Webshots Blog

Interesting photos of cars, animals, sports and kids in motion abound in our Creative Challenge: Panning entries this week. It’s always fun for us to see what you shoot, and your entries often serve as inspiration for new challenges. We enjoyed looking at your interpretations of the theme—to learn more about the criteria for this week’s Challenge, check out the explanation—and we felt these three winners captured it best.

#1. We can almost hear the thunder of hooves on the racetrack thanks to member tinagene’s action-packed shot. Panning can be a challenge in terms of composition and timing, but this photo captured the best of both in the midst of action. Congrats to member tinagene— we’ll feature you’re photo on the homepage tomorrow!

#2. Member police370’s entry depicts the fun of a backyard bungee. The vertical pan gives a great sense of motion, and the expression on the girl’s face is nicely framed by her flying hair, which was snapped at the perfect moment.

#3. Tremendous speed and strength are highlighted in member ckpiros’s photo of a marathon racer, giving the viewer a sense of what the world might look like from the racer’s viewpoint.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Challenge and shared their photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well. To see all the entries in the Creative Challenge: Panning, visit the DISPLAY PAGE.

Photo walks, a popular activity among photo-sharing communities, let us all be a part of something no matter where we are in the world. By taking a walk this weekend and sharing the pictures with us, you’re contributing to a global mural of life.

So put on your walking shoes, grab your camera and go for a walk. You’ll be surprised at the photographic opportunities that present themselves. We’d love to see all of your photos as you can submit as many as you like!

Please tag your photos with Weekend Photo Walk 44 and then post your links in the comment section. Your entries won’t be judged—this is just for the fun of it!

Panning refers to the horizontal movement of a camera to the subject. The technique suggests fast motion, and highlights the foreground from background. It’s usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject’s travel. Use this week’s Pro Tip on shutter speed for some extra help on determining the best shutter speed for this challenge. You’ll need to find a subject that is fast and predictable so that you can follow their motion quick paced sports, speeding cars, leaping dancers, running children, spinning carnival rides, rushing trains and lightning fast animals are all good subjects to test your panning skills. Have fun trying to keep up with your subject this week!

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-panning. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on September 24 to 3:00 p.m. on September 29 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per member tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-panning

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT WEEK’S THEME: Special Effects Do you have a new filter you’ve been itching to try out? Have you been experimenting on Picnik or with Photoshop and are ready to share your results? Then this challenge is for you. Keep tuned next week for additional details!

This week’s entries for the Creative Challenge: Creative Family Portraits were pretty fantastic. It was certainly a difficult week to judge all the fine four-legged creatures and family portraits. However, we felt these three winning entries used elements of creativity most successfully to become not only great portraits, but lifetime memories for those involved.

#1.This tender moment between a sleeping child and her kitty captured by photographer shauna1120 is a classic example of being at the right place at the right time. Part of the challenge of creative portraiture is capturing the spirit of the subject in a moment which may not be planned. This portrait genuinely captures a warm childhood memory that her family and this little one will treasure forever. Congrats to member shauna1120 —we’ll feature your photo on the homepage tomorrow!

#2. This family portrait taken by member lemme39 won our judges over for creative use of props and accessorizing. This lovely arrangement of memories is warm with smiles on such a cold winter day!

#3. We appreciated how member deanrox used a fresh perspective and untraditional pose in this family portrait. Overall, the shot captures their playful smiles while maintaining a polished and professional look.

Thank you to everyone who entered the Creative Family Portrait Challenge and shared their fantastic photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well. To see all the entries in the Creative Challenge: Creative Family Portrait, visit the DISPLAY PAGE.

Have you ever wondered how photographers use shutter speed to capture motion in an image? For instance, with waterfalls, the silky effect is largely determined by the length of exposure and the volume of water flow. While many photographers enjoy this effect for aesthetic reasons, often times a longer exposure is used for more practical reasons such as compensating for using a larger depth of field or using a less sensitive ISO for decreased visible grain.

Shutter speed can simply be put as the length of time a single photographic frame (or digital censor) is exposed for. It can also be described as how fast a camera takes a picture or how fast a shutter on a camera can open and close. Shutter speed is measured in seconds and can vary anywhere from 4 seconds to 1/8000th of a second, however the extremes can be less or greater depending a camera’s capabilities.

Shutter speed is directly related to capturing motion in an image.

F/22 @ 1/40 of a second

If you desire your subject to be blurred, a slower shutter speed would be utilized.

Generally speaking, if your subject is moving quickly, your subject will be blurry unless you compensate by increasing your shutter speed. You may have to adjust your aperture setting to decrease your depth of field (a setting such as f/3.5 or f/5.6) or increase your camera’s sensitivity or ISO (400, 800) if your image is underexposed.

