The rise in the popularity of digital photography has resulted in a sharing of photographic work on a scale never seen before. Before the internet, photography was really just limited to the sharing family albums with close friends and family, and mainstream media photography as seen in the press. Photography as art was not something that was readily available to the average person, not without searching for galleries dedicated to photography, or joining a local camera club. Now there are a plethora of ways to share your photography online, whether you are sharing pictures with family, or showcasing your finest amateur photography, or selling your work online as a professional photographer. Few people realise how easy it is to share their photos online today. I have used several different online photo sharing tools / sites, but the three that I have found most impressive are Jalbum, Flickr and Fotopic. Each of these has advantages over the others. They are all very good ways of sharing photos online. Flickr is now possibly the largest photo sharing site on the internet. It is run by Yahoo, and is currently undergoing further change and growth as Yahoo are encouraging its Yahoo Photos account holders to transfer over to Flickr. Flickr has two membership levels - a standard free membership that allows you to have three albums / sets of photos, and a Pro membership that allows more albums, and has additional features. One of the main strengths of Flickr is that you can set up photo blogs, and comment on photos. There are also many groups, so that you can share your photos with like-minded photographers - whether it be a macro photography group, or a group for people that enjoy photographing trains! There is something for everyone on Flickr. Flickr is a great way to learn from other photographers, to share knowledge and ideas. As Flickr is also aimed at making photo sharing easier, you can add other photographers to your "friends" lists, and then be updated when they update their albums. Flickr is a great photographers community. An example of a Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonwade/ The first site that I used was Fotopic. When I was first looking for a place to share my photos, I looked at Flickr but was not impressed as the upload facilities seemed a little poor at the time, and it also seemed hard to organise photos easily. Much has changed since then, however at the time (a couple of years ago) I opted for Fotopic. Fotopic is again free, and gives 250MB storage, your own web address. The upload process is easy, as you can upload entire directories of photos if you wish. Fotopic allows you to set up many collections, so makes sharing a family and friends album much easier than with Flickr. Whereas Flickr is the tool for amateur photographers, and photo bloggers, Fotopic is the tool for sharing holiday snaps and parties as albums. With Fotopic you can make the page more your own, as you can add site headers and footers, with HTML code, and add links to other websites, plus a site desciption and narrative. Fotopic also allows users to leave comments, but there is less of a community feel to Fotopic than with Flickr. For someone that just wishes to load up a new set of photos for friends and family to view, then Fotopic is probably still the better choice of Flickr. Both allow people to order prints, although only Flickr provides HTML code to allow viewers to show the photos on their own blogs. An example of a Fotopic account: http://jonwade220.fotopic.net/ Finally, there is Jalbum (I am only familiar with version 7.1. ). Jalbum is different, in that rather than being a website, it is a piece of free software that allows users to generate albums to be uploaded onto the internet. In fact, you can use Jalbum to build albums to be shown just on your pc if you wish, but the real purpose is for online publishing. For this users have to have their own domain and web host, and their web host details are entered into the publishing section of Jalbum. Jalbum is a far superior way of showing off photo collections online. For a start, the site is your own, so there is no advertising. There are also a large selection of "skins", which means that you can chose one of many album styles to suit your photographs. For example there are wedding album skins, plus prefessional photographer skins. Also, each skin, or template, can be edited, so that you can design your album exactly as you please. With each photograph you can show the camera settings, so with each photograph are all the details of how it was taken, i.e. Camera model, Resolution, ISO settings, shutter speed, aperture, date and time, focal length, flash and exposure mode. Jalbum does now have a comments field (you need to be able to change the permissions for this on the web server, i.e. chmod 777, to allow comments to be saved. I failed to et this working myself, admittedly I did not try very hard though). Some people may be put off by Jalbum as they require their own domain, but some domains are very cheap. Uk domains (.co.uk) are typically GBP3.00 per year, and .com's are usually around GBP10.00 per year. This is a small price to pay for your own website. Cheap web hosting can be found, Jalbum does not require an expensive hosting platform to run. For example, you can host up to 20 websites with hosting providers such as Jumpline.com for less than GBP10.00 per month. This means that if you team up with other family members, friends, or photo clubs members, you can share the hosting costs, and it becomes very cheap to have your own albums online. Example of a Jalbum generated album: http://www.jpwphotography.co.uk/photos/index.html Really there is no reason not to share your photos online. With Flickr and Fotopic, sharing is free and can also be educational in the process. With Jalbum you can make a professional looking album and take more control over the look and style of the website. All three options are very low cost. Flickr and Fotopic generate their revenue through advertising and photo printing. With Jalbum, you can build a site with your own adverts, or start to sell photos online, and generate your own revenue from your photography. Whether you are looking for a simple way to share photos with friends, to learn by joining photographer groups, or set up a small online business, there is an online album tool for you.

