, retouching and so on.

4.) Keyword Your Database

This one's a must! It's of great use when you're using picture programs like Portfolio and Lightroom 2. Those programs store keywords in a collection of their own. If you've just finished a landscape shoot, use keywords like these: person/family name, place, picture format, expression (smiling, laughing, etc). If your aunt wants any other pictures of her daughter smiling on her graduation day, you don’t have to scroll through all of your pictures to find those "smiling" images. Instead, you can just simply put in “smiling” as your keyword and find the photos you're looking for. Cool, huh?!

5.) Free Tool

There's a wonderful free tool called FastStone you can use for organizing all your photos. You can rename photos as you transfer them onto your computer, making new folders only when required. Once the pictures are on your computer, you can batch rename them, do some basic editing and cropping and then attach the photos to an e-mail or whatever you need to do. You can’t rate them, but you can attach a keyword or subject. You can check FastStone out for yourself here: http://www.faststone.org.

6.) External Memory

You can move all your photos to a folder based structure that’s no more than 8 GB on your external hard drive. Once a folder hits 8 GB, you can then burn your photos to a DVD. Then it's best to number each DVD. That way, you can keep all your images online and you'll have a backup/archive with the DVD. In each folder, give a brief description, such as "Jim and Maggie's Anniversary DEC08."

7.) Naming Folders

For ease of use, try and have fewer folders in the top rung of your file naming system. For example, the following folders in the top level of your Pictures folder would work the best: Anniversaries and Birthdays, Concerts and Shows, Holidays, Misc., School, Sports, Vacations and Trips and Weddings. The top level of your Pictures folder should contain as few folders as possible.

8.) Do the Reverse

Sometimes it pays to do something different. You should have first rung folders separated by location and the second rung by date. For example, if you open up your “Beach” folder and then your Dec. 2008 folder, you’ll find folders with specific dates on them for the photos taken on a certain day.

9.) Think Lateral

If you want to be independent of any photo application, make folders with the date and add a text file with keywords for the pictures that can be found in the folder. If you're looking for a picture, just use the search feature in Windows Explorer.

10.) And Finally…

Whether you're a professional photographer or an amateur family photographer, it helps to have a system like this in place. You could go back to make prints for a client or a relative from last year or you can even archive your images. I promise this system will save you a lot of time and energy in the future!

Never has looking good in pictures mattered more to people than it does now. With all the different types of cameras available today and all the social networking Web sites, everyone wants to put their best picture forward. Now, I'm not quite experienced when it comes to cosmetics, but I can certainly teach you all how you can beautify your pictures using Photoshop. Let's get started, shall we?!

This is the photo I started with:

Open your picture in Photoshop and switch to the Channel palette. In the Channel palette, click on "Red," which will deselect everything else.

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With the Red Channel selected, hit Ctrl + A, which will select everything for you. Then copy it by using Ctrl + C. Next, go back to the Layers palette and make a new layer. Then paste (Ctrl + V) the image you just copied.

Now, it's time to use your favorite filters! Go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur and a new box will open. The settings you use depend entirely on your image, so feel free to experiment. The idea is to make the layer blurry enough, but not incomprehensible. Here's mine with a setting of 7.8.

Okay, let’s now try a few different effects. You can change the layer mode to Soft Light for a major change. Similarly, you can try other blending modes, such as darken, overlay, vivid light, etc. This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make your images a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Here's what I ended up with:

Cool, huh? Give it a try with your pictures today!