Also, if you do not have a tripod on hand when taking photos, it’s important to keep shutter speed in mind to avoid camera shake which also contributes to making blurry images.

If you don’t have something sturdy to brace you and your camera with, I have found that when using a 50mm lens, it’s difficult to keep an image sharp below 1/125th of a second. However, to be safe I usually select a shutter speed that is faster than the focal length of the lens when I don’t have a tripod.

F/5 @ 1/800 of a second

A faster shutter speed would be used to capture a fast moving object while maintaining sharpness of the subject in the frame.

It’s always a balance of aperture, shutter speed and ISO to expose an image properly. If you like to photograph at air shows or race tracks, you will likely need to use a higher speed in the range of 1/2000th of a second. However, if your subject is not expected to move too dramatically - such as a pet or child standing still, you can likely use a slower speed. (Above 1/250th of a second and higher). 1/250th of a second might seem a little fast, but I tend to lean on the side of increasing shutter speed when photographing kids and pets since they don’t always follow direction consistantly.

F/20 @ 1/30 of a second

Using a slower shutter speed while panning with a moving subject, can be used to show motion in a photograph while still keeping the main subject sharp. Panning can be very difficult to achieve, because you need to follow the subject at the exact momentum it is traveling to keep it tack sharp in the photograph. At the same time, the shutter needs to be slow enough so that the motion of your pan can be seen in the background of the moving subject. When done correctly creates a great feeling of motion in the image.

Do you have a great example for using shutter speed creatively? If so, post a link to your photo below!

Photo walks, a popular activity among photo-sharing communities, let us all be a part of something no matter where we are in the world. By taking a walk this weekend and sharing the pictures with us, you’re contributing to a global mural of life.

So put on your walking shoes, grab your camera and go for a walk. You’ll be surprised at the photographic opportunities that present themselves. We’d love to see all of your photos as you can submit as many as you like!

Please tag your photos with Weekend Photo Walk 43 and then post your links in the comment section. Your entries won’t be judged—this is just for the fun of it!

We’ve done several portrait challenges this year, including self-portraits and pet portraits. Let’s take it to another level and add your whole family! This week’s Creating Memorable Holiday Cards Pro Tip is full of great ideas to keep in mind while you’re shooting, and be sure to brush up on relevant past Pro Tips to make your photos look superb: Photographing Christmas Trees and Lights; Photographing Kids; Affordable Lighting Solutions; and Using Reflectors or Diffusion Material.

Guidelines:

This is a family portrait so be sure you have more than one subject in your submissions. Pets, people, family, friends, neighbors are all eligible to be included, just be sure you’ve got more than one subject.

We respect your privacy, so feel free to label your submissions however you like, if you prefer to keep your subjects anonymous please use a generic naming convention like “family portrait 1″ rather than your family name.

We highly encourage you to be unconventional in your poses, perspective and themes. Remember, you want to have the best family portrait on the block - what will make yours stand out from the crowd?

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-family. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on September 17 to 3:00 p.m. on September 22 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per member tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-family

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT WEEK’S THEME: Panning Once again we’ll be tying next week’s challenge to the Pro Tip. Kevin will have a new blog post for you with some great information on shutter speed that will be a big help when shooting this challenge!

Once again, you’ve blown us away with your lovely entries from this week’s Creative Challenge: Golden Hour. There’s no doubt why this special time of day is often referred to as the “magic” hour, the images submitted share a striking quality of transcendent light. See the top three winners below!

#1. The low perspective, eerie cloudy sky and dark golden atmosphere of member grotbags100’s entry evokes a deeply mysterious place. A mystical, isolated Scottish castle appears to have risen from the depths of the loch, released from it’s spell by this magical time of day. If you look closely you may see a unicorn dancing along the shore in the distance. Congrats to member grotbags100 —we’ll feature you’re photo on the homepage tomorrow!

#2. Member teknogroove’s photograph of this classic San Francisco landmark transcends the ordinary with it’s lovely use of light. The soft glow of the setting sun beyond the hills of the city and slow flush of light rising up the bridge through the quiet mists of evening, captures a moment of stillness and reflection.

#3. Member kellimays captured this graceful snowy egret as he peers through the liquid gold waters for his evening meal. The reflection of the golden sky upon the water elicits a surreal quality to this scene and manifests the beauty found during this special time of day.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Challenge and shared their photos with us. We really enjoyed viewing all the entries and hope you had fun as well. To see all the entries in the Creative Challenge: Golden Hour, visit the DISPLAY PAGE.

It’s starting to cool off a bit, which means that the holiday season is just around the corner. And you know what that means: Time to send holiday wishes!

Instead of getting caught up in the mad scramble to make, address and send your holiday cards at the end of November, start today, and you’ll not only have a beautiful card, but you’ll also have more time to spend with those you love during the holidays!