Creating nude portraits has long been an element of art - instead of capturing these portraits with the brush on canvas; today they are captured with the pixel. Since the invention of photography the naked human body has been a natural subject for photographers and there has always been a large audience there for it. What is glamour photography? Glamour photography covers a wide range - from the partial nude body, which you may see an a billboard advertising ladies underwear to the erotic images or the full nude body you may see on Page 3 of some papers or adult magazines. There are no special elements to photographing glamour; all the standard photography techniques remain the same. Care should be taken when photographing models, nude or partially nude because some may find a sexual element attached to it. Finding a market: Glamour photography remains one of the most lucrative areas of freelance photography. For a student trying to break into the glamour photography market, he would be well advised to use a film camera over digital. Film will give you warmer skin tones and give you a greater chance of being published. When trying to find suitable markets for your glamour photography, the same principles apply as in any other photography field. You must study “Glamour Photography Publications” to find out what sort of material they use. Where to shoot: If you don’t have your own studio, don’t worry. Most of the great glamour images are shot on location. Shooting in the natural environment will be rewarding - use the early morning light to give extra warmth to the skin. Try different places - your neighbours hay barn can make an effective setting for a glamour image or if you have an attractive garden - perfect. Choosing a model: One of the basic elements of glamour photography is a willing model. If you are having trouble finding one try your local art classes. People with an ambition to be a model may let you do test work. But if you are serious about being a glamour photographer you should work with a professional model. Glamour images don’t always need to be sharp. Many of the great glamour photographers defuse their image with a filter to add mood to their nude portraits. The best way to get good is plenty of practise and sharpen your eye by looking at glamour publications. There should be greater emphasis on controlling light contrast to ensure that the human body isn’t lost in heavy shadows or bright highlights. Controlling exposure is very important to get the perfect body tones. While many may find this type of photography offensive, the glamour photographer is an artist and should be respected as one. It’s not for me to comment on whether the use of glamour material is good or bad, but to explain the art of this competitive and lucrative market. About the Author: TJ Tierney is an award winning Irish Landscape photographer and a freelance writer. He frequently writes for the photography directory http://www.goldprints.com and the shopping directory http://www.shop-4us.com To view or buy some of his images visit his on line gallery @ http://www.goldenirishlight.com

Here are some simple tips for photographing babies. Babies can be the most challenging and rewarding portraits to take, but can also be the most frustrating. Babies tend to sleep, eat and cry a lot and won’t pose in front of the camera but don’t let that put you off photographing them. Creating the perfect baby portrait, when done right, will certainly be rewarding. One of the most important factors in photographing babies is patience and the way you apply child psychology when relating to the baby. Babies over six months may be shy and won’t react well to a complete stranger. This is where child psychology comes in - you must try to play with the baby, or even become a child yourself while taking the photograph. The keys of your car can be very effective. But remember, your job is to take a baby portrait; you must be able to react quickly when the infant responds to your entertainment. Shooting a portrait of a newborn baby can be difficult. At this age the baby will not be active, so it’s better to focus on close-up headshots. Try using natural light from a bedroom window to add mood to the portrait. Babies over a few months of age will be more alert and will have a lot more movement in them. Shooting fast is a necessity, the infant will tire quickly. Babies seven months or older can be very tricky to shoot. The baby will bore quickly and will not want to stay in the same position. If you are serious about baby photography and you tend to shoot from your own studio make sure you have a lot of toys to amuse the infants. A light colour background will work best and shoot the portraits in colour and black and white. Parents may be worried about the affect of studio lights on their baby. Point out that strobe lights have no effect on kids. Try to point this out before the parent asks. Don’t ever handle a baby without the parents consent. Most parents will be very protective and won’t react well to a stranger lifting the infant. Watch out for the fingers - fingers in the mouth can be attractive but on most occasions they will obscure the face. If you plan to resell the baby photograph to an agency make sure you get a release form signed from the parents. There is a large market out there for baby pictures but agencies or magazines won’t touch them without the parents consent. For baby portraits to be sellable they must be technically perfect, but the picture must illustrate the baby being active or some form of child care. About the Author: TJ Tierney is an award winning Irish Landscape photographer and a freelance writer. He frequently writes for the shopping directory http://www.shop-4us.com and the photography directory http://www.goldprints.com To view or buy some of his images visit his on line gallery @ http://www.goldenirishlight.com