With a little planning, creating the perfect holiday card is quite easy. Take some time now to look at the memories you’ve captured in 2008 or make plans to take your next family photo. As you consider which photos use, remember that there are tons of beautiful holiday card templates at the Webshots store that will enhance your photos, making is easier than ever to add your own personal touch to a holiday wish that your friends and family will treasure.

make this cardWhere to Begin?
First, take some time to consider what type of card you would like to send this year. Think about the cards that you’ve received or have seen in the past that you admire.

make this cardYou can use multiple photos in some of the holiday cards, so if it’s not possible to get everyone together for a group photo, you can still compile your favorite shots of your family into one greeting! Here’s an example using multiple photos of some of the Webshots editors. This card will be available in mid-October.

Choose Your Holiday Style
Now that you have an idea of what photos to use and what type of card you want to send, check out some of the many ways that you can make your holiday card unique!

Your Favorite Candid Moment—make this card

A Classic Traditional Portrait—make this card

Humorous Set-Up—make this card

A Scenic Landscape—make this card

A Favorite Vacation Memory—make this card

Tell a Story with Sequential Images—make this card

A Still Life With Special Effects—make this card

Before the Shoot
1. Find a template or two that you like, so you’ll know if you need to take photos that will fit a horizontal, vertical, square, oval or rectangle format.

2. Collect props, such as Santa hats, hay bales, pumpkins, fake snow, flowers, that you’ll need for the shoot.

3. A good rule of thumb any time of the year is to always carry a camera with you. Be ready to capture those candid moments so that you have lots to choose from when you’re ready to create your card.

4. Consider the lighting when you’re taking pictures, and if you’re doing a posed photo shoot, think about any extra equipment or accessories that you may need.

5. Plan the wardrobe. Neutral-colored clothing with touches of red (such as in a hat or scarf) looks very nice in photos. If shooting in the fall, wear warmer colors, such as reds, browns and oranges, to coordinate with the outdoor scenery.

6. If you’re interested in shooting a very traditional portrait, a popular choice is for everyone in the photo to match, such as by wearing the same-colored shirt with jeans or khaki pants.

7. Feed your children before the shoot, but cut back on the sugar—it sounds simple, but it helps them concentrate. Also, make sure you have some snacks on hand in case they get hungry.

8. Think about the location. Visiting a local park or popular landmark during off-peak time means less crowds, so your subjects won’t feel as self-conscious while posing. During autumn, colorful pumpkin patches and piles of leaves make an excellent background.

9. Cloudy days work best for capturing even lighting.

10. Brush up on past Pro Tips to make your photos look superb: Photographing Christmas Trees and Lights; Photographing Kids; Affordable Lighting Solutions; and Using Reflectors or Diffusion Material.

During the Shoot

1. Experiment with unusual vantage points. Shoot from below or above, and try unusual perspectives.

2. Be mindful of what’s happening in the background. Use a shallower depth of field (f 5.6—or portrait mode) if you’re shooting a traditional portrait to make the background blurry and your subjects the center of attention.

3. Avoid busy backgrounds. Lighter backgrounds tend to be less distracting and work better with holiday card templates.

4. Take lots of photos! That’s the beauty of having a digital camera.

5. Take accent photos, such as tighter shots of your location, props, leaves, or anything to help tie in your theme, to compliment your portraits.

6. Don’t forget to include your pets! They’re family too!

7. If you’re using a point-and-shoot camera with a flash in the outdoors and you’re not completely comfortable with adjusting the exposure, try taking photos at different distances from your subject until you get the lighting you like, then crop the photos to get the framing you need.

8. If your children are shy or need a little help “looking natural,” try putting down the camera and playing a game or doing something they enjoy. When they’re not looking, capture their personalities at play!

9. Leave some space around your subject so that you can crop the photos later. Also, you’ll have more options for various holiday card templates.

10. Have fun! Don’t aim for perfection; aim for capturing the moment.

After the Shoot

1. Use photo software, such as Picnik.com (which lets you access your Webshots albums) or PhotoShop, to adjust the contrast and color-correct your images.

2. If you want to give your photo a classic look, try changing it to black and white or sepia with editing software.

3. Label your favorites. It’s better to keep a list as you’re going than trying to remember them all at the end.

4. Don’t wait until the last minute to order your photo cards. Always allow a little extra time for processing and shipping, especially as it gets closer to the holidays. Plus, if you do forget to order a card for someone on your list, you’ll still have enough time to order more.

5. An advantage of purchasing greeting cards online is that you have the option to create a card and personalize it for one person as well as order custom photo cards to send to everyone on your list.

We hope these handy tips and previews of some of our gorgeous holiday cards get you in the spirit to make your own! We’d love to see what photos you’re going to use, so post a link to them below. Happy Holidays